ICYMI: Three New Cosy Fantasy Novels by Travis Baldree on the Way!


In case you missed the excellent news, three more cosy fantasy novels by Travis Baldree have been bought by Tor Books in the UK and in North America! The deals were announced in the Bookseller and on Tor.com. Both deals were negotiated by Zeno’s Stevie Finegan.

The first book from this deal is expected to be published in late 2025 (around November). Here’s Travis’s response to the deals: ‘It would be a vast understatement to say that I have been humbled and grateful for the incredible support, enthusiasm and kindness that I’ve received from Tor and Macmillan as we’ve worked together on my first two books. It has been a joy to get to know the fabulous team there. I’m beyond delighted to announce that I’ll be writing a further three books to be published by Tor as well. Thank you so much to everyone who has responded to my stories in such a positive way, and made this improbable journey possible. You have all changed my life.’

Tor UK publisher Bella Pagan had the following to say: ‘Immersive, compelling and wonderfully cosy, it’s no wonder that Travis’s books have an army of fans all around the world. It’s a privilege to be publishing Travis in the UK.’

Executive Editor of Tor US Lindsey Hall had this to say about the deal: ‘Working with Travis Baldree and getting to know Viv the orc in her many forms through Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust has been a balm and a pleasure. In his books about orcs, dwarves, necromancy, and magic swords, Baldree also speaks to the deepest truths of humanity, centering the small but meaningful joys of life—like warm drinks, good books, and old friends—that make it all worthwhile. I can’t wait to see where his stories take us in the future.’

LEGENDS & LATTES, originally a smash-hit as a self-published novel, went on to be re-issued by Tor Books in the UK and North America (where it landed on the New York Times Bestseller list). The author’s second novel, BOOKSHOPS & BONEDUST, is due to be published in the UK and North America in November 2023.

Titan Books Acquires Grady Hendrix’s THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP for the UK!


We are happy to report that Titan Books has acquired UK rights for THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP by Grady Hendrix! The novel is expected to be published in the UK in June 2021. As reported recently by The Bookseller, here’s a brief description of the novel’s premise…

[The] novel will follow six “final girls” — referring to the women in horror stories who are the last left alive to confront the killer — who have met for group therapy for almost twenty years, following a traumatic event.

And here’s what the author had to say about the book…

‘Final girls are one of horror’s most enduring tropes, delivering hard-won stories of trauma, survival, endurance and, ultimately, the hope that no matter how bad things get, if you’re smart enough and brave enough you can make it until morning…’

Hendrix’s latest novel, THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES was a New York Time Bestseller.

Zeno represents Grady Hendrix in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

Deal Alert: Faber acquires Fíona Scarlett’s BOYS DON’T CRY!


We are very happy to report that Faber Books has acquired World English rights for Fíona Scarlett‘s debut novel, BOYS DON’T CRY!

First reported by BookBrunch, here is a synopsis for the novel…

Joe is seventeen, a gifted artist and a brilliant older brother to twelve-year-old Finn. They live with their ma and da in a Dublin tower block called The Jax. It’s not an easy place to be a kid, especially when your father, Frank, is the muscle for the notorious gang leader Dessie “The Badger” Murphy. But whether it’s day trips to the beach or drawing secret sketches, Joe works hard to show Finn life beyond the battered concrete yard below their flat.

Joe is determined not to become like his da. But when Finn falls ill, Joe finds his convictions harder to cling to. With his father now in prison, his mother submerged in her grief and his relationships with friends and classmates crumbling, Joe has to figure out how to survive without becoming what the world around him expects him to be.’ 

‘I am absolutely over the moon that BOYS DON’T CRY has found such a wonderful home at Faber with the fabulous Louisa Joyner,’ says Scarlett. ‘To work with Faber is a dream come true and I’m beyond excited for the road ahead.’

Editor Louisa Joyner acquired the rights from Zeno’s Louise Buckley, and had the following to say about the novel…

‘Fíona Scarlett’s novel pretty much did it for me. It’s a great big beating heart of a novel, from an incredibly talented young author; the tale of two brothers and the stories they can’t escape. Boys don’t cry? Well, we shall see – this editor cried buckets.’

We will, of course, share more news (e.g., cover art) as soon as we have it.

The book is due to be published in May 2021. We are sure a lot of people are going to love this novel as much as we do.

Congratulations, Fíona!

Lavie Tidhar signs three-book deal with Head of Zeus!


We’re delighted to report that multi-award-winning and critically acclaimed author Lavie Tidhar has signed a new three-book deal with Head of Zeus!

Announced at the end of last week, publisher Nicolas Cheetham acquired the UK and Commonwealth rights for three new stand-alone novels. The first, BY FORCE ALONE, is expected to publish in April 2020. Lavie’s biggest and most ambitious book yet, it offers a new spin on the Arthurian legend and grail quest. An early version of the synopsis has already appeared online, and here it is…

Everyone thinks they know the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of… whatever. You can look it up on Wikipedia. You can see it in those pretty Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

But there was never a painting that showed the true Britain, the clogged sewer Rome abandoned just as soon as it could. A Britain where petty warlords murdered each other in the mud, and all the while the Angles and Saxons and – worst of all – the Jutes, were coming over here and taking our lands and taking our jobs and taking our women.

And what of the only man who could stop them… What of Arthur, King of the Britons? An over-promoted gangster, in thrall to that eldritch parasite, Merlin.

Excalibur? A shady deal with a watery arms dealer.

The Grail Quest? Have you no idea about the aliens and the radioactive blight?

Ach.

Well, you’d better read this then.

Lavie Tidhar said, ‘I’m delighted to be joining Head of Zeus. Writing BY FORCE ALONE was a tremendous amount of fun and I can’t wait to share it!’

‘There was only one way I was ever going to read another King Arthur novel, and that was if Lavie Tidhar wrote it,’ said Cheetham. ‘Iconoclastic, provocative, hugely entertaining, utterly original, this is a book with bite — as you’d expect from the award-winning author of OSAMA, THE VIOLENT CENTURY and CENTRAL STATION. Lavie Tidhar is a key addition to our list of international speculative fiction.’

John Berlyne said, ‘Nic has been assembling and refining an impressive and exciting internationally focused SF list over at Head of Zeus. We’re very pleased indeed that he’s now adding Lavie’s distinctive voice to it.’

Lavie is the winner of a World Fantasy Award, a John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for Speculative Fiction and the British Fantasy Society Award.

The author’s latest novel, UNHOLY LAND, was recently published by Tachyon Publications — who also publish his award-winning CENTRAL STATION and THE VIOLENT CENTURY.

Aliette de Bodard and Gollancz extend the Dominion of the Fallen…


We’re very happy to report that Gollancz has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for the next book in Aliette de Bodard‘s award-winning and critically-acclaimed Dominion of the Fallen fantasy series! Announced on Wednesday, here’s some more information…

The novel THE HOUSE OF SUNDERING FLAMES is the third in de Bodard’s Dominion of the Fallen series, set in a post-magical-apocalypse version of Paris, and beautifully melding Vietnamese mythology with a gothic European vibe and a sensational mystery. The first novel in the series won the BSFA Award, the second was awarded a European Science Fiction Award, and both were finalists for the Locus award.

‘I am thrilled to return to the devastated Paris of the “Dominion of the Fallen” series with Gollancz,’ said de Bodard.This book introduces House Harrier (you’ll never see birds of prey quite the same way again!) as well as revisiting familiar places and faces. It was an exciting challenge to write and deals with destruction and war, and the beauty and community that can be found in the ruins. I can’t wait for readers to discover it.’

The novel is available for pre-order already, and the cover has also been unveiled:

The deal was negotiated by John Berylne at Zeno and Gillian Redfearn at Gollancz. Here’s what they had to say…

John Berylne: ‘I couldn’t be happier with this new deal. Aliette’s fantastic reputation continues to grow, and we regularly see her feature on many of the Best of Year and awards lists in her field. Readers can anticipate a truly dramatic conclusion to her stand-out trilogy.’

Gillian Redfearn: ‘Aliette is an astonishing writer and it’s a delight to be completing this stand-out series with her. As many readers have discovered, it’s one of the most distinctive and evocative trilogies published today.’

Gollancz has published the first two novels in the series in the UK: THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS and THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS. The two novels are published in North America by Roc Books.

Lavie Tidhar’s THE VIOLENT CENTURY Coming to the US!


Tidhar-ViolentCenturyUS-Blog

We are very happy to report that Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press have acquired US publication rights for Lavie Tidhar‘s superb, critically-acclaimed latest novel, THE VIOLENT CENTURY. North American rights for the novel were acquired by Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher Peter Wolverton, from Hodder Books who acquired World Rights last year. The novel is due to be published in the US in hardcover, on February 24th, 2015. The new artwork is above.

In case you’ve somehow managed to miss this novel, here is the synopsis…

They’d never meant to be heroes.

For seventy years they guarded the British Empire. Oblivion and Fogg, inseparable friends, bound together by a shared fate. Until one night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a secret that tore them apart.

But there must always be an account… and the past has a habit of catching up to the present.

Now, recalled to the Retirement Bureau from which no one can retire, Fogg and Oblivion must face up to a past of terrible war and unacknowledged heroism, – a life of dusty corridors and secret rooms, of furtive meetings and blood-stained fields – to answer one last, impossible question:

What makes a hero?

THE VIOLENT CENTURY has also been widely praised by critics and authors. Here’s just a small selection of those glowing reviews…

‘A brilliantly etched phantasmagoric reconfiguring of that most sizzling of eras – the twilight 20th…  This book has it all:  time travel, political intrigue, hellacious history…  You’ve got superheroes in the guise of regular humans, you’ve got World War II … THE VIOLENT CENTURY is a torrid tour de force!’ — James Ellroy

THE VIOLENT CENTURY… may be his best yet: a blistering alt-historical retelling of a 20th century lousy with superheroes.’ — The Guardian, Best SFF of 2013

‘Vintage Lavie, and also I think his most fully accomplished novel yet. Nobody rides that fast-rolling wave separating schlocky pulp and serious literary sensibilities so deftly as Tidhar. He manages to make serious points about the benighted twentieth-century and its obsession with ‘supermen’ without ever letting the narrative slacken or the adventure pale. If Nietzche had written an X-Men storyline whilst high on mescaline, it might have read something like THE VIOLENT CENTURY.’ — Adam Roberts, author of Jack Glass

‘[A] high stakes tale of friendship and what it ultimately means to truly be a hero… Tidhar has created a book that oozes excellence in both characterisation and storytelling.’ — Huffington Post

‘THE VIOLENT CENTURY is an amazing book and as my first introduction to Lavie Tidhar’s writing I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Although I was first hesitant about the stylistic literary affectation he’s chosen to write with, once it became familiar, it felt right and each element of the writing, world and characters complemented each other wonderfully. I’d highly recommend this book to anyone.’ — J For Jetpack

THE VIOLENT CENTURY is an excellent novel that demonstrates, once again, the impressive versatility of its author.’ — Interzone