Tag: Ian McDonald

Publication Day (eBook) – Ian McDonald’s EMPRESS OF THE SUN

Posted on Tuesday, December 24th, 2013

McDonald-E3-EmpressOfTheSunUK-BlogThe wait is over! The third novel in Ian McDonald‘s critically-acclaimed Everness YA science fiction series is out today in eBook! Just in the nick of time for Christmas. EMPRESS OF THE SUN is published by Jo Fletcher Books in the UK – the hardcover edition will follow on January 2nd, 2014. The book is due to be published next month by Pyr in the US. Here’s the synopsis…

When Everett Singh’s dad was randomly sent to one of the many parallel worlds in the multiverse, Everett discovered a way to find him on the quarantined planet E1, home of the terrifying Nahn.

Now he, along with the crew of the airship Everness, has followed a trail to the next world and his father.

But this is a world where dinosaurs have had sixty-five million years to evolve, where death is the key to the throne and where the Empress of the Sun has a plan to wipe out every other creature on her planet… and then take her conquest to Earth.

All she needs is Everett’s infundibulum…

Here is just a taste of the praise Ian’s Everness novels have received to-date…

‘This is vintage McDonald, with beautifully drawn settings, complex characters and deft plotting. When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped, Everett’s investigations lead him to discover that his father was working to open portals between multiple worlds. Everett finds a map linking the worlds, which various sinister organisations desire – and the thrilling chase is on.’  —  Guardian on PLANESRUNNER

‘Snappy, inventive language, lively characters and world-building on an epic scale.’  —  Sci-Fi Now on PLANESRUNNER

‘McDonald writes with scientific and literary sophistication, as well as a wicked sense of humor. Add nonstop action, eccentric characters, and expert universe building, and this first volume of the Everness series is a winner.’  —  Publishers Weekly on PLANESRUNNER

‘Ian McDonald has spent the past two decades blowing the lid off of science fiction with his poetic, dense, lavish novels that span the universe from Mars to Africa, from the future to the past, from Brazil to India to Turkey. Now McDonald has begun a second career as a young adult novelist with his Everness series… PLANESRUNNER is smashing adventure fiction that spans the multiverse without ever losing its cool or its sense of style. Ian McDonald is one of the greats of science fiction and his young adult debut is everything you could hope for: romantic, action-packed, wildly imaginative and full of heart.’  —  BoingBoing

‘Stuffed with science, this series has the potential to fascinate young readers as William Sleator’s books did, tackling concepts on the slippery edge of current understanding. Science causes danger, but it’s also the weapon that combats those terrors. Smart, clever and abundantly original, with suspense that grabs your eyeballs, this is real science fiction for all ages. More! More!’  —  Kirkus on BE MY ENEMY

‘If you loved PLANESRUNNER as much as I did, you won’t need my recommendation to pick up this sequel… a blast from start to finish. As far as I’m concerned, Ian McDonald could write another dozen or so of these Everness novels, and I’d happily read them all.’  —  Tor.com on BE MY ENEMY

New US eBook Editions for Ian McDonald’s Backlist

Posted on Thursday, November 28th, 2013

We’re delighted to announce that two of Ian McDonald‘s backlist series and a short story collection are in the process of being released as eBooks in the US market. Produced through the JABberwocky eBook Program, the novels will be available through digital platforms in the USA (Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, etc.). Below are the titles, covers and information for the six books in question…

CHAGA, KIRINYA, and TENDELEO’S STORY

McDonald-ChagaTrilogy-JAB-Blog

Here’s the synopsis for CHAGA…

On the trail of the mystery of Saturn’s disappearing moons, network journalist Gaby McAslan finds herself in Africa researching the Kilimanjaro Event: a meteor-strike in Kenya which caused the stunning African landscape to give way to something equally beautiful – and indescribably alien. Dubbed the ‘Chaga’, the alien flora destroys all man-made materials, and moulds human flesh, bone and spirit to its own designs. But when Gaby finds the first man to survive the Chaga’s changes, she realizes it has its own plans for humankind…

Against the backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro, McDonald weaves a staggering tale of keen human observation and speculation, as the Kilimanjaro Event changes the course of the human race by exposure to something beyond its imagination.

DESOLATION ROAD and ARES EXPRESS

McDonald-DesolationRoad1&2-JAB-Blog

Here’s the synopsis for DESOLATION ROAD…

It all began thirty years ago on Mars, with a greenperson. But by the time it all finished, the town of Desolation Road had experienced every conceivable abnormality; from Adam Black’s Wonderful Travelling Chautauqua and Educational ’Stravaganza (complete with its very own captive angel), to the Astounding Tatterdemalion Air Bazaar. Its inhabitants ranged from Dr. Alimantando, the town’s founder and resident genius, to the Babooshka, a barren grandmother who just wants her own child – grown in a fruit jar; from Rajendra Das, mechanical hobo who has a mystical way with machines to the Gallacelli brothers, identical triplets who fell in love with – and married – the same woman.

McDonald-EmpireDreams-JAB-BlogAnd last, but by no means least, the EMPIRE DREAMS collection…

Published simultaneously as Desolation Road, the Empire Dreams collection was intended to exploit the author’s nomination for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1985. It collects the following stories:

Vivaldi Visits to Remarkable Cities

Unfinished Portrait of the King of Pain by Van Gogh

Scenes from a Shadowplay Radio Marrakech

King of Morning, Queen of Day

The Island of the Dead

Empire Dreams (Ground Control to Major Tom)

Christian The Catharine Wheel (Our Lady of Tharsis)

A New Year

Posted on Monday, January 14th, 2013

A new year, new beginnings. It’s been a busy year over here at Zeno!

Which meant we’d neglected the blog for some time, but we’re hoping to get back to regular updates now.

And what a year it’s been!

AWARDS

Ian R. MacLeod won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, for his wonderful WAKE UP AND DREAM (PS Publishing).

Tim Powers won the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection, for THE BIBLE REPAIRMAN AND OTHER STORIES (Tachyon and Subterranean Press)

And Lavie Tidhar won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, for GOREL & THE POT-BELLIED GOD, and the World Fantasy Award, for his novel OSAMA (PS Publishing).

Award Winner 2012

Tidhar’s novel has been released in mass market paperback by Solaris. Foreign rights have been sold to RBA in Spain, and to Rogner & Bernhard in Germany (in addition to Polish and Hungarian deals announced earlier).

Meanwhile, Matthew Hughes is nominated for the 2012 A.E. Van Vogt Award for THE OTHER (Underland Press).

Congratulations Ian, Tim, Lavie and Matt!

RECENT FICTION

Our authors continue to publish some fantastic short fiction online.

  • Ian McDonald‘s Driftings has just been published over at Clarkesworld Magazine.
  • Aliette de Bodard‘s Immersion has made quite an impact on publication. It appears in Clarkesworld.
  • Lavie Tidhar’s Strigoi, published in Interzone, is available as a free e-book download.

NEW RELEASES

We have a full slate this month, with some new and classic steampunk coming out from our authors – we’ll tell you all about it in our next post!

Zeno’s Sidewise Award Nominees…

Posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Zeno clients dominate this year’s shortlist for The Sidewise Award for Alternate History, which will be announced at the forthcoming Chicago Worldcon (Chicon 7) in September. Of the seven novels nominated for on the Best Long-Form , we have three familar names…

Good luck to all three of our authors – in some alternative historical universe, you all won!

Ian McDonald’s PLANESRUNNER Sales News…

Posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012

Hot on the heels of our previous post, we’ve exciting news of another deal with Jo Fletcher Books to announce…

Jo has just acquired UK & British Commonwealth rights to the first three books of  Ian McDonald’s EVERNESS series, this award winning author’s first foray into YA.

The initial title, PLANESRUNNER, will be published this coming summer and has already been released in the US by Pyr to absolutely fantastic reviews (see below) with French rights going to Gallimard Jeunesse. Other translation deals are in the pipeline and we’re also currently fielding *lots* of film interest!

Jo Fletcher says, ‘I first published Ian McDonald way back when, in my early days at Gollancz, and I will never forget waiting breathlessly for the next chapters of CHAGA, and how awed I was by the sheer depth of imagination allied to such a wonderful writing style. So of course I leapt at the opportunity to bring Ian to Jo Fletcher Books, particularly with such a wildly exuberant, exciting and unforgettable series. In fact, I passed PLANESRUNNER around the office and was delighted that my JFB and Quercus colleagues were just as excited as I am. We’re going to have enormous fun publishing this, and can’t wait for a movie deal to bring this to the widest possible audience it so richly deserves.’

‘Planesrunner is chock-full of awesome. Ian McDonald’s steampunk London blazes on a vast scale with eye-popping towers, gritty streets, and larger-than-life characters who aren’t afraid to fight for each other. The kind of airship-dueling, guns-blazing fantasy that makes me wish I could pop through to the next reality over, join the Airish, and take to the skies‘ — Paolo Bacigalupi

‘Smashing adventure fiction that spans the multiverse without ever losing its cool or its sense of style. Ian McDonald is one of the greats of science fiction, and his young adult debut is everything you could hope for: romantic, action-packed, wildly imaginative, and full of heart.’ — Cory Doctorow

‘Athletic, brilliant, and always ahead of the game, Everett is too perfect, but it doesn’t detract from the book’s fun. McDonald writes with scientific and literary sophistication, as well as a wicked sense of humor. Add nonstop action, eccentric characters, and expert universe building, and this first volume of the Everness series is a winner.’ — Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Zeno Deals Round-Up…

Posted on Monday, September 5th, 2011

It’s been a busy time here at Zeno Towers, what with the recent Worldcon in Reno, the upcoming Fantasycon and World Fantasy Convention, plus one or two personal bits and bobs that JP and I have been catching up on… life, I think some people call it!

That notwithstanding, we’ve been beavering away and are delighted to announce a few deals that we’ve recently concluded…

  • James P. Blaylock‘s first novel length Steampunk story in twenty years has sold to Titan in a world English deal negotiated by John Berlyne. THE AYLESFORD SKULL, which features further  gaslight adventures of Langdon St. Ives and his nemesis Ignatio Narbondo will be published by Titan late next year or early 2013. A limited edition is also planned. In addition to THE AYLESFORD SKULL, Titan will also be re-issueing two Blaylock steampunk classics, the 1988 Philip K Dick Award winning HOMUNCULUS and also LORD KELVIN’S MACHINE. Audio rights for all three novels went to Stacy Patton Anderson at Audible.
  • Titan have also acquired world English rights (excluding India) to TURBULENCE and an UNTITLED sequel by Samit Basu. Publication is set for Feb 2012.
  • Audible will release an audiobook edition of Ian R. MacLeod‘s WAKE UP AND DREAM along with two earlier MacLeod novels THE SUMMER ISLES and THE GREAT WHEEL.
  • Audible also picked up audio rights to the third novel in Michael Cobley‘s HUMANITY’S FIRE series, THE ASCENDANT STARS. German rights for this title went to Heyne via Thomas Schluck.
  • Sheila Gilbert at DAW Books has acquired World English rights to  Kari Sperring‘s THE GRASS KING’S CONCUBINE and an UNTITLED sequel in a nice  deal negotiated by John Parker.
  • German rights to Freda Warrington’s ELFLAND sold to Carl Ueberreuter Verlag GMBH via Paul & Peter Fritz AG.
  • French rights to the first three novels in Ben Aaronovitch‘s best selling RIVERS OF LONDON series went to J’ai lu via Lora Fountain. Orion have sold rights to the series in Poland, Hungary and Italy.
  • Also via Lora Fountain, French rights to Ian McDonald‘s PLANESRUNNER sold to Gallimard Jeunesse.
  • The Library of America will publish the Algis Budrys‘ classic SF work WHO? as part of a reissue series to be edited by Gary K. Wolfe.
  • UK / British Commonwealth rights to a new graphic novel series by Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden entitled CEMETERY GIRL went to Jo Fletcher at Jo Fletcher Books. Jo has also acquired three anthologies edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni P. Kelner.
  • US rights to Iain Sinclair‘s GHOST MILK and AMERICAN SMOKE went to Mitzi Angel at Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
  • UK /British  Commonwealth rights to two brand new titles in Elizabeth Moon‘s PALADIN’S LEGACY series sold to Orbit.

And there are plenty more things in the pipeline! More in due course.

Yet More Awards News…

Posted on Sunday, July 10th, 2011

Ian McDonald‘s superb novel THE DERVISH HOUSE has scooped yet another accolade. The author adds this year’s John W. Campbell Award to the BSFA Award and the nominations the novel has received for both the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Hugo.

Even though Zeno has only been in business for three years, this is the second time a Zeno client has won this coveted prize… in fact, it’s the second time a client called Ian was won it! (See here) – not a back track record, eh?

Huge congratulations to Ian and to publishers, Pyr and Gollancz, who have done such a wonderful job with the novel. Note the UK mass market edition is due out on July 29th.

More Awards News…

Posted on Friday, June 10th, 2011

Two Zeno clients have just been short listed for major genre awards …

First up, as previously announced here, Ian McDonald‘s novel THE DERVISH HOUSE has already been short-listed for the BSFA Award (which he won!) the Arthur C. Clarke award (which he didn’t) and the Hugo Award for best novel (which he still might).

Yesterday came the news that THE DERVISH HOUSE is one of those novels short-listed for this year’s John W. Campbell Award – a major industry award given annually in the US for the best SF novel and which was recently won (in 2009) by another Zeno client, Ian R. MacLeod.

Also announced yesterday was the short list for this years Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, given for the best short short in the genre in a given year. Many congratulations to Lavie Tidhar, whose story THE NIGHT TRAIN,  published at Strange Horizons, has deservedly  made it onto the short list. You can read the story by following the link above.

Winners will be announced for both awards in July at this year’s Campbell Conference Banquet in Lawrence, Kansas – further details can be found here.

Ian McDonald Sells Film Rights to The Dervish House…

Posted on Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Zeno Agency is delighted to announce that film and television rights to Ian McDonald‘s award winning novel THE DERVISH HOUSE have been optioned by Warp Films. The deal was negotiated by Zeno’s John Richard Parker who says, ‘As with all Ian’s books THE DERVISH HOUSE is very much cinematic as well being  an imaginative tour de force. I have always believed it has the qualities that  make it eminently suitable for film and I am sure that with Warp’s enthusiasm for the project and their fantastic track record, all the ingredients are in place to put together something very special indeed.’

Warp Films have had notable successes recently with SUBMARINE and FOUR LIONS and Executive Producer Peter Carlton says ‘We’re delighted to have the chance to adapt THE DERVISH HOUSE for the screen, set in that most iconic of cities, crossroads of east and west, past and future, Istanbul. It starts with an explosion on a tram and ends in a race to stop a terrorist plot, but in the meantime Ian somehow weaves together speculative share trading, nanotechnology and Islamic microcalligraphy, to name but a few strands in this visual feast that has a narrative sweep and ambition all too rare in contemporary fiction.‘

News From Planet Eastercon…

Posted on Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Zeno clients triumphed at the BSFA awards, which were held at this year’s Eastercon, at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham over the Easter weekend.

First up was Aliette de Bodard, who was on hand to collect the award for Best Short Fiction for her story The Shipmaker, which appeared in Interzone issue #231. I managed to snap this pic of her being dwarfed by David Weber, who was on hand the present the award. (The homeless man to the rear is Paul Cornell prior to the removal of his comedy charity beard – for which he raised an impressive amount of money for, ironically, Shelter!)

No sooner had the applause for Aliette died down than our own Ian McDonald took to the stage to accept for the award for Best Novel for THE DERVISH HOUSE (not ‘The Dervish Nights’ as the convention newsletter later reported!), his 2010 novel published by Gollancz in the UK and by Pyr in the US.

A further layer of coolness was added to these wins when we later learned that both Ian and Aliette have been nominated for this year’s Hugo Awards – this news adding to Aliette’s previously reported Nebula nomination for the same story, and Ian’s Arthur C. Clarke Award nomination.

Huge congratulations to both authors.

There were lots of other Zeno authors at Eastercon – I got to meet our latest clients Anne Lyle and David Tallerman, albeit all too briefly, and the mass signing of Angry Robot authors at Waterstones in the centre of Birmingham was almost a mini ‘Zenocon’ of its own. Present were Aliette, Colin Harvey, John Meaney – or was it Thomas Blackthorn? – and, in a rare UK appearance, one Lavie Tidhar (pictured here next to a banner proclaiming his novels in all their steampunky glory.)

Elsewhere at the con, at readings, on panels and if truth must be told, in the bar, one could find Freda Warrington, Susan Boulton, Michael Cobley and last but by no means least Ian R. MacLeod.

I did a panel called ‘Writing 102: Finding an Agent‘, which was well attended and along with Gollancz Editorial Director Gillian Redfearn, Gollancz author Stephen Deas and author Martin Owton, we fielded a number of excellent questions from the audience. Hope those who were there found it helpful.

Locus Online on Ian McDonald…

Posted on Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Over at the LOCUS web site, there’s a fascinating Roundtable discussion going on all about the works of our client Ian McDonald (whom we reported recently had been nominated for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke award) with a number of learned folks taking part – including Ian’s US Editor, Pyr’s Lou Anders, authors Cat Rambo and Rachel Swirsky, editor and translator Fabio Fernandes and our very own web guru, moonlighting as a learned genre commentator Paul Graham Raven.

Roundtable: Ian MacDonald’s Developing Economies Stories

TWO Zeno Authors on Clarke Award Shortlist…

Posted on Friday, March 4th, 2011

We’re delighted to announce that two Zeno authors are on the short-list (of six) for this year’s coveted Arthur C. Clarke Award…

Not a bad hit rate for us! Ian has been on this shortlist in previous years and THE DERVISH HOUSE, listed in countless year’s best lists, is  already winner of the SciFi Now award for best novel is a book on everyone’s lips as a definite contender for this year’s Hugo.

DECLARE is an interesting addition to the Clarke shortlist, not least because it was first published in the US back in 2000, when it won both the World Fantasy Award and the International Horror Guild award.  It has taken a lamentably long time for British publishing to see the value in Powers’ work, but with the backing, support and vision of Corvus, DECLARE is now available directly to UK readers, with other books in the pipeline.

Award administrator Tom Hunter said ‘For me this list is a great indication of just how deep, rich and complex the literature of science fiction can be. I think this list is a definite keeper, as they say, and my hope is that twenty-five years from now people will still be coming back to it as a representation of everything that’s best about the diversity and strength of our genre‘

Pats On The Back All Round…

Posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

There are all sorts of exciting goings on around here at the moment… We’ve had the staggeringly wonderful news that Ben Aaronovitch‘s novel RIVERS OF LONDON (a.k.a. MIDNIGHT RIOT over in the US, where Del Rey have just published)  will appear at number eight in this week’s Sunday Times Bestseller list for hardcover fiction – a truly amazing achievement for Ben, who, we’re told, is the first début that Gollancz have ever had on this list. Extra big pats for our Ben!

No less vigorous pattage for Mister Ian McDonald, whose novel THE DERVISH HOUSE (also a Gollancz title – and Pyr in the States) has been nominated for the 2010 BSFA award for best novel. The shortlist is impressive, but Ian is widely regarded as a favourite. We’d be very surprised if this was only shortlist this wonderful novel makes this year. Also on the shortlist for the best short fiction is our own Aliette de Bodard, for her story The Shipmaker, which appeared in issue #231 of Interzone – congrats to both authors.

THE DERVISH HOUSE has also made this year’s LOCUS Recommended Reading List, which serves as a guide for the very best material our field has to offer. Here are the Zeno authors whose work has been listed…

Novels, Science Ficition – THE DERVISH HOUSE by Ian McDonald
Novels, Fantasy – THE DESERT SPEAR by Peter V Brett
Novels, Fantasy – HESPIRA by Matthew Hughes
First Novels – THE BOOKMAN by Lavie Tidhar
Collections – JOURNEYS by Ian MacLeod
Novellas – CLOUD PERMUTATIONS by Lavie Tidhar
Novellettes –BUTTERFLY AND THE BLIGHT AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD by Lavie Tidhar (Daily Science Fiction 9/3/10)
Short Stories – SECOND JOURNEY OF THE MAGUS by Ian R. MacLeod (Subterranean Winter ’10)
Short Stories – TONIGHT WE FLY by Ian McDonald (Masked)
Short Stories – THE NIGHT TRAIN by Lavie Tidhar (Strange Horizons 6/14/10)
Short Stories –THE SPONTANEOUS KNOTTING OF AN AGITATED STRING by Lavie Tidhar (Fantasy 5/17/10)

… a pretty good haul by anyone’s standards! More pats to all those who made the list, but particularly to Lavie Tidhar who scored a quite remarkable FIVE mentions!