Tag: Ian R MacLeod

Ian R. MacLeod’s RAGGED MAPS Out Now!

Posted on Friday, March 31st, 2023

RAGGED MAPS, Ian R. MacLeod‘s new, limited edition collection of shorter fiction is out now! Published by Subterranean Press, it clocks it at over 450 pages, and also includes the never-before-published novelette, DOWNTIME!

Dominic Harman created the superb cover for the collection. Here’s the synopsis for the book…

From furthest reaches of deep space in “The Memory Artist” to the jungles of Yucatan in “Lamagica,” and from the strange suburbia of “Stuff” to a Vatican where a dying pope awaits deliverance in “Sin Eater,” the worlds mapped out by these stories range far and wide. 

As, from the mythic ancient city of “The God of Nothing” to the post-human futures of “Ephemera” and “The Fall of the House of Kepler,” via alternate pasts and some very twisted presents in such tales as “Selkie,” “The Mrs Innocents” and “The Chronologist,” do the times. 

What holds all these pieces together, including the gripping long new novelette “Downtime” and its vision of a near-future penal system, are vivid writing, strong characters and a sense of awe and surprise. On travels that will take you from cluttered attics and strange shorelines to star-flung civilisations and beyond, let Ian R. MacLeod be your guide.

Ian R. MacLeod is the author of seven novels and five short story collections spanning the entire spectrum of fantastic fiction which have been critically acclaimed, widely anthologised and translated into many languages. His work has won the Arthur C Clarke award for the Year’s Best Novel, along with the Sidewise Award for Alternate History (twice), the World Fantasy Award (again twice), the John W Campbell Memorial Award and the Locus Award for the Year’s Best First Novel. He lives in the riverside town of Bewdley in England.

Coming Soon: RAGGED MAPS by Ian R. MacLeod!

Posted on Monday, February 6th, 2023

There’s a new Ian R. MacLeod collection on the way! Announced recently by Subterranean Press, RAGGED MAPS is due to be published in Spring 2023. Clocking it at over 450 pages, it also includes the never-before-published novelette, DOWNTIME!

The cover for the collection (by Dominic Harman) is above, and here’s the synopsis for the book…

From furthest reaches of deep space in “The Memory Artist” to the jungles of Yucatan in “Lamagica,” and from the strange suburbia of “Stuff” to a Vatican where a dying pope awaits deliverance in “Sin Eater,” the worlds mapped out by these stories range far and wide. 

As, from the mythic ancient city of “The God of Nothing” to the post-human futures of “Ephemera” and “The Fall of the House of Kepler,” via alternate pasts and some very twisted presents in such tales as “Selkie,” “The Mrs Innocents” and “The Chronologist,” do the times. 

What holds all these pieces together, including the gripping long new novelette “Downtime” and its vision of a near-future penal system, are vivid writing, strong characters and a sense of awe and surprise. On travels that will take you from cluttered attics and strange shorelines to star-flung civilisations and beyond, let Ian R. MacLeod be your guide.

Ian R. MacLeod is the author of seven novels and five short story collections spanning the entire spectrum of fantastic fiction which have been critically acclaimed, widely anthologised and translated into many languages. His work has won the Arthur C Clarke award for the Year’s Best Novel, along with the Sidewise Award for Alternate History (twice), the World Fantasy Award (again twice), the John W Campbell Memorial Award and the Locus Award for the Year’s Best First Novel. He lives in the riverside town of Bewdley in England.

There will be 1,000 limited edition, signed and numbered copies produced. RAGGED MAPS is available now for pre-order direct from Subterranean Press.

Ian R. MacLeod’s SONG OF TIME Out Now in Italy!

Posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2022

A new Italian edition of Ian R. MacLeod‘s multi-award-winning SONG OF TIME is out now! Published by Urania as LA CANZONE DEL TEMPO, here’s the synopsis…

Durante una passeggiata su una spiaggia della Cornovaglia, l’anziana Roushana Maitland, celebre violinista di fama mondiale, trova un uomo nudo, inerme, riverso sulla sabbia come se fosse stato trasportato lì dal mare.

Sotto le alghe, i graffi e i lividi bluastri, c’è un giovane bello come un dio greco. Ben presto appare chiaro che il ragazzo non è annegato ma è vivo, anche se privo della memoria. Da dove sia arrivato è un mistero; potrebbe essere uno schiavo sfuggito a qualche destino infame, o un criminale evaso.

Roushana soccorre “Adam”, come decide di chiamarlo, e mentre se ne prende cura, gli racconta della sua lunga e incredibile vita, ricca di grandi successi e cadute devastanti: dall’infanzia a Birmingham tra gli incubi del terrorismo biologico, passando per i viaggi in India all’epoca di un grande disastro nucleare, fino alla sfavillante carriera musicale a Parigi e alla sua vita bohemien.

Nel frattempo là fuori, oltre le mura protettive della casa, c’è un mondo morente: un futuro malinconicamente distopico, tra vulcani in eruzione e tempeste di polvere.

Tuttavia la morte non è più una barriera: è possibile caricare la propria memoria in un “cristallo” all’interno del proprio cervello, e raggiungere così l’immortalità digitale.

Un passo che Roushana, in fin di vita, si accinge a fare a breve per raggiungere coloro che ha amato, gli amici che già l’attendono oltre il velo.

Ma un oscuro segreto la trattiene dal compiere il passaggio…

First published in 2009, SONG OF TIME won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. It is available in the UK and North America, published by JABberwocky (alongside a number of other MacLeod titles).

‘MacLeod’s quiet, meditative novels and stories have been winning critical acclaim for years, and Song of Time sees him at the height of his powers. At the end of a long and eventful life, celebrated violinist Roushana Maitland orders her memories before she passes from the world of the flesh to a virtual afterlife. When she finds a mysterious stranger washed up on the beach of her Cornish retreat, he facilitates the process of remembrance. In flashback chapters we follow Roushana’s turbulent life through the cataclysmic events of the 21st century, taking in the deaths of loved ones, marriage to a conductor-entrepreneur, and a final heartbreaking revelation, SONG OF TIME is a slow, sensitive first-person account of what it means to be human and vulnerable, and confirms MacLeod as one of the country’s very best literary SF writers.’ — Guardian

Short Fiction Watch: Lavie Tidhar’s SEVEN VAMPIRES and Ian R. MacLeod’s THE CHRONOLOGIST

Posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2022

Two Zeno clients have work included in Tor.com’s January/February 2022 collection, which is available free from their website: Lavie Tidhar and Ian R. MacLeod.

First up, Lavie’s SEVEN VAMPIRES, which is his fourth Judge Dee mystery…

Paris is burning and Judge Dee and Jonathan are on the run. To guarantee their safety, they join a band of seven vampires escaping to England. The only problem? Someone in their midst is killing off members of their group one by one. It’s of no matter to the Judge, provided they don’t breach the Unalienable Obligations, but inevitably he’s drawn into events.

Tor.com also publishes the first three Judge Dee mysteries: JUDGE DEE AND THE LIMITS OF THE LAW, JUDGE DEE AND THE THREE DEATHS OF COUNT WERDENFELS, and JUDGE DEE AND THE POISONER OF MONTMARTRE.

Ian’s story is the stand-alone THE CHRONOLOGIST…

A boy, desperate to escape the drudgery of life in his small town, gets caught up in the machinations of a traveling time keeper, and slowly watches his town and his life unravel by the seams.

Both of these stories are great ways to try these two authors’ work, if you haven’t already; and if you have already enjoyed Ian’s and Lavie’s work, then we’re sure you’ll also love these two.

Both stories have covers by Red Nose Studios (who also created the first three Judge Dee covers).

Ian R. MacLeod’s AETHER UNIVERSE Novels Available in Poland!

Posted on Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021

We’re very happy to announce that Ian R. MacLeod‘s acclaimed Aether Universe novels are available in Poland! Both novels — THE LIGHT AGES and THE HOUSE OF STORMS — are published by MAG, and out now. Read on for mored details.

THE LIGHT AGES (2003), the first novel in the series, was nominated for the World Fantasy Award, and was in third place for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. It is published in Poland as WIEKI ŚWIATŁA (cover above)…

Najwybitniejsze dzieło nowego nurtu New Weird. Powieść inspirowana m.in. „Klubem Pickwicka” rozgrywa się w XIX w. w industrialnej Anglii w środowisku lewicowego proletariatu.

Ian MacLeod w „Wieku Światła” pokazuje wpływ magii na rewolucję industrialną i na proces demokratyzacji systemu władzy. Tylko, że MacLeod odrzuca wszystkie ograniczenia konwencji gatunku i sprowadza swoją magię do postaci eteru – kopaliny wydobywanej z ziemi jak kolejny surowiec naturalny. Wszelkie mechanizmy zmian społeczno-ekonomiczno-politycznych poddane są wpływom wynikającym z posiadania, i nie-posiadania tego surowca. System załamuje się gdy złoża się wyczerpują i na moment znowu podlega prawom Historii, aż do odkrycia nowych źródeł eteru. Magia powraca i wszystko ponownie zamiera.

THE LIGHT AGES is published in the UK and North America by JABberwocky. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Aether is industry, industry is magic and the Great Guilds rule the known world.

Raised amid the smokestacks, terraced houses and endless subterranean pounding of the aether engines of the Yorkshire town of Bracebridge, Robert Borrows is nevertheless convinced that life holds a greater destiny than merely working endless shifts for one of the Lesser Guilds. Then, on a day out with his mother to the strange gardens and weirdly encrusted towers of a remote mansion, he encounters a wizened changeling, and the young girl in her charge called Anna, and glimpses a world of wonder, mystery and surprise.

From then on, as he flees to London in the hope of escape and advancement, and explores its wide streets and dark alleys, and all the tiers of society from the lowest to the highest, he comes to realize that he holds the keys to secrets far bigger than even he imagined.

THE HOUSE OF STORMS, first published in 2005, is called DOM BURZ in Polish. Here’s the synopsis…

Mamy dziewięćdziesiąty dziewiąty rok Wieku Światła. Alice Meynell, wykorzystując wszystkie talenty pięknej kobiety oraz parę innych, bardziej tajemniczych, wywalczyła sobie tytuł arcycechmistrzyni Cechu Telegrafistów. Czyniła to wszystko z myślą o własnym rodzie – jednak jej jedyny syn, Ralph, od dzieciństwa cierpi na suchoty. Nie potrafią ich wyleczyć żadne znane w Europie lekarstwa, zaklęcia ani zabiegi.

W desperacji zawozi go do Invercombe na zachodnim wybrzeżu Anglii. Ma nadzieję, że Ralphowi pomoże ruch i czyste morskie powietrze. Lecz naprawdę pokłada mroczniejszą nadzieję w leżącej nieopodal, na odludziu, znanej niewielu krainie odmieńców: Einfell. Mieszka tam człowiek, który niegdyś ją kochał; teraz potwornie odmieniony przez magię. Alice odwiedza go i dobija targu o życie syna.

The second book in the series was also a contender for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. Also available in the UK and North America via JABberwocky, here’s the English-language synopsis…

In the ninety-ninth year of the Age of Light, Alice Meynell has fought her way up to Greatgrandmistress of the Guild of Telegraphers, and is determined not to let even the consumption which is ravaging her son stand in the way. What follows, through a long, hot summer in the great house of Invercombe overlooking the Bristol Channel, changes not only their lives but those of everyone in England, and perhaps the whole known world.

The House of Storms follows on from double World Fantasy Award-winner Ian R MacLeod’s The Light Ages in creating a vividly three-dimensional vision of a landscape and a society both very like, but also wonderfully different from, our own. Part fantasy and part history, and filled with compelling characters and a deep sense of place, the story he tells is uniquely powerful and strange.

Here, too, is a selection of reviews the series has received…

‘… this beautifully written, complex fantasy novel… With its strong character development and gritty, alternate London, this book won’t attract fans of Robert Jordan or Terry Goodkind, but should hold great appeal to readers who love the more sophisticated fantasy of Michael Swanwick, John Crowley or even China Miéville.’ — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on THE LIGHT AGES

‘MacLeod’s triumphs come in various ways. First of all is the depth and consistency and physicality of his creation. The 300-year-old world of aetherish England is palpably real, encrusted with hoary traditions, ancient legends (the tale of a redeemer figure known as Goldenwhite is particularly significant, for Anna’s career will parallel Goldenwhite’s) and odd customs. Yet strange and beautiful and resonant as all these counterfactual adornments are, they are perfectly balanced by the things in common with our world: social climbing, Oedipal longings, the allure of the big city for the rural youth. In other words, MacLeod has succeed in fusing Great Expectations (1861) or Look Homeward, Angel (1929) with Peake’s exoticism, producing a book that is at once real literature and real fantasy, betraying neither tradition.’ — SciFi.com on THE LIGHT AGES

‘MacLeod’s descriptive powers are so effective that you can visualize every detail… [He] skillfully incorporates literary influences ranging from William Blake to Dickens to 1984 and the working class novels of the 1950s—and arrives at something original. Magical, visionary and enthralling, THE LIGHT AGES is award-winning stuff.’ — SFX

‘Totally convincing and vividly written, this book invests the dark streets of London with a magic the reader will never forget… a brilliant writer.’ — Tim Powers on THE LIGHT AGES

‘… Ian R MacLeod, a seasoned, gritty writer with a great depth of knowledge and understanding, who could teach us all a thing or two about writing a damn good tale… characters are well developed and interesting and, more importantly, highly believable and real. To me it was JG Ballard meets Robert Fripp. Intelligent and yet not pretentious, well written but not academic… It is a plot that is like a journey on British Rail – fraught with perils and dangers, but eventually getting you there… The House of Storms will not win prizes because no prize could do it justice… It is a monumental work of science fiction far superior to Asimov. MacLeod is set to become a writer of the magnitude of Dickens or Tolkien, yet I fear his work will not be truly appreciated for a generation to come.’ — Guardian on THE HOUSE OF STORMS

‘Ian MacLeod writes like an angel. It’s as simple as that. He strings together ideally chosen words into sentences that are variously lush, sparse, subtle, bold, joyous, mournful, comic or tragic. These sentences mount into perfectly balanced paragraphs, which in turn assemble themselves into poised and dramatically organic chapters. The reader is carried along effortlessly on the flow of MacLeod’s prose, internalizing his vision as if in a dream.’ — SciFi.com on THE HOUSE OF STORMS

‘MacLeod’s ability to tell a tale that blends history-in-the-making with the stories of men and women who make that history renders this chronicle of love, war, and human aspiration a strong addition to any fantasy collection.’ — Library Journal on THE HOUSE OF STORMS

‘In the end, as compelling as the plot may be, readers will find themselves slowing down, holding back, turning the pages with deliberate care. For the world MacLeod creates, the characters who live there, the schemes and terrors they find themselves involved in are so real, so beautifully rendered, that readers will not want to leave them behind.’ — Interzone on THE HOUSE OF STORMS

Vector Readings featuring Ian R. MacLeod!

Posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2020

Just a quick post to share this video of Ian R. MacLeod reading from his work, published as part of the Vector Reading Series!

Ian is the acclaimed author of a great many novels, short stories and more. Many of Ian’s books have recently been re-issued via the JABberwocky eBook Program.

Lavie Tidhar Curates the BEST OF BRITISH SFF Story Bundle…

Posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2020

Lavie Tidhar has curated an excellent Story Bundle, featuring some of the best of British science fiction! The bundle is available until April 3rd, as a pay-what-you-want/can, and goes to support not only the authors but also Locus Magazine. Here’s a short description from Lavie…

It feels surreal to be writing this as the world is in the grip of a pandemic, and Britain itself, like much of the rest of the world, is on lockdown, in scenes that could only have been dismissed as science fiction a few weeks ago. Or years. How long has it been? I have lost the sense of time by now. As we’re all holding on, many, including the writers here and elsewhere, have been affected. Bookshops and newsstands are closed, publishers are laying off staff and delaying books, and all of us are feeling the pinch. Buying this bundle will help the small publishers included here, from Apex and NewCon to Solaris and Tachyon – the very independent publishers who continue to champion exciting new voices and works.

Finally, this bundle will help, in however small a way, my favourite magazine. Locus was established in 1968, and has become the single most important news source for the SF/F field, offering unparalleled cover, in-depth reviews and author interviews, and so much more. They have won the Hugo Award more times than I can mention. The effect of the shutdown has hit Locus hard. As a non-profit, they rely on a mixture of traditional revenue and on donations. Your purchase of this bundle will raise some much needed cash to help Locus weather the current apocalypse – and we all need Locus.

The bundle includes the following titles:

If you pay at least $15, you will also get the following six books:

  • THE BEST OF MICHAEL MOORCOCK
  • COIL by Ren Warom
  • A MAN LIES DREAMING by Lavie Tidhar
  • THE IRON TACTICIAN by Alastair Reynolds
  • BEST OF BRITISH FANTASY 2018 edited by Jared Shurin
  • BEST OF BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION 2018 edited by Donna Scott

Short Fiction Watch: MADE TO ORDER, feat. Ian R. MacLeod

Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2020

Tomorrow, Solaris is due to publish the new anthology MADE TO ORDER. In it, you’ll find Ian R. MacLeod‘s excellent story “Sin Eater”, which Lightspeed Magazine picked as a stand-out, ‘a fun and intellectually engaging read’. Edited by Jonathan Strahan, here’s the anthology’s synopsis…

A cutting-edge anthology, published on the 100th anniversary of the word “Robot”, exploring the impact it has had on the world, the possibilities and place of robots in society going forwards.

100 years after Karel Capek coined the word, “robots” are an everyday idea, and the inspiration for countless stories in books, film, TV and games.

They are often among the least privileged, most unfairly used of us, and the more robots are like humans, the more interesting they become. This collection of stories is where robots stand in for us, where both we and they are disadvantaged, and where hope and optimism shines through.

Including stories by: Brooke Bolander · John Chu · Daryl Gregory · Peter F. Hamilton · Saad Z. Hossain · Rich Larson · Ken Liu · Ian R. Macleod · Annalee Newitz · Tochi Onyebuchi · Suzanne Palmer · Sarah Pinsker · Vina Jie-Min Prasad · Alastair Reynolds · Sofia Samatar · Peter Watts

Ian is the author of a number of acclaimed, award-winning novels and short stories. Nine of his books have been released as eBooks via JABberwocky’s eBook Program.

Two new Ian R. MacLeod collections now available!

Posted on Tuesday, June 11th, 2019

We’re very happy to report that two new collection of Ian R. MacLeod‘s short fiction are now available! Both are published via the JABberwocky eBook Program, and are out now. Read on for more details.

Here’s the synopsis for the first collection, EVERYWHERE (cover above)…

Welcome to the first half of the collected worlds of one of fiction’s great myth-makers. Blending naturalistic settings with real — and unreal — histories, dark presents, strange pasts and star-flung futures, Ian R. MacLeod’s multi award-winning stories defy easy classification, but are always vividly elegant, compelling, and filled with wonder.

In Grownups, a young boy discovers the strange facts of life in a very different — yet also alarmingly recognizable — world, whilst New Light on the Drake Equation focusses on one man’s quest to prove there is still a chance of intelligent life existing beyond Earth, and in Ephemera a very strange librarian has final charge of all the world’s knowledge and culture, and The Master Miller’s Tale tells of obsessive love as a bucolic past dissolves into the magics of industry, iron and steam.

… and the companion anthology, NOWHERE…

Welcome to the second half of the collected worlds of one of fiction’s great myth-makers. Blending naturalistic settings with real — and unreal — histories, dark presents, strange pasts and star-flung futures, Ian R. MacLeod’s multi award-winning stories defy easy classification, but are always vividly elegant, compelling, and filled with wonder.

In The Chop Girl, a young working at a World War Two RAF bomber airbase discovers the true meaning of luck, whilst The Discovered Country projects a world in which the dead enjoy an endless afterlife whilst the merely living struggle to survive, and The Visitor from Taured twists a modern urban myth into a tale of one man’s search for a Theory Of Everything, and Snodgrass tells a very different version of the Beatles’ rise to fame.

JABberwocky has published a number of other acclaimed titles by Ian, too: RED SNOW, WAKE UP AND DREAM, SONG OF TIME, THE GREAT WHEEL, THE SUMMER ISLES, and the two novels in the Aether Universe series — THE LIGHT AGES and THE HOUSE OF STORMS.

Ian R. MacLeod’s AETHER UNIVERSE novels available in eBook!

Posted on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2019

We’re very happy to report that Ian R. MacLeod‘s Aether Universe novels are available again in eBook! Published via the JABberwocky eBook Program, the books are available from most major eBook retailers. Read on for further details.

Pictured above, the series starts with THE LIGHT AGES, which was first published in 2003…

Aether is industry, industry is magic and the Great Guilds rule the known world.

Raised amid the smokestakes, terraced houses and endless subterranean pounding of the aether engines of the Yorkshire town of Bracebridge, Robert Borrows is nevertheless convinced that life holds a greater destiny than merely working endless shifts for one of the Lesser Guilds. Then, on a day out with his mother to the strange gardens and weirdly encrusted towers of a remote mansion, he encounters a wizened changeling, and the young girl in her charge called Anna, and glimpses a world of wonder, mystery and surprise.

From then on, as he flees to London in the hope of escape and advancement, and explores its wide streets and dark alleys, and all the tiers of society from the lowest to the highest, he comes to realize that he holds the keys to secrets far bigger than even he imagined.

A dazzling melange of Dickens and Peake, flavored with steampunk and magical realism, yet seen through a kaleidoscopically individual gaze, in The Light Ages, double World Fantasy Award winner Ian R MacLeod has created a novel for this and every age.

Here’s what critics had to say about the novel…

‘MacLeod is set to become a writer of the magnitude of Dickens or Tolkien.’ — Guardian

‘[T]his beautifully written, complex fantasy novel… With its strong character development and gritty, alternate London, this book won’t attract fans of Robert Jordan or Terry Goodkind, but should hold great appeal to readers who love the more sophisticated fantasy of Michael Swanwick, John Crowley or even China Miéville.’  —  Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

‘MacLeod’s descriptive powers are so effective that you can visualize every detail… [He] skillfully incorporates literary influences ranging from William Blake to Dickens to 1984 and the working class novels of the 1950s—and arrives at something original. Magical, visionary and enthralling, THE LIGHT AGES is award-winning stuff.’ — SFX

‘Totally convincing and vividly written, this book invests the dark streets of London with a magic the reader will never forget… a brilliant writer.’ — Tim Powers

‘A haunting fantasy version of Victorian England… brought to life with compassionate characters and lyrical writing.’ — Denver Post

‘The novel’s industrial alternative London echoes Dickens in its rich bleakness and M. John Harrison’s Viriconium in its inventive Gothic complexity. A gripping page-turner. A hearty read. Rising star Ian R MacLeod offers an original political fable rivaling in ambition and execution the very best of today’s new science fantasies.’ — Michael Moorcock

The second novel in the duology, THE HOUSE OF STORMS was first published in 2005…

In the ninety-ninth year of the Age of Light, Alice Meynell has fought her way up to Greatgrandmistress of the Guild of Telegraphers, and is determined not to let even the consumption which is ravaging her son stand in the way. What follows, through a long, hot summer in the great house of Invercombe overlooking the Bristol Channel, changes not only their lives but those of everyone in England, and perhaps the whole known world.

The House of Storms follows on from double World Fantasy Award-winner Ian R MacLeod’s The Light Ages in creating a vividly three-dimensional vision of a landscape and a society both very like, but also wonderfully different from, our own. Part fantasy and part history, and filled with compelling characters and a deep sense of place, the story he tells is uniquely powerful and strange.

Like its predecessor, the sequel was also widely praised…

‘Ian R MacLeod [is] a seasoned, gritty writer with a great depth of knowledge and understanding, who could teach us all a thing or two about writing a damn good tale… characters are well developed and interesting and, more importantly, highly believable and real. To me it was JG Ballard meets Robert Fripp. Intelligent and yet not pretentious, well written but not academic… It is a plot that is like a journey on British Rail – fraught with perils and dangers, but eventually getting you there… It is a monumental work of science fiction far superior to Asimov. MacLeod is set to become a writer of the magnitude of Dickens or Tolkien, yet I fear his work will not be truly appreciated for a generation to come.’ — Guardian

‘Ian MacLeod writes like an angel. It’s as simple as that. He strings together ideally chosen words into sentences that are variously lush, sparse, subtle, bold, joyous, mournful, comic or tragic. These sentences mount into perfectly balanced paragraphs, which in turn assemble themselves into poised and dramatically organic chapters. The reader is carried along effortlessly on the flow of MacLeod’s prose, internalizing his vision as if in a dream.’ — SciFi.com

‘MacLeod’s ability to tell a tale that blends history-in-the-making with the stories of men and women who make that history renders this chronicle of love, war, and human aspiration a strong addition to any fantasy collection.’ — Library Journal

‘In the end, as compelling as the plot may be, readers will find themselves slowing down, holding back, turning the pages with deliberate care. For the world MacLeod creates, the characters who live there, the schemes and terrors they find themselves involved in are so real, so beautifully rendered, that readers will not want to leave them behind.’ — Interzone

JABberwocky has also published five other books by Ian as eBooks: RED SNOW, WAKE UP AND DREAM, THE GREAT WHEEL, SONG OF TIME, and THE SUMMER ISLES.

WAKE UP AND DREAM in digital…

Posted on Monday, November 12th, 2018

Ian R. MacLeod‘s modern classic WAKE UP AND DREAM is now available in eBook via the JABberwocky eBook Program! Here’s the synopsis…

All failed actor and unlicensed private eye Clark Gable has to do is impersonate a wealthy scriptwriter for a few hours, and sign a contract for the biopic of the inventor of a device which has transformed the world of entertainment. What could go wrong? True, he’s seeing ghosts, but so’s everyone else these days, at least when they go to the Feelies. And Europe is devastated by war, and America in sleep-walking toward Fascism. But what’s that got to do with him? A great deal, it turns out, as he stumbles into a world of glamour, danger, preternatural forces and political intrigue.

A dazzling blend of mystery, fantasy and history, and by turns witty, eerie and romantic, Wake Up and Dream is film noir with Technicolor wraiths.

JABberwocky has also published Ian’s THE SUMMER ISLES, SONG OF TIME, THE GREAT WHEEL and RED SNOW in eBook, which are available everywhere now!

Three award-winning novels by Ian R. MacLeod now available in new eBook editions!

Posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2018

We’re very happy to report that three of Ian R. MacLeod‘s critically-acclaimed, award-winning novels have been re-issued as eBooks! Published via the JABberwocky eBook Program, THE GREAT WHEEL, THE SUMMER ISLES, and SONG OF TIME are available now in the UK and US! Read on for more details…

Ian’s debut novel, THE GREAT WHEEL (pictured above), was first published in 1997 and won the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Here’s the synopsis…

This prescient and ground-breaking novel is set in a near-future where the privileged citizens of Europe shelter behind immense physical and biotechnical barriers from a world ravaged by climate change and disease. Beyond this safe existence of harvest fairs, uncomplicated religion and high tech crops lie the overcrowded souks, teeming streets and exotic religions of the vast sprawl of the Endless City which now encompasses most of North Africa.

Father John, a doubting missionary from the futuristic yet bucolic shires of the Welsh Marches, finds he must leave his ministry and the clamour of the Endless City to search across the dangerous wastelands beyond for the source of a lethal radioactive pollutant. There, in the company of a witchwoman and a young Borderer, he confronts not only his faith but also his own past, and the near-death of Hal, his comatose brother.

You can buy the novel now from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Kobo UK, Kobo US, iTunes UK, iTunes US, Barnes & Noble, and Google Play.

Originally published in 1998, THE SUMMER ISLES won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella (for an earlier, shorter version) and the Sidewise Award for Long Form (2005), and was a nominee for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Best Novel. Here’s the synopsis…

What would have happened if Britain and its allies had lost the Great War? From this premise, and through the compelling story of an outsider forever struggling to make sense of, or even change, the world, The Summer Isles takes a journey into the darker side of British nationalism.

Geoffrey Brook, seemingly a successful and respected history don at a venerable Oxford college, feels his whole life is a fraud. Not only did he not go to the right schools, or attend university, but he cannot even understand Latin. That, and, in a country where intolerance and bigotry has become a national rallying cry, there’s the issue of his supposedly deviant sexuality. Which, if it was discovered, would probably see him sent to a labour camp — or worse still, to the Summer Isles. It all goes back to a boy he remembers from his youth, who has now become the country’s charismatic leader. But what can he do now, in a country that seems to be on the brink of cataclysm?

The novel is now available from: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Kobo UK, Kobo US, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, iTunes UK, and iTunes US.

Finally, we have SONG OF TIME (first published in 2008). Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel and the John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (both in 2009), here’s the synopsis…

Song of Time begins with an old woman discovering a half-drowned man on a Cornish beach in the furthest days of this strange century. She, once a famous concert violinist, is close to death herself — or a new kind of life she can barely contemplate. Does death still exist at all, or has finally been extinguished? And who is this strange man she’s found? Is he a figure returned from her own past, a new messiah, or an empty vessel?

Filled with love, music, death and life, and spanning the world from the prim English suburbs of Birmingham to the wild inventions of a new-Renaissance Paris to a post-apocalyptic India, Song of Time tells the story of this century, and confronts the ultimate leap into a new kind of existence, and whatever lies beyond…

You can buy the novel now from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Kobo UK, Kobo US, iTunes UK, iTunes US, Barnes & Noble, and Google Play.

As we reported a little while ago, Ian’s RED SNOW novel has also been released as an eBook via the JABberwocky eBook Program. More new eBook editions of MacLeod’s back catalogue are on the way, and we’ll be sure to share details as soon as we have them.

Ian R. MacLeod’s RED SNOW available in eBook!

Posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

Ian R. MacLeod‘s 2018 Locus Award-finalist RED SNOW is available more widely now as an eBook! Published through the JABberwocky eBook Program, the novel is now available from most eBook retailers. Here’s the synopsis…

In the aftermath of the last great battle of the American Civil War, a disillusioned Union medic stumbles across a strange figure picking amid the corpses, and his life is changed forever…

In the cathedral city of Strasbourg in the years before the French Revolution, a church restorer is commissioned to paint a series of portraits that chart the changing appearance of a beautiful woman over the course of her life, although the woman herself seems ageless…

In Prohibition-era New York, an idealistic young Marxist is catapulted into the realms of elite society, and forced to assume the identity of someone who never existed…

Red Snow is a novel of love and violence, ideas and dreams, and revolves around the mystery of a monster drawn from humanity’s darkest myths which still somehow survives, and thrives, and kills, in this modern age.

The novel was first published as a limited edition by PS Publishing (a few copies left), and has also been published in Poland by MAG. Here are just a couple of the reviews the novel has received so far…

‘… always manages to take us somewhere unexpected… by turns western adventure, Renaissance horror, political intrigue, dysfunctional family drama, and more.’ — Locus

‘By turns horrifying and hauntingly beautiful, this epic vampire story is the stuff of real nightmares.’ — Tim Powers

‘A rich, beautifully written, deftly plotted vampire novel’ — Goodreads

Zeno clients among the 2018 Locus Awards Finalists!

Posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2018

It’s that time of year again: the Locus Award Finalists have been announced! We’re very happy to report that a number of our clients and their work appear in the various categories. Here are the details…

Ian McDonald‘s LUNA: WOLF MOON is a finalist for Best Science Fiction Novel. Published by Tor Books in the US and Gollancz in the UK, here’s the synopsis…

A Dragon is dead.

Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed .

The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent’s violent deaths, is now a ward — virtually a hostage — of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished of the surface of the moon.

Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and more to the point — that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was the Schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey — to Earth.

In an unstable lunar environment, the shifting loyalties and political machinations of each family reach the zenith of their most fertile plots as outright war erupts.

Aliette de Bodard‘s THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS is among the finalists for Best Fantasy Novel. Published in the US by Roc Books and in the UK by Gollancz, here’s the synopsis…

Paris endures the aftermath of a devastating arcane war…

As the city rebuilds from the onslaught of sorcery that nearly destroyed it, the great Houses of Paris, ruled by Fallen angels, still contest one another for control over the capital.

House Silverspires was once the most powerful, but just as it sought to rise again, an ancient evil brought it low. Phillippe, an immortal who escaped the carnage, has a singular goal — to resurrect someone he lost. But the cost of such magic might be more than he can bear.

In House Hawthorn, Madeleine the alchemist has had her addiction to angel essence savagely broken. Struggling to live on, she is forced on a perilous diplomatic mission to the underwater dragon kingdom — and finds herself in the midst of intrigues that have already caused one previous emissary to mysteriously disappear…

As the Houses seek a peace more devastating than war, those caught between new fears and old hatreds must find strength — or fall prey to a magic that seeks to bind all to its will.

Aliette’s CHILDREN OF THORNS, CHILDREN OF WATER, a novelette set in the same Dominion of the Fallen series as the above novel, is also nominated for Best Novelette. You can read the story here.

Ian R. MacLeod‘s RED SNOW, published by PS Publishing, is a finalist for Best Horror Novel. Here’s the synopsis…

In the aftermath of the last great battle of the American Civil War, a disillusioned Union medic stumbles across a strange figure picking amid the corpses, and his life is changed forever…

In the cathedral city of Strasbourg in the years before the French Revolution, a church restorer is commissioned to paint a series of portraits that chart the changing appearance of a beautiful woman over the course of her life, although the woman herself seems ageless…

In Prohibition-era New York, an idealistic young Marxist is catapulted into the realms of elite society, and forced to assume the identity of someone who never existed…

Red Snow is a novel of love and violence, ideas and dreams, and revolves around the mystery of a monster drawn from humanity’s darkest myths which still somehow survives, and thrives, and kills, in this modern age.

Winners will be announced during the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 22-24, 2018.

Zeno Clients in Locus Magazine’s 2017 Recommended Reading List…

Posted on Tuesday, February 20th, 2018

We’re very happy to report that a number of our clients and their work was included in Locus Magazine’s 2017 Recommended Reading List! Ian McDonald, Aliette de Bodard, Lavie Tidhar, E.J. Swift, and Ian R. MacLeod all cropped up a number of times in the list.

Ian McDonald‘s LUNA: WOLF MOON is picked as one of the best science-fiction novels of the year, and variously described as ‘excellent’, ‘enthralling’, ‘compelling… twisty’, and ‘complex… brilliant… a joy to read’. One writer says that McDonald ‘has been making a case for being the best SF writer in the world’! The novel is published by Gollancz (UK) and Tor Books (US). Ian’s contribution to GALACTIC EMPIRES was also mentioned as a stand-out.

Aliette de Bodard‘s THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS is described as ‘utterly amazing’ and ‘vivid’ by different editors, and is identified as one of the best fantasy novels of the year. It is published by Gollancz (UK) and Roc Books (US). Aliette’s “The Dragon That Flew Out of the Sun” is one of Gardner Dozois’s best picks included in the COSMIC POWERS anthology, as is the author’s “First Presentation” in the CHASING SHADOWS anthology. The Dominion of the Fallen novelette, CHILDREN OF THORNS, CHILDREN OF WATER is among the best of the year.

Ian R. MacLeod‘s RED SNOW, published by PS Publishing, is selected as one of the best Horror novels of the year.

E.J. Swift‘s contribution to the INFINITY WARS anthology, the novelette WEATHER GIRL, is picked as a stand-out by Gardner Dozois and one of the best novelettes of the year. Emma is also given a nod for her contribution to THE DJINN FALLS IN LOVE AND OTHER STORIES.

Lavie Tidhar‘s work is mentioned a few times, especially his work that has appeared in Clarkesworld, and WATERFALLING (which appeared in THE BOOK OF SWORDS) is picked as one of the best novelettes of the year. His Tor.com short story “The Old Dispensation” is also picked as one of the best of 2017.