Tag: Italy

Anne Griffin’s WHEN ALL IS SAID is out tomorrow in Italy!

Posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2020

We’re very happy to report that Anne Griffin‘s quest for global domination continues, with the release (tomorrow) of the Italian edition of WHEN ALL IS SAID! Translated by Bianca Rita Cataldi, the Italian editions are published by Atlantide Edizioni, as QUANDO TUTTO È DETTO.

The novel is published in the UK and Ireland by Sceptre, and in North America by St. Martin’s Press. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Five toasts. Five people. One lifetime.

‘I’m here to remember – all that I have been and all that I will never be again.’

At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He’s alone, as usual -though tonight is anything but. Pull up a stool and charge your glass, because Maurice is finally ready to tell his story.

Over the course of this evening, he will raise five toasts to the five people who have meant the most to him. Through these stories – of unspoken joy and regret, a secret tragedy kept hidden, a fierce love that never found its voice – the life of one man will be powerfully and poignantly laid bare.

Heart-breaking and heart-warming all at once, the voice of Maurice Hannigan will stay with you long after all is said.

Ian McDonald’s THE BROKEN LAND out now in Italy!

Posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2020

Ian McDonald‘s acclaimed, classic novel THE BROKEN LAND is now available in Italy! Published by Urania/Mondadori as LA TERRA INFRANTA, here’s the synopsis…

Suo nonno era un albero.
Suo padre allevava boveicoli, in quindici colori diversi.
Sua madre conosceva il canto della doppia elica, lo cantava dritto nel cuore degli esseri viventi e li trasformava.

Fin dal suo incipit, “La Terra infranta”, romanzo stand alone dalla penna straordinaria di Ian McDonald, ci fa assaporare la visione del mondo della protagonista, Mathembe Fileli.

Nata e cresciuta nel villaggio di Chepsenyt, sulla Terra di un futuro lontano, Mathembe è circondata da persone che hanno imparato a vivere in armonia con la natura, grazie ad avanzatissime conoscenze di ingegneria genetica, e in un perfetto equilibrio fra le differenti religioni, credenze e culture dell’umanità.

Purtroppo, questa enclave armoniosa si trova ai bordi dell’Impero Oltre il Fiume, che di pacifico ha ben poco, e quando le truppe dell’Impero scopriranno che i suoi abitanti nascondono dei ribelli, il villaggio verrà dato alle fiamme.

Mathembe, vittima di una violenta oppressione politica e religiosa, si ritroverà suo malgrado ad allungare le file dei profughi, e dovrà imparare a lottare per sopravvivere e per ritrovare la sua famiglia.

First published in 1992, the novel is now available in the UK and US as an eBook, published by JABberwocky. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Grandfather was a tree, Father grew trux, in fifteen colours. Mother could sing the double-helix song, sing it right into the hearts of living things and change them…

The Land is a living, breathing, sentient world, where careful skills and talent can manipulate its very substance into a myriad different shapes and forms.

This is the world in which Mathembe Fileli grows up, until the conflicts tearing her country apart shatter her village, her home and her family and scatter them to the four winds. Can Mathembe reunite her family in a world full of angels, talking trees, squalor and glory?

Here are just a few reviews the novel has received…

‘Inventive and often effective drama, but dense and oppressive, with the dark and anguished backdrop looming above the characters; and the ending bleakly acknowledges that, in terms of today’s troubles, nothing much can be done.’ — Kirkus

‘[The] world is a captivating one with its rampant biotechnology and passionate characters. But McDonald…, a lifelong resident of Belfast, also succeeds in presenting the religious and national conflict of an Ireland that still knows no respite from bloodshed.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘Ian McDonald takes on all the atrocity and strife of the 20th Century, radically displaces it, and dares to envision a means of change. It’s a brilliant achievement.’ — Locus

‘At once disturbing and beautiful . . . superbly realized.’ — The Times

Zelazny’s CHRONICLES OF AMBER available in Italian Audio!

Posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2020

We are very happy to report that all ten of Roger Zelazny‘s Chronicles of Amber novels are available as audiobooks in Italy! Published by Audible, here’s the synopsis for the first book, NOVE PRINCIPI IN AMBRA…

Ambra è il mondo perfetto, l’universo dal quale tutti gli altri sono stati generati. Luogo celestiale e al contempo demoniaco, Ambra si trova adesso nel mezzo dello scontro tra le forze del bene e del male. Pur coesistendo con tutti gli altri mondi, Ambra può divenire una mèta irraggiungibile, niente più che il ricordo di un sogno per chi ne è stato allontanato: Corwin, Signore d’Ambra, si risveglia in un ospedale della Terra, confuso e privo di certezze sulle proprie origini e sulla propria identità. Chi lo ha separato dalla sua casa, relegandolo in quel lontano esilio? Qual è la vera natura di Ambra? A cosa ambiscono i principi e le principesse che lottano per raggiungere il trono più desiderato tra quelli su cui si possa sedere negli universi conosciuti?

Mentre oscure forze del male avanzano, terribili armate al comando dei Principi delle Tenebre, Corwin inizierà un viaggio fantastico ed eroico, verso la riconquista del proprio mondo e della propria eredità. Le sorti di Ambra non sono mai state così incerte e da esse può dipendere il destino di tutti gli universi.

Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Awakening in an Earth hospital unable to remember who he is or where he came from, Corwin is amazed to learn that he is one of the sons of Oberon, King of Amber, and is the rightful successor to the crown in a parallel world.

Amber, the one real world, wherein all others, including our own Earth, are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin’s blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne. From Arden to the blood-slippery Stairway into the Sea, the air is electrified with the powers of Eric, Random, Bleys, Caine, and all the princes of Amber whom Corwin must overcome. Yet, his savage path is blocked and guarded by eerie structures beyond imagining; impossible realities forged by demonic assassins and staggering horrors to challenge the might of Corwin’s superhuman fury.

Here’s the series list…

  1. NINE PRINCES IN AMBER — NOVE PRINCIPI IN AMBRA
  2. THE GUNS OF AVALON — LE ARMI DI AVALON
  3. SIGN OF THE UNICORN — IL SEGNO DELL’UNICORNO
  4. THE HAND OF OBERON — LA MANO DI OBERON
  5. THE COURTS OF CHAOS — LE CORTI DEL CAOS
  6. TRUMPS OF DOOM — RITORNO AD AMBRA
  7. BLOOD OF AMBER — IL SANGUE DI AMBRA
  8. SIGN OF CHAOS — IL SEGNO DEL CAOS
  9. KNIGHT OF SHADOWS — IL CAVALIERE DELLE OMBRA
  10. PRINCE OF CHAOS — IL PRINCIPE DEL CAOS

The novels are published in print and eBook in Italy by Mondadori.

Zeno represents Roger Zelazny in Translation, on behalf of the Zelazny Estate.

Two new Italian editions for Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series!

Posted on Thursday, January 30th, 2020

Two new editions of Ben Aaronovitch‘s Peter Grant novels are published today in Italy: both RIVERS OF LONDON and MOON OVER SOHO are now available in paperback, published by Fanucci! Published as I FIUMI DI LONDRA and LA LUNA SU SOHO, respectively, here’s the synopsis for the first book…

Peter Grant, un aspirante agente di polizia in attesa di accedere al famigerato Metropolitan Police Service di Londra, ha due preoccupazioni: evitare la prospettiva di un noioso lavoro d’ufficio e guadagnarsi i favori della vivace e spregiudicata collega Leslie May. Nel corso di un’inchiesta su un caso di omicidio, Peter riesce inspiegabilmente a ottenere la testimonianza di uno strano individuo, estremamente loquace ma decisamente morto, e a richiamare su di sé l’attenzione dell’enigmatico ispettore Thomas Nightingale, l’ultimo mago d’Inghilterra, capo di un’unità segreta della polizia dedicata alla magia e al soprannaturale. Peter possiede poteri magici, e deve mettere le proprie straordinarie abilità al servizio del bene comune. Aggirandosi tra covi di vampiri nei sobborghi londinesi, negoziando tregue tra le divinità del Tamigi, dissotterrando tombe a Covent Garden, Grant cercherà di governare lo spirito di ribellione della città e riportare, forse, l’ordine nel caos che domina Londra.

The novels are published by Gollancz in the UK, and Del Rey in North America. Here’s the English-language synopsis for book one…

My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit – we do paperwork so real coppers don’t have to – and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluble, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.

Now I’m a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden… and there’s something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.

The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it’s falling to me to bring order out of chaos – or die trying.

The next novel in the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series, FALSE VALUE is due out next month — published by Orion Books (UK) and DAW Books (North America)

Roger Zelazny’s TO DIE IN ITALBAR Avaiable Now in Italy

Posted on Tuesday, October 29th, 2019

Roger Zelazny‘s TO DIE IN ITALBAR is now available in Italy! The second novel in the Francis Sandow series, it is published in Italian by Urania/Mondadori as MORIRE A ITALBAR, here’s the synopsis…

Vita e morte sono due facce della stessa medaglia per “H”, soprannome di Heidel vonHymack, un uomo in grado di curare qualsiasi malattia, oppure… di trasformarsi in una potente arma batteriologia in grado di portare morte e distruzione attorno a sé.

Ma H non è che uno degli ingredienti di questo romanzo, che vede riuniti insieme costruttori di mondi, artisti telecinetici, medici ibernati (che non per questo smettono di fare ricerche…), terroristi spaziali e una misteriosa quanto inquietante “Signora Azzurra”.

First published in 1973, here’s the English-language synopsis for TO DIE IN ITALBAR…

The Walker in the Valley of the Shadow

H was the name he was known by. H was unique in the galaxy, for he had the healing touch. Where there was plague, sickness, pain, H was the universal cure.

But H also had the slaying touch. Where he went death and disaster often followed. Where there had been health there would be left desolation and desert.

The talent alternated. It reversed itself — and H always warned people of this.

To live in Italbar or TO DIE IN ITALBAR, that was always the question.

‘Zelazny has regained his stride as a first rate writer of SF adventure.’ — Locus

‘A slender but nicely balanced tale of the efforts of Malacar, a single guerrilla against the forces of empire, to find and turn into a weapon the mysterious H, carrier of cures as well as diseases, who started as a healer but is now ravaging entire planets… [Zelazny is] still better than most.’ — Kirkus

Zeno represents Roger Zelazny in Translation, on behalf of the Zelazny Estate.

Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber now complete in Italy!

Posted on Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019

Italian fans of Roger Zelazny‘s classic Chronicles of Amber, your wait is over! The final three volumes (#8-10) in the epic fantasy series are now available in Italy: SIGN OF CHAOS, KNIGHT OF SHADOWS, and PRINCE OF CHAOS.

Published by Fanucci as IL SEGNO DEL CAOS, IL CAVALIERE DELLE OMBRE, and IL PRINCIPE DEL CAOS. Here’s the synopsis for book eight…

L’epica storia della famiglia reale di Amber entra in un nuovo entusiasmante capitolo in cui Merlino, figlio del principe Corwin, persegue il suo nobile destino contro un mutevole panorama di mondi ombra e intrighi mortali, potenti computer e magia andati fuori controllo. Una violenta vendetta, una stregoneria rinnegata e un’avventura vorticosa conducono Merlino a un monumentale scontro alla Rocca dei Quattro Mondi, dove alla fine verranno svelati segreti e identità misteriose.

L’ottavo capitolo delle Cronache di Ambra, un classico imperdibile della letteratura fantasy di tutti i tempi, prosegue una serie considerata una lettura fondamentale per il genere cui appartiene.

These three novels were first published in 1987, 1989, and 1991, respectively.

Here’s the English-language synopsis for SIGN OF CHAOS…

Merle Corey, son of the great Prince Corwin of Amber, has been pursued through Shadow by unknown enemies and left trapped in an Alice in Wonderland world – a bar with the Mad Hatter serving and the Cheshire Cat grinning malevolently. In a dramatic escape from a monstrous Jabberwock, Merle embarks upon a fantastic adventure, leading him back to the Court of Amber and finally to a confrontation at the Keep of Four Worlds, and here he learns the strange secrets of the Courts of Chaos and their role in his destiny.

All ten novels in the Chronicles of Amber series are now available, published by Fanucci in print and eBook editions.

Zeno represents Roger Zelazny in Translation, on behalf of the Zelazny Estate.

Ian McDonald’s LUNA series available now as an Italian Omnibus!

Posted on Tuesday, July 16th, 2019

Ian McDonald‘s critically-acclaimed Luna series is now available in a brand new omnibus edition in Italy! Published by Mondadori’s Oscar Fantastica imprint as LUNA: LA TRILOGIA, here’s the synopsis…

NEL XXII SECOLO LA LUNA è stata ormai colonizzata dall’uomo e industrializzata. Le sue preziose risorse – l’elio-3, il carbonio, il ghiaccio e i metalli rari – vengono estratte ed esportate sulla Terra. A controllare il proficuo commercio sono i “Cinque Draghi”, cinque famiglie tanto potenti quanto spietate e pronte a tutto pur di difendere la propria posizione e i propri privilegi. La società spaziale è tornata alle lotte e ai valori feudali, come sa bene Adriana Corta, a capo di una delle corporazioni, che è riuscita a sottrarre il controllo dell’elio-3 alla Mackenzie Metals. Ormai anziana, deve difendere la florida azienda di famiglia dai moltissimi nemici che si è fatta negli anni. Ma basta un niente, nel difficile ambiente lunare, perché le mutevoli lealtà e le macchinazioni politiche dei cinque clan raggiungano il punto di rottura e si scateni una guerra dagli imprevedibili risultati…

Una saga grandiosa, ricca e stratificata di echi letterari, da Martin al García Márquez di Cent’anni di solitudine. Un’acclamata trilogia, piena di avventura, che ci spingerà a guardare con occhi nuovi al nostro solo apparentemente innocuo e pacifico satellite.

Mondadori’s Urania imprint has also published the three novels individually in Italy: LUNA NUOVA, LUNA PIENA, and LUNA CRESCENTE.

The Luna series is published in the UK by Gollancz, in North America by Tor Books: NEW MOON, WOLF MOON, and MOON RISING. The series is also available in a growing number of international, translated editions. Here’s the English-language synopsis for the first novel…

In Ian McDonald’s Luna: New Moon, the scions of a falling house must navigate a world of corporate warfare to maintain their family’s status in the Moon’s vicious political atmosphere.

The Moon wants to kill you.

Maybe it will kill you when the per diem for your allotted food, water, and air runs out, just before you hit paydirt. Maybe it will kill you when you are trapped between the reigning corporations-the Five Dragons-in a foolish gamble against a futuristic feudal society. On the Moon, you must fight for every inch you want to gain. And that is just what Adriana Corta did.

As the leader of the Moon’s newest “dragon,” Adriana has wrested control of the Moon’s Helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal corporation and fought to earn her family’s new status. Now, in the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation-Corta Helio-confronted by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana’s five children must defend their mother’s empire from her many enemies… and each other.

Here are just a few of the great reviews the series has received so far…

‘McDonald… begins his superb near-future series… scintillating, violent, and decadent world. McDonald creates a complex and fascinating civilization featuring believable technology, and the characters are fully developed, with individually gripping stories. Watch for this brilliantly constructed family saga on next year’s award ballots.’ — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on NEW MOON

‘Mafia-style mining families clash in a compelling fantasy that offers up all the pleasures of a cut-throat soap opera in space…That McDonald is able to spin a compelling story from this unforgiving set-up is testament to his skill as a writer… One thing Luna does exceptionally well is to puncture Old Heinlein’s assumption that a frontier society based on the primacy of the family and a disregard of conventional laws would end up like idealised smalltown America. Luna argues that any realistic future colonisation of the moon will be much more The Sopranos than The Waltons. LUNA is as gripping as it is colourful, and as colourful as it is nasty.’ — Guardian on NEW MOON

‘No one writes like Ian McDonald, and no one’s Moon is nearly so beautiful and terrible… Ian McDonald’s never written a bad novel, but this is a great Ian McDonald novel… McDonald has ten details for every detail proffered by other sf writers. Not gratuitous details, either: gracious ones. The fashion sense of William Gibson, the design sense of Bruce Sterling, the eye for family drama of Connie Willis, the poesie of Bradbury, and the dirty sex of Kathe Koja and Samuel Delany… McDonald’s moon is omnisexual, kinky, violent, passionate, beautiful, awful, vibrant and crushing. As the family saga of the Cortas unravels, we meet a self-sexual ninja lawyer, a werewolf who loses his mind in the Full Earth, a family tyrant whose ruthlessness is matched only by his crepulance, and a panoply of great passions and low desires. LUNA: NEW MOON is the first book of a two-book cycle. Now I’m all a-quiver for the next one.‘ — BoingBoing

‘Luna: New Moon was a “magnificent bastard of a book,” as I put it in my review. Part two, it’s my pleasure to tell you, is just as awesome, and just as masterfully nasty.’ — Tor.com

‘… powerful sequel… compelling throughout. Each of McDonald’s viewpoint characters is made human in fascinating and occasionally disturbing detail, and the solar system of the 22nd century is wonderfully delineated. Fans of the first volume will love this one and eagerly look forward to the next.‘ — Publishers Weekly on WOLF MOON

‘NEW MOON was one of the most interesting sci-fi novels of 2015, with smart ideas on humanity and economies matched by street smarts, political brawls and murder in the streets. LUNA: WOLF MOON turns that up to eleven – it’s a fascinating story, which is also a tense, enthralling read.’ — Sci-Fi & Fantasy Review

‘McDonald concludes his Luna space opera trilogy in triumphant style… The political intrigue never feels too abstract or removed from 21st-century Earth. Readers will appreciate the care McDonald takes with both worldbuilding and characterization, and will enjoy little touches such as giving an assassin the job title of Corporate Conflict Resolution Officer… fans of the prior books will find this wrap-up rewarding.’ — Publishers Weekly on MOON RISING

‘The Luna trilogy is a masterpiece of worldbuilding. Ian McDonald has created an incredibly developed, complex and astonishingly plausible future for the Moon… What stands out, though, are its threads of gorgeous storytelling… as a whole, this is an extraordinary trilogy. Ian McDonald always writes beautifully. I love what he has to say. I’ll always remember his vision of the Moon, which at times is horrifying and violent and yet at others is so heartwarming and wondrous.’ — For Winter Nights on MOON RISING

‘… cinematic set-pieces… so much fun to read… these entertaining, and intelligent novels, capped off by the very satisfying Luna: MOON RISING, have been about establishing a society, a community, a family that looks to the future, that lives and prospers in an environment that must always be treated with respect.’ — Locus (Ian Mond)

Ian McDonald’s MOON RISING out now in Italy!

Posted on Thursday, May 9th, 2019

MOON RISING, the third novel in Ian McDonald‘s critically-acclaimed Luna series, is out now in Italy! Published by Urania/Mondadori as LUNA CRESENTE, here’s the synopsis…

Alla fine del penultimo capitolo di questa appassionante space opera, abbiamo lasciato Lucas Corta, dato per morto ma ritornato sulla Luna dopo aver stretto alleanze sulla Terra, deciso più che mai a reclamare la propria vendetta e il controllo del satellite.

L’unica persona in grado di fermarlo non sarà uno degli altri “dragoni”, i clan che si contendono il dominio lunare, ma sua sorella Ariel…

I recensori internazionali hanno plaudito anche a questo ultimo capitolo della saga, non risparmiandosi lodi per l’abilità di “creatore di mondi” di McDonald, e facendogli un unico appunto: il libro fa fatica a stare in piedi da solo e può essere apprezzato pienamente solo da chi si è goduto i precedenti volumi della serie.

Urania has also published the first two novels in the series: LUNA NUOVA (NEW MOON) and LUNA PIENA (WOLF MOON).

The series is published in the UK by Gollancz, in the US by Tor Books, and widely in translation. Here’s the English-language synopsis for MOON RISING…

A hundred years in the future, a war wages between the Five Dragons — five families that control the Moon’s leading industrial companies. Each clan does everything in their power to claw their way to the top of the food chain — marriages of convenience, corporate espionage, kidnapping, and mass assassinations.

Through ingenious political manipulation and sheer force of will, Lucas Cortas rises from the ashes of corporate defeat and seizes control of the Moon. The only person who can stop him is a brilliant lunar lawyer, his sister, Ariel.

Witness the Dragons’ final battle for absolute sovereignty in Ian McDonald’s heart-stopping finale to the Luna trilogy.

Here are just a few of the great reviews the Luna series has received so far…

‘McDonald concludes his Luna space opera trilogy in triumphant style… The political intrigue never feels too abstract or removed from 21st-century Earth. Readers will appreciate the care McDonald takes with both worldbuilding and characterization, and will enjoy little touches such as giving an assassin the job title of Corporate Conflict Resolution Officer… fans of the prior books will find this wrap-up rewarding.’ — Publishers Weekly on MOON RISING

‘The Luna trilogy is a masterpiece of worldbuilding. Ian McDonald has created an incredibly developed, complex and astonishingly plausible future for the Moon… What stands out, though, are its threads of gorgeous storytelling… as a whole, this is an extraordinary trilogy. Ian McDonald always writes beautifully. I love what he has to say. I’ll always remember his vision of the Moon, which at times is horrifying and violent and yet at others is so heartwarming and wondrous.’ — For Winter Nights on MOON RISING

‘… powerful sequel… compelling throughout. Each of McDonald’s viewpoint characters is made human in fascinating and occasionally disturbing detail, and the solar system of the 22nd century is wonderfully delineated. Fans of the first volume will love this one and eagerly look forward to the next.‘ — Publishers Weekly on WOLF MOON

‘McDonald has used his intense, finely crafted and small personal stories of his vast casts of characters as the pixels in an unimaginably vast display on which he projects some of the field’s most audacious worldbuilding — never worldbuilding for its own sake, either, but always in the service of slyly parodying, critiquing or lionizing elements of our present-day world.’ — Boing Boing on WOLF MOON

‘No one builds a world like Ian McDonald does… Spare, simple, elegant when he needs to be…, deep and meaty when he wants to be…, he does his work like an artisan pulling a sculpture from stone. There are no wasted moves, nothing that isn’t vital because, in the end, everything is vital. Everything matters… it is fascinating, all of it. Because McDonald has made a world that is ruthless in its consistency and living, breathing reality, and then made characters who are not just living in it, but wholly and fully of it… McDonald’s corporate war is a gorgeous thing, fought with every tool available… Every moment with his characters makes them precious, real and alive.’ — NPR on WOLF MOON

‘Luna: New Moon was a “magnificent bastard of a book,” as I put it in my review. Part two, it’s my pleasure to tell you, is just as awesome, and just as masterfully nasty.’ — Tor.com on WOLF MOON

‘Smart, funny, passionate and at times quite dark, McDonald brings the touch we’ve seen in RIVER OF GODS and DERVISH HOUSE to an entirely new culture as it evolves in a distant hostile place where business or family rules all… it’s terrific. My only complaint: it leaves you wanting the second book right now!’ — Jonathan Strahan on NEW MOON

‘McDonald… begins his superb near-future series… scintillating, violent, and decadent world. McDonald creates a complex and fascinating civilization featuring believable technology, and the characters are fully developed, with individually gripping stories. Watch for this brilliantly constructed family saga on next year’s award ballots.’ — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on NEW MOON

‘Mafia-style mining families clash in a compelling fantasy that offers up all the pleasures of a cut-throat soap opera in space…That McDonald is able to spin a compelling story from this unforgiving set-up is testament to his skill as a writer… One thing Luna does exceptionally well is to puncture Old Heinlein’s assumption that a frontier society based on the primacy of the family and a disregard of conventional laws would end up like idealised smalltown America. Luna argues that any realistic future colonisation of the moon will be much more The Sopranos than The Waltons. LUNA is as gripping as it is colourful, and as colourful as it is nasty.’ — Guardian on NEW MOON

‘Fans of cerebral, high-concept science fiction will love this exploration of society on the moon many decades after it has been colonized. The focus is more on concept and plot than on character, but the former are compelling enough to make this an addictive page-turner. Including the stories of many characters gives the reader important insights into different facets of society, and although the book starts at a slow pace, it accelerates into a mesmerizing political thriller.’ — RT Book Reviews on NEW MOON

Ian is also the author of the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated novella TIME WAS, published by Tor.com.

Ian McDonald and Lavie Tidhar are Premio Italia 2019 nominees!

Posted on Wednesday, March 27th, 2019

We’re delighted to report that Ian McDonald and Lavie Tidhar have both been nominated for the Premio Italia 2019 award for Best International Novel!

Ian McDonald‘s ARES EXPRESS is published in Italy by Zona 42. Here’s the synopsis…

“Dovresti cercare di fermarmi. Dovresti farmi ragionare, dirmi quanto male staranno tutti quanti, e non pensi all’onore della famiglia, e sarà uno scandalo tale che dovranno andare in giro senza tagliarsi i capelli per i prossimi tre anni. Poi, visto che non funzionerà, dovresti chiedermi se so cosa sto facendo e se so dove sto andando e dirmi che quello là fuori è un mondo enorme e pericoloso e che mi farò del male molto in fretta e finirò per tornare con la coda tra le gambe. E quando io ti risponderò che è tutto a posto tu dovresti addolcirti e dirmi che ti mancherò e che mi hai sempre amato e che avevi questo piano brillante di comprarti la libertà e avremmo avuto il nostro treno e saremmo partiti verso il tramonto in una nuvola di vapore.”

Immagina treni grandi come quartieri, cattedrali volanti, deserti sconfinati attraversati da binari infiniti e città che si arrampicano per centinaia di piani sotto il tetto del mondo. Immagina una ragazza che vorrebbe solo guidare un treno, la sua gemella invisibile e una Storia da cui dipende il futuro – o i futuri – di un intero mondo. Immagina le meraviglie di un pianeta rutilante di colori, caleidoscopico nei molteplici panorami, con la sua corona di angeli e di intelligenze artificiali, gli artisti anarchici, le città desolate e quelle brulicanti di vita.

Ian McDonald mette in scena un’avventura governata dalle leggi ineluttabili della Narrativa, che — al solito — non sanno che farsene di un’Eroina Esuberante e Intraprendente (Ma Comunque Carina). Riuscirà Sweetness a piegare la Storia alla sua volontà, e a sopravvivere alle sfide che una dopo l’altra le si parano davanti?

Ares Express narra di uno strano mondo, così diverso, eppure così vicino al nostro, un luogo pittoresco e affascinante, dove si mescolano fantascienza e realismo magico, immaginazione e filosofia, azione scatenata e idee straordinarie.

Benvenuti nella vita di Sweetness Octave Glorious Honey-Bun Asiim XII Macchinista. Benvenuti su Marte.

ARES EXPRESS, the second novel in Ian’s Desolation Road series, is published in English via the JABberwocky eBook Program. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Taking place in the kaleidoscopic future of Ian McDonald’s Desolation Road, this novel is set on a terraformed Mars where fusion-powered locomotives run along the network of rails that is the planet’s circulatory system and artificial intelligences reconfigure reality billions of times each second. One young woman, Sweetness Octave Glorious-Honeybun Asiim 12th, becomes the person upon whom the future – or futures – of Mars depends. Big, picaresque, funny; taking the Mars of Ray Bradbury and the more recent, terraformed Marses of authors such as Kim Stanley Robinson and Greg Bear, Ares Express is a wild and woolly magic-realist SF novel, featuring lots of bizarre philosophies, strange, mind-stretching ideas and trains as big as city blocks.

Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed, multi-award-winning and -nominated novel CENTRAL STATION is published in Italy by Acheron Books. Here’s the synopsis…

A Tel Aviv, un quartiere popolato da un milione di persone è sorto intorno alla base spaziale Central Station. Umani, robot e i misteriosi Altri sono tutti interconnessi in una pervasiva coscienza digitale chiamata “la Conversazione”, e le molteplici culture si scontrano e si confondono fra reale e digitale. La vita può sembrare a buon mercato, ma le informazioni lo sono ancora di più.

Quando Boris Chong torna a Central Station, la ritrova in uno stato di caos. Le strade sono invase dalla droga religiosa chiamata Crucifixation. La sua ex compagna sta allevando un bambino dotato di poteri che lo rendono simile a un nuovo Messia. Suo padre è afflitto da un virus mentale multigenerazionale. Sua cugina è innamorata di un cyborg Robotnik. E una Vampira di Dati vagabonda lo ha seguito fin da Marte…

CENTRAL STATION is published in the UK and US by Tachyon Publications. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.

When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’s ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap into the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik — a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally-ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.

Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv; a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation — a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness — are just the beginning of irrevocable change.

At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive… and even evolve.

Ian McDonald’s LUNA PIENA available now in Italy!

Posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2019

The second novel in Ian McDonald‘s critically-acclaimed Luna series, WOLF MOON, is out now in Italy! Published by Urania as LUNA PIENA, here’s the synopsis…

Un Drago è morto. Corta Helio, una delle cinque corporazioni familiari che governano la Luna, è caduta. Le sue ricchezze sono state suddivise tra i molti nemici, e i pochi sopravvissuti sono dispersi. Dopo un anno e mezzo i figli di Helio, Lucasinho e Luna, sono sotto la protezione dei potenti Asamoah, mentre Robson, ancora sconvolto per la morte dei genitori, è praticamente un ostaggio della Mackenzie Metals. E l’ultimo erede legittimo, Lucas, è scomparso dalla superficie del satellite. In un difficile ambiente lunare, la mutevole lealtà e le macchinazioni politiche delle famiglie raggiungono il punto di rottura mentre scoppia la guerra vera e propria.

Luna: Wolf Moon continua la saga dei “Cinque Draghi” di Ian McDonald.

Urania has also publish the first in the series in Italy as LUNA NUOVA.

The Luna series — NEW MOON, WOLF MOON, and the upcoming MOON RISING — is published in the UK by Gollancz and in North America by Tor Books. It has also been published widely in translation. Here’s the English-language synopsis for WOLF MOON…

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 from 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 a 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 between the families erupts.

The Luna series as a whole has been met with an outpouring of praise and critical acclaim. Here is just a small sample of the praise WOLF MOON has received…

‘… powerful sequel… compelling throughout. Each of McDonald’s viewpoint characters is made human in fascinating and occasionally disturbing detail, and the solar system of the 22nd century is wonderfully delineated. Fans of the first volume will love this one and eagerly look forward to the next.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘NEW MOON was one of the most interesting sci-fi novels of 2015, with smart ideas on humanity and economies matched by street smarts, political brawls and murder in the streets. LUNA: WOLF MOON turns that up to eleven – it’s a fascinating story, which is also a tense, enthralling read.’ — Sci-Fi & Fantasy Review

‘The fights and vengeance that follow are more vicious and intricate than anything in Game of Thrones, full of great acts of self-sacrifice and viciousness alike, brave cavalry charges and last stands, cowardice and avarice. McDonald’s great gift is to hold the micro- and macro-scale in his hand at once. Starting with his debut novel, 1988’s Desolation Road, McDonald has used his intense, finely crafted and small personal stories of his vast casts of characters as the pixels in an unimaginably vast display on which he projects some of the field’s most audacious worldbuilding — never worldbuilding for its own sake, either, but always in the service of slyly parodying, critiquing or lionizing elements of our present-day world.’ — Boing Boing

‘A Howling Good Read… No one builds a world like Ian McDonald does. Piece by piece and brick by brick. Spare, simple, elegant when he needs to be…, deep and meaty when he wants to be…, he does his work like an artisan pulling a sculpture from stone. There are no wasted moves, nothing that isn’t vital because, in the end, everything is vital. Everything matters… it is fascinating, all of it. Because McDonald has made a world that is ruthless in its consistency and living, breathing reality, and then made characters who are not just living in it, but wholly and fully of it… McDonald’s corporate war is a gorgeous thing, fought with every tool available… McDonald is able to wrap the biggest events in constellations of the smallest so that a cocktail party here, a discussion of ’80s retro fashion (all mall-hair and WHAM! T-shirts), a love story and a day at work for a guy who cleans solar panels all build and coalesce to form the background radiation of life in this unstable future. Every moment with his characters makes them precious, real and alive.’ — NPR

‘Luna: New Moon was a “magnificent bastard of a book,” as I put it in my review. Part two, it’s my pleasure to tell you, is just as awesome, and just as masterfully nasty.’ — Tor.com

Tomorrow, Italian readers can enter — *horrified gasp* — the City Without Chocolate!

Posted on Monday, January 28th, 2019

Tomorrow, Mondadori publishes the Italian edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s first novel for young readers, CANDY! Published in Italy as LA CITTÀ SENZA CIOCCOLATO, here’s the synopsis…

Come si può vivere in una città in cui i dolci sono proibiti? Questo è il mistero che aleggia sulla vita di Nelle Faulkner, abile investigatrice privata dodicenne costretta a rispettare la legge del rampante sindaco Thornton, amico delle carote e nemico delle carie. Ma ci sono segreti ben più oscuri di cui Nelle deve occuparsi: un pomeriggio nel suo sgangherato ufficio arriva Eddie De Menthe, dodici anni e mezzo e fama da trafficante di dolci, per chiederle di indagare su un furto. Dopo poco però anche Eddie scompare nel nulla, proprio mentre i suoi rivali, Frittella Ratchet e Wafer McKenzie, si contendono il controllo del contrabbando di dolci. Intanto un nemico ben più pericoloso e potente incombe sulla città, pronto a addentare Nelle e i suoi amici come la più squisita tavoletta di cioccolato. Quanta astuzia servirà per non farsi inghiottire in un solo boccone?

CANDY is published in the UK by Scholastic, and is also available in France, Germany and Czechia (there are more translated editions on the way, and we’ll share covers and other details as soon as we have them).

Here are just a few of the reviews CANDY has received so far…

‘A perfectly pitched noir take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory… delightful premise… as with Tidhar’s earlier work, his playful approach to genre is in service to the story’s hidden depths. He uses the trappings of noir detective tales to tell a subversive children’s story about corruption, the exploitation of vulnerable communities, and the limits of justice. The end result is a novel that for all its joyous sense of fun still packs a surprising emotional and philosophical punch…’ — Fantasy Faction

‘Due to the wonderfully fluent writing style, the pleasantly short chapters and the rousing plot, I devoured the book in record time. For girls and boys from the age of 10, who like to read exciting, funny, imaginative detective stories, “Secret Agent Candy” is just perfect. I really hope that this is a start of a series and we will soon be able to solve their second, tricky case together with Nelle… Exciting, funny, bizarre and just awesome!’ — Die Bücherwelt von CorniHolmes (Germany)

‘Delicious pastiche of “noir” fiction from SF author Lavie Tidhar, set in a city where everything sweet and sugary is banned. Private eye Nelle searches for a lost teddy bear and uncovers a Chinatown-style conspiracy. You could think of it as The Malteser Falcon, or perhaps Double Inde-mint-y.’ — Financial Times (Summer Books of 2018)

‘Candy is one of those books that do not take children and teenagers for fools. The story is able to change shifts, thanks to lot of humour, to more serious subjects. Of course, we can enjoy it at any age. If possible, the book should be served in place of dessert.’ — Geektest (France)

‘… original, highly-enjoyable and tempting twist on what happens when the town suffers from the symptoms of sugar withdrawal… Mark Beech’s joyful illustrations add tastes of humour, quirk and life to complement Lavie’s brilliant and charismatic characters; infused with an infectious influence of the collaboration between Dahl and Blake. Like a mini Miss Marple meets Maynards… this mouthful of mystery will leave every reader feeling like a child in a sweetshop; just craving to read more from Lavie!’ — The Reader Teacher

‘CANDY is the case when a children’s book can actually be interesting at any age. Children will appreciate the plot and humour, adults – a lot of references scattered throughout the text and how unexpectedly and funny elements of the classic “cool” and noir detective story are refracted, if you put them in the context of a children’s literature. Fun, playful and exciting.’ — Fantalab (Russia)

‘Written in the style of the hard-boiled American detective fiction of the 1940s, this is a juggernaut of a tale with plenty of twists and turns. A challenging read for ages 10+ who enjoy suspense coupled with a dry sense of humour.’ — West Sussex Schools Library Service

Mondadori unveils new Italian edition of Lavie Tidhar’s CANDY!

Posted on Monday, January 14th, 2019

Above you can see the rather fantastic cover for the Italian edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s first novel for young readers, CANDY! Due to be published in Italy by Mondadori on January 29th, here’s the synopsis for LA CITTÀ SENZA CIOCCOLATO…

Come si può vivere in una città in cui i dolci sono proibiti? Questo è il mistero che aleggia sulla vita di Nelle Faulkner, abile investigatrice privata dodicenne costretta a rispettare la legge del rampante sindaco Thornton, amico delle carote e nemico delle carie. Ma ci sono segreti ben più oscuri di cui Nelle deve occuparsi: un pomeriggio nel suo sgangherato ufficio arriva Eddie De Menthe, dodici anni e mezzo e fama da trafficante di dolci, per chiederle di indagare su un furto. Dopo poco però anche Eddie scompare nel nulla, proprio mentre i suoi rivali, Frittella Ratchet e Wafer McKenzie, si contendono il controllo del contrabbando di dolci. Intanto un nemico ben più pericoloso e potente incombe sulla città, pronto a addentare Nelle e i suoi amici come la più squisita tavoletta di cioccolato. Quanta astuzia servirà per non farsi inghiottire in un solo boccone?

CANDY is published in the UK by Scholastic, and is also available in France, Germany and Czechia (with more translated editions on the way!).

Here are just a few of the reviews CANDY has received so far…

‘A perfectly pitched noir take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory… delightful premise… as with Tidhar’s earlier work, his playful approach to genre is in service to the story’s hidden depths. He uses the trappings of noir detective tales to tell a subversive children’s story about corruption, the exploitation of vulnerable communities, and the limits of justice. The end result is a novel that for all its joyous sense of fun still packs a surprising emotional and philosophical punch…’ — Fantasy Faction

‘Delicious pastiche of “noir” fiction from SF author Lavie Tidhar, set in a city where everything sweet and sugary is banned. Private eye Nelle searches for a lost teddy bear and uncovers a Chinatown-style conspiracy. You could think of it as The Malteser Falcon, or perhaps Double Inde-mint-y.’ — Financial Times (Summer Books of 2018)

‘… original, highly-enjoyable and tempting twist on what happens when the town suffers from the symptoms of sugar withdrawal… Mark Beech’s joyful illustrations add tastes of humour, quirk and life to complement Lavie’s brilliant and charismatic characters; infused with an infectious influence of the collaboration between Dahl and Blake. Like a mini Miss Marple meets Maynards… this mouthful of mystery will leave every reader feeling like a child in a sweetshop; just craving to read more from Lavie!’ — The Reader Teacher

‘Written in the style of the hard-boiled American detective fiction of the 1940s, this is a juggernaut of a tale with plenty of twists and turns. A challenging read for ages 10+ who enjoy suspense coupled with a dry sense of humour.’ — West Sussex Schools Library Service

‘Candy is one of those books that do not take children and teenagers for fools. The story is able to change shifts, thanks to lot of humour, to more serious subjects. Of course, we can enjoy it at any age. If possible, the book should be served in place of dessert.’ — Geektest (France)

‘Due to the wonderfully fluent writing style, the pleasantly short chapters and the rousing plot, I devoured the book in record time. For girls and boys from the age of 10, who like to read exciting, funny, imaginative detective stories, “Secret Agent Candy” is just perfect. I really hope that this is a start of a series and we will soon be able to solve their second, tricky case together with Nelle… Exciting, funny, bizarre and just awesome!’ — Die Bücherwelt von CorniHolmes (Germany)

‘CANDY is the case when a children’s book can actually be interesting at any age. Children will appreciate the plot and humour, adults – a lot of references scattered throughout the text and how unexpectedly and funny elements of the classic “cool” and noir detective story are refracted, if you put them in the context of a children’s literature. Fun, playful and exciting.’ — Fantalab (Russia)

Ian McDonald’s EMPRESS OF THE SUN now available in Italian!

Posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2018

Urania/Mondadori has published the Italian edition of EMPRESS OF THE SUN, the concluding novel in Ian McDonald‘s Everness series! Published as L’IMPERATRICE DEL SOLE, here’s the synopsis…

Il salto di Heisenberg ha portato la Everness su una Terra alternativa, diversa da qualsiasi luogo l’equipaggio dell’astronave abbia mai visto. Everett Singh, Sen e gli altri si trovano su una pianura sconfinata, in un mondo in cui i dinosauri non si sono estinti ma si sono evoluti acquisendo un vantaggio tecnologico di venticinque milioni di anni sull’umanità, e nel bel mezzo dello scontro tra nazioni rivali. L’equipaggio della Everness deve affrontare un mondo che sta andando rapidamente verso l’apocalisse. Per sopravvivere, e per capire quali nuovi scenari si aprono per l’umanità…

Urania has now published all three novels in the series, the other two being TERRA INCOGNITA (PLANESRUNNER) and PIANETA PARALLELO (BE MY ENEMY). Urania has also published the first novel in Ian’s latest series, Luna: LUNA NUOVA (NEW MOON).

The Everness series was first published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books and in North America by Pyr Books. The series is now available in eBook via the JAbberwocky eBook Program, and in many other territories. Here’s the English-language synopsis for EMPRESS OF THE SUN…

World-hopping, high-action adventure starring a smart boy with computer skills and a tough girl who pilots a blimp

The airship Everness makes a Heisenberg Jump to an alternate Earth unlike any her crew has ever seen. Everett, Sen, and the crew find themselves above a plain that goes on forever in every direction without any horizon. There they find an Alderson Disc, an astronomical megastructure of incredibly strong material reaching from the orbit of Mercury to the orbit of Jupiter. 

Then they meet the Jiju, the dominant species on a plane where the dinosaurs didn’t die out. They evolved, diversified, and have a twenty-five million year technology head-start on humanity. War between their kingdoms is inevitable, total and terrible. 

Everness has jumped right into the midst of a faction fight between rival nations, the Fabreen and Dityu empires. The airship is attacked, but then defended by the forces of the Fabreen, who offers theEvernesscrew protection. But what is the true motive behind Empress Aswiu’s aid? What is her price?

The crew of the Everness is divided in a very alien world, a world fast approaching the point of apocalypse.

Here’s what reviewers have said about the Everness series…

‘The marvelous Everness series takes readers to a world with highly evolved dinosaurs in this third voyage through parallel universes… McDonald lets his imagination run rampant without abandoning credibility, tackling real scientific concepts such as confirmation bias, a feature lacking in far too much science fiction. Fans might wish for more focus on the original Everett, but eventually, the three storylines weave themselves together nicely, setting up another sequel with hints of forthcoming romance. Endlessly fascinating and fun.’ — Kirkus (Starred Review) on EMPRESS OF THE SUN

‘I’ve rarely had as much fun with a Young Adult SF series as I have with Ian McDonald’s Everness — now up to three books with the brand new, shiny addition of EMPRESS OF THE SUN, possibly the best book of the bunch so far… this latest installment, with its sentient space dinosaurs, will delight folks who occasionally yearn for a good old-fashioned pulp adventure… through all of it, the characters continue to shine… I confess that I initially wasn’t too crazy about the whole Doppelgänger plot, but in this novel, it turns into a wonderful part of the overall picture… It was simply a treat to get back into the crazy palari and strange fashions of the Everness books. It may sound bizarre, but this is the first time I’ve read a novel that actually made me feel like writing fan-fic about its characters, just because they’re so utterly fresh and surprising. The Everness series is technically Young Adult, but I believe any science fiction fan, young or old, would get sucked into these adventures.’ — Tor.com on EMPRESS OF THE SUN

‘EMPRESS OF THE SUN revels in its pulp adventure milieu… McDonald has created an incredibly “storyable” universe for his characters to have their adventures in, and he keeps those adventures coming fast and furious… Between the adventures, the pacing, the characters, and the narrative arcs, there’s a lot to enjoy about this book and the overall series.’ — Strange Horizons on EMPRESS OF THE SUN

‘McDonald proves the concept of his world of the Infundibulum has legs, and provides some intriguing new ideas amid an entertaining adventure… Lots of ideas thrown out and explored; good development of main characters… Malevolent Nanotech. More world hopping. A solidly entertaining second volume to the series… With all of these ideas, concepts and worldbuilding, McDonald, in terms of his core characters, provides us with meaty development and growth… I was more than satisfied with the book and anyone, young adult or otherwise, who has read the first book will find much to love here, and will likely be as eager as I for the next volume in the series.’ — SF Signal on BE MY ENEMY

‘… absolutely triumphant sequel to Ian McDonald’s pulse-pounding young-adult science fiction novel PLANESRUNNER. PLANESRUNNER — a rollicking, multidimensional tale of a young boy who holds the key to infinite universes, seeking to rescue his physicist father from sinister powers — finished on a brutal cliffhanger, leaving its readers gasping and cursing for more. Now we have it. In BE MY ENEMY, there’s a lot more of what made PLANESRUNNER great — tremendous action scenes, cunning escapes, genius attacks on the ways that multidimensional travel might be weaponized, horrific glimpses of shadowy powers and sinister technologies. But BE MY ENEMY also has more of what makes McDonald’s adult fiction some of the best work I’ve ever read: a gifted ear for poesie that makes the English language sing, the unapologetic presumption of the reader’s ability to understand what’s going on without a lot of hand-holding, and a technological mysticism that never explicitly says when the literal stops and the fantasy starts… If you held off on reading PLANESRUNNER because you didn’t want to commit to a series without knowing if the author could keep up the quality, have no fear. McDonald has proven himself handily.’ — BoingBoing

‘Also appropriating airships, larger‑than-life characters and breakneck action is Ian McDonald’s PLANESRUNNER…, the opening volume in the Everness series and his first foray into Young Adult fiction. 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

‘The book begins with its young and likeably geeky protagonist, Everett Singh (named for physicist Hugh Everett, who came up with the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics back in the ‘50s) witnessing the kidnapping of his scientist father. But why would anyone want to drag an apparently unimportant academic off the street in London? Because, it turns out, Singh Sr has created the Infundibulum, a map of all known parallel Earths. Soon, Everett heads through a gateway and into a steampunk-tinged adventure. And yes, an airship is involved. But don’t hold that against McDonald, because this is a novel that’s knowing in the way it uses SF tropes without ever coming close to being condescending towards its intended audience. Science nerds of all ages may balk at the amount of exposition in the early chapters (arguably necessary, considering we’re talking quantum here), but most will be too busy getting lost in a cracking adventure story.’ — SFX on PLANESRUNNER

Ian McDonald’s ARES EXPRESS is out now in Italy!

Posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2018

Zone 42 has published the Italian edition of Ian McDonald‘s ARES EXPRESS! Here’s the synopsis…

“Dovresti cercare di fermarmi. Dovresti farmi ragionare, dirmi quanto male staranno tutti quanti, e non pensi all’onore della famiglia, e sarà uno scandalo tale che dovranno andare in giro senza tagliarsi i capelli per i prossimi tre anni. Poi, visto che non funzionerà, dovresti chiedermi se so cosa sto facendo e se so dove sto andando e dirmi che quello là fuori è un mondo enorme e pericoloso e che mi farò del male molto in fretta e finirò per tornare con la coda tra le gambe. E quando io ti risponderò che è tutto a posto tu dovresti addolcirti e dirmi che ti mancherò e che mi hai sempre amato e che avevi questo piano brillante di comprarti la libertà e avremmo avuto il nostro treno e saremmo partiti verso il tramonto in una nuvola di vapore.”

Immagina treni grandi come quartieri, cattedrali volanti, deserti sconfinati attraversati da binari infiniti e città che si arrampicano per centinaia di piani sotto il tetto del mondo. Immagina una ragazza che vorrebbe solo guidare un treno, la sua gemella invisibile e una Storia da cui dipende il futuro — o i futuri — di un intero mondo. Immagina le meraviglie di un pianeta rutilante di colori, caleidoscopico nei molteplici panorami, con la sua corona di angeli e di intelligenze artificiali, gli artisti anarchici, le città desolate e quelle brulicanti di vita.

Ian McDonald mette in scena un’avventura governata dalle leggi ineluttabili della Narrativa, che — al solito — non sanno che farsene di un’Eroina Esuberante e Intraprendente (Ma Comunque Carina). Riuscirà Sweetness a piegare la Storia alla sua volontà, e a sopravvivere alle sfide che una dopo l’altra le si parano davanti?

Ares Express narra di uno strano mondo, così diverso, eppure così vicino al nostro, un luogo pittoresco e affascinante, dove si mescolano fantascienza e realismo magico, immaginazione e filosofia, azione scatenata e idee straordinarie.

Benvenuti nella vita di Sweetness Octave Glorious Honey-Bun Asiim XII Macchinista. Benvenuti su Marte.

The first novel in the series, DESOLATION ROAD, is also published by Zone 42 in Italy.

Both DESOLATION ROAD and ARES EXPRESS are available as eBooks via the JABberwocky eBook Program. Here are just a few of the reviews the series has received so far…

‘McDonald’s fantastic Mars is vividly detailed and owes much to Bradbury’s Martian stories… entirely worthy of its rightly lauded predecessor.’ — Publishers Weekly on ARES EXPRESS

‘A phantasmagoria of nuclear locomotives and wild Martian awesomeness. It’s a definite must-read… McDonald is furthermore an extraordinary stylist. His prose is clear and lucid, and at once both beautiful and playful. There is an inescapable sense that McDonald enjoys playing with words, building prose like intricate clocks, which can persist wholly on their beauty, regardless of their subject.’ — io9 on ARES EXPRESS

‘ARES EXPRESS is a long, adventure-filled, extravagantly colourful, often funny, quite moving, highly imaginative, excellently written, story, set on a glorious Mars… might be the most fun [novel of the year]. I loved it wholeheartedly’ — SF Site

‘Ian McDonald’s DESOLATION ROAD is one of my most personally influential novels. It’s an epic tale of the terraforming of Mars, whose sweep captures the birth and death of mythologies, economics, art, revolution, politics… Desolation Road pays homage to David Byrne’s Catherine Wheel, to Ray Bradbury’s entire canon and to Jack Vance, blending all these disparate creators in a way that surprises, delights, then surprises and delights again… Pyr Books has done us all the service of bringing this remarkable volume back into print after too long a hiatus.’ — Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing)

‘There’s a fair bit of science fiction that feels like fantasy, and vice versa, but DESOLATION ROAD is the only book I know that holds this particular balance… It was McDonald’s first novel, it absolutely bowled me over when it came out, and while I have read everything he’s published since, and admire all of it and like most of it, this remains my favourite of his books because it’s so unusual. It’s also some of the most beautiful prose imaginable… If you ever want to demonstrate how different science fiction can be, what an incredible range and sweep of things are published with a little spaceship on the spine, DESOLATION ROAD is a shining datapoint, because it isn’t like anything else and yet it is coming from a knowledge of what the genre can do and can be and making something new out of it.’ — Jo Walton (Tor.com)

Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION available now in Italy!

Posted on Friday, September 28th, 2018

The Italian edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s CENTRAL STATION is out now! Published by Acheron, here’s the synopsis…

A Tel Aviv, un quartiere popolato da un milione di persone è sorto intorno alla base spaziale Central Station. Umani, robot e i misteriosi Altri sono tutti interconnessi in una pervasiva coscienza digitale chiamata “la Conversazione”, e le molteplici culture si scontrano e si confondono fra reale e digitale. La vita può sembrare a buon mercato, ma le informazioni lo sono ancora di più.

Quando Boris Chong torna a Central Station, la ritrova in uno stato di caos. Le strade sono invase dalla droga religiosa chiamata Crucifixation. La sua ex compagna sta allevando un bambino dotato di poteri che lo rendono simile a un nuovo Messia. Suo padre è afflitto da un virus mentale multigenerazionale. Sua cugina è innamorata di un cyborg Robotnik. E una Vampira di Dati vagabonda lo ha seguito fin da Marte…

CENTRAL STATION is published in the UK and US by Tachyon Publications, and widely in translation. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.

When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’s ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap into the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik — a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally-ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.

Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv; a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation — a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness — are just the beginning of irrevocable change.

At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive… and even evolve.