Tag: Jo Fletcher Books

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

Posted on Tuesday, December 24th, 2013

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

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

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

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

All she needs is Everett’s infundibulum…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charlaine Harris’s CEMETERY GIRL: THE PRETENDERS Trailer

Posted on Wednesday, December 18th, 2013

THE PRETENDERS, the first part in Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden‘s Cemetery Girl trilogy of graphic novels, has a trailer! Published in the US by Penguin, and in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books, we think it’s a great introduction to a new character and a new medium for the author. Here are the trailer and synopsis…

Calexa Rose Dunhill was just fourteen when she woke in a cemetery. Bruised, bloody and left for dead, with no memory of her previous life, she took a new name from the headstones that surrounded her.

Now, three years on, Calexa still lives in Dunhill Cemetery, struggling with the desire to know her true identity – and the all-consuming fear of what she might discover when she does.

Then, when she witnesses a gang of teenagers staging a stunt that goes horribly, fatally wrong, Calexa Rose Dunhill discovers she has a unique ability. One she cannot control…

A little while back, we shared a preview from the book. CEMETERY GIRL: THE PRETENDERS is published in the UK on January 2nd 2014.

Zeno represents Charlaine Harris in the UK and Commonwealth on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

Harris&Golden-CG1-PretendersUKAnimated

A Preview of Charlaine Harris & Christopher Golden’s CEMETERY GIRL

Posted on Wednesday, November 27th, 2013

Harris&Golden-CG1-PretendersUKCharlaine Harris, NY Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood novels (and many more) has teamed up with Christopher Golden (himself a NY Times bestselling author) to write her first graphic novel series: Cemetery Girl. The first in the proposed trilogy, THE PRETENDERS, is due to be published by Jo Fletcher Books at the beginning of January – which, frankly, we think will be a great way to ring in the new year. The other week, Jo Fletcher released the first taste of the interior artwork on their blog, and we thought we’d share it on here, too.

First, though, here is the book’s synopsis:

Calexa Rose Dunhill was just fourteen when she woke in a cemetery. Bruised, bloody and left for dead, with no memory of her previous life, she took a new name from the headstones that surrounded her.

Now, three years on, Calexa still lives in Dunhill Cemetery, struggling with the desire to know her true identity – and the all-consuming fear of what she might discover when she does.

Then, when she witnesses a gang of teenagers staging a stunt that goes horribly, fatally wrong, Calexa Rose Dunhill discovers she has a unique ability. One she cannot control…

The graphic novel is drawn by Don Kramer, who has previously worked on Batman, Detective Comics and Justice Society of America (for DC Comics). Here’s the teaser page from THE PRETENDERS (click to – hopefully – enbiggen)…

Harris&Golden-CG1-Pretenders-Interior1

Zeno represents Charlaine Harris on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

Cover Reveal – Naomi Foyle’s ASTRA…

Posted on Thursday, November 14th, 2013

FoyleN-AstraUK-BlogWe’re very happy to share with you the stunning cover for Naomi Foyle‘s upcoming new novel, ASTRA. Due to be published by Jo Fletcher Books in early February 2014, it is the first in a new series…

Like every child in Is-Land, all Astra Ordot wants is to have her Security Shot, do her National Service and defend her Gaian homeland from Non-Lander ‘infiltrators’. But when one of her Shelter mothers, the formidable Dr Hokma Blesser, tells her the shot will limit her chances of becoming a scientist and offers her an alternative, Astra agrees to her plan.

When the orphaned Lil arrives to share Astra’s home, Astra is torn between jealousy and fascination. Lil’s father taught her some alarming ideas about Is-Land and the world, but when she pushes Astra too far, the heartache that results goes far beyond the loss of a friend.

If she is to survive, Astra must learn to deal with devastating truths about Is-Land, Non-Land and the secret web of adult relationships that surrounds her.

Naomi’s most recent novel is SEOUL SURVIVORS, which has been receiving some great reviews…

‘If you like gritty, dark, and violent sci-fi, futuristic thrillers, SEOUL SURVIVORS by Naomi Foyle is just the book for you. Foyle works cloning, meteoric disaster, narcotic drug usage, depraved sex, and robotic cyborg creatures into her plot and that’s just to name a few of the topics covered… [a] fresh and exciting book.’  —  Troubled Scribe

‘… takes a cast of quirky characters, sets them down in a convincingly portrayed near-future South Korea, then threatens them with Lucifer’s Hammer, a meteor that is scheduled to hit the planet. Beautiful Sydney Travers has come to Seoul to find her fortune as a fashion model, and finds herself involved with Canadian drug runner Damien Meadows and the silkily deceptive Dr Kim Da Mi, an ambiguously drawn possible saviour of humankind – or a demented megalomaniac. Foyle’s strengths are her impeccable plotting, her rendering of a futuristic Seoul and the depiction of Sydney Travers’ gradualinveiglement in the nightmare of Dr Kim’s cloning experiment.’  —  Guardian

‘A highly regarded poet and performer, Naomi Foyle has drawn on her time living in Korea to produce a detailed and fascinating debut that deals with love, betrayal and an impending apocalypse. A fast paced, riveting story set in an all-too-real dark near future, this is a character driven novel that is not for the faint-hearted.’  —  BSFA

 

Charlaine Harris & Chris Golden’s CEMETERY GIRL Coming Soon in the UK!

Posted on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013

Harris&Golden-CG1-PretendersUKCharlaine Harris, author of the wildly popular Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood series of novels, has teamed up with horror and comics author Christopher Golden to bring us a new series of original graphic novels: Cemetery Girl. Don Kramer is handling art duties.

The first book of the planned trilogy, THE PRETENDERS, is due to be published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books in January 2014. Here’s the synopsis…

Calexa Rose Dunhill was just fourteen when she woke in a cemetery. Bruised, bloody and left for dead, with no memory of her previous life, she took a new name from the headstones that surrounded her.

Now, three years on, Calexa still lives in Dunhill Cemetery, struggling with the desire to know her true identity – and the all-consuming fear of what she might discover when she does.

Then, when she witnesses a gang of teenagers staging a stunt that goes horribly, fatally wrong, Calexa Rose Dunhill discovers she has a unique ability. One she cannot control…

The series combines fantasy and paranormal mystery to tell the story of a teenage girl with amnesia who has grown up living alone amid the gravestones. As the trilogy progresses, the truth of who the girl is, and how she came to be there will gradually be revealed. Cemetery Girl is Harris’s first venture into the world of graphic novels.

Here is what Charlaine had to say on the project, when it was first announced: ‘I’d had the bones of the plot for Cemetery Girl in my head for a year when Chris suggested I re-imagine it as a graphic novel. Suddenly, the project made a lot more sense. Since Chris has more experience in the graphic novel field that I do, we agreed to team up for my first-ever collaboration. This is an exciting venture for both of us.’

Zeno Agency represents Charlaine Harris in the UK/Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

Ian McDonald’s Planesrunner

Posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

Ian McDonald’s brilliant multiple worlds steampunk-y YA novel PLANESRUNNER, first published in the US by Pyr, has just come out in the UK from Jo Fletcher Books and is getting some stonking reviews.  Starburst just gave it a measly 9 out of 10, and offered up some fine advice to TV prospectors ‘… Take note, BBC execs – if you’re wanting to fill in Saturday tea-time schedules in the long waits between seasons of Who, you could do a lot worse than to mine this rich seam. It has same mixture of ideas, adventure and, above all, heart, that makes that show so successful. And it’d sure as hell beat the arse off Primeval.‘

prThere is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one among billions of parallel earths.

When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse—the Infundibulum—the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.

To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate that his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.

Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!

 

Ian McDonald’s PLANESRUNNER Sales News…

Posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jo Fletcher Books buys Foyle Debut…

Posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Jo Fletcher at Jo Fletcher Books, the recently launched genre imprint at Quercus, has acquired World rights for SEOUL SURVIVORS, a futuristic, satirical thriller and the début novel from Zeno client Naomi Foyle.

The world balances upon the edge of a knife. A meteor known as Lucifer’s Hammer is about to wreak a terrible destruction on the earth and terrorists have annihilated the City of London, covering it in a blanket of nuclear poison.

Rumours of war abound in every continent, but if the end of the world is imminent, there is only one safe place to be.

American-Korean bio-engineer Dr Kim Da Mi thinks she has found the perfect solution in the mountains above Seoul, but her methods are strange and her business partner, Johnny Sandman, is not exactly the type of person anyone would want to mix with. Sydney – a Canadian model trying to escape an unhappy past, is drawn in by their smiles and pretty promises – until she realises that the quest for perfection, comes at an impossible price…

A second untitled novel has also been acquired as part of the deal. Jo Fletcher says ‘Renowned poet and playwright Naomi Foyle’s debut novel Seoul Survivors is a dark, passionate, flamboyant cyber-thriller set tomorrow, with the world on the brink of catastrophic climate breakdown.

I was immediately captivated by Naomi’s wonderful characterisation, not just of the main protagonists, Sydney, the beautiful, ditzy Canadian model looking to reinvent herself, the brash, dangerous henchman Johnny Sandman, the disaffected Brit Damien who is desperate for a way to safety, and the glamorous Korean-American scientist Dr Kim Da Mi ­ but also Seoul City itself, a vibrant, throbbing, exotic metropolis where nothing is quite what it appears.

It’s a great start to Naomi’s new life in the genre!‘

SEOUL SURVIVOR is currently scheduled for release in Feb 2013, with the untitled second novel following in 2014.