Agency client Jasper Kent’s fourth historical vampire novel, THE PEOPLE’S WILL, is published by Bantam UK on Thursday May 23.  Jasper has created a promotional video, which you can find at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny2xtrP7ruw

Carsten Polzin at Piper Verlag has acquired German rights in three fantasy novels by Australian author Ben Peek from Jon Mitchell, Senior Rights Manager at Pan Macmillan in a pre-emptive deal for a strong five-figure sum in Euros. Julie Crisp acquired World rights in the books from agent John Jarrold in April 2013 for a six-figure sum after an auction. Other authors on the Piper genre list include Robert Jordan, Ursula K Le Guin, Hannu Rajaniemi and Michael Ende.

The trilogy is called ‘Children’—the books are entitled IMMOLATION, INNOCENCE and INCARNATION.  IMMOLATION is set fifteen thousand years after the War of the Gods. The bodies of the gods now lie across the world, slowly dying as men and women awake with strange powers that are derived from their bodies. Ayae, a young cartographer’s apprentice, is attacked and discovers she cannot be harmed by fire. Her new power makes her a target for an army that is marching on her home. With the help of the immortal Zaifyr, she is taught the awful history of ‘cursed’ men and women, coming to grips with her new powers and the enemies they make. The saboteur Bueralan infiltrates the army that is approaching her home to learn its terrible secret. Split between the three points of view, IMMOLATION’S narrative reaches its conclusion during an epic siege, where Ayae, Zaifyr and Bueralan are forced not just into conflict with those invading, but with those inside the city who wish to do them harm.

Contact John Jarrold or Jon Mitchell for further details.

John Jarrold – e-mail: j.jarrold@btinternet.com  phone: 01522 510 544

Jon Mitchell – e-mail: J.Mitchell@macmillan.co.uk  phone 020 7014 6151

For immediate release: 23 April 2013
Contact: Sophie Portas
Publicity Manager, Tor UK                          
020 7014 6182  s.portas@macmillan.co.uk

TOR UK PRE-EMPT RJURIK DAVIDSON’S FANTASY NOVELS

Julie Crisp, Editorial Director at Tor UK, has acquired UK rights in two novels by Australian author Rjurik Davidson pre-emptively, from the rights department at Tor Books in New York.  The first is titled UNWRAPPED SKY, and will be published early in 2014.  Here are the author’s thoughts on the world he has created:

“Caeli-Amur: a city torn by contradiction. A city of languorous philosopher-assassins and magnificent creatures from ancient myth: minotaurs and sirens. Three Houses rule over an oppressed citizenry stirring into revolt. The ruins of Caeli-Amur’s sister city lie submerged beneath the sea nearby, while the remains of strange advanced technology lie hidden in the tunnels beneath the city itself.

“These combinations fascinate me, for Caeli-Amur stands on the borders between antiquity and modernity, between Ancient Rome and St Petersburg of the early 1900s, between the classical and the avant-garde. The stories that might be told in Caeli-Amur intrigue me, draw me in. The unhappy middle-manager, whose life is a disappointment, the ageing philosopher-assassin, no longer able to ply his trade, the captured Siren who yearns to return to her island, the your seditionist eager to ride on the wave of change that is coming. In Caeli-Amur histories collide and the sparks thrown off can – at least for me – dazzle and intrigue.”

Rjurik Davidson is a freelance writer and Associate Editor of Overland magazine. He has written short stories, essays, screenplays and reviews. His short collection, The Library of Forgotten Books, was recently released by PS Publishing. His work has been published in Postscripts, Years Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volumes One, Two and Four, Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror 2006, SciFiction, Aurealis, Borderlands and elsewhere. He has been short-listed for the Ditmar Award for Best Short Story three times, the Aurealis Award once and won the Ditmar award for Best New Talent in 2005.

Julie Crisp commented: “I’m thrilled to have acquired these novels by an up and coming voice in speculative fiction. Unwrapped Sky blew me away with its fresh voice, involved imagination and original storyline. The world building was stunning and I think genre fans are going to completely love this author’s writing”.

Agent John Jarrold sold World rights in this book and its sequel to Jim Frenkel at Tor.

Australian author Ben Peek’s first epic fantasy novel and two sequels have been acquired by Julie Crisp, Editorial Director at Tor UK, in a six-figure world-rights deal with agent John Jarrold after a hard-fought auction.  She set a floor, which she exercised at the end of the auction for a six-figure sum.  The under-bidder was Hana Osman of Michael Joseph/Penguin UK.  The first novel, titled IMMOLATION, will be published in summer 2014.

The trilogy is called ‘Children’—books two and three are entitled INNOCENCE and INCARNATION.  IMMOLATION is set fifteen thousand years after the War of the Gods. The bodies of the gods now lie across the world, slowly dying as men and women awake with strange powers that are derived from their bodies. Ayae, a young cartographer’s apprentice, is attacked and discovers she cannot be harmed by fire. Her new power makes her a target for an army that is marching on her home. With the help of the immortal Zaifyr, she is taught the awful history of ‘cursed’ men and women, coming to grips with her new powers and the enemies they make. The saboteur Bueralan infiltrates the army that is approaching her home to learn its terrible secret. Split between the three points of view, Immolation‘s narrative reaches its conclusion during an epic siege, where Ayae, Zaifyr and Bueralan are forced not just into conflict with those invading, but with those inside the city who wish to do them harm.

Julie Crisp said: ‘I read Ben Peek’s IMMOLATION with the same sense of mounting excitement as to when first reading Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Thorns, or Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself. Fantastic action and pace mixed with original characters and storyline. I’m so pleased to welcome Ben to the Tor UK list.’

Ben’s earlier work has mostly been published by smaller presses. Of Above/Below (co-written with Stephanie Campisi), John Scalzi wrote that it presses “The nerd pleasure centers of my brain.” Published by Twelfth Planet Press, it was critically acclaimed and nominated for a Ditmar Award. His first novel, Black Sheep, caused Paul DiFilippo to write, “With the gravitas of a Margaret Atwood or Kazuo Ishiguro, Peek, in his debut novel, Black Sheep, crafts a quietly horrifying world displaced from ours by a century of time and an implosion of globalist attitudes.” Since its publication by Prime Books, Black Sheep has been taught at Universities in Australia and used in the final English exam of German High School, the Abitur (since then it has been reprinted in an average of two educational supplements per year). Of his second novel, Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth, Jeff VanderMeer wrote, “Ben Peek is a writer I fully expect to blunder out into the scene like a run-away brontosaurus one of these days. He has titanic talent generally leashed to micro-detail projects when his true canvas is probably something much wider and deeper.” Published by Wheatland Press, it has been taught in American colleges.

In 2014, his first short story collection, Dead Americans, will be published by ChiZine Publications. It is comprised of fiction from anthologies such Steampunk: Revolution, edited by Ann VanderMeer; Forever Shores, edited by Peter McNamara and Margaret Winch; Paper Cities, edited by Ekaterina Sedia; Leviathan Four: Cities, by Forest Aquirre; and Polyphony, edited by Deborah Layne and Jay Lake. His short fiction has also appeared in magazines such as Overland, Aurealis, Clarkesworld, and Fantasy Magazine. In addition, his fiction has been often printed in various Year’s Best editions.

Peek is also the creator of The Urban Sprawl Project, a psychogeography pamphlet that he wrote and took photographs for. It was given out in the suburbs of Sydney for free. With artist Anna Brown he created the autobiographical comic, Nowhere Near Savannah. He is also the creator of the first Australian Science Fiction Author and Artist Snapshot, a huge undertaking of interviews done every two to three years of people working in the local genre scene in Australia. He has also written reviews for Overland, Strange Horizons and various street presses.

http://www.rowena-cory-daniells.com/2013/04/21/hemming-award-shortlist-announced/

Influenced by Gemmell’s Rigante and GRR Martin’s Game of Thrones – two good strands of DNA. Great characters and plot – it gets faster and more fascinating by the page. All I want now is for the author to put everything else aside, including his health – and write two or three more as fast as humanly possible. Hell of a debut: Highly recommended.

Conn Iggulden

He was doubtful that the signature was truthful, but checked with the bestselling author via his agent and discovered he had indeed posted the review.  Wonderful!

http://www.jasperkent.com/TextPage.aspx?page=Competition

DARK EDEN was published by Atlantic’s Corvus imprint in 2012 and is shortlisted for the BSFA Award for Best SF Novel of the year, as well as being mentioned in several national papers as 2012’s best SF novel.  The sequel, GELA’S RING, will be published by Corvus in spring 2014.  The agent who did both world rights deals with Atlantic was John Jarrold.

‘Ravi Mirchandani is in New York and both he and Michael Carlisle have obviously worked their magic in regards to this offer,’ said John Jarrold.  ‘Chris and I are delighted.  He is a major author, whose talent is now being recognised both inside and outside the UK.’