GIDEON SMITH AND THE MECHANICAL GIRL

GIDEON SMITH AND THE BRASS DRAGON.

The first book will be published early in 2013.

Eric Brown said: ‘I’m excited about doing the second book in the Weird Space series – a seat-of-the-pants adventure entitled Satan’s Reach about a telepath on the run from the Expansion authorities and the bounty hunter who will stop at nothing to get him – and what they find on a far-flung planet in the badlands of Satan’s Reach. It’s space opera with the emphasis on starships, aliens, exotic worlds – and the perennial threat from the Weird.’

BRINGER OF LIGHT – JAINE FENN (GOLLANCZ UK) SF NOVEL, PBK.

24 May

THE THIRD SECTION – JASPER KENT (BANTAM UK) SUPERNATURAL HISTORICAL NOVEL, PBK.

LAST DAYS – ADAM NEVILL (PAN UK) HORROR NOVEL, TPB. FIRST WORLD PUBLICATION

29 May (US only)

WEIRD SPACE: THE DEVIL’S NEBULA – ERIC BROWN (ABADDON UK/US) SF NOVEL, PBK. FIRST WORLD PUBLICATION

Stephen is the author of six fantasy novels published by HarperCollins Voyager in the UK and Tor in the US, as well as in various translation editions, and runs the SF Crowsnest news and reviews site.

Here is Stephen’s introduction to the world on which this series takes place:

Plenas has two unique characteristics worth noting, the first – and most significant of which – is that it’s a world on a mind-boggling scale where peddler caravans can take a thousand years to complete a limited circuit of their trade territory, a land where the guild of radio signallers can relay messages between their stations for multiple lifetimes and still never make a clean circumnavigation of the globe.

It is a world where, should a youngster be gripped by wanderlust, they can simply head off and travel with merchant nomads for their entire lifetime, taking in thousands of exotic nations, strange races and mysterious wonders, while still only travelling across a minute fraction of the globe.

The second distinctive facet of Plenas is that the land has no mineral resources worth mining except around the stratovolcanoes dotted across the world, massive shield volcanoes that stand about three times the elevation of Mount Everest above sea level. These vomit out great gobs of ore-bearing rocks into the air for harvesting by sky mines, and this wealth is always jealously hoarded by the empires that rise to pre-eminence around the stratovolcanoes, growing rich with their monopoly over metals, crystals and coals.

Reliance on sustainable resources means that most societies, races and nations on Plenas are throttled somewhere between a Roman and Victorian level of progress, with only the great empires of the stratovolcanoes reaching a higher level of development.

Gillian Redfearn said: ‘I’ve always admired Stephen Hunt’s vast imagination, deftness with detail and stunning ideas, and it was a delight to open In Dark Service and find all of that and more. The characters are larger than life, and the adventure is full-screen – I can’t wait to share this story and we are all absolutely delighted to welcome Stephen to the Gollancz list.’

‘I was knocked out by the concept, but even more so by the darkness and immediacy of Stephen’s writing,’ said John Jarrold. ‘I’m delighted that Gillian and the team at Gollancz agreed with me.’

Please contact John Jarrold or Jonathan Weir, Publicity Manager at Gollancz, for further details.

John Jarrold – e-mail: j.jarrold@btinternet.com phone: 01522 510544
Jonathan Weir– e-mail: jonathan.weir@orionbooks.co.uk phone: 020 7520 3444

‘I and my sub-agents will be talking to publishers around the world about Ramsey,’ said John Jarrold. ‘I have read his work since the sixties, and known him personally since the eighties as a fan, publisher and agent. I am delighted to make this announcement.’

Kay McCauley continues to represent Ramsey Campbell in the US.

I mention for the public benefit that Eastercon have just announced they will accept no more memberships of Olympus, including walk-in day memberships. So if you were thinking off popping up to Heathrow for a day, it appears this is now impossible. Please copy this onwards because people who haven’t already joined mightn’t become aware of this.

This refers to the National British SF Convention, taking place over the coming Easter weekend.

Gareth studied Humanities and Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan. He has since given guest lectures on creative writing at Bath Spa University, and has written a series of non-fiction articles on science fiction for The Irish Times.

He is the author of the novels The Recollection and Silversands, both of which were favourably reviewed in The Guardian, and the short story collection The Last Reef, which was described by Morpheus Tales as “One of the finest collections of SF short stories I have had the privilege of reading” .

Gareth is currently working on a new novel for Solaris Books, entitled Ack-Ack Macaque, inspired by his short story of the same name, which won Interzone magazine’s Readers’ Poll for best short story of 2007.

As well as appearing regularly in Interzone and other magazines, Gareth’s work has also featured in a number of recent anthologies, including Future Bristol, Shine, Conflicts, Further Conflicts, StarShipSofa Stories Volume 3, and Dark Spires.

Gareth is a popular guest at conventions and other literary and genre events, and will be one of the Guests of Honour at BristolCon in October 2012.

‘I’m delighted to welcome Gareth to the agency family,” said John Jarrold. “His writing – in both short form and novels – is outstanding, and he’s one of the most important writers in SF for the 21st century.’

Gareth said, ‘I’m very pleased to be working with John. These are exciting times, and I hope we’re going to achieve great things together.’

KINGS OF MORNING – PAUL KEARNEY (SOLARIS UK/US) FANTASY NOVEL, PBK. FIRST WORLD PUBLICATION

8 March

THE RIVER OF SHADOWS – ROBERT V S REDICK (GOLLANCZ UK) FANTASY NOVEL, PBK.

27 March

SECRETS OF THE FIRE SEA – STEPHEN HUNT (TOR US) FANTASY NOVEL, HBK. FIRST US PUBLICATION

28 March

HOUSE OF BELLS – CHAZ BRENCHLEY (SEVERN HOUSE UK/US) HORROR NOVEL, HBK. FIRST WORLD PUBLICATION