Diverse Books

Gollancz Future News (plus competition!)

Markus — 2007-03-13T18:56:10+00:00

Welcome to the latest outing of the Gollancz newsletter! As well as soaking up the warmth of the appropriately SFnal warmest winter since people started worrying about this sort of thing, Gollancz has also been basking in the glow of our authors' success on the shortlists for the two major UK SF awards. The British Science Fiction Association Award for best novel features M. John Harrison's Nova Swing, Jon Courtenay Grimwood'sEnd of the World Blues and Roger Levy's Icarus on a shortlist of five. Look out also for The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow published by our sister list Weidenfeld and Nicolson. The BSFA award should be announced at Eastercon. Which happens at Easter.

And then on 2^nd May the Arthur C. Clarke Award will be presented. A shortlist of six titles includes Nova Swing,End of the World Blues, and Adam Roberts' Gradisil. Good luck to all.

And in the States, the seven-book shortlist for the Crawford Award for best new fantasy writer (previously won by our own Joe Hill, whose Heart-Shaped Box we publish later this month) includes The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. The award will be announced in March at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. Read on for more news about the book.

Away from the awards but equally satisfying in its own way was the release of Locus magazine's recommended reading choices for 2006. Locus is the leading genre magazine and we were especially thrilled to have nine Gollancz books, plus one from Orion Children's and one from W&N, recommended from a year that has been a very strong one for the genre as a whole. Steve Baxter's Emperor, the aforementioned End of the World Blues, Nova Swing and Justina Robson's Keeping it Real were picked out on the SF list and Mary Gentle's Ilario and James Morrow's The Last Witchfinder made the Fantasy list. The first novels list had two of our fantasy debuts from 2006: Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself and Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora. Ursula Le Guin's Voices was on the YA pick, and in Collections, Al Reynolds' Galactic North and Steve Baxter's Resplendent were recommended. Both Steve and Al featured in the Best Novella section too, with, respectively, 'The Siege of Earth' (from Resplendent) and 'Nightingale' (from Galactic North). Again congratulations to all. The Brits really are coming. OK so Scott and Ursula are American but they're both Gollancz author so that's nearly as good . . .

For those of you who don't have access to a shop that stocks Locus magazine, do check out their website. As well as being possessed of immaculate taste in genre books (!) Locus is the home for some of the most interesting commentary and reviewing of SF and Fantasy and is particularly invaluable as a source of any information worth knowing on what is going on in the worlds of SF and Fantasy publishing. Check out their SF links page which is a doorway to all sorts of SF goodness, whether it be online magazines and message forums or links to author blogs. Now that's quite enough trumpet blowing.

What else has been happening at Gollancz towers? *reaches for trumpet* Fans of Scott Lynch will be delighted to know that the sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies is now safely delivered. Second book blues on the Seas? Absolutely not. The new book hits the waves and sees the Gentleman Bastards embroiled in some fantastic action with Pirates. Pirates like you've never seen before. We've also taken delivery of superb new novels from Ian McDonald, Paul McAuley and Richard Morgan. 2007 is already shaping up to be fantastic year for the list.

We're also just putting the finishing touches together on the production of a very exciting new book that hails not from the UK but from Poland. Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish . Sapkowski's already immense in Europe (2,000,000 copies sold) and come April when we publish The Last Wish he's going to make a real splash here too.

Oh and just wait until you see the debut novel by young American author Patrick Rothfuss that we've just acquired. The Name of the Wind is a wonderful epic fantasy just perfect for everyone who enjoys Robin Hobb and Trudi Canavan. You don't mind waiting for it until September do you?

Simon, Jo and Gillian
Gollancz Editorial Team

Change in book listings for Alien Vampire Story

Markus — 2007-02-28T13:42:06+00:00

T. M. Moore writes Destiny's Forge, ISBN 978-1-4116-1162-7, has been reissued under a different ISBN and is changed on the Google Book Search.

The Caledon Crystal

Markus — 2007-02-23T11:02:02+00:00

Annette M Musta informs us of her first novel, The Caledon Crystal from the "War of the Crystal" series:

A young wizard must travel through time on a perilous quest to claim her birthright, a precious jewel with the power to obliterate the all of human history.

I am the author of this work. As with most first novels, my book is lost in the gigantic publishing machine. I am initiating my own grass-roots marketing campaign to generate sales. I would like to trade links, have the book mentioned on your site or blog.

You can contact me at amusta1@att.net, more details on the book can be found at http://www.emrysaureus.com/
Thank you,
AMMusta

New Comedy Fantasy Novel Published

Markus — 2007-01-23T14:14:17+00:00

Frontlist Books is pleased to announce the release of Derek Lawrence's comedy fantasy novel Skaters, Trekkies and Cool Dudes, the first book in the Divine Cock-Up Trilogy:

When God and Lucifer go missing and Heaven and Hell start to descend into chaos, the Joint Darkness & Light Emergency Committee decides that urgent action is needed. They secretly despatch an Archangel and a demon gargolyle to the mortal realm to find their respective leaders and bring them home.

So it is that a punk rocker and a teenage skateboarder arrive in Worcester in the English Midlands. But things are not quite as they seem, and their mission is thrown into disarray by the appearance of one of Hell's most secret weapons. And why is Worcester so full of pop-star and Star Trek look-alikes?

Coming Soon: NAGRASANTI from T. M. Moore

Markus — 2006-12-18T11:32:45+00:00

T. M. Moore writes
NAGRASANTI is an anthology of short stories and illustrations by science fantasy author T. M. Moore and is slated to be published on Lulu.com at the end of January 2007. It is a series of origin stories for minor but featuring characters in her first two books, Destiny's Forge and To Taste The Dragon's Blood, and is the 3rd book in her Children of The Dragon series.

Read about heroic alien vampires as they struggle for existence and move through human history in a world as real as the reader's own.

News update on 2 new SFF/vamp novels

Markus — 2006-12-08T11:29:08+00:00

T. M. Moore writes "The novels Destiny's Forge and To Taste The Dragon's Blood, both by SF author T. M. Moore, have been revised and relisted for sale through Lulu.com, the worlds fastest growing publisher of print on demand books, and are for sale on their site in POD and download formats. They are also available on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble online, and will be available in retail bookstores for the Christmas season.
Full details on the books and links to shops and the Author's website here on Diversebooks

My Alien Penfriend - New science fiction book for kids

Markus — 2006-11-23T11:42:07+00:00

Authorhouse informs us of a new Children's SF book, My Alien Penfriend by Faiz Kermani:

Zmod was excited! He was actually in contact with an earthling called Darius- a boy living on a strange planet on the opposite side of the galaxy called Earth. Zmod had lots of questions about Earth - did it really only have one moon?! Was it true that people were able to live above ground?!

Read some of their exchange on http://www.zmodsworld.com/

Have I Got News for You!

Markus — 2006-11-20T21:29:09+00:00

Following the Orbit newsletter last week we had another two e-letters fall on our virtual doormat...Christmas can't be far!
First we have our friends from Halfcut, informing us that Residue by Andrew Hook is now available in Hardback and Paperback, and that they have some other books that would make ideal presents...
And directly behind we have a general release from Waterstones' SF, Fantasy & Horror Department, including competitions to win loads of classic books and piles of Dr Who swag.
Get clicking we say - all the details below!

New Book: Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon

Markus — 2006-11-14T15:45:49+00:00

Against the Day (2006) A novel by Thomas Pynchon
Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.
I'm soooo exited... book launch of the year, hands down. And I'm still two people away from the Proof Copy... can't these people read quicker? ;-) Official release date is November 21

New Book: Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan

Markus — 2006-11-03T11:53:21+00:00
As recommended by Neil Gaiman on his blog:
Margo Lanagan has a new book out, Red Spikes, currently only available through Allen & Unwin in Australia.
Margo Lanagan is a highly acclaimed writer of novels, short stories and poetry. She lives in Sydney. Red Spikes is her third book of short stories.
Margo Lanagan's electrifying stories are for anyone who loves to be surprised, touched, unsettled and dazzled by what a great writer can do in just a few pages.
[This book contains] Ten electrifying new stories from Margo Lanagan, internationally acclaimed author of Black Juice and White Time.