From the dark hills of America to detective stories from the dawn of time, the cutting edge publisher of science-fiction, horror and fantasy, Solaris, has bolstered its Spring 2014 schedule with intriguing acquisitions from two exceptional talents.
Blood Kin by Steve Rasnic Tem will be published in March 2014 and follows last year’s critically-acclaimed novel for Solaris, Deadfall Hotel.
Set in the southern Appalachians of the US, alternating between the 1930s and the present day, Blood Kin is a dark Southern Gothic vision of ghosts, witchcraft, secret powers, snake-handling, Kudzu, Melungeons, and the Great Depression. Michael Gibson returns home following a suicide attempt and now takes care of his sickly grandmother. In a field not far from the Gibson family home lies an iron-bound crate within a small shack buried four feet deep under kudzu vine. Michael somehow understands that hidden inside that crate is potentially his own death, his grandmother's death, and perhaps the deaths of everyone in the valley if he does not understand her story well enough.
Editor-in-chief of Solaris, Jonathan Oliver, said: “Steve’s Deadfall Hotel was one the highlights of 2012 for Solaris: a moving, powerful and haunting horror novel. Blood Kin, likewise, promises to be something extraordinary. Steve walks in the traditions of such great writers as Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon and Flannery O’Connor, while enriching the field with his own unique take on genre.”
Talus and the Frozen King by Graham Edwards will be published in April next year and tells the story of Talus – the world’s first detective.
A dead warrior king frozen in winter ice. Six grieving sons, each with his own reason to kill. Two weary travellers caught up in a web of suspicion and deceit. In a distant time long before our own, wandering bard Talus and his companion Bran journey to the island realm of Creyak, where the king has been murdered. From clues scattered among the island’s mysterious barrows and stone circles, they begin their search for his killer. Creyak is place of secrets and spirits, mystery and myth. It will take a clever man indeed to unravel the truth. The kind of man this ancient world has not seen before.
Jon said: “Graham’s novel is a murder mystery like no other. A richly evoked past draws you into this unusual thriller and the characters of Talus and Bran have to be one of the most entertaining crime-fighting duos ever. A startlingly innovative book and a corking good read!”
About the Authors
Graham’s first novel Dragoncharm was inspired by Watership Down – if Richard Adams could write an epic adventure about rabbits, why not do the same for dragons? His later novels include Stone & Sky, in which he explored the dizzying heights of a world-sized wall, travelled in time and played with fairies.
There’s short fiction in the form of The String City Mysteries, a series of ebooks about a detective working in a town where the dimensions are really messed-up. Graham’s also ghostwritten several books in collaboration with book packagers Working Partners.
Life on the Preservation
By Jack Skillingstead
Discover what’s on the inside on
28th May (US & Can) and 6th June (UK)
£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-78108-116-7
$7.99/$9.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978-1-78108-117-4
Available in paperback and ebook
Ted Kosmatka, author of The Games and Prophet of Bones called it “one of the best sci-fi novels I’ve ever read” and it's one of Kirkus Reviews' picks for May - Jack Skillingstead’s Life on the Preservationis coming to bookstores and online later this month!
Inside the Seattle Preservation Dome it’s always the Fifth of October, with the city caught in an endless time loop. “Reformed” graffiti artist Ian Palmer is the only one who knows the truth, and he is desperate to wake up the rest of the city before the alien Curator of the human museum erases his identity forever.
Small town teenager Kylie is one of the few survivors to escape the apocalypse outside. Now she must make her way across the blasted lands to destroy the Preservation. But once inside, she meets Ian, and together they discover that Preservation reality is even stranger than it already appears.
A writer of extraordinary ability; the promise of Skillingstead’s previous short fiction is here transformed into an exceptional novel about post-apocalyptic survival and alien occupation.
With a US cover by award-winning artist Vincent Chong and a design-led UK cover by Pye Parr, Life on the Preservation is a story of vibrant humanity overcoming extraordinary odds.
About the Author
Jack Skillingstead grew up in a working class neighbourhood south of Seattle. He dropped out of college to work in a cannery in Alaska, later travelling to Maine and then returning to the Pacific northwest. Skillingstead won a writing competition sponsored by Stephen King in 2000, and was a finalist for the Sturgeon Award in 2004. He has published more than thirty short stories in publications including Asimov’s, F&SF and Realms of Fantasy. His work has also appeared in various Year’s Bestvolumes and Solaris Rising.
We're very proud of THE FICTIONAL MAN.
Not only is it Al Ewing's first work for Solaris, it's also his first stand-alone novel.
What is real? Well, when you're a fiction publisher then I guess nothing really is - it's all invention. But what happens when the fictional bleeds over into the real, and vice versa? The intriguing idea of stories influencing reality has been explored before, but Al has done something extraordinary with the concept.
And the reviewers have been mightily impressed: SFX magazine not only gave it a cracking FIVE STAR review, calling it an "exhilarating page-turned" and "brilliant", but they also popped an 'SFX Recommends' sticker on it!
Starburst magazine was brimming with praise in its 10 out of 10 star review! And, continuing a theme from many reviewers, This is Horror says "Philip K Dick would have mightily approved" - high praise!
Meanwhile, Fantastical Librarian was "blown away": "not in the least because the more I think about it, the more layers I discover and the more impressive it becomes. There is so much to unpack in this story, it’s amazing. This is definitely a contender to make my best of year list at the end of the year, in quite a high place as well, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find it on awards ballots next year. And you shouldn’t be surprised that I highly recommend it."
As if that weren't enough, Al's been typing furiously away on his blog tour, with some intriguing results. Over at the BSFA, he talks about the influence on his thinking behind THE FICTIONAL MAN of humour magazines such as the Reader's Voice breaking the fourth wall:
"Occasionally, the characters would talk directly to the readers. They’d smile out of the first panel of the strip, setting the scene directly. “I’m off to the county fair, readers!” Next panel – the county fair costs five pence to get into. Jack Pott – or Gilbert Ratchet, in the note-perfect parodies of a vanished artform that still run to this day in Viz – does not have that kind of money."
He continues the theme over at Beauty in Ruins, where his love of comics - where up till now he's mostly worked - has influenced his novel writing:
"Part of the gag – arguably, the gag on which all the other gags rested - was that Ambush Bug knew he was in a comic. In the same way the characters from the kids comics of my youth all had a basic understanding of their fictional status and had regular conversations with their readers, Ambush Bug would have regular set-tos with his writer and artist. By the time I got on board with all this as a kid – the second mini, Son Of Ambush Bug – the Bug was entering his imperial phase, and by that point seemingly every joke was in some way about breaking the fourth wall."
He's also (kinda) talking about the book over on the Freaky Trigger podcast and he talks to Fantastical Imaginations about the genesis of this extraordinary novel.
The Fictional Man is out now in paperback and ebook from the usual channels. You can also read the first chapter FOR FREE over at fictionalman.com
Forbidden Planet became unreal last night as we officially launched Al Ewing's first book for Solaris, THE FICTIONAL MAN.
An unsettling tale about a Los Angeles where it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell who is real and who isn't, THE FICTIONAL MAN has already received a five star review from SFX, which called "a fascinating tour de force" and said "it's hard to see how Ewing could possibly better this exhilarating page-turned".
We gathered at Forbidden Planet in London for the man who we assume is the REAL Al Ewing to sign and talk to fans, before heading off to the salubrious night spots of London town for glasses of non-alcoholic beverages and sober conversation. Please note that at least part of the last sentence is a lie.
THE FICTIONAL MAN is published on 9th May in the UK and Ireland.
The unsettling grin of a madman...
Behold! Some lovely covers!
29-04-2013
Hello
Don't see me around here much do you? That's because that lovely Michael Molcher usually handles this side of things, but presently he swanning around with his comic friends in Chicago. It is actually work to be fair, but that doesn't stop me from being a tiny bit jealous. Anyway, while Michael is away, I thought I'd share some lovely upcoming books with you to whet your appetite for what you can expect from us later in the year:
Dream London - Tony Ballantyne
Cover by Joey Hi-Fi
Captain Jim Wedderburn has looks, style and courage by the bucketful. He's adored by women, respceted by men and feared by his enemies. He's the man to find out who has twisted London into this strange new world, and he knows it.
But in Dream London the city changes a little every night and the people change a little every day. The towers are growing taller, the parks have hidden themselves away and the streets form themselves into strange new patterns. There are people sailing in from new lands down the river, new criminals emerging in the East End and a path spiraling down to another world.
Everyone is changing, no one is who they seem to be.
October 2013
King Rolen's Kin - King Breaker by Rowena Cory Daniells
Cover by Clint Langley
The conclusion to the hugely popular King Rolen's Kin series!
The story of Bryon, Fyn and Piro picks up immediately where the cliff-hanging ending of The Usurper left off.
When Cobalt stole the Rolencian throne, Bryen, Fyn and Piro were lucky to escape with their lives; now they've rallied, and will set out to avenge their parents' murder.
Bryen is driven to defeat Cobalt and reclaim the crown, but at what cost? Fyn has sworn to serve Byren's interests but his loyalty is tested when he realises he loves Byren's betrothed. And Piro never wanted to win a throne, but now she holds the fate of a people in her hands.
October 2013
The Waking That Kills by Stephen Gregory
Cover by Nicolas Delort
The ghosts that haunt us are not always strangers
When his elderly father suffers a stroke, Christopher Beale returns to England. He has no home, no other family. Adrift, he answers an advert for a live-in tutor for a teenage boy. The boy is Lawrence Lundy, who possesses the spirit of his father, a military pilot - missing, presumed dead. Unable to accept that his father his gone, Lawrence keeps his presence alive, in the big old house, in the overgrown garden.
His mother, Juliet, a few, scatty widow living on her nerves, keeps the boy at home, away from her other children, away from the world. And in the suffocating heat of a long summer, she too is infected by the madness of her son. Christopher Beale becomes entangled in a strange household... enmeshed in the oddness of the boy and his fragile mother. Only by forcing the boy to release the spirit of his father can there be any escape from the haunting.
A dark novel of possession.
November 2013
The End of The Road - edited by Jonathan Oliver
Cover by Nicolas Delort
An incredible anthology of original short stories by an exciting list of writers from all around the world, including the best-selling author Philip Reeve and the World Fantasy Award-winning Lavie Tidhar.
Each step will lead you closer to your destination, but who, or what, can you expect to meet at journey's end? Here are stories of misfits, spectral hitch-hikers, nightmare travel tales and the rogues, freaks and monsters to be found on the road. The critically acclaimed editor of Magic, The End of The Line and House of Fear has brought together the contemporary masters and mistresses of the weird from around the globe in an anthology of travel tales like no other. Strap on your seatbelt, shoulder your backpack, or wait for the next ride... into darkness.
December 2013
Don't see me around here much do you? That's because that lovely Michael Molcher usually handles this side of things, but presently he swanning around with his comic friends in Chicago. It is actually work to be fair, but that doesn't stop me from being a tiny bit jealous. Anyway, while Michael is away, I thought I'd share some lovely upcoming books with you to whet your appetite for what you can expect from us later in the year:
Dream London - Tony Ballantyne
Cover by Joey Hi-Fi
Captain Jim Wedderburn has looks, style and courage by the bucketful. He's adored by women, respceted by men and feared by his enemies. He's the man to find out who has twisted London into this strange new world, and he knows it.
But in Dream London the city changes a little every night and the people change a little every day. The towers are growing taller, the parks have hidden themselves away and the streets form themselves into strange new patterns. There are people sailing in from new lands down the river, new criminals emerging in the East End and a path spiraling down to another world.
Everyone is changing, no one is who they seem to be.
October 2013
King Rolen's Kin - King Breaker by Rowena Cory Daniells
Cover by Clint Langley
The conclusion to the hugely popular King Rolen's Kin series!
The story of Bryon, Fyn and Piro picks up immediately where the cliff-hanging ending of The Usurper left off.
When Cobalt stole the Rolencian throne, Bryen, Fyn and Piro were lucky to escape with their lives; now they've rallied, and will set out to avenge their parents' murder.
Bryen is driven to defeat Cobalt and reclaim the crown, but at what cost? Fyn has sworn to serve Byren's interests but his loyalty is tested when he realises he loves Byren's betrothed. And Piro never wanted to win a throne, but now she holds the fate of a people in her hands.
October 2013
The Waking That Kills by Stephen Gregory
Cover by Nicolas Delort
The ghosts that haunt us are not always strangers
When his elderly father suffers a stroke, Christopher Beale returns to England. He has no home, no other family. Adrift, he answers an advert for a live-in tutor for a teenage boy. The boy is Lawrence Lundy, who possesses the spirit of his father, a military pilot - missing, presumed dead. Unable to accept that his father his gone, Lawrence keeps his presence alive, in the big old house, in the overgrown garden.
His mother, Juliet, a few, scatty widow living on her nerves, keeps the boy at home, away from her other children, away from the world. And in the suffocating heat of a long summer, she too is infected by the madness of her son. Christopher Beale becomes entangled in a strange household... enmeshed in the oddness of the boy and his fragile mother. Only by forcing the boy to release the spirit of his father can there be any escape from the haunting.
A dark novel of possession.
November 2013
The End of The Road - edited by Jonathan Oliver
Cover by Nicolas Delort
An incredible anthology of original short stories by an exciting list of writers from all around the world, including the best-selling author Philip Reeve and the World Fantasy Award-winning Lavie Tidhar.
Each step will lead you closer to your destination, but who, or what, can you expect to meet at journey's end? Here are stories of misfits, spectral hitch-hikers, nightmare travel tales and the rogues, freaks and monsters to be found on the road. The critically acclaimed editor of Magic, The End of The Line and House of Fear has brought together the contemporary masters and mistresses of the weird from around the globe in an anthology of travel tales like no other. Strap on your seatbelt, shoulder your backpack, or wait for the next ride... into darkness.
December 2013
Rowena Cory Daniells' Outcast Chronicles short-listed for the 2013 Norma K. Hemming Award!
22-04-2013
I'm delighted to announce that Rowena Cory Daniells' stunning fantasy trilogy, The Outcast Chronicles, has been short-listed for the Nora K. Hemming Award. The Award marks excellence in the exploration of themes race, gender, sexuality, class and disability.
Anyone who has read Rowena's works will know that one of her great strengths is characterisation. I'm so pleased that this brilliant series has been recognised in this way, and we at Solaris will all be routing for Rowena when the award is announced on the 27th April at the 52nd Australian Nation Science Fiction Convention in Canberra.
In the meantime, why not check out Rowena's work? Find out why her novels stand out as some of the most exciting new fantasy fiction available.
With author interviews, book launches, and readings the new Abaddon & Solaris YouTube channel is perfect for a little lunchtime viewing if you're looking for new reading challenges and fancy plunging into our plethora of worlds.
The team behind the two imprints is beavering away to bring you audiovisual entertainment to go alongside your reading pleasure and we'll be adding more fresh content about our forthcoming titles, as well as trailers, so keep your eyes glued to our Twitter and Facebook feeds for alerts about the latest videos.
In the meantime, welcome to our worlds...
The launch of Gideon's Angel...
Scott K. Andrews talks about School's Out Forever...
Gaie Sebold discusses Babylon Steel...
The launch of Solaris Rising 2...
After the success of the launch event last week (see video below!) we've got a copy of this mighty tome signed by the attending authors - Paul Cornell, James Lovegrove, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Mercurio D. Rivera, Martin Sketchley, and editor Ian Whates!
All you have to do to win is share this very post far and wide!
You can share it on your Facebook page, your blog, your website, or even just reTweet on Twitter - just make sure you let us know if you do and we'll pick one very lucky reader to receive this meaty prize!
You have until Thursday 18th April - quickly, go go go!!
In other news, Ian has also been interviewed by SFX about space opera and the long-lasting allure of the short story and in case you missed it, here's the video of the launch held at Waterstones Gower Street in London just last week!
AL EWING SIGNING
‘THE FICTIONAL MAN’
FORBIDDEN PLANET LONDON THURSDAY 2nd MAY 6 – 7pm
“A disturbing, self-reflective type of brilliance … cross Joe Lansdale with Grant Morrison, and you start to get close to Ewing” – Pornokitsch on Death Got No Mercy
In Hollywood, where last year’s stars are this year’s busboys, Fictionals are everywhere. Niles Golan’s therapist is a Fictional. So is his best friend. Fictionals – characters ‘translated’ into living beings for movies and TV using cloning technology – are a part of daily life in LA now. Sometimes the problem is knowing who’s real and who’s not.
Divorced, alcoholic and hanging on by a thread, Niles – author of The Saladin Imperative: A Kurt Power Novel and many others – has been hired to write a big-budget reboot of a classic movie. If he does this right, the studio might bring one of Niles’ own characters to life. But somewhere beneath the movie – beneath the TV show it was inspired by, the children’s book behind that and the story behind that – is the kernel of something important. If he can just hold it together long enough to figure it out...
Al Ewing is a major new writer whose work in comics has seen him hailed as the most exciting new voice in the field. His work for Abaddon Books has been equally lauded and his unique visions of pulp fantasy have found their home in five different novels for Abaddon Books. This is his first novel for Solaris and is one of the list’s most keenly awaited titles.
Coming in June and available in the UK, in North America, and in ebook for a whole variety of devices, Jack Skillingstead's LIFE ON THE PRESERVATION has a fantastic Logan's Run/Hunger Games vibe to it and these covers (UK at top, US below) are GAWJUS!
THE BLURB:
Inside the Seattle Preservation Dome it’s always the Fifth of October, the city caught in an endless time loop. ‘Reformed’ graffiti artist Ian Palmer is the only one who knows the truth, and he is desperate to wake up the rest of the city before the alien Curator of the human museum erases Ian’s identity forever. Outside the Dome, the world lies in apocalyptic ruin.
Small town teenager Kylie is the only survivor to escape both the initial shock wave and the effects of the poison rains that follow. Now she must make her way across the blasted lands pursued by a mad priest and menaced by skin-and-bone things that might once have been human.
Her destination is the Preservation, and her mission is to destroy it. But once inside, she meets Ian, and together they discover that Preservation reality is even stranger than it already appears.