New Commissions

Oh Solarians, what goodies do I have for you today?

Well, I'm pleased as punch to be able to announce three new commissions for 2012 titles.

First up, I'm delighted to be welcoming to Solaris, horror author Simon Bestwick. Simon will be penning a horror novel set in the north of England and featuring a supernatural threat like no other. At the moment Simon and I are hammering out a title for this novel, but when we have it we'll let you know. Simon has previously written for Abaddon books with his brilliant zombie novel Tide of Souls and it's great to be bringing him into Solaris with a chilling horror novel.

Next up, we have Guy Haley. Guy is penning a SF novel for us called Champion of Mars, which mixes the best of traditional scientific-romance with hard SF and a sensibility that is entirely Guy's own. Guy's novel is vast in scope and beautifully executed; you're going to love it and can expect to see it hitting shelves around May next year.

Also joining the Solaris family is American author Steve Rasnic Tem. I've been a big admirer of Steve's fiction for a good number of years and I was particularly bowled over by the novel he penned with his wife (Melanie Tem), The Man on The Ceiling. So when his agent sent me Deadfall Hotel, I knew that I was in for a treat. This beautiful work of weird fiction is reminiscent of Ray Bradbury at his best and has the atmosphere of a work by Edward Gorey. I can assure you that Deadfall Hotel is more than a little bit special. Look for it in May next year.

Last, but by no means least, we have some more James Lovegrove news for you. James has agreed to pen another pantheon novel for us for release next April, set in the world of the Aztec deities. We're delighted that James is continuing with this series and this novel is going to raise the bar even higher.

Anyway, that's all from me.

Happy reading.

James Lovegrove's Age of Odin is a New York Times Best Seller!

Hey all,

Well, this is pretty big news. James Lovegrove's ass-kicking third instalment in the Pantheon series, The Age of Odin, has made it onto the New York Times Best Seller List, coming 33rd on the list for Mass Market Paperback Fiction for the week ending 16th January (published in the New York Times Book Review on the 30th of January).

If you're wondering how big a deal that is, rest assured it's big. You know when you get an A for a test and bring it home and your mum puts it in pride of place near the top of the fridge with a magnet? Well, James's mum is going to need a bigger fridge. One of those big man-high two-door ones might be able to hold this, if it's, like, the only thing on it.

Sorry, I went somewhere odd, there.

It's both Lovegrove's and Solaris's first appearance on the list - we're sure there will be hundreds more - and we're all doing silly little dances on our office chairs right now (well, me and Ben have been; apparently, Jenni and Jon have too much gravitas). Lovegrove was absolutely blown away, reporting that his "flabber was truly gasted" by the news, and has promised to write another two Pantheon books.

Anyway, read Solaris's official Press Release (warning: PDF) for the full details.

Awesome.

David

New fantasy novel...

With The Sentinel Mage, the beginning of Emily Gee's new fantasy book trilogy, released in shops on the 25th of January in the US and Canada, and on the 3rd of February in the UK, it's time to share something special with you.

You can now read the first two chapters of The Sentinel Mage absolutely free! Click here to start reading.

The Ranting Dragon fantasy news and reviews website has already posted a review of the novel, which you can read here. "This touching and epic story is both engaging and unpredictable..."

On another note, congratulations to Liz Sara, Mihai Adascalitei, Heather Holt, Maria Patrinou and David Rowe who all won copies of Emily Gee novels in Amanda Rutter's The Sentinel Mage competition at Floor to Ceiling Books.

Solaris Books hits 1000 twitter followers!

We hit one thousand twitter followers today, hooray! We regularly update twitter with recent reviews, news stories concerning Solaris, competitions, and we also answer questions from fans, too. You can find us here http://twitter.com/SolarisBooks if you're not already one of our loyal followers.

There are several Solaris Books authors also one twitter, including but not limited to:-

Rowena Cory Daniells, @rcdaniells, author of last year's bestselling King Rolen's Kin triliogy, and more!
Gary McMahon @GaryMc_Author author of the upcoming horror novels The Concrete Grove trilogy.
Jonathan Strahan @JonathanStrahan, editor of the recent Engineering Infinity anthology of hard SF.
Tim Akers @TimAkers author of Heart of Veridon, the upcoming sequel Dead of Veridon and recent winner SciFi Now magazine's Rising Star Award.
Gail Z. Martin @GailZMartin who writes fantasy series The Chronicles of the Necromancer.
Gareth L. Powell @GarethLPowell whose innovative SF novel, The Recollection, Solaris will be releasing this year.

And let's not forget our own Editor in Chief, Mr. Jon Oliver! @JonOliverEditor

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SciNow says 2011 could be the year of Eric Brown...

Newstand magazine SciFi Now has announced its SciFi Now Awards for 2010. Two Solaris authors have won first place in their categories!

Eric Brown wins the 'Olaf Stapledon Award For Most Under-Discussed Author'.


This seems like a good time to announce that both of the books mentioned, Guardians of the Phoenix and Engineman, which came out in print at the end of last year, are now available for purchase with an Amazon Kindle. Engineman buy US/buy UK, Guardians of the Phoenix buy US/buy UK.

Tim Akers, author of Heart of Veridon, wins the 'Rising Star Award'. SciFi Now writes 'we expect big things from him over the next few years.' Well, they're in luck, because Solaris will be releasing the sequel to Heart of Veridon this June, with Dead of Veridon...


Trouble finds Jacob Burn: kicked out of his house, out of his comfortable life – out of everything that is familiar – even turned away from his circle of criminal friends and interesting enemies. Two years after he saved an ungrateful city from a mad angel, thwarting the plans of every powerful faction in Veridon, Jacob is still trying to pull his life together.
And still trouble finds him. A bad job goes worse, and soon old enemies present themselves as allies, and former friends set themselves against Jacob as he tries to put the dead to rest and the living to justice. Things gets even harder when he’s appointed by the Council to investigate the rise of the cog-dead, while some hold him personally accountable, and others in the city work to use the chaos to their advantage...

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James Maxey on your radio

Good afternoon dear Solarians

One of Solaris's own fantasy writers, the very talented James Maxey, will be appearing with singer/songwriter Jonah Knight on their local Nation Public Radio station to talk about James's first novel, Nobody Gets the Girl, and Jonah's six song EP influenced by the novel. This is happening this Thursday and you can find the full details on James's blog here.

Check it out!

Jon

Reviews and King Rolen's Kin in the 2010 charts...

If you'll forgive us for looking back at 2010, for a moment, Rob Will Review has named all three of Rowena Cory Daniell's King Rolen's Kin trilogy in his post Counting Down My Favourite Books of the Year.

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Geek Chocolate have reviewed James Lovegrove's new Norse-flavoured SF novel, Age of Odin.

Two reviews of The End of the Line, our anthology of horror on the underground, at WarpCoreSF and Shade Point.

Great review of The Ten Thousand, the first volume in our epic fantasy trilogy, The Macht Trilogy, at The Speculative Book Review.

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2011

Happy New Year from all at Solaris Books!

Want to see all the great books we've got in store for you in the new year?
We've just made our 2011 UK catalogue available, so download it in pdf form by clicking the picture below!

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