Science fiction is here to stay

We launched our imprint ten years ago with an action packed line-up of hard science fiction, and according to some independent retailers, it looks as though science fiction is on the rise again after so many years of fantasy reigning.

So cheers to the intergalactic travel and nanotechnology,  futuristic societies and dopplegangers. Here's a look at some of the coolest looking scifi books we've brought you through the years

______________________________________________

Boing Boing calles Be My Enemy "Triumphant"

Over at Boing Boing, Cory Doctor has written a tremendously enthusiastic review of Ian McDonald's Be My Enemy, the follow-up to Planesrunner. Cory writes, "There's a lot more of what made Planesrunner great -- tremendous action scenes, cunning escapes, genius attacks on the ways that multidimensional travel might be weaponized, horrific glimpses of shadowy powers and sinister technologies, but Enemy also has more of what makes McDonald's adult fiction some of the best work I've ever read: a gifted ear for poesie that makes the English language sing, the unapologetic presumption of the reader's ability to understand what's going on without a lot of hand-holding, and a technological mysticism that never explicitly says when the literal stops and the fantasy starts"

Head over to Boing Boing for the full review, but also for a five chapter preview! 

Planesrunner nominated for Sidewise Award

This year's nominees for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History have just been announced. We are very excited to find Ian McDonald's Planesrunner, one of our first young adult offerings, nominated in the category of Alternate History, Long Form.   The winners will be announced at Chicon 7, this year's Worldcon, in Chicago, Illinois during the weekend of August 30.  This year's panel of judges was made up of Stephen Baxter, Evelyn Leeper, Jim Rittenhouse, Stu Shiffman, Kurt Sidaway, and Steven H Silver.

Congratulations to Ian McDonald and all of the nominees.

Short Form

* Michael F. Flynn, The Iron Shirts (Tor.com)

* Lisa Goldstein, Paradise Is a Walled Garden (Asimov’s, 8/11)

* Jason Stoddard, Orion Rising (Panverse 3, edited by Dario Ciriello, Panverse Publishing)

* Harry Turtledove, Lee at the Alamo (Tor.com)

Long Form

* Robert Conroy, Castro's Bomb (Kindle)

* Robert Conroy, Himmler's War (Baen Books)

* Jeff Greenfield, Then Everything Changed (Putnam)

* Ian R MacLeod, Wake Up and Dream (PS Publishing)

* Ian McDonald, Planesrunner (Pyr)

* Ekaterina Sedia, Heart of Iron (Prime)

* Lavie Tidhar, Camera Obscura (Angry Robot)

The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were conceived in late 1995 to honor the best allohistorical genre publications of the year. The first awards were announced in summer 1996 and honored works from 1995. The award takes its name from Murray Leinster's 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time," in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with their analogs from other timelines.

           

For more information, contact Steven H Silver at shsilver@sfsite.com or go to http://www.uchronia.net/sidewise.

2012 Locus Award Finalists

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the 2012 Locus Award Finalists.  We are honored and excited to see that Ian McDonald's Planesrunneris one of five nominations in the category of Young Adult Book. Congratulations also to Planesrunner cover artist John Picacio who is nominated in the Artist category.

Planesrunner: Some Reasons It Should Be On Your Radar

Illustration (c) John Picacio

“Smashing adventure fiction that spans the multiverse without ever losing its cool or its sense of style. Ian McDonald is one of the greats of science fiction, and his young adult debut is everything you could hope for: romantic, action packed, wildly imaginative, and full of heart.”
 —Cory Doctorow
 
"Planesrunner is chock-full of awesome. Ian McDonald's steampunk London blazes on a vast scale with eye-popping towers, gritty streets, and larger-than-life characters who aren't afraid to fight for each other. The kind of airship-dueling, guns-blazing fantasy that makes me wish I could pop through to the next reality over, join the Airish, and take to the skies"
—Paolo Bacigalupi, Michael J. Printz Award–winning author of Ship Breaker
 
‎"Athletic, brilliant, and always ahead of the game, Everett is too perfect, but it doesn't detract from the book's fun. McDonald writes with scientific and literary sophistication, as well as a wicked sense of humor. Add nonstop action, eccentric characters, and expert universe building, and this first volume of the Everness series is a winner."
—Publishers Weekly Starred Review
 
"What joy to find science fiction based on real scientific concepts... In his debut for teens, established science-fiction writer McDonald builds a world just different enough to charm readers into believing... Shining imagination, pulsing suspense and sparkling writing make this one stand out."
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review!

"[Planesrunner's] world is as sharply imagined and inventive as we've come to expect from [Ian] McDonald. And it also may be the first steam-free steampunk novel… first-rate adventure writing… by the cliffhanger ending we're ready to follow [Everett] into whatever new universes McDonald can concoct, and the next one already looks interesting. Planesrunner is not only excellent YA SF in terms of its likeable characters and well-executed setpieces, but is simply good SF in a way which almost reinvents, and possibly makes addictive, the old parallel universe trope. It's fun."
—Locus, November 2011

"Planesrunner is a first class teen science fiction novel, which I believe will appeal to the fans of such boy-oriented books as Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker and Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan… There is hardly anything about Planesrunner to complain about. Quite the opposite, a lot to complement this novel on: First of all, the science. The whole idea of parallel universes is endlessly exciting and Ian McDonald did a fantastic job coming up with alternate versions of Earth's future… Second, the main character with ethnic background… Third, the teen romance has a great dynamic. Both participants are strong and resourceful young people. Planesrunner is a fantastic beginning to a new teen adventure series that will leave you yearning for more. Score: 4.50 / 5 "
—Night Owl Reviews, Reviewer Top Pick

‎"Ian McDonald's Planesrunner is the first in what I hope is a very long series of young adult science fiction novels.... I can't wait for the next book in this series. Planesrunner, scheduled for release in December 2011, is an appealing alternative to the dystopian YA titles lining bookstore shelves these days."
—Portland Book Review

‎"This is science fiction adventure at its best, and at its core is Everett, the heroic little geekling that we all wanted to be as kids... With "Ten Known Worlds" as part of this book's lore…I want an interdimensional passport ASAP… The adventure simply never stops… Snappy dialogue…and fascinating details round out this marvelous series debut."
—The Examiner

Convinced? Now go check out the Infundibulum Facebook page.

For Your Viewing Pleasure: The Full Jacket of Planesrunner

Planesrunner © Ian McDonald

Cover Illustration and Front Cover Design © John Picacio

Spine and Back Cover Design by Grace M. Conti-Zilsberger

  Coming in December 2011

There is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one among billions of parallel earths.

When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse—the Infundibulum—the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, a knack for Indian cooking.

To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate that his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness. 

Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!

“Planesrunner is chock-full of awesome. Ian McDonald’s steampunk London blazes on a vast scale with eye-popping towers, gritty streets, and larger-than-life characters who aren’t afraid to fight for each other. The kind of airship-dueling, guns-blazing fantasy that makes me wish I could pop through to the next reality over, join the Airish, and take to the skies”

—Paolo Bacigalupi, Michael J. Printz Award–winning author of Ship Breaker

“Smashing adventure fiction that spans the multiverse without ever losing its cool or its sense of style. Ian McDonald is one of the greats of science fiction and his young adult debut is everything you could hope for: romantic, action-packed, wildly imaginative, and full of heart.”

—Cory Doctorow, author of For the Win

Ian McDonald's The Dervish House wins John W. Campbell Memorial Award

Ian McDonald's The Dervish Househas won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year is one of the three major annual awards for science fiction.The Award was created to honor the late editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, now named Analog. Campbell, who edited the magazine from 1937 until his death in 1971, is called by many writers and scholars the father of modern science fiction. Writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss established the award in Campbell's name as a way of continuing his efforts to encourage writers to produce their best possible work. Congratulations, Ian!

Meanwhile, The Dervish House also won the BSFA Award, and has been nominated for the Hugo, the Arthur C Clarke, the American Library Association, and Locus awards.

The Dervish House nominated for the John W. Campbell Best Novel Award

The Center for the Study of Science Fiction have announced the 2011 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Finalists. We are thrilled to share the news that Ian McDonald's novel, The Dervish House, is among the finalists. This honor joins The Dervish House's Hugo nomination, Arthur C. Clarke nomination, Locus Award nomination, and BSFA win. At this point, I don't think it's even biased of us to say that if you haven't read The Dervish House yet, you really should.

For a limited time!

For a very limited time, Ian McDonald's Hugo-nominated novel The Dervish House is available on Kindle for just $1.99 and Clay & Susan Griffith's acclaimed The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire Book One) is $2.99. Get 'em while the sale last. Sorry but this is US only.

2011 Locus Award Finalists

The 2011 Locus Award Finalists have been announced and it's with great pleasure that we congratulate Ian McDonald on his Best Novel nomination for The Dervish House. The Dervish House has already been nominated for the BSFA, Hugo, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards, winning the BSFA.

Ian McDonald's Hugo-nominated The Dervish House optioned by Warp Films.

Ian McDonald's BSFA-winning, Hugo nominated novel, The Dervish House, has been optioned by Warp Film. The Zeno Agency reported the film option yesterday. From their blog:

Zeno Agency is delighted to announce that film and television rights to Ian McDonald‘s award winning novel THE DERVISH HOUSE have been optioned by Warp Films. The deal was negotiated by Zeno’s John Richard Parker who says, ‘As with all Ian’s books THE DERVISH HOUSE is very much cinematic as well being  an imaginative tour de force. I have always believed it has the qualities that  make it eminently suitable for film and I am sure that with Warp’s enthusiasm for the project and their fantastic track record, all the ingredients are in place to put together something very special indeed.’

Warp Films have had notable successes recently with SUBMARINE and FOUR LIONS and Executive Producer Peter Carlton says ‘We’re delighted to have the chance to adapt THE DERVISH HOUSE for the screen, set in that most iconic of cities, crossroads of east and west, past and future, Istanbul. It starts with an explosion on a tram and ends in a race to stop a terrorist plot, but in the meantime Ian somehow weaves together speculative share trading, nanotechnology and Islamic microcalligraphy, to name but a few strands in this visual feast that has a narrative sweep and ambition all too rare in contemporary fiction.‘

Two More Hugos, a Gemmell, the PKD, and more.

Obviously, we're pretty excited about the 2010 Hugo Awards shortlist. Ian McDonald's The Dervish House makes the list of finalists for Best Novel, and yours truly (Lou Anders) makes my fifth appearance in the category of Best Editor - Long Form.

This news follows right on the heels of Mark Hodder's Philip K. Dick Award win for The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack.

Meanwhile, just announced is the the publication of the short list for the David Gemmell Award. Congratulations to Pierre Pevel, whose novel The Alchemist in the Shadows, originally published by Gollancz and just out from Pyr, is nominated for the Legend Award - Best Fantasy Novel, and to Todd Lockwood, whose cover for the Pyr edition of Tom Lloyd's The Ragged Man is up for the Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Art Cover.

Finally, congratulations again to Ian McDonald for his BSFA win for The Dervish House for Best Novel.

The Dervish House Tops SF Site's Readers' Choice: Best Read of the Year: 2010

SF Site has posted their Readers' Choice: Best Read of the Year: 2010 and Ian McDonald's The Dervish House tops the list at # 1! They say:

"This is a novel of near-future Istanbul. It begins with a suicide bomber on a crowded tram, and follows the lives of 6 very different people whose lives are all affected by this incident, and whose paths intersect. One witness to the bombing thereafter begins to see djinni and saints; a young invalid witnesses the event through the eyes of a BitBot monkey, and witnesses someone else also spying remotely; this boy shares his concerns with a disgruntled professor who has been forced into retirement; another woman is delayed by the blast in her effort to get to a job interview and consequently takes a job that involves her in a nanoware company; an antique dealer is set on a quest to find a man mummified in honey -- something that may exist or may be mere legend -- while her boyfriend is planning a stock-market scheme of unprecedented proportions. The tightly plotted story takes place over a brief period of time in a confined setting, the sprawling metropolis of Istanbul. But it is McDonald's writing and his handling of character that led SF Site readers to choose The Dervish House as the best book of 2010."

Meanwhile, time to update this page again.