For Your Viewing Pleasure: Killswitch mmpb

Killswitch © Joel Shepherd

Cover Illustration © Stephan Martiniere
Design by Jacqueline Cooke

Two years after the unhatching of Callayan President Neiland’s plot to make the capital city of Tanusha the center of the Federation, Callay is under siege. So begins the third installment of this gripping trilogy from an exciting new sci-fi author.

A powerful faction of conservative Fleet captains has surrounded Callay, at Earth’s behest, and is threatening a blockade – or worse. A fearful Earth does not wish to lose direct control of its precious war machine, and there are fears of civil war.

All that Callay has to oppose the warships of the Fleet is the Callayan Defense Force (CDF) – a newly formed group of raw recruits led by a politically hamstrung general. However, the CDF is largely trained and organized by Major Vanessa Rice and her best friend, Callay’s combat-android, Commander Cassandra Kresnov. But when Cassandra’s lover, Special Agent Ari Ruben, discovers a plot to kill her using a killswitch, which her old masters in the League built into her brainstem, Sandy is forced to go underground to stay alive.

Prometheus Books Enters the Mass Market Paperback Format With Series on Pyr Imprint

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Jill Maxick
800-853-7545
jmaxick@prometheusbooks.com

November 10, 2008

Prometheus Books Enters the Mass Market Paperback Format With Series on Pyr Imprint

Three-book Science Fiction Series Planned in “Premium” Mass Market Size

Amherst, New York—In May 2009, Pyr, a science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, will publish Crossover: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel in the premium mass market paperback format, with dimensions of 4-1/8 inches x 7-3/8 inches and priced at $9.98. Premium mass market paperbacks are taller than the traditional premium mass market size, allowing for improved readability and cover image area. Crossover, by Australian author Joel Shepherd, was previously published in trade paperback in August 2006.

The Cassandra Kresnov novels Breakaway and Killswitch will follow at the same price and format, to be published in June and July 2009 respectively.

“We’ve had significant interest from the major booksellers in seeing Pyr enter the mass market format, and a great deal of interest in this trilogy in particular,” says Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders. “Joel’s series is smart, sexy, action-packed, and features a very well-rounded and admirable female lead. We’ve been very happy with their performance thus far in trade paperback, and feel they are especially suited to lead our charge into mass market, a perfect example of the type of smart, action-packed and engaging read that Pyr is becoming known for. I’m thrilled that Cassandra Kresnov is poised to entertain even more readers with her mass market debut.”

Cassandra Kresnov is a highly advanced hunter-killer android who defected from her League Dark Star special ops assignment, seeking the quiet life of a civilian, but then becomes unwillingly embroiled in dangerous interplanetary intrigue. Shepherd is known for his strong female protagonists, his gripping action sequences, and his rich depiction of Byzantine political machinations. Tobias S. Buckell, author of Halo: The Cole Protocol, called the series, “A blast to read,” while Publishers Weekly described it as “Robert Ludlum meets Elizabeth Moon.”

Plans for making some Pyr titles available in e-book format are also in the works.


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Starlog on Killswitch: Tight and Crackling!

Starlog on Killswitch:

"Shepherd continues to improve with each installment. Readers who have been wanting a far more intense story will find themselves amply rewarded as Shepherd puts his remarkable heroine through her paces. As with the previous novels, there are shifts between a great many characters also vying for attention, but the writing here is tight and crackling and turns the entire trilogy into an excellent adventure, with the spotlight clearly on Cassandra."

Killswitch: Thoughtful and Action Packed!

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review on Joel Shepherd's final Cassandra Kresnov book, Killswitch:

“This year it already feels like I’ve read more sci-fi than I did in the whole of last year and this is mostly down to my having had the good fortune of getting stuck into Joel Shepherd’s ‘Cassandra Kresnov’ books. The bottom line is that I think they’re brilliant and incredibly easy to get sucked into, the most fun I’ve had with sci-fi in a long time…Placing all three books together shows how well the author has done at plotting a story that goes on for longer than one book. There’s a real sense of progression throughout the trilogy and, for the most part, everything is wrapped up neatly in the closing chapters. There’s scope for more adventures here and I’d certainly pick up more ‘Kresnov’ books if they were ever written…an intelligent and engaging read that will appeal to anyone who likes their sci-fi thoughtful and action packed at the same time. Highly recommended by me! Nine out of Ten.”

Politics and Action: Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together

There were two things that drew me to Joel Shepherd's Cassandra Kresnov series initially. The first was that his was the first prose work that I'd encountered that fully embraced and explored the ramifications of a totally integrated mind-to-net world, in a way I'd never seen done in prose SF before, but had seen only in the manga (not the anime) Ghost in the Shell. I mean, we all remember Case and Molly in each others heads from way back, but I'd yet to encounter a novel in which the entire population was chipped, with multiple conversation threads and images zipping around between everyone. And since this is pretty much where I think we're heading in the real world, I was surprised it took me till Joel to see it anywhere outside of manga. (I'm sure there are other examples, our own David Louis Edelman being one, but I'm talking my perspective.)

The second was the way he so seamlessly interwove action and political intrigue, and the coin toss it was to decide which was the more gripping. So it was really gratifying to see so many reviews stating things like "I can't wait to get through the action to the next political discussion." Not something you expect to see, right? Since then, I've held Joel up many times as the epitome of what a good SF novel can be - I mean, it has synthetic warrior women leaping out of flying cars with machine guns blazing, and is also a masterful examination of what it means to be human and the ramifications of artificial life, chocked full of strong female protagonists. It's smart, it's deep, it's fast-paced, it's action packed, it would make a hell of a good movie or tv series, and it's quintessential SF.

So this latest review from Rob H. Bedford of SFFWorld makes me smile. Since it just confirms everything above, "I also found the political maneuvering to parallel the action very well, much like the previous two volumes. Shepherd’s adept hand at balancing these two differently flavored adrenaline inducing types of scenes continues to be a strong point in his writing."

See? Rob continues, "Another strength that comes to the fore in Killswitchis that Shepherd doesn’t offer easy answers to his character’s problems. The relationship between Vanessa Rice and Sandy has been both intense and a walk across eggshells. Although these two do try to confront the tension between them, it doesn’t fully become resolved. I found this to be somewhat refreshing."

Hey hey!

He concludes, "With this trilogy complete, Shepherd has proven his ability to deliver politically and action charged science fiction. ...the books stand well together as good action-packed Science Fiction. Kresnov is a strong character and a very human non-human character at that. Killswitch is a nice ending to the trilogy and a culmination of Sandy’s journey."

Thanks Rob. I couldn't agree more!

Killswitch: The Heroine Bionic Woman Should Have Been

JP on SF Signal gives Joel Shepherd's Killswitchfour and a half stars, with a review that says, "These books cry out for some type of screen (big or small) time. (I'm looking at you Sci Fi Channel. Convince Kate Beckinsale to play Cassandra and you won't be able to keep the SF fans from storming the channel.) ...If there's anything Shepherd can do well, it's action sequences. Everything you'd expect a synthetic being like Kresnov to do, she does. And Shepherd's prose brings it to life with widescreen clarity. This is the heroine the Bionic Woman should have been. Smart and supremely confident..."

JP says he even paused in his playing of a videogame to read. Can there be any higher praise in our current century?

Bookgasm's 5 Best Sci-Fi Books of 2007

Bookgasm has just announced their 5 Best Sci-Fi Books of 2007. Ryun Patterson has chosen Ian McDonald's Brasylas the # 1 title of the year. He says:

"Holy wow. Once I started reading Brasyl, I knew I would never see the world quite the same way again... Brasyl shows that Pyr has serious chops in acquiring new material in addition to picking up previously published gems. Read the review if you want more, but my first recommendation is this: Close your browser, put your computer to sleep, go to the bookstore, buy Brasyl, take off the dust jacket without reading it, and clear your calendar. You’re in for a treat. Along with McDonald’s River of Gods,it is easily one of the best books of the last 10 years."

Meanwhile, Joel Shepherd's two 2007 Cassandra Kresnov novels, Breakawayand Killswitch,tie for # 5.

"There’s not a lot about these books that I haven’t already said in my pair of breathless reviews, and while one probably would have made the list on its own merits, having two of these tomes in the span of a year really takes the cake. Pyr books has been knocking down doors in both publishing original fiction and bringing foreign work to North America, and Shepherd's Cassandra Kresnov series demonstrates the second half of this equation wonderfully. Why weren’t these books brought over sooner? How many other authors and ideas are just waiting to get picked up, gussied up with holy-cow-amazing cover art by the likes of Stephan Martiniere, and unleashed upon the unsuspecting North American public? More, I hope."

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist: 2007 Year-End Awards

Patrick of Pat's Fantasy Hotlist has posted his 2007 Year-End Awards. As with SFFWorld, Joe Abercrombie (The Blade Itself /Before They Are Hanged)and Ian McDonald (Brasyl) are in the list, as is Joel Shepherd (Killswitch). Joe gets special mention as the "Most Improved Author Award" for the way he ramps things up in book two of his First Law trilogy.

Interview: Joel Shepherd x 2

Joel Shepherd is the subject of two interviews. First, John Joseph Adams interviews Joel for Sci Fi Wire, about the recent release of Killswitch. Speaking of lead character Cassandra Kresnov, Joel told Sci Fi Wire, "She's not entirely sure of where she fits in anything and has no moral certainties save the value of human life and her own desire to do something useful. I think a lot of that comes straight from me."

Then Jessica Strider interviews Joel for the World's Biggest Bookstore's Sci-Fi Fan Letter. Also speaking about Cassandra here (no surprise), Joel tells Jessica, "She's possibly the least biased and most open minded person you'd be likely to meet on most matters -- a natural pragmatist who is simultaneously intrigued by non-pragmatic things precisely because they're unnecessary. She looks at everything as though it were new and fascinating, which as a writer forces me to do so too."

And remember, first chapters of Killswitch are available online.

Killswitch: A Kinetic Thrill-Ride

Ryun Patterson of Bookgasm reviews Joel Shepherd's latest, Killswitch,third in his Cassandra Kresnov series. Ryun has been a big supporter of the previous two books, so it's good to hear that Killswitch is, in his opinion, "another remarkable effort that remains true to its predecessors and shows Shepherd’s evolution as a writer. His strengths are on full display: Action is electric and infused with the rough-edged reality of warfare, the characters are multifaceted and introspective, and the sexy quotient is once again high. Kresnov as a character has matured in a delicious way, staying hot and ultra-bad-ass while keeping the self-examining, self-reliant emotional core that makes her such an appealing heroine..."

I'm also always very gratified to see when cover art makes it into a discussion of a book, as our genre has a unique history of illustration that deserves much more attention than it historically gets. In this case, Ryun says, "So many times when you get books with covers as great as Stephan Martiniere’s, the contents are a letdown, but the kinetic thrill-ride of the Pyr covers really captures the essence of what’s great about this series."

Update: Calico Reaction reviews Killswitch, as well as previous book Breakaway. Her overall impression: "Overall, this has been a pretty enjoyable trilogy. It's ambitious and intellectual, action-packed but yet intimate. Shepherd's greatest strength are characters you can really emphasize with and the amazing level of his diverse, culturally relevant world-building. Also enjoyable is the fact he really does have some strong, heroic women leads, and multiple leads at that, which is really awesome."

Killswitch: Rough and Tumble Action

Sandy Amazeen of Monsters & Critics has some thoughts on the latest Cassaandra Kresnov novel from Joel Shepherd, the just released Killswitch:

"Plenty of rough and tumble action full of high-tech weaponry and battle savvy female warriors keep readers engaged as Cassandra and all of Callay become mired in the endless political machinations that come with social upheaval... Definitely a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy with enough wiggle room for more to come from this series that serves up social commentary with military action in equal doses."

Katee Sackhoff = Cassandra Kresnov?

Fantasy Book Critic has just posted a great interview with Joel Shepherd. They talk with Joel about his Cassandra Kresnov trilogy, including the just released third and final (for now?) volume, Killswitch.They also discuss politics in the future, utopian vs distopian fiction, Joel's new Australian fantasy series, the possibility of more in the Cassandra Kresnov universe, book covers, and who would make a good Cassandra in a Hollywood film. Here's a taste:

"The only actress I’ve seen who might be able to play Cassandra is Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, Bionic Woman). There may be others, but not that I’ve seen -- she’s not a character or physical type you see a lot of in Hollywood. There’s more options for Vanessa Rice because the whole idea for her is someone who looks sweet and delicate but in personality is neither. Natalie Portman jumps out as a possibility...maybe she’d enjoy the chance to be cast against type. Ari Ruben IS Adam Goldberg, the character was actually partly inspired by him, in looks and mannerisms."

Cassandra Kresnov Trilogy Giveaway

From Fantasy Book Critic:

In anticipation of the upcoming US release of Joel Shepherd’s Killswitch, which is the concluding volume in the Cassandra Kresnov trilogy and is due out November 30, 2007, Pyr Books has agreed to give away THREE SETS of the entire trilogy including Crossover, Breakaway,and Killswitch!!! So please read the rules below and completely fill out the form to enter! North American Residents Only. Giveaway ends Friday, November 30, 2007 – 11:59AM PST.

Click here for rules and entry form.

Three More Pyr Reviews

Over on Sci Fi Weekly, Lois H. Gresh reviews Joel Shepherd's Killswitch:

"Joel Shepherd delivers an android character that's richer in human emotions than most real humans. ...the strength of the novel, which lies in the character of Cassandra Kresnov, is full of promise...Cassandra Kresnov is such a delightful character that the reader wants to see her push beyond the tropes of science-fiction androids."

Meanwhile, SF Signal JP reviews Sean Williams' The Hanging Mountains:

"What Williams does well is in creating an interesting fantasy setting, without the usual fantasy tropes. ...Obviously a lot of thought has gone into the world of the Cataclysm and Williams does a great job bringing it to life. ...Williams has created a unique and interesting setting for his Cataclysm books, stuffing it full of unexpected creatures and sympathetic characters."

And I was very gratified to see JP add: "One thing I must praise Pyr for is the physical book itself, specifically the dust jacket. The cover art is awesome, but the entire jacket is well done. From the electric blue runes surrounding the cover art to the green toned rest of the cover, the whole thing just looks amazing. In fact, all of the books in this series so far look terrific. Couple that with a very easy to read font and layout on the inside, and these are some very impressive books."

And finally, Greg L. Johnson of SF Site reviews Alexis Glynn Latner's Hurricane Moon. While Greg wasn't 100% on some bits of the novel, he does offer this:

"In science fiction, one of the most difficult feats to accomplish is a simultaneous appeal to both the romance of the intellect and the romance of the heart. Hard SF writers are all used to invoking a sense of wonder that thrills the imagination, it's what that particular game is all about. Fewer are able to at the same time involve the reader's emotions in a story that evokes the character's personal emotional attractions. ...It's very much to her credit, then, that Alexis Glynn Latner manages to pull this trick off in the very first chapter of her new novel."

And he concludes, "It is in fact a nicely written novel, with well-drawn characters and a story that succeeds quite well in mixing a cosmic mystery with its characters personal lives. "

More Love for Pyr's Butt Kicking Ladies

The blog Of Science Fiction discovers that Justina Robson's Keeping It Realis "not I, Robot meets Lord of the Rings in a London flat of a single secretary looking for love. But that's not too far off..." And who can fault them when they say, "Seamlessly meshing martial drama, political intrigue, magic, science and corporate politics with light fun-poking and flirting, this is an extremely entertaining book. ...Find it, buy it, read it. Support this author and the new label. And, enjoy a really good book in the process. Talk about win-win!"

Meanwhile, over at SciFi Crowsnest, Tomas L. Martin weighs in on Joel Shepherd's last Cassandra Kresnov novel, Killswitch"Shepherd treatment of Cassandra's personality has been a real highlight of these books and this continues in Killswitch. Cassandra's relationship with the gay CDF leader Vanessa Rice is especially thoughtfully handled and never clichéd. Like all of the books, too, the action is electric and explosive. ... a class above most SF thrillers and completes the trilogy well."

Killswitch & The Blade Itself: Come for the Battles, Stay for the Characters

Two more great Pyr reviews in my in-box this morning.

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist says that Joel Shepherd's third and finale (for now) Cassandra Kresnov novel, Killswitch,is "yet another intelligent, action-packed and kick-ass scifi thriller!" Patrick says the book is "highly recommended" and explains that, "The characterization is probably my favorite aspect of this trilogy. Cassandra's moral awakening has been a fascinating facet to follow thus far, and I like how the author raises a number of philosophical issues through her character. Those moments are interwoven almost seamlessly into the plotlines, which is no small feat."

Overall, he finds the book, "A remarkable blend of political thriller and thrilling science fiction adventure... an exciting closing chapter to a terrific series. Shepherd brings the story to a satisfying ending, though the door is left open for possible sequels...Readers who relish strong female characters, complex storylines, and incredible action and battle scenes should give this trilogy a shot. Chances are they won't be disappointed!"

Meanwhile, Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin' Book Reviews weighs in on Joe Abercrombie's debut fantasy, The Blade Itself." Sprinkled with political intrigue and short, messy battles, The Blade Itself is packed with action for sure, but it's also an amazing work of character development. Abercrombie's characters are profane, complex and never boring..."

And, in something that made me smile, they add, "I finally have a rival for The Name of the Wind as my favorite book of the year."

Joel Sheperd Attains Critical Mass

Don D'ammassa's Critical Mass reviews Joel Shepherd's forthcoming Killswitch: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel,which he calls, "Space opera the way it ought to be written."

"My favorite android is back. ...Espionage, battles, secrets revealed, escapes, political intrigue, personality clashes, high adventure, outer space – it’s all here. Easily the best of the three. I hope there’s more on their way. Most novels with this general background get caught up in the military content and forget about the characters. Shepherd manages to keep everything in balance. "

And, of course, we're still excited about Publishers Weekly's "Robert Ludlum meets Elizabeth Moon in this classic military SF adventure, buoyed by Shepherd's knack for balancing crisp action with characters you can really root for."

Various and Sundry

Great Publishers Weekly review for Joel Shepherd's forthcoming Killswitch, the third and final (?) book in the Cassandra Kresnov series. PW loves the book, which they describe as, “Robert Ludlum meets Elizabeth Moon in this classic military SF adventure, buoyed by Shepherd’s knack for balancing crisp action with characters you can really root for.”

Nothing to argue with there, right?

Meanwhile, Fantasy Book Critic proclaims that “not only was The Blade Itselfbetter than I could have hoped for, but I find it hard to imagine anyone not liking this fantasy extravaganza…” Most appreciated are the comparisons to Glen Cook, Scott Lynch & Steven Erikson, as is the sentiment that, with it's traditional quest set up, Abercrombie's book is “simultaneously an homage to fantasy of old, a satirical riff on clichés common within the genre, and a contemporary revision.”