The Geomancer

11/11/08

Spring/Summer 2009: A Look at the Future

Want another reason to feel good about the future?
Here's a peak at our Spring/Summer 2009 Season:

March:
Tom Lloyd, The Twilight Herald (Book Two of the Twilight Reign)
Less than a year after being plucked from obscurity and poverty the charismatic new Lord of the Farlan finds himself unprepared to deal with the attempt on his life that now spells war, and the possibility of rebellion waiting for him at home.

Matthew Sturges, Midwinter
Mauritaine once heroic Captain in the Seelie Army, now accused of treason and sentenced to life without parole, is offered one last chance to redeem himself, an opportunity to regain his freedom and his honor in the secrete service of Queen Titania.

April:
Ian McDonald, Brasyl(coming in trade paperback!)
Be seduced, amazed, and shocked by one of the world’s greatest and strangest nations. Past, present, and future Brazil, with all its color, passion, and shifting realities, come together in a novel that is part SF, part history, part mystery, and entirely enthralling.

James Enge, Blood of Ambrose
Behind the King's life stands the menacing Protector, and beyond him lies the Protector's Shadow... Against this evil, Morlock Ambrosius--stateless person, master of all magical makers, deadly swordsman, and hopeless drunk.

May:
Joel Shepherd, Crossover(coming in mass market!)
The first novel in a series that follows the adventures of Cassandra Kresnov, an android created by the League, one side of an interstellar war against the more powerful, conservative Federation. The product of an experimental design and dangerously intelligent, Cassandra raises probing questions and experiences moral awakening. Soon she has deserted the League in search of a new life in the territory of the Federation.

Sean Williams, The Hanging Mountains(Books of the Cataclsym: Three) (coming in trade paperback!)
In this third installment of Williams's Books of the Cataclysm, Sal and his companions seek the source of the flood in the legendary Hanging Mountains, hoping to head off a crisis that was put in motion a thousand years ago. They uncover uncomfortable truths about the world and how it relates to the one that came before — our world.

Mark Chadbourn, World's End(Age of Misrule 1)
A dragon firebombs a freeway. Shapeshifters stalk the commercial district. The deadly Wild Hunt wreaks havoc on the highway. The Age of Misrule has dawned. In times of trouble, heroes arise!

June:
Joel Shepherd, Breakaway(coming in mass market!)
Cassandra Kresnov is a highly advanced hunter-killer android. She has escaped the League and fled to Callay, a member of the Federation. Breakaway is a great story with a cracking plot and strong characters. At its heart is the enigma of Cassandra: Is she more human than human, or is she totally untrustworthy?

Mark Chadbourn, Darkest Hour(Age of Misrule 2)
The Eternal Conflict between the Light and Dark once again blackens the skies and blights the land. And in the middle are the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, determined to use the strange power that binds them to the land in a last, desperate attempt to save the human race.

July:
Joel Shepherd, Killswitch(coming in mass market!)
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. 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.

Ian McDonald, Desolation Road
It all began 30 years ago on Mars, with a greenperson. But by the time it all finished, the town of Desolation Road had experienced every conceivable abnormality…

Mark Chadbourn, Always Forever (Age of Misrule 3)
Mankind’s days appear numbered. Our only hope – the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons – are scattered and broken after a terrible defeat. Their last chance may lie in the great court of the old gods, reached by an otherworldly ship filled with fantastical and frightening creatures.

August:
Mike Resnick, Stalking the Dragon(A Fable of Tonight)
It’s Valentine's Day and private detective John Justin Mallory must undertake a nocturnal hunt for the miniature dragon that takes him to some of the stranger sections of his magical Manhattan.

Justina Robson’s Chasing the Dragon(Quantum Gravity Book Four)
Returning to the life of a guns-blazing secret agent, cyborg Lila Black finds herself having inherited all of her former boss's old offices and whatever mysteries they contain… But there are more immediate concerns. Like resurrecting her lover, Zal. And her husband, the demon Teazle, is embroiled in a fatal plot in Demonia, and her magic sword is making itself happy as a pen whose writing has the power to affect other worlds. The world is off its rocker and most everyone is terrified of faeries.

I'll say more about these individual titles as we get closer to 2009, debuting more cover art as it comes in, and profiling some of the new authors and introducing them to you. Meanwhile, you can download a PDF of the whole Spring/Summer 2009 catalog here. But for now, what do you think?

18 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:54 AM

    The Misrule series sounds great and I love it when a series is released in quick succession. Great to see your doing another Stalking book.

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  2. Looking forward most to the Resnick and the Robson. Really, though, it looks like a great lineup of reading goodness.

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  3. HI Michael, if this 3-in-1 works we'll do it again. We've got another Chadbourn in the works for the fall, and putting Misrule out like this helps get him some "instant shelf presence" in American bookshelves. (And he's totally worth it.)

    Michael and Jvstin - great to hear such enthusiasm for the Mallory books! (I love that cover too).

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  4. Oh no! My books-to-read pile is going to grow some more!

    The most will-try-to-wait-patiently-for book is (no surprise) Desolace. And is that a Martiniere cover? It has a very delicate, romantic feel to it - for some reason it makes me think of Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa.

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  5. That is indeed a Martiniere on Desolation Road. Quite a few people have remarked that it looks suitably steampunk in subject and design, though that didn't occur to me until it was pointed out.

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  6. Another top-notch line up Lou. Looks like it's slanting more towards fantasy in the past. Was that a conscious decision?

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  7. Yes/no. I saw a dearth of fantasy last year and moved to address it. At the same time, two major SF works in the pipeline were delayed for personal reasons on the part of their respective authors. They'll be more SF works coming in in the latter half of '09 and early '10 though and the pendulum will swing back. More on those later!

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  8. Please don't say that McDonald's Cyberabad is one of the books being delayed! Not after I read them in the Fast Forward ! & 2.

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  9. Looks good to me! I didn't know there was to be a fourth Quantum Gravity book (haven't read the third yet), so that excites me the most.

    Otherwise, I think the Chadbourn has to be the most interesting of the set and it's a solid lineup of stuff I'd very much like to read.

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  10. Hi Ces: No, none of these are delayed. The delayed books were pushed back a season and so hence not in the list. All these books are right on schedule.

    Hi Joe: Well, there are 7 realms so potentially there are 7 books in the series. Not that they are exactly moving in a one-realm-per-book sequence or anything. It's just nice symmetry. The Chadbourn are *amazing* but I'm very proud of the whole season. Okay, when am I not? But really, check out the Enge and the Sturges.

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  11. Anonymous8:52 PM

    It all looks great -- but I am very glad that you're reprinting DESOLATION ROAD! Long ago lost my mass market pb copy...

    Robert

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  12. And such a beautiful story it is too.

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  13. Anonymous4:37 PM

    Some of those books look and sound great - the covers for Mark Chadbourn's Misrule books are truly stunning. I'll be adding some of those to my list and getting them once they're released, they'll certainly be plenty to keep me entertained!

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  14. Thanks Mark. The Chadbourn covers are by John Picacio. They aren't even finished, but he took them to WFC and everyone who saw them was blown away. I was so so so happy with them. I am really proud of this whole season, and have high hopes for our debut authors - Chadbourn, Enge, and Sturges. Hope you'll come back and share your thoughts on the ones you read.

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  15. Anonymous5:47 PM

    I definitely will do, although it's likely to be later in the year once the sci-fi titles come out. I'll be soon investing in Edelman's books so I'll let you know how I get on with them, they sound like just the sort I'd enjoy :)

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  16. Wonderful. The Edelman are fantastic examples of plausible future world-building. I'll be very curious for your opinion.

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  17. Looking forward to getting "Desolation Road" given the condition of my paperback copy!

    And a little bird has told me that you're doing "Quiet War" by McAuley. Hot dang!

    Now if you'll just announce eBooks, my day will be complete.

    :)

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  18. Probably won't announce it today, but not too far off.

    And yes - hot dang indeed!

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