Tag: fantasy books

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OUT NOW: Snowblooded by Emma Sterner-Radley

Happy book birthday to Snowblooded by Emma Sterner-Radley!

The Princess Bride meets Six of Crows in this queer Scandinavian fantasy romp, where a pair of rival assassins must team up to kill the mysterious leader of their city’s illegal magic trade.

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Valour and Petrichor are esteemed members of the Order of Axsten, an assassin’s guild tasked with keeping order in the rough city of Vinterstock. Plucked from the streets as children and raised to compete for their guild’s approval, Valour uses her brawn to survive, while Petrichor strives to be a gentleman assassin. When they’re given their biggest job yet—to kill Brandquist, the mysterious leader of the city’s illegal magic trade—it’s a recipe for disaster. If they can quell their rivalry long enough, the reward will be enough to settle their debts with the Order and start new lives.

If this job wasn’t dangerous enough, Valour is saddled with protecting the aristocrat, Ingrid Rytterdahl. Valour finds her dangerously attractive, but Petrichor can’t wait to be rid of them both. He begrudgingly accepts Ingrid’s knowledge and connections as they navigate the city’s criminal underbelly in pursuit of Brandquist.

As secrets bubble to the surface, the duo must outwit the thugs on their tail, keep Ingrid alive, and—hardest of all—work together without murdering each other.

“Swashbuckling adventure, sweeping romance, and wit as sharp as an assassin’s knife come together to create a quintessentially delightful read.” —S.T. Gibson, author of A Dowry of Blood

“Oceans Eleven meets queer nordic assassins in this thrillride fantasy debut. Valour and Petrichor are a fatally flawed (and flawlessly fatal) duo who must overcome their distaste and distrust of each other in order to outwit a target who will otherwise destroy both of them.” —Sunyi Dean, author of The Book Eaters

“Bursting with twisty intrigue, fascinating worldbuilding and two leads whose tongues are as sharp as their knives, Snowblooded is a banter-filled fantasy delight.” —Frances White, Sunday Times bestselling author of Voyage of the Damned

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Solaris Nova to publish Regency fantasy trilogy by Natania Barron

We’re delighted to announce the latest addition to the Solaris Nova family: Netherford Hall by Natania Barron.

The first in a brand new trilogy combining the Regency era with witchcraft, Netherford Hall is a sapphic historical fantasy in which Gentlewitch Edith Rookwood and her family return to their ancestral seat of Netherford Hall in Kent, England following a mysterious fire in their London home. It’s there Edith faces a new threat in the form of her tenant: the chaotic and lovely Poppy Brightwell.

The women can’t deny the attraction growing between them, but Edith needs to marry for money to save her new home from usurpers—and Poppy’s very soul is at risk when she discovers the bargain her parents made with a being they thought was a witch.

Netherford Hall will hit shelves in August 2024!

World All Languages Rights were acquired by David Moore from Stacey Graham at 3 Seas Literary Agency.

For press enquiries please contact Jess Gofton, PR & Marketing Manager: jess.gofton@rebellion.co.uk

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Solaris snaps up Karin Lowachee’s dragon novella trilogy The Crowns of Ishia

Solaris is delighted to announce the acquisition of The Crowns of Ishia trilogy, including The Mountain Crown, The Desert Talon and a sequel, by Karin Lowachee.

Meka’s nomadic people, the Ba’Suon, were driven from their homeland by the Kattakans. Decades later, under a fragile truce, Meka returns for an ancient and necessary rite: culling a king dragon of the Crown Mountains to maintain balance in the wild country.

Accompanied by an imprisoned dragon, a Kattakan veteran of war and a Ba’Suon traitor, Meka soon discovers the survival of the Ba’Suon people, their dragons, and the land itself will depend on the choices she and her companions make in this gunslinging fantasy of colonialism and resistance.

World English Rights were acquired by Amy Borsuk from Tamara Kawar at DeFiore & Company.

The Mountain Crown will be released in October 2024.

Author Karin Lowachee on the acquisition:

“I am absolutely thrilled to be a new part of the team at Solaris with The Mountain Crown and its sequels. I know my stories will thrive in the hands of Solaris as we work together to shepherd them into fruition. My heartfelt gratitude to Amy Borsuk and everyone at Solaris who are just as excited as I am to dive in!”

Acquiring Editor Amy Borsuk:

“I am absolutely thrilled to be working with Karin Lowachee on this incredible series. At long last, I get to work on an epic dragon fantasy! I loved this series from the first page and I’m so excited to bring it to fantasy readers across the globe. Karin is able to pack a full world rich with dragons, personal traumas, intense cultural histories and politics of colonialism and empire into the novella form with such ease. Come for the dragons, stay for the beautiful storytelling, compelling characters and gunslinging flavour.”

Karin Lowachee was born in South America, grew up in Canada, and worked in the Arctic. She has been a creative writing instructor, adult education teacher, and volunteer in a maximum security prison. Her novels have been translated into French, Hebrew, and Japanese, and her short stories have been published in numerous anthologies, best-of collections, and magazines. When she isn’t writing, she serves at the whim of a black cat.

For press enquiries please contact Jess Gofton, PR & Marketing Manager: jess.gofton@rebellion.co.uk.

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Revealing the cover of Queen of None by Natania Barron

We’re so delighted to reveal the stunning cover of Queen of None by Natania Barron, designed by Nat Mackenzie!

In the first instalment of her stunning Queens of Fate trilogy, Natania Barron gives a voice to King Arthur’s oft-forgotten sister, Anna Pendragon, in a feminist historical fantasy for fans of The Cleaving and My Name is Morgan.

Anna will be remembered. May 2024.

When Anna Pendragon was born, Merlin prophesied: “Through all the ages, and in the hearts of men, you will be forgotten.”

Married at twelve, and a mother soon after, Anna – the famed King Arthur’s sister – did not live a young life full of promise, myth, and legend. She bore three strong sons and delivered the kingdom of Orkney to her brother by way of her marriage. She did as she was asked, invisible and useful for her name, her status, her dowry, and her womb.

Twenty years after she left her home, Anna returns to Carelon at Arthur’s bidding, carrying the crown of her now-dead husband, Lot of Orkney. Past her prime and confined to the castle itself, she finds herself yet again a pawn in greater machinations and seemingly helpless to do anything about it.

Anna must once again face the demons of her childhood: her sisters Morgen, Elaine, and Morgause; Merlin and his scheming Avillion priests; and Bedevere, the man she once loved. To say nothing of new court visitors, like Lanceloch, or the trouble concerning her own sons.

Carelon, and all of Braetan, is changing, though, and Anna must change along with it. New threats, inside and out, lurk in the shadows, and a strange power begins to awaken in her. As she learns to reconcile her dark gift, and struggles to keep the power to herself, she must bargain her own strength, and family, against her ambition and thirst for revenge.

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Solaris to publish The Spear Cuts Through Water for the UK

Solaris is delighted to announce the acquisition of The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez for the UK.

Shortlisted for an Ignyte Award, British Fantasy Award and the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize, The Spear Cuts Through Water is a stunning and ambitious fantasy saga told as a story within a story that explores identity, legacy and belonging, in a tale of a god who escapes from their prison beneath a despotic emperor’s palace.

The Spear Cuts Through Water will be released in March 2024. UK/BC Rights were acquired by Amanda Rutter from Rachel Kind at Del Rey.

Author Simon Jimenez on the acquisition:

“I’m thrilled to be working with the Solaris team on the UK release for The Spear Cuts Through Water, and so excited to share the book with the new readership.”

Acquiring Editor Amanda Rutter:

“At London Book Fair, I was bowled over to realise that the UK rights to the most beautiful novel I have read in years, possibly ever, were still available. I immediately started the work to bring The Spear Cuts Through Water to a new readership, and I am delighted that Simon agreed to be published by Solaris. I am honoured to think that this breath-taking, clever and epic novel is going to be a part of our list. It deserves every single award nomination and plaudit it has received!”

Simon Jimenez is a Filipino-American writer of speculative fiction. His debut novel was The Vanished Birds and The Spear Cuts Through Water is his second novel. Jimenez’s works have received critical praise, with his debut novel being nominated for the 2021 Locus Award for Best First Novel and the 2021 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Jimenez himself was nominated for the 2021 Astounding Award for Best New Writer.

For press enquiries please contact Jess Gofton, PR & Marketing Manager: jess.gofton@rebellion.co.uk.

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OUT NOW: The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang

We’re wishing The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang the happiest of book birthdays!

The Chinese classic Water Margin is reimagined through a queer, feminist lens in this lush wuxia epic that will delight fans of She Who Became the Sun and The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi.

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In the jianghu, you break the law to make it your own.

Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor, training the Emperor’s soldiers in sword and truncheon, battle axe and spear, lance and crossbow. Unlike bolder friends who flirt with challenging the unequal hierarchies and values of Imperial society, she believes in keeping her head down and doing her job.

Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully-built life away.

Disgraced, tattooed as a criminal, and on the run from an Imperial Marshall who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Lin Chong is recruited by the Bandits of Liangshan. Mountain outlaws on the margins of society, the Liangshan Bandits proclaim a belief in justice―for women, for the downtrodden, for progressive thinkers a corrupt Empire would imprison or destroy. They’re also murderers, thieves, smugglers, and cutthroats.

Apart, they love like demons and fight like tigers. Together, they could bring down an empire.

“S. L. Huang doesn’t put a foot wrong in this magisterial epic.”—Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun

“This queer retelling of a Chinese classic is a fantastic and entertaining blend of action, humor, profanity, social justice, delightfully larger-than-life characters, and so many magnificent fight scenes!”—Kate Elliott, bestselling author of Unconquerable Sun

“A refreshing, engaging interpretation of a cornerstone of Chinese literature for contemporary readers around the world.”—Xueting C. Ni, editor of the British Fantasy Award-winning Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction

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Saint Death’s Daughter is a World Fantasy Award nominee!

The nominees for this year’s World Fantasy Awards have been announced and we’re beyond excited to share the news that Saint Death’s Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney is nominated for Best Novel!

The winners will be announced at the 2023 World Fantasy Convention, which is due to take place at the Sheraton Crown Center in Kansis City, MO from 26-29 October 2023.

Check out the full list of finalists here!

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OUT NOW: Charming by Jade Linwood

We’re wishing Charming by Jade Linwood a very happy book birthday!

Shrek meets John Tucker Must Die in this reimagined fairy tale of con artistry, vengeance and girl power.

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Brave, Resourceful, Deceitful, Double-Crossing… Charming.

Prince Jean-Marc Charming Arundel, known to friends and enemies alike as “Prince Charming,” is handsome, well-mannered, brave, a peerless swordsman, a cunning tactician – and a liar, a con man and a fraud. For years he has been travelling from one kingdom to the next, rescuing endangered princesses and maidens, securing their troths and his place in their fathers’ palaces, then looting their treasuries and having it away before dawn.

Until a chance meeting of three of his victims – raven-haired Marie Blanche de Neige, the sorceress Doctor Emilia Rapunzel and the long-slumbering Bella Lucia dei’ Sogni – suggests a course of revenge…

“Fans of Alix E. Harrow’s Fractured Fables series or Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson’s The Tales of Pell series will enjoy this story”—Library Journal

“Delightful”—Booklist

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Solaris to publish swashbuckling queer historical fantasy by Emma Sterner-Radley

Solaris has acquired queer Scandinavian historical fantasy Snowblooded by Emma Sterner-Radley.

State-sanctioned assassins Valour and Petrichor were plucked from the streets of 18th century Vinterstock as children and raised to be rivals. When brash butch Valour and uptight dandy Petrichor are given the job of co-assassinating their city’s elusive seller of illegal magic tonics, they must quell their bickering long enough to buy their way out of the abusive order that reared them and into a normal life.

Snowblooded will be released in Summer 2024.

World All Language Rights excluding North America were acquired by Amy Borsuk from Abner Stein in association with Speilburg Literary Agency.

Emma Sterner-Radley on the acquisition:

“I am beyond thrilled to be working with the great team at Solaris and to get a chance to not only share my love of the history and mythology of my native country, but also to write the LGBTQIA characters that mirror my own experiences!”

Editor Amy Borsuk:

“Emma has created an absolutely uproarious romp with characters that will warm your heart and then break it. Her writing is several parts wit and swashbuckle with a beautiful helping of rich worldbuilding and intriguing storytelling. I can’t wait for readers to meet our assassins Petrichor and Valour, and the indomitable Ingrid!”

Emma Sterner-Radley is an ex-librarian turned fantasy author. Originally Swedish, she now lives with her wife and two grumpy old cats in the U.K. She spends her time writing, reading, daydreaming, lifting weights, and watching whatever is the most gay on TV.

For press enquiries please contact Jess Gofton, PR & Marketing Manager: jess.gofton@rebellion.co.uk.

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Revealing the UK cover of The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang!

This International Women’s Day we’re beyond excited to reveal the gorgeous UK cover of S. L. Huang’s forthcoming queer wuxia fantasy, The Water Outlaws!

Inspired by the Chinese classic Water Margin, The Water Outlaws is a rich epic fantasy for fans of Shelley Parker-Chan, Ken Liu and Fonda Lee. It’s out in the UK this August and will be available to pre-order very soon!

In the jianghu, you break the law to make it your own.

Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor, training the Emperor’s soldiers in sword and truncheon, battle axe and spear, lance and crossbow. Unlike bolder friends who flirt with challenging the unequal hierarchies and values of Imperial society, she believes in keeping her head down and doing her job.

Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully-built life away.

Disgraced, tattooed as a criminal, and on the run from an Imperial Marshall who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Lin Chong is recruited by the Bandits of Liangshan. Mountain outlaws on the margins of society, the Liangshan Bandits proclaim a belief in justice―for women, for the downtrodden, for progressive thinkers a corrupt Empire would imprison or destroy. They’re also murderers, thieves, smugglers, and cutthroats.

Apart, they love like demons and fight like tigers. Together, they could bring down an empire.