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OUT NOW: We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson

We’re wishing the happiest of book birthdays to We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson!

A beautifully melancholic literary sci-fi for fans of Emily St. John Mandel and Zoe Gilbert, We Are All Ghosts in the Forest unravels in a world set in the aftermath of the internet’s collapse—a world haunted by its ghosts and a rampant digital disease, where a woman and the wordless boy with her name in his pocket search for the truth, and a possible cure.

When the internet collapsed, it took the world with it, leaving its digital ghosts behind – and they are hungry. Former photojournalist Katerina fled the overrun cities to the relative safety of her grandmother’s village on the edge of a forest, where she lives a solitary life of herbal medicine and beekeeping.

When a wordless boy finds her in the marketplace with nothing but her name in his pocket, her curiosity won’t allow her to turn him away. But haunting his arrival are rumours of harvest failure and a rampant digital disease stirring up the ghosts, and the mood in the village starts to sour.

Accused of witchcraft, Katerina and Stefan escape into the forest, searching for his missing father and the truth behind the disease. If there is a cure, Katerina alone might find it, but first she must find the courage to trust others – because the ghosts that follow her aren’t just digital.

“Haunting and atmospheric, with a really excellent ghost cat.” —Naomi Kritzer, Hugo Award-winning author of “The Year Without Sunshine”

“Eerie and original.” SFX

“A poignant and lyrical portrayal of intimate frailties and quiet strength.” —Nicholas Binge, author of Ascension

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OUT NOW: Interstellar MegaChef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan

We’re wishing Interstellar MegaChef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan a very happy book birthday!

This sophomore novel from the Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated author of The Ten Percent Thief explores colonialism, classism, and the future of food in a sci-fi tale following one woman’s determination to win the greatest cooking competition in the galaxy. It’s out now in North America, but don’t worry UK fans – it’ll be on bookshelves near you this Thursday!

Looking for your one shot to rise to the “top of the pots” in the cutthroat world of interstellar cuisine? Look no further—you might have what it takes to be an Interstellar MegaChef!

Stepping off a long-haul star freighter from Earth, Saras Kaveri has one bag of clothes, her little flying robot Kili… and an invitation to compete in the galaxy’s most watched, most prestigious cooking show. Interstellar MegaChef is the showcase of the planet Primus’s austere, carefully synthesised cuisine. Until now, no-one from Earth—where they’re so incredibly primitive they still cook with fire—has ever graced its flowmetal cookstations before, or smiled awkwardly for its buzzing drone-cams.

Corporate prodigy Serenity Ko, inventor of the smash-hit sim SoundSpace, has just got messily drunk at a floating bar, narrowly escaped an angry mob and been put on two weeks’ mandatory leave to rest and get her work-life balance back. Perfect time to start a new project! And she’s got just the idea: a sim for food. Now she just needs someone to teach her how to cook.

A chance meeting in the back of a flying cab has Saras and Serenity Ko working together on a new technology that could change the future of food—and both their lives—forever…

“A lot of fun.” New Scientist

“An engaging story that dives into themes about the appreciation of food, colonization, and xenophobia and features two morally gray queer women attempting to find their footing with each other.” Library Journal, starred review

“Absolutely bursting with flavor and thrumming with possibility – this is science fiction at its best.” —Tashan Mehta, author of Mad Sisters of Esi

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OUT NOW: Lady Eve’s Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow

We’re wishing Lady Eve’s Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow a very happy book birthday! It’s out today in the US and will be released in the UK on Thursday 6 June.

Con artist Ruth’s quest for revenge against the man who broke her sister’s heart is complicated when she meets his unfairly attractive sister in this sapphic sci-fi rom-com!

Ruth Johnson and her sister Jules have been small-time hustlers on the interstellar cruise lines for years. But then Jules fell in love with one of their targets, Esteban Mendez-Yuki, sole heir to the family insurance fortune. Esteban seemed to love her too, until she told him who she really was, at which point he fled without a word.

Now Ruth is set on revenge: disguised as provincial debutante Evelyn Ojukwu and set for the swanky satellite New Monte, she’s going to make Esteban fall in love with her, then break his heart and take half his fortune. At least, that’s the plan. But Ruth hadn’t accounted for his older sister, Sol, a brilliant mind in a dashing suit… and much harder to fool.

Sol is hot on Ruth’s tail, and as the two women learn each other’s tricks, Ruth must decide between going after the money and going after her heart.

“A delightful story about what happens when the billionaire target of your galactic revenge plot has a terrifyingly sexy half-sister. It’s got zest, it’s got style, it’s got society balls, dramatic reversals, incredible outfits, and a beach episode. Fraimow knows exactly what she’s doing.” —Emily Tesh, author of Some Desperate Glory

Wildly fun and incredibly romantic, all the glitter of the Jazz Age and the brilliance of space opera in one story.” —Everina Maxwell, author of Winter’s Orbit

“Compulsively readable and totally delightful.” Publishers Weekly, starred review

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The Ten Percent Thief is an Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee!

We’re thrilled to see The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan on the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist!

The winner will be announced at a ceremony on 24th July 2024 and you can check out the full shortlist here.

Set in a futuristic Bangalore known as Apex City, where a person’s rights are dictated by their usefulness to society, The Ten Percent Thief is a fresh, dystopian mosaic novel following the city’s inhabitants from across the social spectrum—and the rebellion that’s brewing underneath it all…

For fans of Red Rising and Poster Girl, The Ten Percent Thief is out now in paperback, and Lavanya’s brand new novel, Interstellar MegaChef, is available to preorder!

Nothing has happened. Not yet, anyway. This is how all things begin.

Welcome to Apex City, formerly Bangalore, where everything is decided by the mathematically perfect Bell Curve.

With the right image, values and opinions, you can ascend to the glittering heights of the Twenty Percent – the Virtual elite – and have the world at your feet. Otherwise you risk falling to the precarious Ten Percent, and deportation to the ranks of the Analogs, with no access to electricity, running water or even humanity.

The system has no flaws. Until the elusive “Ten Percent Thief” steals a single jacaranda seed from the Virtual city and plants a revolution in the barren soil of the Analog world.

Previously published in South Asia only as Analog/Virtual, The Ten Percent Thief is a striking debut by a ferocious new talent.

“Lavanya Lakshminarayan breathes new life into dystopia” — The Washington Post

“Smart, vivid, engaging” — The Guardian

“A new masterpiece”SciFiNow

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Solaris snaps up new and backlist titles by Aliya Whiteley

Solaris is thrilled to announce the acquisition of two brand new novels, and four backlist titles, by Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated author Aliya Whiteley.

A meta coming of age tale of stories within stories, Three Eight One follows Rowena Savalas, a curator of the 21st century’s primitive internet in the year 2314, who stumbles upon a story posted online in the summer of 2024 that leads her to question her own life choices and whether the truth behind the story really matters at all.

Previously published by Unsung Stories, Solaris will also reissue The Beauty, The Loosening Skin, The Arrival of Missives and Greensmith, with a tenth anniversary edition of The Beauty to be published in Summer 2024.

Three Eight One will be released in January 2024. World All Languages Rights for Three Eight One and a second title and exclusive rights in all languages and territories for The Beauty, The Loosening Skin, The Arrival of Missives and Greensmith were acquired by David Moore from Max Edwards at Aevitas Creative Management. Titan will continue to sublicense North American English language rights to The Beauty, The Loosening Skin and The Arrival of Missives from Solaris, as they previously had from Unsung Stories.

Author Aliya Whiteley on the acquisition:

“It’s a delight and a reassurance to know that Solaris will be publishing my novels and novellas, starting with my latest novel of adventure and discovery, Three Eight One, from 2024. Many thanks to David Moore and all at Solaris for deciding to champion my stories into the future.”

Acquiring Editor David Moore:

“Aliya is a ferocious talent, creating some of the smartest, weirdest, most hauntingly beautiful stuff in genre at the moment, and it’s an honour to be a part of that. Three Eight One is a gorgeous book, a coming-of-age story that’s also a road trip that’s also an exploration of generational tension that’s also a meandering commentary on authorship and authenticity that’s also one of the coolest bits of metafiction you’ll read this year.”

Aliya Whiteley’s strange novels and novellas explore genre, and have been shortlisted for multiple awards including the Arthur C Clarke award, BFS and BSFA awards, and a Shirley Jackson award. Her short fiction has appeared in many places including Beneath Ceaseless Skies, F&SF, Strange Horizons, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Lonely Planet and The Guardian. She writes a regular non-fiction column for Interzone magazine.

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

For rights enquiries please contact Reitha Pattison, Rights Manager: reitha.pattison@rebellion.co.uk

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OUT NOW: The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu

We’re wishing The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu a very happy book birthday!

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is reimagined as a queer locked-room thriller in this debut novel from a dazzling new voice in SFF. Hayden Lichfield’s father is dead and over the course of 24 hours, in a lab on lockdown, he must discover the truth…

Hayden Lichfield’s life is ripped apart when he finds his father murdered in their lab, and the camera logs erased. The killer can only have been after one thing: the Sisyphus Formula the two of them developed together, which might one day reverse death itself.

Hoping to lure the killer into the open, Hayden steals the research. In the process, he uncovers a recording his father made in the days before his death, and a dying wish: Avenge me …

With the lab on lockdown, Hayden is trapped with four other people—his uncle Charles, lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, research intern Felicia Xia and their head of security, Felicia’s father Paul—one of whom must be the killer. His only sure ally is the lab’s resident artificial intelligence, Horatio, who has been his dear friend and companion since its creation. With his world collapsing, Hayden must navigate the building’s secrets, uncover his father’s lies, and push the boundaries of sanity in the pursuit of revenge.

“Oh, the tension! It will murder you.”—Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun

“The Death I Gave Him is the locked-room murder mystery queer Hamlet retelling of my dreams.”—Cassandra Khaw, author of The Salt Grows Heavy

“Liu’s prose cuts like a scalpel.”—Grace D. Li, author of Portrait of a Thief

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OUT NOW: The House of Saints by Derek Künsken

The House of Saints by Derek Künsken, the sequel to the critically-acclaimed The House of Styx, is out now!

The Venus Ascendant duology concludes in this stunning sci-fi family saga from the world of The Quantum Magician, where George-Étienne and his children fight to become one of the most powerful families the known galaxy has ever seen.

George-Étienne and his children have formed The House of Styx, after finding a mysterious artefact on the surface of Venus herself. But with the discovery comes great risk, not only from a planet that kills with its very touch but also from the banks and powers of old Earth, who will stop at nothing to claim this new technology for themselves.

From humble origins, The House of Styx is determined to become one of the most powerful families in the known galaxy or die trying.

“Künsken’s skillful narrative weaves together tension, wonder, and emotional depth… [his] visionary storytelling ensures that readers will be captivated until the very end.”—SciFiNow

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OUT NOW: A Second Chance for Yesterday by R. A. Sinn

We’re wishing A Second Chance for Yesterday by R. A. Sinn a very happy book birthday!

Fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife and In Five Years will adore this time-twisting standalone tale of family, redemption and queer love from a historian and futurist brother and sister writing duo.

Nev Bourne is a hotshot programmer for the latest and greatest tech invention out there: SavePoint, the brain implant that rewinds the seconds of all our most embarrassing moments. She’s been working non-stop on the next rollout, even blowing off her boyfriend, her best friend and her family to make SavePoint 2.0. But when she hits go on the test-run, she wakes up the next day only to discover it’s yesterday. She’s falling backwards in time, one day at a time.

As things spiral out of control, a long-lost friend from college reappears in her life claiming they know how to save her. Airin is charming and mysterious, and somehow knows Nev intimately well. Desperate and intrigued, Nev takes a leap of faith. A friendship born of fear slowly becomes a bond of deepest trust, and possibly love. With time running out, and the whole world of SavePoint users at stake, Nev must learn what it will take to set things right, and what it will cost.

“The authors infuse this plausible near future with clever science and heartwarming explorations of love and second chances. At the heart of this brilliant sci-fi conundrum is a deeply human story.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Fascinating and compelling.”—Booklist

“A gripping and thought-provoking take on time travel, entangled with an emotional thread that will crack your heart open.”—Ren Hutchings, author of Under Fortunate Stars

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Solaris acquires haunting literary sci-fi by Lorraine Wilson

Solaris is thrilled to announce the acquisition of We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson.

The internet is dead and its ghosts haunt us all. In a world without electronics and barely any politics, photojournalist Katerina flees to her grandmother’s village and a life of herbal medicine and beekeeping. When a wordless young boy is mysteriously entrusted into her care and rumours of harvest failure and a rampant digital disease start to swirl, they must escape into the dubious safety of the forest amidst accusations of witchcraft to search for the truth behind the disease.

We Are All Ghosts in the Forest will be released in November 2024. English Language UK/BC excluding Canada Rights were acquired by Amanda Rutter from Robbie Guillory at Underline Literary Agency.

Author Lorraine Wilson on the acquisition:

“I am truly delighted to be joining Solaris – they work with an amazing array of authors and are doing really exciting things across speculative fiction, so it will be an honour to become part of that. Amanda is a fantastic champion to have for my books and I know they are in the best possible hands with her. I have to confess I absolutely adore the characters and world in We Are All Ghosts In The Forest, so I cannot wait to see this story come to life under Solaris’ care, and to then be able to share it with readers. I feel like Orlando and Stefan are going to steal some hearts!”

Acquiring Editor Amanda Rutter:

“From the moment I started We Are All Ghosts in the Forest, I knew I was reading something special – it haunted me every time I wasn’t able to read it, and I couldn’t wait to get back to it. The beauty of the prose drew me in first, and then the warmth and hope of the character relationships had me all-in. I’ve been aware of Lorraine’s work for a while, and was thrilled to realise that this novel was just as special as what I had seen before, with themes of loss, love and belonging. I am delighted to welcome Lorraine to Solaris and can’t wait to bring We Are All Ghosts in the Forest to the reading public.”

A conservation scientist and third culture Scot, Lorraine Wilson lives by the sea writing stories influenced by folklore and the wilderness. She has a PhD from the University of St. Andrews but left academia and turned to writing due to disabling illness. Her debut novel, the dystopian thriller This Is Our Undoing, was a multi-award finalist. The follow up, a dark folkloric mystery The Way The Light Bends, was longlisted for the BSFA Best Novel award; and her third book, Mother Sea has recently released. It is an exploration of motherhood, climate change and belonging, and was called ‘complex, rich and beautifully crafted’ by Claire North, author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. Lorraine has been stalked by wolves and befriended pythons, she also runs the Rewriting The Margins mentorship scheme for marginalised writers.

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

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OUT NOW: The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan

We’re wishing The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan a very happy book birthday – it’s out now in North America!

In Apex City, formerly Bangalore, humanity’s relationship with technology and each other in this stunning dystopian mosaic novel from a dazzling new talent.

Nothing has happened. Not yet, anyway. This is how all things begin.

Welcome to Apex City, formerly Bangalore, where everything is decided by the mathematically perfect Bell Curve.

With the right image, values and opinions, you can ascend to the glittering heights of the Twenty Percent – the Virtual elite – and have the world at your feet. Otherwise you risk falling to the precarious Ten Percent, and deportation to the ranks of the Analogs, with no access to electricity, running water or even humanity.

The system has no flaws. Until the elusive “Ten Percent Thief” steals a single jacaranda seed from the Virtual city and plants a revolution in the barren soil of the Analog world.

Previously published in South Asia only as Analog/Virtual, The Ten Percent Thief is a striking debut by a ferocious new talent.

“A new masterpiece” — SciFiNow

“As satisfying as it is clever” — Publishers Weekly

“Lakshminarayan expertly packages a warning that will only get more relevant with time” — STARBURST Magazine

“Impressive” — SFX

“Playful and crushing in equal measure” — FanFiAddict