Posts Tagged ‘horror’

New Newsflesh Fiction: HOW GREEN THIS LAND, HOW BLUE THIS SEA

How Green This LandThe Newsflesh trilogy was, by and large, the story of a post-zombie America. The apocalypse had come, we had survived and even thrived in our own weird way, and now it was time to follow first a Presidential campaign and now the backlash from same as it unfolded. There were hints throughout the books of the way the Rising had treated and continued to treat other countries–London was still standing, large swaths of Canada had been abandoned, almost the entire Indian sub-continent was currently considered “lost”–but the nature of the story I was telling in those books meant that we were somewhat geographically constrained. Meanwhile, the entire world was dealing with the Kellis-Amberlee virus, and the resulting “whoops we accidentally raised the dead” issues that came with it.

Now, for what looks like a total subject change:

I love venomous snakes. I think they’re beautiful, fascinating, and worthy of study. Which naturally means that I love Australia, a continent which contains more venomous snakes than anybody really needs (even me). Visiting Australia in 2010 was the culmination of a life-long dream, and I immediately (as is my wont) started contemplating how Australia would deal with the Rising. Probably like everybody else, I decided: running, screaming, dying, and gunfire. Not necessarily a story that needed to be told.

Ah, but how would they deal with things after the Rising? From that question came HOW GREEN THIS LAND, HOW BLUE THIS SEA (US | UK) which I literally described as “animal husbandry in Australia, with zombies” whenever anyone asked me what it was going to be about. That was, of course, the simple answer. It’s about perception versus reality; safety versus freedom; what constitutes an acceptable risk; what lines have to be drawn between humanity and the natural world; and zombie kangaroos. The zombie kangaroos are, of course, key.

If you haven’t read the Newsflesh books, you probably shouldn’t read HOW GREEN THIS LAND, HOW BLUE THIS SEA. Unlike the previous two novellas set in this universe (COUNTDOWN [US | UK] and “SAN DIEGO 2014: THE LAST STAND OF THE CALIFORNIA BROWNCOATS [US | UK]), this isn’t about what came before the series: it’s about one of the things that came after, and while not every character who made it through the trilogy alive shows up “onscreen,” most of them are mentioned at least in passing. You most definitely can read it anyway–nobody’s going to stop you, least of all me–but I think you might be happier if you read the books first.

If you have read the Newsflesh books, this is your opportunity to follow Mahir Gowda into a part of the post-zombie world that you haven’t seen before, and watch him try to deal with it without just turning around and going back to bed.

I like it quite a lot. I hope that you will, too.

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HOW GREEN THIS LAND, HOW BLUE THIS SEA is available now in the US and on July 17th in the UK.

 

PARASITE: Join us at SymboGen.net

symbogen-twitter2A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease. We owe our good health to a humble parasite – a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation.

This Fall Mira Grant debuts in hardcover with PARASITE (US | UK) – a new series from the bestselling author of the Newsflesh Trilogy. In anticipation of the big release, SymboGen is opening its doors to you.

Visit SymboGen.net for news and product information about the revolutionary Intestinal Bodyguard or follow the corporation on Twitter. On the website, you’ll also be able to pre-order your copy of PARASITE and sign-up for alerts about Mira Grant’s publishing activity.

For those of you attending BEA today, we’re giving away galleys of PARASITE and antibacterial hand sanitizer while supplies last. Look for the “friendly” SymboGen staff at booth #1828 for assistance.

parasite-giveaways

Robert Jackson Bennett’s genre-bending AMERICAN ELSEWHERE

Bennet_AmericanElsewhere_TPThe Los Angeles Review of Books‘s profile of Robert Jackson Bennett explores Bennett’s entire genre-bending speculative oeuvre, from the Edgar Award-winning THE COMPANY MAN (US | UK | AUS)  to last month’s AMERICAN ELSEWHERE (US | UK | AUS).

“There’s always an awkward moment in reviews of Bennett’s work when the reviewer tries to sum up his genre affiliations in a couple of words. Niall Ferguson called The Company Man “a love letter to airships and acid noir — by way of steampunk, sci-fi and murder mystery.” FantasyLiterature.com calls his latest book “classical mythology, Lovecraftian gothic, quantum science and what’s-in-the-woods horror.” Bennett himself once described his debut novel Mr. Shivers as “magical realist/fantastical/horror/whatever-the-reviewer-wants-to-call-it-that-day.”

Read the whole article.

The Los Angeles Times also reviewed AMERICAN ELSEWHERE, which they said “manages to surprise, terrify and move the reader.” You can read the full review here.

HITCHERS by Will McIntosh – be careful who you give a ride to . . .

Hitchers, a chilling supernatural/horror tale about the dead coming back to haunt the living, from the Hugo Award-winning Will McIntosh, author of SOFT APOCALYPSE, Bridesicle and LOVE MINUS EIGHTYThis month Orbit UK digitally released two titles from an award-winning author. I can honestly say that these two novels have affected me so deeply, stayed with me so long, that I just want everyone to read them. EVERYONE. So it’s just darn lucky I work in publishing, meaning I can actually help bring these books to you . . . (And yes, this is the best job in the world).

The Hugo Award-winning Will McIntosh has already talked about his debut science fiction novel SOFT APOCALYPSE here, so today I wanted to focus on his other title released this month – HITCHERS.

HITCHERS is a hard book to define. Part horror story, part contemporary supernatural tale, part post-apocalyptic adventure, part touching tale of grief and redemption. But ALL compulsively readable. Chilling, amusing, sad, creepy, gripping, and deeply, deeply affecting.

To start with, the book has just about my favourite prologue ever. Read it here, and see a brief excerpt below:

“You don’t think she’ll get fired, do you?” Lorena had asked drowsily as we drifted. “I didn’t mean to get her in trouble, even though she was incredibly rude to me.” She was still ruminating about the argument she’d had with our waitress at the Blue Boy Diner. I was ruminating about the argument I’d had with my grandfather that morning, which had far greater implications for our future.

What I didn’t know at the time was that we had no future. We had about twenty-five minutes.

Someone is about to die . . . and this opening sets up one of the most fantastically-crafted and creepy tales you’ll read. In fact, in not too long, a terrorist attack is about to wipe out half the population of Finn Darby’s home city.

With all this destruction around, it’s expected that everyone would be pretty upset. But what isn’t expected is the mass phenomenon that starts to occur after the attack. People start to blurt out voices beyond their control. They appear to be taken over by a sinister unknown force, and can do very little about it. What’s so disturbing is that these voices sound freakishly similar to the voices of the recently deceased, that somehow the dead seem to be “hitching” onto the living . . .

If I say much more then I’ll be giving away too much, but what I really want to get across is how  addictive this book is, how intelligent and multi-layered the writing, how intriguingly unsettling Will McIntosh’s view of the afterlife, how heart-wrenchingly attached you’ll become to his characters.

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Love-Minus-Eighty, a tale of love, loss and technology 100 years in the future,, from the Hugo Award-winning Will McIntosh, author of SOFT APOCALYPSE, HTICHERS and BridesicleSo the moral of the story is – you need to read this (and that’s not even with my publishing hat on).

You also need to look out for LOVE MINUS EIGHTY, which will be a big worldwide release from Orbit next summer.

And you also need to put pressure on Film4 to make sure that they actually make a film out of the rights they optioned for ‘Bridesicle’, the Hugo award-winning short story that LOVE MINUS EIGHTY is based on, because it would make the best, most wonderfully weird, chilling and entertaining movie ever.

Get mobilised people – let’s make this happen.

Cover launch: SOFT APOCALYPSE and HITCHERS by Will McIntosh

The science fiction novel Love Minus Eighty, abotu love and loss int he future, based on the award-winning short story Bridesicle from Will McIntoshYou might have noticed a new name starring on the Orbit schedule for next year: the phenomenal talent Will McIntosh.

Why we think he’s exceptional – why we were all desperate for him to join the Orbit list – is that he writes not only ground-breaking science fiction, but also some of the most moving, touching, and simply human stories you’ll ever read. They’ve affected me deeply – and I can’t imagine how anyone could read his novels without being equally entertained and moved.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that Will already has a Hugo Award to his name, as well as nominations for the Nebula, Locus, John W. Campbell and Compton Crook awards.

Next June, Orbit is launching a worldwide release for Will’s novel LOVE MINUS EIGHTY, a spectacular full-length novel based on Will’s Hugo Award-winning short story, BRIDESICLE. It imagines love and loss 100 years into the future, in a world where technology has reached the outer limits of morality and romance. Check out the cool cover above.

Soft Apocalypse, a debut science fiction novel from the Hugo Award-winning author Will McIntoshHowever, we know that it’s a long time to wait till June to see just what kind of stunning fiction this author is producing. So this December, in the UK, Australia and New Zealand we’re releasing ebook editions of two titles previously only released in the US: SOFT APOCALYPSE and HITCHERS. They’ll both be available to buy digitally on 6th December 2012.

SOFT APOCALYPSE, which was nominated for the Locus, John W. Campbell and Compton Crook Awards, is Will’s debut novel. It asks the question: what if the world isn’t destined to end as we always imagined it – in explosive, dramatic fashion – but what if instead, humanity is set to just slowly crumble?

Following Jasper and his nomadic tribe, a group of formerly middle-class Americans, the novel sees a world going from bad to worse – and then worse still. Resources keep getting scarcer, people keep getting poorer, and the fabric of society is slowly disintegrating.

This account of a severe decline is highly intelligent and chillingly realistic. But at the heart of the tale is a very human, touching story about how a normal guy tries to make ends meet and find love in the dangerous new place his world has become.Hitchers, a chilling supernatural thriller novel from the Hugo Award-winning author Will McIntosh

HITCHERS is something rather different, but with an equally engrossing human story at its core. It’s a chilling supernatural thriller in which both horror and dark humour collide.

When an act of terrorism kills hundreds of thousands in Atlanta, USA, Finn Darby is lucky enough to survive the attack. But Finn soon develops a disturbing affliction – when he starts to blurt things out in a strange voice beyond his control. And it seems he’s not the only one experiencing this problem – in fact thousands of people are suffering from the same affliction.

Either all of Atlanta is having a mass psychological breakdown, or else the dead are returning to possess the living . . .

So there are many different ways to enjoy the exceptional writing of Will McIntosh. And don’t forget that Orbit fans worldwide can also get a very quick taster of what Will’s writing with his Orbit Short Fiction title THE PERIMETER. It’s a chilling tale about the planet Clay and the perimeter fence that keeps its strange creatures at bay. One unlucky woman is about to discover just what lives beyond it . . .

BLACKOUT releases tomorrow

The world is preparing for Mira Grant’s BLACKOUT (US | UK | AUS), the final installment of the Newsflesh Trilogy that began with FEED (US | UK | AUS) and continues with the Hugo-shortlisted DEADLINE. (US | UK | AUS). We have seen signs and portents:

For those who can’t wait, io9.com has the first chapter.

For the adventurous reader, there’s a way to unlock chapter two.

And read an alternate ending to Feed on Facebook. Not on Facebook? Don’t worry.  Fed will be available to everyone this Wednesday.

BLACKOUT is right around the corner. This “high-energy tale of life and politics among the dead and not-so-dead” (Publishers Weekly) will be available beginning May 22, 2012.

Rise up while you can.

Henry Marco can help you with that zombie problem

The situation is grim following the outbreak, and the United States has been split in two. Grieving families must not only deal the loss of their loved ones, but also the knowledge that those bodies may not be resting peacefully. Henry Macro is a man that brings peace…for a price.

It’s not easy to breathe life into undead, but in April we’re releasing a book in the US that does just that. Check out this new video for THE RETURN MAN, and take your first steps into the Evacuated States. (Just be sure to bring your shotgun!)

To find out more and connect with other zombie fans visit The Return Man on Facebook.

Praise for THE RETURN MAN

“Hands down one of the best zombie novels I’ve read in a long, long time. From first page to last, THE RETURN MAN is an astonishing read. With characters you genuinely give a damn about and a story that’ll keep you turning page after page, this is an outstanding debut.” — David Moody, author of Autumn

“Thrilling, melancholy, and stomach-churningly gory… This is a sturdy and crowd-pleasing novel that squarely hits its target.” — Publishers Weekly

“A hair-raising quest … Zito expertly piles on thrills, cliffhangers and numerous twists …”  — The Guardian (UK)

THE RETURN MAN will be available in stores April 1, 2012.

The Troupe Released Today!

Releasing today is Robert J. Bennett’s third novel, THE TROUPE (US | UK | ANZ), set during the Vaudeville era –  a surreal and defining period in the history of American entertainment.

Sixteen-year-old pianist George Carole has joined vaudeville for one reason only: to find the man he suspects to be his father, the great Heironomo Silenus. Yet as he chases down his father’s troupe, he begins to understand that their performances are strange even for vaudeville: for wherever they happen to tour, the very nature of the world seems to change.

Already THE TROUPE has received wonderful support from reviewers and bloggers.

“Narrated perfectly by a baffled young man whose zealous pursuit of a father’s love is often outpaced by his alternately endearing and dangerous vanity, Bennett’s finely crafted novel rises on a wave of suspense to a place of beauty and hope.” – Publishers Weekly

“The Troupe is a fairytale for grown-ups about love and betrayal and redemption…” (starred) – Booklist

“Haunting, terrifying, and achingly beautiful, The Troupe is a book to be savored, and it will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading. Very highly recommended.” – My Bookish Ways

“A beautiful novel that resonates as a mystery, historical look-in, thriller, and family drama. … Like a sepia photograph manipulated in photoshop, Bennett adds his dashes of color, bringing things to the foreground for brilliant moments all the more intense for the contrasted palette behind it.” – Staffers Musings

Read an excerpt from THE TROUPE here or find out more about the book and the Vaudeville era at www.silenustroupe.com.

Recently we were also pleased to announce that Robert’s second novel, THE COMPANY MAN, was nominated for an Edgar Award.

 

 

Cover Launch: The Troupe

The Troupe by Shirley Jackson Award winner Robert Jackson Bennett hits shelves February 2012. When you have an intelligent combination of thriller, horror, and Americana…you end up with a book that stands on its own.

I’m going to write more about the process and how I got to the final design. But since we’re so excited about launching the cover, here it is today!

After the jump see the cover full-size with a teaser…

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