NEW YORK, NY and LONDON (May 19, 2017) – Orbit (US) and Gollancz (UK) announced that they have acquired a new novel in the Witcher universe by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.
The Witcher series of fantasy novels, which began with The Last Wish (US | UK), is an international phenomenon, with individual books having appeared on the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists. The most recent, The Lady of the Lake (US | UK), was a USA Today bestseller. Sapkowski recently won the World Fantasy Award – Life Achievement for his career as a fantasy novelist.
The new novel, Season of Storms, has never before been published in English and will be translated by David French. It will be a prequel, in which readers will learn the origin story of protagonist Geralt. It is scheduled for publication in May 2018, in hardcover format in the US and trade paperback format in the UK. It will also be available in both territories as an e-book and audiobook.
Netflix recently announced that a TV adaptation of the Witcher series is in the works, produced by The Expanse executive producers Sean Daniel and Jason Brown as well as Platige Image’s Jarek Sawko and Tomek Bagiński, who is an Acadamy Award-nominated director and will direct at least one episode per season. The Witcher series is also the inspiration for the popular video game series of the same name.
Praise for Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher novels:
“Complex, unsentimental and anchored in brutal shared history.”
— SFX
“Like Mieville and Gaiman, Sapkowski takes the old and makes it new.”
— Foundation
Andrzej Sapkowski is one of Poland’s most successful authors, selling more in his own country than Stephen King or Michael Crichton. He has won numerous awards including the DAVID GEMMELL LEGEND AWARD and the GRAND PRIX DE L’IMAGINAIRE. Born in 1948 in Łódź, Sapkowski studied economics and worked as a financier until the success of his fantasy cycle about the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, turned him into a bestselling writer. His books have now been translated into almost 20 languages and The Witcher games, inspired by Sapkowski’s books, have sold over 20 million copies worldwide. A signed copy of one of his books was given to President Obama as a diplomatic gift by the Polish Prime Minister.
About Orbit
Launched in 2007, Orbit is the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group. Orbit has quickly established itself as one of the market-leading SFF imprints in the US, and the fastest growing imprint in the field. Our authors include New York Times and international bestsellers Joe Abercrombie, M.R. Carey, Gail Carriger, James S.A. Corey, N.K. Jemisin, Ann Leckie, Kim Stanley Robinson, Andrzej Sapkowski, and Brent Weeks. In recent years, we have published two Hugo Award winners: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, and Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, which became the first novel to win every major award in the field.
About Hachette Book Group
Hachette Book Group is a leading trade publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre (a Lagardère company), the third-largest trade and educational publisher in the world. HBG is made up of eight publishing groups: Little, Brown and Company; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Grand Central Publishing; Perseus Books; Orbit; Hachette Books; Hachette Nashville; and Hachette Audio.
About Gollancz
Gollancz is the oldest specialist SF & Fantasy publisher in the UK. Founded in 1927 and with a continuous SF publishing programme dating back to 1961, the imprint of the Orion Publishing Group is home to a galaxy of award-winning and bestselling authors. Through our long-running SF and Fantasy Masterworks programme, and major digital initiative the SF Gateway, Gollancz has one of the largest ranges of SF and Fantasy of any publisher in the world.
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