Happy Publication Day: 9th April 2015

We’d like to wish a very happy Publication Day to all of our books out in bookshops and online today. This week it’s all about the paperbacks and we have all the paperbacks a reader could want. From classic SF and Fantasy to contemporary masters of the genre we’ve so many unmissible new books to pick up or downloand from your local  bookshop, library or from your preferred e-tailer. Wish lists at the ready. 

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie– The violent, bloody and fast-paced tale from SUNDAY TIMES bestseller, Joe Abercrombie is out now in an exciting new look. Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old stepfather Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own, and out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried. Red Country is out now in paperback, eBook and audio download. You can find out more about Joe Abercrombie by visiting his website or following him on Twitter or Facebook. 

Mirror Sight by Kristen Britain– A stunning new adventure from a NEW YORK TIMES bestselling novelist. Karigan G’ladheon is a Green Rider – a seasoned member of the royal messenger corps whose loyalty and bravery have already been tested many times. And her final, explosive magical confrontation with Mornhavon the Black should have killed her. But rather than finding death, and peace, Karigan wakes to a darkness deeper than night. The explosion has transported her somewhere – and into a sealed stone sarcophagus – and now she must escape, somehow, before the thinning air runs out and her mysterious tomb becomes her grave.Where is she? Does a trap, laid by Mornhavon, lie beyond her prison? And if she can escape, will she find the world beyond the same – or has the magic taken her out of reach of her friends, home and King forever…? Mirror Sight is out now in paperback and eBook. You can find out more about Kristen Britain by visting her website or following her on Facebook. 

Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris– The brand new bestselling series from Charlaine Harris is out now in paperback.Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town. There’s a pawnshop (someone lives in the basement and is seen only at night). There’s a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger). And there’s new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he’s found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his own). Stop at the one traffic light in town, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth… Midnight Crossroad is out now in paperback, eBook and audio download. You can find out more about Charlaine Harris by visiting her website or following her on Facebook.

Wolfhound Century and Truth and Fear by Peter Higgins- Out now in paperback with an exciting new look. Welcome to your next favourite literary SF obsession. A thousand mileseast of Mirgorod, the great capital city of the Vlast, deep in the ancient forest, lies the most recent fallen angel, its vast stone form half-buried and fused into the rock by the violence of impact. As its dark energy leeches into the crash site, so a circle of death expands around it, slowly – inexorably – killing everything it touches. Alone in the wilderness, it reaches out with its mind. Higgins has been praised by Richard Morgan, Hannu Rajaniemi and Francis Spufford. Wolfhound Century and Truth and Fear are out now in paperback and eBook.

Expiration Day by Tim Powers– The second book in the Fault Lines sequence from the WORLD FANTASY AWARD-winning author of THE ANUBIS GATES is out in paperback with a brand new look. Growing up in the L.A. of the 1990s, all young Koot Parganas wants is to be normal, but his weird parents won’t allow it. They venerate the spirits of dead Mahatmas. Feeling he has no alternative, Koot disobeys his parents and breaks into a bust of Dante and steals a small glass vial that was concealed inside. The vial contains the preserved ghost of Thomas Edison. Now, aided by allies as strange as his enemies, Koot is pursued through the dark underside of the city. Expiration Date is out now in paperback and eBook. 

Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg– First published in 1970, this is one of Robert Silverberg’s most intense novels and draws heavily on Conrad’s HEART OF DARKNESS. It puts the reader at the heart of the experience and forces them to ask what they would do in the circumstances. One man must make a journey across a once colonised alien planet. Abandoned by man when it was discovered that the species there were actually sentient, the planet is now a place of mystery. A mystery that obsesses the lone traveller Gundersen and takes him on a long trek to attempt to share the religious rebirthing of the aliens. A journey that offers redemption from guilt and sin. Downward to the Earth is out now in paperback and eBook.

Hard to be a God by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky– Anton is an undercover operative from future Earth, who travels to an alien world whose culture has not progressed beyond the Middle Ages. Although in possession of far more advanced knowledge than the society around him, he is forbidden to interfere with the natural progress of history. His place is to observe rather than interfere – but can he remain aloof in the face of so much cruelty and injustice …? A long awaited new edition from two masters of Russian, and world, SF. Hard to be a God is out now in paperback and eBook. 

DestinyQuest: The Eye of Winter’s Fury by Micheal J. Ward–  The third Destiny Quest book – where FIGHTING FANTASY meets WORLD OF WARCRAFT is out now. The cold north awaits you… War is coming to Valeron. From the west, the blood-thirsty Wiccans burn and pillage their way towards the capital – where an ill and ineffectual king is beset on all sides by the scheming of ambitious men. His youngest son, Prince Arran, untested in combat and naive to ways of the world, is sent on a fool’s errand – to convince a cowardly lord to honour his oath and defend the realm from its enemies. But the real threat is yet to be revealed…Will you defy fate and become a great hero of legend? You decide in this epic fantasy adventure – one where you make the decisions. The cold north awaits you… are you ready for the challenge? DestinyQuest: The Eye of Winter’s Fury is out now in paperback and eBook. You can find out more about Michael J. Ward by visiting his website. 

Barricade by Jon Wallace– Kenstibec was genetically engineered to build a new world, but the apocalypse forced a career change. These days he drives a taxi instead. A fast-paced, droll and disturbing novel, BARRICADE is a savage road trip across the dystopian landscape of post-apocalypse Britain; narrated by the cold-blooded yet magnetic antihero, Kenstibec. On his journey he encounters ten-foot killer rats, a mutant king with a TV fixation, a drug-crazed army, and even the creator of the Ficial race. He also finds time to uncover a terrible plot to destroy his species for good – and humanity too. Barricade is out now in paperback, eBook and audio download. You can find out more about Jon Wallace by visiting his website or following him on Twitter.