Happy Publication Day 16th February 2017
This week we have two magnificent space operas for you. This is some of the best science fiction you could hope to read. The sequel to what was called ‘among the most significant works of science fiction released in recent years’ from Tom Toner comes out today alongside the new story from Alastair Reynolds, which is always a hugely exciting event! And for all you audiophiles out there, we have three Nalini Singh audiobooks coming out today.
The Weight of the World by Tom Toner
Return to the Amaranthine Spectrum – the most dazzling and ambitious space opera of recent years
The universe is in disarray. Rebellions against the immortal Amaranthine are spreading, worlds and moons have fallen, and the Emperor is missing. An ancient being has reawoken and claimed the throne. And the most important invention in the history of time itself has been stolen.
And amidst this chaos, lives continue. A pair of sisters and one small child flee across a world they know nothing of. An outcast, hunted by his tormentors, is caught up in the machinations of a petty warlord. An imprisoned AI creates empires of its own in the building to which it is confined, and seeks an escape.
Mind-bending Science Fiction from a remarkable new voice . . .
‘A beautifully crafted read that’s evocative and hugely inventive’ SFX
‘An incredibly impressive debut novel novel, with an engrossing plot and delightful oddness that should satisfy any space opera aficionado’ Sci-Fi Now
‘Marvellous . . . a space opera of surpassing gracefulness, depth, complexity, and well, all-round weirdness’ Locus
‘To call The Promise of the Child one of the most accomplished debuts of 2015 so far is to understate its weight-instead, let me moot that is among the most significant works of science fiction released in recent years’ Tor.com
The Weight of the World is out now in trade paperback and ebook
Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds
From the author of the Revelation Space series comes an interstellar adventure of war, identity, betrayal, and the preservation of civilization itself.
A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to be finally at an end. A conscripted soldier is beginning to consider her life after the war and the family she has left behind. But for Scur – and for humanity – peace is not to be.
On the brink of the ceasefire, Scur is captured by a renegade war criminal, and left for dead in the ruins of a bunker. She revives aboard a prisoner transport vessel. Something has gone terribly wrong with the ship.
Passengers – combatants from both sides of the war – are waking up from hibernation far too soon. Their memories, embedded in bullets, are the only links to a world which is no longer recognizable. And Scur will be reacquainted with her old enemy, but with much higher stakes than just her own life.
‘It’s rare to find a writer with sufficient nerve and stamina to write novels that are big enough to justify using words like “revelation” and “redemption”. Reynolds pulls it off’ Publishers Weekly
‘A mastersinger of the Space Opera’ The Times
Slow Bullets is out now in hardback and ebook
Also out this week in audio:
Archangel’s Legion by Nalini Singh
Angels are falling from the sky in New York, struck down by a vicious, unknown force.
Vampires are dying impossibly of disease.
Guild hunter Elena Deveraux and the Archangel Raphael must discover the source of the wave of death before it engulfs their city and their people, leaving New York a ruin and Raphael’s Tower under siege by enemy archangels.
Yet even as they fight desperately to save the city, an even darker force is stirring, its chill eyes trained on New York … and on Raphael. Rivers of crimson and nightmares given flesh, the world will never again be the same…
Read by Justine Eyre
Archangel’s Legion is out now in audio
Archangel’s Storm by Nalini Singh
With wings of midnight and an affinity for shadows, Jason courts darkness. But now, with the Archangel Neha’s consort lying murdered and her rage threatening cataclysmic devastation, Jason steps into the light, knowing he must unearth the murderer before it is too late.
Earning Neha’s trust comes at a price – Jason must tie himself to her bloodline through the Princess Mahiya, a woman with secrets so dangerous, she trusts no one. Least of all an enemy spymaster.
With only their relentless hunt for a violent, intelligent killer to unite them, Jason and Mahiya embark on a quest that leads to a centuries-old nightmare … and to the dark storm of an unexpected passion that threatens to drench them both in blood.
Read by Justine Eyre
Archangel’s Storm is out now in audio
Archangel’s Blade by Nalini Singh
The severed head marked by a distinctive tattoo on its cheek should have been a Guild case, but dark instincts honed over hundreds of years of life compel the vampire Dmitri to take control. There is something twisted about this death, something that whispers of centuries long past … but Dmitri’s need to discover the truth is nothing to the vicious strength of his response to the hunter assigned to decipher the tattoo.
Savaged in a brutal attack that almost killed her, Honor is nowhere near ready to come face to face with the seductive vampire who is an archangel’s right hand, and who wears his cruelty as boldly as his lethal sensuality … the same vampire who has been her secret obsession since the day she was old enough to understand the inexplicable, violent emotions he aroused in her.
As desire turns into a dangerous compulsion that might destroy them both, it becomes clear the past will not stay buried. Something is hunting, and it will not stop until it brings a blood-soaked nightmare to life once more …
Read by Justine Eyre
Archangel’s Blade is out now in audio