Oct 272015

Head of Zeus – Publishing Jan-Jun 2016!

	Here’s a look at the fantastical titles Head of Zeus have coming for you over the period January to June 2016! We’ll be bringing you our particular recommends of all publishers together by month of publication. Note: Publication dates are liable to change.
	* See Other Publishers Jan-Jun 16 *

*	Pub	Author	ISBN	Form.	RRP	Series	Vol
	THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM
	Jan	Cixin Liu (Tr. Ken Liu)	9781784971571	PB	£8.99	The Three-Body Problem	1
	1967: University student Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China’s Cultural Revolution. His crime? Failure to recant his belief in science. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind.
	Four decades later, after a spate of apparent suicides among elite scientists, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of international scientists.
	During the course of his investigation, Wang is inducted into a mysterious online game that immerses him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredictable interaction of its three suns.
	This is the Three-Body Problem and it is the key to everything. The key to the scientists’ deaths, the key to humanity’s place in the cosmos and the key to the extinction-level threat it now faces.

	THE RED PRINCE
	Jan	A. J. Smith	9781784080884	PB	£8.99	The Long War	1
	* ‘Martin meets Lovecraft’ – Sci-fi Now
	Between the desert plains of Karesia and the icy wastes of Ranen, there once lay the kingdom of Ro. Its men and women worshipped the One and he was much pleased with them. His armies were strong. His lands were fertile. And his people prospered and grew… complacent.
	Their enemies saw they were unwatchful. And the armies of the south fell upon the land like rain. Such a fate it was that befell Haran.
	Now the Red Prince can only brood upon the downfall of his people, cut off from his own city by the army of the Seven Sisters. Until the arrival of the one man who can wield the sisters’ power against them…
	ALL THAT WAS DEAD WILL RISE. ALL THAT NOW LIVES WILL FALL…

	THESE DARK WINGS
	Feb	John Owen Theobald	9781784974312	HB	£12.99	The Ravenmaster Trilogy	1
	YA Pick
	After her mother is killed in the Blitz and her father in the Western Desert, 12-year-old Anna Cooper is sent to live with an uncle she has never met – the Ravenmaster at the Tower of London.
	Amid the Tower’s old secrets and hidden ghosts, the ravens begin to disappear and Anna must brave the war-torn city to find them.
	With Nazi forces massing on the other side of the channel, the fate of Britain might be at stake, for an ancient legend foretells that ‘the Kingdom will fall’ if the ravens ever leave the Tower.

	THE PAPER MENAGERIE
	Mar	Ken Liu	9781784975678	HB	£18.99
	Ken Liu has published almost 100 short stories and won nearly every genre award in existence. Here, he has selected his 15 favourite stories, including The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary (Finalist for Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Awards), Mono No Aware(Hugo Award winner), The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species (Nebula and Sturgeon award finalists), and the most awarded story in Science Fiction and Fantasy history, The Paper Menagerie – the only story ever to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards.

	THE FIRST CONFESSOR: SWORD OF TRUTH – THE PREQUEL
	Apr	Terry Goodkind	9781784972011	PB	£8.99	The Sword of Truth	Pre
	In 1994 WIZARD’S FIRST RULE introduced Richard Cypher, a young forester struggling with the aftermath of his father’s murder. His search for answers will embroil him in an ancient war, three-millennia past, that is about to re-ignite with world-shattering violence.
	The Sword of Truth series has since been translated into 20 languages and sold 26 million copies. Now, two decades after its launch, it concludes with two volumes: THE FIRST CONFESSOR takes readers back in time to events that led to the forging of the Sword of Truth, while WARHEART completes Richard Cypher’s story.
	The First Confessor tells the story of Magda Searus, a woman who has lost her husband to the war that is slowly consuming the world. With his death she discovers that the consequences of defeat will be more terrifying for her and her people than she could ever have imagined. Her stand will change the history of the world.

	DEATH’S END
	Apr	Cixin Liu (Tr. Ken Liu)	9781784971632	HB	£18.99	The Three-Body Problem	2
	* UPDATE: NOW DUE SEPTEMBER 2016 * Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent.
	Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?
	PRAISE FOR THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM
	‘A breakthrough book… a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology, where kings and emperors from both western and Chinese history mingle in a dreamlike game world, while cops and physicists deal with global conspiracies, murders, and alien invasions in the real world.’ George RR Martin.
	‘Remarkable, revelatory and not to be missed’ Kirkus Reviews, starred review.
	‘This is a must-read in any language’ Booklist.
	‘Liu Cixin’s writing evokes the thrill of exploration and the beauty of scale…. Extraordinary’ The New Yorker.

	THE CONJUROR
	Apr	John & Carole E. Barrowman	9781781856376	HB	£12.00	The Orion Chronicles	2
	YA Pick
	Sixteen-year-old twins Matt and Em Calder are Animare: they can bring art to life, and travel in time through paintings. They work for Orion – the Animare MI5 – protecting the secrecy of their order and investigating crimes committed by their own kind.
	It’s dangerous work. But when they are sent to Edinburgh to find a teenage boy who can alter reality with his music, they are drawn into something more dangerous still. For this boy, Remy, is the Conjurer’s Son. And he carries something that could change humanity for ever…

	THE DOLL-MASTER AND OTHER TALES OF HORROR
	May	Joyce Carol Oates	9781784971014	HB	£16.99
	Six terrifying tales to chill the blood from the unique imagination of Joyce Carol Oates.
	A young boy plays with dolls instead of action figures. But as he grows older, his passion takes on a darker edge…
	A white man shoots dead a black boy creating a media frenzy. But could it be that it was self-defense as he claims?
	A nervous woman tries to escape her husband. He says he loves her, but she’s convinced he wants to kill her…
	These quietly lethal stories reveal the horrors that dwell within us all.

	HOW STAR WARS CONQUERED THE UNIVERSE: THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF A MULTIBILLION DOLLAR FRANCHISE
	May	Chris Taylor	9781784970475	PB	£8.99
	Non-Fiction Pick (HB came out May 2015)
	Why do most people know what an Ewok is, even if they haven’t seen Return of the Jedi? How have Star Wars action figures come to outnumber human beings? How did ‘Jedi’ become an officially recognised religion? When did the films’ merchandising revenue manage to rival the GDP of a small country?
	Tracing the birth, death and rebirth of the epic universe built by George Lucas and hundreds of writers, artists, producers, and marketers, Chris Taylor jousts with modern-day Jedi, tinkers with droid builders, and gets inside Boba Fett’s helmet, all to find out how STAR WARS has attracted and inspired so many fans for so long.
	‘It’s impossible to imagine a Star Wars fan who wouldn’t love this book. There are plenty of books about Star Wars, but very few of them are essential reading. This one goes directly to the top of the pile’ Booklist (starred review).

	GRACE OF KINGS
	Jun	Ken Liu	9781784973230	PB	£8.99	The Dandelion Dynasty	1
	Emperor Mapidéré was the first to unite the island kingdoms of Dara under a single banner. But now the emperor is on his deathbed, his people are exhausted by his vast, conscriptive engineering projects and his counselors conspire only for their own gain.
	Even the gods themselves are restless.
	A wily, charismatic bandit, and the vengeance-sworn son of a deposed duke cross paths as they each lead their own rebellion against the emperor’s brutal regime. Together, they will journey to the heart of the Empire; witnessing the clash of armies, fleets of silk-draped airships, magical books and shapeshifting gods. Their unlikely friendship will drastically change the balance of power in Dara… but at what price?
	THE GRACE OF KINGS is the debut novel by Hugo-, Nebula-, and World Fantasy Award-winner Ken Liu, and the first in an monumental new epic fantasy series.