The other day, Solaris released a handful of new cover images on their blog. Being the book magpie that I am, I decided to share them again over here, with any other information on the books I could find.
So, without further ado, here are the covers for Gaie Sebold’s Dangerous Gifts, James Lovegrove’s Age of Voodoo, and Guy Adams’s The Good, The Bad, and the Infernal.
A Madame’s work is never done
That’s right, Gaie Sebold will be writing and Solaris will be publishing the sequel to the excellent Babylon Steel! This pleases me very much. Babylon Steel was a great mélange science-fiction novel, with humour and serious content, a fantastic heroine and a great story.
Here’s some more information on Dangerous Gifts, the second novel. First, the synopsis:
Babylon Steel runs the best brothel in Scalentine, city of portals. She’s escaped her past and it’s all going pretty well. Apart, that is, from the racial conflict and economic misery boiling up in Scalentine.
Her lover, Chief Bitternut of the City Militia, is trying to keep the lid on, while hunting a killer whose real target is a lot closer than he knows. Just as things are getting really tense, Babylon is forced to take another job. Bodyguard to Enthemmerlee Entaire: symbol of hope or object of disgust for most of her country’s population, and a prime target for assassination, along with anyone who happens to be in the way. Such as her bodyguard.
Unintentionally dragging a very annoyed government employee along in her wake, Babylon struggles to turn Enthemmerlee’s squabbling household guard from liability into security, dodge the rigid Moral Statutes of Incandress, and keep both herself and her client alive. She soon realises that the situation is far worse than she thought, her past hasn’t quite let go of her yet, and she will be driven to a choice that will have far-reaching consequences…
Dangerous Gifts is currently penciled in for a February 2013 release. No cover artwork available just yet, but I’m sure I’ll share it as-and-when it becomes public.
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About the Author:
Gaie Sebold was born in the US, and lives in London. She has worked as a cleaner, secretary, till-monkey, stage-tour-manager, and editor. She now wrangles a database, runs occasional writing workshops, and is a member of the critique group T Party Writers. She is an obsessive reader, enthusiastically inefficient gardener, and has been known to run around in woods hitting people with latex swords and to declaim poetry in public, though not usually at the same time. She also has the standard cat apparently issued to most fantasy writers.
As well as the next Babylon novel, she is working on the blog Weeding and Writing with her partner, writer Dave Gullen; a poetry project; and a fantasy romance, with orcs. She likes orcs. You can find Gaie at her website.
Babylon Steel was one of the stand-out novels for me in January. It was just so much fun, with a strong protagonist and an imaginative and quite original fantasy/sci-fi setting. For me, Sebold is an author to watch, and someone whose work will always be high on my to-buy list. I strongly recommend her work to anyone who likes fantasy. Read on for an interview about her novel, work, and thoughts on the genre.
The debut of a different kind of heroine
Babylon Steel, ex-sword-for-hire, ex-other things, runs the best brothel in Scalentine; city of many portals, two moons, and a wide variety of races, were-creatures, and religions, not to mention the occasional insane warlock.
She’s not having a good week. The Vessels of Purity are protesting against brothels, women in the trade are being attacked, it’s tax time, and there’s not enough money to pay the bill. So when the mysterious Darask Fain offers her a job finding a missing girl, Babylon decides to take it. But the missing girl is not what she seems, and neither is Darask Fain. In the meantime, twomoon is approaching, and more than just a few night’s takings are at risk when Babylon’s hidden past reaches out to grab her by the throat.
Babylon Steel: a heroine who gets really up close and personal.
I had no idea what to expect from Babylon Steel. I’d read the synopsis and thought the premise sounded interesting. What I found was a novel that has a strong central character, and a fun and well-constructed plot, which was a blend of fantasy and thriller with a dash of humour. There’s also some pretty good social commentary. This is a very good debut, and I really hope we see more of Babylon Steel, and certainly more from Gaie Sebold.
Ex-sword-for-hire Babylon Steel runs the best brothel in the city. She’s got elves using sex magic upstairs, S&M in the basement, a green troll cooking breakfast in the kitchen, and she’d love you to visit, except…
She’s not having a good week. The Vessels of Purity are protesting against brothels, her girls are disappearing, and if she can’t pay her taxes she’s going to lose her business. Despite giving up the mercenary life, when the mysterious Darask Fain pays her to find a missing heiress, she has to take the job. And then her past starts to catch up with her in other, more dangerous ways.
I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, now, ever since I saw it mentioned on Solaris’s website. It sounds like something a little different, which is always welcome. Hopefully I’ll get to it in the next couple of weeks.
Babylon Steel is out now in paperback and eBook.
