Announced today at Aussiecon IV (the 68th World Science Fiction Convention), Eos Books, a U.S. imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, will be rebranded as Harper Voyager, joining together with the celebrated Voyagerimprints in Australia/New Zealand and the UK. The move is anticipated to create a global genre-fiction powerhouse.

“We are already globally publishing some of the biggest names in science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, and horror, including Raymond E. Feist, Robin Hobb, Kim Harrison, and Sara Douglass,” said Brian Murray, President and Chief Executive Officer of HarperCollins Worldwide.  “Uniting our sister companies in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia/New Zealand allows readers globally unparalleled access to books and authors. This move enables us to offer authors a strong  global publishing platform when signing with HarperCollins – whether the acquiring editor is in New York, Sydney, or London.”

The Voyager/Harper Voyager editorial leaders are: Executive Editor Diana Gill in the U.S., Editorial Director Emma Coode in the UK (working with Publishing Director Jane Johnson), and Associate Publisher Stephanie Smith in Australia.

Each country has a vibrant, robust list of science fiction and fantasy icons; merging the lists under one imprint will bring readers around the world access to the masters of these fiction genres.

Two authors, Karen Azinger and David Wellington (writing as David Chandler), have recently been signed and are expected to publish with Harper Voyager and Voyager for a worldwide debut.

The Eos imprint will officially change to Harper Voyager starting with the January 2011 hardcover, trade, mass market, e-book, and audio publications.

BFI South Bank (London) is hosting the second part in their Film Science series reflecting on how human society might evolve and the human experience change in the future. They will be showing Minority Report, Moon, Punishment without Crime, Les Revenants, Random Quest, Solaris, The Wild Blue Yonder and The Year of the Sex Olympics at various dates and times between 19^th - 31^st August. However, there seems to be a distinct lack of super powers in this supposed future, so all those hours painstakingly choosing what power you’ll develop or X-Men character you’ll become looks a little wasted if BFI get their way. Alternatively try BFI IMAX for Avatar: Special Edition which includes a whole eight extra minutes of over-sized smurf action.  

http://www.bfi.org.uk/

‘Open all hailing frequencies’ and ‘set a course, maximum warp’ to the Prince Charles Cinema (Leicester Square, London). August bank holiday weekend (running from the 27^th - 29^th) sees a Star Trek marathon of epic proportions grace its renowned screens. Showcasing all 11 Star Trek movies, and ending with the most recent incarnation, the Prince Charles Cinema has laid on a veritable geek-feast; be you Trekkie, Trek-enthusiast or passing Trek-curious, who doesn’t love a bit of Shatner?

Star Trek Marathon http://www.princecharlescinema.com/

Fright Fest (Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, London), promises a somewhat more chilling weekend. In its 11^th year, Fright Fest is going from strength to strength; expect animations, sci-fi and short films as well as the world premier of Hatchet II and the likes of Primal, Burning Bright and Higanjima. Running from the 26^th - 30^th this year’s line-up is set to be terrifying (and a bit weird).

http://www.frightfest.co.uk/

Fancy travelling a little further a-field? How about a few centuries? Set in a 15^th century castle complete with moat, deep in the heart of the Sussex countryside, England’s Medieval Festival immerses its visitors in medieval life. Complete with a mock-battle involving over 1,000 participants in full medieval garb (and demeanour) laying siege to the castle twice daily, this medieval romp includes jousting competitions, fire-eating and falconry displays.

England’s Medieval Festival, Herstmonceau Castle, East Sussex (9^th – 31st  August)
www.englandsmedievalfestival.com

If you’re doing anything sci-fi or fantasy related this bank holiday weekend or perhaps you know of a great event happening anywhere in the world this month and want to let other people know, we would love to hear about it.

For your chance to win the full set of books in Darren Shan‘s frighteningly good The City Trilogy. All you need to do is answer the question below.

Email us at thevoyager@harpercollins.co.uk with your name, address and answer to the question below

Q: Which is the first book in The City Trilogy?

a. Hell’s Horizon

b. City of Snakes

c. Procession of the Dead

Good luck!

The competition closes at midnight on 10th September 2010.

This month’s ‘Book of the Month’ comes from Cinda Williams Chima, author of the New York Times bestselling Heir series of young adult fantasy novels. Excitingly for us (and you), The Demon King marks the start of a brand new fantasy series which follows the adventures of an unlikely group of companions in their struggle to save the world.

When 16-year-old Han Alister and his Clan friend Dancer encounter three underage wizards setting fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea, he has no idea that this event will precipitate a cascade of disasters that will threaten everything he cares about.

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

In order to prevent the wizards from harming them, Han takes their amulet, only to find out that it once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. And the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back.

Filled to the brim with adventure, magic and war and described as a ‘page-turner for any reader’ by fantasy great, Robin Hobb, (a tribute that is strongly supported by everyone here!) you know that this is something you have to get your hands on.

Visit Cinda’s official site

Buy The Demon King on Amazon

This is a truly remarkable collection, featuring stories from George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Robert Silverberg, Tad Williams, Dan Simmons and many many others.

To celebrate this remarkable achievement, Voyager Books are giving away pre-publication paperback copies of Songs of the Dying Earth to five lucky fans. To win, all you have to do is answer this very simple question:

Who are the stories in Songs of the Dying Earth written in honour of?

E-mail your answer to thevoyager [at] harpercollins.co.uk by Friday 27 August at 4pm and be entered to win! (Sorry, once again this contest is open only to UK/EIRE residents — will try and have a global contest soon!)

Buy Songs of the Dying Earth on Amazon

‘Galileo’s Dream, however, is a gleaming return to form for one of the world’s best SF writers: thought-provoking and moving in equal measure… Elegant, charming, funny and profound, Galileo’s Dream is magnifico.’ Guardian

‘ …very thought-provoking and fresh science fiction novel with a very engrossing story challenging preconceptions about time, reality and history itself. Recommended.’ Science Fiction and Fantasy book reviews

‘Galileo’s Dream is a richly rewarding read that I thoroughly enjoyed.’ A.L. Rutter – Floor to Ceiling Books

Have you reviewed Galileo’s Dream? Tweet me or e-mail me and I’ll add it to the list!

Synopsis under the cut…

In Late Renaissance Italy the great scientist Galileo creates a powerful new telescope to explore the universe.

But one night a stranger presents a different kind of telescope for Galileo to peer through, and Galileo himself is not sure if he is in a dream, an enchantment, a vision, or something yet undefined.

Galileo will soon find himself straddling two worlds: the medieval and the modern. By day his life unfurls in the early seventeenth-century Italy, by night he is transported through dimensions of time and space no other man of his time could comprehend.

This sumptuous and suspenseful novel brings to us Galileo as we have always wanted to know him.

Voyager UK is publishing The Inheritance at the end of March, 2011. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is seeing how one author can have two such distinct voices – and this is the first time ‘Robin’ and ‘Megan’ have been blended into a single volume. Anyone interested in the writing process will be fascinated by how Robin switches between writing personas and how a particular story fits one voice over the other.

The post below on sci-fi and fantasy book covers has generated some great discussion and opinions are varied. One of Voyager’s main designers, Dominic Forbes, threw his comments into the ring as well… Thanks Dom!

As a cover designer and reader of SF/fantasy, I agree it’s annoying when a series changes look halfway through. Although for very long series or ones that have large gaps between releases (Mr Martin I’m looking at you) it’s possibly more understandable. Covers are quite like fashion in that styles come and go fairly quickly. Often it’s about refreshing something to attract new readers or broaden a title’s appeal.

Regarding the difference between US and UK covers, this isn’t just confined to the fantasy genre. I think there’s a really marked difference in visual aesthetic between the two countries across book covers (particularly in the mass market) as well as in the media generally. To (my) UK eyes, a lot of the illustration used on US fantasy books appears very old-fashioned, if not just plain bad. Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series springs to mind (apologies if you like them!). The UK publisher went for a more graphic, iconic approach a long time ago, and to my mind it’s far more successful.

The iconic approach also gets round an issue I often have which is when the illustration is completely at odds with how I imagined the characters and setting of a book. That’s highly personal of course, however tight the character description in the writing.

A halfway house is the current UK George R. R. Martin look: classic type, weapons, dragons and crowns, so you get the hit of magic without the problem of characterisation. I think this is partly tied-in with the resurgence of fantasy in the cinema over the last decade (and hence into the mainstream of popular culture). There’s been a trend towards photo-realistic, dramatic and modern imagery on covers to reflect this. Desert Spear is a prime example. So it’s not that illustration is dead, more that a new style of illustration is coming through. That style of photo-illustration is fairly new, the technology wasn’t there to create it until fairly recently. Just like The Lord of the Rings was considered unfilmable for many years. So it’s about moving with the times too. I wonder if the more UK style will catch on in the US? It would be a rare example of trends crossing the Atlantic in that direction!

As an aside, I remember reading old Michael Moorcock and Isaac Asimov paperbacks when I was a kid in the 80s, and I loved their aesthetic. Classic airbrush fantasy art combined with fairly straight almost modernist typography, instead of completely “genre” lettering. To me the style is so retro that it’s cool again, rather than looking merely dated. Doubt I’d get them past Sales and Marketing though!

Sources: http://tinyurl.com/39xywwd, http://tinyurl.com/3aob6hj, http://www.bloggang.com/data/merchantdream/picture/1216301442.jpg, http://tinyurl.com/39gmvzn

Thanks for your question @westerosorg! I can’t really speak for the US or even the UK market as a whole, but I’ll try to give some insight into cover design from the Voyager/HarperCollins art department team perspective.

The great thing about the fantasy genre is that the fantasy market is actually very evenly spread across genders and age groups. The challenge is then that our book covers have to work for an extremely varied audience. We also have to be extra careful not to alienate any potential readers as external market research has shown us that sometimes more traditional-looking, illustrative fantasy covers are off-putting for newcomers to the genre. There’s a whole website dedicated to ridiculous fantasy covers — and while hopefully we are doing better nowadays there is still a negative perception towards fantasy books (‘trashy’, ‘weird’, ‘dated’ come to mind) that we have to push back against. Basically, more graphic, elegant covers are hopefully appealling to our extremely loyal genre fanbase as well as to new readers who perhaps wouldn’t expect to enjoy a ‘fantasy’ novel — and changing the perception of the genre as a whole.

A recent trend in cover art is the use of an iconic image or symbol to tie a series or an author’s backlist together to create a coherent ‘brand’. One of the most challenging aspects of fantasy publishing is developing a clear ‘series style’ (and later, an author style once an author has been established). It is also important to make it as easy as possible for readers to find and identify books in a series without too much hassle.

An obvious example is our Feist backlist:

But the relationship between sci-fi/fantasy cover art and illustrators is and will always be important. Even with our focus on more ‘graphic/iconic’ covers, we still try and cultivate relationships with artists like Jackie Morris – who did our Robin Hobb covers and is also updating the Megan Lindholm backlist for May 2011.

It’s also fair to say that the trend might be going too much over to the other side and we might be seeing a return to more illustrative covers in the future. We know that The Desert Spear cover is very popular in-house and is even up for an in-house design award…

This also seems like the perfect time to mention the Stephen Hunt cover redesign. There will be a follow-up post on this as well, as I attempt to pick the brain of our brilliant designer as to his thoughts on the new look for Stephen Hunt’s rollicking steampunky adventures. As you can see, it’s very different.

vs

Do you prefer fantasy covers of old? Are there any covers in particular you love or hate? Would love to hear thoughts here in the comments and @_thevoyager_.

‘Slick, gruesome and brutally intelligent, this is bare knuckles thriller-writing’ Michael Marshall

‘Compelling’ SFX

There are worse things than the death penalty…

They call them halfheads: convicted criminals, surgically mutilated and lobotomized by the State, then sent out to do menial jobs in the community so everyone will know what happens when you break the law. There are no appeals, no reprieves, and no one ever comes back. Until now.

Dr Fiona Westfield, one of the most prolific serial killers Glasgow has ever seen, is waking up. Surrounded by blood and death and darkness.

William Hunter has risen through the ranks since putting Westfield away; now he’s Assistant Network Director, in charge of police actions. But a routine murder investigation is about to embroil him in an appalling conspiracy.

The vast connurb blocks on Glasgow’s deprived south side are ready to explode. Eleven years ago the VR riots killed millions – now someone wants to start them all over again. And Will is being dragged back into a past he desperately wants to forget…