Angry Robot has signed debut novelist, Ramez Naam for two books in a new science fiction series. The first title – Nexus – will be Angry Robot’s lead title in January 2013, with the sequel, Crux, to follow later in the year. The deal included world English and translation rights in physical and electronic formats and was negotiated by Angry Robot editor Lee Harris, and Naam’s agent Lucienne Diver of the Knight Agency.

About Nexus:
In the near future, the nano-drug Nexus can link mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it. When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage, with far more at stake than anyone realises.

About Ramez Naam:
Seattle-based Naam – a computer scientist who helped build Internet Explorer, Outlook and Bing for Microsoft – is the HG Wells Award winning author of the non-fiction book More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement, and is a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

On 1 March 2012 Tartarus Press will publish Black Horse and Other Strange Stories by Jason A. Wyckoff, as part of its Tartarus Contemporary Fiction series.

Jason is a new American author, writing in the tradition of the spooky/strange story, although his work is very contemporary. This is his first ever venture into print.

“This new collection of sixteen tales uncovers the strangeness within everyday America, the fable in the familiar. ‘The Highwall Horror’ sees an office worker discover the portal to an alien cathedral in a cubicle wall; in ‘Panorama’ an artist’s agent examines his client’s deserted masterpiece; a young man follows a forgotten song to the haunted town that spawned it in ‘The Bells, Then the Birds’; a young mother escapes her wastrel husband only to become lost in a perilous swell of freedom in ‘The Mauve Blot’; and in ‘Black Horse’ an inherited steed brings uneasiness and worse to its new owner.”

Full details HERE

Arc is a new science fiction / science fact publication from the makers of New Scientist. Its aims are to explore the future through cutting-edge science fiction and forward-looking essays by some of the world’s most celebrated authors, along with columns by thinkers and practitioners from the worlds of books, design, gaming, film and more.

The first issue, Arc 1.1: The Future Always Wins, is out now, including new fiction from Margaret Atwood, Stephen Baxter, M.John Harrison, Hannu Rajaniemi and Alastair Reynolds; thought-provoking essays from Simon Ings, China Miéville, Sumit Paul-Choudhury and Paul Graham Raven; and incisive commentary from Leigh Alexander, Simon Pummell, Adam Roberts and Bruce Sterling.

Full details HERE

PS Publishing have teamed up with Centipede Press to make available selected Centipede books at a fraction of their original published price. Plus, postage and packing charges will, of course, be lower for UK customers as they won’t need to be shipped from the US.

To start this venture off, they are offering Centipede’s Knowing Darkness, a sumptuous volume full of artwork inspired by the writing of Stephen King. This 448-page art book includes colour and black and white paintings and drawings that have directly or indirectly illustrated King’s writings over the last thirty-five years.

Artists include Michael Whelan, Ned Dameron, J.K. Potter, John Jude Pelancar, Stephen Gervais, and many others. The book features an introduction by Frank Darabont and text (written by King critic George Beahm) that looks back at 34 years of King in print providing a detailed look at the writer and his life, and supplemented with interviews with Michael Whelan, Bernie Wrightson, Drew Struzan, John Cayea, Dave Christiansen, and many others.

The book was originally published at £180 ($295) but PS are offering it for £95 (around $150) plus post & packing (£8.95 in the UK or £12.95 everywhere else). There are only 100 copies available.

Full details HERE

IDW Publishing will make history when it teams up the Doctor with the crew of the USS Enterprise in comic book format for the first time in Star Trek: The Next Generation / Doctor Who: Assimilation 2.

Launching in May 2012, the comic will feature the Borg and the Cybermen as they create an unholy alliance resulting in potential disaster for all humanity. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise find themselves joining forces with the Doctor and his companions, with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance.

The eight-issue series will be written by Scott and David Tipton, the authors of critically acclaimed Star Trek: Infestation, with a helping hand from longtime Doctor Who writer Tony Lee, and will feature fully painted artwork by J.K. Woodward (Fallen Angel).

Doctor Who and Star Trek are two hugely successful franchises that began as television series, and have expanded into a number of other media. Nearly five decades and 1,500 episodes in the making, this is the moment that both Trekkers and Whovians have been waiting for!

Full information from IDW Publishing HERE

Black Static #27 is now available from TTA Press. Stories as follows:

Empty of Words, the Page by Gord Sellar
illustrated by David Gentry

The Little Things by Jacob Ruby
illustrated by George Cotronis

Cuckoo Spit by Stephen Bacon
illustrated by Mark Pexton

The Churn by Simon Bestwick
illustrated by Dave Senecal

Family Tree by V.H. Leslie
illustrated by Rik Rawling

Plus the usual mix of news, reviews and non-fiction articles.

Details HERE

David Sutton‘s Shadow Publishing is pleased to announce that The Female of the Species & Other Terror Tales by Richard Davis (1935-2005) will be published in late Spring 2012.

Richard never saw a collection of his stories published in his lifetime and this book will include all of the author’s short stories, culled from as far back as 1963 and The Fourth Pan Book of Horror Stories up to the 1980s. The collection will include an introduction about his life, the fiction and anthologies, including his work as story editor for the BBC’s Late Night Horror series. The book will also feature two rare articles and an interview with the author, from the late 1960s.

“At the time I interviewed Richard for my small press magazine in 1969, he was already an established short story writer, had compiled two anthologies for Tandem Books and the BBC series Out of the Unknown, for which he worked as assistant story editor, had been on air since 1965 … Yet, some forty plus years later, Richard’s fiction has largely been forgotten. Although not prolific, he was widely published in anthologies in England. Yet he never saw a collection of his tales published during his lifetime. Hence this book and its integration into a projected series under the collective tag, Writers from the Shadows.” (From the Introduction).

The cover artist will be the painter and illustrator Caroline O’Neal. Caroline has done dark fantasy illustration for Bad Moon Books, Premonitions and Midnight Street magazines, among others.

For more information contact via the website HERE

DC Comics are planning a series of prequels to the hugely popular Watchmen series of comics. The series will be called Before Watchmen. The BBC reports that neither writer Alan Moore nor artist Dave Gibbons will be involved in the series. Each prequel will focus on a different character or set of characters from the original Watchmen series.

The full BBC story can be read HERE

A new collection by Gary McMahon, Tales of the Weak and The Wounded, will be available from Dark Regions Press in February.

“The sound of shuffling footsteps across the old cell floor…

A soft voice like a strange tune echoing along the empty corridors…

Dim lights in the windows of the abandoned asylum…

Discarded case files that flip open to reveal the dreams of broken minds…

Welcome to a place where the boundaries of fact and fiction meet.

Acclaimed author Gary McMahon raids the archives of a notorious derelict mental asylum called the Daleside Institute to bring you stories of madness, horror and emotional trauma. In locations as diverse as suburban Germany, the London Underground, an Italian seaside resort and the inhospitable polar icecap, you will meet damaged people with broken lives. Here are terrifying accounts of love, hate, death and madness…

These are the Tales of the Weak and the Wounded.”

With cover art by David Whitlam.

Full details HERE

Torchwood actor John Barrowman and his sister, Carole E. Barrowman, have written their first YA novel. Hollow Earth will be published by Buster Books on 2 February 2012.

“Twins Matt and Emily Calder have imaginations so powerful that they can make art come to life. Their powers are sought by villains intent on accessing the terrors of Hollow Earth — a place where all the devils, demons and monsters ever imagined lie trapped for eternity. If Hollow Earth is breached, the world will be plunged into chaos. If Hollow Earth is breached . . .

… the twins are as good as dead.

Hollow Earth is a thrilling debut novel from the brother and sister team. The first in a compelling series, this page-turning fantasy for children echoes the likes of Christopher Paolini, Marcus Sedgwick and Rick Riordan.”

Full details HERE