John Jarrold

Steve J Shaw, the publisher of Black Shuck Books, has acquired rights to a brilliant folk-horror novella, CHARLIE SAYS, by Neil Williamson . The agent was John Jarrold.

CHARLIE SAYS is a sizzling urban folk horror novella that resurrects the universal dread of 1970s British public information films for post-Brexit, blood and soil Britain. Where the jokes you’re allowed to tell–and what you get to be afraid of–very much depend on who’s listening.

Since his first publication in Territories magazine in 1994, Neil’s stories have appeared regularly in magazines and anthologies.

His books include, The Moon King, Queen of Clouds, The Memoirist, Secret Language and The Ephemera.

Neil has been a finalist for British Science Fiction Association, British Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards.

Black Shuck Books launched in 2015, and publish novels, novellas and anthologies of horror fiction.

Dr Fiona Moore has joined the John Jarrold Literary Agency. She is a Canadian academic, writer and critic based in London. A graduate of the University of Toronto and the University of Oxford, she is Chair of Business Anthropology at Royal Holloway, University of London

She characterises her new novel, Captain Artemis and the Martian Undead, as “Gerry Anderson but with lesbians. It’s a queer #ownvoices novel that blends the cheeky lesbian protagonist of A Master of Djinn with the alternate twentieth-century space exploration of the Lady Astronaut series and For All Mankind.”

It’s 1965 and Captain Evangeline Artemisia ‘Artie’ Quelch is the lead pilot on the British Commonwealth Space Programme’s shuttle run between Earth and its thriving Mars colony, with adventure beckoning in the archaeological dig site nearby and romance with the lovely Doctor Evelyn Verity in full swing. And then people begin dying. As unexplained deaths and equipment failures mount up, the colony’s security officer Margaret Salmond accuses the rival European colony, while others blame the ancient Martian technology unearthed at the dig. Artie’s attempts at investigating are thwarted when her problematic journalist ex-girlfriend turns up to ask awkward questions. When the dead begin mysteriously coming back to life, it’s up to Artie to prevent war between the Commonwealth and Europe and to save the lives of everyone on Mars from the terrors the colonists have accidentally unleashed—but it all depends on her being able to atone for her past and win the heart of Evelyn…

Fiona’s earlier work (including two stories set in the same universe as this novel) has appeared in Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Cossmass Infinities, and five consecutive editions of The Best of British SF. She has  been a BSFA Award finalist three times and has published one novel, Driving Ambition (with Bundoran Press), three stage plays, four audio plays, a number of guidebooks to cult television series, and the nonfiction crossover Management Lessons from Game of Thrones. She is also a regular contributor to Galactic Journey, a multi-Hugo-nominated blog dedicated to the science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s.

“Two pages and I was hooked,” said John Jarrold. “Fiona has created a wonderful, believable  alternate history and outstanding characters – I love Artie! This is a universe that needs full exploration!”

Eksmo have acquired Russian rights in two novels and a novella by award-winning Australian SF writer T. R. Napper. The agent was Laura Karayotov of the SAS Lester Literary Agency & Associates representing the John Jarrold Literary Agency.

36 Streets is a cyberpunk thriller with lashings of military SF: Ghost in the Shell meets Apocalypse Now, set around 100 years in the future, which was published by Titan Books in the UK and US in 2022, and  won the Aurealis Award for Best SF Novel of the Year in June 2023.

Lin ‘The Silent One’ Vu is a gangster and sometime private investigator. Born in Vietnam, raised in Australia, everywhere an outsider. She lives in Chinese-occupied Hanoi, in the steaming, paranoid alleyways of the Old Quarter – known as the 36 Streets.

Through grit and courage Lin has carved a place for herself in the Vietnamese underworld. But when an Englishman comes to Hanoi in search for answers over the murder of his dear friend, Lin’s life is turned upside down. She is drawn into the grand conspiracies of the neon gods: of regimes and mega-corporations, as they unleash dangerous new technologies in a quest for absolute power.  Lin must confront the immutable moral calculus of an unjust war. She must choose: family, country, or gang. Blood, truth, or redemption. No choices are easy on the 36 Streets.

In his new novel, The Escher Man, one man peels back the layers of implanted memories to save his family in this taut, explosive and thrilling high-concept SF novel. Perfect for fans of William Gibson’s The Peripheral, the classic film Total Recall, Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Endel ‘Endgame’ Ebbinghaus is a violent man, a street-level enforcer for a drug cartel. Or is he? In The Escher Man, nothing is as it seems. Friends, enemies, the past and the present, all become blurred in a world where memory manipulation has become the weapon of choice for powerful corporations.

From the gaudy, glittering demimonde of Macau, to the war-torn, steaming streets of northern Vietnam, Endel must fight to save his family, his life, and the fading memory of the man he once was.

Set five years after the events of T. R. Napper’s debut, 36 Streets, this stand-alone novel offers new readers a thrilling ride, while giving returning fans some familiar faces and an expanded universe. A reader can absolutely come to this without having read 36 Streets, but someone who has read it and wants more will also get their wish.

T R Napper’s new (untitled) novella is a thrilling, propulsive story of escape as two small-time crooks go on the run to save an AI in its infancy. Johnny Mnemonic meets Mad Max in this fast-paced, gritty, and deeply human story that spans the breadth of the Australian continent, and explores the depths of its dark heart.

Praise for 36 Streets:

“Raw and raging and passionate. This is cyberpunk literature with a capital fucken L. Get it while it’s hot.” –  Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon

“Quintessential cyberpunk, hard-nosed, sharp edged and gleaming.”—Adrian Tchaikovsky, award-winning author of Children of Time

“[36 Streets] has things both novel and serious to say about the psychological effects of intrusive media. This is a kick-the-door-down account of how past traumas — personal and national — may one day be weaponised for social control.”—The Sunday Times

“Brutal, brooding, brilliant . . . an angry vision of violence wrapped around a complex meditation of memory, trauma and hegemony. This is cyberpunk with soul.” Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, author of The Salvage Crew

“Not since Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl have I been so utterly enthralled by a science fiction novel. 36 Streets is a cyberpunk tour de force – richly textured, nuanced, and shot-through with emotional depth. I could practically feel the sweaty, grimy, bloody, tropical heat oozing from the pages. One of the standouts of the year.”—Richard Swan, author of The Justice of Kings

“High-octane, immersive SF at its best. 36 Streets is sure become a classic in the field.” Kaaron Warren, Shirley Jackson Award-Winner

“Napper has made a remarkable character in the form of his protagonist Lin Thi Vu, subverting to some degree the conventions of the world of male power and violence. It’s a great achievement. The set pieces, the interludes, of performed mastery with weapons and skill, are well poised and set the scene with ritualised violence.” Stephen Teo, author of Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition

“An engrossing, intriguing action-packed duty tour of a tech-thick, violence-infused, neon-scorched near future gangland Vietnam, where unwinnable games run hot and wild. Highly recommended.” Cat Sparks, author of Lotus Blue

“Beautiful, shimmering, ghostly science fiction.” Anna Smith-Spark, author of Empires of Dust

T. R. Napper is a multi-award-winning science fiction author. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s, Interzone, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and numerous others, and been translated into Hebrew, German, French, and Vietnamese.

Before turning to writing, T. R. Napper was a diplomat and aid worker, delivering humanitarian programs in Southeast Asia for a decade. During this period, he received a commendation from the Government of Laos for his work with the poor. He also was a resident of the Old Quarter in Ha Noi for several years, the setting for his debut novel, 36 Streets.

These days he has returned to his home country of Australia, where he works as a Dungeon Master, running campaigns for young people with autism for a local charity.

In 2020 he won the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novella. “The Weight of the Air, the Weight of the World,” and the  ACT Notable Awards Fiction Category for “Neon Leviathan.” In 2017 he won the Aurealis Award for Best Short Story for “Flame Trees”, (Asimov’s Science Fiction, April/May 2016; and another of his stories “A Strange Loop” (Interzone, January/February 2016) was included in Neil Clarke’s Best Science Fiction of the Year.

Napper was awarded a creative writing doctorate in 2019 for his thesis The Dark Century: 1946 – 2046. Noir, Cyberpunk, and Asian Modernity. 

Bestselling novelist Richard Morgan has been fulsome in his praise of Napper’s debut short fiction collection, Neon Leviathan (2020):

“Haunting and iridescent – combines the paranoid weirdness of the best Philip K Dick, the chilly but cool-as-fuck future gleam of cyberpunk, and an achingly beautiful literary inflection reminiscent of mainstream heavyweights like Murakami or Ishiguro. T. R. Napper’s futures feel at once gritty and vertiginous and close-focus human in the way only the best SF can manage. Whatever roadmap he’s working from, I can’t wait to see where he’s taking us next.”

Bestselling self-published fantasy and SF author David Estes is the latest client of the John Jarrold Literary agency, for translation rights.

David Estes is an Amazon #1 bestselling author who has written more than 30 science fiction and fantasy books. David lives in Hawaii with his beautiful Aussie wife, Adele, his naughty cats, Bailey and Luna, and his rambunctious sons, Beau and Brody.

Since epic fantasy Fatemarked was first published in 2017, David has sold more than 100k books each year. The five-book Fatemarked series has sold more than 400k copies and still sells well six years later. His follow up Kingfall series, set in the same world as Fatemarked, was published two years ago and has performed wonderfully well. The audio rights were sold to Audible Studios a year before the first book was published for a good six-figure advance. He is currently working on his next five-book series set in the same world as Fatemarked and Kingfall, titled Forsworn. In May 2023 he finalized the deal for the audio rights with Audible, including a larger six-figure advance.

“David is a terrific writer, and it’s really exciting to be discussing translation rights with a number of hugely successful self-published authors for the agency,” said John Jarrold.

Alex Berman at Phantasia Press has acquired limited edition hardback rights in STORMBLOOD, the brilliant SF debut by Jeremy Szal. The deal was concluded with Alice Cottrell, Rights Manager at Orion/Gollancz. Gollancz published STORMBLOOD in 2020, and the sequel, BLINDSPACE, in 2021. The third book in the sequence, WOLFSKIN, is being written.

Vakov Fukasawa used to be a Reaper: a bio-enhanced soldier fighting for the Harmony, against a brutal invading empire. He’s still fighting now, on a different battlefield: taking on stormtech. To make him a perfect soldier, Harmony injected him with the DNA of an extinct alien race, altering his body chemistry and leaving him permanently addicted to adrenaline and aggression. But although they meant to create soldiers, at the same time Harmony created a new drug market that has millions hopelessly addicted to their own body chemistry.

Vakov may have walked away from Harmony, but they still know where to find him, and his former Reaper colleagues are being murdered by someone, or something – and Vakov is appalled to learn his estranged brother is involved. Suddenly it’s an investigation he can’t turn down . . . but the closer he comes to the truth, the more addicted to stormtech he becomes.
And it’s possible the war isn’t over, after all . . .

Jeremy Szal was born in 1995 and was raised by wild dingoes, which should explain a lot. He writes dark science fiction of a character-driven, morally grey nature. His main series is The Common Trilogy, which includes STORMBLOOD, BLINDSPACE and WOLFSKIN, about a drug harvested from alien DNA that makes users permanently addicted to aggression and adrenaline. He’s written over forty short stories, translated into nine languages. He was the editor for the Hugo-winning StarShipSofa until 2020, where he was the editor and audio producer for authors such as George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, and William Gibson. He’s got a somewhat useless a BA in Film Studies and Creative Writing from UNSW. He carves out a living in Sydney, Australia with his family. He loves watching weird movies, exploring cities, eccentric IPAs, rainy weather, and dark humour. Find him at http://jeremyszal.com/ or @JeremySzal

PRAISE FOR STORMBLOOD:

STORMBLOOD is a high stakes adrenaline filled adventure featuring two estranged brothers suddenly on opposite ends of an addict’s war. And it’s real damn good ― Nick Martell, author of THE KINGDOM OF LIARS

A captivating military sci-fi debut. Stormblood tells a splendid story about two brothers divided by war that is full of comradeship, actions, and conflict ― Novel Notions

A magnificent and explosive adrenaline-fest . . . Szal’s debut is an absolute must read for fans of gritty, action-packed, detective and military SF ― Grimdark Magazine

Stormblood feels like a superb combination of the actions in Red Rising Saga and the world-building of Mass Effect. Exciting, thought-provoking, and full of incredibly intense moments. Military sci-fi readers would be treating themselves well by putting Stormblood on their radar ― Novel Notions

This frenetic, grisly sucker-punch of a book manages to be everything you could want from sci-fi, while also carving out its own niche with a rusty slingshiv. ― Fantasy Book Review

Szal’s world is an insane, twisted place, and STORMBLOOD is one of the best scifi stories you’ll ever read ― Rob Boffard, author of OUTER EARTH

Delivers visceral, bone-crunching fight sequences and a strong emotional core ― SFX

Razor sharp and vicious, Stormblood is an adrenaline-driven vision of a dark future. Highly recommended! ― Michael R. Fletcher, author of BLACK STONE HEART

Vakov Fukasawa is a former soldier, addicted to the biotech inside his own body that makes him constantly crave for action. And there is plenty of action in this fast moving novel, but not at the expense of ideas, or of humanity, or of vivid descriptions of Szal’s carefully imagined war-torn galaxy ― Chris Beckett, author of Arthur C Clarke award-winning DARK EDEN

An intriguing mix of rich worldbuilding, meaty twists and ballistic ultraviolence ― SFX

Highly recommended, a visceral trip into the darker side of SF. . .a rich setting replete with many alien races and a constant undertone of threat ― Jamie Sawyer, Author of THE LAZARUS WAR

The prose was visceral, the plot packed a punch and the emotional scenes aimed for the gut. Jeremy just burst through the door and blew away the competition with this powerful action sci-fi debut ― Gray Williams, author of END OF THE LINE

STORMBLOOD is sci-fi with an edge. It’s a gritty, action-packed story that fans of Richard Morgan will eat right up, but it’s got a ton of heart as well. The characters – especially Vakov – are exceptional, and the future-noir setting is extremely well-crafted. You’ll want two things when you’re finished this book: a glass of gin and a sequel. ― Nicholas Eames, author of KINGS OF THE WYLD

Stormblood gets under your skin. It’s like a prose torpedo packing a hefty payload of deep space opera noir, chrome-edged and irresistible ― Michael Cobley, author of HUMANITY’S FIRE