Fantasy Book Critic: Mark Newton's New Series Announced

While I rarely propagate deal announcements since there are enough sff sites that like doing it, here at FBC we are big fans of Mark Newton and I am very happy that his writing career is continuing to progress well.

I quite like his writing style and his imagination is among the best in the genre today, so his first three Legends of the Red Sun novels have all been "read on receive the early version, reread on receive the next version, up to the final one", while of course at any subsequent installment I would go back and reread at least partly the earlier ones too.

Not surprisingly they have also been in my top 25 of 2009 - Nights of Villjamur - , top 25 of 2010 - City of Ruin - and top 25 of 2011, The Book of Transformations.

So while the closure of the Legends of the Red Sun is a highly anticipated release for the summer of 2012 - as of now I still have no idea of the title, cover or the precise date - and from the author's posts on his popular website linked above I had an inkling that something like this will be his next project, I am really happy to see it official and of course those books are asap's for me whenever they will come out!

Here are the official details, while more details are on the author's site HERE:

"PRESS RELEASE – NEW DEAL FOR MARK CHARAN NEWTON

Bella Pagan, Senior Commissioning Editor at Tor UK, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, has acquired world rights to the first two volumes of a fantasy series by Mark Charan Newton. The agent was John Jarrold.

The first book in a series provisionally titled DRAKENFELD introduces the eponymous hero, an investigator. The series is set in a fantasy world, but will appeal to fans of historical mysteries. In this opening volume, Lucan Drakenfeld is called home after the death of his father – but is immediately thrown into the investigation of a royal death. He also finds that his father’s demise is not as clear-cut as it at first appears…

Pagan said ‘Mark writes compulsive adventures set in utterly convincing new worlds – he’s a terrific writer. I couldn’t ask for a better start to my new position at Tor UK than this first deal’.

Tor UK have successfully published three fantasy novels by Mark in the Legends of the Red Sun series since 2009, with a fourth to appear in the summer of 2012. They have been strongly acclaimed by China Miéville, Peter F Hamilton and reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The first book in the new series will be published in 2014."