Review: The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson

Dec 162014
 

Cover for The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley. Photo of a white boy with messy brown hair, hazel eyes, and freckles, wearing a gray hoodie on a gray background. A word bubble encases the words "a novel", hinting at the graphic novel elements within.Booklist: Hutchinson’s latest is an unflinching look at loss, grief, and recovery. Seventeen-year-old Drew Brawley has been hiding from death for months in the Florida hospital where the rest of his family died. He passes the time working at the cafeteria and making friends with teen patients in the oncology ward. Drew has been working on a graphic novel, a disturbing story called Patient F that hints at the trauma he has been desperately trying to keep buried. The comic, interspersed throughout the text, provides a visual punctuation mark to Drew’s guilt and self-loathing. When he begins to fall for Rusty, a hate-crime victim admitted to the hospital after having been set on fire, Drew’s resolve to live his life ghosting about the hospital begins to waver. Dark and frequently grim situations are lightened by realistic dialogue and genuineness of feeling. The rapid-fire back-and-forth snark between Drew and his hospital “family” rings true, and the mystery of Drew’s past will keep readers turning the pages. This is a heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful work from a writer to watch.

The Guardian’s Best Science Fiction of 2014

Dec 082014
 

Cover for Our Lady of the Streets by Tom Pollock. White cover with the title written fancifully in blue. At the base is a blue silhouette of London's skyline, but it is broken and crumbling.Congratulations to Tom Pollock on Our Lady of the Streets being named one of The Guardian‘s Best Science Fiction Books of 2014!

“This year also saw the final volume in Tom Pollock’s superb YA Skyscraper Throne trilogy: Our Lady of the Streets (Quercus) uses fantasy conceits and a tireless capacity for invention to map the dazzle, diversity and menace of London in ways simply unavailable to realist writers.”

Deal: Shaun David Hutchinson

Dec 052014
 

photo of author Shaun David HutchinsonShaun David Hutchinson’s WE ARE THE ANTS, about a boy who is (maybe) abducted by aliens and told the world will end in 144 days unless he pushes a big red button, but in the aftermath of his boyfriend’s suicide, he’s not sure the world is worth saving, again to Michael Strother at Simon Pulse, in a two-book deal, by Amy Boggs.

Review: The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson

Dec 032014
 

Cover for The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley. Photo of a white boy with messy brown hair, hazel eyes, and freckles, wearing a gray hoodie on a gray background. A word bubble encases the words "a novel", hinting at the graphic novel elements within.Publishers Weekly: In this haunting tale of grief and recovery, 17-year-old Andrew Brawley lives like a ghost in the sprawling wings of Roanoke General Hospital, working in the cafeteria, visiting patients, and borrowing what he needs to get by. When he’s not trying to play matchmaker for his friends Lexi and Trevor—both battling cancer—he’s talking to nurses or working on his comic, Patient F, all while avoiding the tragic circumstances that took his family and left him behind. When Rusty, a boy badly burned by homophobic bullies, enters the hospital, Drew finds the courage to reach out, find love, and confront his deep-rooted guilt and confusion. Hutchinson (fml) takes some liberties with Drew’s unusual day-to-day circumstances, but spins an engrossing story, with Drew’s perceptions lending it an almost surreal, supernatural quality (such as his seeing Death around the hospital and fearing that she’s come for him). The narrative is further developed by violent excerpts from Patient F, skillfully drawn by Larsen, through which Drew tries to exorcise his demons.

Empire of Dust by Jacey Bedford

Nov 042014
 

Cover for Empire of Dust by Jacey Bedford. An alien landscape with green sky and rocky terrain. A blond white woman in futuristic armor and holding a gun guards atop a floating transport while a black man behind her implants devises into the ground.Mega corporations, more powerful than any one planetary government, use their agents to race each other for resources across the galaxy. The agents, or psi-techs, are implanted with telepath technology. The psi-techs are bound to the mega-corps — that is, if they want to retain their sanity.

Cara Carlinni is an impossible thing – a runaway psi-tech. She knows Alphacorp can find its implant-augmented telepaths, anywhere, anytime, mind-to-mind. So even though it’s driving her half-crazy, she’s powered down and has been surviving on tranqs and willpower. So far, so good. It’s been almost a year, and her mind is still her own.

She’s on the run from Ari van Blaiden, a powerful executive, after discovering massive corruption in Alphacorp. Cara barely escapes his forces, yet again, on a backwater planet, and gets out just in time due to the help of straight-laced Ben Benjamin, a psi-tech Navigator for Alphacorp’s biggest company rival.

Cara and Ben struggle to survive a star-spanning manhunt, black-ops raids, and fleets of resource-hungry raiders. Betrayal follows betrayal, and friends become enemies. Suddenly the most important skill is knowing whom to trust.

October Translation Deals

Oct 312014
 

earthItalian kiosk rights to Lynda Robinson’s MURDER IN THE PLACE OF ANUBIS, to Fabbri, by Stefania Fietta at Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier.

Italian rights to Thea Harrison’s SERPENT’S KISS, Book 3 of the Elder Races series, to Fanucci, by Stefania Fietta at Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Amy Boggs.

French rights to Anne Bishop’s MURDER OF CROWS, Book 2 of the Others series, to Bragelonne, by Victoria Villemur at Anna Jarota Agency, in association with Jennifer Jackson.

Portuguese rights to Anne Bishop’s WRITTEN IN RED, Book 1 of the Others series, to Saida de Emergencia, by Isabel Monteagudo at International Editors’ Co., in association with Jennifer Jackson.

Brazilian rights to Chuck Wendig’s BLACKBIRDS, to Leya, in a nice deal, in a six-book deal, by Flavia Sala and Cristina Purchio at International Editors’ in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Stacia Decker.

Review: The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson

Oct 292014
 

Cover for The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley. Photo of a white boy with messy brown hair, hazel eyes, and freckles, wearing a gray hoodie on a gray background. A word bubble encases the words "a novel", hinting at the graphic novel elements within.Kirkus: Hutchinson remains an author worth watching. A homeless, gay teen finds shelter and hope in the hospital where his family perished. Traumatized by their loss, 17-year-old Drew bides his time working in the kitchen of a suburban hospital. He lives in an abandoned wing and slips in and out of the halls and staff-only areas under the pretense that his grandmother is in a coma. He befriends two teens sick with cancer and finds himself opening up and falling for a gay teen admitted into the emergency room after being set on fire in a hate crime. At the same time Drew pens a gruesome comic strip called “Patient F” to exorcise his own demons and guilt; drawn by Larsen, this effectively communicates his interior turmoil, heightening it to near-grotesque levels over the course of the story. Hutchinson builds believable secondary characters and presents unexpectedly fresh plotting and genuine repartee—the conversations among Drew and his two teen friends feel particularly real and are full of insight and humor. Continue reading »

Review: Empire of Dust by Jacey Bedford

Oct 102014
 

Cover for Empire of Dust by Jacey Bedford. An alien landscape with green sky and rocky terrain. A blond white woman in futuristic armor and holding a gun guards atop a floating transport while a black man behind her implants devises into the ground.Publishers Weekly: Bedford mixes romance and intrigue in this promising debut, which opens the Psi-Tech space opera series. Like other psi-techs, long-range telepath Cara Carlinni has a brain implant that enhances her powers. It also leaves her indentured to Alphacorp, the company that paid for the implant. On the run with data that links her ruthless former boss and lover, Ari van Blaiden, to a deadly pirate attack on a colony world, Cara convinces navigator Reska “Ben” Benjamin to add her to his team of psi-tech troubleshooters. They’ve been contracted to help the fundamentalist back-to-basics Ecolibrians establish a colony on the planet Olyanda, but it won’t be easy. Hardcore Ecolibrians hate psi-techs and punish “fraternization” brutally. Worse yet, Ben discovers mineral deposits on Olyanda that make the planet a target for pirates—just like a previous colony-building job whose failure still haunts him. Bedford builds a taut story around the dangers of a new world, the Ecolibrians’ distrust, and treachery from Ari and Ben’s home office. Readers who crave high adventure and tense plots will enjoy this voyage into the future.

Deal: Shaun David Hutchinson

Oct 092014
 

photo of author Shaun David HutchinsonMichael Strother at Simon Pulse has pre-empted world English rights to Violent Ends, a novel with 17 authors, edited by Shaun David Hutchinson, author of the upcoming The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley. The story centers on a 16-year-old school shooter, with each chapter set at a time before the shooting and told by characters who knew him, trying to answer one question: Why? Contributing authors include Kendare Blake, Steve Brezenoff, Delilah Dawson, Trish Doller, Margie Gelbwasser, Christine Johnson, E.M. Kokie, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Tom Leveen, Hannah Moskowitz, Elisa Nader, Beth Revis, Mindi Scott, Neal and Brendan Shusterman, Courtney Summers, Blythe Woolston. Fall 2015 is the projected pub date; Amy Boggs negotiated the deal.

September Translation Deals

Sep 302014
 

A photo of planet Earth from space.Czech rights to Jim Butcher’s White Night and Small Favor, the 9th and 10th novels in the Dresden Files series, to Triton by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi in association with Jennifer Jackson.

Czech rights to Robert Jackson Bennett’s CITY OF STAIRS, to Host, by Nada Cipranic at Prava I Prevodi, in association with Cameron McClure.

Italian rights to Karl Schroeder’s QUEEN OF CANDESCE and PIRATE SUN, Books 1 and 2 of the Virga series, to Zona 42, by Stefania Fietta at Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale, in association with Cameron McClure.

Russian rights to Jim Butcher’s SKIN GAME, the 15th book in the Dresden Files series, along with a renewal of Russian rights to GHOST STORY from the same series, to AST, by Alexander Korzhenevski Agency in association with Jennifer Jackson.

Simplified Chinese rights to Chuck Wendig’s BLACKBIRDS, MOCKINGBIRD, and THE CORMORANT, the first three books in the Miriam Black series, in a nice deal, at auction, to Beijing White Horse Time by Gray Tan at The Grayhawk Agency, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier, on behalf of Stacia Decker.

Brazilian rights to Shaun David Hutchinson’s THE FIVE STAGES OF ANDREW BRAWLEY, to Record, by Flavia Sala and Cristina Purchio at International Editors’, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier, on behalf of Amy Boggs.

Brazilian rights to Randy Henderson’s FINN FANCY NECROMANCY, to Record, by Flavia Sala and Cristina Purchio at International Editors’, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier.

French rights to award-winning author Jo Walton’s HA’PENNY and HALF A CROWN, Books 2 and 3 of the Small Change trilogy, to Denoël, by Pierre Corman at Anna Jarota Agency, in association with Cameron McClure.

French rights to Thea Harrison’s KINKED and NIGHT’S HONOR, Books 6 and 7 in the Elder Races series, to J’ai Lu, in a two-book deal, by Victoria Villemur at Anna Jarota Agency, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Amy Boggs.

French rights to Thea Harrison’s novellas THE WICKED, DRAGOS TAKES HOLIDAYS, PIA SAVES THE WORLD and PEANUT GOES TO SCHOOL, to J’ai Lu, by Victoria Villemur at Anna Jarota Agency, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Amy Boggs.

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