Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Another Translation.

Ah, the juggernaut rolls on: the Czech publisher Polaris have now made an offer for Brass Man, which they intend to publish in the next twelve months. Thus far they have published The Skinner and Gridlinked, with The Line of Polity next. The Skinner won the Salamander Award (the picture here is of the publisher collecting the award) given by the Czech Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror as the best SF book published there in 2004. This was out of a shortlist of Blood Music by Greg Bear, Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds, The Scar by China Mieville and A Deepness Upon the Sky by Vernor Vinge. What an excellent list! The following year Gridlinked appeared on the shortlist, but didn’t win. What’s really good about all this, of course, is that most of the foreign publishers who have taken my first books for translation, are now coming back for more.


Other news: in a recent phone call Jason Williams of Night Shade Books has expressed surprise and delight at the sales of Prador Moon. The first print run is all but gone and orders are still coming in. He also made a book club deal with it too. And it now seems likely that there’ll be a British edition of Prador Moon and a collection of Polity short stories including those published in Asimov’s, Interzone and elsewhere.




I’m presently working through the editing of Hilldiggers, with Line War now at over 40,000 words sitting to one side. Also set to one side at the moment is a another book I’ve started for Night Shade Books, which tells the story of Cormac’s early years.

7 comments:

Kirby Uber said...

that is one fricking cool cover.

Neal Asher said...

Don't you recognise it, Kirby? It's the whole British cover, front and back, made into the front cover.

Bob Lock said...

Those were some damn good books The Skinner was up against for The Salamander, Neal, well done!

I was in Waterstones today and noticed they had a copy of Prador Moon on the shelves, retailing at 8.99

Bob

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is all in a process. We were just discussing the Czech title for the Brass Man. OK, most online dictionaries define "brass" as an alloy of copper and zinc, but Czech dictionaries have it for some reason also as an alloy of copper and tin - a bronze! Well, this is one of the pleasures of translating. Can you help?

Neal Asher said...

Petr, bronze would work equally as well as brass considering the explanation of the metal in the book. It's just a coating on him to absorb heat - from weapons impacts - spread by a superconducting grid inlaid in it.

Kirby Uber said...

ah, very clever.

and no i didn't recognize it. ;p
how embarrassing for me. 8)

Kirby Uber said...

"Also set to one side at the moment is a another book I’ve started for Night Shade Books, which tells the story of Cormac’s early years."

this makes me very excited.