Ken says:

The Night Sessions is a crime novel set in 2037. It’s also an SF novel that asks the question: what if we finally got fed up with the influence of religion on politics, education, and law, and decided to drive it out of these areas for good?

We wouldn’t get the consequences we intended – quite apart from the blowback of faith-based terrorism that drives the plot of the book. The cops (there’s a reason why it’s regular beat cops, and not the army or the secret police) who enforced the reforms could be warped by the experience. Even years later, when they’re Detective Inspectors.

Besides, you can’t have an Edinburgh detective without a dark past. It’s the law.

The book also has robots, space elevators, presbyterian terrorists, a creation science park and a gothic lolita secret policeman.

And Russians. Sinister Russians. In Leith.

These are some of the reasons why I think you might like this book.

Multpile award-winner and award-nominee (he’s been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Awards no fewer than five times) Ken MacLeod‘s new novel, The Night Sessions, is out now from Orbit UK in hardback. You can read an extract over at fantasybookspot.com.

Visit Ken’s blog, The Early Days of a Better Nation for more of Ken’s thoughts on a whole range of topics related to his writing, interests and the major themes of his work.

Jacqueline says:

At heart, Kushiel’s Scion is a simple coming-of-age tale – one that just happens to feature a boy with a treasonous mother, a perilously attractive foster-mother and an impossibly heroic foster-father. Oh, and a childhood based on lies, a terrible abduction and long months of torment in captivity that would have crushed a lesser spirit. Imriel de la Courcel comes into his story with a lot more baggage than the ordinary protagonist, and the essence of Kushiel’s Scion is about his struggle to transcend it.

It’s also about the redemptive power of love in all its forms, intrigue, trust, betrayal, possession, war, and the true meaning of heroism. And sex, lots of sex. There’s something here for everyone to enjoy!

Kushiel’s Scion, the first part of Jacqueline Carey‘s Treason’s Heir series, is out now in paperback from Orbit UK.

Visit www.jacquelinecarey.com for more information her writing, and to read an extract from Kushiel’s Scion. You can also join her emailing list to be kept up-to-date with all the latest developments.

Robert says:

What are the Jason Wander books about?

My inner teen thinks they are about cool stuff: hovertanks, dinosaurs, captured alien starships, firefights, swordfights, and cracking wise when authority least welcomes it.

My inner grown-up thinks the books are about the distance between Eisenhower and the paratroops shown here, west of London on D-Day eve, 1944. That distance is an armspan across the grass of Greenham Common Airfield, but the journey of a soldier’s lifetime across the calendar.

Why do I think you’ll like them over there? I strive to write prose spare and funny enough to make readers smile, while jammed in middle airline seats, after twelve-hour days, with headaches.

Plus, there’s all the cool stuff…

Robert Buettner‘s Jason Wander series is officially published by Orbit UK on August 7th and all three books were published by Orbit US in April this year:

• – Orphanage [US / UK]
• – Orphan’s Destiny [US / UK]
• – Orphan’s Journey [US / UK]

Book four in the series, Orphan’s Alliance is scheduled for publication by Orbit US in November 2008.

Image Credit: U.S. Army. “Dwight Eisenhower giving orders to American paratroopers in England.” 1944 June 5. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.