Prometheus Books’ Pyr Imprint Enters the YA Genre Fiction Market
Introduces Pyr for the YA Reader with Three New Titles in Sci-Fi Adventure, Paranormal Romance, and Fantasy Adventure
Amherst, New York – In November 2011, Pyr, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, will introduce its first book specifically for the Young Adult (YA) market. Two additional YA titles follow, in December 2011 and February 2012.
“Several titles in the Pyr catalog have had crossover appeal to the young adult reader—including The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire, Book 1), Sasha (A Trial of Blood and Steel Book One) and The Falling Machine (The Society of Steam, Book One),” says Prometheus Books president Jonathan Kurtz, “so it was a natural progression for us to decide to publish books intended specifically for this market segment.”
Prometheus Books, an independent publisher of thoughtful nonfiction based in Amherst, New York, launched the Pyr imprint in March 2005. Since then, it has become a brand known for books with quality both inside and out, from rich, engrossing narratives to award-winning cover art and design. Pyr’s editorial director, Lou Anders, is currently nominated for the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Editor—for the fifth consecutive year.
Anders says, “We believe there is a real hunger in the growing YA readership for narratives that explore the full, imaginative breadth of what science fiction and fantasy has to offer. Of our first three Pyr titles for the YA reader, two are from authors who primarily write for the adult book market, an acquisitions approach we decided best served this need. Also, it's long been said that 'the Golden Age of science fiction is twelve,' and while this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it speaks to the common interests of those who read speculative fiction, whether teen or adult. With many adult readers turning to Young Adult fiction to recapture the sense of wonder and fun that the best stories in any category have always embodied, it made sense for us to bring our expertise, and that of our authors, to this new arena.”
The first Pyr Young Adult title (in November) will be Lightbringer, the debut novel from K. D. McEntire. For ages twelve and up, Lightbringer is a YA urban fantasy/paranormal romance set in a world a breath away from our own. Similar in tone to Tithe by Holly Black and Unleashed by Kristopher Reisz, Lightbringer tiptoes down the line between love and horror with the tale of a young girl discovering love with a long-dead ghost.
In December, one of the most critically acclaimed Pyr authors—the Hugo and Philip K. Dick award–winning Ian McDonald—makes his YA debut with the sci-fi adventure Planesrunner. The first part of the new Everness series for ages twelve and up, Planesrunner stars a fourteen-year-old boy searching for his kidnapped father across the many parallel worlds of the multiverse. Cory Doctorow (Little Brother, For the Win) calls it “smashing adventure fiction that spans the multiverse without ever losing its cool or its sense of style. Ian McDonald is one of the greats of science fiction, and his young adult debut is everything you could hope for: romantic, action packed, wildly imaginative, and full of heart.”
Lastly, Ari Marmell’s Thief’s Covenant (A Widdershins Adventure), for readers twelve and up, will be published in February 2012. It features a young, female orphan-turned-thief making her way in a dangerous city with help from Olgun, a foreign god who, having lost his followers, has taken up residence in her head.
YA titles will be released in hardcover and in ebook formats and will have their own section in the Pyr catalog. YA is expected eventually to account for a third of the Pyr list.
Although technically an imprint, Pyr was called “one of a very few publishers I know of who have no bad books to their name” by a BiblioBuffet writer, and “one of the most exciting publishers in the business” by Black Gate magazine. Given the crossover in adult and YA readership, Prometheus Books is thrilled to introduce the Pyr brand of science fiction and fantasy to a whole new audience.
Showing posts with label Pyr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pyr. Show all posts
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
PYR Publishes It's 100th Title
Pyr Publishes Its 100th Title and Offers Free Exclusive ePub Novelette in Celebration
Milestone Reached with James Enge’s The Wolf Age
Amherst, New York – In March of this year, Pyr, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, celebrated its fifth anniversary. In November, Pyr reached another milestone: publishing its one-hundredth title, The Wolf Age, by James Enge.
The Wolf Age is the third novel to feature Enge’s character Morlock Ambrosius, a wandering swordsman, an exile, and a drunk. Blood of Ambrose, Enge’s first Morlock novel, was on the Locus Recommended Reading list and a World Fantasy Award nominee for Best Novel.
“I'm honored to be Pyr’s centenarian (or centurion?),” Enge says. “Between that distinction and the World Fantasy Award nomination for Blood of Ambrose, it's been a pretty cool fall. Both the WFA nominees and the authors on the Pyr list are pretty impressive company; it's a privilege to be counted among them.”
Publishers Weekly gave The Wolf Age a starred review, calling it “harrowing and beautiful” and noting that “Enge's elegant prose perfectly captures Morlock's terse and morbid nature, which thrives in the vicious, honorable werewolf nation. Numerous intimate, complicated, and contentious relationships provide depth and gravity to the grim tale, which will enthrall fans of the dark and sinister.”
All of Enge’s Morlock Ambrosius novels and stories can be read independently, but—as Tim Pratt recently pointed out in his Locus review of The Wolf Age—reading one will make you want to seek out the others. Calling The Wolf Age “inventive and delightful,” Pratt “promptly tracked down the earlier titles, Blood of Ambrose and This Crooked Way, because I enjoyed this one so much.” He added, “Enge is one of the most engaging of the new sword and sorcery authors, and I hope we get to follow Morlock's exploits for a long time to come.”
In honor of this burgeoning Morlock fan base, and to commemorate The Wolf Age’s status as Pyr’s one-hundredth title, Pyr is issuing a free, exclusive, ePub novelette called “Travellers' Rest.” Featuring a cover by artist Chuck Lukacs, “Travellers' Rest” is an 8,500 word original novelette, written for Pyr, which takes place before the events of Blood of Ambrose. It is available on the Pyr website, http://www.pyrsf.com, as a free download in ePub format and will also be available via Kindle. (Two previously published Morlock short stories that take place many decades after the events of The Wolf Age—“A Book of Silences” and “Fire and Sleet” —are available on the Sample Chapters section of the Pyr website.)
Enge describes “Traveller's Rest” as “a story that's been trying to chew its way out of my head for a while now, and this seemed like a good time to release it as an introduction to Morlock. Also, Morlock’s apprentice Wyrth has a small but discerning fan base, and ‘Traveller's Rest’ gives them a chance to encounter him again.”
Enge’s highly imaginative sword and sorcery fiction mixes humor and darkness in equal measures. His writing has been compared favorably to Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, David Eddings, and, interestingly, Raymond Chandler. Lev Grossman, the New York Times bestselling author of The Magicians, finds Enge “thrilling, funny, and mysteriously moving. . . I could read him forever and never get bored.”
Pyr has been called “one of the most exciting publishers in the business” by Black Gate magazine. It was launched in March of 2005 by Prometheus Books, an independent publisher of quality nonfiction based in Amherst, New York.
Milestone Reached with James Enge’s The Wolf Age
Amherst, New York – In March of this year, Pyr, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, celebrated its fifth anniversary. In November, Pyr reached another milestone: publishing its one-hundredth title, The Wolf Age, by James Enge.
The Wolf Age is the third novel to feature Enge’s character Morlock Ambrosius, a wandering swordsman, an exile, and a drunk. Blood of Ambrose, Enge’s first Morlock novel, was on the Locus Recommended Reading list and a World Fantasy Award nominee for Best Novel.
“I'm honored to be Pyr’s centenarian (or centurion?),” Enge says. “Between that distinction and the World Fantasy Award nomination for Blood of Ambrose, it's been a pretty cool fall. Both the WFA nominees and the authors on the Pyr list are pretty impressive company; it's a privilege to be counted among them.”
Publishers Weekly gave The Wolf Age a starred review, calling it “harrowing and beautiful” and noting that “Enge's elegant prose perfectly captures Morlock's terse and morbid nature, which thrives in the vicious, honorable werewolf nation. Numerous intimate, complicated, and contentious relationships provide depth and gravity to the grim tale, which will enthrall fans of the dark and sinister.”
All of Enge’s Morlock Ambrosius novels and stories can be read independently, but—as Tim Pratt recently pointed out in his Locus review of The Wolf Age—reading one will make you want to seek out the others. Calling The Wolf Age “inventive and delightful,” Pratt “promptly tracked down the earlier titles, Blood of Ambrose and This Crooked Way, because I enjoyed this one so much.” He added, “Enge is one of the most engaging of the new sword and sorcery authors, and I hope we get to follow Morlock's exploits for a long time to come.”
In honor of this burgeoning Morlock fan base, and to commemorate The Wolf Age’s status as Pyr’s one-hundredth title, Pyr is issuing a free, exclusive, ePub novelette called “Travellers' Rest.” Featuring a cover by artist Chuck Lukacs, “Travellers' Rest” is an 8,500 word original novelette, written for Pyr, which takes place before the events of Blood of Ambrose. It is available on the Pyr website, http://www.pyrsf.com, as a free download in ePub format and will also be available via Kindle. (Two previously published Morlock short stories that take place many decades after the events of The Wolf Age—“A Book of Silences” and “Fire and Sleet” —are available on the Sample Chapters section of the Pyr website.)
Enge describes “Traveller's Rest” as “a story that's been trying to chew its way out of my head for a while now, and this seemed like a good time to release it as an introduction to Morlock. Also, Morlock’s apprentice Wyrth has a small but discerning fan base, and ‘Traveller's Rest’ gives them a chance to encounter him again.”
Enge’s highly imaginative sword and sorcery fiction mixes humor and darkness in equal measures. His writing has been compared favorably to Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, David Eddings, and, interestingly, Raymond Chandler. Lev Grossman, the New York Times bestselling author of The Magicians, finds Enge “thrilling, funny, and mysteriously moving. . . I could read him forever and never get bored.”
Pyr has been called “one of the most exciting publishers in the business” by Black Gate magazine. It was launched in March of 2005 by Prometheus Books, an independent publisher of quality nonfiction based in Amherst, New York.
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