Jon Courtenay Grimwood at Tangled Web UK

Page Updated: 28/01/2008

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Jon Courtenay Grimwood - Page 1

Arabesk - Trilogy

pbk 22 Oct 07

End of the World Blues

9Tail Fox

Felaheen

Effendi

WebPage: http://www.j-cg.co.uk

About the Author (Photo (c) J Bauer)

Bibliography

British Pbk Original - Gollancz (2007)

Arabesk - Trilogy
Pashazade, Effendi, Felaheen
El Iskandryia
Welcome to the jewel of North Africa, to El Iskandryia, with its face to the sea and its back to the Delta. A city where East meets West, where the past sits alongside the future, where cultures merge, where money can take you above the law but cannot save your soul.
Ashraf Bey
Meet Ashraf Bey; detective, governor, diplomat, fiancé, uncle. Killer. And son to Moncef, emir of Tunis. Or perhaps not ...
Together in one volume for the first time, the Arabesk novels are a rich voyage through a middle east built on a different past, a world that casts a revealing light on the tensions of our own. And in Ashraf Bey they introduce one of modern fiction’s most enigmatic yet engaging of heroes.
‘All brilliant light and scorching heat . . . Grimwood has successfully mingled fantasy with reality to make an unusual, believable and absorbing mystery’ Sunday Telegraph
‘His way with a sentence has a baroque finesse that makes these unclassifiable novels as elegantly written as they are rich in imaginative energy’ Publishing News
‘Raymond Chandler for the 21st century’ Esquire
‘Dazzling panache and an acute satirical eye’ The Times
‘An action thriller that has the unusual distinction of appealing to fans of several fiction genres’ The Bookseller

First British Edition Gollancz (2006)

End of the World Blues

‘I’m Lady Neku,’ she said, before executing a small bow and offering her hand. When Kit shook, he couldn’t help noticing that her fingers were slightly sticky.
‘You all right?’ asked Neka.
‘Drugs,’ he said it without thinking. ‘I’ve got a…’ Kit looked at the dead man, and then from the girl to the black cat who’d just appeared behind her. ‘Is this for real?’ he said. ‘I mean, is any of this happening?’
Neku shrugged. ‘It’s as real as anything else an this planet

This World Will be Our World
Kit Nouveau didn’t escape himself when he flew to Japan. He runs a bar in the Roppongi district of Tokyo and is having an affair with the wife of a High Yakusa ganglord. All things considered being held up at gunpoint isn’t a complete shock. The pale girl in the black cloak appearing from nowhere and punching an ivory spike into the man’s head on the other hand ...
Nijie has stolen fifteen million dollars, she’s on the run, she’s just killed a man and she has a cat who knows more than it should. It’s a lot to deal with when you haven’t even left school,
But Nijie is really Lady Neku. And it is time for her to stop mewling in the darkness. And suddenly, the girl who became Lady Neku understands she’s never really been anyone else.
And in a sentient castle at the end of world Lady Neku otherwise known as Baroness Nawa-no-ukiyo, Countess High Strange and chatelaine of Schloss Omga realizes that a man called Kit has stolen some of her memories.
End Of The World Blues, Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s dazzling new novel, is a song to Japan and a lament for a dying world that may have forgotten we ever existed. It is proof positive of Grimwood’s status as one of the most innovative and important SF writers working today.
'Among the very best of contemporary SF authors' Iain Banks
'Dazzling panache and an acute satirical eye' The Times
Reviews for 9Tail Fox
'An escapist romp on the wild side with literary ambitions it goes a long way towards fulfilling . . . Compelling entertainment' The Times
'A wildly inventive and gripping blend of Chinese mythology, SF and police procedural that exercises a vice-like grip from start to finish. Highly recommended' Irish Independent
'Disregard for the lines between genre is something we've come to expect of Grimwood, but even by his standards this is audacious - and brilliantly, seamlessly realised' SFX
'Teases us constantly . . . Grimwood is always ingenious and here he moves into the entertainingly wilful!' Time Out
'Part sexy love story, part hard-edged crime thriller, this is a brilliant and original page-turner' Cosmopolitan
'A bizarre but appealing mix of detective novel, gothic SF and Chinese mythology, Grimwood's latest has a San Francisco cop investigating his own death ... ' BBC Focus
'Noir mixed with SF? It may seem an odd combination but this futuristic thriller is a great read . . . ' Crime Confidential

First British Edition Gollancz (2005)

9Tail Fox

‘His teacher had been wrong and his grandfather right. Jinwei hu, the nine-tailed fox, did exist.
The beast just stood there, squinting at him: so close that Bobby could smell its sour reek and feel its breath on his face.
Bobby Zha .. .
What? Demanded Bobby.
Then realised that it might have been better to ask Why?’

9tail Fox is a tour-de-force, a compelling literary meld of noir crime, SF and Chinese myth. It shows Jon Courtenay Grimwood to be a writer at the peak of his powers.

‘Hands reached down and rolled Bobby over, not hard or rough, but as if he wasn't really There was a yank as someone freed the back of his tee-shirt, and then pain far beyond anything he remembered, more vicious than the cold numbness in his chest.
‘That was when Bobby accepted that, yes, he been shot. Only now something else was happening and it was infinitely worse . . . It took Bobby Zha two hours to die.'

Sergeant Bobby Zha of the SFPD is desperate to find out who murdered him. But he also needs the answers to some other questions. Like, why is he in another man's body? Why is someone trying to kill him, again .. . And why is he being haunted by a nine-tailed Celestial fox?
From the shell-shattered ruins of Stalingrad in 1942 to the present-day politics of San Francisco’s Chinatown, 9tail Fox is evocative of place and crystal-clear in its depiction of character. This is literary fiction at its best from one of the most exciting writers working today.
'Dazzling panache and an acute satirical eye' The Times
‘Literary SF is a field full of writers who can handle big plotlines. Few, though, have Grimwood’s way with a sly observation or careful metaphor . . . Closer to greatness with every single novel’ SFX
‘SF at its most inventive’ The Guardian
‘Grimwood writes a line to make all other writers in the world sick with envy’ Justina Robson, The Big Issue
‘Hard-bitten and powerfully addictive’ Michael Rowley, Waterstones ‘If you’re not reading Jon Courtenay Grimwood then you don’t know how subtle and daring fiction can be’ Michael Marshall
‘Dazzling, seductive and pointed’ The Independent

First British Edition Earthlight (2003)

Paperback - Simon & Schuster (2004)

Felaheen
Ashraf Bey has been many things since arriving in El Iskandryia from Seattle. One thing he hasn’t been, as yet, is a son to Moncef, Emir of Tunis - the father Raf has still to meet. Of course, Raf doesn’t believe the Emir is his father anyway. (Given his mother’s insistence that he’s the son of a Swedish hitchhiker).
And now it may be too late, since the rumours that don’t have Emir Moncef escaping assassination have him hovering on the edge of death.
Despite refusing a plea for help from the Emir’s chief of security, Raf still finds himself being drawn towards Tunis. It seems he has his own part in an unfolding political crisis that had its beginnings decades earlier with US anti-globalisation riots and the Emir’s refusal to ratify the 2005 UN Accord on Biotechnology.
Jon Courtenay Grimwood has played with our perception of reality throughout this highly-praised series of novels. In this, his third Ashraf Bey mystery, many things become clearer while others remain veiled in uncertainty. Felaheen represents yet another leap forward for Grimwood, and confirms his place as one of science fiction’s most important writers.
‘If you’re not reading Jon Courtenay Grimwood, then you don’t know how subtle and daring fiction can be’ Michael Marshall, author of The Straw Men
'Dazzling, seductive and pointed' Independent
`By turns a political thriller, a murder mystery and a search for identity, Felaheen is sf at its most inventive. Grimwood’s spare, hard working prose evokes a richly-textured world, which we sense extending beyond the edges o f the page. The journey is well worth travelling, and the scenery is spectacular’ Guardian
`Grimwood on coruscating form. [He] continues to be one of the most stylish and innovative writers at work today’ Crime Time
`Grimwood, quite unfairly, pulls off five genres; sf, fantasy, crime, literary and noir. He can write as well as Dave Eggers and could engage with fans of Inspector Rebus’ Big Issue
Praise for Jon Courtney Grimwood’s Ashraf Bey novels
‘An intriguing cross-genre premise ... great fun’ Observer
‘Essential reading ... go and buy it’ SFX
‘A head-trip of a mystery novel’ Big Issue
‘Unpredictable, unputdownable slice of city life...’ New Scientist
‘Grimwood has successfully mingled fantasy with reality to make an unusual, believable and absorbing mystery’ Sunday Telegraph
‘A brilliant post-cyberpunk blend of alternate history and crime thriller, guaranteed to appeal’ Bookseller
‘Pashazade was, quite simply, the best SF novel I read last year, and Effendi is a worthy successor...’ Outland
‘Masterful and highly enjoyable not to mention highly original...’ Enigma

Paperback - Pocket Books (2003)

First British Edition Earthlight (2002)

Effendi
Among many other things, Ashraf Bey is a fugitive from the US justice system (definitely); son of the Emir of Tunis (possibly); and chief of detectives in the El Iskandryian police force (apparently). Small wonder that he’s a little confused...
Raf’s ex-fiancée Zara still doesn’t want to see him, so she says. His nine-year-old niece is busy doing things with computers that are strictly illegal. And when the city suddenly starts to fall apart and Zara’s father is accused of mass-murder, Raf begins to learn the true cost of loyalty...
The politics of the free city of El Iskandryia float in and out of the interweaving human tales in this brilliant sequel to Pashazade. As the US, France and Germany try to dominate both the present and future of the Middle East in this alternate 21st century, Ashraf Bey must sift one truth from another. It’s not an easy trick, but someone has to do it...
'Dazzling panache and an acute satirical eye' The Times
Praise For Jon Courtenay Grimwood & Pashazade
‘All brilliant light and scorching heat… Grimwood has successfully mingled fantasy with reality to make an unusual, believable and absorbing mystery’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Deftly told and laced with neat ideas’ Time Out
‘His best to date… A deeply original work, carrying within it the seed of Grimwood’s vision of an alternate future. Strange indeed and quite wonderful’ Alien Online
‘Set to cement his position in both critical and public opinion. The pacing of this book is near perfect’ Murder One
‘A tremendous read that is every bit as good as you would expect from a writer with Grimwood’s standing’ Enigma
‘A novel which pulls you in and doesn’t let go… if this is sf, then bring it on, I can’t wait for the next installment’ South Wales Echo
‘Jon Courtenay Grimwood is a step ahead of his contemporaries. He sees the world through unforgiving eyes, yet his style is razor sharp, his prose is biting and his vision unique.’ George Mann, Outland

About The Author
Jon Courtenay Grimwood was born into a naval family and christened in the upturned bell of his uncle’s destroyer in Malta.
As a child he travelled the world, got lost in Karachi, wandered markets in Jahore Baru, visited an opium den and went to see the rock paintings in a Buddhist cave. He went to Hindu temples, ate food cooked on oil drums by the roadside and waited for a week to see if his father would survive a scorpion bite.
‘I met a fakir, swam in ice cold jungle pools and surfed without a board, hanging from a rope attached to the back of a boat. And I saw staggering poverty, slums, children in rags, dogs being slowly strangled from coathanger collars that had grown too tight, blank-eyed barely pubescent girls being married to boys they’d only just met. Living that life gave me my politics and my outlook.’
He went to boarding school from the age of 7 to 18, flying to school from wherever his parents were living. Told at the age of ten that he was dyslexic, he was warned that he would never be able to do more than read the headlines on a tabloid. It was this that led him to pursue a career as an editor, publisher and journalist, before finally becoming a writer.
As a journalist, he has written for the Guardian, Independent, Maxim, MINX, Zest, and Focus. He was men’s editor for New Woman and currently writes for the Guardian, Esquire and Company.
Amongst his book publications are the bestselling Thatcher Bedside Book, The Royal Bedside Book and The Election Bedside Book. ‘All of them were mildly satirical and utterly disposable but the real problem, in the end, was no matter how mad, selfish or amoral I made Mrs T, or how disfunctional and ruthless I portrayed the royals, they could always be relied on to go one better. It’s hard to satirise people who are already raving clichés of themselves.’
Jon’s writing was shaped by his nomadic childhood: ‘I love creating the worlds, the plot and the characters to the point of addiction, but the really good thing about writing is that it’s like sex, you can do it anywhere - in pubs, clubs, cafes, at airports, even half way up a mountain.’
Pashezade is Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s third book to be published by Earthlight. redRobe was published in 2000 and reMix was published in 1999 and has been shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award. Jon Courteney Grimwood lives in Winchester.
Felaheen is his seventh novel. His fifth, Pashazade, was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

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Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Arabesk - Trilogy (Gollancz Pbk, 2007)

End of the World Blues (Gollancz, 2006)

9Tail Fox (Gollancz, 2005)

Felaheen (Earthlight, 2003) Simon & Schuster Pbk May 04 (Ashraf Bey)

Effendi (Earthlight, 2002) Pocket Books Pbk Feb 03 (Ashraf Bey)

Pashazade (Earthlight, 2001) Earthlight Pbk Apr 02 (Ashraf Bey)

redRobe (Earthlight, 2000) Shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award for best novel 2000

reMix (Earthlight, 1999)

Lucifer's Dragon (Headline, 1998) Pocket Books Pbk Mar 04