Page Updated: 13/07/2007
Steph Swainston
Steph Swainston
The Modern WorldThe Modern World New17 May 07
No Present Like TimeNo Present Like Time
The Year of Our WarThe Year of Our War
About the Author (Photo (c) Michael Trevillion)
Bibliography


New First British Edition Gollancz (2007)
Buy at Amazon.co.uk The Modern World
The endless war, led by the Emperor San and his circle of fifty immortals, against the giant insects that have threatened to overwhelm the Fourlands grinds on. A war for survival has become a numbing war of containment. Frost, the architect, has provided new hope with her grandiose plan to push the insects back behind a lake created by her massive dam on the oriole river, but its little more than a new level of stalemate.
Jant, the Emperor's winged messenger has more pressing concerns. Cyan, daughter of Lightning, the Emperor's Archer, has gone missing in the city of Hacilith. Lightning wants Jant to bring her back. Jant has rescued Cyan before but he knows better than anyone just how much trouble a teenager can get into in Hacilith's underworld. And he has an added problem. Cyan is now eighteen and if Jant so much as touches her Lightning will kill him. Will curiosity be the death of Jant?
So begins a hectic quest. A quest that will take Jant back to his past, back to the bizarre world of the Shift and, eventually, back to the Fourlands. Just as it faces a terrifying new threat.
Praise for Steph Swainston
`Thoughtful, exuberant, incredibly inventive, funny but never whimsical or mannered: a blistering debut, and honest-to-god unputdownable’ China Mieville
`Bristles up out of the fantasy flowerbed in sharp spined poisonously beautiful bloom. It has finely drawn characters, dialogue that crackles with humour and humanity, and a rich vein of imagery that veers with consummate ease between the wry baroque of Angela Carter and the austere weirdness of M John Harrison’ Richard Morgan
A great first novel, boldly imagined, coloured with impressive flourish. Essential reading for anyone who wants their imagination to soar’ Justina Robson
'Steph Swainston's writing is as elegantly superior to most other fantasy as a samurai sword is to a flint dagger' Richard Morgan


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First British Edition Gollancz (2005)
Buy at Amazon.co.uk No Present Like Time
It has been five years since the Insects last swarmed in the Fourlands. Their insatiable hunger left countless dead and the land devastated. Reconstruction proceeds under the watchful eyes of the immortal Circle but, increasingly, many are finding its pace too slow.
For Jant, the Emperor’s winged messenger, events are moving ever faster. A brilliant newcomer has joined the Circle, displacing him from his rightful position as centre of attention. He thinks his wife may be having an affair with the world’s strongest man, and an inhabited island has been discovered three months’ sail from the Fourlands (which is obviously impossible).
What’s worse, the Emperor has commanded that Jant join the small group of immortals who will travel as an embassy to the new land. just perfect for a man terrified of ships and the sea. And he increasingly suspects that he’s a pawn in an ancient political game.
It’d be enough to drive anyone to drugs…
Steph Swainston’s landmark fantasy, that began with the acclaimed The Year Of Our War, moves effortlessly into new waters.
Like its predecessor No Present Like Time is a wonderfully original fantasy of unusual depth and beauty. Here is a journey into a new world, a journey like no other.


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Paperback - Gollancz (2005)
First British Edition Gollancz (2004)
Buy at Amazon.co.uk The Year of Our War
`All mortals dream, it seems, of joining the Castle Circle. Always pushing for immortality. Always seeking to stop the spin of the wheel of fortune, as it rips through their hands, leaving splinters. How splendid it would be to be eternal, and safe. But at the same time it is daunting to join such a fellowship.’
The Year Of Our War is a superb work of literary fantasy. In a truly original imagined world of breathtaking, sometimes surreal beauty, fifty utterly alien but disarmingly human immortals lead mankind in a centuries long war.
Jant is the Messenger, one of The Circle, a cadre of fifty immortals who serve the Emperor. He is the only immortal, indeed the only man alive, who can fly.
The Emperor is seeking to protect mankind from the hordes of giant insects who have plagued the land for centuries, overwhelming towns with their beautiful nests, eating everything and everyone in their path. But he must also contend with the rivalries and petty squabblings of his chosen immortals. These are squabbles that will soon spill over into open civil war.
Steph Swainston has written an astonishingly original literary fantasy. Her novel places her in a tradition of writing typified by Mervyn Peake, M. John Harrison and, latterly, China Mieville. This is a breathtaking debut novel of the finest quality.
‘A fascinating first novel, bristling up out of the fantasy flowerbed in sharp spined poisonously beautiful bloom. It has finely drawn characters, dialogue that crackles with humour and humanity, and a rich vein of imagery that veers with consummate ease between the wry, baroque of Angela Carter and the austere weirdness of M. John Harrison. Steph Swainston has cooked up a heady fix that will set the whole genre reeling. All hail the new queen of Weird Fiction!’ Richard Morgan author of Altered Carbon
`A great first novel, boldly imagined, coloured with impressive flourish. Fallible characters, unexplained cosmology, no quarter given to the lengthy infodump and no hanging on to the death to tired old structures - terrific. Fantasy that breaks out of the elvish straitjacket and takes over the asylum - essential reading for anyone who wants their imagination to soar’ Justina Robson author of Natural History


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About The Author
Steph Swainston is 29 and comes from Bradford. She studied archaeology at Cambridge University and then worked as an archaeologist for three years, gaining an M.Phil. from the University of Wales.
She also worked as researcher in a company that develops herbal medicines. Her current job is in defence research.
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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.

  • The Modern World (Gollancz, 2007) New May 07
  • No Present Like Time (Gollancz, 2005)
  • The Year of Our War (Gollancz, 2004) Gollancz Pbk Apr 05


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