Gollancz Welcomes William Gibson!
Not, strictly speaking, SF Gateway news, but exciting enough for us to want to crow about it here: Gollancz has secured the rights to William Gibson‘s Cyberpunk classic, Neuromancer, as well as follow-ups Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, and story collection Burning Chrome.
From the official press release:
The UK and Commonwealth rights to the four book deal were acquired by chairman of Gollancz, Malcolm Edwards, from John Berlyne at the Zeno Agency on behalf of Martha Millard at Sterling Lord Literistic. The deal reunites Gibson with his first UK publisher and editor.
Malcolm Edwards, chairman of Gollancz, said: ‘Acquiring Neuromancer and Gibson’s other early works was one of the high points of my years at Gollancz in the 1980s and I’m delighted to bring them back where they belong. They remain absolutely key titles in any account of late 20th century science fiction.’
Gibson said: ‘I’m delighted to see Neuromancer and its two sequels, plus Burning Chrome, return to Gollancz, my first UK publisher, and still more so under the excellent auspices of Malcolm Edwards, their original acquiring editor.’
Gibson’s acclaimed first novel, Neuromancer, was the first novel to win the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards – and has gone on to sell more than 6m copies worldwide. Neuromancer appeared on Time magazine’s list of 100 best English-language novels written since 1923 and featured in David Pringle’s seminal Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. Books two and three in the Sprawl Trilogy, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, were also nominated for Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Described as ‘tautly-written and suspenseful’, the fourth book in the deal, Burning Chrome, collects 10 of Gibson’s best short stories. The collection contains ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ (filmed starring Keanu Reeves) and title story ‘Burning Chrome’ – both nominated for the Nebula Award – as well as the Hugo-and-Nebula-nominated stories ‘Dogfight’ and ‘The Winter Market’.
Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive and Burning Chrome will be published in paperback in July 2016, with a hardback of Neuromancer to be published in September 2016 as part of the SF Masterworks series.
