Two new science fiction books!

It's a two-book book birthday, as James Bow's The Sun Runners and companion anthology Tales from the Silence hit the shelves. Also: a new interview with award-winning author Arthur Slade

It’s a two-book Book Birthday day here at Shadowpaw Press World Headquarters, and our namesake cat, Shadowpaw, was so excited he had to go lie down. (Well, okay, he does that every day, but I’m sure he’s excited in some small feline way…)

Both new titles are science fiction and both are set in the same future history: a future in which, after seeding colonies around the solar system, Earth suddenly goes silent, caught up in a catastrophic civilizational collapse. One is a novel, The Sun Runners, and the other is a companion anthology, Tales from the Silence. Aurora Award-winning author James Bow (Icarus Down) is the creative force behind both, as author of The Sun Runners, as editor of Tales from the Silence, and as creator of the future history in which they are set.

The Sun Runners is out under the Shadowpaw Press imprint, while Tales from the Silence is under the Endless Sky Books imprint, and both are available everywhere fine books are purveyed, in both print and ebook formats, including from the Shadowpaw Press website itself.

Also, let me remind you that The Sun Runners is one of the titles being supported by the current Shadowpaw Press Kickstarter, which, with two weeks to go, is 77% funded—just $350 to put it over the top. Lots of great rewards, so please check it out:

KICKSTARTER: One fantasy, two science fiction novels from Shadowpaw Press

Details about the two new books below! (These terrific covers, by the way, are both from Bibliofic Designs, which I highly recommend.)

The Sun Runners

478 pp · $26.99 CAD · $19.99 USD · ISBN: 978-1998273188

"Hello, people of Mercury. This is planet Earth.Are you receiving this? Please respond."

Lieutenant Adelheid Koning was only twenty-three when the Earth's long fight against its environment ended in collapse and nuclear war. Earth's sudden silence leaves the colonies of the inner solar system without lifelines, in various stages of self-sufficiency.

Or, in Mercury's case, not.

To help her fellow stranded colonists of Mercury survive starvation and a breakdown of order, Adelheid fights some cold equations and makes some hard choices, ending up wearing an iron crown as queen of one of the rail cities of Mercury, constantly moving to stay ahead of the Sun.

Fifty years later, Adelheid's granddaughter, Frieda, is a seventeen-year-old princess who would rather be an engineer. Frieda's life is shattered when a suspicious accident takes one of her arms-and is then turned upside-down when her mother dies from that accident. Frieda is left a young and vulnerable queen, locking horns with her grandmother, who is now regent and dowager.

When the Earth makes contact again, after fifty years of silence, Frieda is eager to end Mercury's isolation, but Adelheid is suspicious of the Earth's sudden return, and wary of the other latitude towns' desires to accept all that the Earth is offering, without question.

With thousands of lives on the line, is it wise to hope for healing? Or are we forever defined by what we do in the dark?

Tales from the Silence

398 pp · $26.99 CAD · $19.99 USD · ISBN: 978-1998273225

On August 4, 2151, the world will end.

It’s been a long time coming: climate disasters brewing conflict, conflict breeding chaos. But on that fateful day, someone will set off the nukes. On August 4, 2151, human civilization on Earth will fall silent.

There are survivors, of course—and not just on Earth. There are scientists on the Jovian moons. Miners in the asteroid belt. Thriving colonies on the surface of Mars and above the clouds of Venus. Far more precarious ones on Mercury. When the silence falls across human space, one thing is clear: Earth’s space-born children are on their own. No more supplies are coming. No more orders. No more meddling. No more help.

Set in the universe of James Bow’s new novel, The Sun Runners, Tales from the Silence is a gathering of award-winning science fiction, fantasy, and YA authors who explore the worlds the Earth left behind, as well as the Earth itself, as they struggle through Earth's new dark age.

Join James Bow, Phoebe Barton, Kate Blair, Cameron Dixon, Mark Richard Francis, Jo Karaplis, Kari Maaren, Fiona Moore, Ira Nayman, Kate Orman, and Jeff Szpirglas as they tell the stories of what happens after the end of the world.

About the author/editor

James Bow writes science fiction and fantasy for both kids and adults. He's been a fan of science fiction since his family introduced him to Doctor Who on TV Ontario in 1978, and his mother read him classic sci-fi and fantasy from such authors as Clifford Simak and J.R.R. Tolkien. James won the 2017 Prix Aurora Award for best YA Novel in Canada for Icarus Down.

By day, James is a communications officer for a charitable land trust protecting lands from development in Waterloo Region and Wellington County. He also loves trains and streetcars. He lives in Kitchener, Ontario, with his two kids, and his spouse/fellow writer/partner-in-crime, Erin Bow.

Find him online at bowjamesbow.ca.

An interview with Arthur Slade

Just three weeks ago, Arthur Slade’s new Dragon Assassin adventure, I, Brax: 1. A Battle Divine, came out in print from Shadowpaw Press. That’s another of the titles being supported by the Kickstarter.

This week, for the first time in a while, I posted a new episode of The Worldshapers podcast, featuring Arthur Slade talking about the book (and other things). Enjoy it below! I plan to post interviews with James Bow and Brad C. Anderson (author of Ashme’s Song, the third Kickstarter-supported title) over the next two weekends. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you!

Thanks for your interest in Shadowpaw Press!