Hello, and welcome to the Official Tumblr for Gollancz, the oldest dedicated publisher of SFF and Horror fiction in the world.
I set this up because I'm not allowed to touch the company Instagram or TikTok accounts ("you'll break the algorithm" psht) and I got told off for retweeting too much stuff.
We were founded in 1927, and became a specialist SFF imprint in 1962, meaning that we were able to celebrate our 60th birthday and our upcoming 100th birthday only a handful of years apart.
We have a wikipedia page, which makes us feel very Special and Important.
People We Have Published:
Leigh Bardugo
Joe Abercrombie
Brandon Sanderson
Terry Pratchett
Arthur C. Clarke
Ursula K. Le Guin
Philip K. Dick
Dhonielle Clayton
George Orwell (No I'm serious I found one of his royalty statements in a box in archives from the 1930s)
Peter S. Beagle
Joe Hill
Stephen King
Jonathan Sims
Frank Herbert
Aliette de Bodard
Joanne Harris
Ben Aaronovitch
Kurt Vonnegut
And MANY OTHERS. SO MANY. Across 60-100 years and two lists (Gollancz, and our archive project the SF Gateway) we have hoarded some of the most incredible and exciting SFF and Horror ever written.
We love space, and magic, and robots, and unicorns, and things you see in a cheese-related fever nightmare. They're our favourites.
Today JC Kang reviews Shen Tao's debut, The Poet Empress! 🐉
"We sometimes read a book that makes us question whether or not we have any business writing…for me, most recently with Shen Tao’s debut, The Poet Empress."
not sure what proportion of Tumblr are UK based, but you should know that Jonny Sims will be speaking and signing his new book in July at Waterstones York!
So grab a ticket and come along!
Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about An Evening with Jonathan S
If you want chunky cool epic fantasy check out The Tower of the Tyrant by J.T. Greathouse, or The Shipwright and The shroudweaver by Rafael Torrubia. And if you want space opera this side of literary try Slow Gods by Claire North
(If you would like a third Really Chunky Epic Fantasy from Gollancz instead of That Other Publisher, can I recommend the incredible THE FIRST BINDING by @rrcraft-and-lore?)
I‘m so totally gonna answer to this post by pointing my finger at another great publisher @gollancz and demand the corkboard and beginner-level notes to be sold w/ the book.
Okay, I wanted to check with Bethan before I shared this, to give a little more detail on what this book is about. This is the opening of the letter we sent with our advance copies to reviewers:
So to summarise THE SHIPWRIGHT AND THE SHROUDWEAVER:
Scottish
Epic
Goth
Queer
Scottish again
REALLY LONG
Full of love
Also did we mention Scottish, but by way of... Dune? (Bethan refused to elaborate further on this on account of "I'm doing my actual job Claire not posting memery on the internet" which frankly just sounds like a Her Problem)
An epic fantasy that is beautiful, lyrical, sounds like bagpipes, tastes like irn bru and tartan coloured, about love and hope and kindness in the face of cruelty.
Guys. Christmas is coming. Consumerism is in the driver's seat and GAWD don't I know about the existential ennui of all these faceless corporations trying to schill you their wares. It's cold. Impersonal. Bleak.
So I, a fellow tumblr user, will instead try to schill you MY wares, so that when you purchase these items you can say "Hey, that person from tumblr worked on this", and feel the warmth of HUMAN CONNECTION in a way that is completely normal and not parasocial at all. We really are friends. I promise. Yes, you. Love you, bestie. Remember the boop war? Good times. Fond memories.
THIRTEEN STOREYS and FAMILY BUSINESS by Jonathan Sims
Tumblr's favourite Nightmare Factory @jonnywaistcoat has two novels out and they're phenomenal horror that also punch you in the throat with SOCIAL COMMENTARY and FEELINGS. He's so adept at tapping into the specific part of my brain that feels fear like a small child - not the adult creepy scared that I normally get around horror, but specifically the kind of fear that almost freezes your limbs and vocal chords with a terror you don't quite understand because there is so much in the world that you don't know, but you know that somehow this thing might be quick enough or smart enough or sneaky enough to get you before you can get to the safety of your parents sort of fear.
THIRTEEN STOREYS is a haunted house novel, but set in a refurbished block of flats. Each chapter follows a different resident being haunted in a different way, with a style to match the flavour of ghost. It's all tied together phenomenally and brutally.
FAMILY BUSINESS is a story about ghosts in a different way, following a woman who joins a post-mortem house cleaning service while grieving the death of her best friend. But as she removes the stains from the houses of the dead, she begins to suspect something else is removing even more.
Both of these titles are available from Gollancz worldwide!
THE LAST UNICORN, THE WAY HOME, THE INNKEEPER'S SONG and A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE by Peter S. Beagle
Obviously Peter's work needs no introduction, and our editions aren't available in the US and Canada, but I've had a wonderful time working with Peter and his team to bring these beautiful books back to the UK. Meeting him at Worldcon this year was such a magical moment, and he was jet-lagged and I had gone through sleep deprived into hyper and was bringing an Extremely Weird Energy to every interaction I had that day, resulting in this photo:
THE LAST UNICORN and THE WAY HOME are a matched pair of wonderful fairy stories. THE WAY HOME has two novellettes in it, and the first - 'Two Hearts' - won the Hugo award. It will also destroy you.
A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE was Peter's first ever novel, and it's wistful and romantic and so beautiful.
THE INNKEEPER'S SONG is his epic fantasy quest, it's an adventure story that reads almost lyrically. Also there's an orgy in the middle which caught me by surprise when I was reading it for the first time on the train into work.
HIGH VAULTAGE by Chris and Jen Sugden
It's possible that someone on this website doesn't know I was involved with this book but don't worry, I will HUNT THEM DOWN AND TELL THEM. This is the first book I took all the way through the editorial process from end to end and I am SO PROUD of it and Chris and Jen and their wonderful world of @victoriocity. Officially one of the seven funniest books published in the UK this year, shortlisted for the Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. It's a chaotic, bonkers murder mystery set in an alternate Victorian London which is the most gleeful dystopia I have ever encountered.
Featuring:
Grumpy Sunshine besties
The Victorian Equivalent of the Chuck Norris Meme
A robot who undertook a course in People Management
An indefatigable beagle
This is another book that you can get from Gollancz all over the world, and you SHOULD because it's amazing. Go into your local bookshop and ask them to order it into stock. It's a great Christmas present. It's my firstborn book baby (like that's a completely normal thing to say when I didn't even write it). Also if you're a fan of the podcast, why not tell the Guardian how great it is, and make a nuisance of yourself until they review. (I would, but the form asks for your name and then they'd know I didn't suddenly discover Victoriocity this year. Either that or think I was a very careless editor.) If you've not listened to the podcast yet, you absolutely should. It pings all my Douglas Adams receptors in the best way. If you like HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE, if you like CABIN PRESSURE, VICTORIOCITY is the perfect addition.
HAMMAJANG LUCK by Makana Yamamoto
SLIGHTLY cheating because HAMMAJANG LUCK isn't out in North America until January (pre-orders make great Christmas presents guys), but it IS out in the UK and the rest of the world next week! This is my second big editorial project and it's a Big Gay Space Heist ft. disaster lesbians, trans characters, and a tech billionaire getting put in his place. It's joyous and energetic and crammed full of Hawaiian pidgin as a love letter to the diaspora. @makana-yama is a phenomenal writer and this is their love letter to their communities, families both born and found, while also a statement on the victims of gentrification (and how those are disproportionally BIPOC communities). PLUS:
friends to enemies to cautious allies to lovers
trans cyborgs
Suck It Space Elon
You know that One Scene in Charlie's Angels where Cameron Diaz is in the white body suit and breaking into the safe and has to stretch out to hit two buttons at once? Yeah. That's the vibe.
Being able to work with Makana is a delight, and HAMMAJANG tapped into all the feelings I got watching LEVERAGE for the first time, so I went to watch it again while I was editing. Also OCEAN'S 8.
DEEP BLACK by Miles Cameron
So, barring Branderson, Miles Cameron may be one of our most prolific authors. He writes a minimum two books a year, one SFF and one historical fiction (as Christian Cameron) and he is... An absolute phenomenon. He IS the Chuck Norris meme. I'm obsessed with him. He's former US military intelligence turned naturalised Canadian Hippy, has written over fifty novels, can turn his hand to any genre and write it fantastically, is a practical archaeologist - running large scale re-enactments from a variety of periods ranging from Bronze Age right the way up to the Victorian era, using traditional techniques to allow academics to study how the practicalities of weapons, clothes, food etc. would have worked in practice. Two years ago he won a medieval combat tournament in Verona, a clear ten years older at least than the next oldest competitor, he teaches Historical European Martial Arts, but ties it into the history of martial arts globally. He can make his own clothes, ink, leatherwork. He's a ballet dancer. I once took him for a day out and he ended it in a different shirt and shoes from the ones he'd started in. I asked him for an author photo and he sent me this:
DEEP BLACK is the sequel to his critically acclaimed SF debut ARTIFACT SPACE, where he has taken his research and experience of global historical cultures and extrapolated to create an interplanetary future where the best of all are celebrated. And then Aliens Happen. And then, in reaction, Capitalism Happens (which is covered in the short story collection BEYOND THE FRINGE).
He's such a thoughtful and erudite speaker, if you're curious about his work, I'd recommend listening to his episodes on the Friends Talking Fantasy podcast, and also his appearance on The Publishing Rodeo.
If SF isn't your bag, he's also got:
Arthurian fantasy
Bronze Age fantasy
Medieval Mages fantasy
A CURSE OF CROWS - Lauren Dedroog
I actually inherited Lauren when a colleague of mine departed for fresh pastures, which gave me the great opportunity to work on this series which is so vastly different from my usual fare. It's epic, sweeping, romantic and lush, with such detailed description and complex political machinations, while also being brutal, dark and heavy (tw: for sexual assault, torture etc, etc.). If you like Sarah J Maas and Cassandra Clare, this should hit the sweet spot. Lauren is an ICU nurse when not writing, and this was somehow created when she was putting in a million hours in hospitals during COVID. The feat boggles my mind.
A CURSE OF CROWS is out now in the UK, Australia and Europe, and it won the People's Choice for Standaard Boek's Book of the Year award in 2023, in her home country of Belgium. It will be hitting shelves in North America next September! A DANCE OF SERPENTS is where I get to pick up the editorial mantle, and that has just landed in my inbox this week so I am excited to dig in.
Featuring:
Harold, they're lesbians
Murder baby is actually a cinnamon roll
Sensitive wings are sexy
For serious, though, I'm lucky enough to work with a lot of authors I'm genuinely obsessed and astounded by. And yes, I do get to work on Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson and Andrzej Sapkowski, but they're not MY authors - they're led by the incredible Gillian and Marcus who I'm not 100% certain sleep. There are so many people on the Gollancz list who I could recommend for DAYS (and will, if you so request), but this is my stable of superstars.
I‘m so totally gonna answer to this post by pointing my finger at another great publisher @gollancz and demand the corkboard and beginner-level notes to be sold w/ the book.
UK* readers! Want to buy The Wolf and His King in hardback but finding that £20 RRP a bit expensive? I relate. But if you buy directly from the publisher @gollancz, they've currently got 40% off their entire online shop with the code BF40! So you can get this brand new book, released today, for £12!
(And maybe a few extra copies to give as Christmas presents to everyone you know...?)
'Howlingly good' THE BOOKSELLER'Quiet, meditative, powerful' LOCUS'Will sink its teeth into you' V. V. JAMES'With prose that flows off the p
[*This bargain is also available to some international readers, though not to the US and some other territories.]
It's time oh my goodness!! Time to reveal the cover for @jonnywaistcoat upcoming underground horror, THE BURN LINE. Releasing 9th July 2026, and it's available for preorder NOW!
pathetic couple 🤝🏻 evajacks (once upon a broken heart) brie🤝🏻stephanie garber 😭😭😭😭😭 lemme just copy paste the caption under her most recent post mdbdjdbd
[If you see me, I'll be smiling because I am absolutely thrilled to return to the Magnificent North with a Jacks and Evangeline novella!
When I finished writing A CURSE FOR TRUE LOVE I had no plans to write a novella, but then readers started asking for it—almost every day for the last year, I think I've gotten questions about this novella, which honestly has been tremendously heartwarming. I love that these characters mean so much to so many of you because they mean a lot to me. In fact, for awhile I was afraid to revisit them. But, about a month or two ago, I began to outline a story that I'm ridiculously excited about! I've actually already started writing and it's been magical to be back in this universe and revisit these characters.
Huge thanks to @flatiron_books and @gollancz for letting me do this!!
I can't share more at the moment, but I wanted to let you all know this story is coming!
And for those of you who were hoping for news about the sequel to Alchemy, don't worry! I'm also working on that book.
I promise to share more news as I have it. In the meantime, I hope that all of you are as excited as l am!
Yes! We have a new novella coming from Stephanie which also may be a world record speed acquisition, as I think we went from hearing it existed to it being announced in around 48 hours.
We are SO EXCITED to have Stephanie for MORE BOOKS!
