April 19th 2011

TWO NEW BOOKS BY BEN JEAPES FROM WIZARD’S TOWER

Wizard’s Tower Press is pleased to announce that it will be releasing two new ebook titles by Ben Jeapes: his science fiction novel, His Majesty’s Starship, and his short story collection, Jeapes Japes.

His Majesty’s Starship, a novel of first contact, was first published by Scholastic in 1998 to enthusiastic reviews. The Times Educational Supplement noted: “It is a testament to Jeapes’s skill that the hermaphrodite quadruped, Arm Wild, with its flaky skin and four nostrils, emerges as the most engaging character in the whole novel. But the most glorious conceit is the space station UK-1, last bolt-hole of the exiled House of Windsor, ruled by the entrepreneurial King Richard and his unlovely son, Prince James.”

Interzone’s reviewer described the book as “bursting with fun and energy” while SFX called it, “A veritable fount of plot, characterization and intrigue, with some astoundingly original ideas”. Alastair Reynolds described it as “one of the best first contact books in a long while – a gripping, logical, original and fundamentally optimistic retake on one of SF’s richest themes.”

Jeapes Japes collects all of Jeapes’ published short fiction, plus one story unique to the collection. The majority of the stories were published in Interzone while some appeared in other venues including The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Themes of artificial intelligence and time travel run throughout the book.

Cheryl Morgan said: “One of the primary purposes of Wizard’s Tower is to help authors make their backlists available as ebooks. I’m delighted to have been able to work with Ben to bring these two books back to public notice.”

Ben Jeapes said: “It’s a real pleasure to re-visit old friends from years ago. I’m very grateful to Cheryl for giving these books a second chance at exposure and I look forward to seeing plenty of readers take it.”

The books will be available through the Wizard’s Tower bookstore, http://www.wizardstowerbooks.com/, on the Kindle, and through other online venues.

To request a review copy, please write to: info@wizardstowerpress.com.

Wizard’s Tower Press is owned and managed by Cheryl Morgan and based in the UK. Cheryl has won three Hugo awards for her online writing and editing. She is the non-fiction editor for the Hugo-winning and World Fantasy and Locus Award nominated Clarkesworld Magazine. Cheryl is also a director of San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions Inc, and of the Association for the Recognition of Excellence in SF & F Translation.