Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series will continue with a second trilogy after the third book, Aloha From Hell, comes out. And Kadrey's new deal with the newly global Harper Voyager will get his books into the U.K. as well.
The second Sandman Slim trilogy will continue the plot arc that "escalates" in the third book, according to Harper's press release, which makes it sound like some pretty drastic stuff happens in Aloha. The first two books will come out in the U.K. in 2011, and then the U.K. arm of Harper Voyager will continue the series in 2012. No word on when the books will hit Australia and NZ.
Kadrey tells io9:
James Stark (aka Sandman Slim) has plenty more to say and do and kill and break and when I explained this to my publisher they agreed to continue the series if I let them out of the crawlspace under the abandoned slaughterhouse. I'm thrilled to be continuing Stark's story and I'm sure that once I've hosed down the good folks at Harper Voyager they will be too.
So why are we getting more Sandman Slim novels, and how is this deal different now that Harper Voyager is one global entity? Harper Voyager Executive Editor Diana Gill explains:
Richard hasn't been published previously in the UK, and everyone (author, agent, and Voyager staff on both sides of the Atlantic) is thrilled that we could use the new global Harper Voyager to do a joint, cooperative deal for continuing the series in the US and to bring both his backlist and upcoming frontlist Sandman Slim books to the UK/ANZ.
While every deal is different, we certainly hope to do more world English deals, for both existing authors and new deals, to bring our authors to new audiences and opportunities (and, of course, wider sales potential).
In terms of the story, Stark is in even more trouble than before-so far he's dealt with revenge, a zombie plague, and having to return to Hell to stop an immortal, but the end of ALOHA FROM HELL turns everything upside-down.
Kadrey's world is rich and inventive-there's a reason he's won praise from all over the map in terms of authors and reviewers—and there are a lot of adventures for Stark to come. Without ruining ALOHA FROM HELL, let's just say that there was no way we could leave things as they were: we knew we had to find out what happens next!