From the press release:
Solaris is very pleased to announce that it has acquired a brand new series from a debut author – starting with The Iron Ship.
The first book in the Gates of the World series by KM McKinley, The Iron Ship will be released on August 2015. The second book in the series, City of Ice, is due to be published in 2016.
The Iron Ship is the first book by McKinley, who lives in Inverness, Scotland. It is set in a world at the beginning of the age of industry, but where the balance between science and magic is fraught with danger and difficulty.
Solaris editor-in-chief Jonathan Oliver said: “KM McKinley mixes two favourite things in fantasy: an epic quest and a terrifically exciting adventure story. I’m delighted to be bringing this astonishingly talented debut author to a wide audience. McKinley’s characters are brilliantly portrayed and the novels promises to be packed full of incident, incisive writing and immersive world-building.”
The Twin flees across the sky, bringing in its wake the Great Tide. The Earth trembles under the shadow of its brother. Times are changing.
The order of the world is in turmoil. An age of industry is beginning, an age of machines fuelled by magic. Sprawling cities rise, strange devices stalk the land. New money brings new power. The balance between the Hundred Kingdoms is upset. For the first time in generations the threat of war looms.
In these turbulent days, fortunes can be won. Magic runs strong in the Kressind family. Six siblings strive – one to triumph in a world of men, one to survive murderous intrigue, one to master forbidden sorcery, one to wash away his sins, one to contain the terrible energies of his soul.
And one will do the impossible, by marrying the might of magic and iron in the heart of a great ship, to cross an ocean that cannot be crossed.
