2023 Wrap-Up

2023 Wrap-Up

Hello all! You’ve probably noticed that this newsletter hasn’t come out for a couple of months. There’s a couple of reasons for this, which I’ll get into as we go along, but while I’m here I figured I’d do a little wrap-up of my writing life in 2023 and some notes about what I’m looking forward to in 2024.

2023 was a big year for me in many ways. As well as moving house (twice!), starting a new job, my son starting Primary school, and all the life madness that are associated with those things, it was a busy year in the writing and publishing world too.

The hardback of ASCENSION came out back in April in the UK and US, followed by paperbacks in Spanish, Hungarian, Czech, and German. This involved lots of conferences and panels (including a book tour in Hungary!) and generally being very busy with promotion and marketing.

I’ve been thrilled to see how it’s been received, from full feature articles in places like The New York Times and The Washington Post, to people like Stephen King shouting about it on Twitter (or X, I suppose). I’ve had some really lovely fan mail and people reach out to me to tell them how much they enjoyed it and how much it resonated with them, and that’s been really affirming to hear.

ASCENSION was also nominated for the Goodreads’ Choice Awards, which was nice. Even though generally I find Goodreads as a website to be a horrific hellscape, I’m not going to turn my nose up at a bit of extra recognition.

Those who know me know that there were some very exciting movements in the film world with regards to ASCENSION, but unfortunately the simultaneous writers’ strike and actors’ strike in the US put the brakes on that for 2023. That’s all over now, and I’m hoping for more development (and hopefully a more official announcement) to be coming your way in 2024!

Best Books I’ve Read This Year:

I’ve read loads of great books this year, including some absolute crackers from authors I really love that I hadn’t got round to. Notably, Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace, the second in her Teixcalaan duology, was outstandingly good. I’d read the first a couple of years ago and didn’t get round to this until 2023, but I’m glad I did because it was even better. Another standout was Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie. I adore Shamsie as an author and will be reading a new book of hers every year I think. Burnt Shadows came out way back in 2009, but I’m working my way through the backlist and it was just absolutely wonderful.

My main focus, however, otherwise without a filter I’ll ramble on forever, is going to be on books that came out this year.

1. The Will of the Many - James Islington

This was the standout for me this year, and arguably my book of the year. I’m very picky with fantasy these days, and need the worldbuilding to be extremely imaginative and the writing superb to really continue on. I’ve read so much of the genre that so much new stuff feels derivative to me. Interestingly, The Will of the Many is very derivative. It activates almost every classic trope from the genre you can imagine. On paper, I should have hated it. But James Islington executes it SO WELL. I can’t begin to explain how much fun I had with this book. If you even vaguely like fantasy, I’d strongly recommend. Pick this one up.

2. Titanium Noir - Nick Harkaway

I love Harkaway for his bold, manic, imaginative stories, but they’re usually huge door-stoppers (no more so than the wonderful Gnomon). However, here, Harkaway has pitched for a little sci-fi detective novella packed with great ideas and it’s a lot of fun. The gumshoe detective tone really sells the narrative and I devoured it in a few days.

3. Small Worlds - Caleb Azumah Nelson

I loved Nelson’s debut Open Water from a couple of years ago, and Small Worlds was even better. An almost-biographical tale of London youth with Ghanaian heritage, and all the complexities that come with growing up and living with that, this is literary fiction par excellence. A book that pushes you into new spaces, new worlds, and teaches you something about what it means to be human.

Looking Forward to 2024

There’s a fair amount a lot on the cards for me in 2024:

• The paperback of ASCENSION is coming out in March.

• My next book, DISSOLUTION, will be published by Harper Voyager (UK) / Riverhead Books (US) in either late 2024 or early 2025 (exact pub date tbc).

• There are more publications on the horizon too (including another book with Voyager, and maybe some novellas) but nothing I can officially announce just yet.

• There’s a bunch of cons/festivals I’ll be attending, including the wonderful Cymera Festival in Edinburgh and of course WorldCon in August.

• I’ll also be doing a lot of writing. My plan is to have a very prolific year and write (hopefully) two novels and a novella by the end of 2024. I’m very much feeling like I’m just ramping up and I have so many more ideas to get out into the world.

Because I want to focus on my writing, and because 2023 was so busy, I’m making a very conscious decision to step away from a lot of online presence in 2024. I’ll probably occasionally retweet (re-x?) something, but that’s about it in terms of social media. Increasingly, I’m finding it does absolutely nothing for my general satisfaction and happiness, and I don’t think it really does anything substantial in terms of marketing or publicity either.

This means that (as you will have discovered from the last couple of months) there will no longer be a monthly newsletter. What there will be is a newsletter any time there is some kind of big news (announcing a pub date, a new book coming out, some kind of other big deal announcement, or a big conference I’m going to). Otherwise, I’ll keep mostly silent, which is probably nicer for all of your inboxes anyway. Feel free to reach out to the email on my website if you have anything you want to share, though!

Have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic start to 2024.

Nick