Irish-British author John Meaney, writing as Thomas Blackthorne, sold two near-future thrillers to Angry Robot; John Berlyne of Zeno Agency handled the deal. The duology of Edge and Point will be published in February and August, respectively, in the UK and Australia, with US editions to follow.
Publishing Director Marc Gascoigne describes the books: “In Edge, we find ourselves in a decaying UK. The government’s response to decades of uncontrollable knife crime has been to legalise duelling, turning fighting with blades into a legitimate activity. The pinnacle of this new ‘sport’ is the primetime TV show Knife Edge, in which have-a-go members of the public can compete against trained knifemen for ever greater rewards. So you know just what our ex-soldier hero Josh Cumberland will have to do to get to the bottom of his hunt for a missing child…
“Its equally extraordinary sequel, Point, takes us deep into the razor-wielding world of the Cutter Circles. But even in these Last Days, who the hell would want to deliberately cause the UK’s teenagers to self-harm and commit suicide? It’s up to Josh Cumberland to find out.”
Gascoigne calls the books “vicious but deeply moral”. He also tells readers that the pseudonym is “to keep these searing satires apart from Meaney’s more futuristic series.”
Meaney is the author of Black Blood (which is Dark Blood on the eastern side of the Atlantic), Bone Song, and the Nulapeiron Sequence (consisting of Paradox, Context, and Resolution), and his first book, To Hold Infinity.