In this business you get used to seeing breathless blurbs on everything, from the latest fat fantasy to the newest stack of midlist paperbacks. But if you’re not completely jaded, you can still detect genuine buzz.

That’s what I’m sensing with the debut novel from Tom Toner, The Promise of the Child, a space opera set in the far-distant 147th Century. Tor.com said it’s “Among the most significant works of science fiction released in recent years,” and Adam Roberts called it “Absolutely brilliant… space opera like you’ve never seen it before.” Karl Schroeder proclaimed it “Utterly absorbing; a tremendous adventure… One of the most ambitious and epic-scale pieces of worldbuilding I’ve read,” and Booklist said “This is the kind of novel that could develop a cult following.”

The Promise of the Child was published in hardcover by Night Shade Books in September of 2015, and reprinted in trade paperback last October. On January 24th the second novel in the Amaranthine Spectrum, The Weight of the World, finally arrives in hardcover and digital formats from Night Shade.

Here’s the original description for The Promise of the Child.

It is the 147th century.

In the radically advanced post-human worlds of the Amaranthine Firmament, there is a contender to the Immortal throne: Aaron the Long-Life, the Pretender, a man who is not quite a man.

In the barbarous hominid kingdoms of the Prism Investiture, where life is short, cheap, and dangerous, an invention is born that will become the Firmament’s most closely kept secret.

Lycaste, a lovesick reclusive outcast for an unspeakable crime, must journey through the Provinces, braving the grotesques of an ancient, decadent world to find his salvation.

Sotiris, grieving the loss of his sister and awaiting the madness of old age, must relive his twelve thousand years of life to stop the man determined to become Emperor.

Ghaldezuel, knight of the stars, must plunder the rarest treasure in the Firmament—the object the Pretender will stop at nothing to obtain.

From medieval Prague to a lonely Mediterranean cove, and eventually far into the strange vastness of distant worlds, The Promise of the Child is a debut novel of gripping action and astounding ambition unfolding over hundreds of thousands of years, marking the arrival of a brilliant new talent in science fiction.

And for The Weight of the World.

It is the 147th century; the turning of the Amaranthine new year.

In the provinces of the Old World, the giant Elatine’s war of liberation has come to an impasse, leaving the wicked monarchy of the First in possession of the throne.

In the Vaulted Lands of the Firmament, acolytes have risen up to execute their immortal masters. The opportunistic races of the Prism, intoxicated with greed, have arrived inside every Solar Satrapy to scavenge what’s left.

In the wild Investiture, on a forgotten water moon, a crew of shipwrecked Privateers come face to face with their greatest terror, and with it the most valuable treasure in all the galaxy.

Jatropha, legendary Immortal, must escort his precious charge through the exotic Westerly Provinces, knowing all the world would steal her if they could.

Sotiris, his mind fading fast, must set out to find his dear, drowned sister in a land previously unglimpsed by anyone but the dead.

Lycaste, now far from home, must journey in strange company to the edge of a tempestuous sea, to the lair of someone so dangerous that even the legendary Amaranthine fear his name.

And here’s the complete publishing details.

The Promise of the Child (484 pages, $16.99 trade paperback/$14.99 digital, October 11, 2016)
The Weight of the World (392 pages, $26.99 hardcover/$11.99 digital, January 24, 2017)

Both books were published by Night Shade Books. The covers are by Blacksheep Design.

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