#Thirteen Storeys

[shyaringan]

Jonny sims’ Thirteen Storeys fandom but its just me cramming these doodles down your throat bc im obsessed and i need you all to also read this book and join me

[thefandomlifechoseme]

me, when Jonny Sims appears in any piece of media he's been part of: oh hey. what's Jonny Sims doing in this piece of media I started consuming solely because Jonny Sims was in it.

[spiciestmarinara]

‘He considered himself a good man, and always did his best to avoid passing judgement on others, but deep down he had an unshakable conviction that all rich people were deeply, deeply stupid.”

Fucking based, Janek.

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims, pub. 2020

[gollancz]

Guys. Christmas is coming. Consumerism is in the driver's seat and GAWD don't I know about the existential ennui of all these faceless corporations trying to schill you their wares. It's cold. Impersonal. Bleak.

So I, a fellow tumblr user, will instead try to schill you MY wares, so that when you purchase these items you can say "Hey, that person from tumblr worked on this", and feel the warmth of HUMAN CONNECTION in a way that is completely normal and not parasocial at all. We really are friends. I promise. Yes, you. Love you, bestie. Remember the boop war? Good times. Fond memories.

THIRTEEN STOREYS and FAMILY BUSINESS by Jonathan Sims

Tumblr's favourite Nightmare Factory @jonnywaistcoat has two novels out and they're phenomenal horror that also punch you in the throat with SOCIAL COMMENTARY and FEELINGS. He's so adept at tapping into the specific part of my brain that feels fear like a small child - not the adult creepy scared that I normally get around horror, but specifically the kind of fear that almost freezes your limbs and vocal chords with a terror you don't quite understand because there is so much in the world that you don't know, but you know that somehow this thing might be quick enough or smart enough or sneaky enough to get you before you can get to the safety of your parents sort of fear.

THIRTEEN STOREYS is a haunted house novel, but set in a refurbished block of flats. Each chapter follows a different resident being haunted in a different way, with a style to match the flavour of ghost. It's all tied together phenomenally and brutally.

FAMILY BUSINESS is a story about ghosts in a different way, following a woman who joins a post-mortem house cleaning service while grieving the death of her best friend. But as she removes the stains from the houses of the dead, she begins to suspect something else is removing even more.

Both of these titles are available from Gollancz worldwide!

THE LAST UNICORN, THE WAY HOME, THE INNKEEPER'S SONG and A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE by Peter S. Beagle

Obviously Peter's work needs no introduction, and our editions aren't available in the US and Canada, but I've had a wonderful time working with Peter and his team to bring these beautiful books back to the UK. Meeting him at Worldcon this year was such a magical moment, and he was jet-lagged and I had gone through sleep deprived into hyper and was bringing an Extremely Weird Energy to every interaction I had that day, resulting in this photo:

THE LAST UNICORN and THE WAY HOME are a matched pair of wonderful fairy stories. THE WAY HOME has two novellettes in it, and the first - 'Two Hearts' - won the Hugo award. It will also destroy you.

A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE was Peter's first ever novel, and it's wistful and romantic and so beautiful.

THE INNKEEPER'S SONG is his epic fantasy quest, it's an adventure story that reads almost lyrically. Also there's an orgy in the middle which caught me by surprise when I was reading it for the first time on the train into work.

HIGH VAULTAGE by Chris and Jen Sugden

It's possible that someone on this website doesn't know I was involved with this book but don't worry, I will HUNT THEM DOWN AND TELL THEM. This is the first book I took all the way through the editorial process from end to end and I am SO PROUD of it and Chris and Jen and their wonderful world of @victoriocity. Officially one of the seven funniest books published in the UK this year, shortlisted for the Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. It's a chaotic, bonkers murder mystery set in an alternate Victorian London which is the most gleeful dystopia I have ever encountered.

Featuring:

Grumpy Sunshine besties

The Victorian Equivalent of the Chuck Norris Meme

A robot who undertook a course in People Management

An indefatigable beagle

This is another book that you can get from Gollancz all over the world, and you SHOULD because it's amazing. Go into your local bookshop and ask them to order it into stock. It's a great Christmas present. It's my firstborn book baby (like that's a completely normal thing to say when I didn't even write it). Also if you're a fan of the podcast, why not tell the Guardian how great it is, and make a nuisance of yourself until they review. (I would, but the form asks for your name and then they'd know I didn't suddenly discover Victoriocity this year. Either that or think I was a very careless editor.) If you've not listened to the podcast yet, you absolutely should. It pings all my Douglas Adams receptors in the best way. If you like HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE, if you like CABIN PRESSURE, VICTORIOCITY is the perfect addition.

HAMMAJANG LUCK by Makana Yamamoto

SLIGHTLY cheating because HAMMAJANG LUCK isn't out in North America until January (pre-orders make great Christmas presents guys), but it IS out in the UK and the rest of the world next week! This is my second big editorial project and it's a Big Gay Space Heist ft. disaster lesbians, trans characters, and a tech billionaire getting put in his place. It's joyous and energetic and crammed full of Hawaiian pidgin as a love letter to the diaspora. @makana-yama is a phenomenal writer and this is their love letter to their communities, families both born and found, while also a statement on the victims of gentrification (and how those are disproportionally BIPOC communities). PLUS:

friends to enemies to cautious allies to lovers

trans cyborgs

Suck It Space Elon

You know that One Scene in Charlie's Angels where Cameron Diaz is in the white body suit and breaking into the safe and has to stretch out to hit two buttons at once? Yeah. That's the vibe.

Being able to work with Makana is a delight, and HAMMAJANG tapped into all the feelings I got watching LEVERAGE for the first time, so I went to watch it again while I was editing. Also OCEAN'S 8.

DEEP BLACK by Miles Cameron

So, barring Branderson, Miles Cameron may be one of our most prolific authors. He writes a minimum two books a year, one SFF and one historical fiction (as Christian Cameron) and he is... An absolute phenomenon. He IS the Chuck Norris meme. I'm obsessed with him. He's former US military intelligence turned naturalised Canadian Hippy, has written over fifty novels, can turn his hand to any genre and write it fantastically, is a practical archaeologist - running large scale re-enactments from a variety of periods ranging from Bronze Age right the way up to the Victorian era, using traditional techniques to allow academics to study how the practicalities of weapons, clothes, food etc. would have worked in practice. Two years ago he won a medieval combat tournament in Verona, a clear ten years older at least than the next oldest competitor, he teaches Historical European Martial Arts, but ties it into the history of martial arts globally. He can make his own clothes, ink, leatherwork. He's a ballet dancer. I once took him for a day out and he ended it in a different shirt and shoes from the ones he'd started in. I asked him for an author photo and he sent me this:

DEEP BLACK is the sequel to his critically acclaimed SF debut ARTIFACT SPACE, where he has taken his research and experience of global historical cultures and extrapolated to create an interplanetary future where the best of all are celebrated. And then Aliens Happen. And then, in reaction, Capitalism Happens (which is covered in the short story collection BEYOND THE FRINGE).

He's such a thoughtful and erudite speaker, if you're curious about his work, I'd recommend listening to his episodes on the Friends Talking Fantasy podcast, and also his appearance on The Publishing Rodeo.

If SF isn't your bag, he's also got:

Arthurian fantasy

Bronze Age fantasy

Medieval Mages fantasy

A CURSE OF CROWS - Lauren Dedroog

I actually inherited Lauren when a colleague of mine departed for fresh pastures, which gave me the great opportunity to work on this series which is so vastly different from my usual fare. It's epic, sweeping, romantic and lush, with such detailed description and complex political machinations, while also being brutal, dark and heavy (tw: for sexual assault, torture etc, etc.). If you like Sarah J Maas and Cassandra Clare, this should hit the sweet spot. Lauren is an ICU nurse when not writing, and this was somehow created when she was putting in a million hours in hospitals during COVID. The feat boggles my mind.

A CURSE OF CROWS is out now in the UK, Australia and Europe, and it won the People's Choice for Standaard Boek's Book of the Year award in 2023, in her home country of Belgium. It will be hitting shelves in North America next September! A DANCE OF SERPENTS is where I get to pick up the editorial mantle, and that has just landed in my inbox this week so I am excited to dig in.

Featuring:

Harold, they're lesbians

Murder baby is actually a cinnamon roll

Sensitive wings are sexy

For serious, though, I'm lucky enough to work with a lot of authors I'm genuinely obsessed and astounded by. And yes, I do get to work on Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson and Andrzej Sapkowski, but they're not MY authors - they're led by the incredible Gillian and Marcus who I'm not 100% certain sleep. There are so many people on the Gollancz list who I could recommend for DAYS (and will, if you so request), but this is my stable of superstars.

[would-they-be-good-at-asmr]

Propaganda:

Dude listen to any of his podcasts man has a great voice

[accidental-apocalypse]

"Jonny 'I don't write happy endings' Sims" this, "Jonny sits in his castle of screams and tortures characters" that - every story that man has put out into the universe is three raccoons called Hope, Humanity and Love wrapped up in a trenchcoat of horror and his writing gives me hope that us humans aren't completely doomed maybe.

Try to change my mind, but you can't!

[miyuskye]

I finished thirteen storeys today

[zephyr-zephyr]

Just realized that i love Jonny Sims’ work (literally just anything he’s worked on, solo or collaborative) because it’s so sad. Like there are a million reasons why i love the things that man has worked on, but the sadness and tragedy of it all is so important to me.

Because, after a decade and a half of being a sensitive person and crying at pretty much anything that warrants it, i’ve come to a stop. Specifically, i can’t cry at the big stuff anymore. I’m a 15 year old gay, transgender, disabled, afab person in the American midwest. And at this point it’s all so ridiculous that i can’t bring myself to cry about it, if i did i would never do anything else.

So, when i feel like i need to have a good cry but the fact that Kristi Noem doesn’t know what habeas corpus is isn’t hitting the cry button, i’ll go listen to Elysium Fields. Or DttM. Or MAG200. Or i’ll reread a Mechs fiction that really gets me. And i’ll cry. On my own terms. About whatever tragedy that Jonny (and his fellow nightmare peddlers) thought up. And the state of the world.

Again, millions of reasons why i love The Mechs and TMA and Thirteen Storeys, but this is the one that’s sticking out to me rn

[mechanical-v1scera]

this came to me in a vision

[yourfaveisanavatar]

The book: Thirteen Storeys from real life is a Flesh leitner.

(Author, Jonny Jonathan Sims.)

thirteen storeys by jonathan sims is a flesh leitner!

[rudycrowley]

Oh, do you perhaps mean Gerard Keay?

[sillier-than-thou]

In case you didn’t know, Jonny Sims has also published two horror novels!

I’ve read this one twice so far, once by myself and once out loud to my mom. It’s so good!!

It’s a library book, so I can’t keep it for more than one more week, but I plan to order a copy as soon as I have time (while also ordering his second book, Family Business, as that one isn’t available in libraries in my country).

But eventually, I really want to go through it and write a list of some of the wordings, because Jonny is such a good writer and there are a bunch of great lines in there!

I’m also seriously considering drawing fanart of all of the characters, they’re so fun!

It has also allowed me to expand my English vocabulary quite a bit, which is very beneficial as I’ve started writing fan-fiction now :3

[thatmoththoth]

I’m the type of person who will find a specific storyteller I like and stick with them, only branching out for similar content, which leads into some funny situations where people ask what I like it’s like:

“Oh I like this audio drama called The Magnus Archives, and it’s sequel the Magnus Protocol, both made by Jonathan Sims”

Well what books do you like?

“Oh I’m currently reading Thirteen Stories by Jonathan Sims and it’s pretty good”

Um, are there any video games you think are interesting?

“While I haven’t played it but I do think Slay The Princess is interesting, and a lot of it is voiced by Jonathan Sims.”

Any music you like?

“My favourite band is The Mechanisms, which has Jonathan Sims as the lead singer.”

Favourite celebrity?

“Uh, does Jonathan Sims count? His writing style is really cool and I take a lot of inspiration from him in my own writing.”

No Thoth, Jonathan Sims is not a celebrity.

“Dang. Uhhh Captain Jack Sparrow?”

Do you mean Johnny Depp?

“Yea that guy. He’s cool I think.”

[forsakenanchor]

this hyperfixation is getting rough.

[skyeoak]

Jonathan Sims you are hilarious

[wouldtheybecomeafearavatar]

Thirteen Storeys book from real life as a leitner?

(I'll reblog this to poll the rest)