Titan signs debut from SFX magazine features editor

Titan Books has acquired the debut novel from SFX features editor Nick Setchfield, The War in the Dark.

Titan Books editor Cat Camacho acquired world English Language rights from Julie Crisp, of the Julie Crisp Literary Agency. The War in the Dark is the start of a brand new series.

The "genre-defying" series fuses together thriller and speculative fiction elements with dark fantasy and historical fiction in a hidden world at the heart of 1960s Europe, during a Cold War fought on the borders of this world. The series will follow British Intelligence agent Christopher Winter in a world of treachery, blood and magic; a world at war in the dark.

Setchfield said: "There are so many fascinating parallels between magic and spycraft and it was great fun to watch these shadow realms collide on the page. I wanted to create a book that mixes everything I love: high adventure, high weirdness, the relentless, globe-hopping thrills of Indiana Jones, the atmosphere and intrigue of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond. But I also wanted to tell a human story about second chances in a postwar world on the edge of a new age.”

Camacho praised the book’s originality, calling it “a breathless page-turner". "Nick’s writing runs away with the reader and pulls you into the world he has created,” she said. “Through his role at SFX Nick has been a long-time genre champion who has been hugely influential in shaping the scene we see today and it is an honour to be bringing out his first novel.”

The War in the Dark is scheduled to publish summer of 2018 simultaneously in the UK and US from Titan Books, with Australia and New Zealand to follow shortly after.