Alcon/Titan Publishing Program Reveals New Title

LOS ANGELES, JANUARY 18, 2023 - First announced last September, the publishing pact between Alcon Entertainment and Titan Books reveals its second original novel for 2023 with Cody Goodfellow’s VERTICAL. Set in Moscow, the story blends the darker elements of the extreme sports scene with current world events for a unique thrill ride.

VERTICAL releases on September 26, 2023. The first title in the Alcon-Titan slate is SUBORBITAL 7, a space-based techno thriller by cyberpunk legend John Shirley, which launches on June 6, 2023.

Mixing extreme sports with high-stakes geopolitical intrigue, VERTICAL follows a disparate group of urbex (urban exploring) political pranksters as they use their death-defying climbing skills (place hacking) as a platform for snarky political critiques, which doesn’t go down well in some countries.

"What strikes me when I watch urbex athletes is how that uncanny absence of fear mirrors the unshakable certainty of all Americans that we are untouchable abroad,” notes the author. “The notion that the chaos and violence of other nations can’t affect us when we leave our homeland is a dangerous illusion, which makes for high drama, and sometimes tragedy.”

Planning one last “statement” before retiring, the band of outlaw urbexers set their sights on the tallest building in Europe, an imposing “vertical city” that’s nearing completion. High on hubris, they ignore the fact that their target is situated in Moscow and, as they’ll discover far too late, directly under Kremlin control—the imposing black tower being a secret “weapon” designed to shatter the NATO alliance.

The publishing program between Alcon Publishing, a division of Alcon Entertainment, and Titan Books commissions original fiction across a variety of genres. In 2023 their slate of titles will start being released, with Titan Books publishing and Penguin Random House to distribute in North America.

Cody Goodfellow has been skydiving (once), and has no plans to visit Russia.