Solaris Books was founded in February 2007 by BL Publishing, to trade alongside their existing licence-based imprint the Black Library, and the then-existing Black Flame imprint. When asked why BLP had started the new imprint, Consulting EditorGeorge Mann stated that "...between... the major corporate publishers... and... the small and independent press... there seems to be little or no room left for the midlist," and that Solaris would provide a mass-market platform for up-and-coming writers, or established writers with smaller readerships. In September 2009, it was announced that Solaris Books had been bought by Rebellion Developments, who also publish comics and graphic novels under 2000 AD imprint and genre fiction under the Abaddon Books imprint, for an undisclosed sum. The imprint came under the leadership of Abaddon editor Jonathan Oliver, who ran both imprints side by side as Editor-in-Chief, along with editors David Moore and Jenni Hill. The new team continues to publish books in the Solaris tradition, maintaining existing relationships with authors such as Brian Lumley, Andy Remic and Juliet McKenna and also discovering new voices in the SF and fantasy genres. As of August 2010, Solaris had published seventy-three titles by twenty-nine authors, including anthologies and new editions of out-of-print titles.
Mary Robinette Kowal's story "Evil Robot Monkey", from The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Two, was nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Paul Cornell's story "One of Our Bastards is Missing", from The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three, was nominated for the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
Ellen Datlow's Poe Anthology won the 2010 Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Anthology, and the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for an Edited Anthology, and was nominated for the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology.
Alastair Reynolds' story "The Fixation", from The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three, won the 2009 Sidewise Award for Alternate History.
Stephen Baxter's story "Last Contact", from The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, was a finalist in the 2008 Locus Award for Short Story and a nominee for the 2008 Hugo Award for Short Story.
Mary Rosenblum's story "Sacrifice", from Sideways in Crime, won the 2008 Sidewise Award for Alternate History. Tobias Buckell's story "The People's Machine", and Kristine Kathryn Rusch's story "G-Men", both from Sideways in Crime, were nominated in the same category.
