Hodderscape was born back in 2013. Originally set up as a community to bring together people who love all things science fiction and fantasy, it swiftly grew into a well-loved and celebrated part of the Hodder & Stoughton family.

We regularly shared content about everything, from what was at the top of our teetering TBR piles to stellar SFF film reviews; and as time went on and the genre grew, we came to realise that Hodderscape was more than just a community and needed to grow in turn. In 2022, it was announced that we were becoming an imprint of our own.

Several years on, Hodderscape is a thriving imprint, publishing some of the very best in Science Fiction, Fantasy and YA fiction. With authors such as Kerri Maniscalco, Becky Chambers, Elizabeth Lim and Chloe Gong, Hodderscape continues to lead the genre with our list of vibrant voices and fresh stories.

As the genre continues to grow in popularity, we want to give our readers the very best we can offer; so in 2024 we launched a brand-new website, through which we will be sharing exclusive author content, big announcements, reading recommendations and so much more. Because yes, we’re an imprint, and yes, we have an online shop – but at heart we’re still a community of genre-obsessed book lovers who just want to share the best books with all our readers! 

Pickwick Over the Years 

As you may or may not know, the iconic Hodderscape logo was inspired by the dodo from Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series.  Now core to our brand identity, Pickwick is here to stay – but with so many great Science Fiction and Fantasy books published over the last few years, we've seen an evolution in what our readers want from Hodderscape, and so, in turn, we’ve updated our branding. The dodo has evolved!

2013
The first iteration of Pickwick was designed by Sarah Anne Langton, who was given little more in terms of a brief than ‘we need a dodo’. Hodder & Stoughton publish Jasper Fforde, so it seemed fitting that one of his characters became the face of our SFF arm of the company. We kept her fairly simply so she could be used for anything from posters to avatars. And, voila! The original Pickwick was hatched.

 

2018
The next dodo designed was by @sofiahericson in 2018, who set out to create a Pickwick who was both cute and confident. An illustrated dodo (who came about after some trial and error) with an edgy, Kawaii style – Pickwick goes punk! The desire for her to really pop was why the fluorescent yellow was introduced, and I think you’ll agree it worked! 

2020 
As times moved on, so again did out beloved Pickwick. We kept the luminescent yellow, but we wanted something clean – less illustrative, more abstract. Keeping a similar shape, Pickwick became a silhouette, with a plain version and another version where she’s filled with a beautiful starscape. 

 

2024 
And finally, our most recent update courtesy of Neal Manning. This time we haven’t changed Pickwick (her shape and style were perfect for what we needed!) – but as our list of titles grew, we knew we needed something  that was able to reflect the full range of what we publish. The black and yellow have gone, replaced with softer blues and purples and with a slighter rounder font to match. We hope you love her as much as we do!