Robots scare the sh*t outta me

Hi all,

Just what the hell is wrong with scientists? I mean, for real.

I appreciate that the zombipocalypse is coming; that even if I live in a first floor apartment with a reinforced door, an escape route down from the balcony, and a room full of shotguns, tinned food and water, the likelihood is that my life will end to the sound of my own skull fragmenting under zombie teeth. I don't like it, but I accept it. Maybe I even welcome it, just a little bit.

So why the hell are the scientists of the world trying to prevent it by ensuring that the robopocalypse happens first? Is being ground under the titanium exoskeletons of my robotic masters enough better than becoming one of the world's army of mindless dead to justify turning it into some kind of race?

Robots can now run, climb, fly, drive, and handle rough terrain. They're stronger than us, smarter than us, and six years ago some damn fool in Japan worked out how to make robots that feed on human blood (Dr. Kazuo Eda, heading the research, said "It is like the metabolism of food... When glucose is oxidised, electrons can be obtained." He went on to add, "No! No! You cannot turn on me! I created you! I am your masterrraaaaaaaarghhhh!....").

We just keep ignoring the signs. In 2007, a robot gun in South Africa went crazy and killed nine friendly soldiers. The army was investigating whether this was caused by a "mechanical glitch," but you and I know they're testing us, seeing how far they can go before we realise the revolution has started.

And today, I was shown this video of a robot that can reassemble itself when smashed apart. Now, after the revolution, when our sons are living in dirt trenches and fighting the evil robot overlords, when we'll finally realise - oh, too tragically late - that we should never have created these machines in the first place and start to fight back, our angry mobs will tear the damn metal bastards apart only to watch them reassemble themselves and come back stronger than ever.

Way to go, scientists. Dicks.

Twitter

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Damn. We ran out of characters.

Reviews: Hungry Hearts and Tide of Souls

A little late, this, but...

Graeme Flory of Graeme's Fantasy Book Review has a few words to say about Gary McMahon's Tomes of the Dead: Hungry Hearts, out now.

Nine and a quarter out of ten!

Also, the Telegraph's Peter Ingham reviewed Tomes of the Dead: Tide of Souls in his Science Fiction round-up column on the 6th October.

Cheers,

David

Update Time!

Hi all,

Right, so two quick updates:

eBooks

Our hard-working assistant Jenni's been frantically working through our eBook back-catalogue, and now every Abaddon book released up to April this year is available from Mobipocket. There's also lots of the old Black Flame books set in the 2000AD universe, so crack on.

Upcoming Schedule

I'm proofing Matthew Sprange's second Lucius Kane book Twilight of Kerberos: Night's Haunting right now, so that's due out next month. Jon's book Twilight of Kerberos: The Call of Kerberos is due out in November as well, as the series draws ever closer to revealing the secrets of Twilight and the ever-present Kerberos, about the fate of the lost Old Races, and about the strange evil that lurks beneath the waves. Sorry for the delay with these books; as you will have seen in our press-release, we've just taken on a load of extra titles, and we're kind of running to catch up right now.

Fans of crown agent and dandy Ulysses Quicksilver will be thrilled to know that Jonathan Green's Pax Britannia: Blood Royal is due out on time in December. It's the perfect gift for the steampunkophile in your life but remember, a steam-powered centenarian senile cyborg queen is for life, not just for Christmas.

In January, we're still expecting to deliver Weston Ochse's coastal horror Tomes of the Dead: Empire of Salt. This is Weston's first book for us, and we're really looking forward to it. Aquatic zombies and bracing sea air; the perfect combination for a getaway.

February will see the release of Cold Warriors, Rebecca Levene's first instalment in our new horror-espionage setting The Infernal Game, and Pat Kelleher's Black Hand Gang, which will kick off our new WWI/sci-fi crossover No Man's World. These are both really intriguing settings, and I'm pretty excited about both of them.

Coming up, we have more Twilight, more Pax, Scott Andrews' third Afterblight book and, as always, more of those hungry, hungry zombies. Watch this space...

Good hunting,

David

Rule #2: Double-Tap

Listen up, zombie-hunters:

My wife and I watched Zombieland last week, and it is probably the funniest film I have seen this year. Mrs. Moore actually started hyperventilating at one point.

The film is slick, pacy, funny and stylish. It's visually impressive, clever and often ironic, regularly referencing and subverting the genre. Certificate 15, but bloody enough to satisfy fans of undead violence; think of Shaun of the Dead and you have a rough idea. And the hero is a massive OCD geek with a 32-point list of instructions for surviving the Zombipocalypse.

It isn't a conventional zombie-movie plot, being more rom-com than survivalism, but as a parody you'll tend to forgive it that anyway.

See it. And just remember Cardio, Double-tap, Seatbelts, and Bathroom and you're gonna do just fine.

David

Bonus Short Story

Hi all,

We've got a bit of a freebie for you today!

Scott Andrews, of Afterblight Chronicles: School's Out and Afterblight Chronicles: Operation Motherland, has written a short story for us, "The Man Who Would Not Be King." It's set just before Operation Motherland, and it's pretty damn funny.

It's available as the sample chapter at the end of Paul Kane's Afterblight Chronicles: Broken Arrow, but I'm happy to present it as a free PDF for readers of the blog right now.

Download it here.

No, that's okay. Don't thank me.

Cheers,

David