Tuesday 19 July 2011

Podcast Twelve!

Hi all,

We're clearly on some kind of obscene roll. Podcasts just keep happening, without any of those pesky six-month hiatuses...

The twelfth podcast, A Pax in Time, Book Nine,* sees the return of that earth-shattering editor David Moore, and likewise the return of that plucky pensmith, Jonathan Green, and of our intriguing intern, Colm Bannon.

Jon's here to talk about the Pax Britannia universe, the recent (and profoundly affordable) Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection, ebooks in general, his experiences with the Fighting Fantasy series, and the upcoming Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow, a very exciting project in which Jon will let the story unfold in short ebook-format "chapbooks" and allow readers to vote on the direction the story will take each time. Find it here on iTunes, or go to the Store and search for "Abaddon and Solaris."

You can also just go here to look at the feed direct, or to subscribe using an RSS application, like Outlook.

Cheers,

David

*This title is a total lie. Time's Arrow is book eight. But that would ruin the name of the podcast. I dunno, pretend like the Short Story Collection is book eight, or something.

Interview with Simon Bestwick...

Hey kids,

Have you ever wondered, "I wonder what that Simon Bestwick, author of Tomes of the Dead: Tide of Souls thinks about stuff?"

Yup, thought so. Probably more than ever, with the release of Best of Tomes of the Dead 2 coming up, bringing with it a fresh chance to have his words fired into your synapses by your eyes.

Well, you need no speculate any longer than you wish (and, I dunno, maybe you're cool with the speculation thing; me, I like speculating from time to time).

Why, I hear you ask? Why, because Jimbo at... ahem, "Ginger Nuts of Horror"... has interviewed him!


Cheers,

David

Reviewspam!

Hey all,

So it's an exciting month, coming up, 'cos I'm going on holiday to Australia! Okay, that's probably not exciting to you, but I'm pretty chuffed about it. Ben's heading off as well, as is Jenni; there's cons and business trips and stuff; it's all very busy. Which means we're working ourselves hard to get ahead of our workload, which means we're crazy busy, which means we've been neglecting our blog. We're bad bloggers. And we're sorry. :(

So I'll just trot out a couple of extra posts now to give you something to digest.

For starters, the ever-popular (actually, I have no idea if this is popular or not; but I figure you probably read some of our books, so you presumably want to read reviews of our books to see which ones to read) REVIEWSPAM!

I can feel the thrill pouring off you even now. You may want a shower.

Some stuff people have said stuff about includes:

Graeme over at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review has had some nice thoughts to share on Pat Kelleher's No Man's World: The Ironclad Prophecy. And just as well, it's awesome.

And what a story it is!... Kelleher doesn’t mince his words letting us know just what’s at stake here... The outcome here blazes with action and suspense as Atkins and men take on the absolute worst that their new home can throw at them. These final scenes are more than worth the price of entry.

Andrea at Book Chick City has clearly enjoyed Rebecca Levene's The Infernal Game: Cold Warriors, really digging her teeth into an intricate, mythic thriller.

A quick, fun read that kept me guessing with each page, and each character was so ambiguous it’s hard to know which one to root for. It’s an original story with a great plotline and a solid foundation in the supernatural.

Jared at Hub Fiction was blown away by Toby Venables' Tomes of the Dead: Viking Dead, and its crew of manly, hairy, heavily armed but essentially lovable heroes.

Just to be clear, The Viking Dead is about Vikings... fighting zombies. And, just to be completely clear, it is awesome. There are some key structural reasons behind Mr. Venables’ tome of legitimate awesomesauce.

Liz at SFRevu was deeply impressed by Steven Savile's Malory's Knights of Albion: The Black Chalice, particularly by Savile's knack of making a medieval manuscript feel like a piece of contemporary historical fantasy.

We are shown how one wrong decision can change a person's future... In the end we have a thoroughly unpleasant main character on our hands. One who has become even more unreliable than when we met him... an interesting conundrum presented to the reader: do we hope Alymere gets to redeem himself or do we wish him into the fires of Hell?

So a good mix of older and more recent titles, some pretty solid support, and (importantly, to us) some reviewers who very much Got It on some of our slightly more daring projects. Always brilliant to see.

Cheers,

David

Monday 4 July 2011

Bit More Kelleher Love

Hey all,

A little bit more Pat Kelleher joy, for those of you still anxiously awaiting the arrival of No Man's World: The Ironclad Prophecy on the shelves.

Graeme Flory over at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review has asked Pat to write a few words about his inspiration for the series, and Pat has kindly obliged.

Read his guest post here:


Good stuff.

David