Welcome to The Summer of Steampunk!

Longest running steampunk series raises the heat in fortnight-long genre celebration

Break out your top hats and holster your Tesla Mark Seven blunderbuss, the Summer of Steampunk from Abaddon Books is here!

To mark a major new direction for the world’s longest-running series of steampunk novels, Pax Britannia, Abaddon is running two weeks of steampunk shenanigans at the new dedicated Pax Britannia Facebook page.

From free eBooks and competition giveaways to debate and word from our authors about what makes steampunk so much fun, join us for two weeks of celebration of this most charming, exciting and ever-growing line of books.

The event will culminate in a major announcement about a surprising new book which throws away the rulebook of how genre publishing works.

A must for any fan of steampunk or pulp adventure action, Pax Britannia is set in a radically different version of the late 20th Century where the age of the Victorians never ended and Queen Victoria remains alive thanks to steampunk technology.

From Jonathan Green’s swashbuckling agent of the Empire, Ulysses Quicksilver, to Al Ewing’s ultra-violent El Sombra, Pax Britannia takes steampunk adventure to a new level.

Jonathan Oliver, editor-in-chief of Abaddon Books, said:
“Pax Britannia is one of the longest running steampunk adventures in publishing, and our Summer of Steampunk will bring a host of goodies bound to appeal to new and old readers of the series alike.”

Abaddon announces major new SF series

Acclaimed SF author Eric Brown creates new epic world for imprint

Best-selling author Eric Brown has created a brand new shared world for Abaddon Books: Weird Space.

This thrilling space-opera series will begin in June 2012 with the release of The Devil's Nebula by the best-selling author of Helix, Engineman and The Kings of Eternity.

In the first book in this epic new series, Brown will introduce readers to the human smugglers, veterans and ne’erdowells who are part of the Expansion – and their uneasy neighbours, the Vetch Empire.

When an evil race threatens not only the Expansion, but the Vetch too - an evil from another dimension which infests humans and Vetch alike and bends individuals to do their hideous bidding, only cooperation between them means the difference between a chance of survival and no chance at all.

Brown has meticulously created a massive shared world of interstellar potential, which other writers will explore with each new book.

With the launch of this new SF epic, Abaddon is adding to its series of shared worlds which already include the post-apocalyptic The Afterblight Chronicles, the new take on Arthurian legend Malory’s Knights of Albion, the World War One soldiers marooned on an alien world in No Man’s World, steampunk adventure in Pax Britannia, the zombie-infested Tomes of the Dead and the fantasy quests of the Twilight of Kerberos.

Eric Brown said:
"It's great to be part of the team working for Abaddon on the Weird Space project, and it's a fantastic imaginative opportunity to be developing the background and working on the first novel, The Devil's Nebula. The Weird is vast in scope - borrowing on an age-old tradition of everything that's best is space-opera - and will allow the writers to tell exciting, human stories set against an eerie, thrilling, futuristic back-drop. I'm more than a little excited at being part of the team!"

Jonathan Oliver, editor-in-chief of Abaddon, said:
“Eric is such a terrific writer that it's a great honour to be welcoming him to the Abaddon fold. The vast scope of this series and the richness of Eric's writing will mean that this will be a space-opera like no other.”

Coming soon: Arthurian legend as you’ve never seen it before

Malory’s Knights of Albion:
The Savage Knight
by Paul Lewis

Coming in September 2011

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-907992-33-9 $9.99/$12.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978-1-907992-34-6
Also Available as an eBook

Forget the quaint pageantry of Camelot and the noble knights of the Round Table – join Abaddon as we recast the legend of King Arthur’s court as a tale of blood, sweat and tears.

Sword and sorcery is back thanks to the Camelot and Game of Thrones TV series – now find out why they called it The Dark Ages...

Burdened with a terrible rage, Sir Dodinal the Savage turns his back on Camelot to find peace in a quiet Welsh village. But even here there is none. When his new home is struck by child-stealing raiders he must take up arms once again. But can a simple knight deal with the terrible secret hidden in the hills...?

An exciting, action-packed, and totally original Arthurian story, The Savage Knight is a new take on the well-known sub-genre, filled with savagery and knights who live and die by their bloodied swords.

“Lewis has a compelling and brilliant writing style and a great ability to create and maintain suspense and terror.” – The Alien Online on The Ice Maiden

About the Series
‘Uncovered’ in the parish church of St. Barbara and St. Christopher in the summer of 2006, the Salisbury Manuscript (British Library Add. MS 1138) is the only extant copy of Sir Thomas Malory’s The Seconde Boke of kyng Arthur and also His noble Knyghts, apparently written at Thomas Caxton’s request after Malory’s release from gaol. Deep controversy surrounds the book, which is claimed by some to be a contemporary forgery, possibly written by Caxton himself. In March 2010, Rebellion Publishing announced that it had secured exclusive rights to publish the modernisations of the stories.
Abaddon’s eighth shared world, Malory’s Knights of Albion will regale our readers with totally original stories set in King Arthur’s time, exploring the stories of the less well-known knights – like loyal Sir Alymere – or telling previously-unknown events from the lives of beloved characters close to Britain’s greatest king.
With courage and courtesy close to its heart, the series promises to deliver the best of heroic, chivalric adventure, often with a dark or surprising twist.

About the Author
Paul Lewis has written hundreds of comedy sketches for UK network TV, including Spitting Image, as well as radio sitcoms and plays. Paul co-edited the Cold Cuts horror anthology and is co-author of the novels The Ragchild and The Quarry, several novellas and numerous short stories including a Doctor Who contribution for BBC Books. Paul works as a journalist and lives with his wife and son in a village near Swansea, Wales.

The Devil's Nebula

Hello Abaddonians

I'm very excited to be able to announce the start of a new series for Summer 2012: Weird Space. This is Abaddon's first foray into the space-opera and if that weren't enough to pique your interest, just check out who we have to launch the series.

We are more than a little bit excited to have the brilliant Eric Brown (best-selling author of Helix, Engineman and The Kings of Eternity) with us for the launch of this new SF epic. Fans are going to be in for a real treat with a series that promises to be vast and hugely entertaining. Here, for your delectation, is the blurb for the first book in the series:

Starship Captain Ed Carew and his crew of two - ex-marine Lania Takiomar and ex-convict Gord Neffard - lead a carefree life of smuggling, gun-running and other illicit pursuits in a far future ruled by the fascistic Expansion Authority. But when an Expansion judiciary ship captures Carew and his crew leaving the planet of Hesperides, an out-of-bounds world governed now by the fearsome Vetch extraterrestrials, Carew, Takiomar and Neffard are sentenced to death...

Unless they agree to travel through Vetch territory in pursuit of an human colony vessel which set off for the Devil's Nebula one hundred years ago. But why are the Expansion authorities so eager to track down the ship, will Carew and co. survive the journey through Vetch territory - and what might they find when they arrive at the Devil's Nebula?

The Devil's Nebula is the first book in a thrilling space opera series, Weird Space. An evil race is threatening not only the human Expansion, but the Vetch Empire, too - an evil from another dimension which infests humans and Vetch alike and bends individuals to do their hideous bidding. And only if humans and Vetch cooperate to fight off the fearsome Weird do they stand a chance of ensuring their survival...

Eric Brown said, "It's great to be working for Abaddon on the Weird Space project, and it's a fantastic imaginative opportunity to be developing the background and working on the first novel. Weird Space is vast in scope - borrowing on an age-old tradition of everything that's best in space opera - and will allow future writers to tell exciting, human stories set against an eerie, thrilling, futuristic backdrop."