Peace on Earth and in Weird Space, too: a new universe this Christmas for you.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me... a brand new Space Opera in a brand new universe to see. Weird Space is vast and includes human smugglers, veterans and ne’er-do-wells who are all part of the Expansion, as well as their neighbours, The Vetch. An evil race threatens both the Expansion and the Vetch, one that invades the bodies of both and uses them as hosts. Now both will have to work together for a chance to survive. Give the gift of a rare and brave new world this Christmas with The Devil’s Nebula. 

The Devil’s Nebula, Weird Space | Eric Brown

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-78108-022-1

Brand New Series, Brand New Universe!

Best-selling author Eric Brown has created a brand new shared world for Abaddon Books: Weird Space. This thrilling space-opera series will begin with the release of The Devil’s Nebula. Brown will introduce readers to the human smugglers, veterans and ne’er-do-wells 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 co-operation between them can mean the difference between a chance of survival and no chance at all.

Happy Christmas (War Is Over)... except not for them.

On the tenth day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me... an adventure of the otherworldly kind, where First World War soldiers find themselves stranded on an alien world. The Pennine Fusiliers are still fighting four months later in the trenches, tanks and air. A Lieutenant Everson seeks the truth from an alien prisoner and calms insurrection in his troops while promoting it the aliens’. The Black Hand Gang reunites with Ivanhoe, the tank, and its crew while chasing the man that may be responsible for their predicament, and together they face the horrors of the Croatoan Crater. Lieutenant Tulliver soars above alien gravity to see the scale of the planet’s mystery, and makes an unsuspected ally to do so. This holiday, don’t miss this genre-shattering mix of WWI soldiers meets Science Fiction!

The Alleyman, No Man’s World | Pat Kelleher

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-78108-025-2

The thrilling third No Man’s World book!

Four months after the Pennine Fusiliers vanished from the Somme, they are still stranded on the alien world. As Lieutenant Everson tries to discover the true intentions of their alien prisoner, he finds he must quell the unrest within his own ranks while helping foment insurrection among the alien Khungarrii.

Beyond the trenches, Lance Corporal Atkins and his Black Hand Gang are reunited with the ironclad tank, Ivanhoe, and its crew. On the trail of Jeffries, the diabolist they hold responsible for their predicament, they are forced to face the obscene horrors that lie within the massive Croatoan Crater. Above it all, Lieutenant Tulliver of the Royal Flying Corp, soars free of the confines of alien gravity, where the true scale of the planet’s mystery is revealed. However, to uncover the truth, he must join forces with an unsuspected ally.

Love Abaddon Book’s Tenth Day of Christmas? Then check this out too!  

Black Hand Gang, No Man’s Land | Pat Kelleher

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-906735-84-5

Ironclad Prophecy, No Man’s Land | Pat Kelleher

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-907992-15-5

Take me to Paris for Christmas - but with an Englishman to save the day.

On the ninth day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me... thrilling steampunk action against an Eiffel Tower setting. One terrorist, ‘Le Papillon’ wants to ruin everyone’s lives in Paris, by turning it into a nightmare. Hero of the  British Empire, Ulysses Quicksilver, is determine to stop him, he also just has to clear his own name from murder and get back to England to stop the love of his life from heading to the Moon. He’ll have to ride Time’s Arrow to get in all done by the ticking deadline. You know, no big deal. Paris in the winter can only be made better by steampunk and you can enjoy it just that way this Christmas.

Time’s Arrow, Pax Britannia | Jonathan Green

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-78108-064-1

Fantastic steampunk action in the capital of France.

Paris. City of lights. City of lovers. City of dreams. Yet if one man gets his way, its inhabitants will soon be forced to endure a nightmare such as they have never known. But Hero of the British empire Ulysses Quicksilver is determined to get in his way... although he has problems of his own to deal with first, before he can try to rescue the French capital from its earth-shattering fate.

Arriving at a murder scene, Ulysses is forced to go on the run, so that he might track down the real killer. His intention: to clear his good name, and get back to England in one piece and as quickly as possible; for the love of his life is about to take a most ill-advised trip to the Moon. But the terrorist known only as ‘Le Papillon’ is preparing to bring chaos to the capital.

Love Abaddon Book’s Ninth Day of Christmas? Then check this out too!  

The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus, Pax Brittania | Jonathan Green

£9.99, ISBN: 978-1-905437-34-4

Monster's Holiday: they would love to have you for Christmas Dinner.

On the eight day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me... the return of Coburn, the vampire surrounded by zombies that we all love. Coburn is back, but this time he’s in San Francisco chasing his vampire sire for revenge – there’s some Bad Blood between them to say the least. But if that’s not enough, there’s a wacky ketamine cult on Alcatraz that’s eating super-zombie flesh like it’s the communal bread. Never a dull moment in this world. Make sure you add this hugely entertaining sequel to your Christmas list.

Bad Blood, Double Dead | Chuck Wendig

£3.49 or £2.99, Ebook format

The astonishing sequel to Double Dead!

San Francisco after the zombie apocalypse. Vampire-predator turned human-protector Coburn is on the trail of his vampire sire. When he finds him, it is not to catch up on the good times, but take revenge.

Alcatraz. Super-zombies. A ketamine-trip cult of New Age weirdos who eat the flesh of the zombie as some kind of grotesque communion. This is another tale from the inimitable Chuck Wendig.

Love Abaddon Book’s Eighth Day of Christmas? Then check this out too!  

The Best of Tomes of the Dead, Vol. 02 | Simon Bestwick, Gary McMahon and Jasper Bark

£10.99, ISBN: 978-1-907992-17-9

Give a little back on Christmas Day... but if you're not careful, it could be your blood.

On the seventh day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me... a mystery in a post-apocalyptic world that takes place in a floating city. Kavika Kamalani is a Pali Boy – meaning he’s inherited the ancient Hawai’ian warrior tradition that believes in embracing fear to overcome death. But then, his friend is killed and harvested for blood, and he sets out to find the killer. But Kavika didn’t know the Blood Ocean he was diving into, and when he’s captured, he has to embrace death in order to save them all. Sit buy the fire and delve into this new and unique setting in the world of The Afterblight Chronicles. You won’t regret it.

Blood Ocean, The Afterblight Chronicles | Weston Ochse

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-907992-86-5

Waterworld meets Point Break.

Kavika Kamalani is a Pali Boy, a post-plague heir to an ancient Hawai’ian warrior tradition that believes in overcoming death by embracing one’s fears and living large. His life on the Nomi No Toshi, the floating city, is turned upside down when one of his friends dies, harvested for his blood, and he sets out to find the killer.

Kidnapped himself and subjected to a terrifying transformation, Kavika must embrace the ultimate fear  – death itself – if he, his loved ones, and the Pali Boys themselves are to survive.

Love Abaddon Book’s Seventh Day of Christmas? Then check this out too!  

America Omnibus, The Afterblight Chronicles | Simon Spurrier, Rebecca Levene, and Al Ewing

£10.99, ISBN: 978-1-907992-13-1

The most wonderful time of the year... and three books that help make it so.

On the sixth day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me... three adventures from the Twilight of Kerberos, including the finale. The first showed me the Wrath of Kerberos as I received the second story of Silus Morlader, who stranded in a desert, finds a new race that makes him doubt the truth of his life on Twilight. Second I had the opportunity to meet and learn about Lucius Kane, the rogue turned Shadowmage. As we learn the final instalment of his adventure, Lucius uses his ability to manipulate all the threads of the arcane to protect his city from those that would tear it apart. Finally, it’s the final chapter. Kali Hooper knows how to save her world, but she is dying, stripped of her essence, as the final battle opens in the heavens. As Gabriella DeZantez, Silus Morlader, Lucius Kane and Kali – The Children of the Pantheon – all join together, their journey sees the last fight where both men and gods die. Make this Christmas wonderful and treat yourself to rich and brilliant world in its final stand.

The Wrath of Kerberos, Twilight of Kerberos  | Jonathan Oliver

£4.99, Ebook Format

The second Silus Morlader adventure.

Suddenly stranded in a desert by a magical storm, Silus Morlader must lead the crew of the Llothriall across the harsh landscape in search of civilisation. What they find will change their view of the world forever.

A new race reveals to Silus that his god, the planet-deity Kerberos, is not all he appears to be; that everything they understand about life on twilight may be wrong.

The ninth and latest in the Twilight of Kerberos series, The Wrath of Kerberos is the first time Abaddon Books has published a brand new title only as an ebook...

The Shadowmage Trilogy, Twilight of Kerberos | Matthew Sprange

£10.99, ISBN:  978-1-907992-92-6

A thrilling sword and sorcery adventure.

The world of Twilight turns in the darkness, illuminated by the ethereal glow of the god-planet, Kerberos. This is a world of heroes and monsters, in which four unique individuals stand against the end of everything.

One such man is Lucius Kane, a rogue born into thievery when his family is destroyed by war. On the hard streets of Turnitia, ruled over by a fearsome army and a corrupt priesthood, Lucius learns of his terrifying legacy. Lucius is a Shadowmage, a powerful sorcerer blessed with the ability to manipulate all the threads of magic. Using his newfound arcane skills, and accompanied by his unusual friends, Lucius must stand against those determined to tear his city apart, while all across the peninsula great powers play for the ultimate prize!

This stunning fantasy features the brand new final part of the Shadowmage trilogy, completing the saga of Lucius Kane.

The Children of the Pantheon, Twilight of Kerberos – The Final Adventure | Mike Wild

£4.99, Ebook format

It all ends here!

Kali Hooper knows how to save her world. She must unite the ‘Four’ and the magic they carry with the Old Race artefact known as Guardian Starlight. But there’s a problem – Kali’s dying, stripped of her essence by Querilous Fitch, who plans to use it and the artefact for his own destructive ends. In the heavens, meanwhile, the final battle between the Hel’ss and Kerberos looms, and beneath their glow, Twilight goes insane.

Gabriella DeZantez, Silus Morlader and Lucius Kane join Kali on a final, explosive journey from the ruins of Scholten to the mysterious Congress of Ether, to the shores of an island of diamond and into the haunted void of the Expanse. Armies will clash. Churches will fall. Men and Gods will die.

It's Christmas everywhere... that means in Steampunk too.

On the fifth day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me...  a thrilling mix of science-fiction, daring-do and alternative history. When you add one Mexican sword-fighter against the Third Reich, one New York superhero against a deadly foe, one mysterious Queen against her King in One Million AD, one Clockwork Dicator in the Old West, and one gun-fighter against the armies of Space Satan, you’ve end up with the headiest brew that Steampunk has ever seen. Trust me. This gift is one that everyone will love!

Pax Omega, Pax Britannia | Al Ewing

£7.990, ISBN: 978-1-907992-90-2

Science-fiction, daring-do and alternative history!

Doc Thunder – the gold-bearded, bronze-muscled Hero of New York – in his last stand against a deadly foe whose true identity will shock you to your core!

El Sombra – the masked avenger, the laughing killer they call the Saint of Ghosts – in his final battle against the forces of the Ultimate Reich!

The Scion of Tomorrow, the steel-clad Locomotive Man, in a showdown with cosmic science on the prairies of the Old West!

Jacob Steele, the time-lost gunfighter, defends the 25th Century against the massed armies of the Space Satan!

And a deadly duel of minds and might between the Red King and Red Queen in the mystery palaces of one Million AD!

Love Abaddon Book’s Fifth Day of Christmas? Then check these out too!  

El Sombra, Pax Britannia | Al Ewing

£6.99, ISBN: 978-1-905437-34-4

Gods of Manhattan, Pax Britannia | Al Ewing

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-906735-39-5

Sniper's Christmas: the gift that's right on target.

On the fourth day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me... two high-octane sniper tales involving the Nazis. The first involves the Spear of Destiny – a moment that could change the world. Behind enemy lines, Karl Fairburne has one shot to prevent the head of German nuclear programme and the Stalin’s troops from completing their revenge. Then I finally get to know the truth about Hitler’s last days – a different story from what the history books record – and the mission became Target: Hitler. Snipers and Nazis... what else does your Christmas need?

Sniper Elite: Spear of Destiny | Jaspre Bark

£6.99, ISBN: 978-1-905437-04-7

Berlin, 1945. Karl Fairburne is a member of an elite sniper corps, working for the American secret service deep behind enemy lines.

Stalin's troops have over run the city looking to revenge the battle of Stalingrad and seize control of the Nazi's nuclear secrets before their British and American allies.

SS General Helmstadt, head of the Nazi nuclear programme, is defecting to Russia, but first he plans the ultimate act of vengeance, to make the US pay for the defeat of the Third Reich. If he succeeds Russia will win the Cold War before it has even begun. Karl has one chance to stop him. A single sniper's bullet will change the course of history.

Sniper Elite: Spear of Destiny is inspired by the popular videogame. A hi-octane shoot 'em up set against an alternate historical backdrop, shot through with political intrigue.

Sniper Elite V2: Target Hitler | Scott K. Andrews

£1.98 (ebook), ISBN (Mobi): 978-1-849973-75-5, ISBN (Epub): 978-1-849973-74-8

Everyone knows the story of Adolf Hitler's final days – cornered, insane, killing himself in despair as Berlin burned above him.

But this story is based solely on the eyewitness accounts of the people who shared the bunker with him – the people most loyal to the Führer; the people most likely to lie to protect him. The world’s foremost Nazi hunter has never believed the official account; he has spent his life chasing a phantom, convinced that Hitler escaped the bunker. Now, as he lies on his deathbed, he receives a mysterious visitor; a man who claims to know the true story of Hitler’s death; a man named Karl Fairburn.

Is he just another conspiracy fantasist, or could his tale possibly be true…?

Rockin' around the Yuletide Tree... with King Arthur and Romans, too.

On the third day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me... a potent combination of Arthurian and Roman legend that had me filled with glee. King Arthur needs some help as the Romans raise an army, and he calls for support from Sir Lucan, the Black Wolf of the North. But Lucan’s got lady trouble, his wife left him for a Roman moron, and soul trouble, when the Penharrow Worm taints his blood. His squire, Alaric, tries to look out for Lucan, but his mother, a sorceress, is looking out for him, and that involves stopping Lucan with every demon she can call. Reach into your heritage this Christmas, travel back to pagan past, and celebrate the Yuletide with Lucan and the rest of the cast. 

Dark North, Malory’s Knights of Albion | Paul Finch

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-907992-88-9

A stunning new Dark Fantasy with untold stories of King Arthur’s Knights and Camelot.

As the restored Roman Empire raises an army against him, King Arthur calls his supporters from every corner of the British Isles. Sir Lucan – the Black Wolf of the North – has more reason than most to join the campaign: his beautiful wife, Trelawna, has run off with the handsome, cultured Roman offi cer, Rufio, scion of the corrupt, powerful Malconi clan.

Lucan’s squire, Alaric, fears for his overlord’s soul after his battle with the Penharrow Worm taints his blood; but is more afraid still for the safety of Lady Trelawna, whom he has always loved from a distance. Meanwhile, Rufio’s mother, the sorceress Zalmyra, sees it as her motherly duty to stop Lucan, with every demonic force she can summon…

Love Abaddon Book’s Third Day of Christmas? Then check these out too!  

The Black Chalice, Malory’s Knights of Albion | Steven Savile

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-907519-66-6

The Savage Knight, Malory’s Knights of Albion | Paul Lewis

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-907992-33-9

Zombie's First Christmas! Celebrate life with the Dead.

On the second day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me... a pissed-off vampire in a world of zombies. After five years asleep, Coburn wakes up to a world gone to hell and his food supply massively depleted as well. So the vampire switches gears, from predator to protector, and looks for humans he can keep away from the jaws of the zombie dead. It’s a zombie’s first Christmas where Coburn’s wants them Double Dead.

Double Dead | Chuck Wendig

£7.99, ISBN: 978-1-907992-40-7

A vampire whose going to make those zombies double dead.

Coburn’s been dead now for close to a century, but seeing as how he’s a vampire and all, it doesn’t much bother him. Or at least it didn’t, not until he awoke from a forced five-year slumber to discover that most of human civilization was now dead — but not dead like him, oh no. 

See, Coburn likes blood. The rest of the walking dead, they like brains. He’s smart. Them, not so much. But they outnumber him by about a million to one. And the clotted blood of the walking dead cannot sustain him. Now he’s starving. And nocturnal. And more pissed-off than a bee-stung rattlesnake. The vampire not only has to find human survivors (with their sweet, sweet blood), but now he has to transition from predator to protector—after all, a man has to look after his food supply.

Love Abaddon Book’s Second Day of Christmas? Then check this out too!  

The Best of Tomes of the Dead, Vol. 01 | featuring: Matthew Smith, Al Ewing and Rebecca Levene

£9.99, ISBN: 978-1-907519-34-5

School's Out! In a whole different way...

Welcome to the Abaddon Twelve Days of Christmas! Over the next dozen days we’ll be highlighting the best of the year from Abaddon to give you the perfect Christmas gift ideas for the SF/fantasy/horror fan in your life.

On the first day of Christmas, Abaddon Books gave to me... one omnibus of post-apocalyptic novels, which made me grateful for my little Christmas scene. With most of the population gone, the kids don’t know what to do, so the girls and boys of St. Mark’s went back to school. Only they don’t worry about classes or exams. They have more danger in the form of cannibals, fanatics, bullies, and armies, than help on hand. This holiday enjoy the fiction that School’s Out Forever – at least it is at the end of the world.

School’s Out Forever  | Scott K. Andrews

£10.99, ISBN: 978-1-78108-026-9

The three original volumes of the complete School’s Out trilogy, now available in one!

 “After the world died we all sort of drifted back to school. After all, where else was there for us to go?”

Lee Keegan’s fifteen. If most of the population of the world hadn’t just died choking on their own blood, he might be worrying about acne, body odour and girls. As it is, he and the young Matron of his boarding school, Jane Crowther, have to try and protect their charges from cannibalistic gangs, religious fanatics, a bullying prefect experimenting with crucifixion and even the surviving might of the US army.

Welcome to St. Mark’s School for Boys and girls...

Happy publication day: Time's Arrow - The innovative Steampunk where readers chose the plot!

Pax Britannia:

Time’s Arrow

by Jonathan Green

Out today in the UK and 13^th November in US & Canada!

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-78108-064-1

$9.99/$12.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978-1-78108-063-4

Also available as an ebook

It was Abaddon's exciting publishing experiment – a Steampunk novel where the readers chose what direction the plot should go in. And it’s now available in a single paperback and ebook volume!

Time’s Arrow was published in three ebook instalments, with the first and second giving readers a choice about what should happen next to dashing adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver. They responded in droves, making their choice online and giving author Jonathan Green the challenge of writing a book where even he didn't know the ending!

Paris. Yet if one man gets his way, its inhabitants will soon be forced to endure a nightmare such as they have never known. Hero of the British Empire Ulysses Quicksilver is determined to stand in his way... even as he returns from the past to appear on the scene of a horrific murder! Can Quicksilver stop the terrorist known only as ‘Le Papillon’?

Now collected and available in paperback and ebook, Pax Britannia: Time’s Arrow is a full-throttle Steampunk adventure, with a healthy dose of outrageous satire and knowing cultural references!

“It feels like Pax Britannia has finally come home … You can't go wrong with any story that features cybernetic gorillas, insect obsessed anarchists and a dashing leading man.”

– The Eloquent Page

“Big action set-pieces that we’d like to see in a rip-roaring summer movie.”

– SFX on Pax Britannia

Twilight: The Twilight

(See what I did there? 'Cause, like, it's Twilight of Kerberos, the series, and it's the end of the big overarching story, so it's like the Twilight of Twilight. Awww, yeah. That's comedy gold right there. Put that right in the bank.)

Anyway.

So we're tremendously excited about the coming of The Children of the Pantheon, the eleventh and final instalment in the main Twilight of Kerberos arc.

As promised, the four destined heroes of the Twilight world - Mike Wild's high-jumping tomb raider Kali Hooper, Jon Oliver's water-breathing fisherman Silus Morlader, Matthew Sprange's spell-slinging master thief Lucius Kane and David McIntee's divinely-protected holy knight Gabriella DeZantez - will be brought together at last, in a quest that will tie together ancient past and turmoiled present, the terrible powers of the dragons, the lost secrets of the Old Races, and the destiny of empires, churches and the world itself, as they seek nothing less than to save the life of the god/planet Kerberos from the depradations of its terrifying enemy!

Say that three times fast.

Written by Mike Wild, The Children of the Pantheon is a headlong dash, a genuinely heart-stopping race against (and through) time, and (we hope) a worthy ending to a story we've thoroughly enjoyed bringing out to you.

And it's available exclusively in ebook format! So if you've been hemming and hawing about buying that nifty new ereader, then now is the time, my friend.

The Children of the Pantheon is out now, on all good ebook outlets.

Twilight of Kerberos

The Final Adventure

The Children of the Pantheon

Mike Wild

Kindle US • Kindle UK

iTunes US • iTunes UK

Nook

The Alleyman Launch

So we descended on the extraordinary Fab Cafe in Manchester last Thursday 11th October to launch Pat Kelleher's spectacular close to the No Man's World trilogy, The Alleyman (Pye Parr's atmospheric art supplied to the right)...

It was pretty much an amazing night. The venue was awesome; if you have the opportunity to go for a drink there, or to one of the other Fab Cafes (I believe there are three?), do go for it. A very strange, very fun sort of environment. It's apparently a "TV and movie themed bar," but mostly I caught an "alien invasion B-movie" vibe. They did sell Space Raider crisps behind the bar, though, which was a nice touch.

There was an enthusiastic crowd, all clamouring to buy Pat's book, get it signed and hear him read (or in some cases, possibly, they'd come in to get a drink and then felt too embarrassed to leave; but it's all grist to the mill).

Pat had sorted out some awesome WWI-era recruitment posters (you know, the whole "Lord Kitchener wants you" shenanigans, and variations of the theme of "women will find you more attractive/signing up reflects well on your masculine worth and moral value"), and we stuck them up around the place (including the ladies' loos, natch) along with bunting and Union Flags. Pat had even labelled some lovely cream envelopes with the standard "Will you shirk your duty? Buy The Alleyman today!" each duly filled with a white feather, to hand out to people. Sadly your reporter failed to photograph either posters or feathers...

All of which was beautifully rounded out by this guy:

His name is David Eliot Cooper, and he's the a "historical interpreter," and the creative director at Histrionics, who provide walking, talking, moving history for all your entertainment or educational purposes. He played the recruiting private - check out his authentic uniform including puttees - and shouted us all into order before delivering a real recruitment speech written by Rudyard during the war. Set the mood very well.

And then we had Pat's reading, giving us a glimpse of the eerie alien/Tommy shenanigans coming up in the third book. 

And then came the selling and signing:

And then, naturally, the singalong, with traditional WWI marching songs. Yes, you heard that right.

Everyone belted along nicely. A few people needed jollying along, but with Private David Cooper to hand, there really was no saying no. It would have been something like the terrifying combination of kicking a puppy and standing up to your gym teacher:

Good time had by all, and only enhanced by the opportunity to catch up on some old friends of mine living in Manchester who obligingly came along to support the event, and by wandering along to a live gig at a band around the corner. Which was nice.

Cheers,

David

FantasyCon... the poem!

One thing I totally forgot to mention in my blog post about That There FantasyCon...

During Jon's panel on "Blurring Genres" (pictured right), a member of the audience wrote an actual poem about the panel! Right then and there! He quietly slipped to the front, passed the poem to Jon to read and returned to his seat, and read out it duly was. The poem ran as follows:

"Blurring Genres"

The monkey tennis failed to ignite,
And Octopus TV did not feel right,
Vampire Romance is a bloated mess,
Though I read Harry Potter I must confess,
The stone age 'tec could work quite well,
But on stone punk stories we won't dwell,
Romantic Zombies and ghostly M.P.s
Frankenstein's Monster doing strip tease,
You can blend your genres, mix your themes,
It's only agents who will crush your dreams.

I would love to give you the FantasyCon laureate's name, but sadly his signature is tricky to make out. If anyone has any idea who this earnest chap was, we'll gladly credit him, because frankly, this was awesome.

Cheers,

David

That There FantasyCon

Hey,

So, we did go to that there FantasyCon everyone's talking about, and we had a blast.

I think. Truth be told, we had quite a bit to drink on Friday and sort of lost track. We... we may have a problem.

So we got to the beautiful, slightly-run-down-but-all-the-more-interesting-for-it Royal Albion about fifteen minutes before Jon's first panel, on the blurring of genre:

L-R: Paul Finch, Benedict Jacks, Jon (clearly), Lynda Rucker, Jon Green

Same panel, artier new angle-shot! Jon Green's early pint more prominently displayed.

There were genres, they blurred them. Aw, yeah.

It was an interesting panel, tackling the idea of genres as marketing constructs or as demanded by the readership, blurring as innovation (and how a lot of our most hoary genre tropes started out with people breaking the tropes of their day), about whether current writers - including our panelists - see themselves as part of a given genre or constrained by them, or the genre stretches and fits to their writing, that sort of thing. Heavy fare, given we hadn't had lunch yet...

Then we unloaded the car, checked in and set about meeting up with friends old and new - I was deeply gratified how many of both there were, actually; met some wonderful people over the weekend - and getting our serious drink on. We headed down to the front for some utterly amazing tapas with the fabulous Glen Mehn, Amanda Hemingway and Rob Spalding (we tried to coordinate some sort of mutual dinner with a crowd from Quercus, but it turns out that "the tapas place down near the front" is a spectacularly unhelpful description in Brighton). On the way back, I tried for the obligatory nighttime arty photo:

Jon, Glen and Amanda. Really, this was going to be a lovely shot: huge full moon framed by clouds, beautiful regency hotel, the Wheel, just lovely. Alas, street lights kind of made it all look a bit crap. Also, I was drunk.

Saturday was a bit of a rush, as we went to the excellent morning "Ask the Editors" panel (we were slightly tempted to heckle, but we were good), then Jon's reading, then more networking, then sorting out the big Giveaway, then sorting out the Magic launch, then more readings, then more networking, then more dinner, then...

It was a brilliant day, actually. The Giveaway was a huge hit, with the queues heading out into the reception area and everyone really excited about picking up our books and meeting the authors. The Magic launch was one of the best attended of the weekend, near as I can tell, with more signings and lots of copies sold and lots of chatter, and the readings I went to were all amazing (sadly no photos of either the Giveaway or the launch, as I was busy doing things in both).

We were just about sober and recovered (for a given value) in time for the disco, where Jon and I both cut some serious rugs and got to enjoy the sight of Gary McMahon properly losing his shit to Footloose and the inimitable Gardner Goldsmith in danger of losing everybody else's shit to Firestarter and Kung Fu Fighting. Brilliant work on Rio Youers' and Sarah Pinborough's part, there (sadly no photos of the disco as I was busy dancing; also, I have some reservations as to whether said photos would be considered suitable for public consumption...).

Too little sleep and the second slightly disappointing fried breakfast in a row later, we were back in the bar for some more meeting and catch up and talking nonsense, and then it was time for the banquet and awards ceremonies. Every winner was worthy and wholly deserved, and we're immensely pleased and proud for our friends who won awards (we didn't win ours, sadly).

All in all, it was a blast of a weekend, and there was an amazing energy and enthusiasm to the whole thing; if anything, the controversies surrounding last year's con were the best thing that could have happened, as so many people seemed so determined to rediscover the enthusiasm that informs the con and put on the best show possible. We saw and met more people than we deserve to know, and spent less time with anyone than we'd have liked, and are desperately looking forward to next year's World Fantasy Con.

Oh, and all the readers had to sign and wear this hat, which was cool.

Good times.