Out Now! in June

Hey all,

As you may have seen over at our partners at Solaris, we've decided to run monthly articles on our blogs about what's actually out now on the shelves and what we think of it. Of course, we love all our children equally, but here's a chance to see why...

The Afterblight Chronicles: America, by Simon Spurrier, Rebecca Levene and Al Ewing

The Blight arose from nowhere. It swept across the bickering nations like The End of Times and spared only those with a single fortuitous blood type. Hot headed religion and territorial savagery rule the cities now. Somewhere amidst the chaos, however, there are groups of people fighting to survive. Heroes determined to create a better world. But can these warriors of the apocalypse hope to rediscover the humanity lost long ago in the blood and filth and horror of the Cull?

The Afterblight Chronicles Omnibus: America features three action-packed novels set in a dangerous, broken America ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.

David Says: Fast, maniac, bloody and action-packed. It almost feels like Spurrier, Levene and Ewing are playing some kind of game of one-upmanship, both in the craziness/grotesquery of the villains and in the hard-boiledness of the heroes. By the time you get to cannibal bankers and a man punching a bear to death, it almost feels reasonable. Brilliant.

So go get it!

David

Pornokitsch Gives You... Anno Mortis!

Hey all,

As you probably remember, the fine folk at Pornokitsch.com have spent all week bringing you the best, worst and most interesting of Romeiana... Romana?... Romanesque?... stuff about Romans, in their week-long feature, "V Days of Rome."

It's gone brilliantly well, as near as I can tell, with loads of blogposts, reviews, an enormous interview with Sophia McDougall, and competitions and giveaways on their Facebook page. So very well done, Anne and Jared. It's been a blast.

Anyway, today they have a spate of Anno Mortis-related shenanigans! There's the downloadable free sample already mentioned (it's Chapter Sixteen, by the way, with all the zombies and zombie tigers and chariots and stuff), a review of the book (actually, kind of a re-review, since as Jared points out it was one of the first books they reviewed, back in the day), and until midnight tonight you can win a signed first edition of the book on their Facebook page by answering the question, "What caused the fall of Rome?"

Check their shiznit izout.

The book comes together in a complex mash-up of classical mythologies that, in my case, really did benefit from a re-read. If the "what" (zombies) is unveiled early in Anno Mortis and the "how" (evil bugs) soon follows, the "why" is kept a tight secret until the final pages. There are a lot of players involved, both mortal and immortal, and it takes an explosive chain of conclusions to reveal them all. Needless to say, the stakes are not only much higher than just Rome, but also more personal. What a god wants, the whole world may have to give.

To freely lift from my own original conclusion: "All said and done, Anno Mortis is a massively entertaining - and oddly educational - romp. From sieges to orgies; tigers to chariot races; it pulls out all the stops in providing unceasing fun." And as a footnote, Anno Mortis isn't just another chapter in a passing fad. Good pulp is timeless, and this pulp is very, very good indeed.

Schweet.

David

SFX Weekender Here We Come!

Wotcher all,

We're just about packed and ready to head off to the SFX Weekender, where we hope to see a bunch of you chaps and chapesses for chats, signings, buying our books, buying us beer, and good times.

Couple of highlights we need to let you know about:

- Al Ewing's on a panel at 4pm on Friday about horror in the 21st Century in the cinema room.

- Al's back with Jon Green at 11.45 on Saturday to talk about Alternative Londons (in particular, their experiences with the Pax Britannia series...)

- Al, Jon, Rebecca Levene, Scott Andrews and anyone else we can grab while we're there will be in the pub at 2pm on Saturday for the "Abaddon Pub Hour," when you'll get a chance to talk to your Abaddon authors, get books signed, and ask questions that have been on your minds the whole time you've been reading our stuff.

Finally, Jenni and I (and Ben, for some of the time) will be at the Abaddon traders' stall both days, and will be more than happy to chat with people and generally get our groove on. You'll also probably find Al, Jon, Bex, Scott and others hanging around our stall at one time or another, and we'll have signed copies of our books on sale and stuff like that.

We'll also be blogging, tweeting and vlogging all weekend (I know, I know, I said I was going to do those three vlogs in January; it's been a busier month than I expected), and bothering people in the bar in the evenings.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

David

BRAAAINS.

Go tell Pornokitsch about your favourite zombie for a chance to win shiny new first editions of Ryan Brown's Play Dead, Weston Ochse's Empire of Salt and a signed copy of Rebecca Levene's Anno Mortis. Competition is here.

Me? My favourite zombie is either Bub the Zombie from Romero's Day of the Dead, or Zombo from 2000 AD's Zombo comics, or maybe the talking zombie head of Deadpool in the Marvel Zombies comics and beyond. Let's face it, I really can't decide on just one!

Speaking of Empire of Salt, Weston pointed me to a nice little review of it here, by San Diego bookshop Mysterious Galaxy. The reviewer warns us: Cheer all you want for the heroes, but reader be warned, there are many twists and turns that will leave you laughing, crying, screaming in rage, and hoping against hope that someone comes out of this alive. You won't put it down until it's over.

By the way, 2000 AD's wise-cracking Zombo was created by Abaddon Books author Al Ewing! I've just finished editing his latest work for Abaddon, Gods of Manhattan, so stay tuned here for a post all about it...

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Cold Warriors Launch Party

Hi all,

The official Launch Party for Rebecca Levene's The Infernal Game: Cold Warriors took place amidst a modest fanfare last night at the rather snug Phoenix Artist Club on Charing Cross Road. A good time was had by all.

(One of the attendees obligingly pointed out to me that Googlemaps provides you with a street-level view of the venue. Check out the wonders of the twenty-first century, kids.)

Pornokitsch's fabulous Jared Shurin organised and presided over the event, and has put a brief thank you up for everyone here.

No, thank you, Jared. We had a blast.

We sold out of books, met with some very cool people - industry people and fans alike - and generally got our groove on. Bex seemed to enjoy herself, Bex's mum was very nice, and the atmosphere was very warm.

(And warm, actually. It was an underground venue and we were pretty tightly packed, so we got pretty hot.)

Anyway, I ran around with a camera and got some images to remember the occasion by. Here follows my pictorial tour of the evening:

The extraordinary Jared. He and his glamorous partner Anne Perry ran around the whole time, talking to everyone and generally making sure the whole thing went smoothly. He makes it to a lot of cons and things; if you ever get a chance to grab him for a drink and a chat, do so. He's very friendly.

Ms. Levene appeared to be camera-shy, or at least diligently remained on the far side of the room from the book stand, so capturing her on film was a challenge. This was shoot on high zoom through three conversations.

Rebecca is also afraid of public speaking. Her friend Magnus (I should probably know his full name, but regret that I don't) read a sample of the book. She then stood and gave a terrified forty second speech and fled the mic.

Our talented designer and artist Pye Parr, who did the beautiful cover you can see at the top of this post. Looking slightly bewildered that I would choose to photograph him.

At the beginning of the evening, with Ms. Levene's close friends mostly in evidence, they sat down for a meal before the guests arrived. Jenni stood in the way of my shot. Nuisance girl.

I'm explaining to this lady the themes and concepts underlying Transformers. It's not my fault; she asked about my shirt.

Actually, slightly disappointed. Clearly someone else has highjacked my camera and sneakily taken my photo. This doesn't bother me - I absolutely love having my photo taken - but whoever it is (Jenni denies all knowledge) failed to let me know so that I could pose pretentiously. Damn them.

"Jon! Jon! Jonathan! Look over here!" I cried, but in vain.
I guess that dude he was talking to was rilly, rilly interesting.

Scott Andrews was on antibiotics and not drinking - a tragic state of affairs in a room of media lushes - and so decided to give me an "I'm not impressed that you're taking my photo" pose. Nice try, Andrews, but I'm hip to your jive. Putting on a pose to show that you don't want to pose doesn't make sense. It just doesn't work like that.

So, anyway, a splending evening and an auspicious kick-off for an awesome book. Very slightly hungover (I'm more suffering from getting to bed at 2am than anything else) but pleased by the outcome.

Do buy it and read it; your life will be improved by it by a typical 17.2%. This has been proven by scientists; and scientists can't lie. It's genetic or something.

Cheers,

David

Cold Warriors Launch Final News

Hi all,

We've given away six tickets to the Cold Warriors launch in Soho this evening already, but it's not too late! Send an email to abaddon@rebellion.co.uk and tell us why you deserve it, and we'll give you a ticket to the launch party and a stylish and commemorative "Hermetic Division" tie-pin of your very own!

Special update: Simon Parr, the artist and designer of the cover (shown right), will be there. So you can give him your adoration and badger him to autograph the book for you as well as Rebecca Levene.

Awesome.

Cheers,

David

Children's Crusade and Cold Warriors out in the UK tomorrow!

Children's Crusade at Amazon.co.uk

Cold Warriors at Amazon.co.uk

(Go here to request tickets to the Cold Warriors launch party in London tomorrow night!)

Book Launch Tickets Giveaway!

Right, lightning quick, 'cos this is for tomorrow evening.

Rebecca Levene's awesome new series, The Infernal Game, launches with the first book, Cold Warriors, tomorrow evening at a secret location in London.

We've just heard from the organisers that, after inviting all the trendy media types and booksellers, he has a few tickets left over, and would love us to give them away!

So sling us an email at abaddon@rebellion.co.uk and tell us why you should get a ticket. If we like your answer, not only will we give you a ticket for tomorrow evening's launch party, we'll also throw in one of the shiny new "Hermetic Division" tie pins we've got here in the office.

Ooh, shiny.

Get mailing!

Cold Warriors Launch!

Oh, sorry to say we missed this!

Hub Magazine, the FREE weekly SF, horror and fantasy magazine downloadable online in PDF or ePub format, had a great review of Rebecca Levene's Cold Warriors in issue 117.

Hub Magazine is run by Lee Harris from Angry Robot books, who recently announced their move away from HarperCollins, to Osprey Publishing.

Abaddon and Solaris Books wish you all the best with the move, guys! We look forward to the relaunch in September...



Speaking of Cold Warriors, we're having the launch party next week! I'm excited... If you're about in London on the evening of May the 19th, keep the date free and we'll see if we can find some tickets to give away...

Reviewspam!

Okay,

Another flurry of reviews:

• Hub Magazine Issue 114 includes a decent interview of Simon Bestwick's Tomes of the Dead: Tide of Souls by Derek John.
  
  "‘Tide of Souls’ is an original take on a tired genre, perhaps showing a new way back to its traditional horror roots."
  
  
• The Novelblog's Daniel S. Boucher has written this very nice review of Jasper Bark's Tomes of the Dead: Way of the Barefoot Zombie.
  
  "Crap, just writing all that is giving me the willies again. I mean seriously, who reads this stuff? Oh, wait a minute..."
  
  
• Graeme Flory of Graeme's Fantasy Book Review has written this glowing review for Rebecca Levene's The Infernal Game: Cold Warriors.
  
  "Cold Warriors’ is a novel that’s just as good as hitting you with the supernatural as it is with all the other more mundane stuff... it makes the reader feel that this stuff could really be happening just beyond the corner of their eye..."
  
  
• On that subject, the guys at Falcata Times have written this very kind (if brief) review for Cold Warriors.
  
  "It’s a great setting, it’s got a lot of scope for follow up tales but perhaps best of all its the characters that really come alive to the reader."

Some good reviews there, which is always nice to see.

David

Off to Press!

Hey all,

Just to let you know Rebecca Levene's Cold Warriors has been sent off to press.

It should be coming out in the spring.

Ooh....

David

Pornokitsch interviews Rebecca Levene

Happy New Year from all at Abaddon Books!

Hope you enjoyed our Very Abaddon Christmas (and, if you missed it, scroll back through the blog because it was stonkin' great), and that you all had a great holiday.

Here's a treat for the new year - the fantastic folks at Pornokitsch have posted an interview with our very own Rebecca Levene, click here to read Part One and Part Two. ere's an excerpt:-

What can you tell us about Cold Warriors (2010 release)? Occult spies chasing down apocalyptic artifacts... it sounds fantastic.

Cold Warriors is the first in a new series created and written by me for Abaddon, called The Infernal Game. It’s coming out in May next year, and it’s best described as a cross between The Bourne Identity and The Omen. Here’s the blurb:

‘You died 20 years ago. Welcome back.’

At the peak of the Cold War, the British secret service formed the Hermetic Division, an agency charged with using supernatural means to defend the nation. Its primary mission: to find the mysterious Ragnarok artefacts, said to have the power to end the world.

Tomas Len was the Hermetic Division’s most senior agent, until he volunteered to take part in a dangerous voodoo ceremony. Morgan Hewitt is a young assassin who has an unnatural affinity for death, which strikes everyone he cares about.

Together, they’re sent on the trail of a corrupt Russian oligarch rumoured to be selling one of the Ragnarok artefacts. The journey will take them across Europe and into the darkest reaches of the occult. And it will uncover the terrible secret that has shaped both their lives…

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