Tuesday 20 September 2011

TIME FOR A CHANGE: Abaddon Books introduces a new direction for genre publishing

Abaddon Books is delighted to announce a bold new venue in genre publishing – one where the readers are in charge!

Time’s Arrow will be the latest book from the world’s longest continuously running Steampunk novel series, Pax Britannia. Set in a world where the Victorian age never ended, Pax Britannia is an insane world of high technology and rip-roaring adventure.

The big difference with Time’s Arrow? Each instalment will be published as an ebook and, at the end of each of the first two, readers will be able to vote on where THEY want the story to go. Once all three instalments have been published, they will be bound together into a print edition.

The first part of the book will go live online on October 11th, with the vote for what happens next closing on December 11th.

Merging the best of print and online, Abaddon is proud to engage in such an exciting experiment – one where readers actively have a say in how the book is written.

Jon Green has written titles in the legendary Fighting Fantasy series and created seven of the critically-acclaimed Pax Britannia books for Abaddon.

Pax Britannia is one of Abaddon’s most established series,” said Jonathan Oliver, editor-in-chief of Abaddon Books, “so it seemed like the natural choice for such a unique venture in publishing. This adventure is sure to reach out to new readers while giving established fans a say in the rich universe they have come to love.”

“I am passionate about the whole Steampunk milieu, and the world of Pax Britannia in particular, while my first forays into writing professionally were adventure gamebooks,” says Jonathan Green. “To marry elements of both is a fantastic opportunity for me as a writer and I, for one, can't wait to see how the story pans out!”

About the Series
Pax Britannia launched in 2007 with Unnatural History. A steampunk alternative history set in a late twentieth century in which Queen Victoria – now nearing the end of her sixteenth decade on the throne, and wholly dependent on steam technology for survival – rules over the vastly wealthy, powerful and decadent Empire of Magna Britannia. Airships ply the skies overhead as gentlemen of leisure admire the dinosaurs in London Zoo, while the Empire has extended to the Moon. Across the pond, the United Socialist States of America, loosely allied with the might of Magna Britannia, is home to dreamers, poets, madmen, and heroes, poised to usher in a new era.

The series has included seven books by Jonathan Green, featuring the adventures of Ulysses Lucian Quicksilver, dandy and adventurer and agent of the throne; an omnibus collecting the first three is currently available.

4 comments:

ediFanoB said...

I'm a big fan of PAX BRITANNIA and I like to see that you are open-minded for new directions.

But I hope you keep in mind that there are still a lot of people who do not own an eBook Reader (I'm one of them). If I read the electronic edition or I wait for the printed edition depends on the publishing format.

Kaushik Karforma said...

Hello Mr. Green and the Abaddon team

Thanks for bringing out such immensely fun series like PB.

I don't own an ebook reader. So, can i download it off the Abaddon Website as a .mobi or epub or .lit file and read it on my machine?

Jonathan Green said...

Hi Kaushik

I think that's the case.

David Moore said...

Hi Kaushik,

Not off the Abaddon website, no, but you can buy .mobi books off the Kindle store without owning an ereader, and read them on your desktop.

Cheers,

David