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

Pornokitsch's "V Days of Rome"

Salve all,

I don't know if you already follow the good men and women (or, alright, the good man and woman; it's a modest outfit) at Pornokitsch.com? It's a kind of nerd-culture, reviews, interviews and general geek crap site, with an unhealthy fixation on low-fi sixties pulp romances and a recurring feature on crappy eighties fantasy and horror movies. It's also Jared Shurin and Anne Perry, who are wonderful people and deserve your endorsement.

At any rate, they are currently running a feature called V Days of Rome all this week, which will emphasise all things Roman, including reviews of gladiator movies and of Roman historical (or alt-historical) fiction novels, interviews and guest-blogs from authors involved in Roman-themed projects, free downloadable content, and giveaways of signed books all week long.

And we're involved! If you get on there now, you can download a free sample chapter of one of the climactic scenes from Rebecca Levene's Tomes of the Dead: Anno Mortis, and they assure us they will be reviewing the book later in the week, and giving a signed copy away on their Facebook page.

And they've just posted up Masques & Lies, a totally new and exclusive Pax Britannia story by yours truly. This has never appeared in press, even in the bonus story in the back; it's there for you, now, in support of Pornokitsch.

So go and check it out, and keep checking it out all week as they update with new and awesome content and competitions.

Awesome.

David

First Review of Jonathan Green's 'Dark Side'

Pornokitsch has written the first review of Jonathan Green's Dark Side, the sixth Ulysses Quicksilver novel.

Dark Side is the biggest book in the series in all respects. By bringing in characters and conflicts from earlier books (some for the last time), Green elevates this from a snappy, pocket-sized adventure into the start of something properly epic. ... Without giving away any spoilers, the reader feels like the cozy universe of Pax Britannia is truly, irreversibly changing.

The inspiration for the cover - the poster for the movie Le Voyage Dans La Lune

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Reviewspamelot

Hola,

Quick spot of reviewspam for you...

The Falcata Times has weighed in to the spate of brilliant reviews of Scott Andrews' The Afterblight Chronicles: Children's Crusade with this glowing review:

Great characters, and some intriguing plots... Scott’s writing fits this set up to a tee, it’s got great characterisation, it has some serious pace and above all else the way in which the story’s lead character interacts with the reader makes them someone that you really care about. Great stuff.

And in the meantime, Jared over at Pornokitsch just loved Pax Britannia: Gods of Manhattan:

Ewing has written, in just shy of 250 pages, one of the best superhero pastiches I've ever read. From his dry take on the old pulp heroes stories to his disturbingly sinister version of Marvel's flagship hero, this is not something I ever expected to find outside of an Alan Moore graphic novel. He's used prose to describe comics (already something tricky), done so with a great deal of rewarding satire, and, most importantly, written a bloody enjoyable book. Gods of Manhattan is a terrific, inescapable book - in which absolutely anything can happen and, quite often, does.

Awesome.

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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Zombies and other stuff...

Two things to blog about today, one, Weston Ochse reports queues out the shop doors on his booksigning tour in Arizona promoting his epic zombie novel Empire of Salt, and sent us some photos to share. (Too bad you didn't take photos of the queues Weston, we're not sure we believe you! Just kidding...)

And secondly, Scott Andrews has done a brief interview here at Pornokitsch about the conclusion to his apocalyptic St. Mark's School trilogy, Children's Crusade, which came out last month.

Also, because it's a bloody fantastic question, I'm going to steal one of Pornokitsch's interview questions and put it to you, dear readers... but you'll have to read the interview to hear Scott's answer!

Zombies attack. You can have one weapon, one sidekick and one song for your zombie-slaying soundtrack. Go...


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Interviews!

Here are the final two parts of Jonathan Oliver's interview with Pornokitsch. See the earlier parts here.

Part Four
Part Five

And here's an interview with another Abaddon author from the guys at Horror Reanimated.

Interview with Simon Bestwick.

I had the pleasure of meeting Joseph D'Lacey from the site and the dubious pleasure of interviewing Simon B myself over the weekend at Brighton World Horror. Let me just say, I admire Joe for being able to get a word in edgeways!

I've just been listening to said recordings I made at the convention. We're going to be using them in the next Podcast. I interviewed Simon Bestwick, Paul Kane, Steven Savile (who'll be writing the first Knights of Albion) story, Paul Finch (who'll be writing Stronghold for the Tomes of the Dead line) and several Solaris Books authors.

Most of these interviews took place in the hotel bar, which is, to say, in the natural habitat of this species we refer to as 'author'.

So, for laughs, I've sorted the interviews into two files entitled 'Drunk' and 'Sober.' And no, I'm not telling you which is which!

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Pornokitsch interviews Jonathan Oliver

Those folks at the dodgy-sounding geek culture website, Pornokitsch, have interviewed our very own Editor-in-Chief, Jonathan Oliver.

Read the interview:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

To see some of their previous interviews with Abaddon authors such as Paul Kane, Scott Andrews and Rebecca Levene, take a look over here.

Pornokitsch interviews Paul Kane

Those wacky folks at Pornokitsch have been up to their old tricks again - after their interviews with Abaddon authors Rebecca Levene and Scott Andrews, they've now interviewed Paul Kane, the author of Arrowhead and Broken Arrow, in the Afterblight series.

Paul chats about writing for Abaddon, and how he and Scott Andrews have planned the overlap of characters and event in their respective Afterblight series, both previously and in upcoming novels...

Part one of the interview is here, part two is here, and part three should be coming out in the next few days or so.



P.S. I notice Pornokitsch are also running a Sexy Steampunk Competition - comment there and nominate your favourite sexy steampunk characters to be entered into a prizedraw. I notice that nobody has nominated our very own Mr. Ulysses Quicksilver, yet! Nor any one of his many lovely female companions from the Pax Brittania series. It's an outrage, say I, an outrage!

Pornokitsch interview Scott Andrews Part 2.

I nearly forgot! Here's the second part of that pornokitsch interview with Scott Andrews.

Part One and Part Two.

In the second part of the interview he talks about his new book, Children's Crusade, which is the third part of the School's Out saga. He also chats about crossovers between Afterblight characters, and writing for the Highlander series.

Children's Crusade will be out on May 19th, and is already available for pre-order from amazon books. Here's a shiny, shiny cover for you.

(I may have a slight crush on Tariq. Look at that big smile!)



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Pornokitsch interviews Scott Andrews

Pornokitsch have interviewed our very own Scott Andrews, who chats with them about a number of things including writing about violence, why kids are all vicious little buggers, and his father, the folk singer.

Part One of the interview is here.

If you like what you see, - Pornokitsch also interviewed Rebecca Levene a few days ago - I'm urged to ask you to vote for them as 'one of the bestest review sites ever' over here.

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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