Reviewspam!

Hey all,

So it's an exciting month, coming up, 'cos I'm going on holiday to Australia! Okay, that's probably not exciting to you, but I'm pretty chuffed about it. Ben's heading off as well, as is Jenni; there's cons and business trips and stuff; it's all very busy. Which means we're working ourselves hard to get ahead of our workload, which means we're crazy busy, which means we've been neglecting our blog. We're bad bloggers. And we're sorry. :(

So I'll just trot out a couple of extra posts now to give you something to digest.

For starters, the ever-popular (actually, I have no idea if this is popular or not; but I figure you probably read some of our books, so you presumably want to read reviews of our books to see which ones to read) REVIEWSPAM!

I can feel the thrill pouring off you even now. You may want a shower.

Some stuff people have said stuff about includes:

Graeme over at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review has had some nice thoughts to share on Pat Kelleher's No Man's World: The Ironclad Prophecy. And just as well, it's awesome.

And what a story it is!... Kelleher doesn’t mince his words letting us know just what’s at stake here... The outcome here blazes with action and suspense as Atkins and men take on the absolute worst that their new home can throw at them. These final scenes are more than worth the price of entry.

Andrea at Book Chick City has clearly enjoyed Rebecca Levene's The Infernal Game: Cold Warriors, really digging her teeth into an intricate, mythic thriller.

A quick, fun read that kept me guessing with each page, and each character was so ambiguous it’s hard to know which one to root for. It’s an original story with a great plotline and a solid foundation in the supernatural.

Jared at Hub Fiction was blown away by Toby Venables' Tomes of the Dead: Viking Dead, and its crew of manly, hairy, heavily armed but essentially lovable heroes.

Just to be clear, The Viking Dead is about Vikings... fighting zombies. And, just to be completely clear, it is awesome. There are some key structural reasons behind Mr. Venables’ tome of legitimate awesomesauce.

Liz at SFRevu was deeply impressed by Steven Savile's Malory's Knights of Albion: The Black Chalice, particularly by Savile's knack of making a medieval manuscript feel like a piece of contemporary historical fantasy.

We are shown how one wrong decision can change a person's future... In the end we have a thoroughly unpleasant main character on our hands. One who has become even more unreliable than when we met him... an interesting conundrum presented to the reader: do we hope Alymere gets to redeem himself or do we wish him into the fires of Hell?

So a good mix of older and more recent titles, some pretty solid support, and (importantly, to us) some reviewers who very much Got It on some of our slightly more daring projects. Always brilliant to see.

Cheers,

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

Reviewspammerification

Hey all,

Another quick round of reviews, not for any one title:

First off, Kerl at Un:Bound has offered up an enthusiastic review of Mike Wild's Twilight of Kerberos: The Engines of the Apocalypse:

With a full complement of bad, bad jokes, magic, intrigue, redemption and a smidge of drunken dimension hopping, the book remains a bouncy if slightly quirky read from end to end.

Secondly, Kerl seemed to like Paul Finch's Tomes of the Dead: Stronghold even more:

For a book where it’s hard to decide if there are “good guys” and if so, who they are, Tomes of the Dead: Stronghold is some good old zombie smushin’ read, with some of the most interesting ideas for use for the brainless dead I’ve seen in a while combined with some interesting little historical details that have obviously been well researched before publishing.

Thirdly, Greenspan at the Midwest Book Review was very impressed by Jon Green's Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus:

A riveting read of three novels that should definitely prove quite fascinating, The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus is a volume that will prove very hard to put down and very highly recommended.

Finally, George Wilhite at The Horror Review has clearly enjoyed our very newest zombie book, Toby Venables' Tomes of the Dead: Viking Dead, which has only just come back from the printers!

Fans of both horror and fantasy will enjoy this novel. It evokes the historical period well and has a nice fast pace. There is a very original twist in the final chapter explaining the origin of the draugr and at least two other nice twists I did not see coming.

So give them blogs some love and check 'em out.

Cheers,

David

Review Backlog: Gods of Manhattan

Hi all,

As I've just explained over at the Solaris blog, Jenni and I have been so busy - since, basically, the start of November - with our editing and proofing, that we've only really been able to occasionally jump on the blog. I know Jenni's been slightly more helpful than me at keeping you updated; I've been rubbish.

Anyway, inevitably, my "reviews" email folder has been spilling over in this time, with reviews and stuff we've found on the internet, and since I know you're faintly ambivalent always thrilled to hear about reviews, I've decided to try and catch up with them a bit - not in order, but grouped by title.

Second update: Al Ewing's Gods of Manhattan. All of the Pax Britannia books are a whole bunch of fun, and this is no exception. Pretty much everone who's read this book has loved it.

Here are some of the people who have...

SF Site's Nathan Brazil was "in luck" when he received the book, writing:

"The story is a curious coupling of the straightforward and the subtly devious, playing with archetypes and sometimes using them like blunt instruments, but also blending in conceptual complexities and cunning plot twists. Most of all, Gods of Manhattan is a book in which the characters are written in such a way as to make the reader feel as if one has always known them."

I get the feeling it wasn't entirely Total Sci-Fi Online's Brigid Cherry's cup of tea, but she still obviously felt it was well done:

"This is real pulp material, the stuff of brooding humour, gritty violence and all-out action, with rugged (super)heroes and sarky dames."

Emotionally Fourteen's Brad Harmer evidently thought it was a hoot:

"The action scenes are fantastically well written, and you can actually feel each and every impact as it strikes home. If this was a comic, it would be written and drawn by Mike Mignola. It plays into the conventions of the superhero story, without ever being hampered by them."

Finally, Graeme Flory of Graeme's Fantasy Book Review gave it an extraordinary 9 and three quarters out of ten:

"I can’t emphasise enough how much fun I had with Gods of Manhattan, a read with no pretensions other than to give its reader a ride like never before. Not only does it succeed but it does so in some style."

So lots of good responses there. What are you waiting for? Go and buy it!

David

Pax Britannia Reviews...

Hey all,

Well, Jon Green's been getting a bit of love from the internet, it seems. Here are two very decent reviews of his books from webland...


Graeme Flory, over at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review, is always a big fan of Abaddon's Steampunk Laureate, in this case awarding Blood Royal an awesome 9-and-a-half out of 10:

"What you get as a result is a plot that moves at a frantic pace whilst making complete and utter sense... Blood Royal has it all going on and at such a speed that you are almost physically compelled to keep reading."

Pablocheesecake, over at The Eloquent Page - another reliable Ulysses-fan - was similarly effusive about Dark Side:

Dark Side joins the existing novels as a worthy addition. Green has crafted yet another action packed rip-snorter. Each new release fleshes out the Ulysees Quicksilver universe and is a guaranteed must read. Long may the adventures of Ulysees Quicksilver continue.

So that's good.

Cheers,

David

Ass-Kicking Review: Black Hand Gang

Hello everyone!

Okay, as much as possible I try to lump reviews together into reviewspam posts, this one deserves its own special post.

Author Keith Harvey in Dallas, on his blog Red Rook Review, has written a thoughtful, glowing review of Pat Kelleher's No Man's Word: Black Hand Gang, in quite detailed lit-crit terminology. It was a delight to read.

Read It Here

To pick up on a couple of quotes:

As I read I determined quickly that the prose is tight and well-honed, and that this guy Kelleher, who I have never heard of, has the chops. I surmise this isn't his first time out.

First, it is well-crafted, as I said; Kelleher structures each chapter to create suspense and take us onto the next, and the research spot-on. I believed the early chapters in no man's land implicitly, just as I did later when the situs morphs onto a new world and the heroes find themselves in a hostile environment. This bump, this movement from the known world of France during World War I to the secondary world, makes the novel ultimately a portal novel in the grand tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Norman, David Lindsay, and even C. S. Lewis.

Good stuff, eh?

Cheers,

David

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

Reviewy Review

Hey all,

So we should totally have waited, and put these both up at the same time.

It seems Kerl at Un:Bound has been kind enough to review Children's Crusade as well.

The book has a lot of action, and a solid plot as it reveals what’s happened and the events behind it. I’ll definitely be getting the other books to get the full details!

What grabs you though is that at St Mark’s the main actors are children. So the book deals with children from 13 upwards with guns and knives, taught to fight for their lives and resources under Jane's leadership, as well as the other teachers of the school. Think Hit-Girl on a large scale and you start to get the idea.

So she definitely seemed to enjoy it.

Cheers,

David

More Reviewspam...

Hey all,

Some online reviewery for you:

Mass Movement Magazine has posted this very brief review of Rebecca Levene's The Infernal Game: Ghost Dance. Jim Dodge Jr doesn't say a whole lot because he doesn't want to spoil the book for you, but he's clearly excited:

"Yes, I loved it!"

Jim Jr's also thrown up a nice little review of Scott Andrews's The Afterblight Chronicles: Children's Crusade. He feels "these characters have run their course," which is probably just as well as Crusade wraps up the storyline, but is still very complimentary. Cheers, Jim.

"With no lack of fighting and adventure, this book is an exciting read."

In a bit of an Abaddon frenzy, Mass Movement's Ian Glasper also offers us a review of Pat Kelleher's No Man's World: Black Hand Gang. Ian seems to feel that stories of soldiers mysteriously tranported to alien worlds should be more believable - and I'm sure Pat will take that on board - but nevertheless seems to have enjoyed himself.

"Told you it was going to be a wild ride, and it does belt along at a breathless pace, probably so you don’t have time to sit back and consider how daft it all is."

In the meantime, Emotionally Fourteen's Blake Harmer has also reviewed Black Hand Gang, and he properly loved it.

"A thoroughly enjoyable read [that] will keep you entertained if you like your sci-fi action stories."

3 for 2 and Ghost Dance review!

Oh, that title rhymes! I'm a poet and I didn't know it [/cheesy]. Anyway, there's a nice review of The Infernal Game: Ghost Dance just here at Unbound Books.

Ghost Dance was released yesterday in the US, Canada and the UK!

Also, we've got all Abaddon Books going on a 3 for 2 promotion at the Waterstones website right now! As Pornokitsch just excitedly pointedly out over on their twitter account, that means you can get The Infernal Game: Cold Warriors AND The Infernal Game: Ghost Dance, and also one for a friend! (Or grab another Abaddon book for yourself if you're less generous, like me...)

Ghost Dance came out in the UK yesterday. Of course, some lucky reviewers got their copies first...

-

"Real Gamer Girl" Reviews Tomes of the Dead

Hi all,

Bit of a backstory to this one. A young lady from over the pond called "Zephri" (real name Cassie) somehow managed to get the attention of a couple of gaming websites called Bell of Lost Souls and Chainfist, who breathlessly reported the existence of an actual girl who plays games, and interviewed her for the sites. You can read the interview starting here.

Now you may well be thinking "so what?" and I gather Cassie would agree with you. We're not quite sure why this was considered as desperately newsworthy as all that, but it did manage to get her blog a massive boost in readership and a flurry of comments, and made her that most fleeting of things, an internet celebrity.

Anyway.

I come into this when trawling the internet for zombies (professionally, of course; I love my job) and I trip over Cassie's post "I ♥ Zombies," in which she tells of her disappointment upon reading a zombie romance anthology (from a rival publisher, natch), professes her deep passion for the zombie genre and complains at the lack of good genre fic.

What ho, think I, we've done a zombie romance novel and it was brilliant. I bet she'd enjoy that. And I start drafting a comment on her blog nudging her in our website's direction, when I see how many comments she's getting and read her subsequent post about her newfound fame. So I figure she's an opinion-former now and send her comps of four of our zombie books.

Anyway, that was a few months back and I gather she's been very busy and has had a computer failure to boot, but she's finally posted this review for us, sharing her thoughts on Gary McMahon's Hungry Hearts ("this book gives you everything you'd expect from a zombie romance novel and then some") and Al Ewing's I, Zombie ("I can't really describe this book without "WTF?!").

But I particularly wanted to share this quote:

"[I, Zombie] gives you a seemingly simple concept, a sentient zombie that works as a mercenary/detective, but that concept is but the candle on top of a giant cake that secretly holds a really hot stripper, and she jumps out with the keys to a Ferrari then you all go out for ice cream and puppies. Then your head explodes."

By an astonishing coincidence, that actually happened to Al once. Tragically the puppies tasted dreadful and the ice cream melted in its basket.

So go swing by her blog and check it out.

Cheers,

David

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

Review

Nice review of Night's Haunting over here.

Sprange builds a story line that moves at a brisk pace and beckons readers into Kane’s world. ... a unique approach towards the idea of magic ... With several plot lines exposed, readers will be immersed in action and intrigue when they enter the world Kerberos. Sprange creates likable characters that are flawed in their own way, making them seem all the more human. The story is compelling and not over indulgent...

'Tide of Souls' review

Matthew Fryer reviews Simon bestwick's Tide of Souls here.

"A recent addition to Abaddon’s 'Tomes of the Dead' line, I expected this to be a zombie horror-thriller. And while indeed it is, there’s far more to Simon’s novel than necrotic innards and masticated brains..."


P.S. Simon's a bestseller, too! Stats from the Dark Delicacies Horror Bestseller List in California. Outselling even zombie fiction author Max Brooks (World War Z), ey?

Review at TheNovelBlog.com

There's a great review of Way of the Barefoot Zombie, by Jasper Bark, over here at TheNovelBlog.com.


-

Mass Movement: A Tale of Two Jonathans

Hi all,

Just to a quick shout out to Mass Movement magazine, who have flagged a couple more Abaddon features for us:

- Jonathan Oliver, whose book Twilight of Kerberos: The Call of Kerberos has just gone to press (and who is, incidentally, Editor-in-Chief of both Abaddon and Solaris) has been interviewed in Mass Movement #25, currently available for download.

- Jonathan Green's latest Ulysses Quicksilver book, Pax Britannia: Evolution Expects, has been reviewed on the site and is due to appear in MM #26.

Just you go and check 'em both out.

Awesome.

Thanks,

David

Hungry Hearts Reviews

Hi all,

If you liked "Hungry Christmas," you'd probably like Tomes of the Dead: Hungry Hearts. It's, like, the same character, by the same author, in the same setting. But if that argument didn't just knock your novelty reindeer-and-holly socks the hell off your feet, you probably want to check out this review that appeared right after I posted the story (Eerie, huh? I mean, for real; nobody told me this was coming out.):

Peter Tennant of TTA Press's Black Static has chosen Gary McMahon as the featured author in his Case Notes column in the latest issue, Black Static #14. He reviews Hungry Hearts and one of Gary's other books, Different Skins, gives you a bibliography of Gary's work, and just generally has a bit of a chat about Gary's writing and his thoughts on it. All great stuff. Buy their magazine now. Do it.

I mean it. Stop reading. Do it.

Peter also blogs on the TTA site for Interzone magazine, where he's running a genre-fiction "Advent Calendar" blog, posting links nominated by readers on the TTA forum. And today's entry is none other than "Hungry Christmas." Many thanks for the shout out, Peter.

While we're lovin' it, here's another review by Paul Smith of the British Fantasy Society. It's a little older, but I don't think I've already posted it to the blog (please excuse if I have).

Cheers,

David

Reviews, and Christmas Special Announcement!

Hi all,

Right, so as promised, a couple of quick reviews:

- Martijn at Mass Movement has penned us this fine review of Al Ewing's The Afterblight Chronicles: Death Got No Mercy.

- And on the subject of Afterblight Chronicles, we've also got this review from 2000AD of Scott Andrews' The Afterblight Chronicles: Operation Motherland, and this one from Mass Movement.

Check 'em out.

Second:



I'm very proud to announce an exciting feature we'll be running over the next couple of weeks: A Very Abaddon Christmas!

As a special treat for you, we've asked our Abaddon authors to write guest blogs for us, telling us what their favourite characters are up to as they settle down to turkey and trimmings, brains, canned SPAM or what-have-you this Christmas. Of course, they're all very busy boys and girls, but a handful of them have been kind enough to oblige us with a little Christmas spirit.

We're launching tomorrow, and will be posting two or three a week up to Christmas Eve, when we will be giving you all a free PDF edition of Jonathan Green's short story "Christmas Past" (previously published in Pax Britannia: Human Nature) to curl up with that night, when (as I'm sure you all will) you head to bed early to listen for the sound of tinkling bells...

Or, uh, the groans of zombies, the rattle of automatic fire, the clash of rapiers, the flash of magic spells going off, or whatever it is gets you to sleep.

Keep an eye on the blog, and enjoy.

Cheers,

David

Reviews and (Shh... Top-Secret) Competition Teaser...

Hey all,

Two more reviews for Mike Wild:

Graeme's Fantasy Book Review on Twilight of Kerberos: The Clockwork King of Orl, and

Falcata Times on Twilight of Kerberos: Crucible of the Dragon God.


Also, we're going to be announcing our first ever competition on the Abaddon blog tomorrow.

Check in to take part.

Hint: Zombies.

Cheers,

David

Mike Wild - Reviews and Interview

Hi all,

Mike Wild's second Kali Hooper book, Twilight of Kerberos: Crucible of the Dragon God, came out a couple of months ago; if you've not read it (or the first Kali Hooper book, Twilight of Kerberos: The Clockwork King of Orl), you should check 'em out.

At any rate, Mike's directed my attention to this interview he gave Mass Movement Magazine around the time Crucible came out.

While you're at it, Mass Movement also reviews Clockwork King and Crucible on their site.

(And for a sneak peek at the opening chapter of the third Kali Hooper book, Twilight of Kerberos: Engines of the Apocalypse, pick up Twilight of Kerberos: Night's Haunting, out soon; we've given you a sneak preview in the back.)

Cheers,

David