Out Now! in November

Hello all!

On the shelves this month is just one title, but it's a proper doozy. You may have heard of Chuck from his long career writing for roleplaying games - especially for the World of Darkness - or you may have encountered his many screenwriting projects, or been spattered with bile and whisky on his hate-filled writing-advice-and-general-thought-vomit site, Terrible Minds. Either way, you've either fallen in love with his peculiar mix of insight, sarcasm and spite, or taken out a restraining order.

Well, Chuck has strode (stridden? strode? stroden? let's say "strode"), mighty-thewed, into the world of the novellist, with self-published novella, short-story collection, and several "writing" "advice" "books" available at all good ebook retailers, and two full-length novels in the works over at Angry Robot, but we're extremely proud to be able to present his first full-length, original novel, the vampire/zombie/apocalypse epic Double Dead.

Tomes of the Dead: Double Dead, by Chuck Wendig

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.

David Says: A hectic road movie of a book, complete with guns, arbitrary deaths, religious fanatics, drug-crazed juggalo cultists and a big final showdown with explosions and shattering glass. Coburn's a proper lovable rogue - well, a despicable rogue, but acerbic and awesome; you want him to win even though you kind of hate him - and the story barrels along. I was left sweat-drenched and gasping for air.

Which is about all you needed to know. It's available in hard copy at all good bookstores (literally; if it's not at your local bookstore, it's a rubbish bookstore), and in ebook at all good electronic stores, including at Rebellionstore.com.

Go now! Buy it! Hurry!

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

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

Simon Bestwick's Tide of Souls ebook

Simon Bestwick, author of Abaddon's Tide of Souls, has been interviewed by fellow zombie author Wayne Simmons at his blog.

Which reminds us, Simon's zombie thriller Tide of Souls has recently become available to buy as a kindle ebook, on amazon.com, and amazon.co.uk.

IT’S NOT JUST THE WATERS RISING...

Flash floods devastate Britain. But the terror is just starting, as an army of the living dead emerge from the waters to hunt down the survivors. For Katja, after a year held captive by a brutal vice ring, it’s a constant fi ght to stay alive, but also a chance to win her freedom.
McTarn, an ex-soldier haunted by his past, is press-ganged into a mission to retrieve a scientist from an isolated village. When floods cut them off, he has to fight both the walking dead and his own demons to protect his men.
Stiles is the man they sent McTarn to fetch. Although apparently insane, he may be McTarn and Katja’s only chance to halt the legions of the dead closing in on their refuge in the bleak Lancashire hills. And if they fail, death will be the least they have to suffer…

“Simon Bestwick writes as if words were his – and our – only possible means of salvation.” – Joel Lane

“Simon Bestwick’s work is invested with the kind of emotional integrity that’s all too rare in fiction. His writing bears the indelible mark of quality.”
– Conrad Williams

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Happy Monday!

We recommend you check out Graeme's Fantasy Book Review today. As well as the great reviews he writes every week, he's currently got an Abaddon-themed giveaway going on! You could win a copy of our first Pax Britannia omnibus, or maybe a copy of our first Tomes of the Dead omnibus! The competition is open until the 14th November.

These omnibuses/omnibi* are now out in all the shops - such weighty tomes - each comprising three Abaddon books, make a great Xmas present for anyone who loves their zombies and/or their steampunk fiction, so get buying!

Also, don't forget to check out our interview last week with an author who's written for both of those series, plus plenty of 2000 AD comics, the illustrious Mr. Al Ewing...

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*Let the comments war begin...

Three For Two On Tomes Of The Dead!

Woot!

Waterstones have just confirmed that they're holding a Zombie-themed Three-For-Two deal for Hallowe'en, and all Tomes of the Dead titles currently in stock are in it!

Get yourself down to Waterstones and check 'em out. If you got any big gaps in your Tomes library you want to fill, now's the time.

You know it makes sense.

Must... get... to... store...

Empire of Salt: Signing and Zombie Crawl!

Hi all,

Tireless author and tourer Weston Ochse, author of the redneck-zombie epic Tomes of the Dead: Empire of Salt (the only Abaddon book so far to include an AK-47-toting Elvis impersonator), has secured a signing date at 1pm on Saturday 16th October at a Barnes & Noble in Tucson, Arizona, where he will be meeting fans and signing copies of Empire.

But as if a Barnes & Noble signing date isn't awesome enough, he's managed to arrange to mark the occasion with a Zombie Crawl through Tucson to mark the occasion.

So if you're based near Tucson and want to get your copy signed, or just want to get involved in the zombie crawl (and who would blame you?) then stick your head in the B&N at:

Barnes & Noble
5130 East Broadway
Tucson, AZ 85711

This event, and all of Weston's unceasing efforts to promote this awesome book, can be found on his BookTour.com page.

Cheers,

David

Love the Metal? Love Abaddon Books!

Time to highlight one of our talented designers here at Abaddon, and to announce an event we'll be taking part in at FantasyCon in Nottingham on the 17th of this month...

Luke Preece, who's now set up his design blog over here: http://lukepreece.blogspot.com/, has created a poster to warn inform FantasyCon guests that our editors David Moore and Jon Oliver will be destroying your eardrums presiding over a metal karaoke night in a nearby pub on the Friday evening of FantasyCon, giving away free zombie novels to the singers, and a bigger prize for the singer deemed the Most Metal!

No idea how we'll judge that. Presumably this guy is pretty metal, as he's on the poster. How can we tell? Is it the had gestures? Is it the weird green stuff coming out of his mouth? Who can tell? Anyway FREE ZOMBIE BOOKS AND PRIZES, OKAY?


Luke Preece is also behind the gorey retro movie-poster look of the new Tomes of the Dead omnibus we've got coming out this November, just in time for your Xmas present-buying needs. Click for the full-size version!

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"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

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

"A Very Abaddon Christmas" Part 1: Hungry Christmas

Hi all,

Okay, here it is. I know you're all as excited as me about this, so without further ado, I am please and proud to present to you the first installment in our December 2009 guest-blogging event, A Very Abaddon Christmas...

Hungry Christmas

A Tomes of the Dead: Hungry Hearts story

by Gary McMahon

It’s been said that your life flashes before your eyes in the moment of death, depicting scenes dragged up from the vault of memory. As his undead wife ripped out his heart and ate it, Rick Nutman’s mind flicked briefly to something different: a Christmas that might have been...

  He’d only entered the shopping centre in search of supplies, foolishly thinking that he might find a turkey hidden away in the freezer department of HumSave, or some dried-up Christmas pud left forgotten on an otherwise empty shelf in M&S.
  What he didn’t expect was Santa.
  The large figure in red was plodding around the ornamental fountain in the foyer, swaying from side to side like he was drunk. But he wasn’t drunk; he was dead.
  Dead Santa.
  Rick took out the Glock pistol and slowly made his way across the foyer, crouching behind the wide support pillars. He’d never believed in Santa, even as a child, and he wasn’t about to start believing in the fat fool now...
  Dead Santa’s beard was red, covered in blood, and his face was white as snow. He caught sight of Rick and began to stumble towards him, still carrying his sack of presents. The dead fat man splashed through the fountain, his baggy red trousers loose and soggy, and opened his mouth to reveal jagged, broken teeth and a throat some joker had stuffed with silver tinsel.
  Rick shot him in the mouth, blowing a hole through the middle of his gore-soaked beard. Dead Santa’s face collapsed inward, deflating like a punctured plastic Christmas bauble.
  The sack fell from Dead Santa’s grasp, spilling its contents. Gifts and cards and tacky tree decorations spread out around his fallen body.
  Rick walked over and picked up a toy gun. He smiled. Pulled the trigger.
  Click!
  Then he went back outside to the jeep, mumbling under his breath: “Fuck you and the reindeer you rode in on...”

One week to go...

There's a week left to our Zombie Shelter contest. We've had some fine entries so far, but it's far from a done deal; get your submissions in to abaddonbooks@gmail.com and you could win some of our acclaimed Tomes of the Dead books!

Leeds Thought Bubble Convention

Hey all,

Just a quickie. Al Ewing (of Pax Britannia: El Sombra, Tomes of the Dead: I, Zombie, and The Afterblight Chronicles: Death Got No Mercy), Simon Spurrier (of The Afterblight Chronicles: The Culled; both of them, for that matter, regular contributors to 2000 AD) and Antony Johnston (of Dreams of Inan: Stealing Life) will be at the Leeds Thought Bubble Comic Convention on the 21st of this month. Get down there and poke them. Tell 'em I sentcha.

Al informs me he'll also be DJing at the after-party at Alea Casino on the Saturday night.

While you're online, check out Al's, Si's and Antony's blogs, or follow them on Twitter at @Al_Ewing, @sispurrier and @antonyjohnston.

Cheers,

David

Another Review...

Hi all,

One more from Tim: this review of Gary McMahon's Tomes of the Dead: Hungry Hearts.

Cheers,

David

Reviews: Broken Arrow and Barefoot Zombie

Hi all,

Tim of Mass Movement Magazine has been kind enough to write this review of Paul Kane's The Afterblight Chronicles: Broken Arrow, and this review of Jasper Bark's Tomes of the Dead: The Way of the Barefoot Zombie.

Thanks, Tim!

In other news, Matthew Sprange's Twilight of Kerberos: Night's Haunting, the second Lucius Kane adventure, went to press this week. So it'll be in stores as soon as we can get it there. If you haven't read it yet, check out the first Lucius Kane adventure, Twilight of Kerberos: Shadowmage.

Cheers,

David

Reviews: Hungry Hearts and Tide of Souls

A little late, this, but...

Graeme Flory of Graeme's Fantasy Book Review has a few words to say about Gary McMahon's Tomes of the Dead: Hungry Hearts, out now.

Nine and a quarter out of ten!

Also, the Telegraph's Peter Ingham reviewed Tomes of the Dead: Tide of Souls in his Science Fiction round-up column on the 6th October.

Cheers,

David

Update Time!

Hi all,

Right, so two quick updates:

eBooks

Our hard-working assistant Jenni's been frantically working through our eBook back-catalogue, and now every Abaddon book released up to April this year is available from Mobipocket. There's also lots of the old Black Flame books set in the 2000AD universe, so crack on.

Upcoming Schedule

I'm proofing Matthew Sprange's second Lucius Kane book Twilight of Kerberos: Night's Haunting right now, so that's due out next month. Jon's book Twilight of Kerberos: The Call of Kerberos is due out in November as well, as the series draws ever closer to revealing the secrets of Twilight and the ever-present Kerberos, about the fate of the lost Old Races, and about the strange evil that lurks beneath the waves. Sorry for the delay with these books; as you will have seen in our press-release, we've just taken on a load of extra titles, and we're kind of running to catch up right now.

Fans of crown agent and dandy Ulysses Quicksilver will be thrilled to know that Jonathan Green's Pax Britannia: Blood Royal is due out on time in December. It's the perfect gift for the steampunkophile in your life but remember, a steam-powered centenarian senile cyborg queen is for life, not just for Christmas.

In January, we're still expecting to deliver Weston Ochse's coastal horror Tomes of the Dead: Empire of Salt. This is Weston's first book for us, and we're really looking forward to it. Aquatic zombies and bracing sea air; the perfect combination for a getaway.

February will see the release of Cold Warriors, Rebecca Levene's first instalment in our new horror-espionage setting The Infernal Game, and Pat Kelleher's Black Hand Gang, which will kick off our new WWI/sci-fi crossover No Man's World. These are both really intriguing settings, and I'm pretty excited about both of them.

Coming up, we have more Twilight, more Pax, Scott Andrews' third Afterblight book and, as always, more of those hungry, hungry zombies. Watch this space...

Good hunting,

David