Day 9: Gifts of Gore - Tomes of the Dead

Everyone loves a zombie. The perfect stocking filler for every gore guzzler, Abaddon’s Tomes of the Dead series, has been running since our inception and is full of fresh stories in this evergreen genre:

Double Dead – 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 – the walking dead. Suddenly the vampire not only has to find human survivors but now he has to make the transition from predator to protector—after all, a man has to look after his food supply.






Viking Dead – Toby Venables
Northern Europe, 976 AD. A viking crew find themselves in a bleak land of pestilence. The dead don’t lie down, but become draugr – the undead – returning to feed on the flesh of their kin. Bjólf, our brave viking, is stranded, his men cursed by the contagion of walking death and his only choice is to fight his way through a forest teeming with zombies, invade the castle and find the secret of the horrific condition – or submit to an eternity of shambling, soulless undeath!





Stronghold – Paul Finch
Stronghold is a zombie novel with a difference, set in the dark world of medieval Wales. Ranulf, a young English knight, sent to recapture Grogen Castle from Welsh rebels, comes into conflict with his leaders over their brutal methods. Unbeknownst to any of them, the native druids are using an ancient artefact to summon a horrifying army. As Grogen Castle is besieged by countless, tireless soldiers forged from bone and raddled flesh, Ranulf must defy his masters and rescue the daughter of his enemy... if the castle stronghold lasts!

Empire of Salt – Weston Osche
The Olivers have a chance to make a new home at Salton Sea. Looking forward to California fun, sun and adventure they are unprepared for the ecological devastation they find. The sea is rotting, the town of Bombay Beach is dying and the citizens are like bait, waiting to be plucked from their homes by what comes from the sea. Beware the coming of the green, they say. Beware the coming of the night.

I, Zombie – Al Ewing
"My name is John Doe. I’ve been dead for ten years." John Doe is a zombie, though he can’t explain how so he sells his dead flesh to the highest bidder. Kill for you, steal for you, or save your life for you - there's no mystery he can't be hired to solve… until now. This is murder mystery with a deadly secret, the kind of secret that could end life on this planet.

Day 8: Warrior Races, Feuding Monarchies and Self Righteous Churches - Paul Kearney

Today our door reveals Paul Kearney, British Fantasy Award short list nominee who has produced the critically-acclaimed series The Monarchies of God and The Macht Trilogy. Paul’s battle-orientated work will suit the more traditional fantasy lover.

The Monarchies of God series begins with Hawkwood and the Kings.

The world is in turmoil. In the east the savage Merduks, followers of the Prophet Ahrimuz, have captured the holy city of Aekir. The western kingdoms are too distracted by internecine bickering to intervene and the Church seems more obsessed with rooting out heresy. It is an age where men go to the stake for the taint of magic in their blood, where gunpowder and cannon co-exit with werewolves and sorcerers. It is the turning point when two great religions will fight to the death and the common folk will struggle to merely survive.

In The Monarchies of God sequel, The Century of the Soldier, it is the mid sixth-century of Ramusian reckoning and the great struggle is approaching its climax. For the victor there will be supremacy; for the vanquished, cultural annihilation. Fighting that war, Corfe of Torunna will find that court intrigue can be as murderous as any martial foe. The monks Albrec and Avila will explode a bombshell of secret knowledge which will change the continent irrevocably. And Richard Hawkwood will return with the discovery of a New World. The sixth century is the crucible of history. The century of the soldier.






Kearney’s The Macht Trilogy follows a warrior race of mercenaries whose skills are the stuff of legends:

In The Ten Thousand on the world of Kuf, the Macht are little more than rumour, after centuries of solitude in the Harukush Mountains. But now the Great King's brother means to take the throne of the Asurian empire by force, and in order to do so he has sought out the legend. He hires ten thousand mercenary warriors of the Macht, and leads them into the heart of the Empire.

Corvus is the second novel in the series, set twenty-three years since a Macht army fought its way home from the heart of the Asurian Empire. The man who came to lead that army, Rictus, is now a hard-bitten mercenary captain, middle-aged and tired. He wants nothing more than to lay down his spear and become the farmer that his father was. But fate has different ideas. A young war-leader has risen to challenge the order of things in the very heartlands of the Macht. A solider of genius, he takes city after city, and reigns over them as king. What is more, he has heard of the legendary leader of The Ten Thousand. His name is Corvus, and the rumours say that he is not even fully human. He means to make himself absolute ruler of all the Macht. And he wants Rictus to help him.

Kings of Morning is the thrilling conclusion to Paul Kearney's Macht trilogy, due out in March 2012. For the first time in recorded history, the ferocious city-states of the Macht now acknowledge a single man as their overlord. Corvus, the strange and brilliant boy-general, is now High King, having united his people in a fearsome, bloody series of battles and sieges. He is not yet thirty years old. A generation ago, ten thousand of the Macht marched into the heart of the ancient Asurian Empire, and fought their way back out again, passing into legend. Corvus’s father was one of those who undertook that march, and his most trusted general, Rictus, was leader of those ten thousand. But he intends to do more. The preparations will take years, but when they are complete, Corvus will lead an invasion the like of which the world of Kuf has never seen. Under him, the Macht will undertake nothing less than the overthrow of the entire Asurian Empire.

Day 7: Christmas is not a date but a State of Mind

The urban fantasy genre is becoming increasingly popular, and Abaddon and Solaris have everything you could want when delving behind the shop fronts and into the dark alleyways of our modern urban nightmares…

British Fantasy Award winner Nicholas Royle creates a nightmarish hidden city in Regicide. Carl, who runs a London record store, meets the mysterious Annie Risk and falls for her - hard. Carl stumbles across part of a map to an unknown town. He becomes convinced it represents the city of his dreams, where ice skaters turn quintuple loops and trumpeters hit impossibly high notes.... where Annie Risk will agree to see him again. But if he ever finds himself in the streets on his map, will they turn out to be the land of his dreams or the world of his worst nightmares?

What really walks the city streets? In Desdaemona, Ben Macallan’s debut novel in Urban Fantasy, you will definitely wish you hadn't asked. Jordan is a not so regular teenager who helps kids on the run find their way back home. Desdaemona is desperately searching for her lost sister Fay, who did a Very Bad Thing involving an immortal. She enlists Jordan’s help but is it a mistake for them both? Too many people are interested now, and some of them are not people at all...





The Infernal Games series is thriller meets urban fantasy and Cold Warriors by Rebecca Levene merges cold war intrigue and occultist plots. The Hermetic Division of the British secret services was formed at the height of the Cold War, an agency charged with using supernatural means to defend the nation. It has only one mission: to find the mysterious Ragnarok artefacts, said to have the power to end the world. Now, two of the division's most powerful agents are sent on the trail of a corrupt Russian oligarch who may possess the artefacts. Their perilous journey will take them across Europe and into the darkest reaches of the occult!

Day 6: Go big this Christmas - Space Opera

Larger than life, breathtaking, grandiose – the biggest gift a SF fan could hope for this Christmas is a space opera. Behind today’s door we are looking at some of biggest in Solaris’s collection.


Released earliest this year, The Recollection is Gareth L. Powell's epic new science-fiction novel that delivers galaxy-spanning scope. When his brother disappears into a bizarre gateway on a London Underground escalator, failed artist Ed Rico and his brother's wife Alice have to put aside their feelings for each other to go and find him. Their quest through the 'arches' will send them hurtling through time, to new and terrifying alien worlds. Meanwhile, four hundred years in the future, Katherine Abdulov must travel to a remote planet in order to regain the trust of her influential family. The only person standing in her way is her former lover, Victor Luciano, the ruthless employee of a rival trading firm.

Highly acclaimed Helix is a story of exploration, alien contact and desperation. It follows the plight of a group of humans who crash land on a desolate alien planet, one of thousands arranged in a vast spiral wound around a central sun. The group set off to discover a more habitable Earth-like world, encountering bizarre alien races on the way. But they must also find a means to stay alive.






More from Brown and proving that good things come in threes, The Bengal Station Trilogy is some of Brown’s most acclaimed work. Set on a exotic spaceport that dominates the ocean between India and Burma and following Jaded telepath, Jeff Vaughan. In the first novel, Necropath, Vaughan discovers a sinister cult that worships a mysterious alien god. The Church of the Adoration of the Chosen One uses drugs to commune with the Ultimate, and will murder to silence those who oppose their beliefs. The story follows Vaughan as his mistrust of his fellow humans is overturned by his love for the Thai street-girl Sukura, while he attempts to solve the murders and save himself from the psychopath out to kill him.

Xenopath - Happily married to Sukura with a child on the way, Vaughan now works for a telepathic detective agency and is investigating a series of murders linked to the colony world of Mallory, and the slaughter of innocent aliens there by the Scheering-Lassiter colonial organisation. But not only does the investigation put his own life in danger, but back on Bengal Station Sukura’s life is threatened too.

Finally in Cosmopath, Jeff Vaughan comes out of retirement when he is hired by a ruthless businessman to find out what happened to a lost crew. When he arrives on Canopus VII, the investigation takes a strange turn as they are captured by a group of humans inhabiting the planet. They take him to an underground city, where the true reason for the investigation becomes clear.

Day 5: 2 for 1 Offer: Two Series , One Great Author - Juliet E McKenna

Classics scholar and Oxford graduate Juliet E McKenna is a well-loved and much respected fantasy writer who always delivers rich characters and high adventure. The fifth door on our advent calendar reveals her two series with Solaris Books.

We recommend Juliet’s work not just to fantasy fans but anyone who’s looking for strong, interesting characters. Look below for a free short story of her work!

The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution series is a high fantasy adventure set in a land laid to waste by its rival dukes who fight for the High King’s crown. A mismatched band of exiles and rebels agree that the time has come for change. Can a small group, however determined, put an end to generations of intractable misery?

The Hadrumal Crisis Series is Juliet E McKenna’s brand new trilogy and kicks off with Dangerous Waters.

In a world where magic is banned, what protection is there for the innocent against murderous roving corsairs? And who will be the first to unveil the secret of a widow’s mysterious guardian? The Caladhrian Coast is a rich new world filled with pirates and politics, rogue wizards and adventure. This is the perfect point to join a new fantasy series from an increasingly dominant voice in the genre.




For a sneak peek at The Hadrumal Crisis, Solaris is happy to offer this short story prequel,The Wizard’s Coming free to download as an ePub, PDF and Kindle

Day 4: Stocking Sized Stories - Anthologie

Here’s your chance to read all your favourite authors in one book. Anthologies are the perfect gift for Christmas. Today we are recommending our favourite Solaris anthologies that include some of the brightest names in science fiction.

Our newest anthology, the critically-acclaimed Solaris Rising: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction edited by Ian Whates, is the first in an exciting new series that is set to reaffirm Solaris’s proud reputation for producing high quality science-fiction, featuring some of the biggest names in the genre, including Ken Macleod, Tricia Sullivan, Stephen Baxter, Adam Roberts, Mike Resnick, Steve Rasnic Tem, Ian Watson, Keith Brooke and Eric Brown, Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton.

Shine makes a great gift this Christmas as it is a collection of optimistic (and shiny) stories set in the near future. The genre’s brightest talents write about the opportunity and chances for a better tomorrow and make a refreshing alternative to dire dystopian warnings. Jetse de Vries collects 16 stories from the likes of Eric Gregory, Jacques Barcia, Jason Stoddard, Holly Phillips, Paula R. Stiles, Gareth L. Powell & Aliette de Bodard, Lavie Tidhar, Mari Ness Silvia, Moreno-Garcia, and Alastair Reynolds.

The universe shifts and changes: suddenly you understand, you get it, and are filled with a sense of wonder... Engineering Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan, is an innovative anthology that centres on that moment of universal understanding that drives some of the greatest science-fiction stories. This exciting anthology collects together stories by some of the biggest names in the field, including Stephen Baxter, Charles Stross and Greg Bear.
 
 

Day 3: Winter Chills - Horror

To accompany the chilly weather, we have gathered together our best collection of horror titles to give you the Winter Thrills! We recommend reading them with a blanket, some mulled wine and the lights turned down – If you dare....

House of Fear: An Anthology of Haunted House Stories, edited by Jonathan Oliver brings horror home with with 19 short stories from some of the finest writers working in the genre, including Joe R. Lansdale, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Christopher Priest, Adam L. G. Nevill, Christopher Fowler, Eric Brown, Tim Lebbon, Nina Allan, Stephen Volk, Paul Meloy and more.

On the cutting edge of horror, Concrete Grove by Gary McMahon is the start of a chilling horror trilogy showing us a modern Britain many of us will recognise, while whispering of the terrible and arcane presences clawing against the boundaries of our reality.

Any of one of our Tomes of Dead series is a gore-rific horror fest but today we are recommending Viking Dead by Toby Venables. Bjólf and his viking crew find themselves in a bleak land of pestilence. The dead don’t lie down, but become draugr – the undead – returning to feed on the flesh of their kin. Stranded, his men cursed by the contagion of walking death, Bjólf has one choice: fight his way through a forest teeming with zombies, invade the castle and find the secret of the horrific condition – or submit to an eternity of shambling, soulless undeath!

Finally, The End of The Line. edited by Jonathan Oliver. collects some of the very best in new horror writing in a themed anthology of stories set on, and around, the Underground, the Metro and other places deep below.

The Lure is one of the short stories from The End of The Line collection. It’s is an erotically-charged tale of voyeurism and dread sparked by Nicholas Royle and is available as a free download this Christmas!




http://solarisbooks.com/downloads/End_of_Line_-_The_Lure.pdf
Both it and The End of the Line anthology were nominated last month for the prestigiou British Fantasy award. So please enjoy and check back tomorrow to see what our next calendar recommendation has in store!

Advent Calendar Day 2: ‘It’ll be over by Christmas!’

For all you historical boffins, today for the Abaddon and Solaris Advent Calendar we’ve selected a new series that launched this year and combines World War One with a hearty dose of science-fiction.

Pat Kelleher’s No Man’s World series is a truly unique blend of trench warfare and survival on an alien world. Guarding the British lines at The Somme in 1916, the 13th Battalion of the Pennine Fusiliers think facing the Germans is bad enough – until they suddenly find themselves wrenched from the mud of Flanders and displaced to an inhospitable alien world. Great characters, lots of action and a real attention to historical detail make this a series you don’t want to miss:

Black Hand Gang by Pat Kelleher
On November 1st 1916, 900 men of the 13th Battalion of the Pennine Fusiliers vanish without trace from the battlefield only to find themselves on an alien planet. There they must learn to survive in a hostile environment, while facing a sinister threat from within their own ranks and a confrontation with an inscrutable alien race!





The Ironclad Prophecy by Pat Kelleher
It has been three months since the 13th Battalion of the Pennine Fusiliers vanished from the Somme and found themselves stranded on an alien world, and their trenches have become the target for vengeful Khungarrii attacks. While the encampment faces an alien threat, a search party discover an ancient edifice, hiding a secret that will tear the Battalion apart... As the Pennines fight for their lives against the mounting horrors of No Man’s World, their only hope for survival – and a way home – lie in the psychotropic fuel-addicted crew of the Ivanhoe... and it’s increasingly insane commander!

Also set in the maelstrom of World War, Sniper Elite: Spear of Destinyis Abaddon Book’s accompaniment to Rebellion’s successful 2005 Sniper Elite video game - a high-octane shoot 'em up set against an alternate historical backdrop, shot through with political intrigue.

Sniper Elite: Spear of Destiny by Jasper Bark
Berlin, 1945. Karl Fairburne is a member of an elite sniper corps, working for the American secret service deep behind enemy lines. Stalin's troops have overrun the city looking to revenge the battle of Stalingrad and seize control of the Nazi's nuclear secrets before their British and American allies. SS General Helmstadt, head of the Nazi nuclear programme, is defecting to Russia, but first he plans the ultimate act of vengeance, to make the US pay for the defeat of the Third Reich. If he succeeds Russia will win the Cold War before it has even begun. Karl has one chance to stop him. A single sniper's bullet will change the course of history.

The Christmas Count Down Begins!

The Christmas Count Down Begins!

Finally the time is here to deck the halls and jingle some bells but more importantly... To open the first door of our Advent Calendar!

Here at Solaris and Abaddon Books we have decided to create our own Advent Calendar for readers, old and new. And this is the perfect opportunity for all those who get a new e-reader in their stocking from Father Christmas to find out about all our best books from fantasy to horror - sorcery to aliens!

Check our blog every day as we open a new door on our calendar and post a new feature full of fantasy filler and seasonal SF for all our readers this winter. Every day we will have our recommendations for the best buys for Christmas, some free downloads and your chance to win copies of our best selling books.

Day One: The Gift of Gods

So what does the first day of Christmas bring? Not a partridge in a pear tree. Instead we are kicking off our Abaddon and Solaris Advent Calendar with The Pantheon Series by James Lovegrove.

What if the Gods of Mythology were not only real but played a direct role in mankind’s lives?

This series of military SF, including New York Times bestseller The Age of Odin, sets itself in alternative histories that can be read as standalone novels or enjoyed as a collective. Deities of old are rewritten and revitalized by Lovegrove, a talented writer who creates some truly gripping adventures:

The Age of Ra

The Ancient Egyptian gods have defeated all the other pantheons and claimed dominion over the Earth, dividing it into warring factions, each under the aegis of a different deity.
Lt. David Westwynter, a British soldier, stumbles into Freegypt, the only place to have re

mained independent of the gods' influence. There, he encounters the followers of a humanist leader known as the Lightbringer, who has vowed to rid mankind of the shackles of divine oppression. As the world heads towards an apocalyptic battle, there is a far more to this freedom fighter than it seems...

The Age of Zeus
The Olympians appeared a decade ago, living incarnations of the Ancient Greek g

ods on a mission to bring permanent order and stability to the world. 
Resistance has proved futile, and now humankind is under the jackboot of divine oppression. Until former London police officer Sam Akehurst receives an invitation too tempting to turn down: the chance to join a small band of guerrilla rebels armed with high-tech weapons and battlesuits. Calling themselves the Titans, they square off against the Olympians and their ferocious mythological monsters in a war of attrition which some will not survive.

The Age of Odin
Gideon Coxall was a good soldier but bad at everything else. Now the British Army doesn't want him anymore. So when he hears about the Valhalla Project it seems like a dream come true. They're recruiting former service personnel for excellent pay, no questions asked, to take part in unspecified combat operations. The last thing Gideon expects is finding himself fighting alongside the gods of the ancient Norse pantheon. The world is in the grip of one of the worst winters it has ever known, and Ragnarok - the fabled final conflict of the Sagas - is looming.

On the high seas, if you don’t live large… you just sink

The Afterblight Chronicles:
Blood Ocean
by Weston Ochse

Released on 16th February in the UK and 14th February in US & Canada

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-907992-87-2
$9.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978-1-907992-87-2

Will also be available as an ebook

In a world reduced to ruin by all-consuming plague, one young boy embarks on a mission of revenge after one of his friends is found dead … harvested for his blood!

Kavika Kamalani is a Pali Boy on Nomi No Toshi, the floating city. The post-plague heir to an ancient Hawai’ian warrior tradition that believes in overcoming death by embracing one’s fears and living large, Kavika’s life is turned upside down when one of his friends dies – and he sets out to find the killer.

When he is kidnapped and subjected to a terrifying transformation, Kavika must embrace the ultimate fear – death itself. It is the only way if he, his loved ones, and the Pali Boys are to survive.

This stand-alone title is the latest pulse-pounding story of post-apocalyptic survival in The Afterblight Chronicles series from Weston Ochse – a writer who pulls no punches.

“Weston Ochse is an artist whose craft, stories and voice are so distinct and mesmerising that you can’t help but be enthralled.” – Dani Kollin, Prometheus Award-winning author of The Unincorporated Man

About the Series
The Afterblight Chronicles is a post-apocalyptic series in which a devastating epidemic has ravaged the world. In the Afterblight, pockets of humans attempt to continue civilization amidst the mounting chaos of the collapsed infrastructure . Mobs run rampant while cults and warlords fight for authority over the survivors of the global plague.

One of the three series with which Abaddon Books launched in 2006, The Afterblight Chronicles is a collection of stand-alone novels that has showcased the talents of a number of brilliant, up-and-coming authors, including Scott Andrews, Paul Kane, Jasper Bark and Rebecca Levene. Blood Ocean is the eleventh Afterblight Chronicles title.

About the Author
Weston Ochse is the Bram Stoker award-winning author of various short stories and novels, including the critically-acclaimed Scarecrow Gods and Tomes of the Dead novel, Empire of Salt.

He is much in demand as a speaker at genre conventions and has been chosen as guest of honour on numerous occasions. Weston lives in Southern Arizona with his wife Yvonne and their menagerie of animals.

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

Rebellionstore.com Now Trading!

So this is our Very Exciting New Development For Twenty-First Century Ladies And Gentlement Of Discretion And Taste.

At long last, Rebellion Publishing has opened its own book store!

I'm assuming you're a fan of electronic books, of course...*

Well, we got loads! And we're selling them online!

The new Rebellion Publishing Ebook Store, Rebellionstore.com, is the last word in Abaddon and Solaris ebooks. Almost our entire list of electronic is up there already, and they should all be up there very shortly.

And we have the best prices around for our ebooks. Including two very exciting offers! Right now, for a limited time, All Tomes of the Dead books and all Infernal Games books are available for a mere £2!

Which is value by anyone's standard, and I stand ready to call out anyone who says otherwise...

*You are, aren't you? They're the way of the future. They're why electricity was invented. Hell, right now, you're using electricity to read about how important it is to be able to read using electricity! That must be worth something.

New Website! Also, Time's Arrow LIVE NOW!

Cover by Pye Parr...

Hey all,

So as you've probably noticed - what with how everything looks all shiny and different on the website (of course, you may only ever read these updates directly on Blogger, in which case may God have mercy on your wretched soul) - the new, shiny website is up and looking pretty damn pretty.

It should also be up to date and everything, but let us know if anything is out of date or isn't working.

And, of course, beautifully timed to coincide with the new update...

BREAKING NEWS

So as you may have noticed on Jon Green's Pax Britannia blog, or on the Pax Britannia facebook page or group, or on Amazon - if you're in the habit of tracking Amazon to see if any highly-anticipated new products have hit the shelves (you know who you are; all hovering over the screen in your darkened room, cathode glow playing over your pallid features, feverishly pounding the f5 key as you wait for that special something you've been waiting for to finally come up as available) - or, hell, on the website, where there's a whole full-screen ad for it and everything, the first part of Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow is here!

Yeppers. It's available through the Kindle store in both the US and UK, and should come online in the iTunes store presently, for less than a pint of beer.

Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow, Part One, "Red-Handed" (or Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow: Red-Handed, for those of you who don't mind the ol' double-colon) comprises the first nine chapters, or roughly a third of the final book. The second and third parts are due out early next year.

And, for the first time in ebook-publishing history, you, the readers get to tell the story.

...sort of.

Buy the book, read it, then follow this link - or just click the massive VOTE NOW button on every page of the Abaddon Books website - and vote on where the story goes next.

Pretty cool, huh?

Do it now. Buy. Read. Click. Vote. Bosh.

David

Fantasycon 2011 - Our Schedule

Good morning/afternoon

As some of you folk will be aware, this weekend sees Fantasycon 2011 taking over Brighton, well a hotel in Brighton. Myself. desk editor Jenni Hill, and our PR wizard, Michael Molcher, will be in attendance, and if you too are at this splendid event, why not buy us beer and lavish us with praise? Anyway, our schedule at said event is the following:

FRIDAY

General mingling, come find us and say 'hi' and

2pm-3pm - Fitzherbert - Abaddon's Scott Andrews will be taking part in a panel on How to Maintain Your Online presence, alongside Lee Harris, Stephen Hunt, Adam Christopher and Adele Wearing.

3pm-4pm - Fitzherbert - Hell Train author, Christopher Fowler, and Loss of Separationauthor, Conrad Williams, will be taking part in a panel on Making a Living as a Writer alongside Guy Adams, Lisa Tuttle and Tony Lee.

4pm-5pm - Fitzherbert - It's that Gary McMahon again, this time on the panel Has Crossover Overtaken Genre? Alongside Gary will be Suzanne McLeod, Mike Carey, Steve Mosby and Sarah Pinborough.

9-9.30pm - Room 134 - Lou Morgan, author of the forthcoming Blood and Feathers, will be reading a sample from her brilliant novel.

10.30-11pm - Room 134 - Concrete Grove author, Gary McMahon, will be doing a reading.

SATURDAY

10am-11am - Russel Room - Hadrumal Crisis author, Juliet McKenna, joins Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tom Lloyd, and Joe Abercrombie to talk about trends in fantasy fiction.

10am-11am - Fitzherbert - Desdaemona and Concrete Grove trilogy cover artist, Vincent Chong, will be on a panel about, strangely enough, book covers with Les Edwards, Steve Upham, Ben Baldwin and Marc Gascoigne

1pm-2pm - Fitzherbert - Pantheon and Redlaw series author, James Lovegrove, will be chatting about What's Next in SF alongside Christopher Priest, Brian Aldiss, Ian R. Macleod and Dan Abnett

1pm - Reading Room 134 - Jonathan Oliver will be reading his story 'The Ruby Nipples of Jugulon' for the entertainment of anybody who turns up. This was written for the occasion of Jared Shurin of Pornokitsch's birthday, and has only been read/heard by a handful of the select. Now you can become one of those select and enjoy Jon's tribute to Dungeons & Dragons and smutty humour.

2pm - The Big Solaris Book Event - Regency Lounge

We will be giving away, yes giving away, a selection of our titles and giving you the chance to meet some of our authors and have a drink on us. How good does that sound? Free books, booze and literary repartee. Join us for the biggest book event of the convention.

5pm-6pm - Dealing with Agents and Editors panel - Fitzherbert

Jonathan Oliver will be moderating a panel in which we discuss the role of the agent and the editor in publishing. Joining Jon will be Jo Fletcher, John Berlyne, Meg Davis and Dorothy Lumley.

8pm-9pm - Fitzherbert - Stronghold author, Paul Finch, will be joining Stephen Volk, Pete Atkins, and Stephen Gallagher to chat about Script Writing and Improv.

9pm-1opm - Fitzherbert - Join Regicide author, Nicholas Royle and Robert Shearman, Jasper Kent, Gwyneth Jones and Peter Crowther to hear them talk about their favourite books.

1opm-11pm - Fitzherbert - School's Out author, Scott Andrews, is back to moderate a panel on Tie-in Fiction featuring Simon R. Green, Guy Adams, Mark Morris and Cath Trechman

SUNDAY

10am - How to Market Your Novel panel - Fitzherbert

Michael Molcher will be joining Ian Whates, Jon Weir, Colleen Anderson and Gary McMahon to discuss the role of marketing and PR in genre fiction. A must-attend to those who want to know the best way to promote their novel.

1pm-4pm - Fantasycon Banquet and Awards Ceremony.

Jon and Mike will attend the prestigious Fantasycon banquet and will then attend the awards ceremony. Jon's anthology, The End of The Line, is up for Best Anthology with one short story from the collection, The Lure by Nicholas Royle, being up for Best Short Story.

Anyway, hope to see you all there.

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.

Announcing the launch of our READ ANYTHING campaign

READ ANYTHING

Ever wanted to read something different but didn’t want the world to judge you by the cover of the book?

Spaceships, wizards, hooded swordsman – we love them all. But it’s not the cover, it’s the insides that matter. So, Solaris and Abaddon books are here to tell you that you can READ ANYTHING.

The revolution in eReaders gives you, the reader, the freedom to read whatever you want – fantasy, science-fiction, horror, urban fantasy, Steampunk, historical action, ANYTHING. They’re perfect to explore genre fiction you never knew even existed!

The READ ANYTHING campaign from Solaris and Abaddon Books aims to do away with judging a book, or rather its reader, by its cover. At last, content shall be king with whole new worlds of genre publishing opening up to readers.

Solaris and Abaddon Books are two of the freshest genre publishers in the UK today, producing books that transcend lazy genre clichés. Explore the Steampunk world of Pax Britannia on your iPad, the terrifying sink estate of The Concrete Grove on your Kindle, or soaring SF epics such as The Recollection and The Kings of Eternity.

Solaris and Abaddon don’t just release eBooks – we want to provide new and exciting material for readers. Both imprints will:
• publish every new book as an eBook on multiple platforms on the same day as it sees prints
• publish the first chapter of every new book online, for free, ahead of publication
• publish selected future titles exclusively as eBooks
• introduce new ways to share eBooks with your friends and family.

“The world of genre fiction is as rich and rewarding as anything produced by the publishers of ‘literature’,” says Jonathan Oliver, editor-in-chief of both Solaris and Abaddon Books. “At Solaris and Abaddon we are committed to providing great fiction in a format to suit the reader. Now with the READ ANYTHING campaign you can jump into the world of genre without worrying what your fellow commuters will think.”

What is Steampunk: Al Ewing has a few ideas...

It's The Summer of Steampunk here at Abaddon Books and before we embark on our next giveaway, we continue our look at what the Pax Britannia authors think of the genre.

Next up is the mighty Al Ewing, author of Gods of Manhatten and El Sombra. Here are his thoughts on Steampunk:

I know people who love Steampunk above all other genres - I'm not one of them. For me, it's just another kind of alternate universe, and the reason I love alternate universes is that they're experimental playgrounds - ways to interrogate aspects of the universe we live in. If you take the scope wide enough, that's what all fiction is - but let's get back to Steampunk. I'm just going to talk off the top of my head.

For many, Steampunk equals Victoriana. If we look at the Pax Britannia universe, it's incredibly significant that Victoria is still alive in the 'present day', kept alive far beyond her natural span by machinery. She's the mirror of what Steampunk often is - the Victorian era, returned to life through science fiction. All the story potential inherent in the imperialism of the time, in the massive class differences, in the struggles of the disempowered to empower themselves in the face of inherent societal prejudice, in emerging technology on the edge of science. We're back to interrogating the world we're in again. It's an incredibly rich seam, so to speak.

That said - I find the emphasis on Victoria, or Britain, gets a bit stifling, and also Jon has that sewn up and I like having room to work. In Gods Of Manhattan, I was exploring what happens when you let a steampunk world grow and change - I took out the Victoriana and the Verne and replaced them with Americana and pulp-fiction influences, and that worked out nicely.

What I'm doing - particularly with Pax Omega - is taking that further. Looking at what a steampunk universe looks like a hundred and fifty years before Victoria's reign, or a million years after. These are the interesting questions to me - for instance, can a steampunk world survive having Warhol in it? Or Grandmaster Flash? Or Betty Page? I'm not talking about just dressing them up in frock coats and corsets and goggles - what does their effect on the world look like when you transpose it to a steampunk world? What shape is it then?

Now take it forward five hundred years. Look around. Describe it.

Is that still Steampunk? If so, why? If not, why not?

Discuss.

Guest post: steampunk and the world of Pax Britannia

The Summer of Steampunk continues over at our special Pax Britannia Facebook page - this week we'll be continuing with the competitions AND bringing you news of our special, super, mega, big steampunk announcement...

To kick off the new week with a bang, we asked the authors behind Pax Britannia to give their views on steampunk, writing in the genre, what makes it so much fun and why more people should read them.

First off today, we have Mr Jonathan Green:

Why do I like reading and writing steampunk adventures? Because they’re cool, that’s why. Even if they’re set in the future, they hark back to a time when there wasn’t a corner of the globe that couldn’t be explored, where there wasn’t a machine that couldn’t be built to do whatever it was that needed to be done, when the British Empire was at its height, driven on but an almost endemic sense of indefatigable optimism.

Steampunk is born of that science fiction staple “What if?”

What if the rule of the British Empire had never ended? What if Babbage’s analytical engine had been completed – and worked? What if H G Wells and Jules Verne weren’t writing science fiction but science fact? It’s precisely those questions I asked myself when I first came up with the world of Pax Britannia and created my dandy protagonist, and Hero of the Empire, Ulysses Quicksilver.

My first experience of steampunk was Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates. Later came 2000AD’s John Smith-scripted Jack the Ripper Indigo Prime thriller Killing Time and Alan Moore’s meta-fictional The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

As well as clanking machinery, vast gothic revival backdrops and rivets by the thousand, they brought with them a certain sense of decorum, of elegance, of style, of – well – Britishness, goddammit! Tea in china cups, duelling at dawn on Hampstead Heath, locomotives constructed with an artificer’s eye to detail, along with top hats, frock coats and monocles everywhere you looked.

What wasn’t there to like, when all around us in modern society we are confronted by the total antithesis of these things on a daily basis. (I’m thinking more here about a general lack of good manners and respect for one’s elders, rather than people drinking coffee out of paper cups.)
It was this that I was, in part, trying to emulate in my own steampunk creation, the world of Pax Britannia.

The great thing about the Pax Britannia setting is that it is just that. After nine books (with more on the way) and various short stories, totalling some three quarters of a million words altogether, Pax Britannia has grown to become something that is far greater than merely the sum of its parts.

And because of that, because it is such a richly painted setting, you can write pretty much any kind of story you want to set within it. Whether it’s action-adventure, horror, murder mystery, spy thriller, superhero pastiche, romance, ghost story, out-and-out SF, war story or time travel caper, all have their place within the world of Pax Britannia.

So if you’ve not experienced Pax Britannia yet for yourself, then what, quite frankly, are you waiting for? The game is, after all, most definitely afoot!

Welcome to The Summer of Steampunk!

Longest running steampunk series raises the heat in fortnight-long genre celebration

Break out your top hats and holster your Tesla Mark Seven blunderbuss, the Summer of Steampunk from Abaddon Books is here!

To mark a major new direction for the world’s longest-running series of steampunk novels, Pax Britannia, Abaddon is running two weeks of steampunk shenanigans at the new dedicated Pax Britannia Facebook page.

From free eBooks and competition giveaways to debate and word from our authors about what makes steampunk so much fun, join us for two weeks of celebration of this most charming, exciting and ever-growing line of books.

The event will culminate in a major announcement about a surprising new book which throws away the rulebook of how genre publishing works.

A must for any fan of steampunk or pulp adventure action, Pax Britannia is set in a radically different version of the late 20th Century where the age of the Victorians never ended and Queen Victoria remains alive thanks to steampunk technology.

From Jonathan Green’s swashbuckling agent of the Empire, Ulysses Quicksilver, to Al Ewing’s ultra-violent El Sombra, Pax Britannia takes steampunk adventure to a new level.

Jonathan Oliver, editor-in-chief of Abaddon Books, said:
“Pax Britannia is one of the longest running steampunk adventures in publishing, and our Summer of Steampunk will bring a host of goodies bound to appeal to new and old readers of the series alike.”

Abaddon announces major new SF series

Acclaimed SF author Eric Brown creates new epic world for imprint

Best-selling author Eric Brown has created a brand new shared world for Abaddon Books: Weird Space.

This thrilling space-opera series will begin in June 2012 with the release of The Devil's Nebula by the best-selling author of Helix, Engineman and The Kings of Eternity.

In the first book in this epic new series, Brown will introduce readers to the human smugglers, veterans and ne’erdowells who are part of the Expansion – and their uneasy neighbours, the Vetch Empire.

When an evil race threatens not only the Expansion, but the Vetch too - an evil from another dimension which infests humans and Vetch alike and bends individuals to do their hideous bidding, only cooperation between them means the difference between a chance of survival and no chance at all.

Brown has meticulously created a massive shared world of interstellar potential, which other writers will explore with each new book.

With the launch of this new SF epic, Abaddon is adding to its series of shared worlds which already include the post-apocalyptic The Afterblight Chronicles, the new take on Arthurian legend Malory’s Knights of Albion, the World War One soldiers marooned on an alien world in No Man’s World, steampunk adventure in Pax Britannia, the zombie-infested Tomes of the Dead and the fantasy quests of the Twilight of Kerberos.

Eric Brown said:
"It's great to be part of the team working for Abaddon on the Weird Space project, and it's a fantastic imaginative opportunity to be developing the background and working on the first novel, The Devil's Nebula. The Weird is vast in scope - borrowing on an age-old tradition of everything that's best is space-opera - and will allow the writers to tell exciting, human stories set against an eerie, thrilling, futuristic back-drop. I'm more than a little excited at being part of the team!"

Jonathan Oliver, editor-in-chief of Abaddon, said:
“Eric is such a terrific writer that it's a great honour to be welcoming him to the Abaddon fold. The vast scope of this series and the richness of Eric's writing will mean that this will be a space-opera like no other.”

Coming soon: Arthurian legend as you’ve never seen it before

Malory’s Knights of Albion:
The Savage Knight
by Paul Lewis

Coming in September 2011

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-907992-33-9 $9.99/$12.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978-1-907992-34-6
Also Available as an eBook

Forget the quaint pageantry of Camelot and the noble knights of the Round Table – join Abaddon as we recast the legend of King Arthur’s court as a tale of blood, sweat and tears.

Sword and sorcery is back thanks to the Camelot and Game of Thrones TV series – now find out why they called it The Dark Ages...

Burdened with a terrible rage, Sir Dodinal the Savage turns his back on Camelot to find peace in a quiet Welsh village. But even here there is none. When his new home is struck by child-stealing raiders he must take up arms once again. But can a simple knight deal with the terrible secret hidden in the hills...?

An exciting, action-packed, and totally original Arthurian story, The Savage Knight is a new take on the well-known sub-genre, filled with savagery and knights who live and die by their bloodied swords.

“Lewis has a compelling and brilliant writing style and a great ability to create and maintain suspense and terror.” – The Alien Online on The Ice Maiden

About the Series
‘Uncovered’ in the parish church of St. Barbara and St. Christopher in the summer of 2006, the Salisbury Manuscript (British Library Add. MS 1138) is the only extant copy of Sir Thomas Malory’s The Seconde Boke of kyng Arthur and also His noble Knyghts, apparently written at Thomas Caxton’s request after Malory’s release from gaol. Deep controversy surrounds the book, which is claimed by some to be a contemporary forgery, possibly written by Caxton himself. In March 2010, Rebellion Publishing announced that it had secured exclusive rights to publish the modernisations of the stories.
Abaddon’s eighth shared world, Malory’s Knights of Albion will regale our readers with totally original stories set in King Arthur’s time, exploring the stories of the less well-known knights – like loyal Sir Alymere – or telling previously-unknown events from the lives of beloved characters close to Britain’s greatest king.
With courage and courtesy close to its heart, the series promises to deliver the best of heroic, chivalric adventure, often with a dark or surprising twist.

About the Author
Paul Lewis has written hundreds of comedy sketches for UK network TV, including Spitting Image, as well as radio sitcoms and plays. Paul co-edited the Cold Cuts horror anthology and is co-author of the novels The Ragchild and The Quarry, several novellas and numerous short stories including a Doctor Who contribution for BBC Books. Paul works as a journalist and lives with his wife and son in a village near Swansea, Wales.

The Devil's Nebula

Hello Abaddonians

I'm very excited to be able to announce the start of a new series for Summer 2012: Weird Space. This is Abaddon's first foray into the space-opera and if that weren't enough to pique your interest, just check out who we have to launch the series.

We are more than a little bit excited to have the brilliant Eric Brown (best-selling author of Helix, Engineman and The Kings of Eternity) with us for the launch of this new SF epic. Fans are going to be in for a real treat with a series that promises to be vast and hugely entertaining. Here, for your delectation, is the blurb for the first book in the series:

Starship Captain Ed Carew and his crew of two - ex-marine Lania Takiomar and ex-convict Gord Neffard - lead a carefree life of smuggling, gun-running and other illicit pursuits in a far future ruled by the fascistic Expansion Authority. But when an Expansion judiciary ship captures Carew and his crew leaving the planet of Hesperides, an out-of-bounds world governed now by the fearsome Vetch extraterrestrials, Carew, Takiomar and Neffard are sentenced to death...

Unless they agree to travel through Vetch territory in pursuit of an human colony vessel which set off for the Devil's Nebula one hundred years ago. But why are the Expansion authorities so eager to track down the ship, will Carew and co. survive the journey through Vetch territory - and what might they find when they arrive at the Devil's Nebula?

The Devil's Nebula is the first book in a thrilling space opera series, Weird Space. An evil race is threatening not only the human Expansion, but the Vetch Empire, too - an evil from another dimension which infests humans and Vetch alike and bends individuals to do their hideous bidding. And only if humans and Vetch cooperate to fight off the fearsome Weird do they stand a chance of ensuring their survival...

Eric Brown said, "It's great to be working for Abaddon on the Weird Space project, and it's a fantastic imaginative opportunity to be developing the background and working on the first novel. Weird Space is vast in scope - borrowing on an age-old tradition of everything that's best in space opera - and will allow future writers to tell exciting, human stories set against an eerie, thrilling, futuristic backdrop."