Archive for October, 2009
Dan Abnett’s Triumff lives up to its name
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We were expecting great things from Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero, but it still warms our cold, metal hearts when we see people write nice things about it.
Take Graeme’s Fantasy Book review, for instance.
I wasn’t expecting ‘Triumff’ to be as funny as it was and it was a more than pleasant surprise to find myself laughing as much as I was…
The real fun lies in the moments where everything kicks off with lashings of hot pursuit and swordplay. This is where Abnett really lets loose and has a great time; throwing friend and foe together with great gusto and shaking the mixture up to see what happens. As far as I was concerned Abnett carried it off almost perfectly…
Nine out of Ten
Oh, we so wholeheartedly agree…
Meanwhile, over at the George RR Martin Forums at Westeros:
Abnett has created a rollicking world (neo-Elizabethanpunk?) which is basically a mash-up of our own and that of the Elizabethan period. Gentlemen fight duels of honour, but may choose to employ Swiss Army swords (which have an unfortunate habit of replacing the sword blade with a potato peeler at inopportune moments during combat) in lieu of a standard rapier. Firearms are around, but still relatively primitive, whilst those versed in the Arte may employ significantly more powerful magical weapons as well.
Triumff himself is a splendid hero, a colourful man of action perhaps a little too fond of the bottle but generally out to do the right thing…
Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero (****½) is a superior slice of amusement and is available now in the UK from Angry Robot. Those of a Colonial persuasion can enquire for copies via Amazon.
Don’t forget – you can meet Dan (along with many other fine Angry Robot folk) at the Angry Robot Launch Event at Forbidden Planet in London this coming Saturday, from 12.30 to 2.00.
Be there.
Sixty-One Nails – Free Sample Chapter
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We will be offering free sample chapters of all of our titles prior to release, just to show you just how much we love you. It’s amazing there’s so much love to go around, it really is.
All rights reserved.
However, feel free to share these sample chapters with anyone you wish, or to post them on your own site. And if you like them, buy Mike’s book.
The following extract is taken from Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon. Please note that the formatting will vary from that of the final commercial product.
Mobi and PDF
Click on the appropriate icons, above to download the sample in your choice of format.
ePub users may choose to download the file (your system may change it to a .zip – if so, just rename the extension to .epub). Alternatively, type the sample URL directly into your device of choice:
angryrobotbooks.com/samples/SixtyOneNails.epub
Angry Robot at the Frankfurt Book Fair
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Angry Robot will be making an appearance at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Monday 12th to Wednesday 14th October in the shape of Chris Michaels.
On Tuesday, Chris will be speaking at the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference as part of the Pecha Kucha session hosted by Hachette’s George Walkley. Pecha Kucha is a presentation format where speakers shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece, for a total time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds. So it’s fast, concise and to the point … and Chris’ point is on “The globalisation of the niche OR the nichalisation of the globe”. So if you want to find out why Ebooks are like Punk Rock, why your target audience is not who you think, and why going global means reaching a smaller audience, not a bigger one, get on over to the Radisson Blu Hotel on Tuesday at 430pm. Details on the website. (http://www.tocfrankfurt.com/)
Chris will also be available to meet any business contacts on Tuesday and Wednesday. If you are an agent with amazing books to show us, just want to say hello, or give us money, get in contact.
Kaaron Warren interviewed – warning, sneak previews!
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Our nastiest and most troubling writer (in a good way, of course), the very lovely Kaaron Warren, is interviewed today by the lovely Temple Library Reviews. Check it out for advance information on her next two Angry Robot titles, Walking the Tree (February 10) and Mistification (June 10), and even a glimmer of the two after that!
We love Kaaron. We adore the fact that her next books aren’t just going to be Slights rehashes. I mean, following a dark horror novel with a fantasy set on a ghost-haunted island that is mostly one vast tree, and then a modern work about a magician who keeps the people of the world buried in a comforting mist, lest they see the real misery of everyday life? At last, a writer who always, always does the unexpected.
Launch Party this weekend!
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Don’t forget, if you’re anywhere near London (England) this Saturday, 10th October, call into the Forbidden Planet London Megastore between 12:30 and 14:00 and meet one of our many and talented authors, or just chew the fat with teh Angry Robot crew!
Come along – meet the team, ask questions, buy books, get free posters. It’s going to be fun!
I turn my back for 5 minutes…
Posted by: | CommentsOk, I’ve been away for a week, sunning myself on the sunny Greek island of Zakynthos. Typically, for a parent I spent far too much time ensuring the kids were fine, and far too little time remembering to reapply my own suncream. Still – it was a good way to point out to my 5-year-old (who hates having the stuff applied) what you’ll look like if you don’t let Mummy or Daddy put your suncream on. The screams under the lukewarm shower at the end of the day were partly to underline the message, you understand.
Anyway, a week away, and it appears that not only have the worlds of SF and publishing managed perfectly well without me, they’ve actually gone and done interesting things while I was away – almost as if they were waiting for confirmation of my flight having left before coming out of hiding and making announcements.
First of all, news that Amazon are about to launch an “international” versionof their Kindle for $279.99. You still have to buy it from the US store at the moment (which means with import duty and carriage, it’s closer to $350) and the somewhat unusual news that all Kindle titles purchased from countries other than the US will have a $1.99 premium added to them. We’ll hear more of that in the coming weeks, no doubt, but hoorah for the announcement (you can pre-order now and shipping begins on19th October).
What next? Well, sticking with the eBook theme, Angry Robot’s first few titles have finally made it into eBook format. They can currently be ordered from just one outlet (the impressive Waterstones.co.uk), but this will change over the coming months. I’ll write a fuller post about this, shortly, but now you can own an Angry Robot book for just £3! (about US$5) That’s gotta be good news!
The old "could be any old show if you change the wording" logo
And finally, that logo! Doctor Who has changed it’s imagery for the new series starring Matt Smith.
The new "definitely Who" logo
Rave reviews round-up
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It’s Monday morning, and in the AR bunker there’s another raft of rave reviews to catch up on. For starters, the lovely Eric Brown in The Guardian said this about Winter Song by Colin Harvey:
“Harvey paints a grimly convincing portrait of a subsistence existence on the inhospitable world. Harvey’s… novel depicts a fascinating universe of want and plenitude, to which he will hopefully return in future novels.”
[We would link to the whole thing, really we would, but for some reason The Guardian haven't posted Eric's most recent review column.]
J Robert King‘s Angel of Death has been attracting the sort of initial word-of-mouth that accompanied Slights – in other words, a coterie of previously unsuspecting readers gasping and blurting the local equivalent of “Ho-lyyy fuck!” Take this, just in from Examiner.com:
“Angel of Death had me turning the pages with a sense of terrified fascination. This is the first of King’s books that I’ve encountered, and his strong prose and stark characterizations have me firmly hooked and looking for more of his work. Angel of Death will take you into the darkest corners of the human mind and heart – plus have you struggling to define what separates humans from monsters.”
And Mr Remic, when not beavering away on the next Kell’s Legend film (are you as scared as we are?) and finalising the sequel, Soul Stealers, is picking up notices like this, from Fantasy & SciFi Lovin’:
“Violent is really not the right word for this spare-no-detail fantasy monstrosity. Insane? Maybe. Really, the only way to describe Remic’s Kell’s Legend is with a phrase: a bloody, violent, fantastic journey through carnage, terror, and a downright epic tale that makes Underworld and every zombie movie look bad… Remic is the Tarantino of fantasy, and if that isn’t a compliment, then I don’t know what is.”
Oh, and check out the latest issue of Writing Magazine (November cover date), in which our own, our very own Mike Shevdon, author of next month’s superb urban fantasy Sixty-One Nails, is interviewed. All good newsagents, etc.
Many more reviews rounded-up soon. And brace yourselves London – the Forbidden Planet launch event is on target for this coming Saturday, October 10th. It all kicks off at 12.30. Oh yeah.
In stores today: Dan Abnett’s “Triumff” & Colin Harvey’s “Winter Song”
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Christmas comes a little early today. Well, it came this week, because as usual some of our lovely bookstores have been sticking them on shelves the moment they got them, and who can blame them when the books are as desirable as these, mm?
In the fantasy corner, TRIUMFF: HER MAJESTY’S HERO by that outstanding gentleman and wit, Dan Abnett esq. How the hell to describe this one… get ready for lots of hand-gestures, I think. It’s set today (OK, the year 2010). Queen Elizabeth XXX is on the throne, and Elizabethan culture still rules England. Alchemy powers a progressive nation, but people still duel with swords. Oh, how they duel. Mr Abnett is soooo good with a swordfight. As for the jokes, the puns, the footnotes, the outraegous satires of modern mores… oh my.
Dan’s been asking some of his regular website visitors to read and preview Triumff – read their individual takes on his blog. Watch out though, neologism haterz – looks like Triumff is a masterpiece of “clockpunk”! Hem hem.
Oh, and someone we know had this to say about it… “Triumff contains the three things I love most in fantasy: awesome magic, thrilling adventure, a truly original world and some really dreadful puns.” No, thank you, Ms Trudi Canavan.
And over with the spaceships, the super cool WINTER SONG by that man Colin Harvey. A perfect read for those evenings in front of the fire, curled up in your favourite armchair while being whisked off to the other side of the galaxy. This isn’t your usual “escape the alien planet” SF potboiler. Instead, expect a thoughtful yet exciting exploration of both the harsh landscape and the equally harsh humans have had to do to survive on said planet. This one, we think, will be the one where in a few months’ time we look back, count all the favourable reviews, and smile to ourselves, knowing we did good. Whatever, check it out.
And next month, Sixty-One Nails, for robots’ sake. Yow! We are on a roll!
