The Robot Overlord has decreed that a message shall be given on this day to all meat-based life-forms. Message follows.

A full transcript can be found below the cut as not all are able to fully comprehend the mastery of language demonstrated by your robot masters.

Message begins. Read More→

Don’t forget, at 3.00pm GMT tomorrow, you can view the Angry Robot Christmas Speech right here on this here internetty thing.

Set your alarms, now…

And so we reach the last day of our 12 Days of Christmas celebration. We hope you had as much fun as we did, and that whether or not you celebrate Christmas you get to spend some quality time with your family and friends from now until the new year, and beyond.

Out last word goes to Tim Waggoner, with a little encouragement for the would-be writers among you… Read More→

My turn.

Monday night was the second annual Angry Robot Christmas night out (despite me not being employed by AR until early January, I headed down to Nottingham in December last year and went out for beers with Marco so he wouldn’t be all on his lonesome at the Christmas do).

We had tickets to see some stand-up comedians. The show was hosted by Johnny Vegas, and there were three performers before the headline act, Jim Jefferies (who became my current favourite stand-up after I saw his HBO special on a flight to Montreal in August).

The three comedians who preceded Jefferies were good, and sometimes very good. For me, however, Vegas and Jefferies stole the (nearly 4 hour!) show.

Now, I’d never seen Johnny Vegas live. I liked him in the Graham Duff sitcom, Ideal, but I always watch that show wondering how much actual acting Vegas is doing. Other than Ideal, though, I’ve never really been a fan. His stand-up impressed me greatly, however. Some of it was scripted, but most of it was improvised, and centred on his interactions with the audience. Jefferies’ routine, on the other hand, was entirely scripted, with little room for improvisation.

Two very different styles, but with one thing in common: risk. Read More→

Lavie Tidhar’s wonderful steampunk romp The Bookman continues to draw attention from all over the blogosphere. The Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review lists it as one of his books to look forward to for 2010.

And how about his for a review from Fantasy Book Critic:

Self-contained and with a great ending, The Bookman seems to be part of a planned series and I really am happy about that since I want more of this wonderful milieu.

Just big time fun,”The Bookman” is highly, highly recommended.

A fabulous review of Andy Remic’s Gemmell-inspired axe fest, Kell’s Legend over at Lateral Books.

It’s been so long since we had Robin Hood, or Conan the Barbarian floating around, and Gemmell – he updated them with class. For me, Gemmell revived my favourite heroes and gave them a good kick in the pants… Mister Remic looks like he could do this, too.

Lateral Books also has this to say about Sixty-One Nails:

I really didn’t think it would really hold to its own and become something unique. I thought it would remain under the Gaiman shadow for the whole novel… I thought this one would die a slow death toward the end… By the end of the novel, I was hanging onto the pages, drawing every last scene out as though I were sucking it out through a straw. I really did enjoy the ride.

Meanwhile, over at the World SF News Blog, Angry Robot’s launch novelist Kaaron Warren interviews a few of her Australian writer mates (who all happen to be bloody good, by the way) about how their cultural backgrounds influence their writing.

KAARON. Gillian talks about the ‘fall-back cultural position’. How can we avoid this in our fiction?

GILLIAN: I don’t think we can avoid it. Novels are based on us sharing some of these with others. However, we can control our use a bit more and reduce some of the negatives. We can learn about our own background and find out what our assumptions are. We can watch for recurring patterns in our own fiction and in others’.

SIMON: To start with, you don’t have to avoid it. It’s just important you’re aware of it, so you can avoid it if you want to.

YARITJI: Isn’t the ‘fall-back cultural position’ something people do no matter where they come from or what their heritage is? People write from what they know and understand from their own perceptions on life and the people around them. I don’t think I use a ‘fall-back cultural position’ with my fiction, unless I’m asked to use some of my heritage.

Over at The Book Smugglers Kaaron Warren tells of her favourite books of 2009, and what she’s looking forward to in 2010. I did the same a couple of week ago, but forgot to mention it at the time.

Incidentally, I’ve been interviewed by Charles Tan at The Bibliophile Stalker. If you’ve ever wondered what the hell it is I do all day when I’m not blogging here, feel free to pop across. Do prepare yourself for disappointment, however.

If you’ve read Slights you’d be forgiven for thinking that Kaaron Warren was an angst-ridden emo with a bleak outlook on life. Nothing could be further from the truth. She’s a lovely, well-adjusted woman with a love of life – she just happens to write dark really well!

So, when I asked her to write something for our 12 Days feature, it was impossible to predict what we’d get… Read More→

 Santa Quits

NORTH POLE. After over 400 years on the job, Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nick, Papá Noel and, in Afghanistan, Baba Chaghaloo, is calling it quits.

It’s the second shocking celebrity resignation to rock the world after the queen of talkshows, Oprah Winfrey, announced last week that her daytime television show will end its 25 year run in 2011.

In a press conference at his North Pole home, Claus said, ‘I love my job and it’s been a wonderful four centuries. But it’s time to move on, to explore my other options. And take a holiday! Ho-ho-ho. I deserve it.’ Read More→