Archive for April, 2011
Zoo City wins the Arthur C Clarke Award
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Can we get a Hell, Yeah!
We are absolutely delighted, nay, thrilled, nay, ecstatic to announce that Zoo City by the incomparable Lauren Beukes, has won the 25th Arthur C Clarke Award.
At a star-studded ceremony at the Apollo in central London, Lauren picked up the award. As this post is being published while Lauren is still on stage, it’s a bit early to get her initial reactions and post photos, but you can hear an interview with her, and hear her read a snippet from the book at EscapePod (if it’s not there yet, check back in half an hour or so). There will also be an interview at io9.com going online, soon, as well as features at My Favourite Books and Floor to Ceiling Books and the World SF Blog.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to be going – that champagne isn’t going to drink itself, you know…
Update with some more groovy links…
• The Guardian have film of Lauren’s big moment.
• And Sam jordison followed up with an enthusiastic paen to Lauren and Zoo City on the Guardian website.
• UK publishing bible The Bookseller did us proud.
• Strange Horizons’ Niall Harrison had some thoughtful comments.
• SFX Magazine coverage.
• SciFi Now coverage.
• Here’s New Scientist‘s take.
• And the British Library are including Zoo City in this summer’s massive exhibition, Out of This World.
Darkness Falling – First Cover Sighting
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This October sees the worldwide publication of the superb Darkness Falling – the first in the Forever Twilight trilogy by Peter Crowther. The cover art is by the quite brilliant Vincent Chong.
Click for the embiggened version.
More Awards News
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Following the win for Joey Hi-Fi’s Zoo City art in Saturday’s British Science Fiction Awards, and Aliette de Bodard’s win for Best Short Story (The Shipmaker, Interzone), last night there were further nominations announced – this time for the Hugos and the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Aliette de Bodard (left) is nominated for a Best Novelette Hugo for The Jaguar House, In Shadow (Asimov’s), Lauren Beukes (right) picks up a nomination for Best New Writer in the John W Campbell Award and John Picacio picks up yet another nomination for the Best Professional Artist Hugo (John produced the exceptional cover to the US edition of Zoo City, below).
Congratulations to all the nominees. A full list can be found at the Renovation (WorldCon) website, here. The winners will be announced during a ceremony at Renovation in Reno (August).
And don’t forget, while we’re in Award Mode, Zoo City has also been shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London this Wednesday.
Simply The Best
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See this? According to members of the British Science Fiction Association, and EasterCon 2011, this is the best cover to any science fiction novel published during the whole of 2010 in the UK. We agree. Our congratulations go to the brilliant artist, Joey Hi-Fi.
Congratulations also, to Lauren Beukes. Though Zoo City didn’t win the BSFA Award for Best Novel, it was voted onto the shortlist, making it one of the best 5 SF novels of last year.
And congratulations to our own Aliette de Bodard, who won the British Science Fiction Award for Best Short Story (For The Shipmaker, published by Interzone).
Vampire Warlords, Embedded and The Damned Busters
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Don’t forget – we’ll be launching all three of these titles at Waterstones Birmingham High Street tomorrow at 12.30, and repeating the signing at Camp Stulag EasterCon at 4.00pm, for those of you incarcerated for the weekend. Dan and Andy will be on-hand to sign (unfortunately, Matthew Hughes will be stuck in Italy – when he could be in Birmingham!).
Also signing their books, of course, are: Lauren Beukes, Thomas Blackthorne (John Meaney), Aliette de Bodard, Colin Harvey, Ian Whates and Lavie Tidhar.
And to get you in the mood (not saying what mood), there’s a trailer below for Vampire Warlords made by the author.
New Matt Forbeck novel announced: Carpathia!
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Yup, another day, another press release… This one bears the extraordinary title of:
ANGRY ROBOT’S LATEST SIGNING: TITANIC WITH VAMPIRES!
The tireless team at Angry Robot have joined forces with author Matt Forbeck for an outrageous re-imagining of the events following the sinking of the SS Titanic in April 1912. Carpathia tells the story of the handful of the survivors of the disaster being rescued by the vessel of that name… only to discover the ship is full of vampires!
The deal was arranged between Matt Forbeck and Angry Robot’s Publishing Director Marc Gascoigne, who enthused: “When Matt and I first sat down to discuss the concept I was hooked instantly. With the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic due next April, we are sure to be bombarded by the usual array of documentaries and re-runs of a certain Di Caprio film – but this is going to turn that on its head. Matt has a genuine talent for cinematic writing, and Carpathia is going to be like Titanic meets 30 Days of Night.”
The deal, which includes worldwide publication in paperback, eBook and audio formats, will see Carpathia released in March 2012, just ahead of the centenary of the real disaster.
Matt Forbeck added: “I couldn’t be more thrilled than to be back with Angry Robot again for my third original novel. As they proved with Amortals and Vegas Knights – as well as with the rest of their fantastic line of books – they know and love great, fun fiction and are leading the charge to bring it to readers around the world.”
The bottom line: We cannot wait to read this book!
Angry Robot are taking over EasterCon!
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Not literally, you understand. After all, if we were going to begin the robot uprising and overpower the meatsuits this weekend, we’d be hardly likely to announce the fact, would we? Or would we? *twirls cyber-moustache*
If you’re at EasterCon this weekend, these are the Angry Robot folk you’re likely to meet, visiting from six different countries:
Current Authors
Dan Abnett, Lauren Beukes, Lavie Tidhar, Colin Harvey, Aliette de Bodard, Thomas Blackthorne (John Meaney), Ian Whates, Andy Remic, Mike Shevdon (Sunday only)
Forthcoming Authors
David Tallerman, Anne Lyle, Adam Christopher
Angry Roboteers
Marc Gascoigne (Puppet Master), Lee Harris (Word Wrangler), Mike Ramalho (Town Crier), Roland Briscoe (Honest Peddler)
Folk will be on various panels, and there will be readings, galore!
There are two big signing events on Saturday, however -
12.30 – 2.00 at Waterstones, Birmingham High Street. All the Current Authors listed above (except Mike Shevdon) will be signing at the shop, for anyone not able to get to EasterCon.
4.00 – 5.00 at EasterCon (in the Churchill Room). The same authors will be signing their books for you at the convention. Buy from the dealer room, bring from home, or buy at the signing.
This is also the official UK launch of Dan Abnett’s Embedded, Andy Remic’s Vampire Warlords and Matthew Hughes’ The Damned Busters.
Also on Saturday:
The British Science Fiction Awards
Two Angry Robot authors, and one artist are shortlisted for these awards -
Aliette de Bodard is shortlisted for Best Short Fiction with her story The Shipmaker (published in Interzone, issue 231)
Lauren Beukes is shortlisted for Best Novel for Zoo City (Angry Robot, 2010)
Joey Hi-Fi is shortlisted for the cover of Zoo City (Angry Robot, 2010)
We’ll be cheering all the winners of all the awards, but we’ll be reserving our distinctive whoops for Aliette, Lauren and Joey.
If you’re attending EasterCon, you can vote for your favourite novel, short story, cover art and non-fiction right up till midday on Saturday.
Dealer Room
We’ll have copies of all our books for you to buy – paperbacks and eBooks – and the authors that are present will be happy to sign them for you (though signing the eBooks may prove somewhat problematical).
The Damned Busters / Vampire Warlords – Free Sample Chapters
Posted by: | CommentsBecause we love you…
Click for full-screen. You can embed the free samples in your own site – just copy the code (by clicking on the “menu” button in the bottom right corner of the sample, and selecting “Copy embed code”) into your site.
Warning: Contains Remic!
Announcing Angry Robot audiobooks!
Posted by: | CommentsYes, it’s big news press release time again! Here’s what we just announced to the publishing world…
Lively British science fiction and fantasy publisher Angry Robot (that’s us!) has signed an exclusive licensing deal with the renowned Brilliance Audio. The US-based company will create and release audio editions of the imprint’s titles, including new releases and selected backlist. Recordings will be available for the retail and library markets on compact discs, MP3-formatted compact discs, and as files for download worldwide.
Brilliance Audio, a Michigan-based audiobook publisher that is part of the Amazon.com group of companies, publishes more than 600 audiobook titles annually. They are a leading publisher of Science Fiction and Fantasy in audio, having published multiple Hugo and Nebula nominees and winners.
Briliance’s SF & Fantasy Manager, the tireless John Grace said, “The one thing I know is that the face of publishing will be very different ten years from now. What I don’t know is what it will look like. What I am personally sure of is that publishers like Angry Robot who are focused and specialize in something they are passionate about will flourish in the future, which is why I’m very glad to join forces with them.”
Meanwhile, our Marco added: “Today’s customer wants great stories, as they always have, but they want them in the format that’s most convenient to them – which isn’t always the traditional one. Our ultimate aim is to have our books appear in all popular formats, to any reader anywhere in the world, at the same time. Brilliance will help us realise this aim, brilliantly.” (See what he did there?)
Additionally, we can tell you that titles will be appearing as soon as this summer! As soon as we have a confirmed set of release dates, you’ll read them here first.
Win a Kindle – a Steampunked Kindle!
Posted by: | CommentsThat is right, to celebrate our fantastic range of Steampunk books this month, we are running a competition to win a Kindle. But not just any Kindle. A Steampunked Kindle. Which we will pre-load with five of our books, including Kell’s Legend, King Maker, Servant of the Underworld, Crown of the Blood and The World House.
And this is what you can expect:
Sadly, although I have been working hard on my clockwork and copper skills, I am not quite up to the necessary levels of technical skill to complete the conversion myself – so we have used those alchemical geniuses over at Gelaskins to do the work for us… and a fine job they promise to do too!
So, how can you get yourself involved in this fantastic competition? Easy. We love Steampunk. Everything Steampunk. And we can’t get enough of quirky outfits, laptops encased in wood and copper. The whole shebang. So….
Send us your examples of cool Steampunk stuff – maybe it is a photo of you in your leather and copper get up, or a picture of a day-to-day item that you have converted into a glorious piece of Steampunk tech. Maybe it is a quick sketch you jotted down in a notebook. Hell – it could even be a Steampunk inspired song you have written and performed – or perhaps a Haiku that has been spinning round the inside of your skull for the last few months.
Pretty much anything Steampunk is eligible. Except – and this is important – for novels or short stories. We already have enough to read with all the submissions we got last month. After all we did get 990 submissions in four weeks!
Send your Steampunk awesomeness to
steampunk@angryrobotbooks.com
The best submission will win the Kindle.
Three runners-up will also get copies of all of the books that feature in our steampunk month.
The competition closes at midnight on May 15th 2011.
