Archive for July, 2011
Our biggest competition ever – The Results
Posted by: | CommentsTo celebrate our 2nd birthday we launched a competition to give away a full set of Angry Robot books and a full set of Angry Robot Ebooks. All you lot had to do was write us a bit of a poem, a Hallmark-style ditty that would look great when presented to an Angry Robot.
And you all really went for it. It took hours for us to read through all of your efforts, and even longer to settle on a couple of winners. In the end though we whittled it down to two. Read More→
Angry Robot’s World Fantasy Award nominees
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Well, what a nice surprise! They just announced the nominees for this year’s World Fantasy Awards, to be presented at the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego, California in late October. And (as you could probably tell by the fact that we’re banging on about it!) we are well represented!
Best novel – Among the strong shortlist, a certain ZOO CITY by the irrepressible Lauren Beukes (coff*Arthur C Clarke Award*coff)
Best artist – Nominations for Robot pals Vincent Chong (Matt Richter series, Darkness Falling cover) and John Picacio (US Zoo City cover)
Special Award, Non-Professional – Our very own Lavie Tidhar, for his acclaimed World SF blog
Special Award, Professional – Modesty almost but not quite prevents me from mentioning that on the shortlist of very esteemed editors and publishers is… Marc Gascoigne “for Angry Robot”.
Thanks to everyone who had a hand in this. Best of luck to all of the above, and congrats to absolutely everyone who made it onto a very strong set of shortlists this year. We are humbled to be counted alongside such great company. And as always, fantasy fiction is the real winner. Pop-fizz-clink-schlurp!
Now recruiting – new member of the Angry Robot team wanted
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Angry Robot Books – you know, us: the award-winning new publishers of SF, Fantasy and beyond – are expanding. To that end, we have a vacancy for a … well, let’s call it an Ebook & Marketing Manager.
The thing is, no one at Angry Robot just does one thing. We’re not that sort of company. We like multi-taskers who can turn their hand to more than one role. This is essential as we grow from our current small scale, our eyes firmly set on a worldwide presence.
Right now, the areas we want to expand are our rapidly-growing digital publishing programme, and our marketing and publicity activity. So we’d like someone – a bright, hard-working someone – to cover those roles. Both of those areas are set for large-scale expansion over the next 18 months, so this role will require an experienced self-starter, with clear project management skills, and a proven ability to deliver. Book marketing and metadata use, and familiarity with webstores and Ebook creation, are essential. And of course a strong knowledge of Science Fiction & Fantasy would obviously be most welcome. Read More→
A year in the life of Mal Catlyn – hero of The Alchemist of Souls
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You might have heard us raving about The Alchemist of Souls over the last few months. Written by Anne Lyle it is due out in March 2012, and we are currently working flat out on getting a final cover for the book (which is going to be quite simply gorgeous!)
But while us Angry Robots have been working hard to get the book ready, Anne has been embracing the world of social media, and embarking on a brilliant initiative to get you all in the mood for her novel.
She has set up a Twitter account for her main protagonist Mal Catlyn, which will reveal the details of his life in the year leading up to the events portrayed in The Alchemist of Souls – tweeted in real time.
So why not hop onto Twitter and follow @MalCatlyn to join in the fun. And wherever you can, spread the word using the hashtag #malsdiary.
By all accounts Mal has had better weeks… and they make riding horses look so effortless in the movies!
Sample Chapters – Reality 36 and The Crown of the Conqueror
Posted by: | CommentsClick 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.
Both books will be published as eBooks worldwide on August 4th. Paperbacks on August 4th (UK) and August 30th (US/Canada).
Dead Bad Things and Roil – Sample Chapters
Posted by: | CommentsClick 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.
Dead Bad Things is available as an eBook worldwide and in paperback in the UK on 1st September, and in paperback in the US/Canada on 27th September.
Roil is available as an eBook worldwide and in paperback in the US/Canada on 30th August and in paperback in the UK on 1st September.
vN – the future is Robot!
Posted by: | CommentsAnnouncing our second new series this week! Feeling jetlagged yet?
Canadian writer Madeline Ashby has a Master’s degree in Manga and Anime, and writes on such matters for Tor.com and io9 (and soon BoingBoing too!). For her day job, she works as a consultant on future trends in technology. It’s no wonder, then, that her debut novel is a scintillating science fiction epic set in the near-future, where robots and humans live side by side. And it’s being published by us here Angry Robot – who else?
vN introduces us to Amy. She’s been grown in a stable family environment, with her robot mother and human father. But alone of all her kind, her human-protecting failsafe has stopped working for some reason. Soon she’s on the run from the law, and worse – everyone’s after her, some to use her as a weapon, others to destroy her. Her sole friend is a robot boy who’s programmed to only like humans. This is pure science fiction entertainment, combining a stunning extrapolation of a robot future with bravura kick-ass Manga-inspired action – think Philip K Dick meets Joss Whedon. Read More→
First Review of Reality 36
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Reality 36 by Guy Haley is definitely one of our favourite science fiction titles of the year, and the first reviewer agrees with us!
While Robopocalypse is this year’s hottest robot release… Reality 36 is a superior novel in almost every way.
But why?
[The application of technology] just makes sense… This reality (so far as science fiction goes) is what makes the book so compelling. It’s an actual glimpse into the future as much as it’s a mystery yarn and an action thriller. Isn’t that what Science Fiction is all about?
He won’t get any arguments from us…
When bullets aren’t flying I felt like I was having a discussion with the author about the implications the Singularity will have on humanity. And that’s cool.
As I was reading the novel I was comparing it favorably to another debut from earlier this year – Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief. They really aren’t similar in any way other than they read with a similar pace and absence of information dumping (a pet peeve of mine).
Guy Haley has really produced a first rate robot novel. Angry Robot Books keeps churning out great additions in speculative fiction.
Awww, shucks!
You can read the full review at Staffer’s Musings.
Meet our newest signing, Paul S Kemp
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Here’s a press release we just sent out to the world:
Million-selling US writer Paul S Kemp is unashamedly a fan of the classic “swords and sorcery” fantasy of Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock. Such a passion has fed into his New York Times-bestselling titles for Star Wars and Forgotten Realms. Now he’s created a series of original fantasy novels that bring swords and sorcery right up to date, for us here at your ever-lovin’ Angry Robot.
The Hammer and the Blade will introduce you to Egil and Nix, a pair of down-at-heel treasure hunters and incorrigible rogues. Egil is a priest, happy to deliver moral correction with his pair of massive hammers. Nix is a sneak-thief; there’s no lock he cannot open, no serving girl he cannot charm. Between them, they always have one eye for a chance to make money – the other eye, of course, is on the door. Only this time, the treasure they’ve thieved is an important relic of a most sinister and ancient family, who will stop at nothing to get their bloody revenge.
The Hammer and the Blade will be published in July 2012, with a sequel, A Discourse of Steel, to follow in early 2013.
Because you always do this sort of stuff on press releases, I said: “Mixing the classic buddy pairings of swords and sorcery with very modern language, all delivered at a breathtaking pace, these entertaining novels are a tremendous addition to Angry Robot’s list.”
Paul added all sorts of crazy stuff, but we managed to cut it down to: “To say that I’m excited about joining the Angry Robot family would be an understatement. I’m beside myself with evil, maniacal glee. When I look at their talented family of writers – Abnett, Beukes, Tidhar, Broaddus, Forbeck, Remic, Warren, just to name a few – I think that surely someone made a mistake. I mean, in that family I’m pretty much the crazy uncle they lock in the attic.” You can read more of his reaction to the deal on his own blog.
The deal, for world rights to two novels across all formats, was arranged by AR’s publishing director Marc Gascoigne and Kemp’s agent, Bob Mecoy, of Creative Book Services in New York.
If you ned any more information, contact us.
Sign up for the Robot Legion Newsletter
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Over the last month or so we have had a helluva lot happening – a couple of epic competitions, exciting new author announcements, special offers, and some fab new innovations. Of course the best way to follow all of these developments is by checking into our website as often as possible, but there is another way.
Sign up to the Robot Legion Newsletter to get all the latest news, offers, competitions etc from Angry Robot delivered straight into your email inbox. Every month*.
And we protect the identities of our Legion fiercely, so we won’t be handing out your details to all those annoying phone and utilities companies. After all, what is the point of having a secret army if you hand out their contact details to anyone who asks?
* Or at least we will try to get one to you every month. They sometimes run a little late. Even Robots miss deadlines…
