To celebrate Angry Robot’s imminent invasion of the US of A and Canada, those lovely people over at io9 are giving you the chance to win some Angry Robot goodies. Head on over there to enter.

Dan is a great speaker, and with over 20 years’ experience in the business, he’s always fascinating to listen to.

Venue:
Upstairs Room
The Antelope Tavern
22, Eaton Terrace
Belgravia
London
SW1W 8EZ
Nearest Tube: Sloane Square (District/Circle)

All welcome! (FREE entry. Non-members welcome.)
Interview will commence at 7.00 pm, but the room is open from 6.00 (and fans in the downstairs bar from 5.00).

There will be a raffle (£1 for five tickets), with a selection of sf novels as prizes.

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And don’t forget – you have until next Tuesday to enter the SFX Magazine competition to win a copy of Lauren Beukes’s Zoo City in limited edition hardback. Click here for the competition details.

If you don’t feel lucky, you can buy the hardback exclusively from Forbidden Planet – and we only printed 100 to sell – now that’s limited edition!

Or, you can wait for the paperback, which is out in the UK on September 2nd (December 28th in the US and Canada). Pre-order it from Amazon UK, or Waterstones, or pop into your local independent shop and ask them to order it for you.

• Limited Edition Hardback: £20
• Paperback: £7.99
• eBook: £3.50

Gav Thorpe’s The Crown of the Blood is just the book to help us defeat the usurpers and win the hand of the fair maidens that are… oh, it’s only Monday morning, and I think I’ve already worn this analogy dry.

Let’s just say that The Crown of the Blood is out on Thursday 2nd September in the UK (28th Sept in US and Canada), and it’s bloody good!

Don’t take our word for it. Over at James Atlantic Speaks the book gets an impressive 4 out of 5 stars* and the reviewer tells us:

This is one of Thorpe’s best novels. The setting and story are well thought out and are remarkably logical for a fantasy novel. If you enjoy military or historical fiction, you will enjoy The Crown of the Blood. Action, intrigue, conquest, and charismatic generals are waiting for you here!

And if that isn’t enough to whet your appetite, here’s a sample from the book. Yes, I know we posted this a couple of weeks ago, but it deserves another moment in the spotlight.

Click for full-screen. You can embed the free sample 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.

So, just in case you’ve missed them, here’s a list of recent podcasts featuring the Angry Robot crew:

Angry Robot Podcast number 2 – featuring Kaaron Warren and Lauren Beukes

WordPunk podcast – eBooks and eReaders – featuring Lee Harris (of Angry Robot),  Dave Devereux and Emma Davies

Lauren Beukes – Interview at the British Science Fiction Association

Angry Robot Podcast number 1 – featuring Marc Gascoigne and Lee Harris

Alt.Fiction podcasts:
(10) The World of Publishing – featuring Marc Gasgoigne (of Angry Robot), Steve Tribe, Jenni Hill and Jon Weir
(3) Blogging and the Internet – featuring Lee Harris (of Angry Robot), Vincent Holland-Keen and Alasdair Stuart

And fon’t forget – for the Angry Robot monthly podcast:

Subscribe via RSS feed or via iTunes.

Dan is a great speaker, and with over 20 years’ experience in the business, he’s always fascinating to listen to.

So, whether you’re a fan of his comic work, his Black Library novels, his TV tie-ins, or his new, original fiction, pop along. It’s free to come along, and you don’t have to be a member of the BSFA to attend. What larks!

I have plenty of interesting questions lined up for him, but if there’s something you’re dying to ask Dan, put it in the comments section, here – the interview will be recorded, and podcast, later.

Venue:
Upstairs Room
The Antelope Tavern
22, Eaton Terrace
Belgravia
London
SW1W 8EZ

Nearest Tube: Sloane Square (District/Circle)

All welcome! (No entry fee or tickets. Non-members welcome.)
Interview will commence at 7.00 pm, but the room is open from 6.00 (and fans in the downstairs bar from 5).

There will be a raffle (£1 for five tickets), with a selection of sf novels as prizes.

Oh, and before you sit down to read it, make sure you have a box of tissues to hand – it’s an emotional rollercoaster of a  journey!

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Click for full-screen. You can embed the free sample 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.

I’m impressed by the moral neutrality. Similar to the work of Tom Lloyd, this is a book about warring factions, each of them convinced that they are in the right… To paraphrase (badly), no one has ever marched into battle thinking they were the bad guy. Mr Thorpe had that nailed. Even the proper “hero” of the book is a dodgy character – Ullsaard is convinced of his cause, but, ultimately, he is left in judgement before the reader.

…this book is hairy, gory, sweaty, shameless… and perhaps even a little bit thoughtful.

It’s out in the UK on September 2nd and the US on the 28th of the same month.

If the review has left you wanting more, and you can’t wait the few short weeks until publication, here are the first 50 pages, complete with dinosaur-punching action:

Click for full-screen. You can embed the free sample 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.

If you can’t wait until the book is out (and quite frankly, we don’t blame you), how about the first 50 pages to whet your appetite?

Click for full-screen. You can embed the free sample 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.

I’m a big fan of the short story – anyone who knows me will tell you that. Well, they’ll tell you if you ask them – it’s not the sort of thing that would necessarily be voluntarily offered. Have you seen Lee? He likes short stories, you know. Won’t happen.

But I digress…

The sequel to Tim Waggoner’s wonderful Nekropolis is published in the UK and Australia from next week. Dead Streets gives you everything you loved about the first book, and more! And as a special treat for all you lovely people living out there in internet-land, we have a free short story set in Nekropolis. If you’ve not read the first book yet, all you need to know to get started is that Matt Richter (our hero) is a zombie and former cop, and his paramour, Devona, is half-vampire.

I flicked the flashlight’s switch and played its beam around to get my bearings. It was just as Devona had said: a foyer with stone walls and ceiling and a marble tiled floor. Nice enough, in a cold, Spartan way, but nothing to e-mail home about. There were sconces on the walls where greenfire torches had undoubtedly once burned to light the place, but the mystic flames had died away decades ago, and without an Arcane torchlighter to rekindle them, it looked like we were stuck with my flashlight.

As we started slowly down the foyer, I said, “So, are you going to tell me why this place is supposed to be haunted?”

Now head on over to Next Read to enjoy the full story.

What a cracking trio of samples we have for you today!

Here are some sample chapters from our March titles (all out on 4th March in the UK, later in the year for the US and Canada).

We will be offering free sample chapters of all of our titles prior to release, because you’re worth it.

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 Ian’s, Tim’s and/or Maurice’s book(s).

Please note that the formatting will vary from that of the final commercial product. Click on the PDF icon to download the sample.

City of Dreams and Nightmare by Ian Whates

Dead Streets by Tim Waggoner

King Maker by Maurice Broaddus

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and don’t forget we have three incredible books out today:

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 Guy’s, Thomas’ and/or Kaaron’s book(s).

The World House by Guy Adams

Edge by Thomas Blackthorne (aka John Meaney)

Walking the Tree by Kaaron Warren