Archive for Future formats
Some awesome sample chapters from next month’s releases
Posted by: | Comments
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
King Maker by Maurice Broaddus
.
.
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).
Edge by Thomas Blackthorne (aka John Meaney)
Walking the Tree – now with free novella!
Posted by: | CommentsAngry Robot set its stall out from the very start as an imprint that would be trying different approaches to delivering stories. Over the last year we’ve been fortunate to be in a prime position to take advantage of the surge in eBook editions. Now here’s another idea we’d like to run past you.
While writing Walking the Tree, ace AR author Kaaron Warren naturally concentrated on her central character, Lillah. But as she explored that woman’s incredible journey around Botanica’s immense Tree, she became just as fascinated with the story of one of her young companions, Morace.
So fascinated, in fact… that she rewrote the whole book from Morace’s point of view! Well, we couldn’t just hide that away and so, if you buy a physical copy of Walking the Tree you’ll find, amongst our usual swathe of extras and freebies at the end, the first two chapters of his story… and a secret download link and password, that will allow you to download or read the entire novella. And if you get the eBook edition, well, you get the whole thing as an added extra.
Who knows – perhaps this sort of thing could catch on. I’m sure we could all think of secondary characters whose adventures we’d like to read from their POV. And plenty more who we wouldn’t, of course.
Mass debates on cover art
Posted by: | Comments(Just don’t read that out loud if you’re in polite company).
There has been a lot of conversations online recently concerning cover art, and the depiction of black characters as part of the overall design. Angry Robot author Maurice Broaddus has written about it on his blog. Not surprising, as his Knights of Breton Court trilogy for Angry Robot features the main cast on the covers, and they’re *gasp* not white! [cue: end of the world music]
Read what he has to say here. Do read the links from his post, too, as they provide excellent background reading. His, is always an interesting blog.
The Bookman continues to attract critical acclaim:
This is a steampunk gem. The settings are marvellously detailed, giving you the feeling that there is a London in which Lizards reign and whales swim up the Thames to sing lullabies to the city dwellers… Bring on a sequel, Tidhar! I’m craving to know what happens after the ending!
Read the rest of the review over at SFF World.
Dan Abnett, meanwhile, continues to dominate Borders’ US blog, Babel Clash and has taken the opportunity to talk about Triumff and his other work for Angry Robot.
It’s energising to find an imprint like Angry Robot that happily wears its awareness of those risks on its sleeve, and is eager to see them being taken. It’s about attitude.
This is the bit where I snap my fingers and say someting street, like “you go, girl”. Honestly – if you were in the office right now, you’d see I can make it work.
Over at the superb Falcata Times, Mike Shevdn’s Sixty-One Nails is given the once-over:
If you’re looking for something in the UF Genre for someone special in your life or if you’re just wanting something that’s pretty unique and mind blowing then you just have to buy this book… The second novel in the series is out next year but take a tip from me. Get this now before the hype hits.
The sequel (The Road to Bedlam) hits the UK this summer.
And finally, UK Steampunk author Adam Christopher listed what he’d like from the Apple iPad, and rather encouragingly he had this to say aout Angry Robot:
If the tablet can deliver an exemplary reading experience, I want to subscribe to publishing houses. For an annual fee, I’ll take everything from Angry Robot Books, thanks very much, delivered to my tablet on release… There’s not a single title from Angry Robot that hasn’t been an excellent read, and I’ll happily take the rest of their output on spec.
It brings a tear to my eye, it truly does…
Links Round-up
Posted by: | CommentsSome interesting stuff…
A great review of Slights by the ever-talented Kaaron Warren over at AS If…
At its dark heart, this is a novel about families and how they function, or fail to function, after tragedy. Stevie is the broken child who’s never allowed or forced to grow up, skimming through her adult life and relationships without ever really interacting with them, trying to find meaning in the one constant in her world, death.
For those of you (and there are many) who enjoyed Tim Waggoner’s zombie PI tale, Nekropolis, you don’t have to wait until book 2 (Dead Streets) is out to get your next Matt Richter fix. Tim’s written a Matt Richter short story, which appears in the new anthology, Spells of the City.
Meanwhile, over at Punk Talk, (the blog of genre writer Jeffrey Thomas) Andy Remic talks about his writing career and his plans for the future.
Although originally I did start writing fantasy before I wrote SF, and was (and still am) deeply inspired by the fantasy works of David Gemmell. I’ve also brought along my thriller writing action skills to the writing of fantasy, so instead of bumbling along for 200 pages describing the dull politics of a dull-ass world, Kell’s Legend kicks off into action and is a fantasy rollercoaster ride! Great fun to write!! Hopefully, it’s great fun to read!
Meanwhile, don’t forget that every day this week you’ve been able to read the opening 5 chapters or so of Aliette de Bodard’s Servant of the Underworld and Lavie Tidhar’s The Bookman over at My Favourite Books and SF Signal, respectively.
And finally, for those of you who haven’t yet decided to go out and get Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero by the incomparable Dan Abnett, pop over to Shadow Writer (horror writer Paul Kane’s blog) where you can read a free extract.
Books more popular than games on the iPhone?
Posted by: | Comments
The Nook, from Barnes and Noble
Earlier on this year I predicted that 2009 would be the Year of the eBook. Indeed, it seems the tipping point is within shouting distance. We have seen a flurry of activity this year, with many new models of eReader hitting the market. Amazon, too, have made their groundbreaking Kindle available overseas for the first time (with a few too many teething problems for many, though these issues are likely to be ironed out soon).
We’ve seen new hardware from the likes of Elonex, InterRead (the funky-looking Cool-Er eReader), Sony and Barnes & Noble (the Nook), as well as non-dedicated tablet-style devices from a whole host of manufacturers. Prices are coming down, too, as demand increases.
When Stanza – a software-based eReader – launched on the iPhone and iPod Touch, it opened up a whole new level of availability for eBooks, and many other mobile phones have the ability to display eBooks. eBooks are now within reach of tens of millions of customers, as eReaders come down in price, and as existing owners start exploring the eReading capabilities of their smartphones.
In fact, eBooks have become so popular over recent months that the number of eBook applications (and other book-related apps) launching on the iPhone (and equivalents) has overtaken the number of games on the same platforms*. Of course, the fact that the books are launching on these platforms doesn’t mean that the sales are higher than sales of games, but the fact that so many new books are becoming available in this format to so many potential new purchasers bodes extremely well for the format itself. Time will tell how popular these new apps are – after all, if they don’t sell, it’s unlikely the publishers will continue to launch the apps.
Amazon, too, have stated that for those titles they stock as both Kindle and paper-based versions, the Kindle version accounts for 48% of the titles’ sales. That’s a significant figure!
We won’t be ditching paper for quite some time, yet (if ever), but it’s interesting to watch how quickly we’re catching up with the future…
Interviews with some Angry Robot stars
Posted by: | Comments
Andy Remic at the Angry Robot launch event
On Saturday we held our official UK launch at the Forbidden Planet Megastore in London. Marc Gascoigne and myself were joined by a bunch important people (Angry Robot authors), a bunch of other important people (Liz and Mark from My Favourite Books - watch out for an exclusive Angry Robot competition on their site, soon), a whole host of Angry Robot friends and supporters, and (of course) the book-buying public!
It was the first time I had been to this branch of Forbidden Planet (I live oop north) and I am so glad I didn’t bring all my credit cards with me! What a fantastic selection of graphic novels and books! I could have spend thousands, there. Well, if I had thousands…
So, a huge thanks to everyone listed above who attended, and an even bigger thanks to Nick from loudmouthman.com who not only recorded the event, and conducted a series of interviews with some of those present, but who also took the time and effort to craft it into a smart little video, which is presented below.
Sixty-One Nails – Free Sample Chapter
Posted by: | Comments
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
Twitter Competition Results
Posted by: | Comments
Two days ago, to celebrate reaching 500 followers on Twitter, we launched a Twitter short story competition. The rules were: Write a single-tweet short story about a robot – any robot – and Tweet it. The tweet must include @angryrobotbooks so we can see it.
Simple, yes? Not so much – just try writing a story in 140 characters or less! Nevertheless, we were inundated with entries! So many, in fact, that we had to have our submissions ‘bot recharged halfway through the judging process.
So, huge thanks to everyone who took part. Here are a selection of the best (the Twitterer’s name is in bold):
Best Philosophical Stories
jasonlblair Had he ears, they would be deafened. Mind, worried. Heart, broken. But he did not so the sound of war meant nothing to him.
djelibeybi_meg Xa stepped out of line, the others remained unmoved. “What’s the point of sentience if I don’t use my choices?” it thought.
Best Romance
jaredsorensen Her titanium hand held flesh, then bone, then dust. She sits there still. A romance to last forever, even if he did not.
Best Tales of Gore
m_Robertson_UK “Why did no-one tell me what ‘nil by mouth’ actually meant?”, muttered the rookie nurse-bot, as it wiped the bloody walls.
garethlpowell Her metal hands dripped with blood. She had reassembled the human child but for some reason, it still wouldn’t breathe
phil_lunt Gax tore off her arm and scratched a face on it. A crude substitute baby for a robot. Gutteral shudders replaced sobbing
Best attempt at currying favour
_owl_ Once upon a time … We all read @angryrobotbooks and lived happily ever after. 
Best Jokes
m_Robertson_UK “Listen” says PC99, “Here’s a good one. A1 D6 5F 83 E5….” “I need to stop you there,” says C64, “I hate hexist jokes…”
davidalanmack LG969 had learned there were only 10 types of humans: those who liked binary-language robots and those who didn’t.
tsrosenberg “I’m a combination of Apple and Asimov!” “You’re what?” “I, iRobot!”
Best dance number
mpettitt You put the left leg on, you pull the left leg off, you do the robo-cokey and you reverse the polarity…
Best original programming
Mad_Penguin
10 INPUT “HUMAN? Y/N”, Z
20 IF Z=Y THEN GOTO 50
30 PRINT “You are free to go!”
40 GOTO 10
50 PRINT “DIE!”
60 GOTO 10
Best Möbius tale
jhunterj “How is this a short story about a robot?” asked T11U. “We’ll say you wrote it,” replied 95V5. “Then it’s recursively so.”
Best story from an Apple user
petertubbs Power up. Gather weapons. Travel. Target acquired. Safety Off. Aim. Error: Critical Windows Exemption. Powering down. Fail
Best tales of anticipation
jrobertking Some people would forget their heads if they weren’t attached. KR0n5 forgot its body. Then the rugby team arrived.
AlasdairStuart The Forest had been built as a joke, metal trees with fibre optic roots. When they found the seeds, the laughter stopped
Saddest Story
mpettitt The steady tone from the oscilliator changed to white noise. “I’m sorry” said the technician “There was nothing I could do
Best Angry Robot advertising pitch
jay_lake Biomechanical serial killer? BDSM ‘bot? Droid with a duct tape fetish? @angryrobotbooks, for when three laws just aren’t enough.
Most poetic
skippy_2 Though ‘Made in Japan’ / There’s no robots in haiku / It seems such a shame.
Best “something we might need to check when we get home” story
coffeewithkate The staff at @angryrobotbooks were neither angry nor were they robots. At least, that’s what their masters programmed them to believe
Best tale of Doh!
davidmbarnett “I still can’t believe we didn’t give them an off-switch,” said the last human to fall before the robot army’s onslaught.
and the winner is…
Best environmental story
punktorian Every day moved them closer to a planet without nature. To the amusement of the robots, they had not had to do a thing.
Punktorian – please DM us your address in Twitter and we’ll get a goody-bag out to you, including copies of our first 6 books and a couple of other cool things!
To everyone else who entered, thank you. This has been a huge amount of fun! We must do something similar when we reach 1,000 followers on Twitter…
More wise words on eBooks
Posted by: | Comments
While you’re sitting at home or work, waiting for the day we announce our books are available as eBooks (should be ultra soon, now – will update when we have further info), why not sit back and pop on over to the SFX website and read about eBook pricing – why some companies charge the prices they do, and what the costs of producing an eBook are compared to a paperback or hardback. Feel free to comment while you’re there, by the way…
Kell’s Legend – Free Sample Chapter
Posted by: | Comments
We will be offering free sample chapters of all of our titles prior to release, and to show you just how much we love you. Is that new, by the way? It looks really good on you.
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 Rem’s book.
The following extract is taken from Kell’s Legend by Andy Remic. 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/KellsLegend.epub
