A few catch-ups to, er… catch up on – some brilliant interviews and superb reviews.

First up, we’re going old-school. Moxyland as reviewed by a native of South Africa (where it’s set):

I’d built up this book for myself for a while… Expectations were high, and they were met. It’s a hugely challenging and fun adventure through places both familiar and strange, encapsulated in a rich, coherent world. Highly recommended.

Read the full review here.

Falcata Times reviews J Robert King’s supernatural serial killer horror, Angel of Death:

Its quirky, its different and its definitely a novel to make you think… Not something to rush and will remain in the readers subconscious long after the final page.

Helium reviews Guy Adams’ The World House:

But in the meantime we have The World House, which is a wonderful read – and a book that deserves to be in the best-seller lists – by a writer who will at least keep me reading his new fiction.

A few interviews:

Dan Abnett interviewed by SciFi Now:

The premise [of Embedded] sounds really interesting, could you expand on your inspirations behind it?

It was one of those things that just sort of came along. Obviously through 40k, I am associated with what’s commonly known as, or officially known as Combat Science-Fiction. Military SF. Which I’d probably been writing for four or five years before I realised that it was a subgenre – I had no idea. In fact at 40k, in Black Library and stuff we always referred to it not as Combat SF, we referred to it as ‘shooty-death-kill-in-space’, which is a much better name for it. Anyway, if I’ve got a reputation based on anything at all, it’s probably that, because the bulk of my novels are those. The Gaunt’s Ghosts stuff particularly falls into that category. So one thing that Angry Robot said was ‘If you’re so damned good at that, can you put out something that plays on those strengths but has that universe stamp of being your own product’. So what I didn’t want to do was take the tried and tested Gaunt’s Ghosts formula, change his name to Gant, and they can be Gant’s Phantoms. You know, just transferring them across and crossing out 40k.

Kaaron Warren interviewed by DragonKat:

I get creeped out very easily. Just this morning on the bus, a man was picking at his fingernails and I wanted to hit him with my book.

I also tap into my subconscious very well. I think we all have nightmares under the surface. I can see what lies between, and I have these odd glimpses of dark truth.

Sometimes I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, as many do. It’s all too hard. There are too many problems, too much suffering. I think my writing is the result of all that. It’s like the negativity translates itself into story. Like that man on the bus, the fingernail picking one; things are not going to end well for him in my next story. Not well at all.

and Kylie Chan interviewed by Kathryn Linge:

After book three of the ‘Dark Heavens’ series, ‘Blue Dragon’, I received a constant stream of emails asking me when the next one would be out. I did a tour of the southern states just before Christmas to coincide with the release of ‘Earth to Hell’, and it was exciting to see queues of people at book shops waiting to have their copies signed. ‘Earth to Hell’ hit the top of a few best seller lists, and now I’m receiving the emails again – asking when the next one, ‘Hell to Heaven’, will be released.

And finally, some people who really seem to like our Mr Tidhar. Not quite sure what to make of this one… :-/

Have a great week!