Archive for Interesting Stuff
The Genesis of Slights
Posted by: | Commentsby Kaaron Warren.
Kaaron Warren’s critically-acclaimed – and award-winning – debut novel Slights is arguably the best horror novel of the year. Here, Kaaron tells us about how it all started…
Slights is the story of a young woman who sees the afterlife as a place where anyone she’s ever slighted is waiting in a dark room to take a piece of her.
I wrote it as a short story first but was frustrated trying to cram all I wanted to say into 3000 words. The more I wrote, the stronger Stevie became as a character and the more she wanted to say. Once I started telling the stories of the people she slights, the novel grew and grew. I wanted to tell those stories, though. I knew that every body in the room had a voice. Read More→
Angry Robot eBooks now available
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We’re big fans of eBooks, here at Angry Robot. Well, we’re big fans of books, and eBooks are just one of the formats that we love. We’ve been working furiously behind the scenes to get you eBook versions of our titles, and today we launch the first 9.
- Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
- Slights by Kaaron Warren
- Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero by Dan Abnett
- Winter Song by Colin Harvey
- The Crown of the Blood by Gav Thorpe
- Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon
- The Road to Bedlam by Mike Shevdon
- Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
- Kell’s Legend by Andy Remic
Our eBooks can be purchased through a number of online retailers, including the Amazon US Kindle store*, Barnes and Noble, Sony Reader Store, and many others. In the UK you will shortly be able to purchase them through Amazon Kindle UK and Waterstones. Within a few days our titles will also appear in the Apple iBookstore.
We have also launched our own eBook store at
Our eBooks are all currently priced at £3.50 (through UK retails) or $4.99 (overseas).
and if you purchase your eBooks through our own store, you can download them as often as you need to (in case you change eReading devices, for instance, or lose access to your copy for any other reason). And all downloads from angryrobotstore.com are DRM-free!
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Kindle US Note:
The search facility for these titles isn’t currently working at the Amazon.com Kindle store, so here are the direct links, while the techie gurus work their magic:
- Moxyland
- Sixty-One Nails
- Slights
- Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero
- Winter Song
- Kell’s Legend
- The Road to Bedlam*
- Zoo City*
*available from Thursday September 2nd.
Angry Robot Launches in the US and Canada today
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This will be the first of several posts today, as we’re all so gosh-darned excited here at Angry Robot Towers. You see, today’s the day we launch our first six titles in the USA and Canada, but then you already knew that, as the title of this post gave more than a little clue.
It’s been a fascinating, exciting journey, with one or two minor hiccups along the way, and we’re in a stronger position than we’ve been in since Angry Robot was first conceived, just over two years ago, in Hammersmith, London, England.
At 1.00 this afternoon (BST) we’ll be cracking open a bottle of champagne to celebrate, and invite you* to do the same**.
Check back throughout the day for further updates, competitions, news, and general buffoonery.
*Not at our expense, naturally – we’re lovely people, but we’re not rolling in money! 
** Feel free to substitute cola, tea, coffee, or the beverage of your choice.
Angry Robot TV launches!
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Ok, it’s not so much a TV channel as a collection of our multimedia links – videos, first chapter recordings, interviews, podcasts, etc.
So, pull up a chair, crack open a tub of your favourite ice-cream, and enjoy…
Choose your channel from the drop-down list under the new AR TV link in the main menu bar, above.
Zoo City gets 5 Stars in SFX Magazine
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SFX Magazine has just reached issue 200 – subscribers will have their copies already, and it hits the shops next Wednesday. Always a good read, issue 200 promises to be something very special, indeed, which is why we were thrilled when Liz from My Favourite Books told us about the review of Lauren Beukes’s Zoo City in that issue. SFX tells us that it is:
An energetic and imaginative fusion of sci-fi, fantasy and noir thriller
the magazine goes on to state that
Beukes has created a convincing and frequently disturbing world, while also looking at the lost and the marginalised through the eyes of a compelling, believably flawed protagonist… Zoo City is an absolute must for anyone with a taste for the wilder edges of the genre
5 ***** – and an “SFX Recommends” badge.
You can also enter a competition to win a signed, limited edition of the Zoo City hardback (and eBook) at SFX – just click here.
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
Oh, and congratulations to SFX for reaching such a monumental milestone, and still going strong!
Buy unique art inspired by Zoo City and help refugee kids in South Africa
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Zoo City Bares - click for full-size
With 36 hours to go on the Zoo City Bares charity auction (16 inch tall one-of-a-kind handpainted art toys inspired by Lauren Beukes’ novel, Zoo City – go to www.bidorbuy.co.za and search for “Zoo City Bares” to bid now) we got Lauren to write a blog on how it came about:
I’ve got into a very bad habit as a writer in the last couple of years: doing cool side projects that are wa-aa-aay out of my jurisdiction as professional typist extraordinaire.
Both Moxyland and Zoo City have their own official soundtracks put together by me and HoneyB at African Dope (www.africandope.co.za), but both books also have their own distinctive toys used to raise money for amazing causes. Read More→
What a load of morlocks!
Posted by: | CommentsI think the headline speaks for itself. Head on over to Adam Roberts‘ blog for more info…
Mike Shevdon – Tools for Writing
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There are many tools available to modern writers – tools that help with ideas, construction, filing. Angry Robot author Mike Shevdon has been trialling many of them, and posting his thoughts on his site.
There’re some really interesting insights here, and if you’re in the business of writing, it’s well worth a read.
Tools for Writing – part 1 – Microsoft Word
Is MS Word good enough for the writing of a full-length novel?
Tools for Writing – part 2 – Rough Draft 3.0
What about dedicated novel-writing software?
Before You Hit Save – a question of file formats
And how best should you save your work once written?
Tools for Writing – part 3 – Jer’s Novel Writer
Another piece of novel-writing software under the Mike-roscope (sorry).
Tools for Writing – part 4 – Scrivener
One of the best-known pieces of writing software for the Mac.
Tools for Writing – part 5 – FreeMind
And a piece of software to help organise your thoughts and ideas.
Mike’s site is worth a regular visit, and can be found at Shevdon.com.
Angry Robot of the Week
Posted by: | CommentsThis week’s feature, by Alasdair Stuart, was originally scheduled for last week, but we had to hold it back because Sonny was Just. So. Angry! Luckily, he’s calmed down a bit, now. And no – the name of the film in which he stars is not the working title for the next Apply gadget, even though Sonny looks like he was designed in those hallowed halls. We think.
Angry Robot of the Week
Week Four
Sonny
So let’s talk about the product placement in the room, shall we? Sonny is the central robot in I, Robot, Alex Proyas’ controversial adaptation/hybrid/chimera/Chuck Taylor Converse ad version of some of Isaac Asimov’s stories. It’s a very easy film to rag on for a whole variety of reasons, starting with what a lot of people perceive as a script that doesn’t remotely honour the source material and finishing with Will Smith looking up at a large bank of evil robots and muttering ‘Oh HELL no.’ Read More→
Cross Genre: Rise to Power
Posted by: | CommentsThe latest in our ad-hoc series of guest posts comes from Harry Markov, purveyor of fine fruits, and owner of the excellent book blog, Temple Library Reviews. So, take it away, Harry…
Cross Genre: Rise to Power
Hey, it was either this title or “Cross Genre: Literature’s own flamboyant transvestite.” Politically incorrect humor aside, genre has been trending in my thoughts as of late. When Lee asked me to write a post for the Angry Robot Books website, it seemed natural to talk about cross genre. It seemed like a Cinderella fit on an intellectual level [minus the fairytale wedding].
So, back to genre. Read More→
