Archive for News
Rampant Robots
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Here’s your bumper round-up of all things Robot. (Cue annoying dee-dee-diddly-dee news anchor ident sting overlaid with anachronistic sound of typewriters…)
Lovely Aliette de Bodard went deep, deep into the world of Acatl as she discussed the final novel in the Obsidian & Blood trilogy, Master of the House of Darts, with the Faster Times.
Aaand she made this lovely trailer for this latest Acatl novel too. Studio roll VT:
Aaaaaaaaand she’s running a really cool Aztec-themed competition on her blog. Check it out and win win win, as apparently they say!
Lovely Trent Jamieson talked all things Roil with the nice folks at Ranting Dragon.
Ahead of the concluding volume, King’s War, lovely Maurice Broaddus took a long, hard look at the extraordinary world of his Knights of Breton Court series for the Pudge Factor.
Lovely Lauren Beukes, modestly not mentioning much about her massive, massive new book deal (me and her mother, Mrs Harris, are so damn proud), was interviewed by Bruce Sterling. Yes, that Bruce Sterling.
Anne Lyle was lovely enough to share some advance secrets from her upcoming magical Elizabethan fantasy The Alchemist of Souls with Fran Terminielo.
The lovely KW Jeter was Guest of Honor at Steamcon III recently. Check out the pics and a great write up from Steampunk News. We think all our authors should get an official convention photo done with a girl with a boat on her head. No, just because.
And finally, no skateboarding puppies this week, but instead the lovely Lavie Tidhar gave great podcast for the Skiffy & Fanty Show in this discussion of his new novel Osama. It’s not by us, but it’s bloody great so fair dues and all that.
Cover art debut – introducing Chris F. Holm’s Collector series
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[ Click above to see larger versions of these covers. ]
So, how do you like these babies, Joe?
You see, the new urban fantasy series from the inimitable Chris F. Holm is a touch, shall we say, noir. OK, not so much a touch, more double-dipped, with an extra crunchy topping of NOIRRRRR. Just take a look at those titles for starters. Looks like somebody has been soaking up the Hammett and Chandler, and then twisting them for their own diabolically devious purposes.
So what’s a publisher to do? Well, what we chose to do was dive in with both feet, BLAM! You want noir, with a classic feel? Oh yeah, these new covers from Amazing15, with art direction by yours truly, reference all that’s great in mid-70s crime paperback design. Well sometimes, you know, genius just… steals. And we Robots wouldn’t have it any other way.
The first of these books featuring soul collector Sam Thornton, Dead Harvest, will be in stores in March next year, with The Wrong Goodbye following in November.
Dan Abnett brings you… Monstercide!
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New York Times-bestselling Science Fiction author Dan Abnett has sold two more original novels to Angry Robot. Huzzah!
MONSTERCIDE, due next year, is an epic future thriller of city-stomping creatures and the shadowy band of heroes sworn to defeat them. It will be followed the year after by an as-yet untitled sequel to his acclaimed 2011 planetary war novel, Embedded. Frankly, we can’t wait. We want them now.
Dan was kind enough to say: “Angry Robot is going to be publishing my third original novel next year. And my fourth, but that’s a story for the year after. I’m delighted that my relationship with them is continuing, and they’ve made me feel very welcome indeed. Monstercide is a huge and seething idea that’s been in my head for a while now, busting to get out, and I’m very grateful to the Robots of Rage for providing me with a venue for my brain to explode in. Uhm, that didn’t come out quite right…”
Maidstone, Kent-based Abnett made his name in the tie-in SF and Fantasy fiction field, selling more than 2 million copies in English language of his Warhammer 40,000 novels. He’s also made the UK fiction charts with original Doctor Who and Torchwood novels. His comic book scripts, for major publishers such as DC Comics, Marvel and the UK’s 2000 AD, have attracted critical plaudits and strong sales on both sides of the Atlantic.
Darren Turpin joins Angry Robot
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We have fresh flesh! We are delighted to announce that Little, Brown’s Online Marketing Manager Darren Turpin will be joining SF & fantasy imprint Angry Robot from 7th November, as Marketing & Digital Manager.
Turpin will report to Angry Robot publishing director Marc Gascoigne, and work on promoting the full range of Angry Robot titles, as well as developing some currently unannounced new digital initiatives. (Yay, secret stuff!) Turpin had been at Little, Brown for three and a half years, originally working for the company’s science fiction and fantasy list, Orbit. He was also previously manager of the (legendary!) SF department at Waterstone’s Deansgate, Manchester, editor of their in-house SF magazine The Alien Has Landed, and one of the compilers of The Waterstone’s Guide to SF & Fantasy.
Darren said, without any coercion: “I’m hugely excited by the prospect of working for Angry Robot; they’re a cutting-edge independent publisher with a great reputation, an enthusiastic fan-base and a fantastic author roster… what’s not to love? It will be great to get back to genre publishing as well, it’s where my roots lie and where my heart has always been. I can’t wait to get started.”
Marco added, as you do: “Darren’s made quite a name for himself in both science fiction bookselling and publishing. It’s our tremendous good fortune to find a role for him that truly plays to all of his strengths. Angry Robot is growing in leaps and bounds both in the UK and US, and Darren is just who we need to take our message further than ever before.”
Look out for him popping up here as soon as he’s gone through the implantation procedures.
Colin Harvey RIP
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It is with a heavy heart that we heard this morning about the death of Colin Harvey. He had a stroke on Monday morning, and did not recover.
I first met Colin at NewCon in Northampton, as I was just starting to get Angry Robot off the ground. We’d got talking about nothing in particular, as you do at SF conventions, but once he’d sniffed out I was not only a possible publisher but also open to pitches, he went for it with gusto. I bought two novels off him in quick succession – Winter Song and the still-in-progress Damage Time – and the former was included in our launch line-up in July 2009, the second novel last October. His writing was an unusual mix of traditional SF tropes – crashed spaceship, decaying city – but written with almost total focus on the characters of the people caught up in such events.
Colin hadn’t just come from nowhere, however. He had made frequent story sales in the usual venues, and had a trio of titles out through small presses in the UK and US. He had a natural enthusiasm for SF in all its forms too – he was part of the team organising the blossoming Bristolcon, and ran regular blogs and interviews across his and several other websites. He was a cheery presence on the UK SF scene, and we shall miss him terribly. Our thoughts and condolences go to his wife, Kate. — Marc
PS, thank you to everyone leaving your own reminiscences of Colin in the Comments section below. It’s wonderful to read them all.
New cover: Empire State
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[ Click for larger version. Click it, click it I say! ]
That there is the US cover for Adam Christopher‘s superlative Empire State, due from us in January 2012. The novel, as you may well recall, is a mix of superheroes and gumshoe detectives, in an alternative New York – which means this totally nails it. Incidentally, you can read Adam’s own thoughts on the creation of the cover over at Floor-to-Ceiling Books blog.
I’d say “ta-daaa!” and whip back the curtain with a flourish, but at least some of you have been all over this already, as our lovely chums over at Amazon.com managed to post it before we do. Gives an exciting little glimpse behind the emerald curtain, I guess. Unseen by the world at large, the race is always on to get a cover out to our suppliers in time for certain marketing deadlines, in as finished a state as possible, while not revealing it till the design is definitively complete and we (that is, the US sales team, UK sales team, various key bookstore people, and all us editorial and marketing types… not to mention that most valued opinion of all, namely the author) are all happy with it.
Read More→
New cover – Carpathia
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[ Click for a larger version. ]
Matt Forbeck‘s utterly outrageous – not to mention deeply sanguine – retelling of the Titanic disaster now has a cover, courtesy British designer Nick Castle. There it is, over there. Don’t get any on you!
The novel will be in stores next March, just in time for the centenary of that tragic night, way back in April 1912. As this book’s byline reaffirms, The lucky ones went down with the ship. Can’t wait!
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→
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→
