Horror, dragons, spooky hospitals: THESE ARE THE FACTS, PEOPLE!

Drop everything!

This week sees not one, but TWO smashing releases from Solaris - Greatshadow by James Maxey and The Faceless by Simon Bestwick! Out this week in the both the UK and the US, these two impressive tomes will blow your socks off - guaranteed!

And to celebrate, this week we'll be bringing you some interesting posts to whet your appetite, tickle your fancy and ... stimulate other bits of you.

Here's the details of each book, but stayed tuned this week for juicy bits. Lots and lots of juicy bits!

Book One of the Dragon Apocalypse

Greatshadow

by James Maxey

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-907992-73-5

$8.99/$10.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978-1907992-72-8

Available as an ebook

Solaris is proud to present the first in a breathtaking new trilogy by one of its most popul

ar authors: Greatshadow is the first book in the Dragon Apocalypse series by James Maxey, author of the Dragon Age series.

The Church of the Book has assembled a team of twelve battle-hardened adventurers to slay Greatshadow, the evil elemental dragon who spies through every candle flame, once and for all.

But tensions run high between the leaders of the team who view the mission as a holy duty and the superpowered mercenaries who add power to their ranks, who view this as a chance to claim Greatshadow’s vast treasure. If the warriors fail to slay the beast, will they doom mankind to death by fire?

A striking mix of adventure, fantasy and lurking menace, Greatshadow promises to be the beginning of a stand-out new series in 2012, written by a real master of the genre.

“…a book that feels like fantasy but is, at core, smart science fiction. It feels like — and is — a magnificent hero story.”

– Orson Scott Card on James Maxey’s Bitterwood

The Faceless

by Simon Bestwick

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978- 1-907992-74-2

$8.99/$10.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978- 1-907992-75-9

Available as an ebook

In the Lancashire town of Kempforth, people are vanishing.

When two-year-old Roseanne Trevor disappears, the local kids blame ‘The Spindly Men’. But even as Detective Chief Inspector Renwick vows to stop at nothing until she finds her, terrifying visions summon TV psychic Allen Cowell and his sister Vera back to the town they swore they’d left forever and local historian Anna Mason pieces together a history of cruelty and

exploitation almost beyond belief.

Meanwhile, in the decaying corridors and lightless rooms of a long abandoned hospital, something terrible is waiting for them all.

In a chilling tale of contemporary small-town horror, Bestwick has truly evoked the terror of films such as The Orphanage and the writing of James Herbert, Adam Nevill and M R James.

“Simon Bestwick writes with great imaginative flair and an excellent grasp of colour and narrative pace.'”

– Daily Telegraph

Audrey Niffenegger comes to Solaris for Magic anthology

International best-selling author Audrey Niffenegger is to pen a story for Solaris’ forthcoming anthology, Magic.

Solaris are proud to announce that Niffenegger, whose novel The Time Traveller's Wife has sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide, is to produce a story for the themed anthology of the occult and arcane, due for release in November 2012 in North America and the UK, in both paperback and ebook.

This is the third themed collection from Solaris editor-in-chief Jonathan Oliver. The previous critically-acclaimed anthologies include The End of the Line, which featured stories set on the Underground, and House of Fear, which rebooted the haunted house for the 21st Century. The titles garnered ecstatic reviews, with The Times describing End of the Line’s stories as “exceptionally good”.

“I'm delighted to be involved in this project,” said Audrey Niffenegger. “My story is called The Wrong Fairie and is about Charles Altamont Doyle. He was a Victorian artist who was institutionalized for alcoholism. He was also the father of Arthur Conan Doyle, and he believed in fairies.”

Niffenegger became a publishing sensation thanks to The Time Traveller’s Wife, published in 2003 and made into a Hollywood movie in 2009, and her subsequent novel was the subject of intense bidding by publishing houses.

“It's really very exciting to be working with Audrey, whose novels The Time Traveller's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry show an author with a great talent for subverting genre norms and delivering the unexpected,” said Jonathan Oliver. “Audrey's story is sure to make a great addition to Magic.”

The line-up for Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane is set to include other high profile authors, including Richard and Judy Book Club-choice Alison Littlewood, NYT Bestseller Dan Abnett, and celebrated authors such as Christopher Fowler, Storm Constantine, Robert Shearman, Paul Meloy, Sophia McDougall, Will Hill, Gemma Files, along with new writers such as Sarah Lotz, Lou Morgan and Thana Niveau and more.

Solaris hold world English and translation rights to the anthology.

Debut author brings a devilish edge to the English Civil War

Figure the English Civil War is all about dashing Cavaliers and dour Roundheads? Think again…

Solaris is proud to announce it has acquired Gideon’s Angel by Clifford Beal (pictured), due for publication in 2013, which takes the seemingly familiar history of the mid 17th Century but introduces an infernal plot that makes this much more than just a history lesson!

Described as The Day of the Jackal meets The Devil Rides Out, this swashbuckling historical fantasy set in the aftermath of the terrible English Civil War sees science and alchemy as strange bedfellows with witchcraft and magic.

An epic adventure in the tradition of Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane, it is set in England in 1653. Colonel Richard Treadwell, an exiled Royalist officer in the service of Cardinal Mazarin, returns home in secret from France on a self-appointed mission to assassinate Oliver Cromwell, now king in all but name. He quickly learns however, that his is not the only plot in motion.

A secret army run by a deluded Puritan is bent on the same quest, guided by the Devil’s hand. When demonic entities are summoned, Treadwell finds himself in a desperate turnaround: he must save Cromwell to save England from a literal descent into hell. But can he convince the man sent to forcibly bring him back to the Cardinal? A young king's musketeer named d'Artagnan.

“Not only is Clifford’s novel a rip-roaring blood and thunder horror fantasy,” said Jon Oliver, editor-in-chief of Solaris, “it is also a brilliant historical thriller. His sense of history and depth of narrative really transports you deep into a post-civil war London. It’s always a real joy to discover an accomplished debut novelist, and I know that Gideon’s Angel is really going to make its mark on the genre.”

About the Author
Originally from Providence, Rhode Island, Clifford Beal is an award-winning journalist and the former Editor of the authoritative London-based international news magazine Jane’s Defence Weekly. He worked as a defence journalist for over 20 years in both the US and the UK before he began writing books.

Beal is the author of Quelch’s Gold, the true story of a little-known but remarkable Anglo-American pirate of the 18th century who was the first man to be tried in a British Admiralty court outside of England (Praeger Books, 2007).

And writing realistic sword fighting scenes in fiction is second nature to Beal. He began medieval style armoured combat at the age of 17 in the US and later, in the mid-1990s, he organised a group of friends to begin the practical study of renaissance rapier and dagger techniques. This became the Sussex Rapier Society and is now the Sussex Sword Academy in Brighton.

Gideon’s Angel is his debut novel.

Solaris Wins "This Is Horror" Awards 2011!

Wha-hey!

So, wotcher all. I'm not sure if you're aware of the sterling work that This Is Horror does, promoting and discussing the horror genre? If not, go and check out their site; it's crammed with interviews, reviews, features and all sorts of good stuff.

At any rate, they have recently launched a new award for the horror genre, the annual This Is Horror Award, which enjoyed an enormous response and looks set to become something pretty exciting in the years ahead.

And just to show what great taste they have, they have awarded us - Solaris Books and Abaddon Books, Rebellion's sister fiction imprints - their inaugural Publisher of the Year Award!

We're thrilled, naturally. Jon, our Editor-in-Chief, says, “What a lovely way to start the New Year! I’m so pleased that Abaddon and Solaris have made their mark on the horror genre, because horror has always been my first love, ever since I discovered Ramsey Campbell at the age of 11. It’s been a real pleasure to work with This is Horror over 2011 and to be recognised by Michael and the team in this way means a great deal to us.”

To top it off, they've also given one of our books, Gary McMahon's The Concrete Grove, the Novel of the Year Award. We're massively chuffed for Gary; this is an amazing book, and the start of what's promising (having just finished the copy-edit on Silent Voices myself) to be an extraordinary series.

Gary says, “I’m delighted to have my book named as Novel of the Year. The Concrete Grove is a very personal novel and it’s gratifying to receive any kind of recognition for my work.”

So we're just popping open the champers in our office, here, and will pop up a photo of the certificate. Huge congratulations to Angry Robot, the runner-up Publisher of the Year, to BC Furtney, whose Scarla was the  runner-up Novel of the Year, and to all the other winners and runners-up.

Cracking.

Prepare to soar into a brand new dragon series

Book One of the Dragon Apocalypse
Greatshadow
by James Maxey

Arriving 31st January (US & Canada) and 2nd February (US)

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-907992-73-5
$8.99/$10.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978-1907992-72-8

Available as an ebook
REVIEW COPIES and INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE

Solaris is proud to present the first in a breathtaking new trilogy by one of its most popular authors: Greatshadow is the first book in the Dragon Apocalypse series by James Maxey, author of the Dragon Age series.

The Church of the Book has assembled a team of twelve battle-hardened adventurers to slay Greatshadow, the evil elemental dragon who spies through every candle flame, once and for all.

But tensions run high between the leaders of the team who view the mission as a holy duty and the superpowered mercenaries who add power to their ranks, who view this as a chance to claim Greatshadow’s vast treasure. If the warriors fail to slay the beast, will they doom mankind to death by fire?

A striking mix of adventure, fantasy and lurking menace, Greatshadow promises to be the beginning of a stand-out new series in 2012, written by a real master of the genre.

“…a book that feels like fantasy but is, at core, smart science fiction. It feels like — and is — a magnificent hero story.”

– Orson Scott Card on James Maxey’s Bitterwood

About the Author
James Maxey lives in Hillsborough, NC with his lovely bride Cheryl and a clowder of unruly cats. His novels include the superhero tales Nobody Gets the Girl and Burn Baby Burn, and the Dragon Age trilogy of Bitterwood, Dragonforge, and Dragonseed. His latest fantasy series is an enthusiastic blend of the superhero and fantasy genres into the multi-book epic of the Dragon Apocalypse, beginning with Greatshadow in February 2012, followed by Hush in July 2012, and Witchbreaker in January 2013.
Maxey’s short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. His short story Empire of Dreams and Miracles was a Phobos Award winner, and his ghost tale Silent as Dust was included in the Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2009 edition. These stories and others appear in his short story collection There is No Wheel. For more information on James and his writing, visit his blog at dragonprophet.blogspot.com

For Your Consideration

As you will know, the time of year has come upon us once again when the World Science Fiction Society decide on their nominations for the Hugo Awards. You are eligible to nominate if you attended WorldCon last year, or are to attend WorldCon this year, or have signed up for 2013's WorldCon. Instructions for nomination can be found here and the deadline is 31st of January (which also happens to be my birthday. Send cake.)

So, for your consideration, here is a list of Solaris and Abaddon titles that are eligible for nomination:

Novels:

Pax Britannia: Pax Omega - Al Ewing

Age of Odin - James Lovegrove

Twilight of Kerberos: The Trials of Trass Kathra - Mike Wild

The Sentinel Mage - Emily Gee

Malory's Knights of Albion: Black Chalice - Steve Savile

Loss of Separation - Conrad Williams

Cloneworld - Andy Remic

Tomes of The Dead: The Viking Dead - Toby Venables

The Kings of Eternity - Eric Brown

Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein - Jonathan Green

No Man's World: Ironclad Prophecy - Pat Kelleher

The Noise Revealed - Ian Whates

Malory's Knights of Albion: Savage Knight - Paul Lewis

Dead of Veridon - Tim Akers

Desdaemona - Ben Macallan

Tomes of The Dead: Double Dead - Chuck Wendig

The Concrete Grove - Gary McMahon

Sympathy for the Devil - Justin Gustainis

The Hadrumal Crisis: Dangerous Waters - Juliet E. McKenna

The Recollection - Gareth Powell

Regicide - Nicholas Royle

Redlaw - James Lovegrove

Kultus - Richard Ford

Theme Planet - Andy Remic

Authors eligible for the John W. Campbell award (best new writer):

Toby Venables

Gareth L. Powell

Richard Ford

Chuck Wendig

Cover artists for your consideration:

Mark Harrison (Pax Britannia: Gods of Manhattan/ Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein)

Gerard Miley (Tomes of The Dead: The Viking Dead)

Simon Parr (Malory's Knights of Albion: Black Chalice/ No Man's World: The Ironclad Prophecy/ Malory's Knights of Albion: Savage Knight/ Tomes of the Dead: Double Dead/ Regicide/ Solaris Rising: The New Solaris Book of SF)

Luke Preece (Tomes of The Dead: Best of Tomes of The Dead Vol. 2/ House of Fear)

Marek Okon (Age of Odin/ Cloneworld/ Themeplanet)

Stephan Martiniere (Engineering Infinity)

Larry Rostant (The Sentinel Mage)

Dominic Harman (The Kings of Eternity/ The Noise Revealed)

Vincent Chong (Loss of Separation/ Desdaemona/ The Concrete Grove)

Greg Staples (Dead of Veridon/ Twilight of Kerberos: The Trials of Trass Kathra)

Chris McGrath (Sympathy for The Devil)

Frazer Irving (Kultus)

Clint Langley (Redlaw/ The Hadrumal Crisis: Dangerous Waters)

Short Stories, for your consideration:

From Engineering Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan

Malak by Peter Watts

Watching the Music Dance by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Laika's Ghost by Karl Schroeder

The Invasion of Venus by Stephen Baxter

The Server and the Dragon by Hannu Rajaniemi

Bit Rot by Charles Stross

Creatures with Wings by Kathleen Ann Goonan

Walls of Flesh, Bars of Bone by Damien Broderick and Barbara Lamar

Mantis by Robert Reed

Judgment Eve by John C. Wright

A Soldier of the City by David Moles

Mercies by Gregory Benford

The Ki-anna by Gwyneth Jones

The Birds and the Bees and the Gasoline Trees by John Barnes

From Solaris Rising: The New Solaris Book of SF, edited by Ian Whates

A Smart Well-Mannered Uprising of the Dead by Ian McDonald

The Incredible Exploding Man by Dave Hutchinson

Sweet Spots by Paul di Filippo

The Best Science Fiction of the Year Three by Ken MacLeod

The One that Got Away by Tricia Sullivan

Rock Day by Stephen Baxter

Eluna by Stephen Palmer

Shall I Tell You the Problem with Time Travel? by Adam Roberts

The Lives and Deaths of Che Guevara by Lavie Tidhar

Steel Lake by Jack Skillingstead

Mooncakes by Mike Resnick and Laurie Tom

At Play in the Fields by Steve Rasnic Tem

How We Came Back from Mars by Ian Watson

You Never Know by Pat Cadigan

Yestermorrow by Richard Salter

Dreaming Towers, Silent Mansions by Jaine Fenn

Eternity's Children by Keith Brooke and Eric Brown

For the Ages by Alastair Reynolds

Return of the Mutant Worms by Peter F. Hamilton

From House of Fear, edited by Jonathan Oliver

Objects in Dreams may be Closer than they Appear by Lisa Tuttle

Pied-a-Terre by Stephen Volk

In the Absence of Murdock by Terry Lamsley

Florrie by Adam L.G. Nevill

Driving the Milky Way by Weston Ochse

Moretta by Garry Kilworth

Hortus Conclusus by Chaz Brenchley

The Dark Space in the House in the House in the Garden at the Centre of the World by Robert Shearman

The Muse of Copenhagen by Nina Allan

An Injustice by Christopher Fowler

The Room Upstairs by Sarah Pinborough

Villanova by Paul Meloy

Widow's Weeds by Christopher Priest

The Doll's House by Jonathan Green

Inside/Out by Nicholas Royle

The House by Eric Brown

Trick of the Light by Tim Lebbon

What Happened to Me by Joe R. Lansdale

Horror has no face...

The Faceless

by Simon Bestwick

OUT ON 2ND FEBRUARY (UK) AND 31ST JANUARY (US & CANADA)

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978- 1-907992-74-2 $8.99/$10.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978- 1-907992-75-9

Also available as an ebook

In the Lancashire town of Kempforth, people are vanishing.

When two-year-old Roseanne Trevor disappears, the local kids blame ‘The Spindly Men’. But even as Detective Chief Inspector Renwick vows to stop at nothing until she finds her, terrifying visions summon TV psychic Allen Cowell and his sister Vera back to the town they swore they’d left forever and local historian Anna Mason pieces together a history of cruelty and exploitation almost beyond belief.

Meanwhile, in the decaying corridors and lightless rooms of a long abandoned hospital, something terrible is waiting for them all.

In a chilling tale of contemporary small-town horror, Bestwick has truly evoked the terror of films such as The Orphanage and the writing of James Herbert, Adam Nevill and M R James.

“Simon Bestwick writes with great imaginative flair and an excellent grasp of colour and narrative pace.”

– Daily Telegraph

"Outlandish, action-packed, violent, fun, and exciting"

We get the feeling that SF Book Reviews might have quite liked Andy Remic's Theme Planet from Solaris. After all, they did give it a whopping FIVE stars!

"I seriously loved this book, as with all of the author's novels there is a relentless vibrance, an unforgiving energy that you can't help but be swept along with and this is combined with a great plot, larger than life characters and some powerful messages, highly recommended."

And it garnered a few fans over at Figures.com too: "The craziest sci-fi writer out there continues to create characters, stories, and settings unlike anything and everything else out there! ... Remic's work is outlandish, action-packed, violent, fun, and exciting."

Here's the blurb for the most action-packed book you'll read this year:

Welcome to Theme Planet, an entire alien world dedicated to insane rides, excessive hedonism and dangerous adventure - the No. 1 destination for fun-seeking human holidaymakers galaxy-wide!

Amba Miskalov is an Anarchy Android – beautiful, merciless and deadly. Sent to Theme Planet on a dangerous assassination mission, Amba stumbles upon a plot to undermine and destroy Earth’s all-powerful Oblivion Government – and its Ministers of Joy. Will Amba remain loyal to her creators and tormentors, support the enemy – or just annihilate them all?

The writer behind the popular Combat K novels returns with a new series set in the world of The Anarchy – another blistering SF journey that fans will love and new readers will find full of action infused adventure!

“Hard-hitting, galaxy spanning, no-holds barred, old fashioned action adventure.”

– The Guardian on War Machine

In the UK? Buy a copy here or go get the ebook. For the US, you can bag yourself a copy here or the ebook here.

Epic fantasies fulfilled! Girl on lizard action!

Babylon Steel
by Gaie Sebold

OUT NOW in the UK, US and Canada!

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-907992-37-7
$7.99 (US & Canada) ISBN 978-1-907992-38-4
Also available as an eBook

Ex-sword-for-hire Babylon Steel runs the best brothel in the city. She’s got elves using sex magic upstairs, S&M in the basement, a green troll cooking breakfast in the kitchen, and she’d love you to visit, except…

She’s not having a good week. The Vessels of Purity are protesting against brothels, her girls are disappearing, and if she can’t pay her taxes she’s going to lose her business. Despite giving up the mercenary life, when the mysterious Darask Fain pays her to find a missing heiress, she has to take the job. And then her past starts to catch up with her in other, more dangerous ways.

Witty and fresh, debut author Sebold delivers the most exciting take on the fantasy genre in years.

"A unique and richly realised setting, a vivid cast, a plot that coils and divides and fakes and deceives... Ingenious, gripping, and full of pleasures on every level. Exceptional."

– Mike Carey, author of NYT Best Seller The Unwritten and the Felix Castor novels

New Eric Brown title comes to Solaris

Award-winning SF author Eric Brown is to bring another of his masterpiece novels to Solaris.

Solaris is delighted to announce that it has acquired Serene Invasion, a brand new novel by the celebrated writer. The novel will be delivered at the end of 2012 for a summer 2013 publication. The agent was John Jarrold, and the deal was for UK/US rights.

Serene Invasion spans the first twenty-five years following an entirely peaceful invasion of Earth by aliens who believe they are saving humanity from self-destruction. The novel opens in 2025, with the world plagued by war, terrorist attacks, poverty and increasingly desperate demands for water, oil, resources.

The West and China are sending forces into Africa and South America in order to 'stabilise' regimes, but in reality to garner precious land on which to farm intensively, mine for resources and drill for oil. Much of the global conflict surrounds the dearth of natural resources in an overpopulated world, with the rich West and China doing nothing to alter their materialistic life-style. And then the Serene arrive…

Eric’s highly-acclaimed Kings of Eternity was published in 2011, going on to top several ‘best of’ lists in the New Year, and the imprint also published his novels Helix, Xenopath, Necropath, Cosmopath, Kethani, Engineman, and Guardians of the Phoenix.

“I'm delighted to be doing The Serene Invasion for Solaris,” said Brown. “It's a book that has been on the back-burner for years, and a project I'm very excited about. Alien invasion with a difference, set in Britain, India and Africa, featuring a varied cast of human characters who each in their own way respond to the coming of the Serene.”

“For me, Eric is up there with the greats – Silverberg, Clarke, Leiber,” said Jonathan Oliver, editor-in-chief at Solaris. “So it’s always a delight to bring a new work by this brilliant author to genre fans.”

“Even a collaboration between John Wyndham and Clifford D. Simak at their best would be hard pressed to equal this."

– Peter F. Hamilton on Kings of Eternity

All aboard the Hell Train: Chris Fowler event this month!

It's the new year, the parties are over and the return to work has either claimed you or is looming large on the horizon.

What better way to avoid the post-festive blues than by spending an evening on a thrilling ride to the depths of hell itself with one of the country's best known authors?

Christopher Fowler is the multi-award winning author of more than 30 novels, including the Bryant & May mysteries, and has created some of the most memorable taglines in movie history - including Alien's 'In space, no-one can hear you scream'.

Hell Train is his first novel for Solaris and we're jolly excited about it! It's a classic tale set in the halcyon days of British horror cinema, brimming with bizarre creatures, satanic rites and terrified train passengers.

To celebrate the launch of this fantastic new title, Christopher will be joined by Solaris editor-in-chief, Jonathan Oliver, for what promises to be an exciting evening of conversation at Foyles on Charring Cross Road in London.

The event will take place on 19th January 2012 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm at Foyles, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB. Tickets are free, but need to be reserved by e-mailing events@foyles.co.uk

Full details are here.

Day 24: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our faithful readers! As a Christmas present to you here is a roundup of all our free eBooks available to download from 2011 – a little something to enjoy before you kick off your Yuletide celebrations or even something to hide yourself away from the bedlam! Enjoy!


The End of The Line edited by Jonathan Oliver
A collection of some of the very best in new horror writing in a themed anthology of stories set on, and around, the Underground, the Metro and other places deep below. The Lure is an erotically-charged tale of voyeurism and dread sparked by Nicholas Royle that is included in The End of the Line and now available as a free download.

The Wizard’s Coming by Juliet E Mckenna serves as a prequel for The Hadrumal Crisis – McKenna’s brand new trilogy that hit the shops in August with Dangerous Waters. Download now in ePub, Kindle and PDF.

Eric Brown’s The Blue Portal is the opening of his novel The Kings of Eternity, which began as this short story. The Kings of Eternity took SF great Eric Brown ten years to complete and is a space opera spanning decades. Download the first chapter The Blue Portal for free now using the epub file from our website.








Babylon Steel is Gaie Sebold’s debut novel and a brilliant start to an exciting new fantasy series. Ex-sword-for-hire, ex… other things, Babylon runs the best brothel in Scalentine; city of many portals, two moons, and a wide variety of races, were-creatures, and religions, not to mention the occasional insane warlock.

She’s not having a good week. The Vessels of Purity are protesting against brothels, women in the trade are being attacked, it’s tax time, and there’s not enough money to pay the bill. So when the mysterious Darask Fain offers her a job finding a missing girl, Babylon decides to take it. But the missing girl is not what she seems, and neither is Darask Fain. In the meantime twomoon is approaching, and more than just a few night’s takings are at risk when Babylon’s hidden past reaches out to grab her by the throat. To read the first chapter follow the links for epub and mobi.

Hell Train is the Hammer Horror movie they never made. In his first book for Solaris, Christopher Fowler, the multi-award winning author of the Bryant & May mysteries conjures up bizarre creatures, satanic rites, terrified passengers and the romance of train travel, all in a classically-styled horror novel that evokes the real-life spirits of this most British of movie studios.

When American screenwriter Shane Carter is asked to revive the classic studio’s fortunes and, inspired by an old board game, writes a script where four strangers who meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War must solve a terrifying mystery if they are to survive.
As they race through the war-torn countryside, they must uncover the secrets of a locked casket and of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them. And what exactly is the devilish riddle of the train itself?! Read the first chapter here and see if you get hooked! epub and mobi

And to round things off, we present the first chapter of the next book in the Twilight of Kerberos series – The Wrath of Kerberos by Jonathan Oliver – which will be the first time the imprint has published a brand new title as only an ebook.

The Twilight of Kerberos is a shared-world fantasy series set on a planet inhabited by the remnants of lost civilisations, orbiting the gas giant Kerberos. The Wrath of Kerberos will be the series’ ninth book.

The Wrath of Kerberos will be released early next year and the first chapter is available in epub and mobi formats.

Thanks for sticking with the Abaddon and Solaris Advent Calendar. We hope you've found something you like.

Merry Christmas, readers! See you in 2012!

Day 23: The Best of 2011

We love all out books and authors here at Abaddon and Solaris but we wanted to showcase a few worth noting from 2011:

Solaris Rising edited by Ian Whates. Solaris Rising is the first in an exciting new series of anthologies that are set to reaffirm Solaris’s proud reputation for producing high quality science-fiction. The book feature's all original short stories from some of the foremost authors in the field; stories guaranteed to surprise, thrill and delight, demonstrating yet again why science fiction remains the most innovative, satisfying, and downright exciting genre of all.






The Recollection is Gareth L Powell’s debut SF novel with Solaris
When his brother disappears into a bizarre gateway on a London Underground escalator, failed artist Ed Rico and his brother's wife Alice have to put aside their feelings for each other to go and find him. Their quest through the 'arches' will send them hurtling through time, to new and terrifying alien worlds.
Four hundred years in the future, Katherine Abdulov must travel to a remote planet in order to regain the trust of her influential family. The only person standing in her way is her former lover, Victor Luciano, the ruthless employee of a rival trading firm.
Hard choices lie ahead as lives and centuries clash and, in the unforgiving depths of space, an ancient evil stirs...


The Black Chalice by Steven Saville is the beginning of Abaddon Books' brand new The Malory’s Knights of Albion Series
Son of a knight and aspirant to the Round Table, Alymere yearns to take his place in the world, and for a quest to prove his worth. He comes across the foul Devil's Bible – written in one night by an insane hermit – which leads and drives him, by parts, to seek the unholy Black Chalice. On his quest he will face, and overcome, dire obstacles and cunning enemies, becoming a knight of renown; but the ultimate threat is to his very soul. Malory’s Knights of Albion: The Black Chalice is the start of an exciting new series of never-before-seen Arthurian adventures.



House of Fear edited Jonathan Oliver is our 2011 horror anthology
The tread on the landing outside the door, when you know you are the only one in the house. The wind whistling through the eves, carrying the voices of the dead. The figure glimpsed briefly through the cracked window of a derelict house. Editor Jonathan Oliver brings horror home with a collection of haunted house stories by some of the finest writers working in the horror genre, including Joe R. Lansdale, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Christopher Priest, Adam L. G. Nevill, Nicholas Royle, Chaz Brenchley, Christopher Fowler, Gary Kilworth, Weston Ochse, Eric Brown, Tim Lebbon, Nina Allan, Stephen Volk, Paul Meloy and more.

Dangerous Waters is the first novel in a brand new series for The Hadrumal Crisis by Juilet E. McKenna. The Archmage rules the island of wizards and has banned the use of magecraft in warfare, but there are corsairs raiding the Caladhrian Coast, enslaving villagers and devastating trade. Barons and merchants beg for magical aid, but all help has been refused so far.
Lady Zurenne’s husband has been murdered by the corsairs, and a man she doesn’t even know stands watch over her and her daughters. Corrain, former captain and now slave to the corsairs, knows that Zurenne’s guardian is a rogue wizard.

If Corrain can only escape, he’ll see justice done. Unless the Archmage’s magewoman, Jilseth, catches the renegade first...

Viking Dead by Toby Venables is a typical example of the fresh eyes the Tomes of the Dead series bring to Zombie literature
Northern Europe, 976 AD. Bjólf and the viking crew of the ship Hrafn flee up an unknown river after a bitter battle, only to find themselves in a bleak land of pestilence. The dead don’t lie down, but become draugr – the undead – returning to feed on the flesh of their kin. Terrible stories are told of a dark castle in a hidden fjord, and of black ships that come raiding with invincible draugr berserkers. And no sooner has Bjólf resolved to leave, than the black ships appear... Now stranded, his men cursed by the contagion of walking death, Bjólf has one choice: fight his way through a forest teeming with zombies, invade the castle and find the secret of the horrific condition – or submit to an eternity of shambling, soulless undeath!
 

Day 22: Galactic Tales

Only a couple of days left for Christmas shopping! Lucky for you, eBooks can be brought and delivered in one click!

Today’s recommendation is for Solaris Author, Eric Brown. Not only has he written a huge volume of novels for Solaris Books but he is described by Peter F Hamiliton as ‘the name to watch in SF’.

The Kings of Eternity
1999 on the threshold of a new millennium, the novelist Daniel Langham lives a reclusive life on an idyllic Greek island, hiding away from humanity and the events of the past. All that changes, however, when he meets artist Caroline Platt and finds himself falling in love. But what is his secret, and what are the horrors that haunt him? 1935. Writers Jonathon Langham and Edward Vaughan are summoned from London by their editor friend Jasper Carnegie to help investigate strange goings-on in Hopton Wood. What they discover there – no less than a strange creature from another world – will change their lives forever. What they become, and their link to the novelist of the future, is the subject of Eric Brown’s most ambitious novel to date.
To read the opening chapter of The Blue Portal, the story that inspired The Kings of Eternity, download the .epub file from our website, or find the book on Apple’s iBookstore. If you haven’t got an e-reader, just read the book in PDF format!


Helix
Helix is a grandiose space opera, a story of exploration, alien contact and desperation. It follows the plight of a group of humans who crash land on a desolate alien planet. Daylight brings the discovery that the planet is merely one of thousands arranged in a vast spiral wound around a central sun. The group set off to discover a more habitable Earth-like world, encountering bizarre alien races on the way. But they must also find a means to stay alive






Proving that good things come in threes - The Bengal Station Trilogy is set on an exotic spaceport that dominates the ocean between India and Burma and follows Jaded telepath, Jeff Vaughan. In the first novel, Necropath, Vaughan discovers a sinister cult that worships a mysterious alien god. The Church of the Adoration of the Chosen One uses drugs to commune with the Ultimate, and will murder to silence those who oppose their beliefs. The story follows Vaughan as his mistrust of his fellow humans is overturned by his love for the Thai street-girl Sukura, while he attempts to solve the murders and save himself from the psychopath out to kill him.

Xenopath - Happily married to Sukara with a child on the way, Vaughan now works for a telepathic detective agency and is investigating a series of murders linked to the colony world of Mallory, and the slaughter of innocent aliens there by the Scheering-Lassiter colonial organisation. But not only does the investigation put his own life in danger, back on Bengal Station Sukara’s life is threatened too.

Finally in Cosmopath, Jeff Vaughan comes out of retirement when he is hired by a ruthless businessman to find out what happened to a lost crew. When he arrives on Canopus VII, the investigation takes a strange turn as they are captured by a group of humans inhabiting the planet. They take him to an underground city, where the true reason for the investigation becomes clear
 

The Faceless - A winter chill coming your way in 2012

And now that we're barreling into the last few days of 2011, I thought what better time to give you a taster of something special for February 2012? If you like Adam Nevill, Joe Hill, Gary McMahon... hell, if you like great supernatural fiction then you're going to love Simon Bestwick's brilliant novel The Faceless.

To give you some hint of the dread secrets that lie within, here's a book trailer for you to enjoy.

Day 21: Christmas Chronicles

‘Royal intrigue, court politics and outlawed magic make for an exciting adventure.’

Rowena is an award winning fantasy author and her Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin has everything a great fantasy needs - kings and queens, beasts and warriors, magic and politics. Rowena set out to write the ideal book to curl up with during the winter months and we think that makes for a great Christmas gift.

The King’s Bastard: Book One of The Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin
The Kingdom of Rolencia, By royal decree, all those afflicted with Affinity must serve the Abbey or face death. Sent to the Abbey because of his innate Affinity, the King’s youngest son, Fyn, trains to become a warrior monk. Unfortunately, he’s a gentle dreamer and the other acolytes bully him. The only way he can escape them is to serve the Abbey Mystic, but his Affinity is weak.
Fiercely loyal, thirteen year-old Piro is horrified to discover she is also cursed with unwanted Affinity. It broke their mother’s heart to send Fyn away, so she hides her affliction. But, when Fyn confesses his troubles, Piro risks exposure to help him.
Even though Byren Kingson is only seven minutes younger than his twin, Lence, who is the king's heir, Byren has never hungered for the Rolencian throne. When a Seer predicts that he will kill Lence, he laughs. But Lence Kingsheir sees Byren’s growing popularity and resents it. Enduring loyalty could be Byren’s greatest failing.


The Uncrowned King: Book Two of The Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin
Rolencia’s ancestral enemy, Merofynia, has invaded and marches on King Rolen’s castle. Powerless to help, thirteen yeard old Piro watches as her father, King Rolen, listens to poisoned whispers concerning his son Bryen. How could the King doubt his second son? Determined to prove his loyalty, Bryen races across the path of the advancing army to ask the Abbot to send the warrior monks in defense of the castle.






Usurper: Book Three of The Chronicles of King Rolen's Kin
Now a slave, Piro finds herself in the Merofynian Palace where, if her real identity is discovered, she will be executed. Meanwhile, Fyn is desperate to help his brother, Bryen, who is now the uncrowned King. Bryen never sought power but now he finds himself at the centre of a dangerous resistance movement as the people of Rolencia flee vicious invaders. How can Byren defeat the invaders, when half his warriors are women and children, and the other half are untrained boys and old men?

Day 20: Other Worldly Giveaway

Today we have a giveaway of Science-Fcition of the highest order! Packed with quality stories, Solaris Rising is the first in an exciting new series of anthologies that are set to reaffirm Solaris’s proud reputation for producing high quality science fiction!

Not only are we giving away three copies of Solaris' latest anthology - We are giving away three copies signed by Ian Whates, Alastair Reynolds, Eric Brown, Lavie Tidhar, Pat Cadigan, Jaine Fenn, Dave Hutchinson.


In a book full of boundless variety, energy and imagination, editor Ian Whates gathers together the most accomplished writers in science fiction including Ian McDonald, Dave Hutchinson, Paul di Filippo, Ken Macleod, Tricia Sullivan, Stephen Baxter, Stephen Palmer, Adam Roberts, Lavie Tidhar, Jack Skillingstead, Mike Resnick and Laurie Tom, Steve Rasnic Tem, Ian Watson, Pat Cadigan, Richard Salter, Jaine Fee, Keith Brooke and Eric Brown, Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton.

From bizarre futures and surreal present day to gritty other worlds and strange realms, Solaris Rising exemplifies the diversity and innovation that make science fiction the most exciting genre of all time.


“A cliché it may be, but there really is something for everyone here... an ideal bait to tempt those who only read novels to climb over the short fiction fence.”
– Interzone


To win please email abaddonsolaris@rebellion.co.uk and answer this other worldly question.

What is the name of the Earth-like planet found earlier this month by the Kepler Telescope?


UPDATE: Wow! Your responses have been flooding in! 
So the three copies have all been won - obviously - and we've had a flurry of more responses to boot. 
There's no more need to send in answers. Thanks!

Day 19: Post-Apocalyptic Present?

The Afterblight Chronicles is a post-apocalyptic series in which a devastating epidemic has ravaged the world. In the Afterblight pockets of humans attempt to continue civilization amidst the mounting chaos of the collapsed infrastructure. Mobs run rampant while cults and warlords fight for authority over the survivors of the global plague.

For your entertainment we have decided to showcase The Afterblight Chronicles: The St Marks trilogy. Scott Andrews’ series follows a bunch of kids in post-Cull Britain who must not only survive in the post-apocalypse world – they must survive school in these harshest of conditions.

School’s Out
"After the world died we all sort of drifted back to school. After all, where else was there for us to go?" It's never easy being fifteen, but when your teachers are killing each other, the prefect who loves to bully you is experimenting with crucifixion, and the rival gang from across town have decided that ritualistic cannibalism is the way to go, spots and BO don't seem like such big problems after all. These are the final days of St Marks' School For Boys, and the punishment for disobedience is death!

Operation Motherland
"I celebrated my sixteenth birthday by crashing a plane, fighting for my life and facing execution, again." Lee Keegan travels to Iraq on the trail of his missing father, only to find himself caught between desperate rebels and a general who wants to strap him into an electric chair. In England, Jane Crowther, one time matron of St Mark's School for Boys, attracts the wrong kind of attention and has to fight to protect her new school from unlikely enemies. And in a bunker underneath Washington, a madman issues orders that will tip two devastated countries into total war.

Children’s Crusade
The orphaned children of post-Cull Britain have always been easy prey for gangs, cults and killers. But now something has changed. Organised teams are roaming the country, taking children from their homes and villages, spiriting them away into the night. Jane Crowther is willing to risk everything to rescue them, but to save the children, Jane must confront the woman she used to be, and the man who killed her. This is the third and final year of St Mark's school for Boys and Girls. But it's not going down without a fight!
 

Day 18: Medieval Merriment

The Malory’s Knights of Albion is an Arthurian adventure perfect for our fans of the Sword in the Stone legends.

The Black Chalice
Son of a knight and aspirant to the Round Table, Alymere yearns to take his place in the world, and for a quest to prove his worth. He comes across the foul Devil's Bible – written in one night by an insane hermit – which leads and drives him, by parts, to seek the unholy Black Chalice. On his quest he will face, and overcome, dire obstacles and cunning enemies, becoming a knight of renown; but the ultimate threat is to his very soul. Malory’s Knights of Albion: The Black Chalice is the start of an exciting new series of never-before-seen Arthurian adventures.

The Savage Knight
Sir Dodinal the Savage is more at home in the wild forest than in the tilting yard or the banquet hall. Keenly attuned to the natural world, but burdened with a terrible rage, he turns his back on Camelot to find peace, or a just death. In a quiet village on the Welsh border, Dodinal believes he may have finally found a home, but the village is struck by child-stealing raiders from the hills, and he must take up arms once again in his new friends’ aid. His quest will take him into the belly of darkness, as the terrible secret hidden in the hills comes to light...

Dark North
The latest novel in the Abaddon series by Paul Finch is due out next year. A new Empire has risen in Rome, and the Emperor, Lucio Bizerta, is determined that Britain shall kneel before him as they once did to the Caesars. As Lucio’s forces mass in France and his ambassadors come to Camelot, Arthur hurriedly convenes his court to meet them. Sir Lucan, one of Arthur’s most stalwart supporters, comes from his cold northern home with his squire, Alaric. Lucan’s beautiful wife Trelawna has come as well, for among the Italian delegates is her lover, the noble Rufio. The world stands poised on the brink of a terrible war, in which the fates of lives and hearts will play as great a role as those of nations...

Day 17: Need something with a kick this Christmas?

Andy Remic is our hard-talking, hard-fighting author whose novels are always full of action packed, gun-blazing hardcore SF. His long-running Combat-K Series is "Fun and fast-paced ass-kicking action."

War Machine
In a time of post-Singularity and FTL travel, the Helix War has raged across galaxies. Ex-soldier Keenan is now working as a private investigator on a planet at the peaceful fringes of the Tri-Gal. Following the death of his family he's run up debts and become a heavy drinker, but he cannot refuse business. Especially when a prince from the Jervai Province offers him a case on a dangerous colony world in exchange for clues that may lead him to his family's murderer. However, to have any chance of success he must gather together his old military unit, a group who swore they'd never work together again...

Biohell
On a planet teeming with corruption, a global technology corporation manufactures the Biomod Human Upgrade. However, when hackers break the code it heads onto the black market, creating a zombie population packed with hardcore weaponry. The Combat-K squad must uncover what's really turned this planet into a wasteland of murder and mutations, and they focus on the darkness at the heart of the corporation that created the upgrade.






Hardcore
Sick World was a planet dedicated to the ill, the deformed, the dying and the dead. Humanity as an organism was not the most durable chassis. After mixing it up with aliens, the human shell developed a host of unwanted and incurable ailments… esoteric diseases, curious viruses, life-changing bugs, vomit-inducing deformations. So a beautiful planet, Sick World, was terraformed with limitless funding, state-of-the-art research centres, gleaming wards and towering operating theatres providing unparalleled care, a perfection of medicine and a pinnacle of repair for the plethora of grotesque diseases and mutating conditions. However, a thousand years ago something happened, and the planet was evacuated in totality. Today, it lies uninhabited. Combat K: Keenan, Franco and Pippa, forced by implanted logic cubes into an unholy alliance of cooperation. Mission: to infiltrate Sick World and carry out a simple fact-finding mission prior to SLAM excavations to research the new Junk threat. It should have been safe, simple, secure. As the first day fades, so a long hibernation ends. The Medical Staff of Sick World, the doctors, the nurses, the patients, those abandoned long ago, a thousand year gestation of hardcore medical mutation and accelerated healthcare technology… they can smell fresh meat, and begin to awake…HARDCORE. You’ll never look at a nurse the same way again.


Cloneworld
Junks, an ancient evil alien scourge, are flooding Quad-Gal with terror as they spread their toxic plague. Combat K, proficient in infiltration, assassination and demolition, are sent on a mission to find an elusive alien retrovirus which can be used against an enemy. SLAM-dropped to CLONEWORLD, a planet ravaged by violent civil war, not only are Combat K hunted by elite junk assassins, but they get caught in a global conflict between ORGS, huge augmented mechanised war machines, and GANGERS, slick, genetically modified humans who have the ability to ganger, or clone themselves at will.

Through a mash of constant battle and vast, war-torn landscapes, through mechanised ORG factories and G.U.N. workshops, through GANGER SlushPits and CloneCities and SexVats, Combat K must think and fight their way to victory, to save the planet, and save the Four Galaxies. But how can Combat K possibly succeed, when their main foe are their own elite and deadly clones?