Goedel, Escher, Reviewspam

Wotcher chaps,

Slight hiatus on sarcasm and funnay here as we have been embroiled in book stuff. Will be making time as soon as opportunity gives to provide you with some kick-ass wurdz (see, if you spell it with a Z it's "edgy") soon.

In the meantime, some reviews:

• Jonathan Cowie at The Science Fact and Science Fiction Concatenation has given us this slightly mixed review of Eric Brown's Cosmopath.
  
  "As is typical with Brown's novels, we are off at a cracking pace almost from page one."
  
  
• Jonathan also gives us this very kind review of Jeste de Vries's Shine.
  
  "This anthology, in its way, markedly stands out from the crowd."
  
  
• Ian Hunter at the Concatenation gives us this very warm review of Justin Gustainis's Evil Ways.
  
  "A tough, fast, gripping read."
  
  
• The wonderful Jared at Pornokitsch gives us this gleeful appraisal of James Lovegrove's Age of Zeus.
  
  "The Age of Zeus is fun, entertaining and endlessly explosive."
  
  
• Liviu Suciu at Fantasy Book Critic also seems to have enjoyed Age of Zeus.
  
  "And the action is just unbelievably good."
  
  
• Liviu, meanwhile, gives a slightly more moderate review of Shine.
  
  "Shine starts with a bang with six stories that I enjoyed a lot and could not stop reading."
  
  
• Martin Willoughby at Hub Magazine has provided this review (at time of writing, you will need to download the PDF of issue 118, although it'll go fully online shortly) of Brian Lumley's The Lost Years: Harry and the Pirates.
  
  "The book is not something you want to read late at night if, like me, you are prone to nightmares!"
  
  
• Detra Fitch at Huntress Reviews seems to have been all over Shine.
  
  "5 Stars! So possible that it makes me shiver in fear for the future. Outstanding!"
  
  
• ...and was at least as happy (you'll need to scroll down a bit) about Age of Zeus.
  
  "FIVE STARS! A brilliant combination of modern warfare and Greek mythology.... Lovegrove is on his way to greatness."
  
  
• I think we need to take Detra on staff. She also loved the hell out of (again, you'll need to scroll down) all four of Gail Z. Martin's Chronicles of the Necromancer stories, including Dark Lady's Chosen.
  
  "FIVE STARS! Every time I pick up a novel by Gail Z. Martin, she takes my breath away!"

Phew. Big one there. Do give our reviewers some love by reading their posts.

Cheers,

David

The Third Podcast is Up!

Hi all,

Sheesh. To think, only two months ago the first Podcast was going up. How young and naive we were. We thought we were changing the world. We thought we knew the lot. Now, two months on, we're putting up the third podcast, and we're older. Wiser. More seasoned. Makes you look back on old times and get all nostalgic.

Yes, you heard it right! The third Abaddon & Solaris Books Pocast is even now on your iTunes Store! Point your iTunes to this link, or search "Abaddon" (or "Solaris") in the "Search Store" box at the top-right corner of iTunes, to check it out. As usual, if you reeeeeeally luff us and have subscribed to the 'cast, iTunes should find and upload the new episode automatically.

Jenni, Jon and David, at Abaddon Books and Solaris Books thrill with the "most insanely groundbreaking instalment yet"* of their much-loved, widely-discussed podcast.

The Abaddon & Solaris Books Podcast #3: Staples of Horror! is introduced by desk editor David Moore, who they didn't let do any real interviewing this time as he scares authors. Editor-in-Chief Jon Oliver interviews Greg Staples, cover artist and comics legend, about his inspiration and his thoughts about different art media, and junior editor Jenni Hill runs around the World Horror Convention at Brighton interviewing our authors. Andy Remic gets in there, being a cheeky little so-and-so. And apparently "not hard."

Nice try, Andy, but we're still a little bit scared of you.

Or maybe of your rubber panties.

Now, this one's a doozy. It's, like, an hour and a quarter. We're going to try and rein that in next time, but basically, this is how much good stuff we had this month! Think of it as, like, two podcasts. Listen to Jon and Greg, put the podcast away, then come back later and listen to Jenni and various drunk authors. So you're getting two podcasts for the price of one. How cool are we?

Please listen to it, and once again, we'd love feedback. We got some great feedback last time, and have tried to make completely different mistakes this time.

Cheers,

David


PS. It's the panties, definitely.




*2010, noted talking head and vox pop specialist, David Moore's mum.

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• Not on iTunes, and have sworn to end your life rather than download a single Apple application? Here to help! Just point your RSS client here to download the feed without putting a penny in Steve Jobs' pocket. Keep an eye on the blog for updates, in case we change the host or something crazy like that.
  
• Bewildered by the term "RSS" and unsure what all this means? No problem, ignorant Luddite! Just follow the exact same link, click on the link to the mp3 of the episode you wish to hear, and you can listen right on your browser! Everyone's a winner!

Festivals in May

Hi all,

Just a quickie to let you know about some festivals coming up.

The Write Fantastic
8th May, Oxford

As you've already heard, Juliet McKenna, author of the Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution (here's the first book, Irons in the Fire, with David Palumbo's dramatic "Man in front of a flag" cover) and Ian Whates, author of The Noise Within (here's Dominic Harman's fine "Exploding spaceship" cover) are helping stage The Write Fantastic's fifth anniversary event on the 8th May at the Jacqueline du Pre building in St. Hilda's College, Oxford University. There are going to be four pretty interesting-sounding panels, a book release, and an opportunity to pick up signed copies of both Irons and Noise.

(And a certain pair of charming, slyly witty, strangely alluring editors will be in attendance to boot. Look out for Jenni and me!)

The Lincoln Book Festival
12th - 16th May, Lincoln

Ian's also going to be at the Lincoln Book Festival the following weekend. This is a fairly big festival, which has played host to Benjamin Zephaniah, Melvyn Bragg and Iain Banks in the past, and Ian will be appearing on a panel along with horror novelist Adam Nevill and fantasy author Stephen Deas. Looks like a good weekend, and Lincoln's a beautiful place to visit, so you can make a holiday of it!

Cheers,

David

Reviewspam! (Redux)

Okay lads,

Some reviews for you.

• Catherine at Reading Whilst Writing has written this very nice review of Jetse de Vries' Shine anthology.
  
  "And that, I think, is what I like most about 'Shine'. So much food for thought."
  
  
• John Klima at The Library Journal has included Tim Akers' Heart of Veridon in a list of 20 Steampunk titles everyone should have.
  
  "The action keeps the pages turning, and readers will want more novels set in this world."*
  
  
• Issue 114 of Hub Magazine includes a measured but mostly pretty complimentary review of James Lovegrove's Age of Zeus by Martin Willoughby.
  
  "What kept me reading was the characters. I cared what happened to them."
  
  
• On that subject, Den Patrick of Total Sci Fi Online has written this review about Zeus.
  
  "This mix of mythology and science fiction isn’t a natural one at first glance, but Lovegrove pulls it off with aplomb."

And that's all the news that's printed to fit.

Cheers,

David

*Your wish is our command, John. Dead of Veridon is coming out early next year.

Hugo Nominations: Onward to Victory! (We hope)

Hey all,

If you post it, they will vote. The Hugo Award, in the apallingly unlikely event that you haven't heard of it, is the daddy of science fiction and fantasy awards. It's a big, big, BIG deal. And one of our contributors, noted novelist and Doctor Who author Paul Cornell (pictured right), has been nominated in the short story category for his piece, "One of Our Bastards is Missing" (click link for a free download of the story), which first appeared in the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Three.




Furthermore, Ellen Datlow (pictured), editor of the Poe horror anthology, has been nominated for the best short-form editor (essentially, the category for anthologists). You may also remember that Poe won the Black Quill and was nominated for the Bram Stoker. Now, Ellen's put a few strings to her bow in the last year, but we like to think Poe's one of the reasons she's up for this.







This is brilliant news for both Paul and Ellen. We're really pleased for them.

Cheers,

David

One more World Horror picture!

In a fit of blatant vanity, I offer you one more photo from World Horror, taken by The Noise Within author Ian Whates, because it is the only World Horror picture with yours truly in it.*


*and because I need somewhere to link to with of photo of both of us who went to World Horror as I'm writing a piece for the company online newsletter! And Ian might object to me nicking his bandwidth.

Solaris Book To Be Written In Space

Press Release:

Solaris Book To Be Written In Space

In a bold move for the independent SF and fantasy publisher, Solaris will announce later today that their upcoming book, Engineman, will be written in space.

Oxford-based imprint Solaris will be sponsoring a European Space Agency mission - currently scheduled for the 13th May - to provide supplies for the International Space Station, at a cost of approximately £18m. In exchange, they have been extended permission to place author Eric Brown aboard the shuttle, from which he will transfer to the Station and spend an expected six weeks writing the science fiction epic.

Brown (pictured) is said to be "cautiously enthusiastic" about the project.

"I've never written in space before," said Yorkshire-born Brown, 49, "but I expect it'll be pretty similar to writing in the office. I should have fewer distractions, so it should go well."

Solaris Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Oliver said this morning, "This will be the first science-fiction novel written in space.

"I mean there were the Letters From Mir, but they were strictly in the epistlary form. This will be a science fiction novel, written in a science-fiction environment. How futuristic is that?

"I would expect this book to be up to eighty percent more science-fictiony that anything else on the market."

The project is part of Solaris's new "Realism in Fiction" project. Future offerings are expected to include using eldritch enchantments to send fantasy author Gail Z. Martin into a magical parallel universe, and commissioning horror icon Brian Lumley to stalk and kill several people on the streets of Durham.