Win a Space in our Fallout Shelter!

Huitzilopochtli: one of the many Aztec
gods that will rule over us in the future.

Solaris has made an early announcement regarding its 2013 publishing schedule.

"Obviously, it's been difficult, planning the coming years' output, given the inevitable destruction of human society, and much of the world's population, on December 21st this year," says Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Oliver, "but we believe there will be a rich vein of opportunity in the form of survival advice pamphlets, English-Nahuatl phrasebooks for communicating with our new Aztec overlords, and guidance on how to combat supernatural Ocelotl shapeshifters."

According to best current understanding, the world will be destroyed four days before Christmas this year by fire, or flood, or jaguars falling from the sky.

Solaris has tested the water already this year with James Lovegrove's Age of Aztec, an unflinching fictionalised account of the coming destruction, which they hope will prove popular in the months leading up to the end.

Work is nearly complete on the Rebellion
Apocalypse Shelter

"A lot of our capital this year has been sunk into our Apocalypse Shelter," says Oliver. The shelter, a reinforced concrete bunker under Rebellion Publishing's Oxford headquarters, is expected to be complete by summer this year and will support up to 200 staff and immediate family for up to a year. It includes broadcasting equipment and a small printing press, to allow Solaris to continue publishing as the hordes of horrific monsters wreak havoc on the surface world.

There's even some space for some of the imprint's lucky readers, according to the Editor-in-Chief. The first three readers to email abaddonsolaris@rebellion.co.uk with the answer to the following question will be sent copies of Age of Aztec and invited to shelter from the inevitable apocalypse in luxury and style:

Q. What is the name of the conquistador who overthrew Moctezuma and brought down the Aztecs?

Jason Kingsley:
"Our primary duty is the
health and safety of our personnel."

Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion, said, "Part of senior management’s primary duty is the health and safety of its personnel. It is to this end that a thorough analysis of risk and outcome has been undertaken and giving due attention to the legislation, steps have been put in place to build a robust and attractive apocalypse/fallout shelter underneath the Oxford headquarters.

"We are very excited about the morale boost that surviving the apocalypse will give to our work-force, and anticipate only a modest reduction in output caused by the rapid relocation of people and computers to the bunker via the sheltered and hardened stairway.

"In the event of the apocalypse, an announcement will be read out over the tannoy system. A role call will then be taken by your allocated and trained member of staff, who will be wearing a high vis jacket with the logo ‘Happy to Help’ stencilled on the reverse. Please follow instructions briskly but do not run. Those not selected will be asked to move quietly outside and await further instructions."

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.