**INCREDIBLE** Book Trailer – Black Feathers by Joseph D’Lacey

Got this from the awesome folks over at Angry Robot Books – the book was an awesome read (reviewed here), and this book trailer is a thing of beauty!

<a href="http://vimeo.com/63401644">BLACK FEATHERS MASTER NEW H264</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/horrodandharris">HORROD AND HARRIS</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>

To order your copies, click here for Amazon US, here for Amazon UK, and here if you’re in South Africa. 🙂 Check out Joseph’s site here!

Until Friday, when I’ll be posting my review of Lauren Beukes’ ‘The Shining Girls’,

Be EPIC!

(sorry about the code-stuff at the bottom of the vid – no idea how to remove it!)

 

Angry Robot Double-Review: Harbinger of the Storm (Aliette de Bodard) and Death’s Diciples (J. Robert King)

It’s been a while since I reviewed Angry Robot titles, and even though I’m way behind (as regards AR titles) I thought these two titles deserve reviews. 🙂

Harbinger of the Storm – Book 2 of the Obsidian and Blood Trilogy by Aliette de Bodard

Ever since I picked up the first book in this trilogy, Servant of the Underworld, I immediately became of fan of not only Aliette’s work but also a fan of Acatl, the central protagonist in the trilogy, so it was awesome to get back to Acatl’s world – that of the Aztec, albeit through a noirish, mystery-framed lens. 🙂

I had high hopes for book 2, and wasn’t disappointed!

In this book, Acatl is almost immediately put under immense pressure – not only has he earned the attention of some of the most powerful people in the Mexica Empire, but he is still dealing with the fallout of the previous book’s events.

Now he has to deal with a rising body count and incredibly powerful creatures that make the things he faced in book 1 pale in comparison.

Book 2 did much to flesh out Acatl as a character and person, even more so than the first book, because much of what Acatl had to do in this book had even more of a personal cost; without a doubt he was pushed further and harder than before, and by the end of the book I had the distinct feeling that even though Acatl had persevered the costs were heavier than before.

Action- and magic-wise, this book really kept me on the edge of my seat – as I said before, the creatures that Acatl and his allies (and even enemies) face in this book are damned powerful, but it doesn’t end there – deities enter the fray, and Aliette did a great job in layering them with incredible menace and danger; definitely not deities who sit back and move pieces on a board.

The rush toward the book’s climax held my attention all the way, and once again Aliette managed to beautifully bring together the myriad plot threads and mysteries to satisfying conclusions. I’m definitely looking forward to the last novel, and to more of Aliette’s work! 🙂

9 / 10

To order copies of Harbinger of the Storm, click here for Amazon US, here for Amazon UK, and here if you’re in South Africa; you can also head over to the Robot Trading Company to purchase all the Angry Robot eBooks you need, including Servant of the Underworld and Harbinger of the Storm. 🙂 Also, check out Aliette’s website here.

Death’s Disciples by J. Robert King

I’ve been a great fan of Rob’s work since I read the incredible Angel of Death and stunning Suicidals Anonymous, and I was seriously looking forward to Death’s Diciples. His second Angry Robot novel turned out to be completely different to Angel of Death and Suicidals Anonymous, but as damned good.

The novel follows Susan Gardner, the only survivor of a terrorist bomb on an airliner, and how Susan discovers just how she’s tied into the terrorist-plot – or is it a terrorist plot?

The first thing about this novel that struck me was it’s relentless pace – from the opening scene (Susan in the plane, witnessing its destruction) right up to the climax, it felt like I was left with literally no right time to take a break from the book; every chapter drew me onwards, as if I had suddenly become some ass clomping after a juicy carrot. 🙂

The second thing was Susan herself – Rob did an incredible job of revealing her personality chapter by chapter, managing to play to my expectations of her and what I thought she would do (she is the central protagonist, after all), and surprising me constantly. For most of the novel we are in her head, immersed in her thoughts and reactions, and the ride is sometimes chilling, sometimes funny, always surprising and, at times, heart breaking. She’s a great character!

There are more characters, of course – Susan’s brother, confronted with the sibling he thought he knew as he tries to help her take her place in her life again; Krupinski, an FBI agent investigating the attack (and Susan’s miraculous survival), and Mr Nero, one of the coolest and most twisted antagonists I’ve yet encountered in Fiction.

The plot of this novel, the twists and turns it takes, is nothing I could have ever predicted – Rob manages to make you believe that this is a book about terrorism and the stress and trauma of surviving a terrible event, until the weirdness hits, and hits, and hits, in waves of relentless tension and kickass, surprising events. Where Angel of Death was measured, menacing, beautiful and tragic, and where Suicidals Anonymous was superbly satirical and darkly humorous, Death’s Disciples is a thrill-a-second ride, supremely plotted, exciting, hard-hitting, and definitely falls into the Twisted Blockbuster category – one hell of an awesome ride!

9 / 10

To order your copies of Death’s Disciples, click here for Amazon US, here for Amazon UK, and here if you’re in South Africa; remember, you can also get this novel and all of the published Angry Robot titles in various eBook formats over at the Robot Trading Company. 🙂 Check out Rob’s site here.

Until next time,

Be EPIC!

 

The Angry Robot Short Story Store

Still haven’t tried any of the titles available from Angry Robot? Well, now you don’t have an excuse! 🙂 Here are the details:

PRESS RELEASE
22nd November 2010 ~ For Immediate Release

ANGRY ROBOT ANNOUNCES DIGITAL SHORT STORY STORE

On December 1st 2010, Angry Robot will be launching “Nano Editions”. Exclusive to the publisher’s own webstore at angryrobotstore.com, Nanos are digital short stories by Angry Robot novelists, sold at sensible prices in ePub format, ready to load onto the world’s most popular eBook readers.

Most Nanos will be in the 5,000 – 15,000 word range. Shorter works than that will be automatically bundled with another story to ensure value for money.

Talking of which – stories will cost just 59p each (approximately US $0.95). Readers can bundle a collection of any 10 by any combination of authors, for only £3.49 (US$5.59). The files will be DRM-free and available worldwide. If demand for the stories takes off, AR plan to also sell them via eBook retailers.

Angry Robot Editor Lee Harris said, “Publishing is changing, but our role as publishers remains the same – to find cool stories and bring them to readers. This is another step in Angry Robot’s ongoing plan to embrace the new opportunities digital formats provide – and an excellent way for readers to sample unfamiliar authors, without breaking the bank.”

Authors included in the Nanos series include multi-million-selling novelist Dan Abnett and award-winning short fiction authors Kaaron Warren and Aliette de Bodard, along with many others. We will have at least 30 Nanos available for the December 1st launch, with more added at regular intervals.

Lee Harris
Editor, Angry Robot

Awesome stuff, huh? 🙂 Here’s the news on Angry Robot’s website, and here’s the link you need to follow – the Angry Robot Store. Plenty more available there, so do have a look around. 🙂

Be EPIC!

 

Lauren Beukes Launches Zoo City in the UK – Starting Tonight!

Yep, that’s right folks, Lauren is probably in the UK as I’m typing this. 🙂 She’ll be appearing at three separate events where you can go check her out – be sure to take your copies of Moxyland along with you, I’m sure she won’t mind signing them (she signed my two copies of Moxyland, one ARC and one SA edition, and she also signed my copy of Zoo City, at a launch earlier last month). 🙂

Here are the details:

Lauren will be appearing TONIGHT at The Antelope Tavern (hehehe weird but cool name, can’t imagine the people inside bounding around energetically, though) as a special guest of the British Science Fiction Association; she’ll be reading from Zoo City -and Lauren does awesome readings, let me tell you- as well as answering some questions about her work afterwards. Oh, and keep an eye out for some other Angry Robot surprises bounding around The Antelope Tavern… 😉 Oh, and you don’t have to be a member of the BSFA to attend, how awesome is that?!

Tomorrow is the big event: Lauren will be launching Zoo City at Forbidden Planet’s Megastore from 6PM to 7PM, so be sure to get there early to avoid queuing (or get there early to get your queuing done, er, early 😉 ). Forbidden Planet have also teamed up with Angry Robot to bring you a first-of-its-kind exclusive offer: 100 (no more, no less) LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER copies of Zoo City have been made available – so if you can’t wait until September to get your copy of Zoo City, you’d better follow this link and buy a copy before they’re all gone! Would absolutely love me one of those, but I’m not as lucky as you all in the UK. 🙂

But that’s not all – you’ll get one final opportunity to meet Lauren: she’ll be a guest of the British Fantasy Society‘s first Open Night (technically, Open Afternoon) on the 31st of July – check out the link for the details.

So there we have it, folks! Three opportunities to meet one of the most exciting authors writing today – Lauren’s an awesome lady and her novels are kickass (Moxyland reviewed here, Zoo City reviewed here) and she’ll probably be taking the UK by storm. 🙂 Enjoy the events!

If you can’t make it to these events, have no fear – you can still order copies of Zoo City from Forbidden Planet (hopefully they’ll have some left!) and have it signed by Lauren, otherwise, order Zoo City here and Moxyland here.

Be EPIC!

 

Review: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

I used to live in Hillbrow, the section of Jo’burg in which much of Zoo City is set, but I was too young at that time to really remember it. We lived there, though, and I’m told it was a wonderful place to live. Now, though, and for the last couple of decades, at least, Hillbrow has become a complete and utter hell-hole. Stories of old ladies on pension being mugged repeatedly, and here I’m talking six or seven times in as many weeks; stories of entire appliances being thrown from windows during New Year’s Eve celebrations; stories that would make you wince and shake your head and tell the person who’s telling you these stories to just stop.

As a South African living about an hour from Hillbrow, I’m practically inured to Hillbrow-stories – as South Africans we’ve heard it all before, and many, many, many times. It’s like having to drive down a road on which a sewerage-plant is located, every day – at first the stench is crazy-bad and you’re damn sure that it clings to your clothes, but after a while the stench becomes a scent and then even that scent disappears. It is a curse of being human that you become used to everything.

Zoo City is, in some ways, a strident wake-up call. A shout from every rooftop, megaphones included. It’s the kind of book that draws attention to that which needs to be acknowledged and stopped while, at the same time, showing you that there is beauty and magic in everything and that you just need to allow yourself to look.

Zoo City focuses on Zinzi December; she struggles to make ends meet by finding lost things for people and also by dreaming up scams that end up fleecing the unfortunate, naive victim out of their money. It was wonderful getting to know Zinzi, even the not-so-nice and exploitative sides of her personality; sometimes I found myself shaking my head at her stupidity and practically consistent desire to get herself into difficult situations, but I also also learned to admire her for her ability to pick herself up and keep on going, even when everything around her was falling to pieces. I found her to be the kind of character that kept me interested and curious – Lauren lets Zinzi reveal herself, so that as the story progresses you get to know different aspects of her personality; just like what would happen during a long friendship or relationship with someone. I wouldn’t mind reading more tales that star Zinzi – she’s definitely a fresh, bold and tenacious girl! 🙂

But Lauren peoples Zoo City with plenty of other characters, from the star-producer Odi to Zinzi’s boyfriend, Benoit as well as a host of others – twins who are taking the SA music scene by storm, Zinzi’s contacts and friends from a previous life, and plenty of awesome animals – especially Sloth, the best of the lot. 🙂

Lauren also does some incredible world-building in this book, as she did in Moxyland; this is the Jo’burg that everyone knows (at least, those of us who have been there) but it’s also a new, darker Jo’burg that seethes with shadows and tension and yes, even beauty. I got the same feeling from Lauren’s Jo’burg as what I got from Kate Griffin’s London (from A Madness of Angels) – it’s familiar and exotic and beautiful, even though it seethes with danger, cruelty and chaos, and even though I’d probably see my ass if I ever went to Lauren’s Jo’burg, I’d still love to go. 🙂

I’m not going to say anything about the Urban-Fantasyish aspects of Zoo City – discovering that for yourself is one of the great things about this book. Suffice it to say that the magic (and there is magic) is pretty damn awesome and always interesting – the entire culture that has taken hold because of this magic and its effects is easily one of the stars of the novel. 🙂

The novel is also peppered with articles that lend it a refreshing authenticity – everything from supposed psychology of Zoo’s to glimpses of Zoo’s across the world. And no, I don’t mean animals-in-cages Zoo’s. 😉

Zoo City is an excellent example of what South African writers can achieve if they want to write stories set in South Africa; you really can give it our very particular flavour while telling the kind of tale you want to without having to focus on the evils of Apartheid or HIV / AIDS as a story-telling vehicle; one of the many things that Zoo City proves is that South Africa definitely has authors that’ll get you to sit up and take notice (while learning about our country), and Lauren Beukes is one of the authors at the forefront of showing this to the world. I have no doubt that readers in the UK and US will be intoxicated and astonished by this novel and that its characters events will remain with them for some time. That I hope that South African readers embrace this novel doesn’t need to be said – it’s just a matter of time. 🙂

8 / 10

To order your copies of Zoo City, click here (Exclusive Books); Zoo City will be available in the UK in September (from Angry Robot Books), but if you’d like to devour it before then (and who in the UK wouldn’t?!) then check out the info here – Lauren will be launching Zoo City at Forbidden Planet and you’ll be able to get yourself a limited edition hardcover. 🙂 Pre-order your copies here (Amazon UK) and head over to Lauren’s site here and her blog over at Book SA here.

Be EPIC!

P.S. Don’t just take my word that Zoo City is awesome – you can also read a review by Lood Du Plessis, one of my good friends, over at the Exclusive Books’ website. 🙂

 

Book Deals Galore!

Some great news for you all from Angry Robot Books and John Jarrold:

John was very happy to report new deals for two authors; here are the details:

PRESS RELEASE – SEVERN HOUSE ACQUIRE HORROR NOVELS FROM CHAZ BRENCHLEY

Kate Lyall Grant, commissioning editor at Severn House, has acquired two horror novels from Chaz Brenchley.

The novels are centred around a strange country house in the north of England that affects everyone who comes into contact with it – some for good, some for ill – in different time periods. The first book, provisionally titled HOUSE OF DOORS, will be set during the Second World War.

Kate Lyall Grant said: : “I am thrilled to be reunited with Chaz Brenchley whom I first came across at Hodder and who, I think, is one of the most talented – and underrated – British horror/fantasy novelists writing today. I’m delighted too to be able to celebrate my first deal with my former S&S colleague, John Jarrold.”

The agent was John Jarrold, and the deal was for World English Language rights. The first book is due for publication in September 2011.

And here are the details of a 3-book deal for Hannu Rajaniemi:

PRESS RELEASE – THREE-BOOK US RIGHTS DEAL FOR FINNISH SF WRITER

Susan Howe, Rights Director at Orion, has sold US rights in three novels by Finnish science fiction novelist, resident in Scotland, Hannu Rajaniemi to Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Tor pre-emptively, in a significant deal.

World rights in Hannu’s debut novel, THE QUANTUM THIEF, plus two further books were acquired pre-emptively by Simon Spanton of Gollancz (who publish in September 2010) from agent John Jarrold for a high five-figure sum in pounds sterling, on the basis of one chapter, in 2008. Tor will publish in hardback in May 2011.

‘I’ve known Patrick for twenty-five years and his team at Tor will do a marvellous job – Hannu and I couldn’t be happier,’ said John Jarrold.

Great news on both counts!

And here are the details of Angry Robot Books‘ first author-signing since it was announced since the news that they’ve gone independent:

JUSTIN GUSTAINIS JOINS THE ROBOT HORDE

We are delighted to announce our latest signing, bringing a stunning series of books set in the harassed police department of a city full of vampires and werewolves.

Angry Robot has signed urban fantasy author Justin Gustainis for a new series set in Scranton, Philadelphia, in a world where supernatural beings are part of everyday life. Stan Markowski is a Detective Sergeant on theScranton PD’s Supernatural Crimes Investigation Unit. As Stan puts it in the first book, Hard Spell: “When a vampire puts the bite on an unwilling victim, or some witch casts the wrong kind of spell, that’s when they call me. My name’s Markowski. I carry a badge.”

Justin Gustainis said, “I’m tremendously pleased to be associated with one of the most dynamic publishers in speculative fiction today, and I look forward to selling enough books to put a smile on that robot’s face.”

The first title in this sensational series, Hard Spell, will be published by Angry Robot in spring 2011, in both the UK and USA.

Very cool news! For all those doubters out there, this should prove that Angry Robot Books is in great hands! 🙂

Be EPIC!

 

The Launch: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

The South African launch of Zoo City (the first, at least) will be happening tomorrow at The Book Lounge in Cape Town – I won’t be able to make it, but for those of you who can and need or want more details, here we go:

Here are the details again, in case you can’t see them:

You can find The Book Lounge at the following address: 71 Roeland Street, cnr Buitenkant, in Cape Town, and the launch is scheduled to kick off at from 6PM (but be there early!).

To RSVP your place, you can email The Book Lounge at booklounge (at) gmail (dot) com, or phone them on (021) 462 2425.

Here’s a bit on what you can expect at the launch, courtesy of Lauren herself:

“My new book, Zoo City, is out next week and we’re celebrating at The Book
Lounge with customised toys, black zoo biscuits and a lot of marabou storks.
And the book of course!

Here’s the blurb, just in case you can’t make it.

Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for
finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops
confiscate her last paycheck, she¹s forced to take on her least favourite
kind of job missing persons.

Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop
star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the
criminal underclass and their animal companions live in the shadow of hell¹s
undertow.

Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime
and magic, where she¹ll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former
lives including her own.

Love to see you there.”

For those of you who can’t make it to the launch, order your copies of Zoo City here, and for those in the UK starving for another Lauren-fix, pre-order your copies here (the book will be available in September in the UK).

Expect my review sometime during next week, and for all those attending, enjoy the launch! 🙂

Be EPIC!

 

Sam Sykes Signing Tomorrow and Angry Robot Moves to Osprey Books

Hey everyone, hope you’re all well and happy and are reading awesome books. 🙂 I’ll launch right into the news:

Sam Sykes, the debut Harper Voyager author of the excellent (reading it at the moment) Tome of the Undergates, will be at The Poisoned Pen at Scotdale (don’t ask me where it is, I haven’t a clue!). 🙂 Tomorrow will also be his birthday, so if you are close to Scotdale’s The Poisoned Pen, get yourself a copy of the Tome and get it signed by Sam – I’m pretty sure that a great turnout will be an awesome birthday present for him. 🙂

To get more details about the event, click this link; it’ll take you through to The Poisoned Pen’s event page for Sam’s appearance. 🙂

Next up, and certainly the big news of the day, Angry Robot Books is no longer an imprint of Harper Voyager.

Angry Robot, those masters of SF/F/WTF will now be running as an independent publishing imprint with the full backing of Osprey Publishing. 🙂 For the low-down and full details, check out the press release over at Angry Robot, and to see how this move is going to impact the Angry Robot list, click here.

I have to say I was very surprised by this, and there will probably be a lot of rumours flying as to what led to the move, but I’m not worried; with Marco and Lee still at the helm, there’s no way the quality and quantity will be changing. I say, Expect Even Bigger from Angry Robot! 🙂

Until tomorrow,

Be EPIC!

 

Angry Robot Review: Angel of Death by J. Robert King

There is a drought, at the moment. Not the kind of drought that kills people and livestock, but the kind of drought that leads to the cessation of questions being asked, of deep, terrible thoughts being entertained, of people really looking deeply into life and wondering just what the hell is going on. We live, sure, but we are also controlled by mass media – most of the time, we have opinions that were carefully created for us, or even in an offhanded way – and mass media dampens those moments of “….”, those moments when you are just stunned into silence, even though your mind is racing.

Thank goodness for J. Robert King‘s Angel of Death, and Angry Robot for bringing us this novel.

As I mentioned to Rob on Twitter, this book is brutal, uncompromising, unsettling… I felt slightly abused at the end of it, rough around the edges and shaken.

Angel of Death is a difficult book to pin down – it has touches of the supernatural (or does it?), it is a murder mystery viewed from the intimacy of the minds of killers, it is a love story, and it is a meditation on the myriad meanings that we, as human beings, push onto the struggle of living.

I found everything in this book – horror that really creeped me out, beauty in the style and simple evocative use of words that Rob employed, moments of utter revulsion and anger and misery (my roller coaster of emotions while reading), and much more besides. I found myself rooting for every character – the victims, the two characters around which the story revolves, even the characters that made my bile rise in my throat, but I hated them all, too, for reasons I can’t really explain. I mean, you can really like being around someone, enjoy their company and enjoy getting to know them, but some thing starts scratching at you, some thing draws your attention and before you know it, you loathe and like the person in equal measure.

But Angel of Death also has some incredibly uplifting moments, moments that helped me see past the brutality of the book, through the shocks and violence, and the even these hectic, cringe-inducing moments had their own stark kind of beauty – I can only liken this to the kind of brutal beauty an explosion seen from a distance has, the kind of thing that you wish you had never seen or experienced but miss, all the same.

This is also a novel that played with my expectations – Rob divided Angel of Death into three ‘Books’, and each book could be a full-length novel in its own right; not in terms of the length of these Books, but in terms of the events -the twists and turns and the paths the characters take – and led me down paths were I thought, more than once, “Okay, I think this’ll happen, yep, seems logical, seems right,” only to be punched in the gut with a turn I never expected.

I found Angel of Death to be an utterly masterful novel – one of those novels that truly only comes along very, very rarely. And it’s still echoing through my head – I replay scenes, hear the dialogue, see the imagery, feel the emotions… I haven’t read anything quite like this before; it stunned me completely, and I truly hope that this book finds its way into the hands of many, many people.

It’s the kind of book that changes you on the inside, that really leaves you shaken, but at the same time, brings into in sharper focus that which gives our lives meaning, and as such, I just can’t give this book a rating.

Do yourself a favour and read this.

Order your copies at the following links:

Amazon UK, Exclusive Books (SA), Kalahari (SA)

Check out Rob’s site here. It goes without saying that I’m trembling while awaiting Rob’s next Angry Robot novel, Death’s Disciples. Stay tuned for details!

 

Angry Robot Books: Kaaron Warren’s Walking the Tree on sale today!

Since Walking the Tree goes on sale TODAY (that’s right, get to your favourite bookstore and pick it up!) I thought it would be the perfect day to post this news. 🙂 Kaaron and Angry Robot have also done something unique and experimental that’s sure to get the publishing industry thinking along more revolutionary lines:

Angry Robot Announces a New Way of Telling Stories

At Angry Robot we have always attempted to push boundaries with our fiction, and now we’re doing the same with both the content and delivery methods!

When Kaaron Warren told us she wanted to re-write her next book Walking the Tree as a 20,000 word novella from the point of view of one of the book’s minor characters, we thought she was mad! But we’ve always encouraged creative madness.

Kaaron says:
“As I was writing Walking the Tree, with its strong adult and child
characters, it struck me that it would be a wonderful thing if my son and I could be reading the same book but in appropriate versions, so I wrote Morace’s Story, the child’s point of view version of Walking the Tree. My idea is that every parent can share the reading of Walking the Tree with their child. Sit there, together, reading the same book.”

Our only concern was how to fit an additional 20,000 words into an already-hefty book. The answer was so obvious we wondered why everyone else wasn’t already doing it!

The first two chapters of Morace’s Story are included at the back of Walking the Tree along with a secret DVD-style download link and password that allows you to read the entire novella online or on your eBook reader. And if you buy the eBook edition you get the whole thing as an added extra.

Walking the Tree is published worldwide by Angry Robot.

UK: 4th February 2010 (ISBN: 978 0 00 732 244 2)
US: July 2010 (ISBN: 978 0 06 199 417 3)

:::

More information on Angry Robot can be found at angryrobotbooks.com.
Angry Robot is the new genre imprint from HarperCollins, bringing you the best in new SF, F and WTF?! Our first titles hit the stores in the UK and Australia on 1st July 2009. We debut in the US in May 2010.

And Kaaron’s novel, Slights, has been placed on the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Award! Check out the great news and more details on Kaaron’s blog. 🙂 Congrats, Kaaron!

:::

There’s also some cool news regarding Guy Adam’s The World House; he’s recorded the first chapter as a podcast – check out the details here. 🙂 And it’s also on sale TODAY! (Amazon UK)

Check back later today for the second excerpt from Brian Libby’s Storm Approaching! 🙂

Be EPIC!