Guest Post: “The Origin of the Götterelektron” by Ian Tregillis

I recently finished reading Bitter Seeds, the superb first novel in Ian Tregillis’s Milkweed trilogy. To celebrate its release in the UK, and the release of the sequel, The Coldest War, in the US, Ian was kind enough to write a guest post for Civilian Reader….

Bitter Seeds features a cadre of soldiers who have been imbued with superhuman abilities thanks to a liberal dose of mad science. The twisted genius who created these übermenschen is Doctor Karl Heinrich von Westarp: a sick but brilliant man, short on compassion but long on determination.

“Bitter Seeds” by Ian Tregillis (Orbit/Tor)

The Milkweed Triptych Begins

The year is 1939. Raybould Marsh and other members of British Intelligence have gathered to watch a damaged reel of film in a darkened room. It appears to show German troops walking through walls, bursting into flames and hurling tanks into the air from afar.

If the British are to believe their eyes, a twisted Nazi scientist has been endowing German troops with unnatural, unstoppable powers. And Raybould will be forced to resort to dark methods to hold the impending invasion at bay.

But dealing with the occult exacts a price. And that price must be paid in blood.

It’s been a long time coming to these shores, but Bitter Seeds is finally available in the UK. The wait has been entirely worth it, too, as this is one of the best novels I’ve read this year. It’s original, inspired and engrossing from the first page until the last. It is a very assured, well-written, and accomplished debut.

The 3 Faces of Ian Tregillis’s BITTER SEEDS… (Tor/Orbit)

Orbit UK recently released the artwork for the British edition of Ian Tregillis’s Bitter Seeds – the first book in the Milkweed Triptych. I am very much looking forward to reading this novel (I have pre-ordered it for Kindle) and its soon-to-be-published sequel, The Coldest War. This brings the total number of Bitter Seeds covers up to three, and they are all pretty great:

US HC, US MMPB, UK PB

Is it just me, or do the three covers each suggest a different type of atmosphere and style to the novel? What do you think? Which is your favourite?

I don’t remember where I first read about Tregillis’s novels (I think it was a review on an America-based blog), but I know the second time my attention was drawn to his work was this blog post, in which he chronicled his tough experiences with getting his books out there. It’s an interesting and very well-written post. Here’s the synopsis for Bitter Seeds (from Amazon UK):

The year is 1939. Raybould Marsh and other members of British Intelligence have gathered to watch a damaged reel of film in a darkened room. It appears to show German troops walking through walls, bursting into flames and hurling tanks into the air from afar.

If the British are to believe their eyes, a twisted Nazi scientist has been endowing German troops with unnatural, unstoppable powers. And Raybould will be forced to resort to dark methods to hold the impending invasion at bay.

But dealing with the occult exacts a price. And that price must be paid in blood.

Bitter Seeds is out now in the US (Tor), and will be published in the UK (Orbit) on July 12th 2012. The Coldest War will be published on July 17th 2012 in the US, and February 7th 2013 in the UK.

If you want to learn more about Ian Tregillis and his novels, check out his website and blog (which is certainly one of the most visually interesting author websites I’ve seen).