Guest Post: “Pantheon Inspirations” by James Lovegrove

So far my Pantheon series extends to six novels and three novellas. What is it about these military-SF tales of gods and men that I seem to find so fascinating? Why do I keep coming back time and time again to this well of inspiration?

Partly it’s because the ideas embedded in polytheistic religious mythologies are so wonderfully rich and exploitable, like countless mines yielding up different seams of precious ore. I myself do not believe in deities of any kind, but the stories that others have came up with about them over the centuries are pleasingly intricate and complex, full of incident and nuance. Every Pantheon strikes me as being like a dysfunctional family. Their conflicts and passions echo those of their worshippers. Even though they’re gods, they’re eminently relatable. They banter and squabble, have affairs, plays tricks on one another, lose their temper, just as humans do. The aloof, monotheistic gods whose faiths prevail in the world today aren’t anywhere near as interesting. Those guys are like grumpy father figures you can’t get on with and have to tread carefully around but are still supposed to admire. Where’s the fun in that?

Excerpt: AGE OF SHIVA by James Lovegrove (Solaris)

This April, Solaris Books publishes the sixth novel in James Lovegrove’s New York Times-bestselling Pantheon series, Age of Shiva. Below, you will find the first three chapters!

AGE OF SHIVA

This is a confession.

This is an apology.

This is an origin story.

This is the tale of ordinary people who became extraordinary, became heroes, and the price we all paid.

It’s completely true.

I know.

I was there.

An Interview with DAVE HUTCHINSON

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Dave Hutchinson?

Dave Hutchinson is a 53-year-old journalist and writer, born in Sheffield and living in London. He likes cats and hates mushrooms. He is obsessed with Twitter to a disturbing degree.

Your latest novel, Europe In Autumn, is published by Solaris. How would you introduce the novel to a new reader?

Europe In Autumn is, for want of a better term, a near-future espionage thriller. It’s set in a Europe where the EU has begun to fracture for various reasons, and new nations are springing up all over the place. Rudi, the central character, is a chef who becomes involved with a group of couriers and people smugglers, and finds himself mixed up in what may be a very large conspiracy. It wasn’t originally planned as part of a series, but while I was writing it I had an idea for a companion novel, and since I finished it I’ve started to see a possible sequel. We’ll see how things go.

Guest Post: “Confessions of a TV Series-aholic (Or, What Writers Can Learn From TV Series)” by Rowena Cory Daniells

Rowena Cory-Daniells discusses her addiction to certain TV series, and how they’ve inspired elements of her own fiction…

I’ve discovered I prefer TV series to movies, series like Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood, House of Cards and now from the UK the Peaky Blinders. (So named because according to some sources they sewed razor blades into the peak of their caps to slash across their enemies’ faces).

(Cillian Murphy plays gang leader Thomas Shelby)

If a movie is the equivalent of a short story (Minority Report was a story by the same title by Phillip K. Dick), then a TV series is the equivalent of a book in that a series has time to develop complex story arcs and in-depth characterisation.

(Breaking Bad: Walt and Jessie taking a break in between cooking crystal meth)

As someone who writes big fat fantasy books, I know the craft involved in creating interesting characters and interweaving narratives. When Walter White first found out he had lung cancer and needed money for his pregnant wife and disabled son, I could appreciate the way the audience were positioned to identify with Walt and sympathise even when he broke the law. We go on his journey with him as we see the roll-on effects of his decision to cook crystal meth. Breaking Bad raised the question: Would you break the law to protect your family?

An Interview with TONY BALLANTYNE

I’ve been aware of Tony Ballantyne’s novels for quite some time, now. I read some of his Penrose novels when they first came out, and have been eagerly awaiting something new. Next month, Solaris will be publishing Dream London, which I will be reading very soon. Graced with a stunning cover by the ever-excellent Joey Hi-Fi, the novel promises to be rather excellent. I had the opportunity to interview Ballantyne, about his work past and present…

An Interview with GEOFFREY GUDGION

Let’s start with an introduction: Geoff Gudgion?

In one paragraph; I was a scholarship boy who was never bright enough to realise I’d have been happier as a writer than a businessman. Until, that is, I had a spectacular row with my boss and stepped off the corporate ladder. Long before that epiphany, I left school at 17 to join the Royal Navy, who later sponsored me to read Geography at Cambridge University. Both experiences were formative in teaching me to string words together.

Your debut novel, Saxon’s Bane, is published by Solaris. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Saxon’s Bane is a thriller with a supernatural twist; past and present collide during the excavation of a Saxon warrior’s grave. The writing challenge, and the fun, was to interweave the present day with a Dark Ages legend, and to bring the two stories together in a plausible climax. Although it’s not part of a series, the main characters will probably reappear in a future book. There’s a fey, fit archaeologist who develops a preternatural understanding of her project. Her character has, ahem, legs.

An Interview with JAMES MAXEY

James Maxey’s Dragon Apocalypse is a series I have been eager to read for a long while. It has been one of many victims of Kindle Invisibility Syndrome (I bought Greatshadow soon after it came out). Now that I have acquired Hush and Witchbreaker, I’ll be sure to blitz through the series, which so many reviewers (many of whom share my tastes in this sub-genre) have enjoyed. So, without further ado, let’s get to the questions…

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is James Maxey?

I'm a guy who daydreams a lot and has enough discipline to write down some of the crazy stuff that crosses my mind.

Your latest trilogy, Dragon Apocalypse, has been published by Solaris. How would you introduce the series to a potential reader?

First, I refrain from calling it a trilogy, and usually only refer to it as a series. The three books out now constitute one arc of a larger story, but there will definitely be future books featuring these characters. It’s a big world with lots of potential, and my eventual story-arc covers decades.

My short pitch for the series is that it’s “X-men meets Tolkien”. The setting and scope of the tale are definitely epic fantasy, but the characters – and to some degree the plot lines – are more superhero inspired. Every major character in the series has some kind of superpower. Instead of battling super villains, they battle dragons, and also each other.

Guest Post: “Don’t Build Worlds on Your Doorstep” by Geoff Gudgion

Every novelist, in every genre, builds worlds. Mine aren’t on a distant galaxy but close to home, perhaps a little too close to home. I like to ground the reader in a world that they’ll recognise, then tilt the board slightly so that as the menace emerges they think, “This could happen to me.” It seems, though, that not everyone is happy with this twisting of rules they hold dear.

In Saxon’s Bane, I started by creating an English village that could trace is foundation to a Saxon warlord, Aegl. Back then, there were deer and boar to hunt in the woods, fresh water in the stream, and the ground would be fertile. It was a place for Aegl to ground his spear and plant his generations. Allingley was founded.

“Where is Allingley?” I’m sometimes asked. Readers seem to finish the book knowing the place, and want to go there. They’re disappointed when I tell them it’s imaginary. World-building comes easier to me, you see, when I take elements that I know and blend them into something fresh. The scent of an otherness, for example, in the depths of an ancient wood. Even the old language is recognisable in the traces of Anglo-Saxon that linger in modern English. Allingley would have been Aegl-ingas-leah in Anglo-Saxon, the clearing of Aegl’s people. I can also borrow from established legend, in this case the warrior Aegl or Egil and his wife Olrun, the Swan Maiden. I brought their story to life in this sleepy village on the banks of the Swanbourne, where, nearly one and a half millennia later, the peat-preserved body of a ritually-slaughtered Saxon warrior is uncovered.

Guest Post: And Now For Something a Little Different - James Lovegrove on AGE OF GODPUNK

My latest Pantheon book, Age Of Godpunk, is not like the others. For a start, it’s an omnibus of three novellas, not a novel. But it isn’t military-SF either. If anything, the three tales are urban fantasy. The themes are the same, though: gods and men and the interaction between them; the nature of belief; acceptance of and/or rebellion against divine authority.

I have to say that all three novellas are pretty personal, too.

They have a setting in common: the city of London. Now, London is a place about which I am more than a little ambivalent. On the one hand, I love to visit our capital and avail myself of the many cultural, culinary, retail and social amenities it has to offer. On the other hand, I’ve lived there at various periods of my life and never felt truly at home or comfortable. I’m from East Sussex. I belong near the south coast, in a county with hills and trees. After any trip up to the Big Smoke, I’m always happy – relieved, even – to return to fresh air and vistas.

So the Age Of Godpunk novellas reflect my mixed feelings about London. They also reflect my mixed feelings about belief, faith and religion. Each of them can be read on two levels. You can take the appearance of the various deities in them at face value, the metaphysical manifesting as real, literal beings. Or you can view them rationally and empirically, with the gods existing only in the minds of the protagonists, phantoms, fantasies, delusions.

Guest Post: “The Details in the Devil” by Lou Morgan

There is one really, really stupid thing you can do as a writer. Monumentally, head-thumpingly stupid.

And that’s to put the Devil in your book.

Where do you start? Whatever name you give him, whatever face, Old Nick comes with some pretty hefty baggage. Trickster, manipulator, tyrant, victim, former angel or demon… he’s still the Devil. You can race with him; you can be caught between him and the deep blue sea. You can have sympathy for him (or not) and he’s even been known to wear Prada.

All this, and we’ve barely even scratched the surface… So why would anyone be crazy or arrogant enough to go ahead and write one of the most (in)famous characters in all of literature into their own book?

Guest Post: “Why I Didn’t Write My Book in an Elevator” by Jack Skillingstead

Here’s the so-called elevator pitch for my new novel, Life On The Preservation.

A man discovers his city is caught in a time loop. He fears he may be losing his mind. Then a girl from outside the loop arrives. They find each other and solve the mystery. It’s Dark City meets Groundhog Day.

I never actually delivered this pitch. In fact, I only wrote it just now. One time I did find myself in an elevator with David Hartwell, who is the senior editor at Tor Books. I wasn't even tempted to blurt a pitch at him. All I said was, “Nice tie.” David is famous for his ties. After that, we did what most people do on elevators. We stared at the doors and waited.

On publication day, which was May 28th, I did a public reading from, Life On The Preservation. The reading took place at the University Bookstore in Seattle, Washington. Duane Wilkins, who runs the excellent science fiction section of the store and who is probably as well-read as anyone ever has been in our genre, had this to say in his introduction:

“I don’t know how to explain this book.”

Then he stared into space for a while, repeated himself, and suggested I might do better at describing Life On The Preservation. Presumably, he believed I could describe my own novel because, after all, I’d written it. But I couldn’t, even though I’m a fairly articulate person. If I’d had my elevator pitch handy I might have recited the thing, but I doubt it. Besides, I only wrote the elevator pitch five minutes ago.

People who like to give writing advice will often tell you that if you can’t describe your book in one paragraph you probably don’t have a saleable idea. If that’s true, I’m living in the wrong universe. Though I have described both of my novels in one or two paragraphs, I did it only after the books were finished and sold and the publishers asked me to do it, so they would have some copy to put on the back of the book and to advertise it in catalogues and around the internet.

The truth is, you don’t know what your book is about until you’ve written it, and if the book is any good it lives in the details – details that you discover along the way. At my University Bookstore reading I could have described LOTP as a story of alien destruction, time loops, transhuman survival in an environment of outlaw art, paranoid estrangement and redemption. I could even have said its secret theme concerned living in the world you create – whether you acknowledge you’ve created it or not.

But, while true enough, that description isn’t anything but a laundry list of related generalities. And I must say that, generally, I distrust generalities. Before I wrote LOTP I took several stabs at the one-paragraph description. I even tried to outline chapters. It felt a little like looking at a slide show from a vacation I hadn’t yet enjoyed. Here’s a pretty picture of a beach with random people lying around! Yes, the people are strangers, ciphers, and the beach looks like any other beach. But there it is! And I'm going!

My early efforts of transforming Life On The Preservation from a short story to a novel looked something like a generic beach with sun-bathing ciphers. This is because I was desperate to get organized and write a novel that pushed all the right buttons – you know, the buttons that would make people love the book and shower me with contracts and money. Of course, those first attempts to expand Preservation turned out to be abysmal failures. I learned that – for me, at least – there is only one way to discover whatever it is that might be original within myself. I had to go there and document the journey every inch of the way. Only then could I begin to organize my fancy slide show.

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Life on the Preservation was published by Solaris Books on June 6th. Here’s the synopsis…

Inside the Seattle Preservation Dome it’s always the Fifth of October, the city caught in an endless time loop. “Reformed” graffiti artist Ian Palmer is the only one who knows the truth, and he is desperate to wake up the rest of the city before the alien Curator of this human museum erases Ian’s identity forever. Outside the Dome, the world lies in apocalyptic ruin. Small town teenager Kylie is one of the few survivors to escape both the initial shock wave and the effects of the poison rains that follow. Now she must make her way across the blasted lands pursued by a mad priest and menaced by skin-and-bone things that might once have been human. Her destination is the Preservation, and her mission is to destroy it. But once inside, she meets Ian, and together they discover that Preservation reality is even stranger than it already appears.

Guest Post: “On Editing & Writing…” by Jonathan Strahan

On writing tips for new writers from someone who has never written a story, but has read a few

Many thanks to Civilian Reader for letting me stop by and chat about editing and writing. I’ve been thinking about what you might say to a new writer who wanted to write a short story, a great one (who’d want to write anything else?) When I first started to work on a list of tips on how to write a terrific short story I drew a blank. I’ve not written a short story since high school, so I’m no expert. I’ve not even thought about writing a short story myself. But then I realized that, like you, I read. I read a lot. And what I mostly read is short fiction. So, it’s possible I might have picked up an idea or two.

1. Write

This might seem obvious, but no one has ever finished a short story without sitting down and actually writing. I have a folder full of stops and starts on a handful of short stories and novels, but none of them are finished. So, do that. Write. Write every day and finish what you start.

2. Re-write

I know you think you’re finished when you write “The End” at the end of your newly minted short story. You probably are. But it’s possible, just possible, that there’s still a little bit of work left to do. Put it in a drawer for a week, and come back to it fresh. Suddenly you’ll see, if you’re at all like me when I write anything, all sorts of problems with it. You might also let a trusted reader see it. Get their feedback, try to listen to it with an open mind, and be willing to re-write.

3. Read

The only way to learn how to write a great short story is to read great short stories. Read them a lot and think about them. Try to work out how they work and why. Pick a writer whose work you love and see how their stories work. If you love fantasy stories, try the work of Fritz Leiber or Ursula Le Guin, and see if you can unpick their stories. They knew what they were doing.

4. Keep it short

We are talking about writing short stories after all, so keep it short. You probably only want a single plot line (the story) and a single point of view character (the person whose eyes we’re seeing the story though). Longer stories, novellas and short novels, can sometimes have subplots and more than one point of view character, but basically you only need one.

5. Make your story work

I don’t mean make it great. Of course you’re going to do that. What I mean is make your words count. Everything you write in a short story should do more than one thing. Setting builds character, voice advances plot, and so on. Look very carefully at each scene in your story. You won’t have many of them – this is short after all – so make sure each scene does more than one thing. Each scene should build setting, develop character and move the story forward. Avoid scenes that only do one thing. You want to avoid your story being dull (which it was never going to be, but you know what I mean) and making sure your scenes are doing the heavy lifting helps.

If you’ve already written a great short story you probably know all of this stuff, and possibly far more. If you’re just starting out, though, it might help. And if you are starting out keep going. You’ll probably write some stinkers. You’ll possibly write some stories that are almost exactly like stories written by people whose work you love. That’s fine. That’s what you should be doing. You have to write through that so you can get to the stories that only you can tell, the ones that are definitely going to be great. And when you do, send them to me. I love great short stories.

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Fearsome Journeys is out now, published by Solaris Books.

Joey Hi-Fi brings Tony Ballantyne’s “DREAM LONDON” to life… (Solaris)

Hot on the heels of Joey Hi-Fi’s two awesome covers for Charlie Human’s Apocalypse Now Now (Century), Solaris has unveiled the artist’s superb cover for Tony Ballantyne’s next novel, Dream London. The novel will be published in October 2013. In the meantime, here’s the synopsis:

Captain Jim Wedderburn has looks, style and courage by the bucketful. He’s adored by women, respected by men and feared by his enemies. He’s the man to find out who has twisted London into this strange new world, and he knows it.

But in Dream London the city changes a little every night and the people change a little every day. The towers are growing taller, the parks have hidden themselves away and the streets form themselves into strange new patterns. There are people sailing in from new lands down the river, new criminals emerging in the East End and a path spiraling down to another world.

Everyone is changing, no one is who they seem to be.

Interview with AL EWING

Al Ewing has been writing some interesting British SF and Comics for many years now. With the upcoming release of his latest novel, I thought it would be a good time to ask him about his work, practices and so forth.

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Al Ewing?

Al Ewing is a writer of comics and novels, predominately SF, and he feels odd talking about himself in the third person so he’ll stop… I’m likely best known for my 2000AD work – I’ve written a few well-received Judge Dredd strips, and I’m the co-creator of Zombo, a dark slapstick satire of whatever’s within reach that’s been running for a few years to critical acclaim. In terms of novels, I’ve up until now mostly done work for hire in other people’s fictional universes – not that I’m complaining; it was a lot of fun. Probably my best-known work in that direction is the El Sombra trilogy for the Pax Britannia line from Abaddon Books.

I thought we’d start with your fiction: Your latest novel, The Fictional Man, was recently published by Solaris. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

It’s a stand-alone novel – you don’t have to worry about picking up any others, and I don’t think I’m going to be writing any sequels. I suppose I’d try and sell it to a new reader by saying it’s a conversation on the nature of reality and fiction that’s wrapped up in a bunch of funny business, heartfelt tragedy and, occasionally, hot kinky sex. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mention that last bit but judging by recent blockbuster runaway successes in the prose field there’s a huge audience for it.

What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

It spun out of a small-press comic strip I did years ago – literally over a decade ago – and I thought the concept of fictional characters being brought into the real world as Hollywood celebrities was interesting enough for a longer-form piece. It was just a matter of when I’d get the chance to do that. So when Solaris approached me and asked if I had any ideas, that was the first one I went to.

In general... I spend a lot of time on magical thinking, which isn’t much good when it comes to practical issues – in fact it’s actively harmful when you apply it to, say, the economy or whether the rights of your fellow humans should be dictated by imaginary beings – but it is good for writing. I suppose if I had to give advice to a new writer it would be to let your mind wander as much as possible. (Try and spend some time actually writing as well, mind. In fact, if you can do both at once you’ll know you’ve made it.)

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

When I was a small boy, my brother introduced me to a comic called 2000AD, which I might have mentioned earlier. It was obviously brilliant – this was during the hot streak of the mid-eighties – and I quickly graduated to the American comics, and I’ve been in love with the comics medium ever since. Much as I enjoy playing with the prose format, you can do a lot more with comics, I find.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

I like it! It’s nice work if you can get it. As for specific working practices... I always make sure to write lots of things at the plotting stage that won’t let me get bored at the actual writing stage. With The Fictional Man, I put in a lot of differing formats – nested texts within the central text – so I could change my style up a little. For example, there’s one chapter which breaks into screenplay format for a while, and then another that takes the form of a review similar to what you might find on the Onion AV Club. It’s little things like that that help keep everything fresh.

More of Al’s novels from Abaddon Books

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

I used to write a lot as a kid – little columns for school newsletters, short stories, short plays. I used to spend hours writing things just for my own pleasure, without any thought of getting paid or making a living. These days, everything has a deadline attached, and while everything I write is still first and foremost for myself – you can’t write otherwise – I don’t really dive into something purely for its own sake anymore. I’m always writing to a brief, even if that brief is “pitch us something, anything”. Maybe that’s why I end up putting all these formal diversions and side-roads into the professional work I do, to scratch that old itch.

For Dynamite Comics, Al also wrote Ninjettes (#1-6) and Jennifer Blood (#7-24)

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

I have no real opinion of the modern SF genre, to be honest. I don’t really read any – most of my book-reading time is spent either on non-fiction or crime fiction – the solid, tough noirs and procedurals of Richard Stark, Ed McBain and, most recently, Chester Himes. I read a lot of comics too – if you asked me where I fit into the comics world I’d probably say that I was trying to push the boundaries of what could be done, in terms of the form, where I could, and the rest of the time just trying to give the readers some value for money so they didn’t feel disappointed when they put the issue down. I have the same approach to my novel work, except I don’t really keep up on the SF ‘scene’, so I have no idea if I’m pushing against open doors. Buy the book and find out!

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

I’m in the middle of All Shot Up by Chester Himes, and then I’ve got The Deportees by Roddy Doyle waiting for me after that. Bossypants by Tina Fey is the current non-fiction book, though I just recently finished Marvel: The Untold Story by Sean Howe and I’d recommend that, with the caveat that it becomes a very different book in its final quarter.

What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

I’ve never taken LSD. Or anything psychoactive. Me and Magic Roundabout.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

I just had a very tasty opportunity from a comics company who should probably remain nameless for now. And I’ll likely pitch something else for Solaris, though I tend to leave plenty of time between prose novels to let myself forget how hard they are to write.

Upcoming: “The Eidolon” by Libby McGugan (Solaris)

I stumbled across this book completely by accident, but it looked kind of interesting (which makes me wonder why it hasn’t been mentioned more often, elsewhere…). The Eidolon is Libby McGugan’s debut novel, and here is the synopsis:

When physicist Robert Strong loses his job at the Dark Matter research lab and his relationship falls apart, he returns home to Scotland. Then the dead start appearing to him, and Robert begins to question his own sanity.

Vincent Amos, an enigmatic businessman, arrives and recruits Robert to sabotage CERN’S Large Hadron Collider, convincing him the next step in the collider’s research will bring about disaster. Everything Robert once understood about reality, and the boundaries between life and death, is about to change forever. And the biggest change will be to Robert himself...

The Eidolon will be published by Solaris Books in October 2013.

Upcoming: “Fearsome Journeys” ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris)

A very exciting new anthology will be landing in May 2013 from Solaris. The collection, edited by super-editor Jonathan Strahan, brings together some of the best and most exciting new and established authors in fantasy. Here’s the proposed line-up:

“The Effigy Engine: A Tale of the Red Hats” by Scott Lynch

“Amethyst, Shadow, and Light” by Saladin Ahmed

“Camp Follower” by Trudi Canavan

“The Dragonslayer of Merebarton” by K.J. Parker

“Leaf and Branch and Grass and Vine” by Kate Elliott

“Spirits of Salt: A Tale of the Coral Sword” by Jeffrey Ford

“Forever People” by Robert V.S. Redick

“Sponda the Suet Girl and the Secret of the French Pearl” by Ellen Klages

“Shaggy Dog Bridge: A Black Company Story” by Glen Cook

“The Ghost Makers” by Elizabeth Bear

“One Last, Great Adventure” by Ellen Kushner & Ysabeau Wilce

“The High King Dreaming” by Daniel Abraham

Can not wait to read this anthology. Fearsome Journeys is already available for pre-order from Amazon US & UK.

Guest Post: “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (Again)” by Gail Z. Martin

Gail Z. Martin is the author of some great, dark fantasy novels. Most recently, Ice Forged, the start of a new series: The Ascendant Kings Saga. Ice Forged is framed around a great premise, and I hope to read and review it very soon. To celebrate the launch of this new series, here is a guest blog from Gail…

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“It’s the End of the World as We Know It (Again)” by Gail Z. Martin

What is it about an impending apocalypse that captures the imagination?

Having just survived the “Mayan Calendar” apocalypse, the idea is pretty fresh in everyone’s mind. Thanks to the Internet, warnings of immanent doom seem to crop up fairly often, so much so that most of us roll our eyes, mutter “another one” and go about our daily business.

Until the time it turns out to be true.

Coming up in 2013 from Solaris Books

The other day, Solaris released a handful of new cover images on their blog. Being the book magpie that I am, I decided to share them again over here, with any other information on the books I could find.

So, without further ado, here are the covers for Gaie Sebold’s Dangerous Gifts, James Lovegrove’s Age of Voodoo, and Guy Adams’s The Good, The Bad, and the Infernal.

“Guardians of the Phoenix” by Eric Brown (Solaris)

Reviewed by Bane of Kings

A distant, dry future dystopia…

For ten years, Paul has scrabbled for survival among the sand-shrouded ruins of the once-great city of Paris. The seas have dried up, deserts cover much of the Earth’s surface, and humanity has been all but annihilated, as much by the drought as by the nuclear and biological conflicts following the great Breakdown.

Desperate bands of humans still survive. Some scrape a living in the remains of shattered cities; others resort to murder and cannibalism to survive. When Paul is rescued from one such group of killers, he joins his benefactors in their journey south in search of water and salvation.

Guardians of the Phoenix tells the story of the last survivors on planet Earth, their desperate fight for survival and their last hope to save the world.

Whenever you pick up a book by an author who you’ve never heard of, you don’t really know what to expect when you go into it. Is it going to be a good read? Is it going to be a bad one? With Eric Brown though, I’ve heard a lot about him and his work before, and most of it good. The author is prolific, with fifteen novels already published (not including children’s books), and has also been a reviewer and an editor. I’ve been interested in picking up Brown’s novels for a while now, but I finally decided to take the plunge with the standalone novel Guardians of the Phoenix.

More Sebold on the Horizon!

A Madame’s work is never done

That’s right, Gaie Sebold will be writing and Solaris will be publishing the sequel to the excellent Babylon Steel! This pleases me very much. Babylon Steel was a great mélange science-fiction novel, with humour and serious content, a fantastic heroine and a great story.

Here’s some more information on Dangerous Gifts, the second novel. First, the synopsis:

Babylon Steel runs the best brothel in Scalentine, city of portals. She’s escaped her past and it’s all going pretty well. Apart, that is, from the racial conflict and economic misery boiling up in Scalentine.

Her lover, Chief Bitternut of the City Militia, is trying to keep the lid on, while hunting a killer whose real target is a lot closer than he knows. Just as things are getting really tense, Babylon is forced to take another job. Bodyguard to Enthemmerlee Entaire: symbol of hope or object of disgust for most of her country’s population, and a prime target for assassination, along with anyone who happens to be in the way. Such as her bodyguard.

Unintentionally dragging a very annoyed government employee along in her wake, Babylon struggles to turn Enthemmerlee’s squabbling household guard from liability into security, dodge the rigid Moral Statutes of Incandress, and keep both herself and her client alive. She soon realises that the situation is far worse than she thought, her past hasn’t quite let go of her yet, and she will be driven to a choice that will have far-reaching consequences…

Dangerous Gifts is currently penciled in for a February 2013 release. No cover artwork available just yet, but I’m sure I’ll share it as-and-when it becomes public.

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About the Author:

Gaie Sebold was born in the US, and lives in London. She has worked as a cleaner, secretary, till-monkey, stage-tour-manager, and editor. She now wrangles a database, runs occasional writing workshops, and is a member of the critique group T Party Writers. She is an obsessive reader, enthusiastically inefficient gardener, and has been known to run around in woods hitting people with latex swords and to declaim poetry in public, though not usually at the same time. She also has the standard cat apparently issued to most fantasy writers.

As well as the next Babylon novel, she is working on the blog Weeding and Writing with her partner, writer Dave Gullen; a poetry project; and a fantasy romance, with orcs. She likes orcs. You can find Gaie at her website.