I received some copies of this Lubbe translation of Hilldiggers a little while ago and, as Martin from Germany pointed out, I haven’t put it up on my blog. Here it is then, ‘The Children of the Drone’ with something that looks suspiciously like a crashed Vorlon spaceshp on the cover. I don’t mind that; I like Vorlons!
I’ll also be putting up new German covers of my older books Martin kindly pointed out to me.
Tag: Books
Messiah
Ah, nicely gory stuff and a very enjoyable read, though some of the Bible quotes, though vaguely relevant to the story, rambled on a bit too long. We didn’t need a replay of the Crucifixion – the only relevant bit in that was Judas hanging himself. And I’m not even sure we needed that. I laugh at people who believe in the sky pixie and wouldn’t have the Bible in my house other than for woodburner fuel, but even I knew that. Interesting ending too. I’m not entirely sure the first TV production of it ended that way – can’t see how it could with Messiah’s II & III to follow. No, surely Ken Stott didn’t get busy with the hammer and nails, did he?
Galactic North
I just finished Galactic North the other day, and am now looking forward to reading The Prefect. It’s nice to be once again reminded why I enjoyed reading his Revelation Space series. A few of the stories in here I’d read before (was The Great Wall of Mars in Interzone?) but I still enjoyed them second time around. The story Galactic North seemed a bit disjointed, but I still enjoyed the big space and huge breadths of time. All of it: huge Gothic spaceships, weapons like dangerous beasts lurching in cathedral caches, borge-like ultras, nano-plagues and … more stuff with Conjoiners in it, please, Alastair!
Neal Asher E-books
I picked this up from a website called galleycat but it’s scattered all over the Internet elsewhere too. I signed the addendum to my contracts just a little while ago so this could go ahead.
Pan Macmillan Partners with Popular iPhone Reader
Books by John Scalzi, Clive James, Peter F. Hamilton, China Mieville and Neal Asher can now be purchased for the iPhone, as Pan Macmillan partnered with the e-reader company, Lexcycle–becoming one of the largest publishers to step into this new digital realm. The first round of titles are available on the iPhone and iPod Touch using Lexcycle’s Stanza application, and the companies expect to add more titles over the next year. In addition, the partnership will allow Stanza readers to sample bestsellers in special excerpts. Sara Lloyd, Digital Director of Pan Macmillan, said her company had studied the market carefully before the partnership. From the press release: “Since the iPhone launched its App Store we have been watching developments closely to see which reading apps became most popular. Lexcycle’s Stanza emerged very quickly as a clear leader in its category and so we immediately made contact to ask about developing a strategic partnership to bring our ebooks to readers through this new channel,” she explained.
Wot No Books?
My thanks to the staff at Forbidden Planet for having me there signing books again (and providing sandwiches, cake and tea). Not a vast attendance, but more than made up for by the enthusiasm of those who did turn up. I also signed plenty of stock so if you’re after a signed copy you can order one here, just put in a search with my name – it would also be worth checking because I know they have signed copies of those shown here but not marked as signed.
Nice also to meet Julie Crisp, senior commissioning editor at Tor/Pan Macmillan and Chloe Healy the press officer there. Also great to see Simon Kavanagh and Peter Lavery, as always.
Sorry to have missed any of the usual crowd afterwards – the Angel was packed so we went to the Phoenix Club. Maybe this coming April when The Shadow of the Scorpion comes out?
Signing Today
Don’t forget I’m signing The Gabble today at Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, between 6-7pm.
Printing.
Success! I actually managed to clean out the printer cartridge, refill it and get it all working again (though for how long I don’t know). Really I should confine myself to a monochrome laser printer then I just wouldn’t have such problems. I don’t bother printing off photographs or much else of the like. However, I always like to print off bookmarks like these shown here – a combination of advertising and calling card. There must be thousands of these scattered around the world now.
Colchester Waterstones.
Thanks to Mark, Adam and the rest of the staff at the Colchester Waterstones for having me there signing books today. Let’s hope you sell of that pile Gabble! And thanks to those who turned up to buy books. I should also add a message to others entering the store: you can check out the books since I don’t bite and I’m not going to drag you in like a Turkish market trader.
Two pictures here from Caroline’s mobile phone since I forgot my camera.
Thanks also to BHS Colchester for the slowest breakfast in recorded history.
Subterfuge.
Subterfuge: A clever device or strategy used to evade a rule, escape a consequence, or to hide something… Ian Whates just visited me today to get me to sign the remainder of a signed special edition of Subterfuge, in which you’ll find a Polity story of mine called The Rhine’s World Incident. On Amazon we have: A Signed and Numbered Limited edition of just 150. Each copy is signed by all contributors (barring Neal Asher). This special edition contains three additional stories to the other two standard editions (By Ian Watson, Storm Constantine and Ian Whates). The ‘barring Neal Asher’ has now changed for about the remaining 90 copies. Authors also included in this are Tanith Lee, John Meaney, Storm Constantine, Dave Hutchinson, Steve Longworth, Nick Ravensworth, Sarah Singleton, Neil Williamson, Nick Wood, Una McCormack, Juliet McKenna, Tony Ballantyne, Pat Cadigan, Gary Couzens, and Ian Whates (Editor). It’s further worth noting that the Dave Hutchinson is the very same as who posts comments here (I look forward to reading Multitude, Dave).None limited edition here.
Shadow of the Scorpion.
I’ve been having fun trying to convert a pdf sent to me by Macmillan into a jpg so I could put a picture of this cover up here. Nice free program downloaded to do it, only for some unfathomable reason it will convert the whole dust jacket except for the title on the front and spine. Another program accessed online (sends the picture to you by email) just converted half the cover, the back half, which is no use at all. I’ve ended up just copying this from amazon. The hardcover of Shadow of the Scorpion should be published on April 3rd.
Raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and the vicious arthropoid race, the Prador, Ian Cormac is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn’t remember. In the years following the war, he signs up with Earth Central Security, and is sent out to help either restore or simply maintain order on worlds devastated by Prador bombardment. There he discovers that though the old enemy remains as murderous as ever, it is not anywhere near as perfidious or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some of them closer to him than he would like. Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, he discovers in himself a cold capacity for violence, learns some horrible truths about his own past and, set upon a course of vengeance, tries merely to stay alive.