There were some great entries (and some not so great). Where there were multiple entries based on the same novel we chose not to take the first entry, but the one we thought funniest or closer to the tone of the original title.

So, the runners-up (who all receive a copy of the ARC):

• @Pat_JG with A Scanner Darkly Dreaming Dexter
• @debutdrmag with Murder on the Orion Express and The Maltese Millennium Falcon
• @Stephenwest with Evil Under Twin Suns

and

• @erik_lundqvist with Murder She Blogged (yes, it’s not SF, but we liked it, and it’s our competition, so shut it!)

and the winner (who will receive a copy of the ARC plus something else from the Angry Robot cupboard of cool):

• @markhwilliams with The Girl with the Dragon Tatooine

Congratulations, everyone – your books should reach you before the weekend!

___

*Some international competitions, coming soon…

SFX Magazine says:

Breathless pace… Damasco resembles a landlocked version of Jack Sparrow… The atypical backdrop,self-aware style and downplaying of magics bring to mind the contemporary fantasies of Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie.

Meanwhile, Starburst had this to say:

I’m finding it hard to dislike anything about this book. It’s a fun, entertaining read, everything a good story should be… David Tallerman’s first novel is a gripping yarn, one that is difficult to put down once started, and this reviewer is eagerly awaiting the next tale of Easie Damasco.

Over at A Fantastical Librarian, they confidently state that

If you’re up for a fun, fast-paced adventure featuring rogues, giants and lots of fighting, you won’t want to miss it!

and Publishers Weekly tells us:

“Best known for an eclectic variety of short stories, Tallerman debuts with a breezy novel of a man with his eye on the prize … Tallerman’s charming, devil-may-care hero has plenty of swashbuckling roguishness to carry him through the planned sequels.”

And Fantasy Nibbles was impressed, too:

This really is a fun read. Saltlick is adorable, I want one! It’s straightforward, linear, smack down the middle fast-paced goodness.

Giant Thief is released in mass market paperback in the US and Canada on January 31st, and in the UK on February 2nd. The eBook is released worldwide on January 31st in ePub and Kindle formats.

Adam reads from Empire State at the UK launch

The launch for Adam’s Empire State at Forbidden Planet on Thursday last week was a great success. We’re still waiting for the firm numbers to come in, but FP have told us that it is one of the most successful launch/signings they have ever held there.

Which is nice.

A good time was had by all, and after reading a tantalising excerpt from the novel, Adam was kept extremely busy by the long queue of eager readers.

And if you missed the news at the weekend, the Financial Times said this of Empire State:

Suffused with a love for noir fiction and the golden age of American comic books, Christopher’s Empire State is something of a tour de force. If, somehow, Raymond Chandler and Philip K Dick had collaborated on a Superman story, they might well have produced this novel.

Congratulations to Adam on a fine launch, and our thanks go to Danie and the team at Forbidden Planet for making it all happen.

New Yorkers – don’t forget Adam’s signing at the Mid-Manhattan Library tomorrow evening from 6.30-7.30pm. (Details here, or click the image to the right).

Empire State is out now in paperback and eBook formats. Order a copy from your favourite indie, chain or online retailer.

First up – City of Light and Shadow by Ian Whates, reviewed by Eric Brown in the Guardian:

Whates has developed an intriguing metropolis every bit as fascinating as his varied cast of characters… Compulsively readable.

And Empire State by Adam Christopher reviewed by James Lovegrove for the Financial Times:

Suffused with a love for noir fiction and the golden age of American comic books, Christopher’s Empire State is something of a tour de force. If, somehow, Raymond Chandler and Philip K Dick had collaborated on a Superman story, they might well have produced this novel.

Click on the links to read the full reviews, then go buy/order from your favourite indie, chain, or online retailer (including the Angry Robot eBook Store).

Adam will be signing and reading from the novel, and it’s a great chance to meet him and get hold of a copy of one of the most exciting debuts of the year from one of the most exciting debut novelists of the year.

For all you UK peeps:
A reading/signing at Forbidden Planet Megastore, Shaftesbury Avenue, London.
This Thursday (5th January) from 6.00pm-7.00pm.
Details here.

For New Yorkers:
A reading/signing at the Mid-Manhattan Library
Tuesday January 10th, from 6.30pm-7.30pm.
Details here.

“Adam Christopher’s debut novel is a noir, Philip K Dick-ish science fiction superhero
story… a novel of surreal resonances, things that are like other things, plot turns
that hearken to other plot turns. It’s often fascinating, as captivating as a
kaleidoscope… just feel it in all its weird glory.”
- Cory Doctorow, author of Makers and Little Brother

We’ve just signed debut novelist, Lee Battersby for two books in a new fantasy series. The first title – The Corpse-Rat King – will be published in the autumn of next year, with the second to follow in 2013. The deal included world English rights in physical and electronic formats.

In the highly imaginative The Corpse-Rat King, readers are introduced to Marius Helles as he plunders the bodies of the dead after a major battle – a crime punishable by death. The dead tell Marius that they need a King – the King is God’s representative, and they need someone to speak to God and remind him where they are, thank you very much! He doesn’t actually want the job, but when the alternative is to deny a legion of angry corpses, it’s that or find a suitable compromise – and quickly: the dead aren’t known for their patience…

The deal was negotiated by Angry Robot editor Lee Harris, and Battersby’s agent Richard Henshaw of the Richard Henshaw Group, after The Corpse-Rat King came to Angry Robot’s attention during their first Open Door Month open submission period, in March this year.

British-born Battersby, who now lives in Australia, said: “To publish a novel has been a long-held dream. To achieve it with such a progressive and forward-thinking publisher, based in the town of my birth, just makes it all the more special. Angry Robot think about speculative fiction the same way I do – that it is a warped and twisted fabric that should be used to pervert the minds of the young and the innocent.”

Editor, Lee Harris stated: “Lee’s twisted worldview is ideal for Angry Robot’s many followers. The Corpse-Rat King is a great read – funny, exciting and very, very addictive – and by making sure Lee is busy writing, we’re keeping him away from decent folk!”

____________

Note on the next Open Door submission period
Following the success of this year’s Open Door Month (we’ve signed three authors from it, so far), we’re likely to run it again in the spring. We’ve not yet decided exactly when, or what format it will take. Keep your eyes peeled for more info, though, as details will be posted here, closer to the time. In the meantime, our standard submissions policy applies.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TOP SOUTH AFRICAN PRODUCER WINS COVETED FILM RIGHTS IN INTERNATIONAL “BID FEST” TO MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING AND BESTELLING NOVEL ZOO CITY BY SOUTH AFRICAN AUTHOR LAUREN BEUKES

“Beukes’ energetic noir phantasmagoria, the winner of this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award, crackles with original ideas.” (Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times Book Review)

South Africa, November 22nd
Helena Spring, widely regarded as one of South Africa’s most accomplished motion picture producers, has just been awarded the highly sought-after film rights to Zoo City, the Sci-Fi thriller penned by South African author Lauren Beukes – who garnered the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award for best Science Fiction novel. In the wake of whopping sales figures, multiple awards and critical acclaim Beukes’ book generated fierce interest from numerous bidders in the entertainment industry, putting Spring alongside major US and UK producers eager to tell Beukes’ unique tale.

Zoo City was published first in South Africa by Jacana Media and thereafter internationally by by Angry Robot.

The urban fantasy is set in a futuristic, gritty and hard-core Johannesburg where the eponymous ghetto has been colonised by society’s outcasts – like criminals, drug-dealers and psychopaths, and their animal companions. Like the other residents of the Zoo City slum, Zinzi, the anti-heroine, is “animalled”, but she is also a shrewd, street-smart girl with the gift (or burden) of finding lost things. Zinzi wears her power animal, a sloth, on her back. When she is hired to find a missing teenybopper star, she hopes that it will be her ticket out of Hell’s waiting room.

“I’m delighted to have secured the film and television rights for Zoo City,” commented Helena Spring. “It is a groundbreaking, magical novel begging for a life on the big screen. Lauren’s storytelling is masterful – edgy and futuristic, unique yet universal. It is high in entertainment value yet emotionally charged, a dream project for any producer.”

Beukes positively acknowledges the choice of the winning producer. “Every novelist dreams of a movie deal – but you actually want more than that. You want to find a producer of great vision and integrity and experience who fundamentally gets the book and understands how to transform it into an entirely different creature based on the same genetic material. I’m thrilled that it’s being produced in South Africa – for an international audience.”

Spring’s career in the entertainment industry spans nearly three decades, during which time she has produced over twenty motion pictures – including the first ever South African film to receive recognition at the Academy Awards®: Darrell Roodt’s Yesterday earned a Best Foreign Picture nomination in 2004.

Spring, who has worked with some of the foremost filmmakers in the world – such as Paul Greengrass who helmed the box office smash hits The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, and Academy Award® winner, Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), will soon be putting the project out to a select party of directors, while Beukes has first look as screenwriter to adapt her novel for the screen. “Lauren is perfectly placed to do this. The characters are alive inside her,” says Spring.

Julian Friedmann of Blake Friedmann (the literary agency that reps Beukes), says that: “Helena outbid all the others in a spirited auction for film rights to this extraordinary book. She had an extremely proactive, writer-friendly approach to working with Lauren and offered an imaginative and creative proposal that was irresistible.”

Lauren Beukes’ meteoric rise seems unstoppable and recently a new megabucks book deal was announced. The working titles of the two novels – due in 2013 and 2014 – are The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters. They were picked up by publishers in the US, the UK, South Africa, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.

This of course is not the Angry Robot way. No, we just take what we need and crush all meaty resistance beneath the treads of our mighty robot war machines. Which we’re sure you’ll agree is much simpler and easier for everyone in the long run.

However, it has been pointed out to us that crushing beneath our treads is perhaps not the most productive way to go about parting you fleshy types from your hard-earned credit.

And so in a fit of what we’re reliably informed is termed “generosity” we’ve decided to make you something called a “special offer” on all Angry Robot ebooks purchased between now and midday (GMT) on Monday November 28th.

Quite simply, you may:

Buy One, Get One Free

By using the following promotional code at the checkout:

nov241

The slightly longer version: This offer is limited to eBook purchases from the Angry Robot Store only (ePub format, DRM-free). No other retailer will be able to accept this offer code. Print editions are not included in this offer. 12-month subscriptions are not included either (although keep your sensors peeled for more subscription-flavoured news next week).

What, you’re still here? What are you waiting for? Go, fill your e-readers while you can!

• Empire State by Adam Christopher [Jan 2012]
• City of Light and Shadow by Ian Whates [Jan 2012]
• Embedded (B-format paperback, UK only) by Dan Abnett [Jan 2012]
• Giant Thief by David Tallerman [Feb 2012]

• The Great Game by Lavie Tidhar [Feb 2012]
• Dead Harvest by Chris F Holm [Mar 2012]
• Carpathia by Matt Forbeck [Mar 2012]

• The Clockwork Vampire Chronicles (omnibus) by Andy Remic [Mar 2012]
• Moxyland (reissue, UK only) by Lauren Beukes [Mar 2012]
• The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle [Apr 2012]
• Omega Point by Guy Haley [Apr 2012]

• Costume Not Included by Matthew Hughes [Apr 2012]
• Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig [May 2012]
• Evil Dark by Justin Gustainis [May 2012]

• The Nekropolis Archives (omnibus) by Tim Waggoner [May 2012]
• Strangeness and Charm by Mike Shevdon [Jun 2012]
• Night’s Engines by Trent Jamieson [Jun 2012]
• The Hammer and the Blade by Paul S. Kemp [Jul 2012]
• Suited by Jo Anderton [Jul 2012]
• Obsidian and Blood (omnibus) by Aliette de Bodard [Jul 2012]
• vN by Madeline Ashby [Aug 2012]
• The Crown of the Usurper by Gav Thorpe [Aug 2012]
• The Death of Light by Peter Crowther [Sep 2012]
• Seven Wonders by Adam Christopher [Sep 2012]
• Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig [Sep 2012]

We know, we know, it’s a lot to take in, isn’t it? It’s absolutely fine if you need to go take an aspirin and have a bit of a lie down. There’s no shame at all in admitting you’re overwhelmed. We quite understand.

When you’ve recovered your composure, pre-orders for the majority of these titles can be placed with your favourite online or offline retailer of paper-bound materials. And for your downloadable convenience, eBook editions will be made available from the Angry Robot Ebook Store and all the usual e-retailers in due course.

That is all.

There are countless reviews of this multi-award winning book, so here’s what Bull Spec Magazine said of the audio version:

A deservedly highly-praised and award-winning novel has come to audio with a really well-done production… a novel which Publishers Weekly just named as one of the best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2011.

You can hear a sample by clicking on the play button, below, or download an mp3 sample here to use on the device of your choice.

The audiobook is 9 hours and 25 minutes long, and can be bought as an MP3 CD ($14.99 / £11.25), a set of audio CDs ($14.99 / £22.50), or as a download from Amazon or Audible ($10.49 / £7.89).

Here’s 5 minutes for you. You’re welcome.