In the fantasy corner, TRIUMFF: HER MAJESTY’S HERO by that outstanding gentleman and wit, Dan Abnett esq. How the hell to describe this one… get ready for lots of hand-gestures, I think. It’s set today (OK, the year 2010). Queen Elizabeth XXX is on the throne, and Elizabethan culture still rules England. Alchemy powers a progressive nation, but people still duel with swords. Oh, how they duel. Mr Abnett is soooo good with a swordfight. As for the jokes, the puns, the footnotes, the outraegous satires of modern mores… oh my.

Dan’s been asking some of his regular website visitors to read and preview Triumff – read their individual takes on his blog. Watch out though, neologism haterz – looks like Triumff is a masterpiece of “clockpunk”! Hem hem.

Oh, and someone we know had this to say about it… “Triumff contains the three things I love most in fantasy: awesome magic, thrilling adventure, a truly original world and some really dreadful puns.” No, thank you, Ms Trudi Canavan.

And over with the spaceships, the super cool WINTER SONG by that man Colin Harvey. A perfect read for those evenings in front of the fire, curled up in your favourite armchair while being whisked off to the other side of the galaxy. This isn’t your usual “escape the alien planet” SF potboiler. Instead, expect a thoughtful yet exciting exploration of both the harsh landscape and the equally harsh humans have had to do to survive on said planet. This one, we think, will be the one where in a few months’ time we look back, count all the favourable reviews, and smile to ourselves, knowing we did good. Whatever, check it out.

And next month, Sixty-One Nails, for robots’ sake. Yow! We are on a roll!

So go buy one – it’s a great, rollicking yarn!

We’ve had the first couple of reviews in, and boy, do they agree! J Robert King has done an astonishing job with this book!

Gillian Pollack tells us:

Angel of Death and Kaaron Warren’s Slights are my best reads of the year… don’t pick it up when you’re supposed to be doing other things. It’s after midnight and those dishes are still unwashed and those papers are still unsorted. I don’t know whether to blame J Robert King for writing Angel of Death or Angry Robot for publishing the book.

She says a whole lot more, but she loves the book! So do we. Check out the rest of her review, here.

Meanwhile, over at ScienceFictionAndFantasy.co.uk, we learn that:

There are a few notable times a novel has imprinted itself deeply on my mind, gaining an insight in difficult subject matter. The very rare occasions I can recall include “The incident of the dog at night-time” and “Lucky Man”, it doesn’t happen very often. This novel has now been added to that list as it sucks you inside the mind of a serial killer, as close as you ever really want to get to one.

Pop along to their excellent website to read the rest of the review, then go buy the book! Honestly – it’s a killer!

There have been a few entries already, but there’s always room for more!

Full details over at Authonomy – and if you haven’t yet read Moxyland, you can pick it up for just £4.99 from Play.com or read it for free online at Authonomy while the competition is live! We’re like the Ambassador handing out the Ferrero Roche!

Oh, and we’re basking in the love of Eoin Purcell at the moment, who writes:

I’d be hard pressed to find an issue with this project… It’s not just that Harper are embracing Fan Fiction and encouraging it even, but they have added real value to Authonomy by doing this. They have used clever cross platform tools to bring a really worthwhile competition to the Authonomy community and have, I think, created one of the most compelling and engaging promotions so far this year. All told, praise if deserved.

Awww, shucks!

Meanwhile, over at the Never Too Serious blog, the reviewer states that:

I LOVED ‘Moxyland’. It is original, fast-paced, and bloody good fun, filled with awesome characters that I really wanted to spend more time reading about, and is full of brilliantly-observed details of a society in the not-too-distant future that is both fantastically different, but worryingly familiar… I couldn’t recommend ‘Moxyland’ highly enough.

Head on over to read the full review.

Coming to Fiji today!

Angry Robot’s goal is to be a genuinely global  genre imprint, and when we were lucky enough to sign up the wonderful Kaaron Warren for her first three novels we knew we’d partially fulfilled our aim.

An Australian by upbringing, Kaaron now resides in Fiji, which is a long, loooong way from the London/Nottingham bases of the Robot.

Today, the incredible Slights is launching in Fiji, and they’re putting on quite a show for what I confidently predict will be the most wonderfully extreme horror novel not only in Fiji this year, but anywhere.

If you’re in Fiji, you won’t be able to miss the noise about the book – and you can get your copy from the USP Bookshop run by the wonderful Armin Kullack.

Photographer: Toby Madden

Last night all 3 Angry Roboteers attended the Annual HarperCollins Author Party. It’s an event held to celebrate our authors, and to recognise that they are the reason we are able to continue to produce the excellent books that have made HarperCollins one of the world’s leading publishers.

The event was held at the astonishingly beautiful Victoria & Albert Museum. the photograph to the left shows the garden area that we had – the interior is just as wonderful.

Marc, Chris and myself were joined by some of our UK-based authors, and their agents.

Marc Gascoigne (right) and Mike Shevdon - Photographer: Toby Madden

Mrs and Mrs Andy Remic - Photographer: Toby Madden

We’ll be seeing some of our overseas authors at WorldCon in Montreal in a few weeks’ time.

So, thank you, Angry Robot authors – we’ll continue to raise glasses of fizz in your honour (though day-to-day it’s more likely to be cola, than champagne).

Dave Brendon’s Fantasy & SciFi Weblog is a good example of a genre blog.

The design is simple, and although the white/grey on black sometimes prevents the reading experience from being as enjoyable as it could be, there is always a lot of excellent content on the site – author interviews, competitions, news reports and reviews – and this more than makes up for it!

Dave Brendon has also been a staunch supporter of Angry Robot since we became active, and we’re pleased to announce his blog as our second Robot Army Website of the Month.

Dave – your prize will be in the post, soon!

I’m not sure how to write this review.

I don’t think I have the words to describe how dark and depraved and strangely, perversely heartbreaking Slights is.

Head on over to The Book Smugglers for the latest review of Slights (launched in the UK and Australia on July 1st, US and Canada October 1st).

As well as being extremely positive about the book (and after Slights it you’ll see why), it is also one of the most thoughtful analyses of the text that we’ve read. Not only do the good folk over at The Book Smugglers know good literature when they read it, they also know how to write about it!

Slights is a forceful, harrowing read, and is not only the best horror novel but one of the best books I have read in 2009. Be warned, this is a dark read and certainly isn’t for everyone…but I loved it. Absolutely recommended, for those with a strong constitution.

What are you still doing here? Go read the review! (Then pre-order from Play.com for only £5.99!)

Our second free sample is Moxyland by Lauren Beukes.
UK/Aus/eBook: 1 July ‘09. US/Canada: 1 October ‘09.

All rights reserved.
However, feel free to share this sample chapter with anyone you wish, or to post it on your own site. And if you like this, buy Lauren’s book. 

You can pre-order Moxyland from Play.com for only £5.99!

Free Sample
The following extract is taken from Moxyland. Please note that the formatting will vary from that of the final commercial product.

Mobi and PDF
Click on the appropriate icon, above to download the sample in your choice of format.

ePub users may choose to download the file (your system may change it to a .zip – if so, just rename the extension to .epub). Alternatively, type the sample URL directly into your device of choice:
angryrobotbooks.com/samples/Moxyland.epub

It already feels like I’ve been here for months, but in a good way. Setting up a new publishing division was always going to be hard work. Luckily, Marco has been beavering away behind the scenes for the last few months, so I was able to walk into a role that straight away had plenty of work for me. Also, of course, as part of Harper Collins we have many back-end systems in place so we don’t need to invent everything from scratch.

I’ve been diligently working my way through the substantial submissions pile, and I’ve been struck by how high the overall quality of the writing is. There are very few novels rejected because the quality of writing isn’t good enough (though, inevitably there are some). Many of our rejections are due to the fact that the manuscripts (or proposals) just aren’t quite what we’re looking for. Indeed, two of the novels that we had to reject (for not being genre-enough) are of such high quality that I’ll be actively looking out for them when they do find a publisher, and buying a copy for myself.

It’s a sobering thought to think that sometimes, being excellent just isn’t enough.