I’m constantly surprised that people, other than me, actually read my ramblings here at The Eloquent Page. I often potter around my little internet home blissfully forgetful of all the other fantastic book review sites out there in the ether*. That’s why it came as the most pleasant of surprises when Niall from The Speculative Scotsman got in touch and asked if I would be interested in providing a guest post while he was away on holiday. Words can’t express how happy I felt, my 1st ever guest post. The image below should at least give you some idea. Anyway, who am I to deny a fellow Scotsman? Said post is now live and can be read in all its glory via the link below. Guest Post | Pablo of The Eloquent Page Reviews Swan Song by Robert McCammon Be warned! prepare yourself for some for full-on McCammon love. *There are many. I urge you read them all in order to get the best possible insight into all things bookish. Come back here sometimes as well though m’kay.
Since January things have been mysteriously quiet, some would say suspiciously so, on the Anarchy Books front. I was working on the assumption that Andy Remic was busy completing his crazed experiments in attempting to create an author who would work for nothing and required minimal supervision. Turns out I was wrong… PRESS RELEASE April 6th, Good Friday, is also Good Anarchy Books Day! We’re releasing not 1 – not 2, but 7 (YES SEVEN!) new novels, and for a limited period we’re giving away our fabulous anthology VIVISEPULTURE for FREE! Our new releases are New York Blues by Eric Brown (hardcore SF heavyweight!), A Jar of Wasps by Luis Villazon (whom you may know as a technical writer on PCFormat, MACFormat and TechRadar.com, so he certainly knows his tech SF [digital] onions!), Silversands and The Last Reef by Gareth L. Powell (rising star of contemporary SF), the gentle, beautiful fantasy Fynoderee by Alexander Caine-Duncan, and last but by no means least, Young Punks: A Tale of Anarchy in the UK, a fabulous oral history of growing up as punks in the 70s by BAFTA short-listed film director Paolo Sedazzari. And just to add to the fun, we’ll also…
A bit of news to cheer you up on a damp January morning. Press Release 20th January 2012 ~ For Immediate Release Angry Robot Announces Strange Chemistry Launch Titles Strange Chemistry – the YA imprint of award-winning indie genre fiction publisher Angry Robot – has announced two deals that will help launch the list into publishing super-stardom. In a post on Strange Chemistry’s website – http://strangechemistrybooks.com – imprint editor Amanda Rutter has revealed that Strange Chemistry’s first two titles will be… Shift by Kim Curran About The Book: When your average, 16-year old loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, e learns he’s not quite so average after all. He’s a ‘Shifter’. And that means he has the power to undo any decision he’s ever made. At first, he thinks the power to shift is pretty cool. But as his world quickly starts to unravel around him he realises that each time he uses his power, it has consequences; terrible unforeseen consequences. Shifting is going to get him killed. In a world where everything can change with a thought, Scott has to decide where he stands. About the Author: Kim Curran was born inDublin…
A review earlier this morning and some news now. Two posts in one day! Are you mad Cheesecake? Probably, but that’s not really relevant. I like to promote local book related goings on when I can so when the following popped into my in-box I felt compelled to share. Ghosts to haunt Leicestershire pub Everyone loves a good chilling tale. Now a remote Leicestershire village pub is set to host an evening of ghost story readings and spooky goings on in March. The genre-based multi-media blog Un:Bound Video Editions is teaming up with celebrated genre publisher Newcon Press to put on the evening, where a selection of well-known and up-and-coming writers will read brand-new stories to a live crowd. Un:Bound will also be filming for the next Video Edition during the evening. Newcon Press will then publish both an e anthology and later in the year a handsome limited edition hardcover anthology combining all of the evening’s stories with a few extra ones – all never-before-published. Want to get involved? The readings will be on Sunday 11 March 2012 starting at 5.30pm at the Staff of Life pub in Mowsley village, near Market Harborough in Leicestershire. Tickets for the evening…
All the reviews for 2011 are done and dusted but I thought I would share the following press release that dropped into my inbox this morning. A review will follow in early 2012. Vivisepulture edited by Andy Remic & Wayne Simmons Welcome to our anthology, a collection of weird and bizarre tales of twisted imagination by Neal Asher, Tony Ballantyne, Eric Brown, Richard Ford, Ian Graham, Lee Harris, Colin Harvey, Vincent Holland-Keen, James Lovegrove, Gary McMahon, Stan Nicholls, Andy Remic, Jordan Reyne, Ian Sales, Steven Savile, Wayne Simmons, Guy N. Smith, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Jeffrey Thomas, Danie Ware, Ian Watson and Ian Whates. Artwork by Vincent Chong. The anthology is dedicated to the late Colin Harvey, with great affection. In the tradition of Poe, Kafka, Borges and H. G. Wells, this collection of weird stories are written with the primary drive of presenting twisted deviations of normality. Whether it’s the deviant factory workers of Neal Asher’s Plastipak™ Limited, the pus-oozing anti-cherub of Ian Graham’s Rotten Cupid, the acid-snot disgorging freak of Andy Remic’s SNOT, or Ian Watson’s alternate zombie-crucifixion, each story will drag your organs up through your oesophagus and give your brain a chilli-fired beating. FOCUS ON – •…
My favourite thing in the world – books. My second favourite – movies. If only there was some way to combine the two? Oh joy! According to this press release there is. 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) 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…
Lots of exciting things afoot in the realms of publishing at the moment. The shiny metallic automatons who are cross have some interesting news to share. Angry Robot announces new YA imprint, Strange Chemistry Angry Robot, the award-winning publisher of SF, F and WTF are pleased to announce their newest venture – a sister imprint, Strange Chemistry, which will publish Young Adult genre fiction. The imprint will launch in September 2012, with five titles appearing before the end of that year, before settling down to one book each month. Strange Chemistry will follow AR’s strategy of co-publishing its books simultaneously in the US and UK, in both eBook and paperback formats. Subject matter will include fantasy, science fiction, supernatural and horror, and as with Angry Robot the lines between those genres are likely to be very blurry at times. Running the imprint will be Amanda Rutter, until recently best known as the tireless blogger behind genre review site, Floor-to-Ceiling Books. She takes up her position in Angry Robot’s headquarters in Nottingham on December 12th. Angry Robot’s managing director Marc Gascoigne said: “The key to any truly successful genre imprint is the personality of its editors. In Amanda we’ve found the perfect mix of…
I’m still enjoying my review free holiday, which will end this weekend with a couple of FantasyCon related items, until then I’d like to share some interesting information that popped into my inbox this morning. Science Vs Science Fiction in Leicester Central Library Science meets Mad Science in a battle for the ages where everybody wins. On Friday 7th October, Peter F.Hamilton will step into the debating ring with Professor George Fraser to discuss how science fiction’s vision meets, and conflicts, with the realities of science. Hamilton is the UK’s best-selling science fiction author. His work is epic, fascinating, crammed full of ideas and entirely driven by character, Hamilton continually using the small, fragile needs of his painfully human protagonists to highlight the massive scale of his ideas and show their human cost. He’s a dizzyingly inventive author, and his most recent short story collection, Manhattan in Reverse, only cements his reputation as a figure at the top of his field. Professor George Fraser is an equally heavyweight figure in the field. The Director of the Space Research Centre at the University of Leicester, Professor Fraser has been involved with projects that have gone to the Moon, Mars and…
I had hoped to bring you a review of ‘Low Town’ (‘The Straight Razor Cure’ in UK) today but due to postal gremlins it was not meant to be. Never fear, a review will appear at some point in the coming weeks. Until that time, why not enjoy this article written by the author of said novel. Slums of the Shire by Daniel Polansky Occasionally you’ll be with a group of people and they’ll get to talking about their favorite historical epochs, nostalgic for lives they never led. One person will talk up their childhood love of the Wild West, another reveal a penchant for Victorian England. This last one just has a thing for corsets, but it’s better not to call them on it. When my turn rolls round I take a sip of whatever we’re drinking and look at my shoes. “The mid 90’s were pretty good,” I say lamely. “Slower internet and everything, but at least we had penicillin.” Perhaps it’s my being a history buff, but the past sucked. For about a millennium and a half after the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe just seems like a real shit place to reside. Lots of rooting…