Steampunk Thursday: Dark Side

This week is World Space Week and the theme for 2019 is 'The Moon: Gateway to the Stars'. Much of my sixth Pax Britannia novel Dark Side, published back in 2011, takes place on the Moon.

Start A New Life on The Moon

Ulysses Quicksilver visits the British lunar colonies, searching for his missing brother, Barty, believed to be on the run from gambling debts on Earth. The clues lead our detective and his faithful butler into the path of unsolved murders, battling robots, shady millionaires and stolen uncanny inventions. Used to working inside the law, Ulysses is stalled when his pursuit puts him on the wrong side of the Luna Prime Police Force.

But why is Ulysses' ex-fiancée Emilia also in the colonies? Who is the strange eye-patched man following Ulysses? And what is really happening in a secret base on the dark side of the moon? Used to meeting every adventure with a devil-may-care attitude and a snappy one-liner, Ulysses will be forever changed by the revelations he discovers on this most deadly of trips.

The Kindle edition of Pax Britannia: Dark Side is available to buy here. The book is also available as part of The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus: Volume 2.

Magnificent Desolation

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The Moon has inspired people in so many ways for countless millennia, including me. Ulysses Quicksilver braved the Moon's magnificent desolation in the sixth Pax Britannia novel, Dark Side, published nine years ago in 2010.

Ulysses Quicksilver visits the British lunar colonies, searching for his missing brother, Barty, believed to be on the run from gambling debts on Earth. The clues lead our detective and his faithful butler into the path of unsolved murders, battling robots, shady millionaires and stolen uncanny inventions. Used to working inside the law, Ulysses is stalled when his pursuit puts him on the wrong side of the Luna Prime Police Force.

But why is Ulysses' ex-fiancée Emilia also in the colonies? Who is the strange eye-patched man following Ulysses? And what is really happening in a secret base on the dark side of the moon? Used to meeting every adventure with a devil-may-care attitude and a snappy one-liner, Ulysses will be forever changed by the revelations he discovers on this most deadly of trips.

You can pick up a copy of Dark Side here.

Steampunk Thursday: An Homage to Georges Méliès

Today Google Doodles are celebrating trailblazing film director Georges Méliès with a the first Virtual Reality / 360° video. You can watch it here.

Of course, the Pax Britannia series featured its own homage to Georges Méliès on the cover to Pax Britannia: Dark Side, the sixth Ulysses Quicksilver adventure, published back in 2011, a cover that garnered the book a fair bit of interest.

And so popular and effective was that particular cover, that it was used again on the second Ulysses Quicksilver omnibus.

     

Steampunk Thursday: New Pax Britannia Reviews!

Even though the first Pax Britannia novel was published almost ten years ago, some people are still coming to the series for the first time. And when it's someone who enjoys the stories they devour the lot pretty quickly, thanks to the wonder of eBooks.

One such reader is Bob Marlowe who has recently posted reviews of all the Pax Britannia books - Al Ewing's as well as mine - and here's what he has to say about them.

Unnatural History
"A readable style which flows along nicely with enjoyable characters... Very enjoyable evocation of a pulp style and there are plenty more to come. A recommended read."

Leviathan Rising
"Here we have a cocktail of Agatha Christie, Titanic, The Poseidon Adventure, the X-Files and dear old Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and with Green's enjoyable pulpy style, it's a good read."

Human Nature
"The story itself is quite simple but well structured (things in the prologue that seem irrelevant are revisited later) and the good pulpy style of Green makes for a well paced roller coaster."

Evolution Expects
"As ever, a cocktail of monsters, steam punk and nods to well know characters & stories etc. including this time a Bond like board meeting scene, a character named Brundle after the 1987 version of The Fly and a bit of Talons of Weng Chiang amongst others... This series shows no signs of letting up, both novel and novella are a well-paced read, guaranteed to liven up any journey to work."

Blood Royal
"The writing is of the usual high standard with a monster infested St Paul's Cathedral especially well described... I love this series -and am sad I've less than halfway to go to the end."

Dark Side
"I had the feeling Jonathan Green had as much fun writing this as I had reading it. There's the usual tributes to films, book et al that he's enjoyed , the First men in the Moon and Voyage dans la Lune and every chapter takes its name from a film e.g. The First Men in the Moon, Sphere... These stories will never be on the Booker Prize shortlist but the Booker winners I've read were never this much fun!"

Anno Frankenstein
"Naturally this is a blockbuster mix that we have come to expect of monsters and set pieces and does not disappoint, Green handling all the ingredients with his usual skill."

Time's Arrow
"The influences here are Edgar Allen Poe's Murder in the Rue Morgue, The Island of Dr Moreau and The Phantom of the Opera, characters names including Moreau and Leroux. The new characters work well and the story races along at Green's usual pace."

If you're yet to sample the delights of the Pax Britannia steampunk universe, you can buy the books and eBooks here.

Wellsian Wednesday: Happy Birthday, H G Wells!

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the British Father of Science Fiction, Herbert George Wells. Wells is, of course, most well known, in the modern era, for his novels The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898).

Wells' original stories have been adapted time and time again, and have inspired countless other tales, including my own. I have an idea for a spin-off from The War of the Worlds that I would like to start work on in the next year or two, but The Time Machine has already massively influenced an already published work of mine - or should I say works?

What started off as a fun idea for a one-off short story expanding the world of Pax Britannia, back in 2008, ended up becoming the core element of trio of Ulysses Quicksilver novels - Dark Side (2010), Anno Frankenstein (2011) and Time's Arrow (2012). I hadn't realised just how much The Time Machine had influenced Anno Frakenstein in particular until I re-watched the 2002 movie version recently, as I introduced it to my children for the first time.

My Wellsian celebrations will continue today with Jeff Wayne's musical version of The War of the Worlds on today's playlist, and possibly a viewing of the 2005 movie adaptation later this evening.

If you happen to be the Woking area today, watch the skies!

Steampunk Thursday: The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus - Vol. 2

I've got three books out this week, and they're all Steampunk-related - Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland the gamebook, the Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland Colouring Book, and The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus Volume 2!

In his ongoing adventures in the services of the Empire, Ulysses Quicksilver - hero and dandy - is increasingly confronted with the darkness at the heart of Britannia.

This worthy tome collects three tales of desperation:

Steampunk Thursday: The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus - Vol. 2

Look what arrived in the post today!

Steampunk Thursday: Steampunks in Space

On Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th November 2014, I shall be one of the guests at Steampunks in Space at the National Space Centre in Leicester. So if you're in the area, why not come along and say "Hi!" and pick up one of my Pax Britannia novels while you're there? After all, Dark Side is set in space as well as on the Moon!

You can find out more about this splendid event here.

Pax Britannia: Dark Side on the Abaddon Books Advent Calendar today!

I am delighted to be able to tell you that Abaddon Books' Advent Calendar eBook offering today is my very own Pax Britannia: Dark Side.

Ulysses Quicksilver visits the British lunar colonies, searching for his missing brother, Barty, believed to be on the run from gambling debts on Earth. The clues lead our detective and his faithful butler into the path of unsolved murders, battling robots, shady millionaires and stolen uncanny inventions. Used to working inside the law, Ulysses is stalled when his pursuit puts him on the wrong side of the Luna Prime Police Force. 

But why is Ulysses’ ex-fiancée Emilia also in the colonies? Who is the strange eye-patched man following Ulysses? And what is really happening in a secret base on the dark side of the moon?

Used to meeting every adventure with a devil-may-care attitude and a snappy one-liner, Ulysses will be forever changed by the revelations he discovers on this most deadly of trips.

So if you fancy downloading a full length Steampunk novel featuring murder, mystery, industrial espionage, giant robots, and Wellsian aliens on the Moon (and for only 98p), then click this link!

Have you ever wanted to ride a giant robot?

Look, let's be honest - who hasn't?

Ulysses Quicksilver got to in Pax Britannia: Dark Side, and so did BBC Click reporter Spencer Kelly here.

Steampunk Thursday: Dark Side

Kit Cox (author of How to Bag a Jabberwock) recently reviewed my sixth Pax Britannia novel Dark Side. Here's what he had to say about the book:

 

 

"Just finished book six of Jonathan Green's Pax Britannia series Dark Side and can only say that once again I'm hugely impressed. A lovely bit of modern pulp sci-fi fiction, with Nazis, the Moon, murder, sexy girls and big robots. If you're not reading this series I recommend it. So glad I already have book seven to go straight into."

 

 

You can pick up your own copy of Dark Side here.

 

Lavie Tidhar talks Steampunk on SFSignal

Episode 111 of the SF Signal podcast is now available to listen to here.

Lavie Tidhar, author of The Bookman Histories (and regular drinking partner of mine these days), is the guest and he waxes lyrical about steampunk - amongst other things - and I get a mention. Unfortunately during the interview Lavie couldn't remember the name of my Pax Britannia series (which is the second longest-running steampunk series out there, or so my editor tells me) but he does say I'm doing some cool stuff that's a lot of fun.

During the course of the podcast he also said that he wrote The Bookman when nobody was interested in steampunk - except that The Bookman (Lavie's first steampunk novel) was published around the same time as Dark Side (my sixth steampunk novel)!

By the way, whilst I was searching for pictures of Lavie Tidhar on Google Images this came up.

Who knew?

Pax Britannia at the MCM Expo - 18 hours to go

I'm now counting down the hours until the MCM Expo where I shall be promoting my Pax Britannia books (as well as Temple of the Spider God if anyone's interested).

I've turned the flat into a veritable cottage industry, producing cakes as if I'm working in some kind of Victorian factory. Let me tell you, I'm glad I'm a writer and not a baker! Anyway, if you buy a book tomorrow or on Sunday, you can have a cake for free - until they run out that is!

Edible cupcake toppers produced (at very short notice and a very high standard) by Cake Topper Designs

As I mentioned the other day, I shall also have a small number of flash drives to sell which come pre-loaded with my last three Pax Britannia novels - Blood Royal, Dark Side and Anno Frankenstein - and the first part of Time's Arrow, Red-Handed.

If you'd like one, just come and find me in the Steampunk village at the sign of the French terrorist.

Pax Britannia at the MCM Expo - 3 days to go

As I posted the other day, I shall be at the London Comic Con MCM Expo (held at Excel London) this coming weekend - Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October. I will be attending as part of the steampunk contingent and promoting my Pax Britannia books. And today I have a rather exciting announcement to make...

I will have a limited number of memory sticks for sale, each one loaded with my three most recent Pax Britannia titles - Blood Royal, Dark Side, Anno Frankenstein - and Red-Handed, part one of my new novel Time's Arrow.

These all come in Kindle readable files and standard epub files. There are also two free short story ebooks, Eric Brown’s Blue Portal and Juliet McKenna’s The Wizard’s Coming. So there's plenty of content and on top of that you'll have a new memory stick with most of its 1 gig of memory still free!

So, if ebooks are your thing, why not drop by my table this weekend and pick up a memory stick loaded with more than a quarter of a million of Pax Britannia goodness and two bonus stories to boot?

Pax Britannia review round-up

Over the last couple of months there have been three Ulysses Quicksilver releases - The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus, Anno Frankenstein and The Ulysses Short Story Collection. And earlier titles such as Dark Side and Blood Royal have been getting a fair bit of interest too.

Anyway, I'm very pleased to say that Anno Frankenstein has been reviewed in the latest issue of SFX magazine (#211, the one with Captain America on the cover). The reviewer only gave the book three stars, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed (I was hoping for a four at least). But to my mind three stars does tell you something - that you can write; that you can craft a story.

The reviewer's not too keen on all the pop culture references in the book (which have become a bit of a feature of my Pax Britannia titles) but he does say that "It's a gleeful, agreeably paced mash-up" which also highlights another of the features of my books - and that's that they are, at the root of everything, primarily fun.

I actually met up with Dave Bradley, editor-in-chief of SFX Magazine, this week, along with editorial assistant Rob Power... as well as the guys and gals of Abaddon Books... and we discussed all sorts of potentially exciting things. Now that I've finished re-writes on another project I'll be able to get the ball rolling on these. But more on that another time.

Picture by Dave Bradley. Inane grin by Old Speckled Hen.

While we're on the subject of reviews, here are a few more for you.

The Ulysses Short Story Collection has earned a couple of five star reviews on Amazon and has also received one of the weirdest reviews I've ever read of my work. It manages to be incredibly positive whilst also being unnecessarily nasty at almost every opportunity. Anyway, you can read it here at Tor.com.

Meanwhile, The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus has earned a five star review on Amazon.co.uk and another on Amazon.com.

Remember, if you've recently read one of my Pax Britannia books (and more importantly you enjoyed it) you can also post a view via this blog. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

JG at The Greatest Steampunk Exhibition

I spent a very enjoyable few hours at The Greatest Steampunk Exhibition yesterday, meeting some proper steampunks and chatting with fans of my Pax Britannia books. I'd barely even set up my table of wares when I sold my first book, and left without any at all.

It's always very pleasing when somebody walks up to you and the first thing they say is, "Love your work." Among those steampunks I met were Willoughby Chase (who was wearing a fine fez), Ken (who's read all my PB books already), Jason (who bought all of my PB books there and then), and Herr Doktor (a.k.a. Ian, whom I believe is the equivalent of steampunk royalty although I think he might actually be Ulysses Quicksilver). I was also asked which of my books I would like to be taught as part of an American university science-fiction course!

I also had a chance to quickly look around the exhibition myself which looks fantastic within the setting of the museum steam hall and elsewhere.

Towards the end of my time there I gave a brief talk about the Pax Britannia series and read a chapter of Dark Side which was very well received. So it just remains for me to say thank you to all those who listened to my reading, thank you to Stuart at the museum and thank you to Tinker for having me along.

And maybe I'll see you at Asylum in September...

RMS Titanic gets its own Haynes Manual

Having seen this (and the various versions for the Apollo moon lander, USS Enterprise and Dalek) I'd love to see a mock-up cover for one for The Neptune from Leviathan Rising, or the Apollo XIII from Dark Side - or Oddfellow's Sphere, the Jotun-class steam-powered tank Siegfried, the Iron Eagle or the bipedal Stalkers from Anno Frankenstein.

Anyone fancy having a go?

Dark Side - another great review!

David Drage of Pulp Zen! is clearly on a roll. Having recently read and reviewed Pax Britannia: Blood Royal (you'll find a link to his review here) he was inspired enough to quickly get stuck into the sixth Ulysses Quicksilver adventure Pax Britannia: Dark Side. Here's a taster of what he has to say about the book:

With Green’s usual flair for pulling in all of the related Steampunk tropes (I

hate to keep using that word, but it is better than saying clichés), he has once again picked a subject and injected it with the usual dose of steam powered high jinx, “Wellsian” Victorian Science Fiction, James Bond style espionage, and good old fashioned high adventure...

One of the joys of Green’s Pax Britannia books is his development of some of the supporting cast of characters, in particular in this book I was taken by the Billie, the street “urchin” cab driver, who’s cab happens to be a steam powered ex-military war droid!

You can read David's full review here.

I am reliably informed that he's already started Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein, so expect a link to another review soon.

Which reminds me - I really need to crack on with Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow, or David (and others) are soon going to run out of stuff to read!

Pax Britannia: Dark Side - new review

With the release of Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein only days away, I was delighted to read this review of the previous Ulysses Quicksilver adventure Pax Britannia: Dark Side from Mass Movement Magazine.

Once again, Jon Green takes us back to the world of Pax Britannia, the steam-punk powered alternate world where the Victorian Empire still exists at the end of the twentieth century and technological progress has ensured that man has taken great strides to conquer his immediate celestial surroundings, and once again, we’re in good company as we embark on another rip roaring adventure with Ulysses Quicksilver, agent by Royal Proclamation and defender of Her Majesty’s interests and realm, and his manservant Nimrod. This time, Quicksilver is on holiday, of sorts, to find his wayward brother who has taken himself off to the Moon in order to escape his gambling debts and creditors. Or so we, and Ulysses, are led to believe. However, holidays and Quicksilver don’t make the most comfortable of bedfellows, and from the moment the star liner sets off from Earth, our hero finds himself caught up in the machinations of crazed industrialists and Nazis, whilst battling killer robots, trying to discover a murderer, stumbling across alien civilisations and desperately attempting to save reality from the warping effects of a time machine that he thought he’d already destroyed. This is pulp fiction for the twenty first century, and Green is a master of the art form, combining high adventure and story with a literary flourish, dropping tantalising titbits and treats for fans of the genre into the story throughout its duration, crafting a tale that Wells and Verne or Howard and Lovecraft, his predecessors in the realms of science fantasy and fiction would have been proud to call their own. Pure, undiluted steam-punk fantasy at it’s finest… (Tim Cundle, Mass Movement Magazine)

The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection

Rumour has been rife on the Internet of later, after I published a series of 'Coming Soon' posts on the Pax Britannia blog, but today I can finally put those rumours to rest.

Coming soon from Abaddon Books is The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection, featuring a brand new cover by Simon Parr and re-printing three of the finest Ulysses Quicksilver novellas that first appeared in the back of various other books.

First up is the hard-to-find Fruiting Bodies, that originally appeared in Al Ewing's El Sombra. Then there's Vanishing Point, which first appeared in Leviathan Rising and which long time readers of the series will know has been at the centre of the Dark Side/Anno Frankenstein double-header. And then there's White Rabbit, which my editor believes is the best Ulysses short to date (and which was originally published with Blood Royal).

If you've not read the stories before The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection is worth downloading to your eBook reader of choice, as the stories contained within add a whole other layer to the world of Pax Britannia.