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.

Pax Britannia - now available on Kindle

Pax Britannia book reviews

Yours in a White Wine Sauce! has some great reviews of most of my Pax Britannia novels.

There's Unnatural History, Leviathan Rising, Human Nature, Evolution Expects, Blood Royal and The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus Vol.1. Al Ewing's El Sombra also gets an honourable mention.

Meanwhile, people are feeling the love for Al's Gods of Manhattan here and saying lovely things about Blood Royal here as well.

Abaddon's Pax Britannia Podcast

On Thursday I headed over to Oxford, specifically to the Abaddon Books dungeon, to record next month's (or maybe it was this month's) Abaddon/Solaris podcast. This time the focus is on the Pax Britannia line, so I found myself answering various questions about the genesis of the series and my thoughts about steampunk in general.

Al Ewing was also there, as the only other author to have contributed to the Pax Britannia line to date. Al, Jon Oliver (Abaddon's editor-in-chief) and I had a great time recording the interview (and adding a couple of Jackanory-style extract readings); I only hope there was enough usable material to create something that can be posted on iTunes.

Al Ewing - fellow Abaddon author and creator of El Sombra

M.C. and Abaddon Overlord Jon Oliver

We certainly managed to fill the interrogation chamber with our 'Geek miasma' (as Jon O put it) and it was great to hear about Al's plans for El Sombra, Doc Thunder and the world of Pax Britannia.

Al and I and the whole of the Abaddon editorial team were then released - blinking, into the light - to take some sustenance and discuss the future of PB - which included mention of heat rays, Andy Warhol and howling commandos. It was great to catch up with Jon, Jenni and David and a discussion with Al (whilst giving him a lift to the station) about dinosaurs and King Arthur gave my creative gears the kick they needed for another future project.

Where the magic happens... Jenni, Jon and David mastermind the Abaddon/Solaris takeover of the publishing world

As you can see, much important thinking took place on Thursday

The latest Pax Britannia novel Blood Royal is out now, while Al's Gods of Manhattan is out in July. To get an idea of just how good this book is, you should read editor Jenni's blog-spurge here, on the Abaddon news page.

Unnatural History - SFcrowsnest's 16th most popular book of the year!

I'm feeling rather pleased with myself right now, to be honest. The reason is I found out today that Unnatural History (the very first Pax Britannia adventure, starring dandy action hero Ulysses Quicksilver) is at number 16 in SFcrowsnest's top 100 Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction Books of 2009, as voted for by SFcrowsnest.com's readers.

(In case you don't know, SFcrowsnest is author Stephen Hunt's popular online SF, Fantasy and Horror magazine, which polls its readers every year to assemble a "top 100" books list.)

And in at number 34 was Al Ewing's El Sombra, so well done that man too! And if you enjoyed El Sombra, you'll be pleased to here that the sequel - Blood and Thunder - will be out next year!

Bizarrely Unnatural History and the Pax Britannia series were launched at Alf.Fiction in Derby a couple of years ago. And Stephen Hunt was also there promoting The Court of the Air. It really is, as they say, a small world...

Oh and I'm also feeling chuffed because Emerson (a.k.a. Zeo-X) Tung's rendition of the Steam Golem from Stormslayer has made it into Design Your Way's Best collection of robots illustrations. So champagne all round, I feel! Don't you?

Pax Britannia e-books

I am very excited to be able to announce that Abaddon Books - publishers of the Pax Britannia series - are to produce e-book versions of their titles - starting with the Pax Britannia books!

Already available through Mobipocket are and Unnatural History, Leviathan Rising and Human Nature, along with Al Ewing's El Sombra.

And in related news, Al Ewing (recently voted one of SFX Magazine's Top 50 hottest sci-fi talents) is going to be returning to the world of Pax Britannia next year with the sequel to El Sombra entitled Blood and Thunder.

Watch this space for more details...