Steampunk Thursday: Pax Britannia reaches Hungary!

It's been a while since I posted something for Steampunk Thursday. The reason for today's post is because yesterday I discovered that my first Pax Britannia novel, Unnatural History*, is published in Hungary this week by Chameleon Comix!

The title of the Hungarian edition translates at The Galapagos Formula, which sounds intriguing.

* Unnatural History currently has 299 reviews on Amazon, with a 3.9 average.

Steampunk Thursday: Scarlet Traces anthology on sale now!

Rebellion are clearly having a massive clearout of their warehouse since loads - and I mean loads - of grpahic novels and other books are heavily discounted over on their webstore.

Among the books that have been knocked down massively in price is the Scarlet Traces short story anthology, which includes a contribution from me: Wonderful Things.

Another book that is currently massively discounted is Judge Fear's Big Day Out and Other Stories, which features four of my Judge Dredd short stories - Psimple Psimon, One-Way Ticket, You'd Better be Good, for Goodness' Sake, and Miracle on 34th and Peltzer.

So head over to the 2000AD webstore now and grab yourself a bargain!

Steampunk Thursday: Jules Verne Lives!

It's been a while since I've written a Steampunk Thursday blog post but I am doing so today because Jules Verne Lives!: Essays of His Works and Legacy, edited by Gary Westfahl, is out now.

Gary approached me in 2021 about being a contributor, providing my thoughts on writing Steampunk stories. And being published alongside James P. Blaylock, one of the Godfathers of Steampunk, is pretty darn cool.

Steampunk Thursday: NewCon Press Sale!

NewCon Press are having a sale, which means you can get hold of a signed hardback copy of the Steampunk International anthology, for less than the price of the paperback!

My own contribtuion to Steampunk International was a new Ulysses Quicksilver short story, entitled Reckless Engineering, which remains the last Pax Britannia story published to date.

Following a break-in at the top secret Whitehall facility known as 'Think Tank', agent of the crown Ulysses Quicksilver and his trusty manservant Nimrod set off in pursuit of the perpetrator. It is a chase that will take them from the railway sheds of London to the dockyards of Bristol, and an encounter with a long-dead engineering genius.

So, if you want to get your hands on some steampunk goodness, you know what to do - simply click this link.

Steampunk Thursday: Anno Frankenstein

Ten years ago*, Abaddon Books published by seventh Ulysses Quicksilver adventure, Anno Frankenstein. Here's the blurb taken from Amazon:

Ulysses Quicksilver, agent of the crown, jumps into a time vortex pursuing Daniel Dashwood, a madman bent on sharing modern technology with Hitler’s forces and changing history to suit his evil ends.

Rewind several decades, to the time of the Second Great War, to Darmstadt. The Nazis are battling the steampunk empire of Magna Britannia, cooking up necrotic super-soldiers in the gothic towers of Castle Frankenstein.

In the forests outside the castle, other forces are gathering. Ulysses’ father is there, proving that dashing good looks and a talent for swashbuckling adventures run in the family, and wondering why his British masters have partnered him with weakling scientist Dr. Jekyll. The ladies of the Monstrous Regiment are also there to help, but there may be other gothic monsters in the hills... 

“Jonathan Green gets mileage out of his monsters, with big action set-pieces that read like things we’d like to see in a rip-roaring summer movie.” - SFX Magazine

I had a lot of fun, riffing off the works of Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Stan Lee et al, and I think that comes through in the novel, which is the longest** Ulysses Quicksilver adventure in terms of page count.

If you've yet to read it yourself, the good news is that Anno Frankenstein is is in Rebellion Publishing's January ‘Time Travel’ eBook sale. The eBook is available worldwide, until the end of the month, for only 99p! However, please not that this discounted price is only valid on the Rebellion Publishing webshop.

So what are you waiting for? Why not download it today?

* Yes, you read that right. Ten. Years.

** If I'm remembering that rightly. If not, it's probably Human Nature.

The 12 Days of Christmas - Day 8: Christmas Past

Twelve years ago I wrote a festive-themed Ulysses Quicksilver short story, which was published with my third Pax Britannia novel Human Nature.

Christmas Past, as the story was called, featured a murder mystery set in Oxford, or at least the Pax Britannia universe version of the City of Dreaming Spires.

You can still read Christmas Past, as it appears in the Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus Vol. 1, which is still on sale from Amazon.

Steampunk Thursday: Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland - RPG of the Year?

I am delighted to report that the Portuguese language edition of my Steampunk-themed gamebook Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland - Alice no País dos Pesadelos, published in Brazil by Jambô Editora - is up for an award.

Having been nominated in the RPG OF THE YEAR category, it has made it through to the final round of the Ludopedia Prize 2019.

Although there are only five entrants in the category, it's not going to win because it's up against both Dungeons & Dragons and The Call of Cthulhu - but that's not bad company to be in!

Alice no País dos Pesadelos is just one of three Jambô Editora products that have made it from the the final round.

If you are able to vote (and it's easy to register to do so) it would be great if you could throw your support behind Alice no País dos Pesadelos and the others.

Happy Halloween!

Tonight, people up and down the country will be donning their Halloween costumes - turning themselves into witches, vampires, werewolves, mummies, demons, and zombies - for the duration of the dark celebrations.

If you're planning on staying in tonight, hopefully avoiding the trick or treaters, and you're looking for a creepy story to curl up with before the witching hour, you might want to try one of these...

Spellbreaker (1993)

Witches and demons abound in my first published Fighting Fantasy adventure.

Curse of the Mummy (1995)

My third FF adventure, heavily-inspired by Mummy movies from right across the cinematic era.

The Dead and the Damned (2002)

My first Warhammer novel, which features all manner of daemons, not to mention the shambling ranks of the undead.

Necromancer (2005)

The tale of one man's fall from grace and the corrupting power of necromancy.

Bloodbones (2006)

More zombie pirates and voodoo curses than you can shake a cutlass at.

Howl of the Werewolf (2007)

In my fifth FF adventure, you must stopped yourself turning into a werewolf before the next full moon by hunting down and killing the Arch-Lycanthrope.

Human Nature (2008) and Evolution Expects (2009)

A couple of body horror classics from my Pax Britannia steampunk series of novels.

Night of the Necromancer (2010)

Death is not the end... Murdered on your way home, you rise from the dead to avenge your own murder.

Blood Royal (2010) and Anno Frankenstein (2011)

Two more Pax Britannia novels, inspired by classic horror movies of yesteryear.

Shadows Over Sylvania (2013)

YOU are a vampire in my one and only Warhammer gamebook, which remains one of the best I have ever written, and probably the hardest to get hold of too.

Game Over (2015)

A collection of techno-chillers, ghost stories inspired by classic video games, edited by Yours Truly.

The Serpent's Egg (2017)

A dark tale of the Cthulhu Mythos, inspired by the legend of the Lambton Worm.

And coming in 2020...

Join the ACE Gamebooks Facebook group to be kept up to date with developments...

Steampunk Thursday: Scarlet Traces - Out Now!

Scarlet Traces: An Anthology Based on H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, edited by Ian Edginton, is available now!

It is the dawn of the twentieth century.

Following the Martians' failed invasion of Earth, the British Empire has seized their technology and unlocked its secrets for themselves. It is a Golden Age of discovery, adventure, culture, invention—and of domination, and rebellion.

Scarlet Traces reveals a world of ant-headed nightmares; vacuum salesmen; war machines; deadly secrets; clockwork marvels; and Sherlock Holmes, T. S. Eliot and Thomas Edison as you've never seen them before...

Including stories by Stephen Baxter, I. N. J. Culbard, Adam Roberts, Emma Beeby, James Lovegrove, Nathan Duck, Mark Morris, Dan Whitehead, Chris Roberson, Maura McHugh, Jonathan Green, and Andrew Lane.

Ian Edginton is a New York Times bestselling author and multiple Eisner Award nominee.

His recent titles include the green apocalypse saga The Hinterkind for DC/Vertigo; Steed and Mrs Peel for BOOM, the steam- and clock-punk series Stickleback, Ampney Crucis Investigates and Brass Sun for the legendary UK science fiction weekly, 2000 AD; game properties Dead Space: Liberation and The Evil Within for Titan Books, and the audio adventure Torchwood: Army of One for the BBC.

He has adapted the complete canon of Sherlock Holmes novels into a series of graphic novels for Self Made Hero, as well writing several volumes of Holmes apocrypha entitled The Victorian Undead. He has also adapted H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds as well as writing several highly acclaimed sequels, Scarlet Traces and Scarlet Traces: The Great Game.

He lives and works in England. He keeps a bee.


Also out today is Dr Janina Ramirez's brand new Ladybird Expert book about Beowulf. And yes, that is the same Dr Janina Ramirez off the telly who wrote a cover quote for Beowulf Beastslayer.

Steampunk Thursday: Ulysses Quicksilver's Gun

It may be a year since Ulysses Quicksilver's most recent outing, in the story Reckless Engineering, but people are still enjoying my Pax Britannia stories and being inspired by them. One of those people is 3D artist Andrew Bjarnsen.

Only today, Andrew got in touch to let me know that he has modelled Ulysses Quicksilver's gun, as originally designed by Pye Parr. And here it is...

Steampunk Thursday: Pax Britannia im Deutschland

It's been a few years since my first two Pax Britannia books were published as German language editions, but now they're back, with German titles this time, and brand new cover art. And very impressive they look too!

Unnatural History is now Welt aus den Fugen, while Leviathan Rising has been rechristened Gefahr in der Tiefe.

Bother titles are due to be released on 31 May 2019, courtesy of Luzifer-Verlag.

Don't forget, my steampunk-inspired take on Alice's Adventutres in Wonderland is also available in German, as Alice im Düsterland, and can be purchased here, from Mantikore-Verlag.

Steampunk Thursday: Steampunk International

I returned from holiday this week to discover that the English and Portuguese editions of Steampunk International had arrived to join the Finnish edition that I had already received. So here are the three editions of Steampunk International, and the three different language versions of my Pax Britannia story Reckless Engineering.

The hardback and paperback UK editions of Steampunk International, the Portuguese edition, and the Finnish edition.

English

Portuguese

Portuguese

Finnish

You can buy the English language edition of Steampunk International from NewCon Press, and the Finnish and Portuguese editions are also available to buy now!

Steampunk Thursday: The Great Ulysses Quicksilver Giveaway

This weekend, I will be attending the UK Games Expo, from 9.30am on Friday until 4.00pm on Sunday.

If you buy an ACE Gamebook from me, over the course of the weekend, you will also receive a FREE copy of The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus Volume 2 - containing the three Pax Britannia novels Evolution Expects, Blood Royal, and Dark Side - while stocks last. So that's potentially four books for a tenner!

Sounds like a win-win to me. ;-)

Steampunk Thursday: Reckless Engineering

I regularly get asked by fans of the Pax Britannia steampunk series when I will write a new Ulysses Quicksilver story. Well, if that applies to you, you will be pleased to know that I have a new one coming out this summer from Newcon Press, as part of the Steampunk International anthology, which combines steampunk stories from three different countries released by three different publishers in three different languages.

My contribution is entitled Reckless Engineering, and is the first story to move the Pax Britannia timeline forward properly since 2012's Time's Arrow.

Following a break-in at the top secret Whitehall facility known as 'Think Tank', agent of the crown Ulysses Quicksilver and his trusty manservant Nimrod set off in pursuit of the perpetrator. It is a chase that will take them from the railway sheds of London to the dockyards of Bristol, and an encounter with a long-dead engineering genius.

Whether you've been following the adventures of Ulysses Quicksilver since the publication of Unnatural History in 2007 or not, I thought it might be helpful if I published the correct reading order for the series to date. So remember, this the chronological order in which the stories take place, not the order in which they were written.

1) Conqueror Worm - November 1797 - published in Evolution Expects
2) Unnatural History - April-June 1997 - first published in 2007
3) Leviathan Rising - July-August 1997 - first published in 2008
4) Fruiting Bodies* - September 1997 - published in El Sombra (2007)
5) Vanishing Point* - October 1997 - published in Leviathan Rising
6) Human Nature - November 1997 - first published in 2008
7) Christmas Past - December 1997 - published in Human Nature
8) Evolution Expects - January-February 1998 - first published in 2009
9) Blood Royal - March-April 1998 - first published in 2010
10) White Rabbit* - May 1998 - first published in 2007
11) Proteus Unbound - May 1998 - published in Dark Side
12) Worthless Remains - June 1998 - published in Clockwork Cairo (2017)
13) Dark Side - June 1998 - first published in 2010
14) Anno Frankenstein - September 1943 - first published in 2011
15) Time's Arrow - May 1998 (again) - first published in 2012
16) Tempus Fugit - June 1998 (again) - published in Abaddon X (2015)
17) Reckless Engineering - July 1998 - published in Steampunk International (July 2018)

Stories marked with an asterisk * are also available as part of The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection eBook. The first three Ulysses Quicksilver novels, and associated short stories and novellas, have been collected together as The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus Vol.1, while the fourth, fifth and sixth (and associated short stories and novellas) are now available as The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus Vol.2.

You can even pick up the eBook of Ulysses Quicksilver's first adventure Unnatural History for free here! Just remember, "Evolution Expects!"

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.