Steampunk Thursday: Pax Britannia reviews

Just a short one for you today - a  succinct review of The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection:

Good steampunk mysteries. I felt somethings were left unsaid or just mysterious. Otherwise, the stories were interesting and quick reading.

You can download your digital copy of The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection here.

Steampunk Thursday: New Pax Britannia Reviews

One of the things I love about being a writer, is that there is always somebody discovering something you've written for the first time, even if you originally wrote that particular book years ago.

Lately, there have been more new reviews of my Pax Britannia books going up online. Here are just some of the pleasing things people have been saying about the stories.


Blood Royal
I just love steampunk as long as it's done reasonably well, and this is. I've now read all of the series out in paperback and am eagerly awaiting the next one.They're all good although... Hell man, don't just sit there, go out and buy the damned things will you? For the good of the Empire!





Anno Frankenstein
I've now read all of the Pax Britannia series,including this stomach churning special, and I'm starting to turn into a bit of a steampunk fan-boy. I won't attempt to describe the plot, as it's as complicated as only a time-traveller's tale can be. Suffice it to say there's the usual mixture of SF, fantasy, and horror, and if you liked the other Quicksilver novels, you'll like this. Roll on the next one!*




The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection
This was my first taste of steampunk, and I've read Jonathan Green's Black Library books. This was a great introduction to the world of Pax Britannia. The last story is by far the best of the lot, well written and full of intrigue. Worth a read as it is just a fun read for all.





If these reviews have picqued your interest, you can check out the entire Pax Britannia series (and buy the books) here.

* And just for your information, the 'next one' in question is Time's Arrow, available now!

Steampunk Thursday: Pax Britannia reading order

 A number of people have asked me recently, now that there are almost eight Ulysses Quicksilver adventures (not to mention three El Sombra stories by Al Ewing) what the correct reading order is.

For the novels it's as follows:

1) Unnatural History*
2) Leviathan Rising*
3) Human Nature*
4) Evolution Expects
5) Blood Royal
6) Dark Side
7) Anno Frankenstein
8) Time's Arrow

However, I have also written a number of short stories featuring Mr Quicksilver. If you add those in to the chronology then the correct reading order is:

1) Unnatural History*
2) Leviathan Rising*
    Fruiting Bodies **
    Vanishing Point ***
3) Human Nature*
    Christmas Past ****
4) Evolution Expects
5) Blood Royal
    White Rabbit *****
    Proteus Unbound ******
6) Dark Side
7) Anno Frankenstein
8) Time's Arrow

Now the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that Conqueror Worm (which appears in Evolution Expects) and Silent Knight (which was posted on the Abaddon Books blog for free) do not appear on the list. The reason for Conqueror Worm not appearing... well, for those of you who've read the story, it would just give the game away, wouldn't it? And the reason for Silent Knight not appearing... well you'll just have to wait to find out. ;-)

And just for completeness, Al's El Sombra books stand apart from the Quicksilver ones; the order they should be read in is:

1) El Sombra
2) Gods of Manhattan
3) Pax Omega






* These three books are now collected in The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus (Vol.1)

** Published in El Sombra and The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection

*** Published in Leviathan Rising and The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection

**** Published in Human Nature and available to download free from the Abaddon Books website

***** Published in Blood Royal and The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection

****** Published in Dark Side

Inspiration - Fruiting Bodies

Back in April 2007 I wrote my first Ulysses Quicksilver novella, entitled Fruiting Bodies. As anyone who has already read it will be able to tell you, the climax of the story takes place at Kew Gardens in London.

The inspiration for the story came from several stories, not least of all eco-disaster TV dramas from the 70s and 80s - namely the BBC's adaptation of The Day of the Triffids and the classic Doctor Who adventure The Seeds of Doom.

I recently discovered that the writer of The Seeds of Doom, Robert Banks Stewart, as well as being inspired in part by John Wyndham's tale of vegetable vengeance, lived with his family close to Kew Gardens which directly inspired billionaire Harrison Chase's estate. Banks Stewart is even supposed to be descended from Joseph Banks, the botanist who took part in Captain Cook's first great voyage and was almost single-handedly responsible for stocking Kew Gardens in the first place.

I think, subconsciously at least, another of the inspirations for my story Fruiting Bodies was this illustration by Martin McKenna of a plant golem, that appears in the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Legend of Zagor.

As any fan of the Fourth Doctor's adventures will be able to tell you, McKenna himself was inspired by the humanoid form of the Krynoid, the alien intra-galactic weed that threatens Earth in - you guessed it - The Seeds of Doom.

(You can pick up Fruiting Bodies now as part of The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection for the Kindle, or your preferred eReader of chocie, here.)

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 and Pax Britannia on SFX.co.uk

If you check out the front page of SFX.co.uk right now (as in Sunday night) you'll see that top of the latest articles list (above one about detestable Doctor Who companion Melanie Bush) is an interview with me about The Ulysses Short Story Collection.

Dave Bradley (editor of SFX magazine) conducted the interview with me earlier this week via email and you can read the results here. I don't only talk about writing short stories during the course of the interview; there's also stuff about steampunk, novel writing and eBooks.

I'm very proud of the three stories in the collection - Fruiting Bodies, Vanishing Point and White Rabbit - which were all especially selected by myself, and it would appear that other people are discovering they like them as much as I do. And for 69p you can't really go wrong, can you?

The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection

Abaddon Books has put out a press release about The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection that's now available to download for the e-reader of your choice. Here's the blurb from the back:

Dandy, detective and adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver tackles the enemies of the crown in this thrilling collection of three complete short stories drawn from the steampunk Pax Britannia Ulysses Quicksilver novels.

In 'Fruiting Bodies' a gruesome death leads Ulysses and his manservant Nimrod to the glasshouses of Kew, bringing them face to face with the horrors lurking within. A Hallowe'en séance leads our intrepid duo into a close encounter with the world beyond in 'Vanishing Point', whilst in 'White Rabbit' Ulysses journeys into a world of madness and murder, meeting some sinisterly familiar characters along the way.

This collection is the perfect starting point for readers new to the exciting world of Pax Britannia! 'Fruiting Bodies' was first published in the novel 'El Sombra', 'Vanishing Point' was first published in the novel 'Leviathan Rising' and 'White Rabbit' was first published in the novel 'Blood Royal'.

You can read the press release for yourself here.

Just in case you need persuading that you really should get hold of The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection for yourself, watch the following video:

The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection - available now!

All you eBook readers out there might like to know that The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection is available to download now for your Kindle. Here's the blurb from the back:

Dandy, detective and adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver tackles the enemies of the crown in this thrilling collection of three complete short stories drawn from the steampunk Pax Britannia Ulysses Quicksilver novels.

In 'Fruiting Bodies' a gruesome death leads Ulysses and his manservant Nimrod to the glasshouses of Kew, bringing them face to face with the horrors lurking within. A Hallowe'en séance leads our intrepid duo into a close encounter with the world beyond in 'Vanishing Point', whilst in 'White Rabbit' Ulysses journeys into a world of madness and murder, meeting some sinisterly familiar characters along the way.

This collection is the perfect starting point for readers new to the exciting world of Pax Britannia! 'Fruiting Bodies' was first published in the novel 'El Sombra', 'Vanishing Point' was first published in the novel 'Leviathan Rising' and 'White Rabbit' was first published in the novel 'Blood Royal'.

I'm very excited about the release of this Kindle-only collection and am looking into releasing some more of my work via Kindle in the not-too-distant future. My only problem now is that I need to buy myself a Kindle to see how the book's turned out in digital format.

And just in case you need persuading that you really should get hold of The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection for yourself, watch the following video:

Coming soon...

U is for Ulysses Quicksilver

Who else?

Ulysses Quicksilver is the hero of my Pax Britannia steampunk novels. He was first unleashed upon the world in Unnatural History, which was first published in 2007.

In two scant months the nation, and all her colonies, will celebrate 160 years of Queen Victoria's glorious reign.

But all is not well at the heart of the empire of Magna Britannia. A chain of events is about to be set in motion that, if not stopped, could lead to a world-shattering conclusion.

It begins with a break-in at the Natural History Museum. A night watchman is murdered. An eminent Professor of Evolutionary Biology goes missing. Then a catastrophic Overground rail-crash unleashes the dinosaurs of London Zoo.

But how are all these events connected? Is it really the work of crazed revolutionaries, seeking the violent evolution of Magna Britannia? Or are there yet more sinister forces at work?

Enter Ulysses Quicksilver ­ dandy, rogue and agent of the throne ­ back from the dead. Aided by his ever faithful manservant Nimrod, it is up to this dashing soldier of fortune to solve the mystery and uncover the truth before London degenerates into primitive madness and a villainous mastermind brings about the unthinkable. The downfall of the British Empire!

Since then I have written a further six novels and have already made a start on the eighth to feature Quicksilver. I've also written five novellas featuring the character. When Time's Arrow is published next year, it will bring the total number of words written about his adventures to around 700,000!

The character has changed and developed as I have continued writing the stories and his family (along with its secrets) has been extended too. So who is Ulysses Quicksilver? Well here's what I wrote about him in the introduction to The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus (2010).

Ulysses Quicksilver is a patriot, a lady’s man, a toff, a show-off, an expert swordsman, a damn fine shot, an epicure, a dedicated follower of fashion, a thrill-seeker, a man of the people, a lover, a fighter, a habitual challenger of authority, a man of action, an incisive mind, a mass of contradictions, a playboy – but most importantly of all, he is a hero. But who is he really?
Well, inevitably, as he is a creation of my imagination, in some ways he is in fact me. However, there’s some James Bond in there too, a dash of Sherlock Holmes and a soupcon of Oscar Wilde. But, at the end of the day, with nearly half a million words published about him and his adventures, he is his own man; just as Pax Britannia has become something that is more than the sum of its parts.

If you'd like to read more about Ulysses Quicksilver's adventures, don't forget The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection is available now from Abaddon Books and that Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein is out next month.

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.