Pax Britannia: Blood Royal

Pax Britannia: Blood Royal continues to receive rave reviews, this one from the Midwest Book Review...

The fate of the world will be decided by the unseen. "Blood Royal" takes place in the alternate universe of the Pax Britannia as unusual creates roam Europe and America. Ulysses Quicksilver is faced with protecting civilization from the stranger mutations of creatures that threaten his home, all throughout London to the far reaches of Russia. Nonstop excitement, "Blood Royal" is a read that will prove hard to put down.

More writing routines

On the subject of writers' writing routines (which I mentioned here the other day), Scott Andrews had posted about how he finds time to write whilst working the 9 to 5 here, and here Gav Thorpe talks about how to maintain the effort for prolonged periods of time.

Would-be writers take note!

Writing routines

For anyone who is interested in the process of writing for a living, whether they aspire to be a freelance writer themselves or not, you may be interested in the following pieces.

Here Colin Harvey talks about his typical (or otherwise) writing day, while here Nik Vincent talks about Dan Abnett's routine for Deadline Day from the Other Half's point of view. And here, Dan Abnett talks a bit about his working day...

Merry Christmas!

The Chrismologist's Christmas Message 2010

The Queen’s speech is as much a part of Christmas as over-eating and spending far too much money on presents. And yet it is also one of the more recently-developed popular Christmas traditions.

The practice of the monarch making a speech to the nation was begun in 1932, when the then king George V, father of our own monarch, broadcast a Christmas message to the British people over the radio.

And at 3.00pm on 25 December 2010 I will inaugurate another new Christmas tradition - the Chrismologist's Christmas message...

Pax Britannia: Dark Side - another glowing review!

Pax Britannia: Dark Side continues to go from strength to strength. Here, Gareth Wilson of the Falcata Times Blog says lovely things about what he calls the "cracking sixth title".

Fans of Jonathan's Ulysses Quicksilver will be rushing and demanding this title quicker than Nimrod can pour a stiff brandy.

As usual, Jonathan's writing is wonderfully descriptive alongside bringing a more vulnerable Quicksilver to the fore. Green's latest title bring Steampunk Victoriana to the readers imagination so much so, that it's going to be a long wait for Anno Frankenstein.

Finally, add some great dialogue alongside a return of an old friend or two which makes this Quicksilver's finest exploit to date. Whilst you can read this without having read the previous five, you'll have lost a lot of background as well as some serious world building which generates its own head of steam that will be hard to stop once you get going.

Pax Britannia: Silent Knight

Here's a little treat (hopefully) for all you Pax Britannia fans out there. As David Moore, Desk Editor at Abaddon Books, explains here, Pax Brtiannia has been receiving a lot of lover over the Internet of late. And so, by way of a thank you, here's a little Christmas gift from me to you.

Enjoy...

Anno Frankenstein

I'm almost onto the home straight now with Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein and it is proving to be - quite literally - a monster!

But while I'm busy bringing death and destruction to wartime Germany, I thought you might like to see the re-designed cover for the book, which brings it into line with the new look for the series (as begun with The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus and continued through Pax Britannia: Dark Side).

Cover art is by Mark Harrison, with cover design by Simon Parr.

Ultramarines - the movie!

Check out the new embeddable widget from The Ultramarines Movie.

To download your own Ultramarines widget, follow this link.

Angry Robot Open Submissions Month

Good news for any budding, but unrepresented, authors out there. For the entirety of March 2011, Angry Robot Books will be open to unsolicited submissions.

You can read more about this exciting opportunity here. You can also find out more on Angry Robots submissions page here.

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.

Scottish Miscellany reviewed at lonelyplanet.com

Scottish Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Scotland the Brave has been reviewed by Kerry Dexter over at lonelyplanet.com.

To read the review, click here. To buy the book, click here.

House of Fear

Well, the cat's well and truly out of the bag, so I can mention this myself now...

Next year, Solaris Books will publish a second anthology of horror stories edited by Jonathan Oliver, after releasing the excellent The End of the Line collection to great acclaim this year. This time all the stories are themed around that staple of horror, the haunted house.

House of Fear will be published in the autumn of 2011 and includes tales to disturb and unnerve by such luminaries of the genre as Sarah Pinborough, Christopher Priest, Adam L. G. Nevill, Chaz Brenchley, Christopher Fowler... and me.

I'm delighted to be amongst such an esteemed line-up and it's no secret that I'm hoping it will lead to... well who knows? We'll just have to wait and see.

First Line Meme

M'colleague James Swallow, has posted a list of the first lines of all of his novels.

I plan on doing the same thing. The problem is that owing to family Green current living arrangements, I don't have access to all of my novels and I certainly can't recall, off the top of my head, how they all start.

But you can have a read of James's post here, and I'll do my own version as and when.

Scottish Miscellany riding high

Yesterday it was floundering around the 200,000 mark, but as of tonight, Scottish Miscellany is at #49 on Amazon.co.uk in the Trivia books section.

Now that's got to be a good thing, right?

Witches and Werewolves

Coming in 2011 are a couple of films that may be of interest to readers of this blog. Arriving in March is Red Riding Hood.

For my own take on the Werewolf myth, including the story of Little Red Riding Hood (and don't worry, there isn't a sparkly vampire in sight!), you should pick up Howl of the Werewolf, one of the most highly acclaimed Fighting Fantasy gamebooks ever written.

However, if witches are more your thing (along with crusading knights and Ron Perlman) then you should enjoy another couple of my FF gamebooks, Spellbreaker and Night of the Necromancer. Oh, and you should probably keep an eye out for The Season of the Witch as well (coming in January).

Pax Britannia: Blood Royal

How's this for a review?

Christmas is a time for lots of things and, for me, one of those things is to go back and revisit a favourite author or two when the weather outside is frightful... Jonathan Green sits firmly on that particular list with his ‘Pax Britannia’ series being just the right reading for this time of year...

The ‘Pax Britannia’ books are guaranteed to take you away from the tedium of everyday living and dump you right in the middle of a steampunk London where every shadow holds a knife and enemies of the Empire plot against the throne. You can tell that I highly recommend these books...

This brings me onto ‘Blood Royal’; a book that I’ve been saving up to read... I had my reasons for putting ‘Blood Royal’ to one side until now... Having said all that though, I still found myself wondering I hadn’t picked this book up a lot earlier. It’s one hell of an entertaining ride and I’m not going to wait as long before picking the next book up!

Usually, when an author throws everything (he can get his hands on) at the plot it will be at the overall expense of the story. Not everything will stick, for one thing, and that inevitably leads to a fragmented book that doesn’t flow anywhere near as well as it should. Not so with Jonathan Green and ‘Blood Royal’...

Just like watching your favourite ‘Indiana Jones’ film on Christmas afternoon (‘Temple of Doom’ if you’re asking...) ‘Blood Royal’ has it all going on and at such a speed that you are almost physically compelled to keep reading...

‘Blood Royal’ is another thoroughly entertaining read from Green that will set the standard for the rest of the books in this series. I’m hoping for more of the same from ‘Dark Side’ and will let you know how it goes...

Nine and a Half out of Ten

Nine and a Half out of Ten? Nine and a Half out of Ten! Fantastic!

To read more of this review of Pax Britannia: Blood Royal, visit Graeme's Fantasy Book Review.

On Stranger Tides

Next summer, Jack Sparrow ("There should be a 'Captain' in there somewhere") will be setting sail, in search of the fabled Fountain of Youth. You can watch the first trailer for the movie here...



Next autumn, another popular hero - of the small screen this time - will also be having his own encounter with the aforementioned fountain in Terrible Lizards. Watch this space for more news as and when.

But in the meantime, if swash-buckling, zombies and desert islands are your thing, then to wile away the months between now and May 2011, why not pick up a copy of my own On Stranger Tides-inspired piratical epic, Bloodbones?

Where Pax Britannia leads...

While Pax Britannia: Dark Side continues to garner great reviews, Paramount Pictures have just released the first official trailer for Transformers 3.



Coincidence? I like to think not... ;-)

Pax Britannia - a worldwide phenomenon!

It's official - Pax Britannia is a worldwide phenomenon. Yes, that's right, I've been browsing through Google Analytics this evening and have to say I'm astonished by what I've discovered.

Over the last year, this blog has received 9,238 visits from 3,018 cities in 108 countries and territories around the world. Someone on every continent on Earth (apart from possibly Antarctica) has checked it out at least once.

Apparently, Pax Britannia is more popular in Brazil than it is in the Netherlands. The least frequent visitors come from places like Yemen, Albania, Lebanon, Guam and Iraq. Most visitors come from London, followed by New York and then Birmingham. One person has visited from Quebec, as opposed to two from Panama City and five from both Minsk and Tel Aviv.

I could go on, but suffice to say Pax Britannia is known of and enjoyed all over the world. How's that for cool?

Christmas shopping ideas

If you're still finalising Christmas presents, remember it's not too late to buy your loved ones (or yourself!) something from my book store.

If it's steampunk action and adventure that they're into, try my Pax Britannia books.

If they love gamebooks and fantasy adventures, try my Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

If it's Doctor Who or Star Wars, try these, and remember that you can have a Clone Wars story, written by me, personalised.

If it's non-fiction they enjoy, try Match Wits with the Kids, or one of my Miscellanies.

And if its the grim darkness of the far future where there is only war, or the grim darkness of a quasi-Medieval world that gets them buzzing, then try one of my Black Library novels.

Gamebook Adventures - coming to an iPad near you soon!

You can read more about these exciting developments in the world of Gamebook Adventures here.

Dark Side at The Eloquent Page

I stumbled across this earlier today. It's primarily a review of Dark Side, by one Mr Pablo Cheesecake, but it is more than just that. For it also has some very nice things to say about the Pax Britannia series as a whole and my writing in general.

(I also liked the fact that Mr Cheesecake appreciated the careful naming of the chapters in the book and gave the Ulysses Quicksilver novella Proteus Unbound - an added bonus story that appears after the main feature - a shout out too.)

Here's a choice bit about the novel itself:

This novel kept me hooked from page one. It struck me that the title works on two levels. It doesn’t just refer to the dark side of the moon but the reader also gets to experience the darker side of Ulysses character due to the events that unfold.

And here's what Pablo has to say about Pax Britannia:

Prior to Dark Side, each Quicksilver adventure in the series has essentially been a standalone affair, previous books are mentioned but only in passing... If I have ever had a criticism of the previous novels it has been that I wanted larger more involved story arcs and based on the ending of Dark Side my wish has been granted.

A new Pax Britannia novel is always a cause for excitement here at The Eloquent Page. Dark Side joins the existing novels as a worthy addition. Green has crafted yet another action packed rip-snorter.

And I quite liked this bit too:

The thing I like most about Green’s writing, and it’s in evidence here, is that he pays attention to the little details. This is what makes the world(s) of Pax Britannia feel so well realised.

Now, enough trumpet blowing. I'm off to write about vampires, werewolves and Frankenstein's children. (I tell you, Being Human's got nothing on this!)

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ebenezer Scrooge and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

Join the campaign to make Ebenezer's Carol No. 1 this Christmas here!

Deadline Day

Here, Nik Vincent (Dan Abnett's wife) writes about the pressures of deadline day, displacement activities and being in the zone. It's a fascinating insight into the writing process (and for me, a relief to find that it's not just me who struggles with keeping on task) but it's also a superb piece of writing in and of itself. And you can read it here.

Happy Holidays from Glasshouse Books

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for 2011 from Glasshouse Books.

Vote Pax Britannia for Steampunk book of the year!

Steampunk.com has launched its search for the 'Steampunk Book of 2010'. All that you have to do to nominate a book (or books) is leave their names, one per line, in a comment on this post at Steampunk.com. But what to nominate...?

Well, technically four Pax Britannia books (all of which qualify) were published in 2010 - Blood Royal, Al Ewing's Gods of Manhattan, Dark Side and The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus. But, according to the rules of the competition, technically any Pax Britannia book so far published would qualify.

So, if anyone feels like sharing the love for the alternate steampunk universe of Pax Britannia, go for it! And just let me know here.

100 sets of SFX Weekender passes to be won!

I went to this year's inaugural SFX Weekender and had a great time. And now you could be one of those lucky people going to the second SFX Weekender on from 4-5 February 2011, simply by entering this competition over at Forbidden Planet's website.

Let's make Ebenezer's Carol No.1 this Christmas!

The plan:

To get Ebenezer's Carol, by The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, to No. 1 in time for Christmas. A proper steampunk Christmas song for Christmas No. 1!

What we need to do to achieve this:

1) For Ebenezer's Carol to chart it needs to sell roughly 8,000 copies. The single needs be downloaded as a single, and not as part of the A Very Steampunk Christmas EP. It's available now from iTunes, eMusic and Amazon.

2) So, forward this message to all your friends (be they steampunks or otherwise) but remind them that they must buy the song by itself for it to get into the singles chart.

3) Blog about this, post a link on your Facebook page, Tweet about it, but most importantly - buy the single Ebenezer's Carol!

4) Arrange events themed around this, call the local press, use your contacts - whatever you've got - and we could really make this happen!

This is a chance for steampunk fans to really make themselves heard and make a difference for the future of Christmas. The fate of Ebenezer's Carol and Christmas music itself is in your hands! Let's make Christmas 2010 a Very Merry Steampunk Christmas!

Wondering what to get the Steampunk in your life this Christmas? Well wonder no more...

What do you get the steampunk in your life this Christmas? Why, some exclusive Pax Britannia merchandise - that's what!

You can buy beermats emblazoned with the motto "Feel Better With Dr Feelgood's Tonic

Stout"

Dark Side notebooks

Dark Side mousemats

And even a Pax Britannia T-shirt* bearing the motto "Action and Adventure in a New Age of Steam!"

Just visit the Pax Britannia Christmas store here.

* Only available in large, I'm afraid.

Hell Train

Coming in 2012 from Solaris Books , Hell Train is an unashamed pedal-to-the-metal supernatural thriller by Christopher Fowler, the best-selling author of the Bryant & May mystery novels.

Imagine there was a supernatural chiller that Hammer Films never made. A grand epic produced at the studio’s peak, which played like a cross between the Dracula and Frankenstein films and Dr Terror’s House Of Horrors...

Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive. As the ‘Arkangel’ races through the war-torn countryside, they must find out:

What is in the casket that everyone is so afraid of?

What is the tragic secret of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them?

Why is their fellow passenger the army brigadier so feared by his own men?

And what exactly is the devilish secret of the Arkangel itself?

Bizarre creatures, satanic rites, terrified passengers and the romance of travelling by train, all in a classically styled horror novel.

Hell Train will be published in January 2012 in both the UK and the US.

The Way of the Warrior - at Waterstone's!

Well, via their website actually. Yes now you can order your very own personalized Clone Wars adventure - The Way of the Warrior - from Penwizard, via Waterstones.com. Simply follow this link for the Jedi version and this one for the Sith version of the story (both written by me).

Scottish Miscellany - available now!

You can buy your own copy of Scottish Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Scotland the Brave (or one for that special Scotophile in your life) here.

My new office

Long time readers of this blog (and my Facebook updates) will know that the Green Family are in the rather protracted process of moving from London to that there Countryside. In our new place in deepest, darkest Wiltshire, I have no office. Yet. Basically, it hasn't been built. But today I saw a picture of how I want it to look when it is finally created from what is currently an over-sized garage. I want it to look like this!

You can buy your own custom-made tentacle for your own

Nautilus/Cthulhu-inspired writing room from this guy here. (Fans of Leviathan Rising take note.) Unfortunately my budget won't stretch to one but I am considering a steampunk clock for the wall. And who knows - if I get that long sought after three book deal - one day, who knows...?

Encouraging sales?

Now, I realise that Amazon rankings can fluctuate minute by minute, but a quick check this morning left me feeling pleasantly encouraged.

As of 9.00am this morning I discovered the following:

Pax Britannia: Dark Side is ranked 85,100 in Books.

Scottish Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Scotland the Brave is at #76 in Books > Reference > Fun Facts & Trivia > Trivia.

And Night of the Necromancer is 21,136 in Books.

Now I know that's not a Terry Pratchett style #1 placing, but it's quite good - isn't it? It's just a shame Amazon have it credited to the wrong Jonathan Green.

Anno Frankenstein - nearing the mid-point

I'm now almost halfway through my first draft of Anno Frankenstein (my next Pax Britannia adventure, to be published in May 2011) and I've reached something of a turning point.

I always find it a struggle to get started on a new book. The writing is never as smooth, nor as productive, as I would like in the early days of a new project (certainly when it's something the length of a novel), as I get to know the characters and get into the plot (despite the fact that I've already worked out the nitty-gritty of the story in detail).

But I'm now well into my stride, and barring the usual sort of interruptions that life throws up (like the school run and laundry), the word count is building steadily each and every day.

What's really helped is that I've finally got to a scene that I've been looking forward to writing ever since I started working on the plot of Anno Frankenstein - probably ever since I even conceived the initial outline for the book. To say any more here would spoil the surprise, but hopefully you'll be suitably satisfied when Ulysses Quicksilver's seventh stirring tale, packed to the gills with melodrama and derring-do, comes out next year.

Whoa! What did I do?

I've just discovered that last week, this blog received over 1,600 visits - in one week! It usually gets between 200 and 300 hits a week - but 1,600?!? Can I just say that again?

1,600 hits in one week!

There, that's better. When I tried to discover what had happened (and if there was a fault with my visit counter) I discovered that the majority of these visits - 1,099 to be precise! - occurred on one day, Monday 29 November. And what had I posted about the night before? The preview screening of the Ultramarines movie.*

So there you go; it really is a case of who you know. Perhaps I need to review films more often. Now if I could only turn those visits into book sales...

* I think the fact that the DVD release of the movie has been delayed probably helped.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Monsters and Scotland the Brave

Vlog 2 is up...

Pax Britannia: Dark Side

Abaddon Books have a link to the first review of Pax Britannia: Dark Side, along with a bit about the original inspiration for the book's very cool cover.

Cool.

Very cool.

Pax Britannia: Dark Side - the first review!

After putting out my call to reviewers everywhere yesterday, today I received notification of the first review of my latest Pax Britannia novel Dark Side, and very pleased with it I was too...

Dark Side is the latest, and certainly the most spectacular, of Jonathan Green's Ulysses Quicksilver series.

Quicksilver, in case you've missed the previous few books in the series, is the silver-tongued gentleman-adventurer whose plan is always to "make it up as he goes along". In Dark Side, this takes him to strange new places - in both geographical and narrative terms...

Perhaps the biggest journey is the actual structure of Dark Side, which goes into uncharted territory for the series. Whereas the previous books were essentially one-offs (although one-offs that rewarded loyal readers), Dark Side builds out of the existing Pax Britannia mythos. Although reading the short story "Vanishing Point" isn't absolutely necessary to understanding Dark Side, it certainly gives you a running start. And, on the other end of the book, Dark Side is the first in the series to actually end with a proper, "ack!-when-is-the-next-book-out?!" cliffhanger.

Dark Side is the biggest book in the series in all respects. By bringing in characters and conflicts from earlier books (some for the last time), Green elevates this from a snappy, pocket-sized adventure into the start of something properly epic. Even bringing Emilia back as the object of flirtation helps make this book more serious and less ephemeral than those that came before it. Without giving away any spoilers, the reader feels like the cozy universe of Pax Britannia is truly, irreversibly changing.

Good stuff, eh?

You can read the rest of Jared's review over at his Pornokitsch website. And if you're inspired to buy the book yourself after reading his review, you can do so here.

Scottish Miscellany in the Sunday Post

Last Sunday, my new book Scottish Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Scotland the Brave was featured in the Scottish Sunday newspaper the Sunday Post. I like the approach the reporter took to the piece (even though it wasn't what I had originally intended), I just hope the Scottish book-buying public take it with the same good humour.

M is for Monster, but I is for Incubus

The reviews for the horror short story anthology M is for Monster are starting to trickle in now, and you'll find a very comprehensive one here, on Amazon.

This is the first time I have read a review of the book that specifically mentions my short story Incubus in any detail.

This being a welcome-all-ages kinda blog, I'm a like embarrassed to post the whole review here. If you're over 18 you can read it for yourself here, but I did appreciate this bit in particular:

What gradually transpires is a powerfully unnerving tale of horror, with many unspoken questions left unanswered, creating an altogether more powerful tale. Certainly one of the most atmospheric and unsettling tales in the anthology - and for that, possibly one of the best additions.

You can buy M is for Monster direct from Yours Truly. Just drop me a line at info@jonathangreenauthor.com and we'll take it from there.

Until next time...

Match Wits with the Kids - new review

I was delighted to stumble across this review of Match Wits with the Kids on the Internet the other day. It's written by a Maths specialist and, as a result, I found what the reviewer had to say especially pleasing.

This book is subtitled “a little learning for all the family” which is an incredible understatement. This book is just packed with interesting information about a variety of subjects - not just Mathematics but also English, Science, History, Geography, MFL, Classics - and even some tests to keep the reader on their toes.

In just 50 pages of mathematics the reader is transported along a journey from numbers through tables, negatives, indices, fractions, decimals, percentages, Fibonacci, algebra, angles, symmetry, triangles, pythagoras, quadrilaterals, polygons, circles, 3D shapes, co-ordinates, statistics and finally probability. The style is gripping, fun and very informative. It is hard to put down - but also manages to be a book that a minutes reading leaves the reader bursting with new facts and information.

This is a wonderful reference book for all the family - perhaps especially useful for parents worried their children know more than they do! I can’t judge the other subjects (though I’m hooked and mesmerised by the other chapters) but mathematically I can find no fault - the material would cover most of the content of the Key Stage Three syllabus. This is an excellent book - one that no family should be without.

To read the review at the Association of Teachers of Mathematics website, click here.

And while we're at it there's also this one at Suite101.com.

Experienced teacher and author Jonathon Green has written the perfect companion for parents who wish to brush up on their general knowledge. Match Wits with the Kids (Icon, 2008) contains 392 pages of charts, maps, formulae, diagrams, tables, information and practice tests to revise the important facts across nine subject areas...

In the years between attending school and parenting a school-aged child many facts and details well-known during school years go astray. Now is the perfect time to brush up on some basic general knowledge, if for no other reason than to assist children with their homework and improve results at the next trivia night or general knowledge quiz show.

Request for reviewers

Both The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus (Vol.1) and Pax Britannia: Dark Side are selling well at the moment (very well, in fact) so how those of you who've already read these awesome tomes post some reviews on Amazon (or whatever your book site of choice happens to be)?

If you do, you will earn my eternal gratitude. (Which is no small thing if the long-anticipated Zombiepocalypse* finally gets here.) And please let me know - either via this blog or by emailing me at info@jonathangreenauthor.com.

Cheers!

* That's a copyrighted term, by the way, copyright Jonathan Green 2010 - just now.

Ultramarines - the movie!

So, this morning, I was fortunate enough to be one of a select few to be invited to a proper cinema screening of the new Ultramarines movie. Investors, fans and hobbyists, piled into the Odeon Cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue and, after an introduction by producer Bob Thompson, got to enjoy 75 minutes of pure 40K entertainment. I tagged along with m'colleague James Swallow, who is always good company, and also got to say "Hi!" to Mark and Liz of My Favourite Books.

But what of the movie itself? That's what you're all dying to know, isn't it? Well, first off, Codex Pictures have succeeded in making a Warhammer 40K movie, which in and of itself is no mean feat. It's been a labour of love for those involved, as much as anything else, and it shows.

To put it simply Ultramarines does exactly what it says on the tin. There are space marines - more than mortal, they are steel and they are doom - there's an alien world and a gothic Imperial shrine, there's a strike cruiser, a thunderhawk, a land speeder... and there's Chaos.

I would love to got into more details, but it would undoubtedly spoil the movie for anyone yet to see it for themselves. And if you've ever been even slightly curious about Warhammer 40K then you really should see it. Suffice to say the devil (or should that be the 'daemon'?) is in the detail. From words of holy scripture engraved onto bolter shells, to "how do you apply purity seals exactly?", to the etchings of Chaplain Karnak's shull-helm, to the image of the stained glass window in the reliquary on board the Ultramarines' strike cruiser, it's all there.

Dan Abnett's voice is as distinctive throughout the movie as the voices of actors Terence Stamp, Sean Pertwee, John Hurt et al who speak his words. Dan's even managed to get a few (intentionally) humorous lines in there. One in particular (regarding a bolter) raised a chuckle from the whole audience this morning.

It felt like a real privilege to see the movie on the big screen but it was also a joy to chat with Bob Thompson and Vanessa Chapman of Codex Pictures afterwards. These are people who are passionate about what they do and about doing justice to the IP. It's just a shame Codex Pictures weren't around when the made the original Judge Dredd movie. They have managed to make a film that doesn't mess with, or dumb down, the Warhammer 40K IP, and one that can be enjoyed by a 25 year hobby veteran and a total novice alike.

If you've already ordered the special edition collector's DVD you're in for a treat. If you haven't you can order it here, right now. And do order it, because if Ultramarines is a hit us fans might not have to wait quite so long for another 40K movie to come along...

"We march for Macragge!"

"And we shall know no fear!"

To finish, as they say, with a joke... The auditorium that was hosting the exclusive screening was next to the loos. So, reading the signs above the doors from left to right we had, 'Ladies', 'Gents' and 'Ultramarines'. Well, it made Jim and I chuckle.