THE IRON WOLVES by Andy Remic, to be published by Angry Robot Books January 2014.
1st draft, 128,000 words completed 11.18PM on 11th April 2013 whilst listening to the quite fabulous “The Hobbit” soundtrack album. Kudos to Peter Jackson.
And there was much rejoicing. And whiskey. Etc. !!
That was a DAMN hard book to write!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
REMIC READER COMPETITION
OK, so this is the deal. I’ve had a lot of emails recently either demanding a return of Carter/Kade from the original Spiral books, or screeching for the return of Keenan, Franco and Pippa for another Combat K mission.
Well here’s the thing. After finishing THE IRON WOLVES for Angry Robot and my comedy side-project THE BOBBIT, I’ve a bit of free time over the summer — and YOU THE READERS get to choose what I write next!! Because, y’know, Rem LOVES YOU ALL. xxx.
So, here’s the competition bit. Either email me, Andy Remic – jappoc [at] hotmail.co.uk – or give me a tweet @andyremic with the subject line I WANT SPIRAL NEXT or I WANT COMBAT K NEXT, and a single sentence explaining WHY.
THE PRIZE: Well, not only do you choose in which universe I next write, but you’ll also get 1) a free copy of the finished book, both digital and paperback; 2) a marked-up original one-off paper manuscript of the work, with all corrections and everything; 3) the chance to hang out with Rem for the day; probably in a pub.
So what are you waiting for? Get tweeting, facebooking or emailing!!
My publishing company, ANARCHY BOOKS, is absolutely thrilled and jiggling to announce the upcoming and incoming release of THE FOUR REALMS by Adrian Faulkner. This is a stunning debut novel, absolutely jam-packed with vampire genocide, shape-shifting cephalopods, kick-ass elderly protagonists and shotgun wielding centaurs……
Gail Z. Martin, author of THE DREAD, described Faulkner’s debut novel as “An imaginative foray into a dark world of danger and adventure. Hang onto your hat!”…. and here at Anarchy Books we are super-excited at what we believe is the BEST Anarchy Book yet!!
Advance reader copies are now available for review, and Mr Faulkner is available for interviews, comments and general “book pimping”. Contact anarchy-books@hotmail.co.uk for more information.
Release date: 26th December 2012.
Mobi: ISBN: 978-1-908328-52-6
ePUB: ISBN: 978-1-908328-53-3
PDF copies also available for review.
THE FOUR REALMS-
Half-vampire Darwin stumbles across a corpse on the streets of London, and in a pocket discovers a notebook in a mysterious language. Divided between human ethics and vampire bloodlust, Darwin finds himself both condemner and saviour of a race who’ve never considered him one of their own. Now, he must try and lead the survivors to sanctuary in New Salisbury before Mr West completes his genocide of the vampires in his quest to obtain the book…
Maureen Summerglass is eighty-two years old, and a prisoner in her ramshackle home. She is afraid to let people enter in case they discover the oak door in her cellar. Threatened with homelessness and retirement from her job as a gatekeeper between worlds, Maureen breaks protocol when the death of a close friend is covered up… and enters the city of New Salisbury to search for his missing notebook. There, she discovers a world unlike the one of myth and fairy tale she imagined, and instead one of black market economies, brand names and tuk tuks. As she investigates, not only is she in extreme danger, but discovers she may be the first human female able to use magic…
Title: The Four Realms
Author: Adrian Faulkner
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 120,000 words
Published by Anarchy Books
Release Date: 26th December 2012
Cover by Matt “Iron-Cow” Cauley
Mobi: ISBN: 978-1-908328-52-6
ePUB: ISBN: 978-1-908328-53-3
A Hi-Res image of the cover can be downloaded from: http://adrianfaulkner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/four_realms_anarch2.jpg
Okay, I was tagged last week in The Next Big Thing. Thus, here are my own tags passing on the flaming baton, four absolutely fabulous authors who I very much recommend, and their subsequent TNBG posts…… Enjoy!!
Ian Graham – http://andyremic.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/ian-graham-the-next-big-thing/
Stan Nicholls – http://andyremic.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/stan-nicholls-the-next-big-thing/
Richard Ford – http://richard4ord.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/the-next-big-thing/
Ian Watson – http://www.ianwatson.info/the-next-big-thing/
Stan Nicholls has been a reviewer and interviewer in the UK for more than 20 years and is a key figure on the genre scene. He writes a regular column for TIME OUT and contributes to both INTERZONE and STARBURST. Since the original Orcs trilogy his Quicksilver fantasy trilogy has been an international hit.
“I can personally recommend Stan’s ORC series of novels – fast paced, great battles, and you get to see the world from the eyes of an orc! Go on. You know you want to…” – Andy Remic.
STAN NICHOLLS
1) What is the working title of your next book?
At this moment I’m waiting for the reaction to a proposal I have in for my next novel. Until I hear, I can’t talk about it. Ditto the working title, which in any case has already changed several times and probably will again. But I’m currently working on something else that has a title that’s unlikely to change. It’s called ‘Shake Me To Wake Me’. We can talk about that.
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
This question is perilously close to the classic “Where do you get your ideas?” that we all know and love. ‘Shake Me … ’ is a collection of short stories, some reprint, the rest newly written. The stories range in date from 1993 to the present, so we’d be talking about ideas that struck over quite a lengthy period. I don’t know where the seed of an idea comes from. I only know about sweating it to full plumpness.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
All of them. Well, no; that’s ridiculous. Fantasy, science fiction, supernatural, a dash of crime and stuff it’s hard to put a handle on. Let’s say “fantastical”.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Considering the range of stories … I don’t know, but off the top of my head it’d be nice to have Nathan Fillion, Ron Perlman, David Boreanaz, Lucy Lia, Claudia Black, Mila Jovovich *maybe*, Jet Li, Eddie Izzard, Alan Rickman … And assuming I can have dead people I’d like Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Alec Guinness. I’m tempted to have Kenneth Williams.
But maybe animation would be better for some of it.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
It’s about different stuff.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Agency.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
About twenty years. Short stories, remember.
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I honestly can’t make a comparison that covers the range of content. Or if I did it’d be to writers infinitely more talented than I am, which makes me look a schmuck.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I suppose I kind of inspired myself, given the writing gunk coating my DNA. I’ve always written and always made up stories. A host of writers I admire inspired me too; they gave me the desire to try to be as good as them. The collection contains what I consider to be my best stories. Or rather the ones that were the least unsatisfying, that had a germ of an interesting idea or just made me feel okay about being a writer.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well, the content’s eclectic but still within the speculative category, so hopefully it’ll appeal to readers of fantasy, and what we might call the offbeat. Readers of my orcs series of novels might be interested to know that there are going to be two or three – I’m not sure yet – new orcs stories, and one of them is over 20,000 words. That’ll be accompanied by either two orcs shorts or another long, almost novella length piece. Oh, and we’ve got one of the best genre artists doing the cover.
Ian Graham is a fantasy novelist living in the North of England. His debut novel, Monument, was published in 2002 by Orbit Books. Monument is published in the USA by Ace and in France by Bragelonne. He is currently working on a prequel to Monument.
“Ian is big and hairy. But more importantly, he’s a cracking, awesome, brilliant fantasy writer. Check out Monument! I dare you.” –Andy Remic.
IAN GRAHAM
1. What is the working title of your next book?
Dead Fire.
2. Where did the idea for the book come from?
Dead Fire is a prequel to Monument, my previous novel. In Monument, Anhaga Ballas, the protagonist, is in middle age, friendless, living rough and a touch over-fond of the bottle. The key to writing Dead Fire was imagining what Ballas would be like in his early twenties, long before the bitterness, booze and isolation had set in.
3. What genre does your book fall under?
Dark medieval fantasy.
4. What actors would choose to the play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Oliver Reed would have made the ideal Ballas. He had the right air of brooding, bullish insolence and dog-eared dignity. Of course, being dead, Ollie won’t be available to play the role – unless some pretty staggering medical breakthroughs are made sometime soon. Fingers crossed, eh?
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Anhaga Ballas goes to Hell.
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I am contracted to produce another couple of books for those fine folk at Orbit, may God have mercy on their souls.
7. How long did it take to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Grief, there’s a question. I’ve been slogging away at the thing for yonks, and because the initial versions are extraordinarily haphazard, it is impossible to pinpoint a moment where I can safely say, Yes, this counts as a draft. And I’ve have never written the endings of these pseudo-drafts, either: I find it more helpful to wait until I arrive at the conclusion in the final draft before deciding exactly what ought to happen. It’s a great way of filling one’s life with unimaginable terror and stress.
8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
David Gemmell was a big influence, of course, though I confess that I am pretty out of touch with what’s going on in the genre at the moment. As I spend so much time writing fantasy, it tends to be the last thing I want to read when I switch off the word processor. But I do read my chum Andy Remic’s material, often in draft form; he and I have an informal critiquing group, which we wittily call “The Stinklings”, after CS Lewis and Tolkien’s critical gatherings. From reputation alone, I’d say that my stuff might also be put in the same category as Joe Abercrombie’s work, and that of Richard Morgan.
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
A strong curiosity about Anhaga Ballas’s early life was the main driving force, as well as an interest in the varieties of interpretation which can be placed upon mystical and religious experiences.
10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
A tricky one, this. I like the story because at heart, it is – hopefully – a fast-moving adventure tale, not entirely lacking in intelligence and moral complexity. A lost civilization, an oppressive – though not always immoral – theocracy, fights, cart-chases, snake-venom, gigantic hunting dogs, the afterlife and a chap getting roasted to death in a kiln . . . This is a book to treasure through the ages. Or borrow from the library, once.
Alas, it seems that every other writer I know or have heard of has already been tagged in The Next Big Thing. So I shan’t nominate anyone. I fear that I may be the terminus of a meme.
William Hussey (http://www.williamhussey.co.uk/), author of the fabulous Witchfinder series, tagged me on his blog as part of THE NEXT BIG THING author chain. So, now it’s my turn to pass on the burning brand of doom, tap out my deepest ramblings, and nobble another five authors so that our collected gibberish can spread like some great and unwholesome disease of the mind. Here we go then…
1) What is the working title of your next book?
My next novel is called THE IRON WOLVES for Angry Robot Books http://angryrobotbooks.com/.
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
After working on KELL’S LEGEND, SOUL STEALERS and VAMPIRE WARLORDS for Angry Robot, I penned a section in VW where Kell and Saark, our heroes of the moment, have to train an army from a rag-tag rabble of cut-throat inmates in a desecrated prison complex, which has been completely overrun. I loved writing those scenes, and playing with the idea of bad men turning good. Thus, when asked to pitch to AR, I came up with a Dirty Dozen-type idea and The Iron Wolves was born.
We have a group of heroes, The Iron Wolves, who held the Pass of Splintered Bones against a war-host of drooling mud-orcs, and saw the psychotic sorcerer Morkagoth slain. Now, thirty years on, a new threat emerges from the depths of The Furnace: Orlana, the Changer, who begins building an army and gathering evil to her cause.
Realising the threat, aged General Dalgoran seeks to reunite his elite soldiers, his Iron Wolves; but they are no longer the heroes he remembers. Kiki, leader of the Wolves, is a honey-leaf drug peddler and addicted to her own foul narcotic; Narnok is a violent whoremaster, Prince Zastarte a gambler who burns people alive, Dek the pit fighter, once a hit with the ladies, now bears a razor-sliced face; and Trista, originally a woman of wealth, nobility and religion, has devolved into a whore-assassin with a scorpion sting.
United in hate, the Iron Wolves travel to the Pass of Splintered Bones and the Dakrath Fortress; and as half a million mud-orcs gather, General Dalgoran realises his grave error. Together, the Iron Wolves hold a terrible secret which has tortured them for three decades. Now, they wish to be human again.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
That would be heroic fantasy. Or maybe anti-heroic fantasy, as this is going to be one dark, violent, bleak roller-coaster ride of suffering and violence. Did I mention the violence? It’s going to be nasty. It’s going to make Morgan’s and Abercrombie’s books (which I very much admire, by the way) look like children’s tales about fluffy puppies. Or so I reckon.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
For the men, actors like Ving Rhames, Clint Eastwood, Ray Winstone; that kind of dude. For Kiki? Hmm. I think Uma Thurman would do a pretty awesome job.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Forget your fine wines, art, literature and culture; forget a Time of Heroes and any thoughts of nobility… because The Iron Wolves are back. And this time, they’re dirty, nasty, violent, and playing by no rules born of this world.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
The Iron Wolves will be published by Angry Robot Books in January 2014, the second book (in the same world but with different characters), August 2014. For this deal, I agented myself.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
I have six month to write and do my usual three edits; and I begin work in earnest on the 1st December 2012.
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I mentioned Joe Abercrombie and Richard Morgan earlier, and I love their works dearly. They would be the closest in terms of gritty realism and violent nastiness. But this time, Dear Reader, I’m hoping to give the fantasy world something a little bit different. Something a little new.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I was always inspired by the late, great David Gemmell, may he rest well in the Hall of Heroes. I’m also inspired by Iain M. Banks, Ernest Hemingway, Orwell, Kafka, Cormac McCarthy and Sergio Leone, to name but a few.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
When reading a fantasy novel, do you like: a) your female fantasy characters to be brutal femme fatales; b) your alcoholic pit-fighters big, sour, and with razor carved faces; and c) your bad dudes something to give even the toughest cage fighter crawling little-girl nightmares? Well then, you’ll be wanting to read The Iron Wolves, won’t you laddie?
The entire Angry Robot office is today reeling with the news that maniac fantasy author Andy Remic is returning with a brand new series.
The Iron Wolves is the first of at least two novels set during a time of war and invasion. Riffing on The Dirty Dozen and The Magnificent Seven, the novel sees a disparate band of ruffians and renegades being reunited one last time to defend a key stronghold against overwhelming odds. But when they fight as one, the veteran warriors have a hidden power, and unleashing it one last time will have extraordinary consequences.
Andy Remic’s previous Clockwork Vampire trilogy earned him the nickname “the Tarantino of epic fantasy” and the new novels will be loosely set in the same setting.
The first novel will be published in January 2014 in paperback, ebook and audio editions.
When poked with a large, pointy stick, Andy Remic said: “After the success of my previous Angry Robot titles – Kell’s Legend, Soul Stealers and Vampire Warlords – I’m absolutely thrilled and vibrating to be revisiting the fantasy genre.
“Based loosely in the same universe as Kell’s Legend, The Iron Wolves will take traditional fantasy elements and stir them violently in a big pot with a barrel of whiskey.
“We’re talking gruesome battles, nasty anti-heroes, hardened soldiers, bloody enemies, twisted deviants and gritty realism so damn gritty you’ll be spitting blood, teeth and gristle by the bloody violent end!” ……………
To read the full press release visit:
http://angryrobotbooks.com/2012/10/brace-yourselves-andy-remics-back/
THE BOBBIT
by Andy Remic
A tale of dwarves, gangsta wizards and
sleazy elf juice
THE BOBBIT
Bimbo Nobbins is a bobbit, a small, useless, furry creature with excessively hairy toes, a love of tweed and pipe-smoking, and the desire to do nothing but eat sweet things, drink mead, lounge in the sun and study raunchy elf lithographs.
However, Bimbo’s peaceful home life is gate-crashed by thirteen on-the-run criminal dwarves (known as The Hairy Dozen – yes, they can’t count), hunted for their part in a double-barrel crossbow armed robbery and crimes against the elves, along with their leader, Gumball the Wizard, the first ever Gangsta Wizard to stalk the forests of Muddy Earth.
Faced with such murderous, stinking, foul-mouthed violent scum, whose only aim is to rob the dragon Slob the Gratuitous of his treasure hoard, and entice elf maids to their doom, what would you do? Although reluctant, Bimbo Nobbins, singing and dancing, heads off with The Hairy Dozen to take part in their quest for gold… And surprises even himself by his creativity and skill as a burglar and violent back-stabber!
THE BOBBIT – OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK ALBUM
That’s right, the fabulous JON BODAN of Halcyon Way is working on a comedy metal soundtrack album to accompany The Bobbit! Rest assured, it will be comically terrible! (in a musically brilliant kind of way!!). Check out http://www.halcyonway.com/
Please note: This parody of The Hobbit is in NO WAY endorsed by Peter Jackson or J. R. R. Tolkien, and the fact it’s being released on (ahem) 13th December 2012 is a complete coincidence!!
***** FUNDING FUNDING FUNDING FUNDING FUNDING *****
(and I recognise this is an experiment and I’m putting my neck on a kind of writer’s chopping block here….. but sheesh, let’s give it a go!!)
The Bobbit is seeking funding through Indiegogo where, as a sponsor, you can receive some very interesting PERKS. Please support The Bobbit by checking out:
http://www.indiegogo.com/thebobbit?key=dab3e42f220e91248851609bde427695c45e22d4
Just received a fabulous review of my latest novel, Toxicity, by Stanley Riiks over at Morpheus Tales.
“There are definitely two sides to this book: the serious, and quite disturbing ecoterrorists and their plotting and battles against the Company; and Svoolzard’s more light-hearted adventure through dangerous territory providing the comedic interludes. Despite the light entertain of Svoolzard’s misdeeds and misadventures, a lot of this book is hardcore, filled with torture and brutality that is not for the faint-hearted.”
and
“When our protagonist is tortured it hurts, and that’s the beauty of Remic’s books. He’s well-known for his fast-paced narratives, his no-holds-barred action and adventure, but because he develops his characters at breakneck speed as well, it actually matters what happens to them. How the author manages to create a wet-wipe like Svool, a cowardly, selfish poet, and then slowly turn you from dislike to having a soft-spot for the man is quite incredible.”
and
“Overall this is an Andy Remic novel, and Remic always delivers.”
and
“Toxicity is funny, brutal, scarily nasty, exciting and great fun.”
and
“If you like your fiction fast and furious, and you should, then you cannot go wrong with an Andy Remic novel. Toxicity is massively entertaining. No one quite writes like Andy Remic; he is the total package, and he seems, literally, unstoppable.”
Er. I think he liked it!! Cheers Stanley!
You can read the full review over at the superb Morpheus Tales. www.morpheustales.com.
