Tuesday 26 May 2015

Apologies, as usual, but there's this thing called a Blog Tour..

Yet again I promise myself I will remember to make regular posts here, especially since I have a long list of books I really do want to tell people about - and then I get sidetracked, diverted, sent off course...
But Ashamet is almost out there at last. In fact I'm told that one sneaky person over here [the UK] has managed to buy an early copy on the American site, so they have it almost the same day I received 'advance' copies.
I've now signed three, yes three, hard copies for different buyers too, so it's definitely out

And to be fair I haven't been entirely lazy. I was taking part in a Blog Tour.

Interesting experience. I had exchanged info about Ashamet with a few people over here who had mentioned or included it on their blogs or their facebook entries etc. But my publisher has a publicist, who was in touch a while ago about a proper tour, ie appearing as a guest blogger on about a dozen other sites interested in my kind of book. What was interesting was how different the sites were in their approach. some asked for a short essay - easy - others wielded a daunting list of questions, as long as two pages. And one even asked for answers from the character in the book instead of the writer. That, as you'll guess, was fun, especially becoming Ash for the duration.

I'll come back later with a list of the sites I know about, for anyone who fancies trolling for the various posts. No two alike.

Monday 11 May 2015

Review: Dream London, by Tony Ballantyne, 5* :)

Dream London, by Tony Ballantyne 5 stars
originally published by Solaris, reprint by Rebellion Publishing

Chris Beckett is quoted on the cover of this book as saying: "A real feat of the imagination... unlike anything I've read before."

And he's not wrong!

I almost missed this one because as you'll be aware there have been a few 'London' fantasy novels about recently. And if you've read one, or two, you could be forgiven for thinking why read more.

Well...

Captain Jim Wedderburn isn't so much an outrageously lovable rogue as a thorough-going rogue who manages to deceive even himself into seeing him as lovable, and even a leader. The result: he strides through the book as if he owns it and everything in it, supported by a host of other vivid characters.

But the real star of this novel has to be the setting. The world building here is amazing; bizarre, sometimes totally crazy, yet entirely credible.

So as I said at the start, I almost missed this book - but I'm really glad I didn't. It will stick in my mind for a long time. Not to be missed!