Saturday, May 25, 2013

Thraxas at War. Buffy Comic Problem.


Thraxas at War, seventh book in the series, now available as an ebook. As Thraxas book nine has already being published, it means there are now eight of the nine available, and just one more to go before the ebooks are up to date. Thraxas rumbles unstoppably on, which he does have the bulk to do. As he has been known to say, when criminals see him coming, they know they've got a problem. 

Amazon Kindle (US), Kindle (UK), iTunes, Kobo, Sony


I'm still receiving Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics regularly, thanks to the efficient subscription department at Reed Comics. As the comics are an official, Joss Whedon sponsored continuation of the series, I sort of feel obliged to buy them. But I'm not enjoying them that much. I've never particularly liked the artwork, and nor was I ever that keen on there being thousands of slayers. (Not sure if there still are thousands of slayers, I've got a lot of unread comics.)

However I'm unable to let go. I seem to be trapped into regularly buying comics I don't really enjoy. I lack the willpower to do anything about it. I don't know what the solution is. Just buy them for the rest of my life, I suppose.

I wish the Buffy bot had made another appearance. In the TV series the Buffy bot always did its best. It had a friendly personality too. I liked the Buffy bot, and regretted its tragic demise. It deserved another outing.

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Adventure Rocketship!


Adventure Rocketship! is a new series, somewhere between an anthology and magazine, or possibly a magazine in book form, edited by Jonathan Wright. I mention it partly because I'm interviewed in the first issue, and partly because it's a really good enterprise and I'd like it to succeed.

The first issue is entitled Let's All Go To The Science Fiction Disco, and, to quote the back cover, it concerns 'the strange region of space where science fiction, popular music and counter culture meet.'

Quoting more from the back cover - because that's how good an investigative journalist I am - there are new stories from Lavie Tidhar, Liz Williams and Tim Maughan, interviews with Mick Farren, The Orb, Michael Moorcock, Bill Nelson and China Miéville, and new writing from David Quantick, NK Jemisin, Jon Courtney Grimwood, and Jason Heller. That was a lot of typing from the back cover, so I apologise if I spelled anyone's name wrong, I'm not that good a copy typist. In fact my typing all round these days is getting worse. Sometimes when I use the spell check almost the entire page lights up with errors.

The Cover art is by Stanley Donwood, who has designed album sleeves for Radiohead. (I also have a short piece of fiction in the magazine, but it is so short, less than a thousand words, that I can't really plug it as a major sales point.)

Publication date for Adventure Rocketship! is 16th May. There's a launch party at Forbidden Planet in London on the 16th, and another launch in Bristol, also at Forbidden Planet. I hope these go well. I was invited to the London launch, but I won't be there. I haven't mentioned my problems with agoraphobia for a while, but at the moment I don't feel up to travelling to a public event. But I know Jon Courtney Grimwood will be there, and Lavie Tidhar, and I'm sure it will be a good event.

Adventure Rocketship! Let's All Go To The Science Fiction Disco - ISBN 9781906477738 - On Sale May 2013