• Fallen Host by Lyda Morehouse – an ebook re-issue of the second book in Lyda’s AnngeLINK science fiction series

Click the book title above or book cover below for more information and to buy Fallen Host from the Robot Trading Company.

About Fallen Host

Mouse, the Egyptian hacker, is in jail following the events of Archangel Protocol. That leaves his AI, Page, struggling to survive.

There is only one other sentient AI on the LINK, and she works for the Yakuza. The Pope is interested in discovering whether AIs have souls, and has sent his crack tech crime inquisitor after Page.

Meanwhile Morningstar is busy looking for the Antichrist, and sentient beings without souls seem like a good bet. All of these stories come together in the person of a cello player from a massively popular Japanese thrash polka band.

Page’s only hope might be that his creator can escape jail and rescue him, but Mouse hasn’t yet forgiven the AI for shopping him to the authorities.

This fast-paced sequel to Archangel Protocol ramps up the stakes. It looks like the end of the world really is nigh.

Click the cover images or the links below for more information:

   

Zenn Scarlett

by Christian Schoon

Zenn Scarlett is a bright, determined, occasionally a-little-too-smart-for-her-own-good 17-year-old girl training hard to become an exoveterinarian. That means she’s specializing in the treatment of exotic alien life forms, mostly large and generally dangerous. Her novice year of training at the Ciscan Cloister Exovet Clinic on Mars will find her working with alien patients from whalehounds the size of a hay barn to a baby Kiran Sunkiller, a colossal floating creature that will grow up to carry a whole sky-city on its back.

But after a series of inexplicable animal escapes from the school and other near-disasters, the Cloister is in real danger of being shut down by a group of alien-hating officials. If that happens, Zenn knows only too well the grim fate awaiting the creatures she loves.

Now, she must unravel the baffling events plaguing her school, before someone is hurt or killed, before everything she cares about is ripped away from her and her family forever. To solve this mystery – and live to tell about it – Zenn will have to put her new exovet skills to work in ways she never imagined, and in the process learn just how powerful compassion and empathy can be.

More information from strangechemistrybooks.com
Buy the Ebook from the Robot Trading Company

The Automaton’s Treasure

by Cassandra Rose Clarke

An ebook original short story set in the world of The Assassin’s Curse and The Pirate’s Wish.

A tale exploring Marjani’s first steps beyond Qilar, when she is dismissed from her home for scandalous behaviour.

Marjani’s ship is stolen by pirates and, in order to save her own life, she pretends to know the location of great treasure.

Buy the Ebook from the Robot Trading Company (for just £0.59).

Currently including 14 ebooks over the next 12 months, an Exhibit A 12 Month Subscription is priced at just £52.00, as opposed to the total r.r.p. of £76.86 – a saving of £24.86 (around a third of the total).

Or, if you’re based outside the EU and therefore don’t have to pay VAT on ebooks, the price should be around $65, depending on the prevailing exchange-rate at time of purchase.

Here’s what you’ll get for your money:

The current (May 2013) Exhibit A ebooks that are available to download immediately on purchase of your 12 month subscription:

• Scare Me by Richard Parker (May 2013)
• Penance: A Chicago Thriller by Dan O’Shea (May 2013)

And another dozen crime and thriller ebooks that you’ll be able to download over the course of the next 12 months:

• Wounded Prey by Sean Lynch (June 2013)
• The Cambodian Book of the Dead by Tom Vater (July 2013)
• Lawless and The Devil of Euston Square by William Sutton (August 2013)
• Hard Road by J. B. Turner (August 2013)
• Clean Burn by Karen Sandler (September 2013)
• Letters From a Murderer by John Matthews (October 2013)
• The Clearing by Dan Newman (November 2013)
• The Professor by Robert Bailey (January 2014)
• The View From the Tower by Charles Lambert (February 2014)

Your subscription will also include: +1x January 2014, 1x March 2014 and 1x April 2014 ebooks as well. Details are currently pending but should be confirmed on the main Exhibit A website before too long. (Exhibit A doesn’t publish any new books in December, hence the gap).

Full details can be found at www.robottradingcompany.com.

Click on the covers or links below for more information and to be among the first to buy, download and read these gripping crime thrillers:

   

Scare Me

by Richard Parker

“When did you last google yourself?”

Wealthy businessman, Will Frost, gets woken in the middle of the night by an anonymous caller, asking him exactly this.

When Will goes online, he finds a website has been set up in his name, showing photographs of the inside of his home, along with photographs of six houses he’s never seen before.

In the first of these strange houses, a gruesome murder has already taken place.

Will is then told that his own family is in mortal danger.

The only way he can keep them safe is to visit each of the houses on the website in person – before the police discover what has happened there.

Seven houses.

Seven gruesome homicides.

Seven chances to save his daughter’s life…

Scare Me is a tale of modern urban terror, for anyone who’s ever worried that someone might one day use the internet to track them down and cause them and their family harm…

More Info & Reviews at ExhibitABooks.com
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

Penance

by Dan O’Shea

Born and raised in Chicago, Detective John Lynch might just be about to die there too.

A pious old woman steps out of the Sacred Heart confessional and is shot through the heart by a sniper with what at first appears to be a miraculous and impossible shot.

Colonel Tech Weaver dispatches a team from Langley to put the shooter – and anyone else who gets in the way – in a body bag before a half-century of national secrets are revealed.

But soon the sniper strikes again. And Detective Lynch, the son of a murdered Chicago cop, finds himself cast into an underworld of political corruption, as he tries to discover the truth about what’s really going on – before another innocent citizen gets killed.

More Info & Reviews at ExhibitABooks.com
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

The Lives of Tao

by Wesley Chu
Science Fiction

When out-of-shape IT technician Roen Tan woke up and started hearing voices in his head, he naturally assumed he was losing it.

He wasn’t.

He now has a passenger in his brain – an ancient alien life-form called Tao, whose race crash-landed on Earth before the first fish crawled out of the oceans. Now split into two opposing factions – the peace-loving, but under-represented Prophus, and the savage, powerful Genjix – the aliens have been in a state of civil war for centuries. Both sides are searching for a way off-planet, and the Genjix will sacrifice the entire human race, if that’s what it takes.

Meanwhile, Roen is having to train to be the ultimate secret agent. Like that’s going to end up well…

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

   

Visit The Robot Trading Company to buy the DRM-Free Epub Ebook editions of these two dark and edgy horror ‘zines, and don’t forget our ongoing special offer: buy any three back-issues of Morpheus Tales and only pay for two (excluding Special Issues).

While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie’s plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure.

Taken under the protection of Lady Marlende, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use the aether currents and an experimental engine, and with the assistance of Lord Engal, journey to the interior of the planet in search of Marlende’s missing father.

With the ship damaged on arrival, they attempt to traverse the strange lands on their quest. But when evidence points to sabotage and they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with the strange race of the sea-lands, Emilie has to make some challenging decisions and take daring action if they are ever to reach the surface world again.

Buy the Ebook from the Robot Trading Company

    

Black Feathers

by Joseph D’Lacey
Dark Fantasy / Post-Apocalyptic Horror

It is the Black Dawn, a time of environmental apocalypse, the earth wracked and dying.

It is the Bright Day, a time long generations hence, when a peace has descended across the world.

In each era, a child shall be chosen. Their task is to find a dark messiah known only as the Crowman. But is he our saviour – or the final incarnation of evil?

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

The Age Atomic

by Adam Christopher
Atompunk noir detective superhero science fiction

The sequel to Empire State – the superhero-noir fantasy thriller set in the other New York.

The Empire State is dying. The Fissure connecting the pocket universe to New York has vanished, plunging the city into a deep freeze and the populace are demanding a return to Prohibition and rationing as energy supplies dwindle.

Meanwhile, in 1954 New York, the political dynamic has changed and Nimrod finds his department subsumed by a new group, Atoms For Peace, led by the mysterious Evelyn McHale.

As Rad uncovers a new threat to his city, Atoms For Peace prepare their army for a transdimensional invasion. Their goal: total conquest – or destruction – of the Empire State.

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

The Marching Dead

by Lee Battersby
Supernatural Fantasy

Find the dead a King, save himself, win the love of his life, live happily ever after. No wonder Marius dos Helles is bored. But now something has stopped the dead from, well, dying.

It’s up to Marius, Gerd, and Gerd’s not-dead-enough Granny to journey across the continent and put the dead back in the afterlife where they belong.

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

17-year-old Becca has spent her whole life protecting her brother – from their father leaving and from the people who say the voices in his head are unnatural. When two strangers appear with apparent answers to Ryland’s “problem” and details about a school in Ireland where Ryland will not only fit in, but prosper, Becca is up in arms.

She reluctantly agrees to join Ryland on his journey and what they find at St. Brigid’s is a world beyond their imagination. Little by little they piece together information about their family’s heritage and the legend of the Holder race that decrees Ryland is the one they’ve been waiting for – but, they are all, especially Becca, in for a surprise that will change what they thought they knew about themselves and their kind.

Buy the Ebook from the Robot Trading Company

Hard Times in Dragon City

by Matt Forbeck
Fantasy Noir

Hard Times Have Come to Dragon City

Retired adventurer Max Gibson has seen better times. Ever since he and his treasure-hunting friends struck it big and called it quits a decade back, it seems like things have slid downhill.

It’s hard enough to scrape by in a sprawling mountain city in which elves and dwarves live higher than humans in every way. It’s worse at night, when the groans of the zombies laying an eternal siege to the city provide a ceaseless reminder that the Dragon Emperor himself is the only thing that keeps the hordes of hungry dead from storming the walls.

When Max is called in to help investigate the wholesale slaughter of a long-dead dwarf friend’s family, he thinks maybe he’s finally hit bottom. Then the love of his life — the elf who left him when their careers as adventurers ended — walks back through his door, desperate for his help and with nowhere else to turn.

It’s not getting any easier. That’s for sure.

More Info from Matt Forbeck
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

    

Between Two Thorns

by Emma Newman
Urban Fantasy

Something is wrong in Aquae Sulis, Bath’s secret mirror city.

The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is assigned with the task of finding him with no one to help but a dislocated soul and a mad sorcerer.

There is a witness but his memories have been bound by magical chains only the enemy can break. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the ally Max needs.

But can she be trusted? And why does she want to give up eternal youth and the life of privilege she’s been born into?

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

Hell to Pay

by Matthew Hughes
Crimefighting Superhero Fantasy

Meet Chesney Arnstruther. Once a mild-mannered insurance actuary, now a full-time crime-fighting superhero, it’s all he can do to kick bad-guy ass while at the same time holding down a steady relationship with the gorgeous Melda. Something is going on.

Meet Xaphan, wise-cracking demon and the source of (almost) all of Chesney’s powers. He’s been asked by his infernal master to give Chesney whatever he needs… but surely stopping bad guys is not in Hell’s plan? Something is definitely going on.

Meet Arthur Wrigley, a modest yet charming older gentleman whose nasty little hobby is fleecing innocent widows. Meet Simon Magus, ancient mystic and magician from Biblical times now very much enamoured of Vegas, baby. And pray you never meet the Chikkichikk, a proud and ancient race of, well, warrior dinosaurs, from the universe that God made then rejected before He started monkeying around with this one.

Whatever the hell is going on, this is definitely the third book in the wondrous To Hell & Back series.

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
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City of a Hundred Rows

by Ian Whates
Magical Urban Fantasy

An ebook-only omnibus edition, collecting all three volumes of Ian Whates’s urban fantasy series The City of a Hundred Rows.

Includes the three novels:

- City of Dreams and Nightmare
- City of Hope and Despair
- City of Light and Shadow

They call it the City of a Hundred Rows. The ancient city of Thaiburley is a vast, multi-tiered metropolis, where the poor live in the City Below and demons are said to dwell in the Upper Heights.

Having witnessed a murder in a part of the city he should never have been in, Tom, a lowly street-nick, has to run for his life through the City Below, Thaiburley’s unsavoury basement world. Accused of committing the murder himself, he is pursued by sky-borne assassins, Kite Guards, and agents of a darker force intent on destabilising the whole city. His only ally is Kat, a renegade like him, but she proves to have secrets of her own…

Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

The nineteenth issue of the UK’s most controversial weird fiction magazine features the following dark and twisted tales:

• ‘Frankenstein’s Shadow’ by Charles Austin Muir
• ‘Deathland’ by Michael W. Clark
• ‘The Lump in the Bed’ by Anthony Baynton
• ‘Doctor Kim’ by Stephen Hernandez
• ‘Goodbye Jonathan’ by Andrew Ede
• ‘Carrion’ by Holly Day
• ‘Shadows of the Tear Stones’ by Craig W. Steele
• ‘The Ouija Board’ by A.A. Garrison
• ‘Beggars Riding’ by David Barber
• ‘Killing Wallace Crawton’ by John S. Barker
• ‘Freefalling’ by David Buchan

Buy the DRM-Free ebook edition from the Robot Trading Company and don’t forget our ongoing special offer: Buy any three back-issues of Morpheus Tales and only pay for two (excluding Special Issues).

R.H. Ragona’s Circus of Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada. Nestled among the glowing blue Penglass – remnants of a mysterious civilisation long gone – are wonders beyond the wildest imagination. It’s a place where anything seems possible, where if you close your eyes you can believe that the magic and knowledge of the vanished Chimeras is still there. It’s a place where anyone can hide.

Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of a noble family, is uncomfortable in corsets and crinoline, and prefers climbing trees to debutante balls. Micah Grey, a runaway living on the streets, joins the circus as an aerialist’s apprentice and soon becomes the circus’s rising star. But Gene and Micah have balancing acts of their own to perform, and a secret in their blood that could unlock the mysteries of Ellada.

Buy the Ebook from the Robot Trading Company

    

The Mad Scientist’s Daughter

by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Science Fiction

“Cat, this is Finn. He’s going to be your tutor.”

He looks and acts human, though he has no desire to be. He was programmed to assist his owners, and performs his duties to perfection. A billion-dollar construct, his primary task now is to tutor Cat. As she grows into a beautiful young woman, Finn is her guardian, her constant companion… and more.

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

She Returns From War

by Lee Collins
Dark Fantasy / Weird Western

The second Cora Oglesby novel, sequel to The Dead of Winter.

Four years after the horrific events in Leadville, a young woman from England, Victoria Dawes, sets into motion a series of events that will lead Cora and herself out into the New Mexico desert in pursuit of Anaba, a Navajo witch bent on taking revenge for the atrocities committed against her people.

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

Click on any of the titles or covers below for more information and to buy your DRM-free ePub ebook copies from The Robot Trading Company:

  

• Blue Shifting by Eric Brown – Take a journey into an extraordinary universe in this short fiction collection from Eric Brown.
• The Time-Lapsed Man and Other Stories by Eric Brown – Eric Brown’s landmark first collection of stories, showcasing his stunning science-fiction imagination.
• infinity plus quintet edited by Keith Brooke – Five stories from top writers of speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy and the downright strange, stories from the heart, stories to make you think and wonder.

  

• In Springdale Town by Robert Freeman Wexler – Reconciliation, longing, and ambiguity combine in one astounding locale: Springdale. Is it a mundane New England town on a picturesque river, or the nexus of the paradoxical?
• Genetopia by Keith Brooke – The wilds: a world where genes mutate and migrate between species through plague and fever, but that’s where Flint must go…
• The Love Machine & other contraptions by Nir Yaniv – In turns humorous, lyrical, profound – but always entertaining – these are the haunting tales of an author at the height of his power.

  

• One of Us by Iain Rowan – In a world of people trafficking, prostitution and murder, Anna must decide how much she is prepared to give up to be one of us.
• Nowhere to Go by Iain Rowan – Eleven stories of murder, obsession, fear and – sometimes – redemption, from a writer shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger award.
• One More Unfortunate by Kaitlin Queen – Relentlessly drawn back to a circle of old friends and enemies, Nick Redpath has all kinds of issues to deal with. But first he must prove that he didn’t murder his old flame…

  

• Monterra’s Deliciosa & Other Tales & by Anna Tambour – More than 30 stories and poems from one of the most delightful, original, and varied new writers on hand. Includes 17,000 words of bonus material.
• Spotted Lily by Anna Tambour – When the Devil drops into Angela Pendergast’s bedroom with a contract in hand, her life has little better alternative so she signs.
• The Emoticon Generation by Guy Hasson – Seven stories about life-changes brought about by our new electronic generation: stories that blur the borders between our world and science fiction.

  

• Red Dot Irreal by Jason Erik Lundberg – Travel to Southeast Asia on wings of the fantastic for Jason Erik Lundberg’s debut short-story collection.
• The Alchemy of Happiness by Jason Erik Lundberg – A triptych of stories rooted in Asian myth and legend, literary fantasy at its very best from the author of Red Dot Irreal.
• On my way to Samarkand: memoirs of a travelling writer by Garry Douglas Kilworth – Garry Kilworth’s autobiography includes anecdotes and reminiscences on family history, travels and his experiences in publishing.

The Four Realms

by Adrian Faulkner
Urban Fantasy

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 blood lust, 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, 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…

Buy the Ebook from the Robot Trading Company

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry’s boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetary and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she’s intrigued despite herself. He’s an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely…familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel’s. The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there’s something very wrong with Alex Franks.

And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks’ estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

Buy the Ebook from the Robot Trading Company

“In the paired novellas, The Alchemist and The Executioness, award-winning authors Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi explore a shared world where magic is forbidden and its use is rewarded with the axe. A world of glittering memories and a desperate present, where everyone uses a little magic, and someone else always pays the price.”

Check out both novellas at the Robot Trading Company, priced just £1.99 each:

• The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi
• The Executioness by Tobias S. Buckell

    

Nexus

by Ramez Naam
Science Fiction / Thriller

Mankind gets an upgrade

In the near future, the experimental nano-drug Nexus can link human together, mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it.

When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage – for there is far more at stake than anyone realizes.

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

The Merchant of Dreams

by Anne Lyle
Alt-Historical Fantasy

The second book in the Night’s Masque series, sequel to The Alchemist of Souls.

Exiled from the court of Queen Elizabeth for accusing a powerful nobleman of treason, swordsman-turned-spy Mal Catlyn has been living in France with his young valet Coby Hendricks for the past year.

But Mal harbours a darker secret: he and his twin brother share a soul that once belonged to a skrayling, one of the mystical creatures from the New World.

When Mal’s dream about a skrayling shipwreck in the Mediterranean proves reality, it sets him on a path to the beautiful, treacherous city of Venice – and a conflict of loyalties that will place him and his friends in greater danger than ever.

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

The Bookman Histories

by Lavie Tidhar
Steampunk / Intrigue / Adventure

An omnibus edition of the most exciting steampunk series of recent years.

Lizard Kings and swashbuckling pirates, secret government agencies and scuttling automata, tripods and airships.

There’s never been a series with quite so much adventure crammed between two covers!

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company

• Archangel Protocol by Lyda Morehouse – an ebook re-issue of the first book in Lyda’s AnngeLINK science fiction series

Click the book title above or book cover below for more information and to buy Archangel Protocol from the Robot Trading Company.

To mark the occasion we’ve dropped the price of the DRM-Free ePub editions of Chris’s two Angry Robot ebooks – the first instalments in the urban fantasy noir Collector series: Dead Harvest and The Wrong Goodbye – by 50% until close-of-business on Sunday.

   

Click the covers to head on over to the Robot Trading Company and grab yourself a half price Chris F. Holm Birthday Bargain!

This offer is valid through Sunday 25th November and will end on Monday morning.

Aeon Press is based in Ireland and has published a variety of titles across a broad range, including novels, single author collections, anthologies and graphic novels, as well as the long-running speculative fiction magazine Albedo One.

We’re now stocking their two latest releases in DRM-free ePub ebook format and we’re hoping to stock more Aeon Press ebooks in the not-too-distant future:

• Box of Delights ed. by John Kenny (£4.99) – sixteen brand new spine-chilling tales of love and death.
• Transtories ed. by Colin Harvey – a varied selection of short fiction unified by the inclusion of the prefix ‘trans’. (£4.99)

Between 1984 and 2002, Chris Reed published twenty four issues of the ground-breaking Back Brain Recluse magazine. After a few years away from genre publishing, he’s returned with BBR Solutions, offering ebook design and production services to publishers (including Aeon Press) and developing a line of in-house ebook releases.

We now have the first BBR genre fiction ebook in stock, and again, we hope to expand the range in future, as the BBR list expands.

• Blood and Grit 21 by Simon Clark – the 21st anniversary edition of the collection that launched the career of this internationally renowned horror author. (£2.99)

Click the book titles above or the covers below for more information from the Robot Trading Company.

To celebrate, Angry Robot are offering the DRM-Free ePub edition of both Empire State and Adam’s second novel, Seven Wonders at 25% off the regular price: so that’s £4.12 instead of the regular £5.49 (less VAT if you live outside the UK or EU).

To take advantage of this offer – which is valid through to the end of Sunday November 25th – visit www.RobotTradingCompany.com, add either or both books to your shopping basket and then enter the coupon code sfnow2012 at the checkout.

• The Function Room: the Kollection by Matt Leyshon – a collection of deeply disturbing, twisted, brutal and compelling horror stories.
• Morpheus Tales Magazine issue #18 ed. by Adam Bradley – the latest issue of the UK’s most controversial weird fiction magazine.

Click the book titles above or book covers below for more information and to buy the ebooks from the Robot Trading Company.

To mark the four-way occasion, we’ve knocked a whopping 50% off the price of all three authors’ ebooks between now and Monday morning, so you can grab yourself a half-price bargain of any (or all!) of the following:

• Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard – Part I of the Obsidian and Blood series
• Harbinger of the Storm by Aliette de Bodard – Part II of the Obsidian and Blood series
• Master of the House of Darts by Aliette de Bodard – Part III of the Obsidian and Blood series
• The Obsidian and Blood Omnibus by Aliette de Bodard – All three parts of the Obsidian and Blood series in a single ebook
• The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar – Part I of the Bookman Histories
• Camera Obscura by Lavie Tidhar – Part II of the Bookman Histories
• The Great Game by Lavie Tidhar – Part III of the Bookman Histories
• Giant Thief by David Tallerman – the first Easie Damasco novel
• Crown Thief by David Tallerman – the second Easie Damasco novel
• The Corpse-Rat King by Lee Battersby – the first Marius don Hellespont novel

Click any of the covers below for more information and to buy the ebooks from The Robot Trading Company.

• The Thief’s Gamble by Juliet E. McKenna – an ebook re-issue of Juliet’s debut fantasy novel, the first book in her Tales of Einarinn series.
• Colinthology ed. by Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall – a short fiction anthology in memory of Colin Harvey, with proceeds going to the Bristol-based charity Above and Beyond.

Click the book titles above or book covers below for more information and to buy the ebooks from the Robot Trading Company.

To mark the addition of Tobias to our growing roster of publisher partners, we asked him a few questions about the factors that influenced his decisions on whether to self-publish or seek publication via the traditional routes. This is what he told us:

The Robot Reader You have a number of books published by the mighty Tor in the US, and others that you’ve self-published. What are your criteria for deciding which book is right for the traditional channel and which is better as a self-pub release?

Tobias S. Buckell It’s messy and complicated, but it’s a bet about which method I think will, in the big picture, make me more money, laid right next to the bet about which will gain me new readers. It’s a weird calculus. Some people claim it’s one or the other, but so far I’ve found each book has a different calculus associated with it. I wish I had a strict set of criteria, but so far I’ve found my short story collections seem to be better (read: more profitable for me) as a self published venture.

With the novels I’m writing, I’m still early on in the process. I’ll have to get back to you! Once I have a year’s worth of novel royalties for The Apocalypse Ocean, my first self published novel, I can compare it’s ‘life cycle’ to the other books I’ve done with Tor (Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, Sly Mongoose and Arctic Rising). Once I have those figures in hand, I will have a better idea how to compare the potential.

TRR: – In your experience, what are the relative benefits and drawbacks of the two routes to market?

Tobias: The benefit with self publishing is that you get a higher royalty with the digital version. As eBooks are approaching half the sales of a book, in some people’s cases, this can mean that route to market can leverage you more money. Particularly in lower midlist I think it’s allowing some interesting calculus. A book that may not have been as effective in the bookstore market, if you’re willing to give up your print sales, could make the author more. If a book takes off, even on a smaller level, you stand to make good.

The drawbacks? You’re the publisher. So design, copy editing, proofing, all ends up on you. I think doing it right means a lot of work and coordination.

Working with Tor gets me a much larger readership. And it’s that larger readership that has allowed my self publishing to have a larger base to draw on. They’re symbiotic, as far as I can see. I even know one author that views his work with the larger print publishers as a ‘loss leader’ in order to grow his readership for his higher margin self publishing.

TRR: What have you found to be the most useful and effective tools for promoting your self-published work and bringing it the attention of a wider audience?

Working with a large print publisher has been the most effective tool, to be honest. My last book, Arctic Rising, was featured on NPR and got some decent attention. That book’s launch spiked the heck out of sales with my self published items.

That aside, new launches of other self published or backlist work spikes sales as well. Readers tend to read one thing, and if they like you, read a whole lot more! So writing new things seems to help.

I’ve tested a lot of things over the last ten years, and the only thing I’ve seen spike sales more than having new work available on my spreadsheets of data is media appearances. My one cable TV interview spot did more to move books than most other things. An NPR review was pretty amazing. A few radio interviews have produced noticeable spikes.

The other stuff is just background availability. I blog and twitter for fun, and presumably that puts my name out there. But it is hard to measure *for sure.* Which is why I tell people to do things that you enjoy doing, be authentic, but don’t sweat it too much.

TRR: Do you have any plans to build on the skills and expertise you’ve developed and honed by self-publishing and offer third-party production and/or publishing services to other authors?

I’ve been designing eBooks for Subterranean Press for almost a couple years now, and I very occasionally take on an additional client. Between what I do for Subterranean and my own writing, I barely have time for much more. But I occasionally do accept a client for basic eBook design. I’m not a graphic artist, so I don’t do covers!

TRR: What advice would you give an author who’s trying to decide whether to seek a traditional publishing contract or self-publish their work?

I’d aim for traditional first if possible, still, because you get the larger initial readership. And building your reader base is killer important. It’s an important platform. You get to stand on the shoulders of giants (the giant being your publisher, that has leverage and contacts and an in-house design team to make you look good, as well as copy editors, and an editor that can help you take it to the next level). And with that larger readership, you can then experiment and add in your own other self published titles, or switch over. For all the success stories out there, there are many, many self-publishers making at best a couple hundred bucks. I think the uphill battle is still a bit larger with going direct to self published on average. That’s my instinct.

My general advice to all authors is to always experiment with as many models as you can, so that you know what’s going on in them. Some people who only self-publish, they will state things about print publishing that I know not to be true just by dint of experience. The reverse also applies, as people with no self-publishing to digital markets will make statements that reveal an ignorance of what’s happening on the other side that astound me.

I’ve worked with large print publisher, a medium sized print publisher, a small print publisher, I’ve used Kickstarter to crowd fund a novel and a short story collection, and I’ve also directly self-published two collections. Having experience with so many different methods means that I’m well informed and I have a pretty good idea about which method any given project of mine should use. Which helps me cut through a lot of the drama in discussions about all of the above.

I think, to sort of sum it all up, I fail to view it as an either/or choice. To me any of the methods are paths I can bolt on as needed, and I choose which path based on how best I think it serves the project.

Go here for more information:
Tobias Buckell
Tobias S. Buckell ebooks at the Robot Trading Company

• The Executioness – a novella of one woman’s mission of bloody revenge, set in a world where practising magic is a crime punishable by death.
• Tides From the New Worlds – A collection of nineteen of Tobias’s published works of short fiction, from multicultural science fiction to magical realism.
• Nascence – A collection of seventeen ‘failed’, unpublished short stories that showcases the roots of Tobias’s fictional worlds.

Click any of the book titles above or cover images below for more information or visit the Tobias Buckell Ebooks page at the Robot Trading Company.

Which means you can now buy your DRM-Free, EPub editions of the following great books from the Robot Trading Company:

• Monstrocity by Jeffrey Thomas – a collection of Punktown Lovecraftian short fiction.
• The Last Reef by Gareth L. Powell – a short science fiction with an end of the world theme.
• Silversands by Gareth L. Powell – a science fiction space opera of interstellar intrigue.
• Trajectory by John S. Barker – a post-Cold War psychological espionage thriller.
• Serial Killers Incorporated by Andy Remic – a violent, bloody serial killer thriller.
• New York Nights by Eric Brown – a dark, futuristic noir thriller, Virex Trilogy No.1.
• New York Blues by Eric Brown – The sequel to New York Nights, Virex Trilogy No.2.
• Vivisepulture ed. by Andy Remic and Wayne Simmons – an anthology of weird and bizarre tales.
• Monsters Anonymous by Theresa Derwin – A collection of short horror stories.
• Young Punks by Paolo Sedazzari – a coming-of-age story set in 1970s London.
• Dark Asylum by Matthew Cowden – a gothic horror novel of a evil and madness.

Click any of the book titles for more information or visit the Anarchy Books Page at the Robot Trading Company to check out the whole range.

  

The Dead of Winter

by Lee Collins
Weird Western Horror / Paranormal Fantasy

Cora and her husband hunt things – things that shouldn’t exist.

When the marshal of Leadville, Colorado, comes across a pair of mysterious deaths, he turns to Cora to find the creature responsible. But if Cora is to overcome the unnatural tide threatening to consume the small town, she must first confront her own tragic past as well as her present.

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

Katya’s War

by Jonathan L. Howard
Young Adult Science Fiction Adventure

The distant and unloved colony world of Russalka has no land, only the raging sea. No clear skies, only the endless storm clouds. Beneath the waves, the people live in pressurised environments and take what they need from the boundless ocean. It is a hard life, but it is theirs and they fought a war against Earth to protect it. But wars leave wounds that never quite heal, and secrets that never quite lie silent.

Katya Kuriakova doesn’t care much about ancient history like that, though. She is making her first submarine voyage as crew; the first nice, simple journey of what she expects to be a nice, simple career.

There is nothing nice and simple about the deep black waters of Russalka, however; soon she will encounter pirates and war criminals, see death and tragedy at first hand, and realise that her world’s future lies on the narrowest of knife edges. For in the crushing depths lies a sleeping monster, an abomination of unknown origin, and when it wakes, it will seek out and kill every single person on the planet.

More Info, Reviews & Sample Chapters here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

To mark the occasion we’ve reduced the price of the DRM-Free ePub editions of his three Angry Robot titles – the urban fantasy series The Courts of the Feyre, comprising Sixty-One Nails, The Road to Bedlam and Strangeness and Charm – by 50% for the weekend. And to save you adding all three books to your basket separately the Courts of the Feyre Bundle has been reduced to just £8.22, too.

      

Click the covers to head on over to the Robot Trading Company and grab yourself a half price Mike Shevdon Birthday Bargain!

This offer is valid through to Sunday 19th October and will end on Monday morning.

The Robot Reader: What’s the philosophy and ethos behind the Morpheus Tales magazine?

Adam Bradley: Morpheus Tales was started in 2008 by three friends who wanted to produce a magazine of horror, SF and fantasy, with a reviews section. The reviews section swiftly grew too big to be contained within the pages of the magazine, and became the MT Supplement, our free online magazine. To begin with the SF and Fantasy would be a story or two in the magazine, but as we grew in popularity and more submissions came in the focus has been more towards darker fiction. We’re now predominately a horror magazine, but sometimes with a hint of dark sf or dark fantasy.

TRR: What sort of writers and what sort of fiction are you most interested in publishing?

AB: Morpheus Tales Magazine has developed over the years, we now publish less fantasy and sf. The market demands horror, and we aim to deliver. There are still some dark sf and dark fantasy pieces, and we always enjoy a just plain weird story, but the focus is definitely darkened. We like a variety of horror, from the literally gut-wrenching, to the subtle quiet horror that creeps up your spine.

TRR: If you could publish short stories by any three writers – blindingly obvious megastars like Stephen King or James Herbert aside – who would they be, and why?

AB: We’ve actually been lucky enough to have worked with some of our heroes. Joe R. Lansdale, Ray Garton and Joseph D’Lacey have appeared in the magazine. In 2011 we published our first original anthology which featured established authors Andy Remic, Gary Fry, Gary McMahon, Joseph D’Lacey again and Shaun Jeffrey. Alongside writers we’ve worked with before and watched grow and become successful, such as Alan Spencer, Eric S. Brown, Fred Venturini, Andrew Hook, Matt Leyshon and Tommy B. Smith. And Wayne Simmons featured in our free Christmas Horror Special Issue.

Of course there are loads of other writers we would like to work with including Stephen King, James Herbert, Clive Barker, and Neil Gaiman. There are so many talented authors it’s difficult to narrow it down but Adam Nevill’s work is very impressive, we would love to publish a story by Dan Simmons, Peter V. Brett, Peter F. Hamilton, and Jonathan Maberry. Ok, if we could only publish three, it would have to be Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Dan Simmons, personal heroes.

TRR: What are the most rewarding elements of running your own magazine and what are the biggest challenges?

AB: The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to get an issue ready is incredible, but that’s just when the real work starts. Promoting and marketing a released issue just as hard as putting it all together, reading through hundreds of submissions, paring them down, finalising the line-up, editing the stories, proof-reading them, lining up artists to illustrate the stories, then putting it all together.

Fortunately we have a great team of regular writers, artists and proof-readers who are basically essential to the magazine running. Working with those people, none of whom are paid (neither are we!), is what makes running a magazine and a publishing company rewarding. Seeing the success of writers you’ve worked with, publishing an author for the first time, that’s amazing.

TRR: What would be your advice to anyone else thinking of starting their own short fiction publishing operation?

AB: Build a good team before you even think about doing it, because there’s a damn lot of work! Then try to work out what you want to do, and then just do it. There’s nothing to stop anyone starting a publishing company in these days of printing on demand or ebooks. But don’t do it for the money, do it because you love it!

TRR: What does the future hold for Morpheus Tales, both on the magazine and anthology fronts?

AB: On Halloween we launch our first single author collection. Matt Leyshon, who has appeared in the magazine several times, and has completed The Function Room: The Kollection, which we’re really excited about publishing.

In November we have a new special issue coming out entitled Women in Horror (featuring interviews with scream queens, tattoo artists, and models), and our Apocalypse special issue should be out next year.

Plus, Morpheus Tales #19 will be out in January 2013. We may well be putting together the stories for the Morpheus Tales: The Best Weird Fiction Volume 3, and thinking about another original anthology (perhaps Neil Gaiman, Dan Simmons and Stephen King will be able to spare us a story!)

Go Here for More Information:
MorpheusTales.com
Morpheus Tales ebooks at the Robot Trading Company

Once again we’re pleased as punch to announce the addition of one of the UK’s top indie genre publishers to the Robot Trading Company roster: we’re now selling a range of magazines, special issues and anthologies from Morpheus Tales.

Morpheus Tales magazine is one of the mainstays of the UK’s horror, weird fiction and dark sf/f scene. Over the past few years a growing number of new and established horror short fiction authors have had their work published in the mag and the best of their work has been collected into a number of anthologies and special themed issues.

We’re chuffed to gore-splattered bits to be able to offer our customers the full range of Morpheus Tales ePub editions, as well as a couple of special offer packages:

Special Offer #1

All six Morpheus Tales Special Issues for just £11.99 (r.r.p. £15.94)

Only available at The Robot Trading Company, this bundle includes all six of the special issues published to-date (see below for details).

Special Offer #2

‘Three for Two’ on all back-issues of Morpheus Tales magazine.

For every three issues of Morpheus Tales magazine (not including the Special Issues) that you add to your shopping cart, you’ll only be charged for two. So that’s £5.98 for three issues, instead of the r.r.p. of £8.97.

We’re also stocking ePub editions of Morpheus Tales anthologies, as well as individual ePub copies of the Special Issues and regular magazines:

Magazines

• Morpheus Tales Issue #4
• Morpheus Tales Issue #5
• Morpheus Tales Issue #6
• Morpheus Tales Issue #7
• Morpheus Tales Issue #8
• Morpheus Tales Issue #9
• Morpheus Tales Issue #10
• Morpheus Tales Issue #11
• Morpheus Tales Issue #12
• Morpheus Tales Issue #13
• Morpheus Tales Issue #14
• Morpheus Tales Issue #15
• Morpheus Tales Issue #16
• Morpheus Tales Issue #17

Special Issues

• Morpheus Tales Dark Sorcery Special
• Morpheus Tales Fantasy Femmes Special
• Morpheus Tales Flash Fiction Special
• Morpheus Tales Ripped Genes: Biopunk Special
• Morpheus Tales Undead Special
• Morpheus Tales Urban Horror Special

Anthologies

• 13 Tales of Dark Fiction
• Morpheus Tales: The Best Weird Fiction Volume 1
• Morpheus Tales: The Best Weird Fiction Volume 2

Go Here for More Information:
MorpheusTales.com
All Morpheus Tales ebooks at the Robot Trading Company

And check out our Meet the Publisher chat with Adam to find out more about the magazine’s mission and plans for the future.

   

Click the covers to head on over to the Robot Trading Company and grab yourself a half price Dan Abnett Birthday Bargain!

This offer is valid through to Sunday 12th October and will end on Monday morning.

Srsly! ;)

   

The Assassin’s Curse

by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. And when Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn’t really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together.

To break the curse, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks—all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic, and the growing romantic tension between them.

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

Poltergeeks

by Sean Cummings

15-year-old Julie Richardson is about to learn that being the daughter of a witch isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. When she and her best friend, Marcus, witness an elderly lady jettisoned out the front door of her home, it’s pretty obvious to Julie there’s a supernatural connection.

In fact, there’s a whisper of menace behind increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over town. After a large-scale paranormal assault on Julie’s high school, her mother falls victim to the spell Endless Night. Now it’s a race against time to find out who is responsible or Julie won’t just lose her mother’s soul, she’ll lose her mother’s life.

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

Once again, current subscribers and new subscribers alike will receive an additonal item in their Zip File this month – an ePub copy of Chris's collection of eight short tales of crime, horror and suspense, 8 Pounds (a 2011 Spinetingler Award Nominee for Best Short Story Collection).

The collection includes the stories:

- Seven Days of Rain
- A Better Life
- A Simple Kindness
- The Toll Collectors
- Eight Pounds
- The Well
- The Big Score
- The World Behind

This bonus item will be included in the subscription package until the next subscription file upload on October 30th.

Angry Robot Subscription Packages

A six month subscription buys you at least 12 brand new Angry Robot ebooks for just £50 (saving £15.88 on the total R.R.P. of £65.88).

A twelve month subscription is even better value, buying you at least 24 brand new Angry Robot ebooks for just £88 (saving a whopping £43.76 on the total r.r.p. of £131.76).

And check out www.chrisfholm.com for plenty more from Chris.

      

The Wrong Goodbye

by Chris F. Holm

Meet Sam Thornton, Collector of Souls.

Because of his efforts to avert the Apocalypse, Sam Thornton has been given a second chance – provided he can stick to the straight-and-narrow.

Which sounds all well and good, but when the soul Sam’s sent to collect goes missing, Sam finds himself off the straight-and-narrow pretty quick.

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

Crown Thief

by David Tallerman

Meet Easie Damasco: Thief, swindler and lately, reluctant hero.

But whatever good intentions Damasco may have are about to be tested to their limits, as the most valuable – and dangerous – object in the land comes within his light-fingered grasp.

Add in some suicidally stubborn giants, an old enemy with dreams of empire and the deadliest killers in two kingdoms on his heels, and Damasco’s chances of staying honest – or even just surviving – are getting slimmer by the hour.

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

The Knights of Breton Court

by Maurice Broaddus

The Wire meets Excalibur in this stunning urban fantasy.

From the drug gangs of downtown Indianapolis, the one true king will arise.

The King Arthur myth gets dramatically retold through the eyes of street hustler King, as he tries to unite the crack dealers, gangbangers and the monsters lurking within them to do the right thing.

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

Most Angry Robot fans probably know me from the three books I’ve published with the company: Amortals, Vegas Knights, and Carpathia. However, I wrote over a dozen tie-in novels before I started writing originals for Angry Robot, and Marc Gascoigne — the AR overlord himself — actually commissioned four of those from me for the Black Library back when he headed up that division of Games Workshop.

Before all that, though, I started my writing career working on tabletop roleplaying games. Back in 1996, I even co-founded a games publisher called Pinnacle Entertainment Group with my pal Shane Lacy Hensley. As president of the company, I oversaw the production of scores of products every year, bringing them from our heads to the tables of games around the world.

I spent many years as a full-time freelance game designer, but I’ve moved over to writing more and more fiction of late. At some point last year, I decided I wanted to push that even farther and create lots more stories. I’ve always been a fast writer, and some quick math told me that I could probably — if I was crazy enough to try it — write a dozen novels in a year.

Of course, no publisher — not even my pals at Angry Robot — would be willing to buy a dozen novels from me in the course of single year. Rather than try to shop the books around to a mixture of publishers, I decided to take the plunge and publish them myself. I’d learned all the skills I’d need to pull that off back when I was Pinnacle’s president. I just needed to apply them to producing novels as ebooks and print-on-demand books instead.

My mad plan formed together under the title 12 for ’12, and I set to work. I broke up the dozen books into four trilogies and launched them separately on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform for creative projects like this. The first three trilogies smashed through the financial goals I posted for them, and the final one — for a trilogy of YA fantasy novels called Monster Academy — ended on Sunday, September 16th.

As I finish the books, I let them sit for a bit and get some feedback from early readers. Then I revise and polish them and release them into the wild. The latest outpost at which you can grab these stories for yourself is right here at the Robot Trading Company.

The first trilogy of books is complete and are on sale here already. These are based on the Brave New World roleplaying game I created for Pinnacle and AEG back in 1999. They’re set in a dystopian United States in which superheroes exist but are forced to work for the federal government or become fugitives from the law.

The second trilogy is called Shotguns & Sorcery, a trio of fantasy noir books set in Dragon City, a mountain ruled over by the Dragon Emperor, who keeps his citizens safe from the ravenous hordes of undead that constantly scratch at their walls. I’ve shipped the first of these off to my Kickstarter backers, and I should have it ready for release through the Robot Trading Company soon.

The third trilogy is named Dangerous Games, and it’s a trio of thrillers set at Gen Con, the largest tabletop gaming convention in the States. I’ve been going to Gen Con since I was a kid, over 30 years straight, and I’ve been a guest of honor there for 10 years running, so I know it as well as anyone. The chance to play with murder mysteries and intrigue there hauled me right in.

The fourth trilogy is called Monster Academy, and it’s a set of young-adult fantasy novels that take place in a kingdom in which the good guys won but now have to figure out what to do with all the innocent young monsters that haven’t done anything wrong — yet. Look for those early next year.

If you care to follow along with my 12 for ’12 project, stop by www.Forbeck.com for regular updates. I hope you’ll find a lot to enjoy.

 
Matt Forbeck’s website
Full Moon Enterprises Ebooks at the Robot Trading Company

Earlier this year, Matt embarked on his ambitious 12 For ’12 Kickstarter Project, seeking to fund the writing, production and publication of a dozen brand new novels in twelve months.

The first three of those novels are now on sale in standard ebook format at the Robot Trading Company:

• Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World: Revolution (£3.25)
• Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World: Revelation (£3.25)
• Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World: Resolution (£3.25)

Check out Matt’s first three Brave New World ebooks and keep your eye out for his Shotguns & Sorcery, Dangerous Games and Monster Academy novels, coming soon.

To mark the occasion, for today only, if you buy any two novel-length Angry Robot ebooks from the Robot Trading Company we’ll let you “plunder” one of them, absolutely free!

That’s right: for every two Angry Robot ebooks you add to your shopping basket, you’ll only be asked to pay for one, when you check out.

Terms, Conditions and Articles of Association:

1. Does not apply to ebooks on sale at the Robot Trading Company that are not published by Angry Robot.
2. Does not apply to Strange Chemistry ebooks, Angry Robot Bundles, Omnibus Editions, Print Editions, Subscription Packages, or Angry Robot Nano Editions.
3. Pieces of Eight are sadly no longer legal tender and cannot be accepted in lieu of actual money.

100% of the proceeds from the sale of this anthology will be donated to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.

Voices From the Past was first published in May 2011 by H&H Publishing and is edited by Scott Harrison and Lee Harris. It contains 28 pieces of genre flash fiction from 28 wonderful authors – see the Robot Trading Co. catalogue page for full details – and by buying a copy you’ll be helping one of the best children’s hospitals in the world to continue its hugely important work.

Why not make it your good deed for the day?

   

Blackwood

by Gwenda Bond

On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just an outdoor drama for the tourists, a story people tell. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people now, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back.

Miranda, a misfit girl from the island’s most infamous family, and Phillips, an exiled teen criminal who hears the voices of the dead, must dodge everyone from federal agents to long-dead alchemists as they work to uncover the secrets of the new Lost Colony. The one thing they can’t dodge is each other.

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

Shift

by Kim Curran

When your average, 16-year old loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, he learns he’s not so average after all. He’s a ‘Shifter’. And that means he has the power to undo any decision he’s ever made.

At first, he thinks the power to shift is pretty cool. But as his world quickly starts to unravel around him he realises that each time he uses his power, it has consequences; terrible unforeseen consequences. Shifting is going to get him killed.

In a world where everything can change with a thought, Scott has to decide where he stands.

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

Current subscribers and new subscribers alike will receive an additonal item in their Zip File this month – an ePub copy of Chuck's YA urban adventure novel Bait Dog.

Here’s the Bait Dog low-down:

The last time shotgun-wielding Atlanta Burns tangled with the town bullies it seemed like she and her friends has won the day. But then her cohort Chris Coyne ended up dead — dead by his own hand if you believe the reports.

Atlanta and her pal Shane are not so sure.

Atlanta, afraid of once again stirring up the hornets by investigating her friend’s apparent suicide, instead focuses her efforts on looking into the death of a local teen’s beloved dog. But solving a dog’s murder is no easy task, and soon Atlanta ends up embroiled in a rural dog-fighting ring.

Stranger still, looking into the events surrounding the dog’s death sheds new light on the death of her friend.

Angry Robot Subscription Packages

A six month subscription buys you at least 12 brand new Angry Robot ebooks for just £50 (saving £15.88 on the total R.R.P. of £65.88).

A twelve month subscription is even better value, buying you at least 24 brand new Angry Robot ebooks for just £88 (saving a whopping £43.76 on the total r.r.p. of £131.76).

The Bait Dog bonus item will be included in the subscription file until the next upload on September 25th.

And check out terribleminds.com for lots more from Chuck.

      

Mockingbird

by Chuck Wendig

Miriam is trying to keep her ability – her curse – in check.

But when Miriam touches a woman in line at the supermarket, she sees that the woman will be killed here, now.

She reacts, and begins a new chapter in her life – one which can never be expected to go well.

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

Seven Wonders

by Adam Christopher

Tony Prosdocimi lives in the bustling Metropolis of San Ventura – a city gripped in fear, a city under siege by the hooded supervillain, The Cowl.

When Tony develops super-powers and acts to take down The Cowl, however, he finds that the local superhero team Seven Wonders aren’t as grateful as he assumed they’d be…

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

The Corpse-Rat King

by Lee Battersby

Marius don Hellespont and his apprentice, Gerd, are professional looters of battlefields. When they stumble upon the corpse of the King of Scorby and Gerd is killed, Marius is mistaken for the monarch by one of the dead soldiers and is transported down to the Kingdom of the Dead.

Just like the living citizens, the dead need a King — after all, the King is God’s representative, and someone needs to remind God where they are.

And so it comes to pass that Marius is banished to the surface with one message: if he wants to recover his life he must find the dead a King. Which he fully intends to do.

Just as soon as he stops running away.

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

To mark the one year anniversary of his passing, and to continue to bring his work to the wider audience it so richly deserves, Angry Robot are offering a bundle of Colin’s ebooks for the special price of just £6.00.

The bundle – which will be available until the end of August 2012 – includes the EPub ebook editions of both of Colin’s Angry Robot novels, Damage Time and Winter Song, plus the mini-collection of short stories Four Flash Fictions.

All proceeds from the sale of this bundle will go to Colin’s favourite charity, Above and Beyond.

Visit www.robottradingcompany.com for more information. And please do help to spread the word by telling your friends and social media contacts.

The Robot Reader: Evil Hat is primarily a publisher of games and RPG systems and the fiction line is a relatively new venture – what’s the philosophy and ethos behind Evil Hat fiction?

Fred Hicks: Our games at Evil Hat are born out of a deep love for games and a passion for all aspects of gaming. We’ve stuck with that same outlook as we move into fiction, and working with Chuck Wendig was exactly the right way to get started. He took the Spirit of the Century setting – full of flying jet-men, psychic dinosaurs, talking apes, neanderthals from the hollow earth, time-traveling mathemagicians, and more – and brought it all to the fans with love, with bright-eyed excitement, and really made it work. If we can continue to please our fans longstanding and freshly minted with works like his Dinocalypse Now, we’ll have done our job.

TRR: What sort of authors and what sort of fiction are you most interested in publishing? Will all the fiction you publish tie-in to one of Evil Hat’s game systems?

Right now we’re working with a number of our friends (who happen to be cracking good authors) to create fiction that ties to our games, yeah – Chuck Wendig, C.E. Murphy, Brian Clevinger, Harry Connolly, and Stephen Blackmoore all teamed up with us as part of our Dinocalypse-spawned kickstarter campaign that ended up funding a fiction line of seven books all set in the Spirit of the Century universe, including the next two books in the Dinocalypse trilogy. We’re putting out a board game or two as well that tie into all that.

I’d love it if some day we can expand beyond that, and start something first with fiction and then move into games, but right now games are our bread & butter, and our fiction is another vector for exploring the worlds originated there.

TRR: If you could persuade or cajole any three authors – blindingly obvious megastars like Stephen King or George R.R. Martin aside – who would they be, and why?

We’ve already worked with Jim Butcher to produce the Dresden Files RPG based on his novels – and I’d happily work with him again. If we could publish a novel by him, too, as part of that? Glory be.

In terms of authors I haven’t worked with yet, I’d probably round out that list with Glen Cook and Garth Nix. Glen Cook’s writing hits me right where I like my fantasy to live, whether it’s the gumshoe kitchen sink fantasy of the Garret novels or blood-and-grit-and-pants-wettingly-terrifying-sorcery of the Black Company. And Garth Nix writes wonderfully accessible, weird, shadowy young adult fiction. I first encountered him with his Keys to the Kingdom series — think Neil Gaiman’s Sandman meets Terry Gilliam’s Brazil as a young adult coming of age story – but he’s written so much more good stuff. And in gaming – I’m always thinking like a game publisher – the young adult market hasn’t been tapped very well.

This list could go on, of course! I’m very bad at picking favorites.

TRR: What are the most rewarding elements of running your own publishing house and what are the biggest challenges?

For us, the hardest thing to do most often is simply keeping things on deadline. That’s the nature of any creative endeavor, really – it’s tempting to keep working at something until it’s rock solid undeniably perfect. But the reality is that no book goes to press in a state of perfection, whether it’s the typos or something else, and people have been buying and praising these imperfect little gems of creativity for ages. The thing we’re still trying to learn is the recognition that a deadline is a tool for telling us where the dividing line lives between great and perfect. Perfect is the enemy of done, and as a publisher, I have to balance the drive for perfection against the needs of publication, of finding closure for our projects. It’s hard work.

As to what’s rewarding… Man. I get to publish books with psychic dinosaurs, wise-ass wizards, insomniac superheroes, professorial apes, sky pirates, kung fu monks, masked vigilantes, plucky space aces, and more in them. It’s all rewarding, every time I put another book on our shelf.

TRR: What would be your advice to anyone else thinking of starting their own publishing operation?

Two things.

First, make sure you enjoy business for its own sake as well as the thing you love that’s motivating you to publish. If you can’t love both, I mean really get into it, you run the risk of crushing the fun of the one out of obligation to the other. Do the math and give it a long hard look, there.

Second, don’t go into publishing thinking it’s about making you awesome. It’s not. As a publisher it’s your job to cheerlead, to promote, and to celebrate the work of others. They’re the stars – and in that light, maybe you should make sure to look at yourself as providing a service to them, rather than the other way around.

TRR: What does the future hold for Evil Hat, both on the RPG and fiction fronts?

Gamewise, we’re hard at work on Fate Core, an update and setting-free version of the system we used to power Spirit of the Century and the Dresden Files RPG. Hot on its heels we’ll be publishing the Atomic Robo RPG, based on the graphic novel series, in early 2013. We’re working on getting our first board game, Race to Adventure, to market by the end of this year, too.

On the fiction front, we’ve got at least six more novels coming between this year and next, all set in the Spirit of the Century world. Two of them round out the trilogy started by Chuck Wending in Dinocalypse Now; then there’s The Pharaoh of Hong Kong by Brian Clevinger, an Amelia Stone novel from C.E. Murphy; Khan of Mars by Stephen Blackmoore; and Harry Connolly’s King Khan. Gonna be a wild ride!

Go Here for More Information:
www.evilhat.com (and at The Robot Trading Company)
www.deadlyfredly.com

The Robot Reader: What’s the philosophy and ethos behind Wizard’s Tower Press?

Cheryl Morgan: The main thing that I started out to do was to help my author friends get their back catalogues available as ebooks. You can see that in most of the books we have thus far – titles from Juliet E. McKenna, Ben Jeapes and forthcoming from Lyda Morehouse. However, as irony would have it, the very first book I did was brand new, an anthology of stories by local writers from the South West of England and edited by my dearly missed friend, Colin Harvey. I expect to be doing more books by local writers in the future. In particular we have a memorial anthology for Colin in the works.

TRR: What sort of authors and what sort of fiction are you most interested in publishing?

CM: Beyond an interest in SF&F fiction I don’t have any specific preferences for the type of writing. I don’t have strong preferences for authors either, though I suspect I’ll end up working a lot with women because I don’t have any prejudices about publishing them.

TRR: If you could publish any three authors – blindingly obvious megastars like J.K. Rowling or George R.R. Marin aside – who would they be, and why?

Catherynne Valente, for a start. I have been a big fan of her work for years – in fact she told me recently that she thinks I was the first person to review one of her books. She’s a big star now, and I’m absolutely delighted. She is using small presses too, but she’s got a long-term relationship with Neil Clarke dating back to the early days of Clarkesworld, and Neil is a friend so I wouldn’t dream of trying to poach her.

M. John Harrison is another favorite of mine. He’s a much bigger name, and never likely to need a small outfit like mine. But if I had the money I’d be contacting his agent.

Finally I’d like to have some translated fiction. There are many, many really good writers who work in languages other than English who just can’t get translation deals. The person I’m most keen on getting is Johanna Sinisalo who has written far more than the two novels and the handful of stories that we currently have in English. It would make my Finnish friends very happy too.

TRR: What are the most rewarding elements of running your own publishing house and what are the biggest challenges?

CM: The best bit is undoubtedly putting good books in the hands of eager readers. One day I hope I’ll publish something original that does very well and wins awards, but we are not really set up to do that sort of thing yet.

As for challenges, time is an obvious one. Being a small press doesn’t make a lot of money, so I have to fit it in around the day job. Then there’s dealing with huge, impersonal organizations like Amazon and PayPal. Finally, there’s a heck of a lot to learn: all the way from the technical issues of ebook production to legal issues regarding contracts and, of course, how to market your books effectively. You can have the best books in the world, but if no one knows about them then they won’t sell.

TRR: As a reviewer, published author and now a publisher, what do you think are the biggest opportunities offered by the last few years’ worth of changes in the publishing industry?

CM: Most people seem to regard the recent changes in the publishing industry as challenges rather than opportunities. I certainly don’t think there’s going to be any sort of major shake-up beyond seeing a small number of old publishing giants being replaced by an even smaller number of new publishing giants.

Where I do see opportunity, however, is in the increasingly international scope of the business. When I first started Emerald City back in 1995 I was living in Melbourne and it was really difficult for Australian writers to get published outside of their own country. They’d have to print out a manuscript and mail it to the UK or USA. These days anyone who can write in English can email a submission to Angry Robot and have just as much chance of getting published as someone from the UK. You’ve picked up Jo Anderton, Lauren Beukes, Aliette de Bodard and so on. I think that’s very exciting. I’d love to be able to do the same sort of thing.

TRR: How do you see the overall publishing landscape changing in the next few years?

CM: Obviously more I foresee internationalization, and more ebooks. Beyond that it is hard to predict, but Amazon has been running rings around traditional publishers for years, and unless the book-reading public suddenly decides that they don’t like being locked in to a single hardware platform I expect that to continue. The big publishers are likely to fight back by creating their own online bookstores, just like the smart independent publishers have already done.

TRR: What would be your advice to anyone else thinking of starting their own publishing operation?

CM: Don’t be too ambitious. There’s an old joke that begins, “How do you make a small fortune?” The answer, of course, is “Start with a big fortune and go into publishing.” It is all too easy to start out with big expectations and get left with a heap of books that you can’t sell. You go into publishing because you love books, not because you expect to make a fortune.

TRR: What does the future hold for Wizard’s Tower Press?

CM: We have five novels forthcoming from Juliet McKenna, and four from Lyda Morehouse. That will keep me busy for a while. But if there are any authors out there with a backlist they would like to get out as ebooks I’d be delighted to hear from them.

Go Here for More Information:
wizardstowerpress.com (and at The Robot Trading Company)
www.cheryl-morgan.com

To mark the occasion we’re making two special offers, which will be available between now and Monday 20th August:

Option A: Crown of the Blood Deep Discount

Grab the first volume in the trilogy – The Crown of the Blood for just £1.99 (roughly US$2.50 – with no VAT charged – or EUR2.47) instead of the r.r.p. of £5.49.

Here’s the synopsis to spark your interest:

He had brought his master’s Empire to the furthest reaches of the world. All had fallen before him. Now he longs for home.

But home isn’t what it was. Could it be that everything he’s fought for all those years has been a lie?

A sweeping fantasy of immense battles, demonic magic and dark politics.

File Under: Fantasy [ Epic battles / Political Intrigue / Mystical Powers / Hidden Rulers ]

Visit the www.robottradingcompany.com and click ‘add to basket’ to net yourself a deep discount.

Option B: Crown of the Blood 3-For-2 Bundle

If epic, sword and sorcery fantasy is definitely your cup of tea and you’re sold on the trilogy, then is’t your lucky day: we’re also offering a 3-for-2 Bundle, containing of all volumes of the trilogy – The Crown of the Blood + The Crown of the Conqueror + The Crown of the Usurper – for just £9.98 (that’s around US$13.05 – with no VAT to pay – or EUR12.77) rather than the full r.r.p. of £16.47 for all three (or £13.97 if you take the above deep discount into account).

To take advantage of this Bundle offer, visit www.robottradingcompany.com and click ‘add to basket’ to select the Crown of the Blood Bundle. All three ebooks will be added to your basket as separate items, with just the Bundle price to pay.

Welcome to the blood-drenched world of Ullsaard!

   

vN: The First Machine Dynasty

by Madeline Ashby

Amy Peterson is a von Neumann machine, a self-replicating humanoid robot.

For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother’s past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks her mother, little Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive.

Now she carries her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive, and she’s learning impossible things about her clade’s history – like the fact that the failsafe that stops all robots from harming humans has failed… Which means that everyone wants a piece of her, some to use her as a weapon, others to destroy her.

File Under: Science Fiction [Von Neumann Sisters | Fail Safe Fail | The Squid & the Swarm | Robot Nation]

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Buy the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!

The Crown of the Usurper

by Gav Thorpe

The Crown of the Blood, volume III, sequel to The Crown of the Blood and The Crown of the Conqueror

Ullsaard rules the known world. All are subject to his will.

Yet even as another king bows before him, there are those who would wrench his empire from beneath him. He must risk losing the lands he has conquered to confront a foe far more powerful than any he has faced before.

As alliances shift and old enemies return, will he save the empire he has given his life to, or let it fall to ruin?

File Under: Epic Fantasy [A Time to Decide | Field of Honour | Grandstanding | Demons and Kings]

More Info, Reviews & Free Extract here
Grab the ebook from the Robot Trading Company!