Faceless Stormtroopers

Because that's the point, after all. Stormtroopers with faces would be creepy. You might have to think a bit before you mowed them down in swathes. Because you've got to have orcs, right? Or insert your alternative — urgles(1) or cultists or zombies, demons, in short — minions. Dread legions of mindless (and most often useless) […]

Dedicated to Lynne Truss

OK, this one will be short, damnit. In honour of Lynne Truss, punctuationally impeccable author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves I am happy to note that Frontline anti-flea drops (1) now has the tagline "Kills Fleas and Ticks" which, if you read it a little hastily, sounds like the modus operandi of a fugitive hitman with a death-list. (1) […]

Who Watches…

Also not the huge post I've been threatening, but… Superhero films. A variegated genre, and one that, whilst it turns up a few gems, is always walking a tightrope over the truly awful. It's a very difficult concept to get right without descending into campery, tongue-in-cheek in-jokes or simple cliché. Now, I've surely mentioned at some point how much […]

Tentacles of Evil!

My nefarious influence is slowly spreading throughout the net! (1) Patrick from Fantasy Hotlist has an interview here (2) which I encourage all right thinking party members to go see. Meanwhile, James at Speculative Horizons has picked up on some peculiarities with the cover of book 2 here — and he's right. The cover that he posts is the […]

I have People to Read that For Me

Just a brief post. I promise a full scale rant in the near future, probably as a much-threatened sequel to this post (1) However, whilst out trawling the net (2) I came across this very informative little piece by James Long of Speculative Horizons. Fantasy authors who don't read fantasy. What is one to think? Now, as I hope that I've made […]

News Update

A new picture has gone up in the Art section, this by the very talented Daisy Abbott. The digital people at Macmillan are just setting up an email for the site, but thereafter I will be taking submissions for further book-based art, so any artists, or friends of artists, out there, watch this space. In other news, […]

Raising the Flag — art by Daisy Abbott

Sacrificed to the Insect God (1)

Religion and Belief amongst the Kinden   They have no gods. This is the first thing. To the certain knowledge of the Lowlanders there are no insect churchs, no spider-priestesses or weevil-popes. Oh, perhaps there are savage peoples at the very edge of civilisation, ekeing out a living in the harsh places that history has left […]

And they're off!

Off indeed. My monster has now torn itself free from its bindings and, energised by the electricity of publication, is rampaging across the countryside, wholly beyond my control. Let us see what devastation it enacts. I'd like to thank (1) everyone who turned up at the booksigning in Reading. I hear we shifted a goodly number of […]

Empire in Black and Gold: SFX Interview

Read SFX's interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky here.