An update

We're over half way through 2009 now (where did the time go?) so I thought it an appropriate moment to give you an update on what you can see in print from me between now and Christmas.

First up there's Evolution Expects, my fourth Pax Britannia novel featuring dandy adventurer and agent of the crown, Ulysses Quicksilver. More steampunk action than you can shake a sword-cane at.


Then, in August, there's the timely release of The Official Doctor Who Annual 2010. I've contributed about a third of this and I'm excited to see how many puzzles and factual write-ups have turned out.


Demons: A Clash of Steel Anthology - this should also be out in August and features an original short story by myself entitled The Pact.


Stormslayer, my sixth Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook, hits the shelves in September and it would be an understatement to say that I'm looking forward to how this one is received by the established fans and new readers alike.


The American edition of last year's Christmas offering What is Myrrh Anyway? is out around October/November time. It's being published by Skyhorse Publishing and it's called Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas. I've set up a new blog to accompany its release which you can access here.


And then, just in time for Christmas (if I pull my finger out) is Blood Royal, the fifth UQ PB adventure and the start of a new four-book story arc. You're not going to want to miss this one.

And then in the new year... well, let's just say, there's plenty more where that came from...

The British Fantasy Society's review of Human Nature

A new review of Pax Britannia: Human Nature found its way into my email inbox the other day, from the British Fantasy Society. And very happy I was to receive it too...

PAX BRITANNIA: HUMAN NATURE
By Jonathan Green
Published by Abaddon Books, £6.99
Reviewed by Adam J. Shardlow

Human Nature is rip roaring fun from cover to cover. The second in the Ulysses Quicksilver novels set in the world Magna Britannia, where Britain rules not only the waves but also the world and the stars through its empire and technical know how. Our intrepid hero embarks on a case involving the stealing of the Whitby Mermaid from Cruickshank's Cabinet of Curiosities. Quickly switching the locals from the drinking dens and poverty pits of London's East End to the windswept moors of Yorkshire, this Steampunk novel mixes together Frankenstein and Sherlock Holmes with a soupçon of Jeeves and Wooster a dash of mad German scientist, a pinch of monster hound and the fruit from a beautiful woman to create a heady and yet decadent cocktail. The fop and bounder that is Ulysses is a resourceful and clever character, not too invincible that he becomes boring, riding above the adventure like a dynamic Scarlet Pimpernel whilst his side kick, the dour and yet resourceful man servant Nimrod, acts as the perfect foil. The pace of the novel is break neck, the writing witty and world building well crafted. Included in the novel is an additional Christmas short story, which adds rather than distracts from the main novel.

Pax Britannia review at Falcata Times

If you're a regular reader of this blog, then you're probably already a fan of the Pax Britannia series. But if you're a newbie and you still need convincing, then you could do worse than check out this very pleasing review by Gareth Wilson of Falcata Times.

Blood Royal is coming

The sixth book in the Pax Britannia line, and the fifth to feature dandy Hero of the Empire Ulysses Quicksilver, has been announced on the Abaddon Books website.

It's entitled Blood Royal and is the first in a new proposed four book story arc, Evolution Expects having tied up much of the Galapagos legacy that began with Unnatural History.

Here's the blurb from the back of the book.

Magna Britannia bestrides the globe and the solar system beyond like a colossus. Yet its capital, Londinium Maximum, still flounders in the aftermath of the unprecedented catastrophe that has so recently befallen it.

St Paul's Cathedral entertains a new congregation, one driven by its own unholy creed, while a coldly clinical killer is carving a name for himself across the city, a name that has been whispered upon the streets of Whitechapel for over a hundred years. Further afield, in the wolf-haunted heartlands of Europe, the spectre of war rears its ugly head. And at the centre of all this death and destruction stands a seemingly innocent child.

Ulysses Quicksilver, heroic figurehead for a beleaguered nation, is about to find himself thrown into the thick of things, as the royal families of Europe prepare for a conflict the like of which the world has never seen, and the consequences of one insane holy man's actions become painfully apparent. With the way ahead unclear, one thing is certain: the world, and Ulysses Quicksilver, will never be the same again.

Blood Royal is due to be published in the UK this December, and in the US in February 2010.

Steampunk Time Machine...

... discovered in the United States.

2008 Sidewise Awards

SfSignal have recently announced the nominees for the 2008 Sidewise Awards.

The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize excellence in alternate history fiction. The 2008 Sidewise Awards will be presented at Anticipation, the 67th Worldcon, to be held in Montreal, Canada from August 6-10, 2009. The winners are selected from a panel of judges that currently includes Stephen Baxter, Evelyn Leeper, Jim Rittenhouse, Stuart Shiffman, Kurt Sidaway, and Steven H Silver.

Unfortunately, none of my Pax Britannia books appear on the list of nominees, although another title along very similar lines, George Mann's The Affinity Bridge has been. So good luck to him.

Spring-Heeled Jack is coming...

Something to whet your steampunk appetites...