Pax Britannia: Dark Side - a new review

Edi of Edi's Book Lighthouse has written another great review of Pax Britannia: Dark Side, which you can read for yourself here.

Pax Britannia - now available on Kindle

The Frankenstein Corps

Yesterday I posted Pye Parr's brilliant illustration that's to be used in the forthcoming Anno Frankenstein.

It's actually the logo of the Frankenstein Corps, which features heavily in the book (and which was first mentioned back in Ulysses Quicksilver's second adventure Leviathan Rising).

I feel that the Frankenstein Corps needs some sort of motto, to go with this badge. What I've come up with off the top of my head is:

The Frankenstein Corps - waste not, want not.

But I'm sure you can come up with something better. If you can post it here and I might be able to find a small prize for the best suggestion.

Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein

Ace designer Pye Parr emailed me this today...

Just thought you might like to see it. ;-)

Pax Britannia hits Piccadilly (part 2)

Just as an update to this morning's post, the people at the Waterstone's store in Piccadilly have been saying some very nice things about my Pax Britannia books.

Here's what they had to say about Dark Side:

Ulysses Quicksilver returns! Hurrah! This time around he finds himself on the wrong side of the Luna Prime Police Force... not a position he's used to. Will his charm, guile and bravery be enough to see him through?

Nathan

And here's what they had to say about The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus:

Three books in one! That's always good news, surely? They follow the adventures of Ulysses Quicksilver, a gentleman explorer. It's a well-sketched world of zeppelins, neon lights and massive statues of a queen who's reigned for over a century. Quirky fun.

Dave

And, while we're on the subject of Pax Britannia, just wait until you see what Pye Parr's come up with for the forthcoming Anno Frankenstein!

Pax Britannia hits Piccadilly

Seen in the Piccadilly branch of Waterstone's, in the heart of London, a Steampunk promo display featuring not one, but two Pax Britannia titles - alongside the likes of China Miéville, Robert Rankin and Stephen Hunt.

If you don't happen to live within walking distance of Waterstone's Piccadilly you can pick up The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus and Pax Britannia: Dark Side here.

Pax Britannia Lego - grab it before it's gone!

Today's your last chance to get your hands on an exclusive Pax Britannia Lego kit. Don't miss this once-in-a-blog's chance and grab yours today, before they're gone!

To buy your Oddfellow's Sphere, Rolls Royce Silver Phantom Mark IV or Copernicus lunar rover, click here.

We have a winner!

As many of you are no doubt aware, this weekend I ran a competition on my forum to win nearly a kilo's worth of books, signed by myself.

Well, forty people signed up to my forum, on top of the fifteen who were already members, by 9.00am this morning and this afternoon a winner was selected at random from all fifty-five forum members.

Actually, that's not entirely true. Only fifty-three members qualified. I'm one of them - and so disqualified due to the fact that it would be too weird to sign books to myself - and one's a known spammer.

The winner has been notified by email this afternoon and now I'm just waiting on a reply so that I can send the lucky forum member their books. Who knows, in time maybe I'll be able to post a picture of the happy winner with their prize.

If you didn't win, have no fear - I'm planning another similar competition in a few weeks' time to boost forum membership past 100 after the great response this one garnered.

Forum giveaway

How would you like to own these four books, all signed by the author - for nothing?

Well, it's easy. All you have to do is register as a member of my new forum here and when we hit 50 members, I'll put everyone's names into a hat and pull out one winner.

That winner will then receive a copy of Howl of the Werewolf, the new edition of Curse of the Mummy, Pax Britannia: Dark Side and the Warhammer 40K short story anthology Victories of the Space Marines, which contains my Imperial Fists' story But Dust in the Wind. And I'll sign them all too.

So what are you waiting for? Don't delay, sign up today!

Ask me anything*

Following in the footsteps of some of my other writer acquaintances, I'm going to record a Vlog in which I answer all** your questions about my books and my experiences of writing them.

Got a question about the world of Pax Britannia? Curious as to how to go about writing a gamebook? Wondering what it takes to write a Doctor Who tie-in? Then ask away.

You can post your questions at the end of this post or email me at info@jonathangreenauthor.com. Alternatively you can contact me via Facebook or Twitter @jonathangreen.

So, ask away, and when I've collated enough questions I'll answer them in my next Vlog.

* Well, almost anything.

** Okay, maybe not all, but most.

Abaddon Books at the SFX Weekender

I have to confess that I've been somewhat remiss in not having yet blogged about my experiences at this year's SFX Weekender*. Okay, so I have posted a vlog on the subject, but there was a lot more that happened than I was able to relate on camera.

However, have no fear for Jenni Hill at Abaddon Books has posted a photo blog (now that she's finished going through Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein).

You can see for yourself what Al Ewing, Scott Andrews and myself got up to, along with Jenni, David and Pye Parr from Abaddon HQ.

During the course of the weekend I met Steven Dean who brought a rucksack, full of books of mine for me to sign! It was a seriously impressive haul.

* I have been busy, finishing off Doctor Who: Terrible Lizards and going through my editor's comments on Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein.

Pax Britannia: Unnatural History - at the Penny Dreadful Review

I stumbled across a new review of Pax Britannia: Unnatural History the other day, over at The Penny Dreadful Review. Here's just an overview:

Every great cliché you can think of is here, including the mustached/scar faced villain, the fantastic names (almost approaching James Bond Moonraker cheesiness, and I mean that in a great way), the ever loyal Alfred Pennyworth-esque chauffeur/partner in crime, the color by numbers plot twists, etc etc. I loved it all.

Here's the best part, though: Unnatural History is completely self-aware. Its author, Jonathan Green, intentionally dips as deeply as possible into the bottomless well of pulpy deliciousness. There are a few passages here that were perfect, good enough to make me laugh out loud in my room by myself...

Yes, author Jonathan Green is well aware that he's writing pure pulp, and finally someone is proud of it. All of Abaddon books is aware of it and proud of it. This is a marvelous genre worthy of authors who enjoy the world, the language, and the tools it takes to put together a good old thrilling yarn. Think it's easy? Watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for a nice cinder block to the head reminder that it's really not...

It's just fun, and you can tell the author is having a great time writing it, as well...

It's steampunk with scallywags, dinosaurs, dirigibles, neanderthals, automatons, femme fatales, spidey-sense, and self-aware jokes. So really, what are you waiting for? Perhaps the best news of the day is that Ulysses Quicksilver himself is the central reoccurring character in Abaddon's Pax Britannia series.

Let's hope he's around for a while.

So thanks are due to Eric the Well-Read. You can read the whole review for yourself here.

It's so satisfying to read a review where the reviewer really gets what I've been trying to do with the series. And it's great to see Unnatural History holding its own four years on, when the series as a whole has progressed in so many ways.

Whilst putting together the latest Abaddon Books/Solaris Books catalogue, one of my editors said that whilst looking for reviews of the Pax Britannia series he discovered that people either got what I'm doing - and so loved the books - or didn't get it at all, and so hated them. I guess that's better than a 'Meh!' reaction to your work.

Pax Britannia: Dark Side - The Unusual Suspects

You can pick up your own copy of Pax Britannia: Dark Side here, and you can buy your own Dark Side Lego set here.

Steampunk in the Irish Times

Author Gareth L Powell has written a piece for the Irish Times about the nature of Steampunk. You can find his blog here, and the article here.

I say, I say, I say

(Via Angry Robot Books)

Q: How many steampunks does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Two – one to change it and a second to glue unnecessary clock parts to it.

Pax Britannia Lego - available now!

Nothing says 'I love you' like an original and exclusive Pax Britannia Lego kit. So, just in time for Valentine's Day, I'm pleased to be able to announce that three such kits are now available to buy via eBay.

First up there's Oddfellow's Sphere from the climactic scene of Pax Britannia: Dark Side (which, I have to say, has been going down a storm). This kit includes an incredible 8 minifigures (4 goodies and 4 baddies), including the Lego incarnation of PB competition winner Jared Shurin.

Next up there's the lunar rover Copernicus, again from Pax Britannia: Dark Side. This set contains 6 minifigures - Ulysses Quicksilver and Nimrod, in both their normal attire and environment suits, and two alien Selenites.

And then there's the Rolls Royce Mark 4 Silver Phantom, that made its first appearance in the very first PB novel Pax Britannia: Unnatural History. This set has two minifigures - the dashing dandy detective, and Hero of the Empire, Ulysses Quicksilver, and his indefatigable manservant Nimrod.

As with all good Lego kits, you can make a plethora of different models from each of the kits - or why not combine them all in one incredible Pax Britannia-gasm of steampunk-y goodness?

So don't delay and visit eBay today!

Jules Verne - Science Fiction Prophet

The other day I posted about it being Jules Verne's birthday. Well today I'm offering you a link to National Geographic's piece concerning eight Jules Verne inventions that came true.

To find out more, simply click this link.

Who's who in the world of Pax Britannia?

Any Pax Britannia fans out there like to hazard a guess as to who this little chap is?

The Pax Britannia Forum

It has come to my notice that a number of visitors to this blog, who might even be classified as 'fans' of Pax Britannia, don't know about my discussion forum. Well here it is.

Of course, Pax Britannia is only one part of the whole Jonathan Green Author Experience (TM), but it's a big part (I've written around a quarter of a million words of content for it in the last year alone) and so has a whole forum dedicated to it on my site.

So why not drop by and pass comment on the latest PB book or feel free to discuss developments and characters in the series. And who knows, you may even end up accessing another part of the Jonathan Green Author Experience (TM) that you come to love as much as Pax Britannia.

And in case you missed it above, here's a link to the PB forum.

Pax Britannia: Blood Royal

The Pax Britannia books were receiving some serious love last weekend at the SFX Weekender, particularly Blood Royal.

Well, when you're reading the scenes set in Imperial Russia in that particular book, imagine looking out of the window of your carriage aboard the Trans-Siberian Express and seeing this.

Happy Birthday Jules Verne!

As I'm sure you already know, Jules Gabriel Verne (February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905) was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for novels such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

Science fiction fans, and me, owe him a huge debt. If it wasn't for the aforementioned Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, I probably wouldn't have written Leviathan Rising, and he gets a brief mention in my latest Pax Britannia adventure Dark Side.

So, here's to you, Jules Verne. Happy 183rd Birthday!

And check out the Nautilus-inspired animated logo that's on Google's website today only!

Pax Britannia (and Abaddon Books) at the SFX Weekender 2

Gone Conventionin'

See you next week!

Vlog 3 - The Eve of the SFX Weekender

My latest Vlog is up today on YouTube.

You can find out more about Abaddon's part in the SFX Weekender here.

Jonathan Green at the SFX Weekender 2

Just a quick update about the SFX Weekender 2, taking place this Friday and Saturday at Pontins Holiday Park, Camber Sands.

I will be there from lunchtime Friday until about lunchtime Sunday - signing at the Abaddon Books stand and suchlike - but on the Saturday afternoon, from 2.00 - 3.00pm, I and m'colleagues Rebecca Levene, Scott Andrews and Al Ewing will be hosting the Abaddon Pub Hour in the Queen Victoria Bar.

Maybe we'll see you there...