Lego Goes Steampunk!

It's official - Lego is going to release its first official Steampunk set.

Lego has dabbled with Steampunk before - my son still refers to one of the Monster Fighters as Ulysses Quicksilver - but now the company is going legit.

Here's the official news 'leak' that has appeared on the Lego Club website.

The line will be part of the Lego Master Builder Academy, specifically Level 4, titled Invention Designer. (It's just a shame the official literature has fallen foul of the incorrect use of apostrophes in dates that is so prevalent now.)

TRAVEL TO THE PAST… AND DESIGN THE FUTURE!

Launch your Invention Designer adventure! LEGO Master Builders merge the futuristic idea of time-travel with the clockwork gears and puffing steam-engines of the Victorian 1800′s – Steampunk! Steampunk is a science-fiction art-form that imagines the future as people might have in the past. Let it inspire all kinds of new ideas, and pick up some tips from professional LEGO designers on how to make your creations look futuristic, industrial or just plain cool!

As followers of this blog will probably already know, I've been encouraging people to create their own Pax Britannia kits for years. Now it looks like we'll actually have some bespoke Steampunk pieces to use in such creations in the future. :-)

Steampunk Doncaster

A month today, I will be enjoying the second day of the UK's newest steampunk convention, Steampunk Doncaster.

The current plan is that I shall be undertaking a reading, and taking part in a Q and A session concerning my Pax Britannia books, on the Saturday, so on Sunday 16 June (other than selling my wares) I'll be able to enjoy the rest of what the Litarium has to offer.

To find out more about Steampunk Doncaster, follow this link.

What was the best novel of 2013?

Voting for the SFX Awards 2013 is now open. One of the categories you can vote for is Best Novel.

50 titles are suggested, including a couple of Steampunk novels (Lavie Tidhar's The Great Game and Cherie Priest's Boneshaker), but any title published in 2013 is eligible.

Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow was published in 2013. Just saying.