City of Ruin by Mark Charan Newton – review
This review is based upon the assumption that you’ve read Nights of Villjamur, the first book in this series. If you haven’t, check out my review and then go and read it. I think you’re missing out on some of the most groundbreaking urban fantasy currently gracing the bookshelves. So, part deux. Like Newton’s previous volume, [...]
The eBook Wars: Pan Macmillan vs. Amazon
I was planning to discuss Apple’s iPad for this essay, but with the news that Amazon stopped carrying Pan Macmillan titles (for genre fans, that means the Tor imprint), let’s look at the bigger picture. The problem with living in the present is that we don’t have perspective. To use a World War II analogy, [...]
Alan Campbell Reading and Q & A Event in UK
I got this yesterday from Pan Macmillan and I really dug the book so I thought it was worth a mention. Novelist Alan Campbell is going to at Waterstone’s West End, 128 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4AD, on Thursday 23rd July, at 6pm. It’s goign to be a reading and Q&A discussion event launching his latest novel God of Clocks.
More info after the jump . . .
News – Adrian Tchaikovsky Signing Dates
Pan Macmillan has announced a trio of signing dates and locations for novelist Adrian Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky is the author of the Shadow of Apt series.
He will be signing Dragonfly Falling, the second book in the series . . .
Book Review – Empire in Black and Gold
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky Publisher: Tor UK / Pan MacMillan Publishing Date: July 2008 Binding: Paperback Cover Artist: Dominic Harman Empire in Black and Gold is the debut of British author Adrian Tchaikovsky and the first installment in a trilogy titled Shadows of the Apt. In his debut Tchaikovsky gives us a heroic narrative where a [...]
Exclusive – Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Chapter I – excerpt)
Kick off the work week with some exclusive goodness with the BSC! BookSpot Central is pleased to present the first chapter the first chapter to Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is the second installment of his Shadows of the Apt trilogy that was kicked off earlier this year with Empire in Black and Gold. It will be published in February 2009 by Pan Macmillan.
Synopsis:
Two young companions, Totho and Salma, arrive at Tark to spy on the menacing Wasp army, but are there mistakenly apprehended as enemy agents. By the time they are freed, the city is already under siege. Over in the imperial capital the young emperor, Alvdan, is becoming captivated by a remarkable slave, the vampiric Uctebri, who claims he knows of magic that can grant eternal life. In Collegium, meanwhile, Stenwold is still trying to persuade the city magnates to take seriously the Wasp Empire’s imminent threat to their survival. In a colourful drama involving mass warfare and personal combat, a small group of heroes must stand up against what seems like an unstoppable force.
This volume continues the story that so brilliantly unfolded in Empire in Black and Gold – and the action is still non-stop.
BookSpot Central hosted a sample from the previous novel as well, and you can check out an interview I conducted with Mr. Tchaikovsky earlier this year.
I want to thank Pan Macmillan for choosing BookSpot Central to present the following excerpt! Some of you might have seen it made available via Pan’s newsletter recently, be we present it again for all readers!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies to sample from all the best publishers in the world! BookSpot Central is the choice for several publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
Exclusive – The Hoard of Mhorrer by M.F.W. Curran (Chapter I)
More exclusive content! Today at BookSpot Central we have the lengthy first chapter from The Horde of Mhorrer by M.F.W. Curran. This is scheduled for publication in January 2009 from Pan Macmillan and is the second book in Curran’s The Secret War series that was kicked off by the novel of the same name in 2007.
Synopsis:
Prepare to confront the incarnation of evil. It is 1820 and the world is on the brink.
A fearless cohort of soldier-monks, led by Lieutenant William Saxon, has been dispatched to Egypt on the most important mission in history. For thousands of years a great secret has been kept: a stockpile of appalling malevolence, which, if let loose, will plunge the world into eternal damnation. This is the Hoard of Mhorrer. The soldiers must find and destroy the Hoard before the daemonic agents of the evil Count Ordrane of Draak locate it. In a heart-stopping race against time, ranging from Papal Rome to the desolate heart of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, the soldiers must battle murderous militiamen and pitiless daemons, and finally, terrifyingly, the bloodthirsty Guardians of the Horde.
If William and his men succeed, the clandestine war between Heaven and Hell will at last begin to favour the forces of light. But if they fail, and the agents of Hell claim the Hoard, then they will unleash an army of invincible daemons, and humankind – what is left of it – will come to know the true meaning of evil.
I would like to thank Pan Macmillan and M.F.W. Curran for allowing us to present the following sampler to our readers!
Please check out all of our other exclusives for more chapters/excerpts from novels and complete short stories from collections and anthologies to sample from all the best publishers in the world! BookSpot Central is the choice for several publishers to bring you the goods!
I hope you enjoy!
News – Pan Macmillan E-books for your IPhone
What would have the world been like if you could have got Jeff VanderMeer’s City of Saints and Madmen, or the Wasp Factory by Iain Bank’s or various works by the wonderful Justina Robson pumped right to your phone? Pan is trying to make it so we don’t have to ask ourselves such questions! I [...]
News – Charles Stross signing in Edinburgh
Pan Macmillan sent out a message yesterday that Charles Stross will be conducting a signing just in time for the holidays! CHARLES STROSS will be signing copies of THE CLAN CORPORATE the new book in the Merchant Princes series Waterstone’s West End, 128 Princes Street, Edinburgh On Thursday 11th December, 6pm Free tickets available in [...]
News – Neal Asher November UK Signings
We were notified by Pan Macmillan to let us know that author Neal Asher will be doing a couple of signings next month in the UK to help promote his collection, The Gabble and other stories. Here are the dates and locations Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue , London Thursday 27th November, 6-7pm Waterstone’s, Culver [...]
Exclusive – Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Chapter II)
More exclusive content for you! This is the chance to be able to to sample the first two chapters of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s debut, Empire in Black and Gold, the first book in the Shadows of the Apt series. The first chapter is online at the publisher’s website Panmacmillan.com, and we have the second chapter here at BookSpotCentral! An excellent way to dip into a new work and author to see if it and he needs to be on your shelf!
Synopsis:
Seventeen years ago Stenwold witnessed the Wasp Empire storming the city of Myna in a brutal war of conquest. Since then he has preached vainly against this threat in his home city of Collegium, but now the Empire is on the march, with its spies and its armies everywhere, and the Lowlands lie directly in its path. All the while, Stenwold has been training youthful agents to fight the Wasp advance, and the latest recruits include his niece, Che, and his mysterious ward, Tynisa. When his home is violently attacked, he is forced to send them ahead of him and, hotly pursued, they fly by airship to Helleron, the first city in line for the latest Wasp invasion.Stenwold and Che are Beetle-kinden, one of many human races that take their powers and inspiration each from a totem insect, but he also has allies of many breeds: Mantis, Spider, Ant, with their own particular skills. Foremost is the deadly Mantis-kinden warrior, Tisamon, but other very unlikely allies also join the cause.
As things go from bad to worse amid escalating dangers, Stenwold learns that the Wasps intend to use the newly completed railroad between Helleron and Collegium to launch a lightning strike into the heart of the Lowlands. Then he gathers all of his agents to force a final showdown in the engine yard …
I want to thank Mr. Adrian Tchaikovsky and Pan Macmillan for showcasing their work at our venue. Enjoy!
Also, don’t forget that we are currently hosting a contest for two signed copies of Empire in Black and Gold until the 20th of September!
Contest – Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky (signed – 2 winners)
Second contest announcement of the day as we celebrate our ‘soft launch’ to be finalized in a couple of weeks! This is what we are talking: What we have here is the first book in the Shadows of the Apt series entitled Empire in Black and Gold signed by the author Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is [...]
