Warhammer Wednesday: Necromancer

I can't quite believe that Necromancer, my third Warhammer novel, came out over eight years ago! It's not been re-issued yet as a Print on Demand title, nor as an eBook, but there are still people who are coming across this tome for the first time, and loving it.


This novel is very different from the typical Warhammer novel. Instead of the more typical action-driven story, this novel is a character study and provides a fascinating look at how an ordinary young man raised in the Empire becomes corrupted by darkness.

The entire novel is told from the point of view of the main character, Dieter Heydrich and covers only a brief period of his life (how he became a Necromancer, but really nothing about him after that point).

Every step on his path of damnation is made with logical and seemingly good (or at least understandable) reasons. The reasons and rationalisations he makes along the way make him a tragic and flawed, but entirely human character.

If you are looking for an action-packed Warhammer novel, this book is not for you. If you want a chance to get some insight into the bad guys of the Warhammer world, this book is an excellent choice.

5 stars!


You might be able to pick up a copy of Necromancer for yourself here.

Tie-in Tuesday: Nazi Zombie Army

It's more than a couple of months now since my Sniper Elite-linked short story Nazi Zombie Army: Götterdämmerung was released upon an unsuspecting public.

If you've not read it, it's action-packed, it's grim and gritty, and I can see it appealing to the current generation of pubescent gamers in particular. It seems that a certain mom from the US thought the same...


I downloaded this book onto my tablet for my 14 year old son as I was desperate to find something he would read. Having always struggled to get him to start a book, let alone finish it, I knew I had to find something that had elements similar to the games he loves playing on Xbox. When I found this I was a tad excited - Nazis, Zombies and full on adventure, how could he resist?

All I can say is congratulations to the author, my son actually chose to turn his Xbox off at night and it was a great pleasure for me to see him curled up in bed, enjoying a book. He finished it within a week, an unheard of experience!

I also read this as I wanted to see just exactly what had intrigued my son so much, and even though the story itself isn't something I would usually choose, this author does have a real talent at grabbing the reader from page one and taking them on a wild ride. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially people with teen boys, its exactly the kind of thing they love!

5 stars!


So there you go. If you're a teen boy, or you know one, or you belong to that group none as 'anyone', why not download a copy of Nazi Zombie Army: Götterdämmerung yourself today?

That's a lot of (Moshi Monsters) books

Some statistics for you, for a slightly dull Monday morning.

Over the last two decades I have written...

7 Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebooks
2 Sonic the Hedgehog gamebooks
5 non-fiction titles
3 Warhammer novels
3 Warhammer 40,000 novels
2 Path to Victory gamebooks
1 Gamebook Adventure for Tin Man Games
1 Warlock's Bount gamebook
2 Doctor Who books (not including the 2010 Doctor Who Annual)
2 Star Wars books
8 Pax Britannia novels

... and today I completed my 10th Moshi Monsters title.

Go figure!

Another Thought for the Day

"We focus too much on accomplishments. We set goals and work hard at achieving them. The downside to this mindset is that we rarely feel satisfied or happy when we accomplish a goal. We're always looking ahead to the next thing that is supposed to make us feel fulfilled, but we never get there."

~ John Anealio

"And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take? I declare that no accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it. We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our callused feet, our backs strong carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived."

~ From The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson  

Thought for the Day

"Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of."

~ Kurt Vonnegut, "Eight Rules for Writing Fiction"

 

 

Launching the Adventure Rocketship! at Forbidden Planet

On Thursday evening I attended the launch of Jonathan Wright's new anthology magazine (or is that bookazine?) Adventure Rocketship! at Forbidden Planet in central London.

The first issue, Let's All Go to the Science Fiction Disco, looks at the links between science fiction and music. It includes non-fiction pieces written by the likes of Anne C Perry and Jared Shurin of the Kitschies awards, and short stories by the likes of Lavie Tidhar and Martin Millar.

 (From l-r) Lavie Tidhar, Jonathan Wright and Jon Courtenay Grimwood.

 

 Jon Courtenay Grimwood reads Martin Miller's short story.

The contributors signing for their fans.

After the launch, it was all back to the Phoenix Club to shoot the breeze, catch up on all the gossip and make new friends (hi, Konrad Walewski). I also happened to run into Si Spurrier (who I had not seen in far too long) who introduced me to David Hine and Mark Stafford - the guys behind the new iteration of Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs.

So all in all a very pleasant evening, and I'm now looking forward to the next Forbidden Planet launch...

The Ten Commandments of Sci-Fi

1. Thou shalt not make every planet look suspiciously like Canada.
2. Thou shalt not resolve all issues with technobabble.
3. Thou shalt not wear a goatee just to signify you are evil.
4. Thou shalt not cancel a sci-fi show before the writers have a chance to wrap up the story arc.
5. Thou shalt not have midichlorians.
6. Thou shalt not remake classic sci-fi that's less than 25 years old.
7. Thou shalt not pretend that skin tight leather or PVC on a female character has any practical reason other than titillation.
8. Thou shalt not write about cowboy hybrid cyber-monkeys and then claim you're not a sci-fi author.
9. Thou shalt not have alien civilisations consisting of only one nation, with everyone dressing uniformly, having the same religion and speaking the same language. Especially not English!
10. Thou shalt not use time travel to reboot or rewrite canon.

(Thanks to SFX.co.uk for these.)