MECH: AGE OF STEEL is coming...

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that i freaking <3 giant robots.

I've been a mecha-head since I was a little lad, and that love of cool hardware truly blossomed when I discovered anime in my teens. Thanks to shows like Robotech, Mobile Suit Gundam, Metal Armor Dragonar (and later Patlabor, Martian Successor Nadesico, Neon Genesis Evangelion and others) I've kept alive that heavy metal thrill, kindling the flame anew when Pacific Rim rolled out.

So, naturally, when I heard that the gang over at Ragnarok Publications were assembling a new anthology dedicated to such things, I could not sign up fast enough.

I worked with Ragnarok on their previous short story collection about gigantic destructive things, Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, and now I'm stoked to be joining an all-star crew of authors for Mech: Age of Steel - an anthology dedicated to giant robots of all kinds. Check out the awesome cover art by Victor Adame below...

 

Edited by Tim Marqutiz and Nick Sharps, along with me M:AoS will feature stories by Kevin J. Anderson & David Boop, Jody Lynn Nye, Graham McNeill, Peter Clines, Jeremy Robinson, Martha Wells, Jeffrey J. Mariotte & Marsheila Rockwell, Ramez Naam & Jason M. Hough, J.C. Koch, Jeff Somers, Matt Forbeck, Anton Strout, Bill Fawcett, C.L. Werner, James Ray Tuck, Jr.,  M.L. Brennan, Timothy W. Long, Jennifer Brozek, J.M. Martin, Kane Gilmour, Paul Genesse, Patrick M. Tracy, Andrew Liptak, Steve Diamond, Shawn Speakman, Mark Teppo and Mallory Reaves.

Mech: Age of Steel powers up later this year as a Kickstarter project, and there will be a bunch of neat perks and stuff for backers to get their hands on.

Check out the official Ragnarok Publications page Here and watch the skies for more info in the weeks to come...

Mecha! Hasshin!

NINE WORLDS 2015

So the delightful folks over at the Nine Worlds Geekfest event have been kind enough to invite me along to their convention this year, which is being held over the weekend of the 7th-9th August, at the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel across from London's Heathrow airport.

As they describe it, "It’s about gaming, film, cosplay, fandom, literature, science, geek culture, meeting people and having a really big party" and you can find out more about the event by visiting the website Here.

I'll be along to talk about stuff - currently I'm on the dedicated Star Trek track but there may be more of me depending on how things shake out - and joining me will be a whole bunch of other interesting people, including my fellow Trek novelist Una McCormack and top gaming chap James Wallis. The current guest line-up is listed Here.

DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED hits E3!

This week is the big E3 videogames trade show over in sunny Los Angeles, and as part of the hype extravaganza, m'colleagues at Eidos Montreal have been showing off new footage from Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, our new game and sequel to 2011's blockbuster hit Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Rather than waste time with words, I'll just let the game do the talking with a video dump...

You can also check out the amazing high def power of the Dawn Engine - the tech behind DXMD - in this brief demo showing the Golem City ghetto...

And lastly, here's producer Jean-Francois Dugas showing off a couple of live play-throughs of the Golem City environment from early in the DXMD story...

...A Great Adventure Begins...

Last month I announced with a (20th Century Fox) fanfare that I've been working with games studio Ninja Theory on the latest iteration of the Disney Infinity toys-to-life videogame - specifically the Disney Infinity 3.0 Star Wars playset Twilight of the Republic; you can see more about that by clicking Here.

But as well as writing the story and scripts for the TotR playset and Clone Wars era-characters (Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Yoda and Darth Maul), I also worked on something else that we've been keeping under wraps until today...

 I got to write for Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren and Zeb Orrelios, four of the main cast from the Star Wars Rebels cartoon series, helping to bring them into the world of Disney Infinity! They'll join the Clone Wars characters in Twilight of the Republic and the characters from the original Star Wars trilogy in the Rise of the Empire playset.

For more pictures and information, check out the Infinity Inquirer site fansite.

You Are Hearing Me Talk...to Geek Apocalypse

A couple of weekends ago, I got to round out my merry month of May with three days of relaxing nerdery at the UK Games Expo convention in Birmingham, a massive board gaming event packed with interesting folks, cool games and lots of to indulge my cardboard and dice habit...

While I was there, Steven Hesse of the ace Geek Apocalypse podcast/YouTube/Twitch channel sat down with me at my signing table for a chat to talk about such things as my love of games, how I got my start as a writer and the challenges of writing in a shared universe. You can find me Here on Episode 80 (from the 26.17 mark), or also via iTunes if you'd like to subscribe to Steven's show.

This episode also features a whole bunch of other folks, including Librium Games, Dice Sports, The Next Great American Board Game, Andrew Harmen of Frankenstein's Bodies, Chris Birch of Modiphius, Dave Cousins of North And South Games and Rob Burnham, editor of the new Tabletop Magazine.

FIRST CONTACT DAY 2016

After I had such a great time there this year, it wasn't a a hard choice for me to say yes to an invite to 2016's First Contact Day event; a Star Trek and Sci-Fi TV convention taking place in Leicester over the weekend of 1st-3rd April, FCD 2016 already has Star Trek Voyager's Garret Wang, Babylon 5's Claudia Christian and Patrica Tallman and Trek experts Larry Nemecek and Doug Drexler on the guest list, and I'll be joining them along with my fellow Star Trek writer Una McCormack.

For more information about the event, check out the official site Here.

The CRIMSON NIGHT falls again...

Once again this month, Black Library's Quick Reads eBook series features a reprint of one of my Warhammer 40,000 short stories, and this time it's "Crimson Night".

Previously seen in the pages of What Price Victory and later the print-on-demand anthology The Book of Blood, "Crimson Night" was in fact the very first thing I wrote for Black Library waaaay back in 2003, before my Blood Angels, Sisters of Battle and Horus Heresy novels hit the stores.

Rich in iridium deposits, the mining world of Merron is a valuable resource for the Imperium. When a company of Doom Eagles arrives to take over garrison duties from the Flesh Tearers, they find the locals completely traumatised by their contact with these savage warriors. As civil unrest spreads and rumours fly, the Doom Eagles are forced to investigate exactly what manner of evil is preying on the people of Merron.

In many ways, "Crimson Night" was my audition piece for BL, and I wrote it for initial publication in the pages of Games Workshop's late, lamented short fiction & comics anthology magazine Inferno!; the focal character of the Doom Eagle Brother Tarikus would return in "Relics", Black Tide and "The Returned", along with warriors from the Blood Angel successor chapter the Flesh Tearers*.

To read this early work of mine, visit the Black Library website Here, or download an excerpt in Mobi or Epub formats.

* Just FYI; the new cover describes this as 'A Flesh Tearers Story'; and while they do play an important role, this much more a Doom Eagles tale...

BLOOD DEBT is back in print

Back when I started writing for Black Library's Warhammer 40,000 tie-in series, My first novels were the Blood Angels duology Deus Encarmine and Deus Sanguinius (later collected in The Blood Angels Omnibus); one of the key characters on those books was the manipulative Inquisitor Ramius Stele, and as part of the project I wrote "Blood Debt", a short story prequel detailing Stele's fall from grace and guest-starring the notorious Blood Angel captain Erasmus Tycho.

"Blood Debt" was originally going to appear in the pages of Inferno!, BL's short fiction & comics anthology magazine, but when Inferno! was cancelled the story was stuck in limbo for a time, first popping up in the print-on-demand anthology The Book of Blood and then later included in The Blood Angels Omnibus.

This week, as part of their Quick Reads digital eBook program, BL has re-released "Blood Debt" as a stand-alone short, and you can download it Here to check out this 'missing link'...