Techno Thriller Heaven with Writing.ie

Earlier this month, I talked to the online writing magazine Writing.ie about my idea of Techno Thriller Heaven...
 

Follow the link to the article Here, where I discuss my fascination with a certain kind of cover design, jet planes flying out of explosions, the golden age of the techno thriller novel
and some of the inspiration for the latest book in my Marc Dane action thriller series Ghost...

What I Did In 2018

Thanks to everyone out there who enjoyed my work! 

GHOST Out Now In Paperback!

Ghost - book three of my Marc Dane thriller series - is out now in a new paperback edition from all good bookstores, so if you didn't catch it in hardcover, now is the time to snap it up!

This new edition also features a first look preview chapter from book four in the series - Shadow, which will be on sale later in 2019. 

Ghost is available for order right Here - (FYI, I've heard that Amazon UK have been slow this month with their shipping, so there may be some delays over the Xmas period...)

You can also check out a preview via Readers First or read a blog about the unofficial Ghost soundtrack right Here...

SHADOW cover reveal!

I can now officially reveal the fourth novel in my Marc Dane action thriller series...

Things are about to go viral in Dane's most dangerous adventure yet . . .

Ex-MI6 field technician Marc Dane and his partner - former US Delta Force sniper Lucy Keyes - are pitted against their most terrifying challenge yet, when a genius bio-researcher with the ability to create a deadly biological weapon is kidnapped by a ruthless terrorist.

Their desperate search for the missing scientist takes them across the world, from the desolate wilderness of Iceland to the dark underbelly of a fracturing Europe, where they will discover a shocking atrocity in the making.

Backed by shadowy interests, a cadre of hard-line ultra-right-wing extremists plan to unleash a lethal virus among the population of a major European city.

Only Marc Dane can prevent this devastating attack from taking place - before a whole continent is plunged into terror... 

Shadow will be on sale in hardcover, export trade paperback and eBook editions in May next year, but you can pre-order copies right now at Amazon (click Here) or wherever you buy your fiction.

You can also check out a teaser of the first chapter of Shadow in the back of the new paperback edition of Ghost!

Keep watching this blog and my twitter feed for more information on the Marc Dane series, as well as competitions and giveaways.

You can also sign up to my Reader's Club for email newsletters by clicking the button up in the top right of this page for advance intel on Shadow and more...

GHOST paperback release

One month from today, the third novel in my bestselling Marc Dane action thriller series is released in paperback...
 
When a shattering betrayal strikes at the heart of the Rubicon team, Marc Dane and his partner – ex-Special Forces sniper Lucy Keyes – must uncover the plot of a deadly cadre of digital terrorists.

These ‘ghosts’ plan to use their terrible virtual weapons against vulnerable civilian targets; but is this elite team of hackers merely out to spread chaos and destruction, selling their skills to the highest bidder? Or is there a deeper, more personal agenda at work?

As devastating attacks unfold across the globe – power grids crippled, cities blacked out, trains crashed and riots triggered – Marc must call on all his skills and ingenuity to track down the mysterious figure behind it all – a faceless criminal known only as “Madrigal”...

Before they plunge the world into war...

Marc Dane returns in the explosive new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of NOMAD and EXILE...

The GHOST paperback also includes an exclusive first look at the first chapter of the next book in the Marc Dane series...

Visit ReadersFirst to download a pdf of the first two chapters of GHOST or check out the official website of the series at WhoIsMarcDane.com.

To keep up to date on the Marc Dane series, click on the tab on the top right of this page ("Sign Up For Free!") to join the Reader's Club mailing list.

The (Tie-In) Wish List

One of the coolest things I’ve been able to do during my writing career is work in fictional universes that have given me a lot of enjoyment over the years; in the industry we call this “tie-in writing”, and it basically means creating new stories in existing worlds based on intellectual properties (IPs) from television, film, games and so on.

A while back, m’colleague Dayton Ward – himself the author of several nifty works of tie-in fiction – posted up a blog where he talked about the other IPs he’d love to take a crack at; you can read it right Here.

Looking at Dayton’s wish-list got me thinking about the question posed to him that I am also often asked - “Given the opportunity, what fictional worlds would you want to write for?” So here’s my take.

I’ve been lucky enough to write for several different flavours of Star Trek from “classic” to Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Discovery. If you know the Trek saga, you’ll notice there’s a couple of iterations missing from that list. I can’t deny I have an urge to write both for Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise, and for the Kelvin timeline iteration of Kirk and company, just so I can “collect the set”! 

But it’s more than that; I liked the frontier, first-steps feel of Enterprise and I think it would be fun to tell a Right Stuff-style story of space exploration with that crew. As for the Kelvin-verse, I think playing around with the parallel versions of those well-established characters would be a lot of fun.

Elsewhere in the realm of TV IPs, I’d leap at the chance to write a gorram Firefly novel – and in fact, I did! Back in 2005 I was one of several authors writing for Pocket Books who pitched novels for a post-Serenity series. Sadly, that option lapsed when Mutant Enemy productions showed no interest in carrying on the franchise in prose. But, Firefly is returning in novel from later this year from Titan Books, so you never know... 

The other TV show I always coveted a chance to write is a little-known Brit SF/cop series from the 80’s called Star Cops. It only lasted one season, but I loved the acerbic and spiky characters, the moondust grit in the narratives and the near-future setting. And like Firefly, Star Cops has also come back from the black, in the form of a new audio drama series from the folks at Big Finish. I wasted no time in hitting them up for potential story pitches...

And I reckon I can squeeze some anime into this category as well, even if it isn’t strictly “TV”; writing something in the cyberpunk sagas of Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed or the mecha-dominated worlds of Robotech and Captain Harlock would be pretty sweet.

But when I think of all the fictional worlds I’d most want to visit, there are three right at the top of the list; the first one is the Marvel Universe.

Cards on the table here, I’ve been a Marvel fan since the early 1970s, when I first encountered copies of Ghost Rider and Daredevil. But it was Iron Man that I first connected with and bought regularly (and still do!). Tony Stark remains my favourite Marvel hero, with Clint Barton’s Hawkeye a close second, and I would quite happily eat an Infinity Stone to write for them... Or any other Marvel property, to be honest! Marvel’s been a part of my nerd landscape forever, and to give something back to that world would be very cool. 

The second is Star Wars, which should come as no surprise to anybody. I’m a child of the SW generation, from an era when there was just one movie and not an entire galaxy of far far away stories to enjoy. Like Marvel comics, I grew up alongside the Star Wars saga and I’ve always felt connected to it. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to write for Clone Wars and Rebels characters in my video game work, but a Star Wars novel is the thing that I’d love to take a crack at. I’ve made a few approaches over the last decade and never quite connected, but maybe when the time is right I’ll give it another try...

And the third? Bond. James Bond.
Bond movies were a bonding (ahem) experience that my whole family shared over the years and they’re woven into my film-loving, action-thriller fan soul. I love the spy-fi genre enough that I’ve created my own take on it with my Marc Dane series of original novels – but to be able to write a story about 007 himself... That would be an incredible opportunity. I think if the chance ever came my way, as much as the “classic” novels and the recent stuff by Faulks, Boyd and Horowitz are great, I’d follow the route of the older post-Fleming books by Gardener, Benson and Deaver, and write a modern era Bond. 

On the subject of movie-based IPs, when I look back over my favourite flicks, I can’t help but think it would be great to spin out more stories about those worlds and characters.

Diving back to my youth and other films that were formative for me as a fan and a writer, I’d love to tell a story about Indiana Jones (who spurred my interest in history and pulp adventures) or revisit the world of Tron (my Atari-era gamer’s Narnia analogue). Writing about Escape from New York’s Snake Plissken or Big Trouble in Little China’s Jack Burton would be a blast...

And if I could get my inky hands on Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers, I’d die happy. To pick something more current, I would absolutely pay off the joke I made recently about writing a sequel to Battleship, or maybe a tie-in to The Fast & The Furious franchise. Vin? Let’s do lunch, buddy. 

There’s one other place past TV, movies, books and comics that also calls out to me as a space for more great stories – and that is games. As a fan of the Tom Clancy-verse series, I reckon there’s a lot of opportunity to tackle tales based on the lone wolf covert ops of Splinter Cell, the tactical action of Ghost Recon and the survival drama of The Division. 

Elsewhere, I think Bungie’s Destiny gameworld is absolutely crying out for long-form fiction. There’s a few webcomics, but the rich lore glimpsed in the game begs to be explored and expanded upon.

Beyond this – well, who knows? I’ve written for Star Trek; six different Doctor Whos; Stargates SG-1, Atlantis and Universe; 24’s Jack Bauer; the rebel crew of Blake’s 7; the grimdark future of Warhammer 40,000 and the Horus Heresy; 2000AD’s iconic Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper; British space hero Dan Dare; and gameworlds as diverse as Deus Ex, Dark Future, Battletech, Kaiju Rising, Tannhauser, Halo, Space 1889 and No Man’s Sky.

Although my own original fiction is now a core part of my writing, I don’t think I’m ever going to turn my back on the world of tie-ins... There’s just too much cool stuff, just too much opportunity to visit amazing worlds and tell stories there.

I’ll finish this off by posing the same question Dayton did - For those of you who read my stuff and/or read these types of books, which property would you like to see me take a crack at? Drop me a line here at the blog or message me in Twitter...

New Covers!

Some news dropped at the recent Black Library Weekender event about a few of the Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 projects I have on the horizon; first (or maybe last!) was the official cover reveal for the final Heresy novel, The Buried Dagger...
 

Black Library also announced that print-on-demand hardbacks of the first four Horus Heresy novels, including The Flight of the Eisenstein by me, will be back in print from November 17th.

On the subject of reprints, new Warhammer 40,000 omnibus editions are on the way, compiling my Blood Angels fiction, and the Dark Angels and Iron Warriors by m'colleagues Gav Thorpe and Graham McNeill...

And not to be forgotten, the Warhammer Legends partwork series will be re-releasing a new hardcover edition of my Horus Heresy novel Fear to Tread this month.

Legendary!

October is a banner month for some neat re-releases from my back-catalog in the grimdark worlds of Warhammer!

Two titles are hitting in short order, one that features a story of the Adepta Sororitas - the zealous Sisters of Battle - and another from the Horus Heresy era, a tale of the traitorous Death Guard.

Back in 2011, I wrote my second Sororitas novel Hammer & Anvil, and now the Warhammer Legends partwork series is releasing it in a spiffy new hardcover edition, on sale in all good bookstores on the 17th of this month.  

The Sisters of Battle are the Emperor's most devout worshippers, fierce warriors preaching the purity of the Imperium and scourging their enemies with bolter and flamer. 

On a distant world, the Ecclesiarchy outpost of Sanctuary 101, was wiped out by an implacable foe - the fearless, soulless necrons. Now, a mission of the Sisterhood has returned to reconsecrate the site - but the metallic nightmares still lurk in the darkness, guarding a secret that has lain dormant for millennia. 
A vicious battle will be fought - one that can only end in the total destruction of the unrelenting xenos, or the annihilation of the proud Sororitas.

To visit the Warhammer Legends site, click Here or go Here to order individual copies of the partwork hardcovers; if digital is more your speed, you can still pick up the eBook edition right Here.

Later this month - the 20th to be exact - you'll be able to pick up a copy of Heralds of the Siege, a new Horus Heresy short fiction collections, featuring content by me, Gav Thorpe, Chris Wraight, John French, Guy Haley, Nick Kyme, Rob Sanders and Anthony Reynolds.

A galaxy burns and brother turns on brother as the conflict brought about by a beloved son’s betrayal reaches its fateful end. 
The Warmaster Horus has triumphed. His massive fleet at last nears Terra and the patriarchal Throne of his hated father. 
Many have fallen to bring this moment about, their tales are the ashes upon which the Heresy was born and prospered. 
Others have played their own small parts, drops in an ocean of war and blood. 
None of it matters. 
Terra looks to the skies as it raises its defences. Armies muster, heroes raise their swords, citizens cower. 
The war is coming. And nothing can stop it.

My contribution to this hefty tome is "Exocytosis", a story featuring the Death Guard and the character of Calas Typhon, which set him up for his appearance in my upcoming Horus Heresy novel The Buried Dagger (due in Spring of 2019). "Exocytosis" originally appeared in the 2016 Black Library Advent Calendar series and this marks its first dead-tree edition.

Click Here for more details on The Horus Heresy: Heralds of the Siege.

And as a bonus cover reveal for this blog, check out this amazing art from Johan Grenier for the new collected edition of all my Warhammer 40,000 Blood Angels stories - The Complete Rafen Omnibus...

This collection features all the stories and novels in and around Rafen's epic narrative - The Fury, Deus Encarmine, Blood Debt, Deus Sanguinius, Redeemed, Red Fury, Black Tide, Bloodline and Reflection in Blood. The book will be available in January 2019, but for more details click Here.

Space Hulk Tactics strikes!

A few months back, I mentioned that I'd been doing some scriptwriting work on a new Warhammer 40,000 videogame - and this week Space Hulk Tactics deep-strikes its way on to Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC platforms for all players...

Space Hulk Tactics is a turn-based strategy game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, pitting squads of Space Marine Terminators against swarms of alien Genestealers aboard a massive amalgamation of abandoned starships - the gargantuan Space Hulk known as The Forsaken Doom...

Based on the classic Games Workshop boardgame, Space Hulk Tactics lets you pick between these two factions in full campaigns, solo vs. AI, or via competitive online play. 

The game has two narrative campaigns (scripted by me), one from the point of view of the venerable Blood Angels chapter and one casting players in the role of the rapacious alien Genestealers. 

Here's a link to a developer blog I wrote about the storylines. 

A "card" system enhances the turn-based strategy gameplay, ensuring no two games are ever the same and giving you many more tactical options on every turn. There's also a versatile map editing tool, so games can create and upload their own scenarios. 

Check out the official Space Hulk Tactics website right Here, for more details, along with ordering details. The game is released on 9th October, but pre-orders will get bonus custom content.

 

NOMAD is out now in North America!

Today the first of my ongoing series of action thrillers is officially released in North America, in it's US hardcover edition from Tor/Forge! I'm excited to introduce ex-MI6 officer turned freelancer Marc Dane to a whole new audience with the launch of Nomad... 

HIS ONLY NATION IS JUSTICE

New York Times bestselling author James Swallow begins his espionage thriller series with Nomad, featuring a British desk jockey intelligence operative turned active agent.

Marc Dane is a MI6 field agent at home behind a computer screen, one step away from the action. But when a brutal attack on his team leaves Dane the only survivor—and with the shocking knowledge that there are traitors inside MI6—he's forced into the front line.

Matters spiral out of control when the evidence points toward Dane as the perpetrator of the attack. Accused of betraying his country, he must race against time to clear his name. With nowhere to turn to for help and no one left to trust, Marc is forced to rely on the elusive Rubicon group and their operative Lucy Keyes. Ex US Army, Lucy also knows what it's like to be an outsider, and she's got the skills that Dane needs.

A terrorist attack is coming, one bigger and more deadly than has ever been seen before. With the eyes of the security establishment elsewhere, only Keyes and Dane can stop the attack before it's too late.

North America is a fierce, dedicated market for thriller fiction and the home of some of my favorite authors in the genre! It's my great hope that Marc Dane can stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Jason Bourne, Mitch Rapp, Thea Paris, Evan Smoak and all the other great US thriller heroes! 

To read the first chapter, click Here to visit Tor/Forge's Criminal Element site.

Praise for Nomad:
“In Marc Dane, James Swallow has created a wonderfully unlikely hero who can outfox the best of the best. A pulse-pounding thriller of the highest order.”— Ward Larsen, USA Today bestselling author of Cutting Edge

“Ian Fleming meets John LeCarre in James Swallow's Nomad: vivid and gritty with nonstop action, in which nothing is as it seems.” —David Hagberg

“Unputdownable. A must-read.” —Wilbur Smith

“Very enjoyable.” —The Guardian

“Exciting.” —The Sun

“Right on the money, bang up to date, Nomad is a scorching romp. A killer of a thriller.”— Jon Wise, Weekend Sport

“A debut spy thriller from a veteran author who delivers his (...) enjoyable narrative at a frenzied pace, with plenty of narrow escapes for reluctant hero Dane.” —Jon Coates, Daily Express

“Ferociously paced thriller, a high-concept tale of the solitary hero on the run, bristling with technology and frequently erupting into lethal violence.” —Declan Burke, The Irish Times

“Followers of Jason Bourne or those who are familiar with I Am Pilgrim and / or Homeland will agree that this book is a rattling good yarn. Well written with plenty of cliffhangers and thoroughly enjoyable.” —Woman's Way

“This is edge of the seat stuff that is terrifyingly real in places and pushes the boundaries of reality in others, not unlike most high-action thrillers. If you're a fan of the novels of Lee Child, Frederik Forsyth and Chris Ryan or you can't wait for the new Bond film and love the TV series 24, then this is for you.” —Closer Magazine

Nomad is out now in hardcover, eBook, digital audio and CD audio editions on-line and in all good bookstores; full details are Here, or you can order a copy direct from Amazon.com via this link.

To keep up to date on the Marc Dane series, click on the tab on the top right of this page ("Sign Up For Free!") to join the Reader's Club mailing list.

Who Dares Wins

A couple of years back, I had the opportunity to write for one of the most iconic British comic-book heroes every created - the square-jawed, stiff-upper-lipped Dan Dare, astronaut, pilot and all-around top chap... 

Here's a link to the blog post about that I wrote back in 2016, which covers a lot of the high points about Dan and his dramatic return to radio adventures.

This month, Dan Dare: The Audio Adventures has been picked up by BBC Radio 4 Extra for broadcast, and the series will be ongoing over the next few weeks - each episode will be broken into two parts, airing on Sunday evening and early Monday morning. 
 

My story - The Red Moon Mystery - is up on the BBC iPlayer's listen again service (free to use, but requires a sign-up).

Click Here for Part One; Part Two will be available Here from the weekend, or you can tune in live on Sunday 26th at 6:00pm BST or Midnight for the repeat.

If you're interesting in picking up the complete series on CD, visit Big Finish's website right Here for more details on the full saga!
 

Warhammer Fest Europe

It's been a while since my last Games Workshop/Black Library event, so I'm looking forward to appearing at Warhammer Fest Europe 2018 in Düsseldorf this weekend. It'll be great to visit Germany again; last time was to take part in Games Day in Cologne, and the welcome I got from the fans over there was fantastic.

 

WFE 2018 is taking place on Saturday August 18th and Sunday August 19th at the Maritim Hotel in Düsseldorf, and it's going to be a big one, with a ton of stuff going one for fans of the worlds of Warhammer and the Horus Heresy.

I'm appearing on the Saturday to represent the Black Library - First off, I'll be signing books from Midday to 1:00pm, and then straight after from 1:00pm-2:00pm I'll be talking about my forthcoming Horus Heresy novel The Buried Dagger, the fate of the Knights Errant and the Doom of the Death Guard. 

Then from 3:00pm-4:00pm I'll join BL Germany's head of translation Tobias Roesner to talk more about our books, before a final signing session from 4:00pm. The signing will be a short one, as I have to dash off to catch my flight home...

M'colleague David Guymer will be there to fly the flag on the Sunday, so be sure to check out his talks and signings as well.

Along with me and David, there will be folks from the Forge World, Citadel, White Dwarf, Army Painter and ‘Eavy Metal Teams, plus the usual Golden Demon painting competition, displays, workshops, demo games and a whole load of tournaments

Full details of the other seminars taking place can be found Here.

The main event is 10.00am to 6.00pm on Saturday and 10.00am to 4.00pm on Sunday - for more details, tickets and the like, click Here.

And for or those of you who can't make it along, there will be a live blog covering the event at the Warhammer Community site Here.

Bis bald!

Here be Dragons!

Some days you wake up and find out a neat thing has happened without you even knowing about it...

Case in point is today's announcement of the nominees for the Dragon Awards (held at the huge and awesome Dragon Con convention in Atlanta at the end of this month), where I was delighted to see that my new Star Trek Discovery novel Fear Itself is in the running in the "Best Media Tie-In" category!

I'm in some amazing company on a very strong list of nominees. Along with my fellow Discovery and Star Trek novelist David Mack and Warhammer alumni Matt Forbeck, a couple of terrific Star Wars books by Claudia Gray and Delilah S. Dawson, and a great Warcraft tale from Christie Golden are also up for the gong. 

I have to say, it is both very cool and very daunting to be on a list with such stiff competition, from a bunch of writers who are not only at the top of their game, but who I am a fan and reader of to boot. 

There's that old saying at times like these that goes "it's an honour just to be nominated" but in this case, I really mean it!

Here's the full list for the tie-in award: 

Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray
Before the Storm by Christie Golden
Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson
Fear Itself by James Swallow
Legacy of Onyx by Matt Forbeck
Desperate Hours by David Mack

If you'd like to take part and cast your vote for who you'd like to win this award - and bunch of others for novels, movies, TV shows, games and comics - you can do so for free by registering for the 2018 ballot.
  
Click on the Dragon Awards Nominee panel to the right and it'll take you straight to the Dragon Awards website. 

Mission to Malmo

A couple of weeks back I was chatting with another author about the inescapable value of “walking the territory” – that is, the importance of visiting a place to get the sense of it, to make your writing feel as authentic as possible. It got me thinking about my own research jaunts, and so partly inspired by the travelogues of fellow thriller writer JF Penn (check out her great website Here) I thought I’d post some observations from one of my most recent trips...

Ever since I was kid, airports have always been intertwined in my mind with thrillers. I think part of it is the whole romance of travel/thrilling locations stuff right out of a James Bond novel, mixed with my love of the classic “airport novel” that fills the shelves of duty free bookstores. And what’s cool for me is that now my books get to fit in that space...

I was heading to Malmo in Sweden, under a non-disclosure agreement, on a two-day flying visit to talk about a new videogame project connected to one of the thriller world’s biggest names. But the quickest way there is actually through Denmark. So my route in was via Copenhagen airport....

...and then across the Øresund Bridge by train. 

And it was neat for me to look down the carriage and see this gentleman and think... Hey. That book cover looks familiar... (What are the odds?!)

My first real glimpse of Sweden through my window was an orchard of wind-farms, a strange and slightly alien sight rising up from the straight along the coastline. I have to admit that my perception of what to expect in Sweden was warped a little by the work of an artist named Simon Stålenhag... Check out his stuff Here and you’ll see what I mean. He's just had a TV show based on his stuff green-lighted by Amazon.

His art fuses a 1980’s view of the world with odd, invasive technologies that look like they come from some alternate reality, and wandering through Malmo I soon understood how this country influenced him.

Malmo reminded me of the kind of brutalist, concrete-cube architecture that was all new and futuristic when I was growing up in the 1970's, the buildings that were the backdrop of austere dystopian SF movies - Farenheit 451, Alphaville, THX 1138 and the like – but with flashes of artistic weirdness here and there.

One morning I woke up and realized that the hotel I was staying up reminded me of City 17, the location of the game Half-Life 2 - check out the similarity Here.

All this might make Malmo sound a little distant and unwelcoming, but it wasn’t! 

I loved the artwork and the river winding through the town, the great restaurants and numerous craft beer places. I also want to highlight the Science Fiction Bokhandeln for accommodating a quick drive-by signing by me, and The Bishops Arms pub off Gustav Adolf Square for having an amazing book-laden snug in the back that was very conducive to a glass of scotch and some writerly company.

But I was here to work; I’d come to Sweden to meet with Massive Entertainment, developers of The Division 2 – the sequel to the hit action game under the Tom Clancy franchise banner. 

As well as being a long-time reader of the Clancy novels, I’ve also been a dedicated player of the videogames created under the author’s name. Last year I worked on the Ghost Recon Wildlands open-world shooter game, and having expended a lot of hours on the first iteration of The Division, I was excited to work on the sequel...

Details on the elements I contributed to The Division 2 haven’t been announced yet, but I can say my part is just one component of a massive (ha ha) project, involving several other scriptwriters and a great many talented people. 

(Also, as some fans of the game have asked, I should make it clear I’m not writing a Division novel or a comicbook – as cool as that would be! – but writing scripts for the game itself). 

48 hours later, and I was done. While the trip was short, I liked the city enough to want to come back and see more of it. And while I don’t (right now) have plans to write something set in Malmo, I’m pretty sure I’ll make use of my exposure to the city somewhere down the line. 

Writers store all this experiential stuff away and it rises back to surface when you least expect it. I never intended to draw on my trip to Madeira as detail for a 31st century planet of vintners in my Horus Heresy novel Nemesis, or my visit to the Maltese “silent city” of Mdina in my latest Marc Dane thriller Ghost, but both places inspired me and helped me make those stories feel authentic. Travel doesn’t just broaden the mind, it stimulates it.

If you enjoyed this travel blog and you'd like to see more of the same, let me know in the comments below or via my Twitter feed...

The GHOST soundtrack

A month on from the launch of Ghost, the third novel in my Marc Dane series of thrillers, and things are moving apace; I made it on to the bestseller list once more, so I'm sending out a heartfelt thank-you to everyone who picked up a copy of the book.

As is now becoming an annual thing, when I was working on the book I assembled a playlist of songs that provided inspiration for characters, themes and scenes. 

I've done this before for the previous novels in the series - Nomad (hosted over at the Civilian Readers blog) and Exile (here on Red Flag).

Here's what I said when talking about the use of music while working on the first Marc Dane novel; "writing a book isn’t just the writing of the book; there’s also the time spent wrangling ideas or thinking stuff up. I find pacing out the kilometres on the runner at the gym is a great place for this, usually with a loud and driving playlist in my earbuds to propel me along."

Here's the beats that helped drive Ghost...

Track 1 - "GHOST Anthem" - Night Stalker - Carpenter Brut



Track 2 - "Snowboarding" - Song 2 - Blur



Track 3 - "Ambulance Chaser" - Atom Bomb - Fluke



Track 4 - "Drone Race" - Cold Rock the Mic - Apollo 440



Track 5 - "Kara's Theme" - Paint it Black - Ciara



Track 6 - "Lucy's Killer Look/Horizon Integral Caper" - The Payoff - Royale Deluxe



Track 7 - "Madrigal's Story" - Break on Through (To the Other Side) - Josh Mobley



Track 8 - "Infiltration" - The Key - Johnny Jewel



Track 9 - "I Know You Got Seoul/Helicopter Chase" - Friction - Imagine Dragons



Track 10 - "Outro" - Live to Rise - Soundgarden



Track 11 - "GHOST End Credits" - A Hero's Journey - Lazerhawk



Ghost is out now in major chain supermarkets, bookstores and online retailers. For more details click Here.

And if you'd like to read a sample chapter, visit Readers First right Here.

You are hearing me talk...to BBC Radio 5 Live

Way back in the distant days of 1988, I started running a pencil and paper roleplaying game campaign that would go on to last over a decade, based on the world of Cyberpunk, a sci-fi RPG produced by R.Talsorian Games. One of my players was Adam Rosser, who has since gone on to become the award-winning producer-presenter behind BBC Radio Five Live's Game On, and I've been pleased to be a regular voice on his show talking about my work in the games industry and as a prose writer.

In this week's show, m'colleague Adam has interviewed me about Ghost, the new novel in my Marc Dane series of action-thrillers, and we talk about the challenges of writing of fiction against the backdrop of a real world filled with geopolitical intrigue, and making the thriller work in a post-Cold War era.

And with the recent unveiling of the first full trailer for Cyberpunk 2077, a videogame based on that original RPG we loved so much, Adam and I could not let the opportunity pass to talk about our hopes for this upcoming release.

Check out the episode here via the BBC Radio Five Live website, which will be available to download for the next thirty days. 

Game On - James Swallow, old school cyberpunk
 
The third book in James Swallow's 'Marc Dane Series' - Ghost - is out now and he joins Adam Rosser to talk about building a technothriller series and then two old chombattas cast a rheumy Kiroshi optic over 'Cyberpunk 2077'...

Click Here to visit the site.

 

The Division 2

Last month I was over in Sweden to visit the offices of Ubisoft Massive in Malmo, one of the developers of The Division 2 - the sequel to the hit game from the Tom Clancy franchise, which will be out on all platforms in March next year.

This week was the big E3 videogames trade show and the first official trailer for The Division 2 dropped...

 ...along with some in-game footage showing one of the games "control point" side missions. I got to play through this myself while I was in Malmo, and it was pretty cool. As a fan of the first game, I'm looking forward to this new iteration of the franchise.

I'm excited to be contributing some scripts to this game, joining a team made up of several great writers and talented, passionate developers. The elements I'm working on haven't been revealed at this point, but I'm sure I'll be talking more about it in the months ahead. Also, just to clarify as some folks have been asking - I'm not currently working on a novel or a comic tie-in... although that would be cool!

To learn more about The Division 2, check out the official website right Here.
 

 

FEAR ITSELF is out now!

Another week, another new release! I'm pleased to announce that Fear Itself, the latest tie-in novel based on the TV series Star Trek: Discovery is out now in the USA in trade paperback, digital and audiobook editions (the rest of the world will get it in the next week or so!) 

This has been a unique book to work on, from signing on to the gig over a year ago and working alongside the writers and production team on Discovery to today's publication; Fear Itself is an original story set before the events of the series, centered on the character of Saru, and I've worked to create something that I hope will dovetail with the show and expand readers' understanding of the series - along with an exciting adventure in true Star Trek style...
 

Lieutenant Saru is a Kelpien, a member of a prey species born on a world overrun by monstrous predators…and a being who very intimately understands the nature of fear. 

Challenged on all sides, he is determined to surpass his origins and succeed as a Starfleet officer aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou. 

But when Saru breaks protocol in order to prove himself to his crewmates, what begins as a vital rescue mission to save a vessel in distress soon escalates out of control. 

Forced into a command role he may not be ready for, Saru is caught between his duty and the conflicting agendas of two antagonistic alien races. 

To survive, he will need to seek a path of peace against all odds, and risk compromising the very ideals he has sworn to uphold….

Earlier this week, the good folks over at TrekMovie.com posted an interview with me, where I talk in greater detail about the book, my experiences writing it, the challenges of working alongside an ongoing TV production and more. To read the interview, click Here.

And for more details on Star Trek: Discovery - Fear Itself, check out the official page for the novel at the Simon & Schuster website right Here.

 

GHOST is out now!

It gives me a great pleasure to say today is release day for GHOST, the third novel in my bestselling thriller series!

The action in GHOST continues the adventures of ex-MI6 officer and hacker-turned-hero Marc Dane, and the previous books in the series – NOMAD and EXILE – were hits on the Sunday Times, Irish Times and Amazon bestseller lists, so I’m hoping GHOST can catch fire with audiences in the same way! GHOST is out now in a hardcover edition, export trade paperback version and digital eBook from Bonnier Zaffre.

In this story, I tackle ideas about how hacker attacks and digital warfare impact the real world, as Marc Dane and the Rubicon team deal with deception and new dangers. I have to say, writing GHOST was a challenging experience; who knew it would be so tough to create a modern-day thriller in a time when actual real-world events seem to be outstripping fiction?

But that said, I had a blast writing this novel and I’m hoping that energy comes through in the prose. I’m very proud of this novel and I want to thank the team at Bonnier Zaffre and United Agents, and my friends and family for their support during the project – especially my dad. This one’s for you, Pop.

A BRUTAL ASSASSINATION IN A SILENT CITY.

A DEVASTATING BETRAYAL AT THE HEART OF A COVERT STRIKE FORCE.

A DEADLY PURSUIT ACROSS A DIGITAL BATTLEFIELD.

A RUTHLESS TERRORIST FUELLED BY REVENGE.

When a shattering betrayal strikes at the heart of the Rubicon team, Marc Dane and his partner – ex-Special Forces sniper Lucy Keyes – must uncover the plot of a deadly cadre of digital terrorists.

These ‘ghosts’ plan to use their terrible virtual weapons against vulnerable civilian targets; but is this elite team of hackers merely out to spread chaos and destruction, selling their skills to the highest bidder? Or is there a deeper, more personal agenda at work?

As devastating attacks unfold across the globe – power grids crippled, cities blacked out, trains crashed and riots triggered – Marc must call on all his skills and ingenuity to track down the mysterious figure behind it all – a faceless criminal known only as “Madrigal”...

Before they plunge the world into war...

Marc Dane returns in the explosive new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of NOMAD and EXILE...

Visit ReadersFirst to download a pdf of the first two chapters of GHOST.

To order a copy of GHOST, click Here or check out the official website of the series at WhoIsMarcDane.com.

And a reminder that I'll be signing books and talking about the novel in conversation with my fellow author Ben Aaronovitch (creator of the Rivers of London series) at Waterstones Bromley bookstore on Thursday 7th June at 6.30pm. Details about the event can be found Here.

To keep up to date on the Marc Dane, click on the tab on the top right of this page ("Sign Up For Free!") to join the Reader's Club mailing list.

GHOST launch event next month!

My new thriller novel Ghost will be on sale at the end of this month, and to celebrate I'll be taking part in a launch event on Thursday 7th June at 6.30pm, at Waterstones Bromley.

My fellow author Ben Aaronovitch (creator of the Rivers of London series) will be interviewing me about the writing of my books, followed by an open Q&A and book signing. There will be wine, door prizes and giveaways – including copies of Ghost and the previous books in the series, the Sunday Times bestsellers Nomad and Exile.

I've had great support for these novels from readers and my publishers at Bonnier Zaffre, and we're hoping Ghost will be a success too! You can check out more about the book at Readers First, including a downloadable sample of the first two chapters.

The launch event is free to attend, and you can call the bookshop for more information on 02084606037 or just come along!

Here's a link to the event page at Waterstones Bromley, and here's another with directions to the store location.