Cover image dragons by Alison Buck. Edinburgh photograph: Shaiith/ shutterstock.com
A teaser/trailer for A Life Less Ordinary by Christopher Nuttall is now available on both our YouTube channel and Facebook page.
You can watch it here
There is magic in the world, hiding in plain sight. If you search for it, you will find it, or it will find you. Welcome to the magical world.
A Life Less Ordinary, the latest novel from Christopher Nuttall, author of the best seller Bookworm, is today published by Elsewhen Press. A fantasy novel for adults, it is set in a magical Edinburgh where dragons fly through the sky, the castle glows blue and strange creatures trade in the Grassmarket; beyond and behind the everyday city that is familiar to visitors from around the world, in a magical city that most people could never see.
Cover image dragons by Alison Buck. Edinburgh photograph: Shaiith/shutterstock.com
Having lived all her life in Edinburgh, the last thing 25-year old Dizzy expected was to see a man with a real (if tiny) dragon on his shoulder. Following him, she discovered that she had stumbled from her mundane world into a parallel magical world, an alternate reality where dragons flew through the sky and the Great Powers watched over the world. Convinced that she had nothing to lose, she became apprenticed to the man with the dragon. He turned out to be one of the most powerful magicians in all of reality.
But powerful dark forces had their eye on this young and inexperienced magician, intending to use her for the ultimate act of evil – the apocalyptic destruction of all reality. If Dizzy does not realise what is happening to her and the worlds around her, she won’t be able to stop their plan. A plan that will ravage both the magical and mundane worlds, consuming everything and everyone in fire.
Despite being a fantasy, with magic and dragons, this is definitely a story for adults not children, revealing the darker side of the magical world. Addressing serious issues such as betrayal, revenge, and free will, it is nonetheless a fantastic adventure made all the more exciting by being set in the familiar environment of Edinburgh, one of the most vibrant capital cities in the world.
A Life Less Ordinary is published today in digital editions, available from Apple iBookstores, Kobo, Amazon Kindle stores and other online retailers, and will be published in a print edition in September. For more information visit http://bit.ly/ALLO-Nuttall
Cover image original artwork by Hannah B. Farrell, background photo by Bart_J/ shutterstock.com
Ira Nayman, author of Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the inconvenience), used a novel to promote the launch of his first cake. As you can see from the photos alongside, the cake was popular with those attendees of the Ad Astra convention in Toronto who came along to see what Ira had been cooking up. Unfortunately the cake was so popular that it was soon all gone… luckily Ira had prepared for this and written a novel of the same title, published by Elsewhen Press. He took the opportunity to aid digestion of the cake by reading from the novel and subsequently signed copies (of the novel, not the cake) for those fans who wanted a memento of the experience. Ira is busy writing the next cake and will bake a novel to coincide with its launch.
[Ed: I think that someone may have got this a bit mixed up?]
Launch at Eastercon March 31 2013.
Ira Nayman and Dave Weaver with Elsewhen Press factotum Pete
While all sensible people were tucking in to chocolate eggs last weekend, we were in Bradford at Eastercon. On the Sunday afternoon Ira Nayman and Dave Weaver launched the print editions of their books, starting with a reading each and followed by signings. All those present seemed to enjoy the event, perhaps helped by the odd glass of wine (?)
On The Future Fire Reviews website, Terry Grimwood has reviewed Entanglement by Douglas Thompson. He describes it as “an intelligent, adult science fiction novel that blends the new with the old” and goes on to justify that by pointing out that the technologies are “founded on present day developments and theories” while the story is “imbued with a Golden Age sense of wonder”. He says he is reminded of Wells, Swift and Robert Silverberg – great company!
Although encounters with various alien races on their own planets are the key milestones in the story, this is not a heart-warming tale of savages meeting avaricious ‘civilised’ Terrans, but “is far more complex in its moral stance and particularly in its protagonists’ relationships with the alien races they meet”. He goes on to say that despite there being 17 separate planetary visits, Douglas “works hard to keep each encounter fresh and original”.
Terry goes on to expand on his comparison with Wells, who “was a writer in an age when there was still more than enough wonder and original invention to go round. Thompson manages to convey a similar wonder, prevalent in quite a few of his human-alien encounters. It is an innocence I have not seen in a science fiction novel for a long time. Thompson also captures Wells’ ability to transform the encounter between human and non-human into a mirror of our own intra-human relationships.”
He sums up: “Entanglement is a compelling tour de force, a brave attempt, painted on a vast, interstellar canvas, a novel that manages to maintain a startling imaginative variety as we visit world after world.” Then concludes with a return to his Swiftian comparison, and a finale that I won’t spoil by repeating here – go and read it for yourself!
You can (…should…must) read the full review here.
Cover image photo of ‘Jacey’ by tommaso lizzul/ shutterstock.com
On the Risingshadow website, Seregil of Rhiminee has written a very complimentary review of Jacey’s Kingdom by Dave Weaver. Commenting how well Dave “combines fantasy and realism”, he says the “story feels refreshing” because of the original and unusual subject matter. He goes on to say “Dave Weaver’s fluent prose makes this book accessible and easy to read” and it “works amazingly well as an adventure book, because the author keeps the story moving all the time”. He comments on the fascinating historical settings that Dave has conjured up for the reader in which to set Jacey and George’s adventures, but also how the “author explores the meaning of friendship in an intriguing way”. It is, he says, “a nicely told story about friendship, courage, hope and overcoming obstacles” and he concludes that it’s “a riveting fantasy book” that is accessible to young adults too.
Read Seregil’s full review here.
In the REviews section of the website of the Sein und Werden literary magazine, Mat Joiner has written about Entanglement by Douglas Thompson. After outlining the structure of the book and noting that it “can be read as either an episodic novel, or a collection of short stories, but needs to be followed in chronological order” he highlights some of the worlds that are visited by the explorers.
“Thompson doesn’t waste time on technobabble” he says, “like Ursula Le Guin (who he pays homage to by using the term “Ansible”) he’s more interested in humans than machinery.” Of those humans he says, “Thompson doesn’t give us stock heroes, just flawed men and women who drift into meaningless affairs, doubt their own actions, make mistakes that will be their undoing. He gives us recognisable human beings.” He adds that there’s “plenty of a good old fashioned sense of wonder here too. None of Entanglement’s travellers lack curiosity, even though it might result in transformation or death.” But, he says, the book “argues that in meeting the alien, we meet ourselves; that to ask questions is better than presenting glib solutions. If anything, it’s a novel that pleads the case for cautious optimism.”
He concludes by saying “It’s a thoughtful, ambivalent, compassionate novel. I wish there were more science fiction like it.”
Read Mat’s full review here.
Cover image original artwork by Hannah B. Farrell, background photo by Bart_J/ shutterstock.com
On The Future Fire, Kate Onyett has written a detailed and very thoughtful review of Welcome to the Multiverse* by Ira Nayman. Having likened speculative fiction to a really well-fitting bra, Kate declares that Welcome to the Multiverse* is more of a corset! Thankfully moving away from lingerie, she goes on to describe Ira’s credentials as a satirist and his skill at using the notion of alternative realities to enable him to side-swipe his targets. As she says, “Nayman’s satire is based very firmly in the political, in the social, in the Bigger Picture of social human existence”, although he is “not above making goofy jokes and bringing in groan-worthy pop culture references”. Overall “Nayman does fill it to bursting with bits and pieces that are recognisable, pithy and interesting”.
Like other reviewers she singles out the intelligent furniture and appliances for being “bitchy, funny and endearing.” She describes Ira’s style as “bouncy” with a “lively sense of interest that plays with narrative convention” that does all it can to make it a “cheerful experience”. Although she says there is an “almost frenetic amount of material thrown onto the page” she admits that “it was remarkably easy how quickly I slipped into Nayman’s frame of reference (possibly due to the geek in me, never far from the surface), and into the metre of the narrative.”
Her conclusion? In her own words: “I did become a keen reader; I found I was drawn in, interested and amused. Overall it was a good jape, and if a healthy spot of sci-fi comedy is your thing, then it will serve you very well.”
Read the full review here.
* Sorry for the inconvenience
Cover image original artwork by Hannah B. Farrell, background photo by Bart_J/ shutterstock.com
On her blog Boom Baby Reviews, Mia Darien has reviewed Welcome to the Multiverse* by Ira Nayman. She says that she finds Ira’s stories “really funny” and describes the book as “very dry, wry, sarcastic, sardonic, tongue-in-cheek, straight-forward and convoluted.” But she means that in a good way! She was amused by the way the characters interact with the narrator and the narrator interacts with the reader. Having described both Ira and his stories as obviously “bug-nuts crazy” [Ed: I have no idea what that means!] and as a result the story as awesome, she admits that it makes it “kind of hard to properly describe!” So she concludes that “you’ll just have to experience it for yourself.”
Read the full review here.
* Sorry for the inconvenience
On Thursday evening Dave had a chat with Radio Verulam’s Danny Smith on his Drivetime show about the upcoming paperback publication (end of March but available on Kindle and Kobo now) of his new fantasy novel ‘Jacey’s Kingdom’.
They also discussed Dave’s three self-published collections of short stories, his thoughts on self-publication versus established publishing companies (Dave thought there were benefits to both approaches) and how to start writing your own pieces.
On the subject of writers just starting out, short stories before the first novel was the view. Try lot’s of practice by, for instance, joining a local writers’ group (Verulam Writers’ Circle would be an excellent example), receiving group critique and entering group and national short story competitions for the experience.
The link to Radio Verulam’s blog is here and the actual broadcast, available for another week, is here (WEST HERTS DRIVETIME Thursday 28th 5pm slot, actual interview starts at 5.32pm).
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