Kell's Legend.

Couldn't resist 1 last post; the art for "Kell's Legend". Enjoy :-)

LAST POST HERE.

All posting has now moved over to my new wordpress site. Thanks to Darren Turpin and indeed, Nik Butler, for all their advice in transferring and setting up; and by kicking me repeatedly to leave the odd vagaries of Blogger behind.

All ANDY REMIC related info will emerge via this new site - as of today.

So, head over to http://andyremic.wordpress.com/ so hear all about Golden Eagles and mountain climbing....

Cheers!!

Rem, 18th June, 2009.
Happy Birthday Ralphy :-)

New Website LOOMS.

OK, I'm tentatively putting my head over the battlements again (last time, it got shot off, haha), and I'm ready to trial the new ANDY REMIC wordpress site. It can be found at www.andyremic.wordpress.com and I'm happy to field any criticism (see, I don't hate all critics, ha!). So, let me know what you think. Professional? Geeky? Spunky? Let me know.

Right. Off to browse Porsche 911s again. Midlife crisis? Moi? Surely not? But hey, it's a great Faith No More track.

Th3 m1ss1ng - my FAVE band - release their first single...

Just received this "hot off the press" announcement from my good buddies indie band Th3 m1ss1ng, who also supplied all the music for the podcasts of my novels over at podiobooks.com...

Th3 m1ss1ng are thrilled to announce that their debut single will be released as mp3 from today.

The single “first” will be available to download from the following sites:

iTunes - http://www.apple.com/uk/itunes/affiliates/download/?artistName=Th3%20M1ss1ng

Amazon (US) - http://www.amazon.com/First/dp/B002B2UAIW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1244324668&sr=8-2

Amazon (UK) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/First/dp/B002B3OZX2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1244325122&sr=8-2

Rhapsody - http://www.rhapsody.com/th3-m1ss1ng/first/first

eMusic - http://www.emusic.com/album/Th3-M1ss1ng-First-MP3-Download/11473704.html

Napster - http://home.gb.napster.com/#ns/view/artist/?artist_id=12814757

A video has also been put together to accompany the release of this single which can be found on our website www.th3m1ss1ng.co.uk/video

Th3 m1ss1ng also hope to release an e.p. at the end of the summer. Keep an eye on our MySpace page for further news.

Th3 m1ss1ng

David Eddings Dies, age 77.

It's with great sadness I heard the news of David Edding's death. I loved many of his fantasy works, and especially his creation Sparhawk.

There's a good piece on Mr Eddings over at SF Crowsnest - http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/news/arc/2009/nz14000.php

May he rest in the Hall of Heroes!

Camping in Wales.

I intend to take my two little boys camping this weekend. They have insisted we go near a beach--- so they can bury me in sand. So, if you hear no more blogs after Sunday, then please send a search party to: The Beach, Wales, and look for a shaved head, probably blistered with sunburn (I wish!), poking up through the dunes.

SFFE PRESS RELEASE

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics group has been set up by a consortium of authors, co-ordinated by Andy Remic, who wish to celebrate the good side of the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres. By that, we don’t just mean media with a positive theme – no, we’re into violence, sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll like every other monkey – but that our outlook and content will be geared towards the positive.

The site will include reviews, articles and interviews, which is pretty standard across the industry, but also several exciting new angles – such as collaborative stories written by the professional authors therein, and “Viewpoint” articles where writers can collectively wax lyrical on a certain topic.

Andy Remic enthuses, “If we can get all the associated writers together at a convention and suitably drunk on a cocktail of cheap Scandinavian meths, Stella and absinthe, we can also expect a movie! Watch this space!”. The horror.

The official line runs thus:
“Our mission is to celebrate everything positive, funky and exciting in the Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Universe! The SFFE is a core platform, a hub of authors who have banded together with the aim of celebrating all that is positive in genre fiction. We aim to leave cynicism and negativity at the door, and concentrate on what makes us smile, what entertains us, and what brings light and joy to our SF, fantasy and horror universe. That's not to say there is no place for criticism--- there's plenty bad in the world. However, this little digital corner is a place for positive progression, somewhere you will (hopefully) come if you want to smile.”

So far, a considerable number of industry figures have signed up to take part, and many more are currently in negotiation! The SFFE currently enjoys: Tony Ballantyne, Eric Brown, Mark Chadbourn, David Devereux, Ian Graham, Paul Kearney, Tim Lebbon, Tom Lloyd, James Lovegrove, Gail Z. Martin, James Maxey, Juliet E. Mckenna, Mark Morris, Sarah Pinborough, Andy Remic, Brian Ruckley, James Swallow, Jeffrey Thomas, Jetse de Vries, Danie Ware and Conrad Williams. A healthy dollop of literary roughage, we’re sure you’ll agree!

Check out:
www.sffeth.blogspot.com
Love, kisses and chainsaws—
Andy Remic.

Flickr.....

Yes, I know, I have finally joined the digital age. With the recent change in terms of hosting my website and digital content, etc, I have now transferred all photos from my old site to FLICKR - and what a fine piece of javascript innovation it is, too. I've also added lots of new photo content, including the recent splurge of UK signings to accompany the launch of my Solaris SF novel, BIOHELL. I did a small signing tour across Bury, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and London, not exactly Paris and New York I am aware (and just had an email from Charles Stross to say the jammy bugger is in Ontario on his book tour- check out www.antipope.org/charlie/ for some very interesting reading); however, I like to keep a low low low profile, which will probably be exploded with my recent signing to Angry Robot Books, the new division of Harper Collins run by that very nice furry robot, Marc Gascgoine; I am sure they will have me dress up in faux fur. Or something.

Anyway. In the right hand column of this here very site you will see a Flash button for Flickr (providing you have been fortuitous enough to install Macromedia's little baby) and a single click will bring you into, err, Remic heaven. That's sounding dodgy, right? OK. Cough. I'll go now. I have to do some more work on Kell's Legend 2....... and yes, I am a few books ahead of myself, and aware nobody has even read Kell's Legend 1 yet!! But it's coming, baby, it's coming.......

All Content now HERE.........

Yes, sick of maintaining two discrete websites which directly replicated practically all content, I have now moved everything of relevance to this Blogger site. All the photos from the old site will end up on Flickr within the next few days, thus showing I am not some alcoholic dinosaur wot is scared ov this new web thang. So, hope that is clear :-)
----------

New Rem Interview...

Just had a new interview posted over at http://www.milscifi.com/.

This is with regards a recently published anthology, SO IT BEGINS, to which I contributed a Combat K short story entitled JUNKED; it's currently doing well in the US and can be picked up from Amazon.

And We Have A Winner!

Yes, Steve Bannister, othewise known in WoS circles as the "Mad Mekon", has supplied me with the full solution and final pasword to Biohell, the graphical text adventure game for the 48K Spectrum. 5 novels will be winging their way to him shortly!!

Well done "Mad". You did very, very well --considering some of the moaning I've had at the difficulty level of the game, haha.

Congratulations!!
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Book Piracy...

Found a really interesting article over at Micro Mart (http://www.micromart.co.uk/) discussing book piracy and the rise of E-Readers..... I didn't realise EBook piracy was such a problem (but then, every other type of piracy is, yeah?!!).

Pirates of the bookstore

While the music and film industries loudly proclaim their battle with the pirates, publishers and authors have been rather more quiet. But the problem affects them just as much, as David Crookes discovers.

Everybody knows that CDs and DVDs can be copied. Even when the manufacturers utilise stringent copy protection, it’s never too long before the pirates crack it and illicit music and films find their way on to the internet or into a car boot sale.

But books? Most people would think producing something on paper would make it difficult to copy. Photocopiers have been around for a few decades but no-one in their right mind would stand and scan a book in page by page, stick them together and sell them. For a start, the resulting ‘book’ would be instantly noticeable as a second-rate copy - and it would work out just as expensive as buying the book in the first place.

Then optical character recognition (OCR) was invented. This enabled people to scan in reams of text into a format that could then be easily edited. In short, it meant people who persevered long and hard enough could scan an entire book, edit the text to ensure it flowed correctly and end up with a Word document that could be shared.

With that power at their disposal, it was only a matter of time until people took these ebooks and sold them. The cost to the seller? Only time. The cost to the buyer? Less than it costs to get hold of a beautifully-bound book, as long as the buyer is content to read a book on a screen.
Such publishing pirates, however, are costing the book industry hundreds of millions of pounds and the booming trade in illegally copied books shows no signs of slowing down. he impact of ebooks could be seen in 2003 when a new cookbook by Jamie Oliver was circulated on the Iternet as a large electronic file. It had well-designed pages and colour photographs. The publisher denied it was an official Oliver release and they were not lying - someone had copied recipes from his previous cookbooks and presented them as a new release.

What surprised the publishing industry was the speed at which the file whizzed around the globe and suddenly authors, publishers and agents were alert to a threat which had worried their counterparts in the music and film industries for years.

One of the most popular outlets for such ebooks is eBay. It only takes a search of popular titles such as Harry Potter to find someone who has posted up a counterfeit copy. Micro Mart found a copy of Jamie Oliver’s Naked Chef 2 cookbook on sale as an ebook for 99p with the selling writing: “The cookbook is on CD and opens in Word. You can print off any section that you want. It comes exactly as it is printed in the actual book (with pictures).” The hunger for his recipes refuses to go away, it seems.

Such cheap costs has meant the market in pirated books has exploded over the past eighteen months. It is estimated that publishers lose £260 million a year in sales of hardback and paperback books.

Organisation
Much of this is due to greater organisation by the pirates. It may well have started as a handful of people scanning in books in their bedrooms, but it has escalated into piracy rings. Pirates trade counterfeit ebooks with each other over the Internet which saves them the hassle of originating dozens of books themselves.

Author Stephen Clarke, who wrote the popular novels A Year In The Merde and Merde Actually, says the problem hits authors hard. He said: “We already get very small royalties per book. I think, after agent's commission, I get about 40p a paperback. That's before tax and only if they're sold at full price. When the book is sold in a 3-for-2 or half price offer, you get proportionately smaller royalties. So it is certainly frustrating if someone is selling the books to people who would otherwise buy from a bookshop. The authors lose a lot of money.”
Some people argue that book piracy is not different to borrowing a library book or lending a novel to a friend. But it is - whenever you borrow a library book, a small royalty is paid to the author, and handing a novel to a friend is different to sending hundreds of ebooks to strangers.
The book pirates tend to target the current best sellers with Harry Potter author J K Rowling being a particular favourite. Other high profile victims include thriller writer Patricia Cornwell and Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series of books and a man who has allowed only one of his best selling novels, Thud!, to be produced as an ebook. But pirates are not afraid to raid the huge library of great novels written in the past - books by James Bond writer Ian Fleming and children’s author Roald Dahl are frequently copied, for example.

The problem is so bad, that publishers and agents - sometimes even authors themselves - scour eBay and do numerous Google searches in a bid to clamp down on the illegal trade. Often, they strike gold. It was reported in The Times that a pirate sold more than £22,000 of pirated audio books for £300 on eBay in 42 hours.

And eBay is keen to stamp it out. “A comprehensive scheme is run by eBay.co.uk to help protect brand owners from piracy and fakes on the website,” says an eBay spokeswoman when asked what the auction site was doing to tackle the problem. “It's called VeRO, the Verified Rights Owner Programme. We’d recommend all brand owners [publishers and authors] to sign up as soon as possible to help get the fakes off the site.”

The VeRo programme has seen 10,000 companies and individuals sign up, representing every type of intellectual property - from major software companies to videogame developers to rock bands to luxury good manufacturers. It enables victims of book piracy, for example, to quickly notify eBay staff of any illegality with the promise of the listing being rapidly withdrawn.It also gives participants the ability to obtain identifying information about eBay users to allow swift action to be taken.

It still doesn’t stop people trying, though, and the feeling among many authors is that they are facing a losing battle, constantly battling against the tide, hoping a tidal wave will not engulf them. Indeed, the Publishers Association, which represents around 200 publishers, says it has spotted tens of thousands of illegal Internet sales.

In an annual report, the association said it was continuing to refine its anti-piracy strategy, conceding “there are very few, if any, easy wins in the fight against piracy; we have to recognise that this campaign will be expensive and will run for years with, to misquote Lenin, the price of success being eternal vigilance.”

That was in 2004. In 2005, the problem increased, according to association spokesman Rob Hamandi, because it offers a path to cash without the hassle presented by other criminal activities such as selling drugs. It’s as simple as keeping an electronic file on a hard drive.But does that take away the romanticism of buying a book? Do people really want to read books on computers rather than have the thrill of a wad of paper in their hands? For many bibliophiles, the suggestion that people would abandon real books for electronic versions is absurd and they point to the success of Amazon as proof that new technology such as the internet has led to increased sales of old ‘tech’ such as books.

But then music buffs said CDs would never replace the thrill of vinyl. Instead we’ve seen not only CDs do just that but digital MP3 files take the concept even further. Now we don’t even have to use portable media.

Are Ebooks The Way?

The rest of this article can be read at... http://www.micromart.co.uk/features/article/default.aspx?id=23258
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E-Readers

Over at BBC News -http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8037058.stm - Michael Fitzpatrick has fielded a story about the "Rise and rise of E-Readers". He writes:

"Amazon's launch of its first dedicated e-reader for newspapers and magazines points to a future when digital and analogue publishing begins to merge.
Nearly double the size of the book giant's existing e-reader, Amazon's wireless Kindle DX has adopted a tabloid-like format for ease of reading newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times and the Washington Post which have announced they will launch pilots editions on Kindle DX this summer.
Although others, most notably the Japanese and the Dutch, have trials underway that publish tabloid-size digital editions for other handheld e-reader devices, Amazon with its mighty marketing clout represents the first mainstream commercial stab at the market.
Increased graphics resolution and the larger size of the tablet-like, the $489 Kindle DX is also a departure from previous e-readers on the market, although Japan's Fujitsu has a similar sized colour reader on the market for twice the price. "

Well, as a reader, I'm just not convinced. Maybe this is a knee-jerk nostalgia reaction, I was brought up with little dinky paperback novels, which I can trash to my heart's content, and not feel too aggrieved when I drop a £5.99 book in the Cypriot swimming pool. And with regards newspapers - I get my fix from online sites linkes to my browser's homepage. When I log on, it logs on, and I click on any news story that catches my eye. And have News of the World decided to subscirbe to this technological advancement? I said have they? Eh?

As a writer - a different story. I still remember Napster and the unbelievable kick-off with digital music back in 1998/1999 (for me), and more importantly for recording artists, the piracy of their music. How would I feel as an author if my book was spread across the Scandinavian piracy sites a few days after release? Pretty pissed, I can tell you. Piracy eventually equates to a lack of original work; after all, who's going to create "for a living" when that living is financially sub-standard to collecting trolleys at Tesco? Actually, quite a lot of people, heh, but if I'd stayed in teaching I'd be on 50K pa now. Not awesome, I know, but a damn sight better than what I earn in the creative arts. Factor in piracy as a revenue sapper, and I'd be out of business, out of writing (yay! shout some) and back to educating nippers to feed my own, err, nippers.

It's a hard life.

And try fishing your E-Reader out of the swimming pool.

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IMMINENT GAME RELEASE...

Yep, that's right, Biohell for the Speccy is available this Friday 1st May from my website http://www.andyremic.com/. It's a free download, and the first person to send me the solution and password gets a copy of my first five books, whilst the next three runners up get a copy of my latest novel Biohell, published by Solaris Books (http://www.solarisbooks.com/). And yes, I know the game ain't as gud as a new Joffa Smifff game, but it was all done as a bit of fun and any feedback and comments are appreciated on this here blogspot!!

Cheers


Andy Remic.
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BIOHELL - THE GAME

QUAKEWARE has been set up to deal with my new ZX Spectrum games.

BIOHELL (Part 1) for the 48K Spectrum is now complete, and has 60 locations, NPCs (sort-of), and full use of the Spectrum hardware including 8 colours!!


Price- well, err, it's FREE...

COMPETITION!! to win 5 copies of Remic's novels!! [starts 1st May 2009]. Just download the game, play it, complete it, and send the solution and password to jappo@talktalk.net along with your address.

THE GAME

BIOHELL is a fast-paced hardcore first-person epic graphical text adventure, utilising guns and bombs to progress across a nano-molecular zombie-infested city game-world where you, FRANCO HAGGIS, must battle AIs, aliens and, of course, horrible zombie mutations. The game utilises advanced AI for behavioural patterns in advanced violent textual adversaries, superlative 8-bit advanced 3D bump-mapping, a full range of 8 (yes 8!!) colours and advanced shading techniques, advanced textual parser and many advanced Spectrum features!! Hell, this game is just totally advanced!!


BIOHELL – THE STORY

The City: an entire planet teeming with corruption, guns, sex, and designer drugs. Humans are upgraded by the injection of microscopic nanobots, courtesy of a new technology from the Nano-Tek corporation, but when this highly desirable technology heads onto the black market, millions of people inject themselves with pirated biomods - and transform into zombies. Now they roam the streets, out for blood, packing shotguns and bombs. The Combat K squad are dropped into this warzone to uncover what's turned the planet into a wasteland of murder and mutations, and soon their focus is on the darkness at the Nano-Tek corporation itself...










Remic, with his first true-love.... his Spectrum 48K.


My next project, if you can believe this, is writing the Spectrum 48K version of HALF LIFE 2, by VALVE SOFTWARE. I am currently just negotiating the rights with Gabe Newell :-)

HALF LIFE 2! On the Spectrum!! Cool, hey??
--

Scott Sigler & Andy Remic Collaboration

THE CRYPT

A Podcast short story collaboration between Scott Sigler and Andy Remic, read by Scott Sigler.

OK, get over to http://www.scottsigler.com/ to check out this brand new collaboration between two masters of kick-ass hardcore high-action SF. The story is released as a podcast episode, 37 minutes long and starring Pippa, an ex-Combat K squaddie on a violent solitary adventure holiday when things go terribly wrong...... here, Sigler describes Remic's writing, "I listened to some of Andy's podcast novels and invited him to join The Crypt project because his stuff is really over the top and I kinda describe it- if you took the testosterone of a thousand mixed martial arts fighters, distilled that down to a form of ink and printed it on paper, that would be how you would get an Andy Remic novel". Hoo har!

It's great to have your work read by another author, adds a real different spin on things, and it's also great to work with a guy like Scott Sigler. Many beers at the next SF convention I think!!

Angry Robot.

OK. It's official. I have been signed by Angry Robot Books, Harper Collins new genre imprint to write a trilogy of hardcore vampire(ish) heroic fantasy novels, beginning with Kell's Legend, published September 2009. Kell's Legend is already finished, and just undergoing editing - it's a kick ass new angle on heroic fantasy which should appeal to readers of David Gemmell and Raymond Feist.

The official press release states:

From the UK, meanwhile, we’re delighted and just a little scared to welcome ANDY REMIC to our ravening horde. His reputation as the hard man of British SF is well-deserved. Now he’s taking the tough guy stylings of Quake, Spiral and his recent Combat-K novels into fantasy, for a brand new trilogy that sees him, in one mighty bound, become the natural successor to the much-missed David Gemmell.

KELL’S LEGEND, due September 2009 in mass-market paperback, introduces Kell, grizzled veteran warrior much at odds with a civilised world where humanity has become soft. When a new foe arises to threaten the city of Jalder, only Kell remembers that to live, you have to fight, and fight dirty. But how can one man hold off against the Vachine, the terrifying clockwork vampires of legend?

SF Signal said this about Remic’s books: “A roller-coaster of fun… fun and fast-paced @$$-kicking action.”

Fantasy Book Critic agreed: ”Every once in a while a novel comes along that surprises the hell out of you. That was the case with “War Machine” by Andy Remic. Imagine my surprise when “War Machine” became my favorite science fiction novel of the year. Yes, you heard correctly. Gary Gibson’s “Stealing Light”, Peter F Hamilton’s “The Dreaming Void”, Neal Asher’s “Hilldiggers”, Josh Conviser’s “Empyre”, Richard K. Morgan’s “Black Man/Thirteen”, Matthew Jarpe’s “Radio Freefall”; “War Machine” topped them all and no one is more shocked than I am! …I loved every testosterone-fuelled second.”

Join the battle at andyremic.com

I was very proud of the David Gemmell bit, as Dave was the man who started me off writing when I first read Legend in 1987. I corresponded with David many times, which culminated in a drinking session after a book signing in Manchester. So, I am proud to say, I got drunk with David Gemmell :-)

Anyway, check out Angry Robot Books at:

http://angryrobotbooks.com/

Helvellyn.

Climbed my favourite mountain in the Lake District again on Friday- the superbly beautiful Helvellyn. What was crazy (and always makes for interesting climbing and endurance, because you need to carry full winter kit) was the weather. Sunny as hell at the foot of the mountain, and ice and snow at the top - but warm enough pretty much to reach the summit in a t-shirt. Really crazy weather. Me and my mate took ice axes, and ended up helping out a few people descending Swirrel Edge over the ice. We cooked some German pork sausages on the summit with the view on the photo above... and those few other climbers out were extremely jealous of our full-fat lunch, eating, as they were, cold cheese sandwiches and crappy pasta salads. Long live the sausage!!

I also took my collie dog on the climb (now just over a year old) and she caused me some problems on the ridge descent down Swirrel. I had to drag her down a few precipices, but once she got her canine brain around it she was galloping all over the rocks and jumps like a goat-possessed.

Anybody fancying a climb, just let me know :-)

Doomdark's Revenge...

What an ace game!!

Download a Spectrum emulator right NOW!! and play it.

And look at that artwork!!

Meet Andy at Manchester Waterstones.

Just a note to say I'm doing a signing for BIOHELL at Waterstones, Deansgate, Manchester, on Saturday 21st Marchh 2009 at 2.00PM...

Meet Andy Remic Biohell
WATERSTONE'S MANCHESTER DEANSGATE
Saturday, 21 March 2009, 2:00PM
Come and meet the cult author of thrillers, science fiction and military science fiction when he signs his latest novel instore. No ticket required.
Further details: 0161 837 3000

Also check:
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=200002

Cheers

REM.
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Top 5 Spectrum Games of All Time...

OK, this is the way it works. I'm getting some WTF questions on my decision to write a Spectrum 48K game of my current novel BIOHELL. Well, this is how it goes...

Got a Spectrum when I was 13. October 1984 to be precise. I was (and am) a Spectrum-junkie game-head. Even though I was "a kid" I wrote some admittedly not-very-good-by-industry-standards games, but hell it was just fun to be a little fish in the big pond of the Speccy games industry at the time. I revelled in it. I started writing in BASIC when I was 13, and ended coding in Z80a assembly (well, at least most of my routines; sometimes they were still cobbled together by compiled code). Occasionally I would use GAC to put down ideas for an adventure game - I think this was the budding storyteller in me which eventually transmogrified into an SF/fantasy novelist. Anyway!!...

A few months back I was playing STARQUAKE by Steven Crow, my all-time fave Spec game. And I thought, shit, wouldn't it be retro-cool to write another game? I pitched the idea to my Solaris editor Dunny, who said "Go for it!" and here we are. Anyway, for the purposes of this blog I thought it might be fun for people to list their top five Spectrum games. Mine are:

*********************************

1] Starquake by Steve Crow.

2] Heavy on the Magick by Carter Follis/ Gargoyle

3] Sabre Wulf by Ultimate/ ACG.

4] Manic Miner by Matt Smith.

5] Exolon by Raf Cecco.

**********************************

(although I could go on, and on, and on/// I always said if I was to go on Mastermind against Iain Banks, then my specialist subject would by the ZX Spectrum, haha, and I'd kick his ass).

Anyway, here's an invitation to post your top 5 games here....... I'd love to hear from all you retro-Speccyphiles out there ;-)

**********************************

It's Coming ... BIOHELL for the 48K ZX Spectrum!!

And So It Begins ........

So It Begins
A Sciene Fiction Anthology

I was asked to pen a short story for this anthology, and came up with a Combat K adventure entitled "Junked", starring my favourite character triumvirate Keenan, Pippa and Franco Haggis.

Available now, in the US. Below is the official press release:

greenfirephoenix@aol.com
DARK QUEST BOOKS SIGNS AWARD-WINNING SERIES!
So It Begins Contributors Some of the Biggest Names in Military Science Fiction

HOWELL, NJ Local publisher Neal Levin and editor Mike McPhail have joined forces to produce the anthology So It Begins. This book has a lot to live up to. As the second in the Defending the Future anthology series, it follows Breach the Hull which was the winner of the 2007 Dream Realm Award for Best Anthology and a finalist for the 2007 Dream Realm Award for Cover Art. So It Begins will release in Spring 2009, though the official launch of the book will take place in Hunt Valley, Maryland on May 24th as a part of the programming of Balticon, one of the longest running science fiction convention on the East Coast.

"[Breach the Hull] kicks down the doors in a way that allows anyone access to the genre[...]it
read like a bunch of soldiers sitting around swapping stories of the wars," says Jonathan
Maberry, multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author.

Those who read science fiction, military and otherwise, will recognize such names as Jack
Campbell (“The Lost Fleet”), David Sherman (“Demon Tech”, “Jedi Trial”, “Star Fist”), John C.
Wright (“Chronicles of Chaos”), Bud Sparhawk (3 time Nebula Finalist), Charles E. Gannon (“Traveller”), and Andy Remic (“Combat K”). Added to their ranks are some very promising newcomers to the genre: Jonathan Maberry (“The Deep Pines Trilogy”), CJ Henderson (“Teddy
London”,”Jack Hagee”), Jeffrey Lyman, James Chambers, Mike McPhail, Tony Ruggiero (“Team of Darkness”, Patrick Thomas (“Murphy’s Lore”), James Daniel Ross (“Radiation Angels”), and Danielle Ackley-McPhail (“The Eternal Cycle”). With such an array of talent
participating, So It Begins is more than ready and able to carry on as the first book began.
"So It Begins has been over a year in the making,” says Mike McPhail. “We faced both old and new challenges in order to bring these original works of some of the leading (and up and coming) military science fiction authors to press. I'm honored that they have once again put their faith in us."

Stop Press - Book Signings.

Some new REMIC signings/events coming up soon ...

Newcastle: 28th February, 1-2PM, Forbidden Planet.

Manchester: 21st March, 2-3PM , Waterstones Deansgate.

Liverpool: tbc.

Glasgow: tbc.

Eastercon: Bradford, 11th April. All day attendance.

Alt.Fiction: Derby, 20th June. All day attendance.

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Andy Remic - Biohell: A Combat-K Novel
Saturday 28, February, 1:00PM - 2:00PM
Forbidden Planet Newcastle,59 Grainger Street, Newcastle, NE1 5JE
RRP: £7.99Our Price: £6.99
Join Andy Remic at Forbidden Planet, 59 Grainger Street, Newcastle Ne1 5EJ, on Saturday 28th February 1 – 2pm.
On a planet teeming with corruption, guns, sex and designer drugs, a global technology company manufactures the Biomod Human Upgrade – and creates a zombie population packed with hardcore weaponry. Dropped into the midst of this wasteland of murder and mutation, the Combat-K squad must fight their way to the dark heart of Nano-Tek corporation. This is hard-hitting military science fiction to make you rethink everything you’ve read before!
Biohell will be available to buy on the day, but if you can't make it to the event you can click here to order your signed copy.
All Orders must be placed before 12pm on Friday 27th February 2009

New Interview.

Did a really funny interview over at HORROR REANIMATED last week with Joseph D'Lacey. You can read it at http://www.horrorreanimated.com/2009/02/12/andy-remic-interview-by-jdl/.

HARDCORE.

HARDCORE
by Andy Remic

Paperback: 456 pages
Publisher: Solaris 4th January 2010
ISBN-10: 1844167933
ISBN-13: 978-1844167937

Sick World was a planet dedicated to the ill, the deformed, the dying and the dead.

Humanity as an organism was not the most durable chassis. After mixing it up with aliens, the human shell developed a host of unwanted and incurable ailments… esoteric diseases, curious viruses, life-changing bugs, vomit-inducing deformations. So a beautiful planet, Sick World, was terraformed with limitless funding, state-of-the-art research centres, gleaming wards and towering operating theatres providing unparalleled care, a perfection of medicine and a pinnacle of repair for the plethora of grotesque diseases and mutating conditions. However, a thousand years ago something happened, and the planet was evacuated in totality. Today, it lies uninhabited.

Combat K: Keenan, Franco and Pippa, forced by implanted logic cubes into an unholy alliance of cooperation. Mission: to infiltrate Sick World and carry out a simple fact-finding mission prior to SLAM excavations to research the new Junk threat. It should have been safe, simple, secure.

As the first day fades, so a long hibernation ends. The Medical Staff of Sick World, the doctors, the nurses, the patients, those abandoned long ago, a thousand year gestation of hardcore medical mutation and accelerated healthcare technology... they can smell fresh meat, and begin to awake…

HARDCORE. You’ll never look at a nurse the same way again.

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Forbidden Planet Signing A Rabid Drooling Success!!

Had a ball on Saturday signing books in London's Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue. I thoroughly enjoyed the signing experience, and got to meet lots (*lots*!!) of fans who shall hereby be referred to as "Combat K Squaddies". Sold a quantity of books (always a bonus) and also met the acroamatic Mr David Devereux, a thoroughly nice chap (described by one fan as a writer of "misogynistic torture porn"- excellent, haha!!) and author of Hunter's Moon and the recently published Eagle Rising, both by Gollancz. You can check out his website at http://www.david-devereux.com/ and we shall subsequently appear as a comedy beer-drinking duo at the upcoming Eastercon. Oh yeah, and Mr Torture Porn recommends a mean pint of ale...... and in fact, a cool place to drink it, as well. Is there any end to the man's talents? Bastard.

Combat K Squaddies spotted in full urban battle dress.

FP Signing Still On, Says Remic.

I'm still travelling to the Big Lon for my signing tomorrow, and have it on good authority that Jeremy Clarkson himself may well be attending*, as he's a massive fan of my books. Despite having stupid hair, and making sometimes idiotic comments, he's been quoted as saying he'd rather read War Machine or Biohell than have sex!! Amazing stuff.


So, join me and Jeremy Clarkson* at Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue from 1-2!!

BIOHELL

On a planet teeming with corruption, guns, sex and designer drugs, a global technology company manufactures the Biomod Human Upgrade – and creates a zombie population packed with hardcore weaponry. Dropped into the midst of this wasteland of murder and mutation, the Combat-K squad must fight their way to the dark heart of Nano-Tek corporation. This is hard-hitting military science fiction to make you rethink everything you’ve read before!

*a lie.

Upcoming Signing in London.

Andy Remic signs Biohell at London’s Forbidden Planet.

Andy Remic will be signing copies of his novel Biohell at London’s Forbidden Planet on Saturday 7 February 2009 from 1.00pm to 2.00pm.

Remic – who has been described as “the new master of rock-hard military science fiction” – follows up the hugely successful War Machine with a new Combat-K novel.Biohell sees the squad fighting against a sinister corporation on a planet that is brimming with weapons, sex and designer drugs.

The Forbidden Planet Megastore is located at 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR.

Bring your beer money :-)

SciFi Now...

Wowsers, it would seem Biohell has had not one, but two good reviews this month, for which I'm very grateful. SciFi Now also have a "profile" of me, in which they have amusingly raided my website for information and pulled one of my pugly pictures for the mag. That means my mirror-crackin' mug has featured in two top Sciffy magazines during January 2009 - I'll be mugged in the street for my autograph at this rate (probably not, actually).

So then, Issue 24, Alasdair Morton makes some amusing comments on Biohell:

"The attitude which bristles throughout his prose is more often than not a perfect accompaniment to the guns and explosions", and

"It is a carnage strewn affair, with the action and zombie-bashing very much pushed to the forefront, and here Remic excels. His staccato prose is punchy and he delivers in the action stakes", and finally,

"it is a fun read, and one which is packed with enough zombie mayhem to keep you going... A winner with the Combat-K fans, and not a bad introduction to those new to Remic's work."

*Author note: Yeah yeah, I know, I'm just waiting for the real bad reviews to roll in now, ho ho. Critics are usually polarised on my work - either they like it lots, or they despise it. But at least they don't find it boring..... because, my friends, that would be the real crime. *Yawn*.

So, bring on the bad reviews!! I'm expecting a few :-)

SFX Review & Interview

Biohell is starting to do the rounds, and received a very positive review in the February 2009 issue of SFX "The World's Number One Sci-Fi and Fantasy Magazine", out now.

Calum Waddell writes a cool review, awarding 4 stars out of 5, and giving some ace cover quotes. Check this:

"A tense and tightly plotted story of military survival, alien beasts and zombie girlfriends"... and

"Biohell can stake a claim as the finest viral nightmare since 28 Days Later"... and finally,



"Those with a sensitive stomach should be warned: this book may represent some kind of first in its graphic, and gruesome, depiction of a zombie vagina".




Cool, man :-)



SFX is out now, and contains a "Mind Probe" interview as well; a fuller interview can be found at: http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=author_interview_andy_remic

Best Remic "interview" quote of the century: "What if, I extrapolated, Microsoft did tits? Well, you have to run with an idea like that"... It's coming, I predict: Microsoft and soft squidgy female* body parts........ you watch!!
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*save male pie-eaters, of course.

More Amazonia....

Here's the first Amazon-type post for BIOHELL, by a very kindly Mr Spuler:

Aaron Spuler said...
Posted November 24, 2008, 9:02 AM EST: Holy crap!I just finished Biohell and this book KICKED ASS!!! Andy Remic did a great job with it. I really loved how Franco was more of the main character this time. He is one crazy s.o.b., some of the stuff he did in Biohell was completely wild and over the top -- I loved every minute of it! Wonder what that says about me??? Out of all the books I've ever read (and that is A LOT), Franco Haggis has to be in the top three for my 'favorite characters' list. Was interesting to see the Combat-K universe from his perspective this time around.I'd been waiting for Biohell to come out for a little over a year now.... wanted to read it as soon as I finished War Machine last year (bought that one on its release date and read it as soon as I could). The Combat-K universe is my first introduction to the writing of Andy Remic, and because of these two books, I plan on picking up his earlier works (Spiral, Quake, Warhead).If you like combat, action, humor, and aren't afraid of a little profanity and gore (ok, maybe a lot of profanity and gore), then I wholeheartedly recommend this book to you. You don't necessarily NEED to read War Machine -- Biohell can stand alone on its own, but I highly recommend it. All I have to say is keep up the great work, Andy. I was thoroughly impressed with Biohell and I hope that you can get out Hardcore (part 3) by this time next year (or earlier?). I will be waiting in line to buy it. Anyway, just wanted to express my thanks for Combat-K -- may there be many more books in that series!

Amazon Reviews.

I don't, as a rule, check out Amazon reviews. I just cannot be bothered with the bad spelling and txt spk mte, and besides, have a full enough schedule writing anyway. However, I was drunk, waiting for my wife, and listening to some old toons (The Cure, their entire collection, to be exact), so browsed along for a bit of a peekaboo.

Anyway, this cheered me up no end. Got a couple of new reviews for War Machine that really made me LOL (if you'll excuse the illiterate text shite):

5 STARS.
Pure Action, November 1, 2008
By
J. saldana "TennHorn" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

Characters well developed and likable. The technology is interesting and the fast paced action will keep you reading late into the night. It is dark novel filled with death and sexual images so not for the kiddos. Science fantasy minded folk will enjoy, reminds me a little of Dan Abnett's work.

Cheers J. Saldana "TenHorn" from Nashville :-) Nice one.

Then I got this (well, it was posted earlier, but just read it... ho ho), and it reaffirmed my faith in humanity and a balanced viewpoint in order to stop writers' heads and overused pulp egos from promoting a DIY frontal-lobotomy.....

1 STAR.
Horrible, poorly created characters., October 8, 2008
By
Chuckpa "Sci-reader"
War Machine is not just miliporn, it is poorly written miliporn. The character's are on dimensional and the plot is non existant beyond go there, get that. The premise is of a super elite squad of normal humans who will "do what it takes to win". The author's attempt at character is the protagnoist leader who is grieving over the loss of his wife and children, and his determination to "get their killer". Now any reader with half a brain will figure out the killer 80 pages in, just like any reader who has had any real relationships and actually has kids will not believe the ending. That aspect of the book alone makes this reviewer believe that it was actually written by a 13year old boy, who needs to have his closet checked and his babes w/ guns mags taken away. Or better yet, maybe his he-men with big guns mags. No matter what this work is the fevered dream of someone who has real weapons-phallic power issues. The work, and I can't be gentle about this, stinks. It is written for people who dream of being profiled in Soldier of Fortune and don't understand why women don't date them. This is a chickenhawk's form of miliporn, totally unrealistic and aburd. David Drake is a literary giant next to Remic and that is a crying shame.

Ha ha. Apparently I'm an "on dimensional" 13 year old, who's never had a woman and loves Soldier of Fortune magazine. Um. OK, Chuckpea, ho ho. You obviously got deep in my head there, sweetie. You are beautiful, insightful, and deserve a big sloppy tongue kiss for your psychological observations and inherent understanding of a writer's psyche. SLURP. There you go. Did you enjoy that?

And yeah, Chuckpoo, I agree, mate. I'm totally, utterly aburd.


Don't those AMAZON dudes just make you chortle!! What a bunch of geezers :-)

SFX Review.

Yup, it's that time of year again! An impending SFX review of BIOHELL in issue 179, with accompanying interview and mag Q&A. Great fun, all of it!! Cheers Dave.

Extract: "What if, I extrapolated, Microsoft did tits?"

To read more, check out the mag at http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=author_interview_andy_remic

He Didn't Think It Too Many...

Just hit the 10K mark on Podiobooks for downloads of Spiral and War Machine (well, around 10,500 to be exact) - which ain't bad going for a flu-infected Mancunian warbler. Who are all these crazy people who listen to my podiobook gibberings? Crazy people, that's who.

Anyway, 10,500 downloads in 3 months is pretty cool, I thinks. If you want a slice of Remic Pie, then head over to http://www.podiobooks.com/

And remember, it's all TOTALLY FREE!!

Back to Business... 2009 - A Busy Year.

Upcoming Signing...

Saturday February 7, 2009 from 1:00pm - 2:00pm

Forbidden Planet Megastore
179 Shaftesbury AvenueLondon, England WC2H 8JR
Category: Media
Website: http://www.forbiddenplanet.com/Signings.html

On a planet teeming with corruption, guns, sex and designer drugs, a global technology company manufactures the Biomod Human Upgrade – and creates a zombie population packed with hardcore weaponry. Dropped into the midst of this wasteland of murder and mutation, the Combat-K squad must fight their way to the dark heart of Nano-Tek corporation. This is hard-hitting military science fiction to make you rethink everything you’ve read before!

Check out
http://www.forbiddenplanet.com/Signings.html

And Ben Vorlich...

Note the icicles on the dog's whiskers... ho ho.

More Mountain Pics... Beinn Tulaichean.

These were too good to keep to myself :-)

I've Been on the Mountain.

What a way to spend New Year/ Hogmanay. First, a hectic snowy climb up Beinn Tulaichean, just past Rob Roy's burial site (worth a visit), to stand in awe above the mist at over 3000 feet which flooded the valleys below. As you looked around, every peak you could see poking from the mist was a Munro!! Unbelievable. I've been on the mountain? Damn right. Never seen anything so stunning. Cooked German sausage with mustard, and watched God peel the top off the world.

Then back to the Ardlui Hotel at the north end of Loch Lomond for a five course meal of steak, salmon and venison with great friends and the bouncing kids. Lots of Guinness and whiskey, kilts, Hogmanay hugs and Scottish dancing. Magic.