April
10th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone
Tags: art | Freezone | Metrozone
It’s all fairly self-explanatory: a Freezone logo is something I’ve been toying with for a while, and finally came up with a design I was both happy with and thought reflected the ethos of the Freezone. It’s on a Creative Commons licence, so you’re free to put it pretty much anywhere you like – it has a permanent page here, and a link to the 640×640 image.
April
7th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone, News and Updates, Reviews
Tags: Metrozone | reviews | SFRevu | The Curve of the Earth | Tzer Island
“The Curve of the Earth successfully opens a whole new chapter for Petrovitch in the best possible way by exploring whole host of new avenues, hopefully leading to many more adventures.”
http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/review-simon-morden-the-curve-of-the-earth
“Morden peppers the swiftly moving story with high energy action scenes, some of which are impressively original. To the extent that The Curve of the Earth feels like an extended set-up for the next novel in the series, it at least whets my appetite for whatever might be coming next.”
http://www.tzerisland.com/bookblog/2013/3/23/the-curve-of-the-earth-by-simon-morden.html
“Great dialogue, great characters, great settings – this takes post-apocalyptic worlds to a new height, with sensational results. Absolutely riveting!”
http://www.booksmonthly.co.uk/adfan.html
“I just slammed through it, and it’s a blast.”
http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=14414
March
19th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone, News and Updates
Tags: Degrees of Freedom | Equations of Life | Metrozone | Orbit | Philip K Dick award | Samuil Petrovitch | The Curve of the Earth | Theories of Flight | Thy Kingdom Come
Or, as my editor said on the phone yesterday, “It’s really difficult to embargo a book these days…” The Curve of the Earth has been spotted up and down the land, and other lands, previous to this day, and The Evil Tax-dodging Corporation Which Must Not Be Named (no, not the one that sells coffee, or mobile phones. The other one) seems to have been shipping copies since the weekend. But today is the Official Launch, so I should really post about it.
It’s a funny old business really. Here I am, in the middle of the final edits for Arcanum, and a book I wrote a year ago is coming out now. There’s a slight feeling of “is this happening to me?” about it, an air of bemused detachment, because while I lived and breathed this story during its creation, and then all over again for the edits, it’s now in my past, while for many of you, it’s in your present or even your future. This launch is certainly less nerve-wracking than the bang-bang-bang release of the first three books. I’m older, and a lot more sanguine, for one thing. More confident even (thanks again, Philip K Dick award!). What I’m looking forward to most is hearing what you think of it: Petrovitch is all grown up. He’s been at more-or-less peace for ten years. Then … this happens. And dear Lord, he’s angry. Not incandescent angry, but coldly calculating angry. Which makes him far more dangerous to both his enemies and his friends.
Do you need to have read Equations of Life, Theories of Flight and Degrees of Freedom to enjoy The Curve of the Earth? Actually, no. The story will probably be richer if you have, but I’ve written it in such a way (avoiding the as-you-know-Bob infodumps) that it’s not necessary. Orbit have kindly released an ebook omnibus if you need to catch up, but you can reasonably do that afterwards if you want, just in the same way it’s not necessary to have read Thy Kingdom Come before starting on Equations. Someone told me they’d read the original trilogy in reverse order. Okay, not recommended, but hey.
However you choose to read about Petrovitch, his world is now four books and a short-story collection long. Enjoy responsibly. You can, of course, hear from the man himself in this exclusive interview posted at the Orbit website. It’s a bit sweary (as you’d expect) but it’s quite enlightening. It was recorded just before the events of The Curve of the Earth, so it should give you some idea to his state of mind at page 1…
March
19th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone, News and Updates
Tags: Equations of Life | Metrozone | Panini
As you can probably guess from the title, the French language rights to Equations of Life (or “Les équations de la vie” as we’ll be calling it from now on) have been bought – by Panini France. Ce qui est agréable.
Also, where was Google Translate when I was struggling with both French and German at school? Kids today, eh?
March
10th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone, News and Updates
Tags: Eastercon | Joey HiFi | Thy Kingdom Come
Comrades! Some running dog capitalist has put a copy of Thy Kingdom Come on Amazon UK for £100. Which is a startling amount of money, especially when there are 8 unsold copies (the only unsold copies, in fact) appearing on the NewCon Press stall at this year’s Eastercon for the original (and best) price of £25, a large proportion of which goes to the Red Cross. Ian Whates of NewCon has shown himself to be a fellow traveller in that he’s not taking a cut either.
But – don’t buy them until I’ve signed them, which I should have done by Friday lunchtime. Alternatively, buy them and leap out unexpectedly at me while I’m holding a drink, and I’ll do the honours. Because all the smart money is on Joey HiFi’s cover winning a BSFA, right?
Just to remind you of the awesome… 
February
19th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone, News and Updates
Tags: Degrees of Freedom | Equations of Life | Metrozone | Orbit | Samuil Petrovitch | The Curve of the Earth | Theories of Flight
Do you have an ereader – any variety? Do you think that you’d like all three original Petrovitch books for little more than the price of one?
Excellent news: because Equations of Life, Theories of Flight and Degrees of Freedom have been packaged under one sparkling new cover, giving new readers just enough time to experience the Thrill-Ride(tm) that is the Philip K Dick award-winning Petrovitch trilogy, before diving headlong into the New Cold War shenanigans of The Curve of the Earth.
It’s available for pre-order now, and will descend like an avenging angel onto your device at the stroke of midnight on the 1st March.
January
18th
2013
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Metrozone, News and Updates
Tags: BSFA award | Joey HiFi | Pornokitsch | Thy Kingdom Come
Which is brilliant. Everyone involved is enormously chuffed for Joey. It is, objectively, a stunning cover, and he deserves the accolade. The rest of the BSFA award shortlist is here, and if you want some hi-res Joey HiFi joy, the very kind people at Pornokitsch have provided this for you.
The awards are presented at Eastercon (this year in sunny Bradford). If Joey wins, it might well be me bounding onto the stage and acting like a loon.
December
23rd
2012
Posted by: Simon Morden in: From the Author, Ignite, Metrozone, News and Updates
Tags: appearances | Ignite | Lauren Panepinto | Metrozone | Orbit | Thy Kingdom Come | writing
Ah, the crashing sound of silence. I’ve been ill – not catastrophically, life-threateningly ill, but for three weeks I’ve been, well not exactly ‘fighting off’ as ‘surrendering at the first whiff of grapeshot’, to every virus that came my way. And I’m still, with two days before Christmas, exhausted and having to pace the few jobs I absolutely have to do by doing a lot of sitting down and drinking tea and having naps. And I’m never – for values of a decade – this ill. At least I was well (the last day I was well, in fact) for the Thy Kingdom Come launch, which was brilliant. More on that shortly.
So. News.
Firstly, it’s not long now until the fourth book in the Petrovitch trilogy is released – March 2013. The Curve of the Earth has a simply stunning cover, and the first chapter is up here to read now. To celebrate, Orbit are repackaging the original trilogy (can this sound any more like Star Wars?) into one mahoosive ebook. Depending on how things go, there may also be a dead tree version of the compendium at a later date. There’s a new cover to go with that too. In case you were wondering whether Petrovitch still has it, Lauren Panepinto (the original cover artist) has given Curve 5 stars on Goodreads. You can trust her judgement.
Secondly, to go with that, I’ll be at the (what used to be called and as everyone still calls it) SFX weekender, courtesy of Orbit, 1st-3rd March 2013. There’ll probably be a signing down at Forbidden Planet in London, and if I can pull my finger out, one up in Newcastle.
Thirdly, Ignite is go. Orbit don’t hate it, or the fact that it’s 300,000 words long. Publication date is nominally November (just in time for next Christmas!), but I’ve got some work to do on it first, which because I’ve been ill, is slightly behind schedule. Rereading something I haven’t even looked at for eighteen months – the first quarter of the book – I was gratified to realise that it didn’t suck, and was actually quite good. Ignite will have its own page in the new year, which I’ll add to as things progress.
Fourthly, other publishing news. I’ve written a short story. And I’m going to write another one. The first story was, almost inevitably, for a Pandemonium anthology: The Lowest Heaven is a collaboration with the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and just look at that list of contributors. I’m in really very good company. I managed to snag Mars as my astronomical body of choice, which I was delighted about. My story ‘WWBD’ will hopefully be up to scratch. Later on in the year, I’m in another collaborative anthology (with an equally impressive list of contributors) edited by Gary Dalkin about plants. But not as you know them. Really looking forward to this one. And finally for this bit, the Thy Kingdom Come story (and Jared’s favourite) ‘Never, never, three times never’ is being reprinted in a Prime Books anthology (available June) called ‘After the End: recent apocalypses‘. With a contributor list that includes Bruce Sterling (I’m in an anthology with Bruce Sterling! Does the happy dance).
It remains for me to say, whether you believe in it or not, have a very merry Christmas. There will be some festive Petrovitch under people’s trees, so I’m led to believe, so I’ll leave you all with this.
