Gunheads Out Now!

The Gunheads have rolled out ahead of schedule it seems. Though the book is officially listed for an early March release, I've been getting messages from a number of readers in the USA who have already finished the book. I'm delighted to report that the reaction so far has been overwhelmingly positive. My thanks go out to all the guys (no gals so far, sadly) who contacted me to say they enjoyed it and to ask about future adventures featuring Sergeant Oskar Andreas Wulfe.

Will he and his trusty tank return to action in the future? Hmm... they just might at that.

In an unusual reversal, it seems that American readers who pre-ordered the book started receiving their copies before the Brits did. Wherever you are, though, I hope your pre-order copy has already arrived. Don't forget to post reviews on your favourite sites once you've read it, will you? If there's a writer in this world who doesn't love to hear from his readers, I haven't heard of him.

In other news, I received my advance copy of the very spiffy Heroes of the Space Marine anthology today. It features my first outing with the ruthless xenos-hunters of the Deathwatch. The story is called Headhunted (as regular blog readers will already know), and it's so jam-packed with action I could barely get the lid on it. In fact, the story ended up at double its originally planned size. The anthology also features great stories by Nick Kyme, Graham McNeill, Gav Thorpe and a whole bunch of other scribes, many of them new to Warhammer 40,000. Look for the anthology in stores around May (though pre-orders will probably be sent out in late April).

Hmm... anything else on the go right now? Work continues on R- oops! I mean work continues on my Space Marine Battles book. The 'dramatis personae' at the front of the book is going to be so damned big it might just need to go in as an appendix instead. That would probably be better. Hands up if you like appendices at the back of your fantasy/SF books! (Raises hands)

Reading: Anything that puts me in the proper WH40k mindset.
Watching: Not much.
Playing: Are you serious? Nothing!
Listening to: (see reading)

Celluloid Steroid

Holy sh*t! Forgive the expletive, but I just watched the new Incredible Hulk movie starring Edward Norton, and I can feel myself swelling up and turning green as we speak. This is exactly what the first Hulk effort should have been like. What a movie!

I've always been fond of Marvel's Hulk. It's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde writ large, and that book was written by a fellow Scotsman to reflect on the extreme polarity of the Scottish character. In essence, when we're nice, we're very nice. But when we're mean, we're monsters. It's a massive generalisation, of course, but speaking for myself, it tends towards truth (as those who know me well will openly attest, though perhaps without the 'very nice' bit).

Banner is Dr. Jekyll, a man of medicine, of good education, thoughtful and kind. He walks a moral path, sickened by the suffering in the world and the war man makes on his brothers. Eric Bana is a great actor and did a stand up job. Bill Bixby will, for many, always be the best Banner. But, for me, it's Norton all the way. Watch the movie and see. His performance is wonderfully nuanced, extremely human. I've been a fan of his other works, too (see Fight Club and American History X for some of his best), so I was delighted when he was cast as Banner.

But for all Norton's talent and skill, this movie is about the mean, green machine. And the Hulk himself is spectacular here. The striations on his muscles ripple (particularly on his pectorals and triceps) as he tears machinery out from its floor fixings and hurls it about with abandon. I was watching on Blu-ray and found myself tensing up, raging along with him every time he was on screen. Sounds preposterous, right? That's why I love certain movies so much. I get carried away by them. Just as well I usually watch them alone (I must tell you about my 'movie tunnel' in a future post).

No movie is perfect, of course. Tim Roth is miscast as a Royal Marines bad-ass here. He doesn't pull it off, and his lines are, frankly, a bit of a mess. William Hurt is passable as the complete bastard known as General Ross (Betty Ross's father), but Sam Elliot did it better in the Ang Lee fiasco. That's about it as far as negatives go (well, apart from a certain video-game style move the Hulk performs that doesn't really translate all that well to the big screen, but I'll let you see if you can spot that bit for yourselves).

Back to the plus points, mention should go to Liv Tyler as Betty. In a movie totally dominated by a fully CG character, she manages to do a great job of interacting with him, turning in a very solid performance.

Anyway, if you're interested in the Hulk at all, this is the movie for you. See it on Blu-ray if you can. And, if you're liking for the Hulk extends to animation, you might want to check out Nick Kyme's review of the new animated double-feature Hulk vs.

Watching: Nothing (work on the new book precludes it). :(
Reading: Story by Robert McKee
Listening to: Conan the Barbarian Soundtrack by Basil Poledouris

NOTE: Apparently, the US Blu-ray edition of The Incredible Hulk is region-free, and superior to the UK edition. This is the version I purchased. Just thought I'd mention it.

Let Battle Commence!

I hope you'll forgive me, dear blog readers, for not having put a new blog post up for a couple of weeks, but I've been having a spot of bother connecting to the internet with my main machine. It's still not sorted out, but at least I've identified the problem. Add to that the fact that I'm now about quarter of the way into the new book I'm working on, and I'm afraid the old blog has fallen by the wayside a bit. Obviously, this is my attempt to remedy that.

So, what's been happening? Let's see. I think it's fairly common knowledge now among Black Library readers that I'm working on the first of a new line of Space Marine related books that are due to be launched next year. This series, I can now announce, is called Space Marine Battles, and trust me, it's going to kick ass.

I won't be handling all the entries in the series, but it's my intention to kick everything off with a big bang. There's been a bit of speculation on the Black Library forums (and in previous comments on this very blog) regarding which Space Marine Chapter I'll be dealing with, and a lot of those guesses have been right on the money, but I'm still not in a position to officially reveal the details.

The artwork below, however, contains the biggest, most obvious clue in the history of obvious clues, so, if you can't work it out from that, well... there's no hope for you.


On the subject of writing, I came across an outstanding quote the other day that really captures my feeling on the writing process itself and all the doubts I think every writer experiences as he goes through it. Here's the quote:

It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

In case you're wondering, this quote is from E.L. Doctorow, the American author and editor. He just nails it! It's exactly how I feel during the first draft of a book. You just have to ignore the little editorial voice in your head and keep going, knowing that the second and third pass are what really make the difference.

Listening to: The Da Vinci Code soundtrack by Hans Zimmer
Reading: Tropic of Creation by Kay Kenyon (second time!)
Playing: not much, but making infrequent forays into the stunning world of Devil May Cry 4 just so I can stare at the scenery.