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Exactly two weeks to go until , the first book in The Steam Clock Legacy series, is launched at . The good folks there have put an exclusive excerpt up on Facebook--the first FIVE chapters for free download! Airships, diving bells, grand adventure, phenomenal steampunk science gone awry; check out all this and much more .

Feb 6 is the official release date. Prehistoric Clock will also be available as an audiobook.

What begins as a fun, nimble little mystery in thefirst act soon kicks into comedy-action-adventure high gear when juniorreporter Tintin, with his brave dog Snowy, stumbles upon boozy Captain Haddock(an excellent Andy Serkis), whose family legacy may prove pivotal in a race touncover the secret of the Unicorn.

From that point on, it's more or less non-stopcomedy—some fizzles, most of it works—with gags ranging from jaw-droppingblockbuster chase antics to throwaway background humour. Captain Haddock worksbrilliantly for the most part: he's unpredictable, endearing, and colourful inall the ways Tintin himself isn't. While the youngster is well played by JamieBell, he's mostly just there to work out the clues for the audience. Tintin andHaddock make for a good double-act, though: brains and brawn, cunning and in-over-his-headrashness; together they'd make a good Indiana Jones.

The plot is a by the numbersmystery/adventure/treasure hunt, complete with bumbling detectives (so-so comicsupport from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost), exciting sea plane action and hiddenclues, but it's brought to life in gorgeous visual style. While the script onlycomes alive in fits and starts, the whole film is bursting with rich detail,and is given added depth by good, solid use of 3D. The virtual cameraworkthroughout is stupendous.

One extended chase sequence through the floodingstreets of a North African city is so dazzling and dizzying it reminded me whyno other filmmaker can match Spielberg when he lets his imagination out for aspin. Another action scene, told in flashback, depicts a breathless pirateshowdown in a storm, and features some of the most playful transitions I'veseen since Ang Lee's Hulk. There's a pretty good villain, too, played by a wilyDaniel Craig.

Snowy, while definitely smarter than your averagecute canine, is also given to chasing cats, digging up fossilised bones fromthe desert, and gobbling sandwiches at decidedly inopportune moments. In otherwords, he's an instant audience favourite.All in all, it's a rollicking good adventure, one ofSpielberg's most fun movies in a long time, and I'll be buying it on Blu-raynext year.

Rating: 4.5/5

Here's a quick reminder of the birthday celebration currently underway at one of my excellent publishers, . Prizes handed out every day throughout October, including a KOBO and a Kindle! And my own Basingstoke Chronicles is the giveaway book on the actually birthday, Oct 13th. Head on over there right away...

ANNOUNCEMENT:

We are Five Years Old! Five years ago this month--on 13 October 2006--we released our first titles. Since then we've released more than a hundred extraordinary ebooks, written by some of the most talented authors in the industry. So we are celebrating. And inviting you to celebrate with us. We'll be giving away an eBook A Day all through October. On 13 October, our anniversary, we'll give away a KOBO loaded with five of our ebooks. Come 26 October, we'll give away a Kindle, with eight more ebooks.

All the details are on our Birthday Party page: , including what you have to do to enter either the eBook-A-Day scavenger hunt or the KOBO and Kindle drawings.

Jude & Star
Uncial Press

Here are the five winners in my 'Writing a SF Novel' contests.A huge thank you to everyone who entered. I hope you enjoyed reading aboutSparks in Cosmic Dust. It's available to buy now in either or ´Ú´Ç°ù³¾²¹³Ù.ÌýÌý

Without further ado, congratulations go to:Part One: Nels Wadycki 
Part Two: Ilona Fenton
Part Three: Cathy Pegau
Part Four: Jessa Slade
Part Five: Natalie DamschroderI've already contacted the first three. Jessa and Natalie,please email me at  [email protected]  and I'll send you your prizes right away.

Best,

Robert

My Sparks in Cosmic Dust celebration continues. I'm at bestselling SF author Shawn Kupfer's (47 Echo) blog today, with . Join me for some insights on science fiction worldbuilding, and a chance to win a free ebook!

Best,
Robert

To celebrate the upcoming release of my SF novel, (September 26, 2011, Carina Press), I'll be posting a five-part look at the book's development, from initial concept to book launch. I'll also be giving away one SF title from my back catalogue with each segment, ending with a special Sparks giveaway. The winners will be all announced on release day on my own blog:

Here's where you can find the other installments:

Part 1: Concept (Aug 31)�
Part 3: Worldbuilding (Sep 23)—Shawn Kupfer's Blog
Part 4: The Writing Process (Sep 26)—Cathy Pegau's Blog
Part 5: Publication (Sep 28)—Carina Press Blog



PART 2: CHARACTER

Survivor: The Deep Space Heroine

Heroines in space opera science fiction have generally conformed to one of two types: decorative damsel or Amazonian warrior, the former in constant need of rescue, the latter all but indestructible yet waiting (though she might not realise it) to be conquered by the hero. Both are iconic male fantasies that cross most fiction genres, and neither really interest me. The plausible science fiction heroine, to me, exists somewhere in between.

I also think the trajectory of feminism into futuristic space opera is overstated, on the whole. In the vastness of deep space, without society's laws to support or even encourage equality, I find it unlikely that any more than a few women would achieve a position of sustainable power over men. Sure, advanced weaponry would help level the playing field, and she might get to perform all the same jobs as her male colleagues—think Kaylee in Firefly—but unless she's in some sort of existing hierarchy that demanded obedience (eg military), I think a woman would have to be exceptional to convince her male counterparts to serve under her. That's why lady pirates have been rare throughout history. Outside the law, it's survival of the fittest.

But that's not to say women in deep space wouldn't be strong characters. On the contrary, they'd have to be formidable survivors. Especially in spaceships or colonies without atmospheres, death would be a constant factor. Anyone living under such conditions would be cautious and pragmatic to a fault. A hardness of character, an instinct for the preciousness of human company, would govern the deep space dweller. And cunning, rather than obvious ambition, might best serve those who don't immediately command obedience.

Varinia Wilcox—glamour girl with a haunted past

The celebrated strip poker queen of Kappa Max, an asteroid colony beyond the official outposts, might sound like a throwback to the worst sort of damsels in distress from old SF. But Varinia is probably the most cunning survivor on Kappa. She's managed to remain undefeated—read celibate—throughout her contract, over a year, and it's made her extremely rich. No one knows about her "coining" (astral projection) ability, but it enables her to cheat whenever she likes. It also ruined her previous career as a model in the inner colonies, through an incident that exiled her to deep space and forced her change her identity. Her new reputation as the unattainable goddess of the outer colonies draws punters from far and wide.

But she can never leave until she's lost (had sex with a client) five times, as per her contract. So she's trapped: either keep winning and getting rich OR let five complete strangers have their way with her. Time is running out. She can't feasibly keep winning forever. She needs a way out.
Teaming with handsome-but-wounded roughneck Solomon Bodine, she hatches a plan to escape Kappa Max for good. But where can she go, and how can she get there? What she needs is to lie low for a while, to have a fresh start.

A chance meeting with cynical ex-doctor Grace Peters offers hope—a prospecting gig on a faraway alien moon, Zopyrus. But to pull it off, Varinia will have to adapt to an entirely new way of living. Hard manual graft, meagre rations, long hours swinging a pick axe: how can a model turned bordello glam girl possibly cope with that for ten months?

One of my favourite parts of writing was the chance to reveal the characters' pasts gradually, using their strengths and weaknesses in a given situation as windows to who they were before Zopyrus, and how they might be changing. They all have secrets, some more crucial than others, and the fate of the expedition is never certain.

Varinia's desire to return to her happy, contented former life is symbolized by her decision to purchase a damaged mare to take along on the expedition. The animal has been ill-used as a beast of burden, but like her, it has survived against all odds. But can it ever be truly happy again, so far outside its milieu?Here's another concept sketch I did:
Varinia Wilcox might be the most interesting of my SF heroines because she isn't a natural leader. She doesn't know engineering or how to pilot a ship or how to kill anyone. Everyone takes her for granted because of her looks. And no one would ever have imagined her digging for precious elements in a dark mine alongside a roughneck, a fugitive, a wily old doctor and a border criminal.

But she has the most important quality in an alien environment: the ability to adapt. And those who adapt...survive.

With this second installment, I'm giving away an ebook copy of my SF novelette (Damnation Books, 2009). To enter, simply send an email to [email protected] with SPARKS GIVEAWAY TWO in the subject line. Don't forget to give your name.

Good Luck!

Sparks in Cosmic Dust is available to pre-order now at and on .

Best,

Robert

To celebrate the upcoming release of my new SF novel, (September 26, 2011, Carina Press), I'll be posting a five-part look at the book's development, from initial concept to book launch. I'll also be giving away one SF title from my back catalogue with each segment, ending with a special Sparks giveaway. The winners will be all announced on release day here on my blog.



PART 1: CONCEPT is now up on the



And don't forget to check here over the coming weeks for details of where to find the other installments.



Best,

Robert

Rulebreaker by Cathy Pegau



My rating: 4 of 5 stars





Description:



Liv Braxton's Felon Rule #1: Don't get emotionally involved.



Smash-and-grab thieving doesn't lend itself to getting chummy with the victims, and Liv hasn't met anyone on the mining colony of Nevarro worth knowing, anyway. So it's easy to follow her Rules.



Until her ex, Tonio, shows up with an invitation to join him on the job of a lifetime.



Until Zia Talbot, the woman she's supposed to deceive, turns Liv's expectations upside down in a way no woman ever has.



Until corporate secrets turn deadly.



But to make things work with Zia, Liv has to do more than break her Rules, and the stakes are higher than just a broken heart...



89,000 words





I thoroughly enjoyed this SFR espionage novel. The worldbuilding is very good, the main characters are vivid and vivacious. The build-up was a *little* slow for me--mainly because I didn't much care for the mother--but once Liv (our gutsy heroine and narrator) starts her new undercover job as PA to corporate hotshot Zia, the tension, both dramatic and sexual, really begins to crackle. It never lets up.



This is the sort of story that doesn't really need a villain as such. They are there, but the real enemy here is circumstance. At its heart, Rulebreaker is a tender and poignant love story between two people who absolutely can't end up together, but absolutely MUST. Recommended to all SFR readers, and for those curious about the genre but have yet to give it a whirl. You'll find Ms. Pegau's future world easy to relate to.

Are you up for a deep space treasure hunt?

My upcoming Carina Press SF novel SPARKS IN COSMIC DUST is up now at . If you're interested in getting hold of an Advanced Review Copy, hurry on over there to read the . See you on the flip side.


Best,

Robert Appleton

Sparks in Cosmic Dust

My science fiction novel SPARKS IN COSMIC DUST has an official release date of September 26, 2011 at Carina Press. Head on over to my website to read the first two chapters.







Meanwhile, here's the blurb:



The final frontier is shrinking. Interstellar Planetary Administration sanctions are forcing the border colonies of deep space into extinction. Kappa Max is one of the last major cutthroat outposts, home to the lawless and the lonely�



Varinia Wilcox, the star attraction of a lucrative bordello gambling house.

Solomon Bodine, spurned by his lover and looking for distraction.

Clayton Barry, AWOL and a few drinks away from having to live in the gutter.

Lyssa Foaloak, a double-crossing criminal who'll kill anyone for a few credits.



Four strangers, each with secrets that could cost them their freedom, are desperate to get off-planet. They meet Grace Peters, a cynical ex-doctor with an intriguing offer: a six-month trip to a faraway moon where she claims a stunning fortune awaits.



But this adventure is no easy escape. Danger, passion, secrets and madness await. Can they survive the mission, and each other, to make it out alive?



87,000 words