REVIEW: Serial Killers Incorporated by Andy Remic

Serial Killers Incorporated by Andy Remic
Publishing Information: Kindle Edition
Publisher: Anarchy Books; 25 March 2011
ISBN 10: 1908328045
ISBN 13: 978-1908328045
ASIN: B004TTX5SM
Series: Book One
Copy: Provided by Author
Reviewer: Tyson


Synopsis: "Meet Callaghan, a hard-drinking, drug-fuelled, womanising no-good son-of-a-bitch. He's the amoral hardcore photographer for Black & White, the tabloid rag that tells it as it is. Or at least, how it should be.

Callaghan's in way too deep with Mia, his Mexican stripper girlfriend... and even deeper with Sophie, estranged wife to Vladimir "Vodka" Katchevsy, infamous Romanian gun-runner and self-eulogising expert at human problem solving. People start to die. And Callaghan's caught in the middle. A situation even his Porsche GT3, Canary Wharf Penthouse suite and corrupt politician contacts can't solve.

At the nadir of his downward spiral, Callaghan is approached by a man: a serial killer who brings him a very unique and dangerous proposition..."

It is no secret that I am a fan of Remic's work. He does a great job of creating very visceral scenes and situations. Not to mention in his latest novel he takes a new direction and goes for a well done mystery. There is a lot of murder and mayhem in Serial Killers Incorporated. In fact, the mystery is what made it such a hit for me. Remic is known for his Clockwork Vampire trilogy (Kell's Legend and Soul Stealers reviews), which is in a similar vein to Gemmell and his military sci-fi novels which I have yet to get to. With this novel we see a different side of him, and it is a side that I want more of.

Callaghan is not the most likable character. He likes designer drugs, fast women, and fast cars. To make matters worse he is part of the paparazzi. He finds the recently deceased and takes the pictures that end up on the front page of London's most successful tabloid. While he is very self-centered in the beginning, he does show some signs of becoming more human towards the end of the book, and maybe something else. The people he surrounds himself are not very likable either. From the married woman he is seeing on the side to his estranged stripper girlfriend. Things get even more strange when he is approached by a serial killer with a job. To document and report on the killers' activities.

The story takes place in modern day England. Callaghan and his report friend do there best to uncover the underbelly of the streets of London and beyond. Of course Callaghan and his buddy do very well for themselves and live a lifestyle most would only dream of. Between his stable of exotic cars and motorcycles and bevy of beauties, Callaghan is lost. He is constantly finding himself on the wrong side of trouble and barely squeezing by when he gets out of each scrape.

As the story progresses things are not as they seem and Remic does a great job of hiding the truth from the reader, while at the same time building up suspense and ratcheting up the action. Just when you think you have all of the pieces figured out and the book is coming to a close, Serial Killers Incorporated throws you for a major curve. To tell you would spoil the entire book. The book also leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions. Which admittedly, I liked. It could be read as standalone, but rumor has it that Remic has the next book outlined and ready to go once he finds the time to work on it. I for one, am very glad to hear there will be a sequel. Serial Killers Incorporated is Remic at his best. If this does not make you a fan, I don't know what will. Highly recommended, the perfect stocking stuffer.



Plot  9/10
Characters 9/10
Style 9.5/10

Overall 9.5/10

PRESS RELEASE Aspiring Writers

Jordan Reyne, New Zealand's premiere

bloodthirsty Celtic rock and machine sounds superhero,

has teamed up with Anarchy Books to bring you a dazzling

short story writing competition!

Jordan Reyne's new album, Children of a Factory Nation, is being released September 2011 and follows a family who lived in Wales in the late 1800s during the Industrial Revolution. Like many alive in their time, they faced problems relating to difficult working conditions, poverty, and the tyranny of circumstance. This album constructs stories from facts known about Johnathan, Mary, their children Molly & Thomas, and grandchild Wynne.

The competition is to write a short story surrounding any character or sets of characters from Children of a Factory Nation using Jordan Reyne's lyrics or the facts about their real life counterparts as a starting point. The competition will be judged by Andy Remic, SFF author and co-owner of Anarchy Books, John Jarrold, esteemed agent with decades of experience in the publishing industry as both editor and agent, David Bradley, editor of the fabulous SFX magazine, Lee Harris, editor at Angry Robot Books, James Lovegrove, SFF New York Times bestselling author, Gary McMahon, rising star of the Horror Genre (and all-round nice-guy beer drinker), Jared Shurin of popular online magazine Pornokitsch, and the incredible Hugo award winner Ellen Datlow, veteran editor in horror and SFF fields.

First prize is publication in the album's accompanying magazine and on the website, £100, a t-shirt, signed copy of the album Children of a Factory Nation, and the first three Anarchy Books ebook releases, in all digital formats. Three runners up will receive a signed copy of Jordan Reyne's new album.

Stories should be no longer than 3000 words, and submitted digitally in a single file (either .doc, .rtf or .pdf)

Deadline for final entries is Sunday 14th August. The winner(s) will be announced on Sunday 28th August. Authors must be willing to give 6 months exclusivity on the story (from the time of publication) if they win the competition. Happy writing!!

ENTER NOW

ANARCHY BOOKS

ANARCHY BOOKS, part of ANARCHY MEDIA, is a radical new publishing company. Our focus is on multi-strand publishing projects, concepts which combine different media to present a wider experience for the entertainment junkie. Our first project, SERIAL KILLERS INCORPORATED, is a thriller novel by ANDY REMIC, genre author of SPIRAL, QUAKE, WARHEAD, WAR MACHINE, BIOHELL, HARDCORE, CLONEWORLD, KELL'S LEGEND, SOUL STEALERS and VAMPIRE WARLORDS, with the music album provided by TH3 M1SS1NG and short film created by GRUNGE FILMS. The novel and album were released April 2011. Our second novel is THE OFFICE OF LOST AND FOUND by Vincent Holland-Keen, a homage to Douglas Adams, and we have many more upcoming titles by popular authors such as Eric Brown, James Lovegrove, Jeffrey Thomas, Tony Ballantyne and Neal Asher, to name but a few.

Run from the UK and publishing worldwide, ANARCHY BOOKS aims to move forward the ever-expanding publishing boundaries of digital media with energy, originality, multi-strand projects and anarchy. Like the explosive punk movement of the 70s, ANARCHY BOOKS is detonating with a view to the future of rapidly accelerating digital concept media.

Long live ANARCHY in the UK!!

www.anarchy-books.com 

ENTER NOW

REVIEW: Soul Stealers by Andy Remic

Soul Stealers by Andy Remic
Publishing Information: Paperback; 412 Pages
Publisher: Angry Robot; 26 October 2010
ISBN 10: 0857660675
ISBN 13: 9780857660671
Series: Book 2 of the Clockwork Vampire Chronicles
Copy: Out of Pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Back of the Book: "They came from the North, and the city fell. Now it is time for Kell to organise the resistance. But there are vampire assassins on his trail."

Soul Stealers is the second book in the Clockwork Vampire Chronicles and is a direct sequel to Kell's Legend. It takes place mere minutes after the events in the first book. Admittedly, it took me a chapter or two to recall everything that had happened in the previous installment. But once I remembered where the book left off, I was back in the swing of things (pun intended).

As I mentioned in my review of Kell's Legend, Remic has a style that is reminiscent of David Gemmell. However, with Kell he has all the aging hero of Druss but it is definitely his own character. The problem that I have with Kell is that he is cantankerous at the best of times. Admittedly, I read Kell's Legend many months ago so perhaps I just do not recall him being so cranky. But in this installment it is what I noticed the most.

Kell is joined by a popinjay, or womanizer who is handy with a rapier. Saark provides the light-hearted portions of the story. After several decapitations and other grisly acts, Saark will switch gears and take your mind off of the scenes depicted. His discussions with Kell are at times humorous. My biggest problem with Saark is that after the first few incidents where it is fight or die he never changes his need for carnal pleasures. With legendary vampire assassins on your tail, staying sober and refusing the pleasure of a woman would take a step back but not with Saark. He can only think about those two things.

For all the hype about the twin vampire sisters being famed and deadly assassins, they failed to impress me. They spend more time hunting Kell and his companions down and then when they finally catch up to them they dodge and spin around but really fail to show me that they should be feared. For all the hype and concern, the characters seemed rather tame and inept. Considering Remic's ability to tell brutal battles and fight scenes, I expected more from this duo.

Soul Stealers is a steam punk/clock punk series. The vampires are a combination of clock parts and flesh. Their deadly fangs are actually copper funnels. Somehow when you mix the two, you come out with a powerful creature that hunts humankind. The big difference between the legendary vampires and Remic's vampires is that they need blood-oil to continue to exist. Through a magical creation the vampires take blood and transfuse it with oil to create the elixir of life. While the process has yet to be fully explained, I have to admit it is rather ingenious. The mystery surrounding it is interesting.

While Soul Stealers is a great follow up, it failed to enthrall me the way that Kell's Legend did. The ending left me scratching my head as I felt I had missed something very important and I ended up re-reading the entire chapter in order to double check. I did not miss anything but it was rather muddled and many readers may have a hard time following all that takes place. Some clarification is definitely needed as it felt like a page or two was missing from the scene. Muddled ending aside, Soul Stealers is a fast paced, gory tale with some great moments. Some of the characters are bigger than life. While others are hit and miss. The third book in the series Vampire Warlords is planned to be released in sometime in 2011.

Plot 7
Characters 6.5
Style 7

Overall 6.5/10

Around the Net Week of May 24th

Books


Andy Remic/Angry Robot

I have been waiting for the sequel to Kell's Legend for quite some time and had the chance to ask Andy Remic when SoulStealers would be out and available. He let me know that due to the fact that Angry Robot is now independent the publishing dates have been pushed back to ease the printing schedule.


From Angry Robot:

Press release: Angry Robot Books to Join Osprey Publishing

Leading Non-Fiction Publisher Acquires Specialist Sci-Fi Fiction & Fantasy Imprint

Following an acclaimed first year of publishing, the revolutionary science fiction imprint Angry Robot Books has parted company with HarperCollins UK. It will now run as an independent publishing imprint, with the full backing of niche publishing experts, Osprey Publishing.

Angry Robot will continue to operate from its Nottingham base and with its existing team under Marc Gascoigne, its founder and publisher. Marc said: “With the support of HarperCollins UK, my team and I have worked very hard on Angry Robot since it was founded. We have a great publishing programme in place and a dedicated bunch of supporters, the Robot Army, as well as some excellent sales of our first titles in the UK and an imminent launch into the USA. We are very pleased to have become part of the burgeoning Osprey empire. They understand our business and the enthusiasts who drive it.”

Chris Michaels, HarperCollins Digital Publisher, Fiction/Non-Fiction, who helped set-up Angry Robot, said: “Having helped build the foundations for a successful future, we are delighted that the Angry Robot team has found a new publishing partner in Osprey. We believe this will help them develop their niche offering, supported by Osprey’s specialist sales and marketing teams. We wish them good luck for the future.”

Marc Gascoigne added, “Our publishing programme for 2010/11 will be basically unaffected by these changes. There will be a short break while the transition is sorted out, but we will be re-launching in September 2010 and then it will be business as usual.”

Osprey’s move is a reflection of the company’s continuing strategic drive into niche communities that share a deep enthusiasm for their interest or hobby, whether it be military history (Osprey Publishing), heritage (Shire Books), or science fiction and fantasy.

Richard Sullivan, Marketing Director at Osprey commented: “We have a great deal of experience of serving specialist niches with a very tight product focus. Angry Robot is a great fit with our existing businesses. We are very excited about the opportunity to enter into a new market and we are looking forward to helping Angry Robot, its authors and its readers go to some exciting places.”

For more information check out the FAQ we’ve drawn up, or contact Angry Robot direct via the form on this website.

And from Andy Remic:

Publishing Delays for Soul Stealers & Vampire Warlords.

OK. For those who haven’t yet heard, Angry Robot Publishers have become independent of HarperCollins Publishers, and are now working alongside Osprey Publishing in the marketplace.

Chris Michaels, HarperCollins Digital Publisher, Fiction/Non-Fiction, who helped set-up Angry Robot, said: “Having helped build the foundations for a successful future, we are delighted that the Angry Robot team has found a new publishing partner in Osprey. We believe this will help them develop their niche offering, supported by Osprey’s specialist sales and marketing teams. We wish them good luck for the future.”

Marc Gascoigne added, “Our publishing programme for 2010/11 will be basically unaffected by these changes. There will be a short break while the transition is sorted out, but we will be re-launching in September 2010 and then it will be business as usual.”

A full breakdown of what’s happening can be found on the AR website here –http://angryrobotbooks.com/2010/05/press-release-angry-robot-books-to-join-osprey-publishing/

The *bad news* for you guys and gals is a change to various publications dates. Sadly, SOUL STEALERS has been put back 6 months, as has the US and Canadian releases of KELL’S LEGEND and SOUL STEALERS. New publication dates are as follows:

Kell’s Legend – US: September 2010

Soul Stealers – UK: October 2010

Soul Stealers – US: November 2010

Vampire Warlords – UK: May 2011

Vampire Warlords – US: June 2011

So!! There you go. Many apoplogies if anybody’s been waiting with gnashed teeth forSoul Stealers……… it’s coming, baby, it’s coming……..

Cheers

Andy Remic.

Scott Lynch

The Republic of Thieves cover for Scott Lynch's forthcoming book has been leaked. James over at Speculative Horizon has uncovered the gorgeous UK cover.

James is also responsible for the blurb on the book:

After their adventures on the high seas, Locke and Jean are brought back to earth with a thump. Jean is mourning the loss of his lover and Locke must live with the fallout of crossing the all-powerful magical assassins the Bonds Magi. It is a fall-out that will pit both men against Locke's own long lost love. Sabetha is Locke's childhood sweetheart, the love of Locke's life and now it is time for them to meet again. Employed on different sides of a vicious dispute between factions of the Bonds Sabetha has just one goal - to destroy Locke for ever. The Gentleman Bastard sequence has become a literary sensation in fantasy circles and now, with the third book, Scott Lynch is set to seal that success.

It should be a great book and one that I am waiting impatiently for.

Brian Ruckley

Brian Ruckley has launched a new website. His latest post is about his book habits. Some interesting, and at times, humorous. Check out it out at brianruckley.com.










Walter Jon Williams


Willams has a new novel coming out and has launched the cover to Deep State, the follow up to This is Not a Game.

The blurb:

Dagmar Shaw is back at it again. She is the Puppetmaster and this time thousands of gamers are dancing on her strings. But when the game she is running in Turkey comes into conflict with the new, brutal regime, she realizes that games have consequences.

When an old friend approaches Dagmar with a project so insane, so ambitious, she can’t possibly say no, she is plunged into a world of spies and soldiers. Dagmar is a Puppetmaster, but when the bullets are real and her ‘puppets’ start dying, is any cause worth it? A nation hangs in the balance and in a world of intrigue and betrayal, Dagmar needs to figure out just what part she plays.