Posts Tagged ‘Brian Ruckley’

THE EDINBURGH DEAD: Murder, body-snatching and black magic

Every August the city of Edinburgh is put in the spotlight due to the festival of comedy, music and theatre that’s held there. But lurking beneath this surface of joviality and hedonism, there is a much darker, more disturbing side to this city that most festival-goers don’t see. It’s a sinister and murky history littered with murder, grave robbing, executions and witchery . . . and it happens to be a wickedly exhilarating backdrop for an exceptional book we have out this month.  

From Brian Ruckley, author of the critically acclaimed Godless World trilogy, comes The Edinburgh Dead  (UK | US | ANZ), a darkly thrilling tale of murder, body-snatching and black magic. And it’s woven throughout with real-life characters and happenings from the shocking, all-too real history of the city.

The book is set in a period when medical scientists were experimenting the gruesome practice of dissection for the first time. In the operating theatres of Edinburgh, corpses were being sliced apart in front of the eyes of horrified and entranced spectators. The bodies used were supposedly obtained by honourable means. But those who know their Scottish history know that a certain pair called William Burke and William Hare were looking to make a tidy profit off these recent advancements in anatomical science. They realised how much a corpse could fetch on the black market at the time. However, they weren’t quite prepared to wait for their victims to die of natural causes before selling on their bodies . . .  

When Brian turned his eternally eloquent hand to this dark episode from history, and elaborated the facts with a gripping fantastical twist, I was amazed at the results. Drenched in atmosphere, heart-stoppingly suspenseful and thoroughly transfixing – I urge you to read this excerpt to see just what’s in store for you.

The Edinburgh Dead  (UK | US | ANZ) is out now worldwide. Read on for the blurb… (more…)

Deals and Deliveries: THE EDINBURGH DEAD by Brian Ruckley

What do you do after “putting the epic back into epic fantasy” (in the words of scifi.com)? If you’re Brian Ruckley, author of the Godless World Trilogy (WINTERBIRTH, BLOODHEIR, FALL OF THANES), you write THE EDINBURGH DEAD. I can’t improve on Brian’s own description “a dark, heroic fantasy set in 19th-century Edinburgh. With swords and gaslamps.” Brian is writing the book now, and we hope to publish it in 2011.

Anybody who reads Brian’s post, please note that we did actually sign this contract on purpose. It wasn’t an administrative error (like the first one).

Did we mention it’s bloody?

Praise for Brian Ruckley’s Fall of Thanes continues to snowball (*) around the web.
Over at the Hotlist, Pat calls it :

Dark, bloody, depressing, uncompromising, with a poignant ending that should satisfy most fans and characters that stay true to themselves till the very end, Fall of Thanes is an impressive conclusion to what is definitely one of the best fantasy series of the new millennium.

At Grasping for the Wind, John writes:

“The story has a great sense of oppression about it, and readers will wonder if all will finally end well for the characters we have come to appreciate.”

And The Mad Hatter’s Book Reviews says:

“Fall of Thanes is one of the bloodiest books I have read in the last few years save The First Law trilogy although the Godless series may have a higher body count.”

UPDATE: Simon over at BookGeeks gives it a great review as well:

Fall of Thanes was for me a strong conclusion to a very enjoyable trilogy, a sequence of books that embodies everything I enjoy about traditional epic fantasy, and I look forward to seeing what Brian Ruckley does next.”

Uncompromising. Bloody. Cold. Now that’s what we’d call a perfect beach read!

(*) This being The Godless World, that snowball is probably gritty and specked with blood and bits of mail.

An Interview with a Knight

Ever wonder where those fierce looking warriors on the front of fantasy covers come from? Brian Ruckley has a fascinating interview over at his blog now with the (real life!) knight pictured here.

A few weeks ago, I was sitting at home when I got a text from a friend. It was a jpg, and I couldn’t quite make out the image. I handed my phone to my son, and he squinted at it saying, ‘It looks like YOU! Yeah, I think it is you, on a poster or maybe a book cover … Fall of Thrones? No, the Fall of THANES?’

Read more

ITOW: May Bonanza – The Power of Three!

Where the fantastical and the occult are concerned three is undoubtedly the magic number. So when we were lucky enough to get not one, not two, but three of your favourite Orbit authors talking in their own words about, you’ve guessed it – their trilogies – well let’s just say we were happy!

In this bumper edition of ITOWs: Sean Williams talks candidly about the artistic influences, deep life questions (and of course the kick-ass space battles) that went into the writing of the finale of his Astropolis trilogy, Brian Ruckley speaks bloodshed, heroics, and the joys of treating his protagonists mean as he brings his Godless World trilogy to its epic conclusion, and Kelley Armstrong talks raising hell, writing for the young adult and the power of the ‘true trilogy.’

To quote Kelley ‘Happy Reading!’

All three titles are available from Orbit this month!

The Grand Conjunction: Book 3 of Astropolis [UK|AUZ], Fall of Thanes [UK|US|AUZ] The Awakening [UK]

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Want to Win a Signed, Personalised Hardback Copy of Fall of Thanes by Brian Ruckley?

Of course you do!

To celebrate the release of the much anticipated third title in the Godless World trilogy, Fall of Thanes, Orbit, in conjunction with Brian Ruckley and his hugely popular Winterbirth Facebook page, will be giving away two signed, personalised hardback copies of Fall of Thanes!

The competition will run for two weeks from today and winners will be selected at random on Friday the 8th and Friday the 15th of May.

To be in with a chance of winning simply head over to the Winterbirth Facebook page and become a fan. Every fully signed-up fan of the page will be entered into the draw. Signed up as a Fan already? Then you are already entered!

Brian has very kindly agreed to sign and personalise the books as per the wishes of the lucky winners, and what’s more he will be selecting each winner and posting the prizes with his own fair hands too! (He really does spoil you!)

Employees of Orbit (or its parent companies, Little, Brown and Hachette Livre) are not eligible to win and each entrant can only win once.  And of course, you must be a Facebook member to participate.

So, what are you waiting for? Logon and declare your Brian Ruckley Fandom now!

And for those of you who aren’t lucky enough to win but recognise a fab novel when you see one – Fall of Thanes is in shops this month. [UK/US/AUS]