New Cover Art from Angry Robot!

The first cover is from Matt Forbeck's upcoming Titanic themed horror novel Carpathia.  This will be out March 2012, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the "unsinkable" ship.  I like how this cover is blood stained, with the Titanic sinking in the background; pretty eerie!  I've never heard of horror being combined with this famous disaster, and since I was such a fan of Vegas Knights, I'm excited to see where Forbeck's take on the story will go...

And also revealed just this week is the brilliant new cover art for Adam Christopher's Empire State.  I've enjoyed following him on Twitter; his view on superhero fiction is awesome!  If you haven't heard already, he practically got his Angry Robot deal via Twitter alone; you can read what I mean and how he came to be an Angry Robot author here.

Here's a brief synopsis and tag line:

" The stunning noir-fantasy thriller set in the other New York!


It was the last great science hero fight, but the energy blast ripped a hole in reality, and birthed the Empire State – a young, twisted parallel prohibition-era New York.

When the rift starts to close, both worlds are threatened, and both must fight for the right to exist..."

Empire State already has its own page at Angry Robot and from the early blurbs, this book just sounds all kinds of awesome, making me count the days til its US release date December 2011!!  It is also featured in the Book Cover Smackdown at SF Signal.

Adam and Empire State will also be featured in The Qwillery for the 2012 Debut Author Challenge.  To take part, you just need to sign up, buy the book when it comes out, read it, and then join the conversation over at The Qwillery; he will also be doing an interview and reader Q&A so check it out!

WOW!  It looks like Angry Robot is starting 2012 off with a BIG bang!  Again guys, I'm counting the days!!

Review: Vegas Knights by Matt Forbeck (Angry Robot)

Let me say right from the top that I feel as if I had sat at a happy hour with Matt Forbeck one night and we talked about some of my favorite things; great books, magic, Las Vegas, caper movies, zombies and then he turned up the next day with THIS!  VEGAS KNIGHTS is one of the best Urban Fantasy books I've read in a long time; it's cleverly written, fast paced and wonderfully fresh.

Jackson and Bill are two college students who come to Las Vegas on spring break to try to win big at the casinos; the difference here is that they want to do it using magic.  

Of course, they get caught.  And from here Matt Forbeck lets us in on the biggest secret of Las Vegas, that it's not the Mob that runs the city but is in fact several factions of magicians.  Forbeck reveals this secret history of Vegas bit by tasty bit while keeping the action coming fast and furious.

For me, VEGAS KNIGHTS succeeded on so many levels; the writing is breezy and natural, the chareacters are likable, the pace of the novel moves at a fast clip and I can see why several reviewers have mentioned the cinematic quality of Forbeck's writing; the neon and glamour of Las Vegas jump off the page and you can hear every bell and whistle from the casinos.  Yes, VEGAS KNIGHTS is begging to be a big, splashy Hollywood blockbuster.

I think the only quibble I have is that the story wrapped up too soon for me; but again, that's a minor complaint since I found the book to be so damn good!  It is my sincere hope that Matt Forbeck will continue Jackson and Bill's excellent adventures in Vegas, since I think he's come across a goldmine here with plenty of stories left to plumb from it.  And if he does, I will be all in!