Release Date: 17/04/15
Publisher: Titan
SYNOPSIS:
In the darkness of a underground cave, blind creatures hunt by sound. Then there is light, voices, and they feed... Swarming from their prison, the creatures thrive; to whisper is to summon death. As the hordes lay waste to Europe, a girl watches to see if they will cross the sea. Deaf for years, she knows how to live in silence; now, it is her family's only chance of survival. To leave their home, to shun others. But what kind of world will be left?
REVIEW:
A scary and perhaps weird offering from Tim that really does set the chill factor to 11 in this cracking horror title from Titan.
Its definitely strange but when you add solid descriptions alongside cracking prose and wonderful atmospheric build up all round generates a book that will keep you gripped long into the night.
Back this up with a good supporting cast as well as an unusual principle character and all round I was more than happy with this book, especially when you also throw in some great dialogue that demonstrates that even someone without “words” can be mighty in their own way. Great stuff.
Release Date: 31/01/14
Publisher: Titan
SYNOPSIS:
The massively acclaimed Alien franchise is one of the most successful of all time, beginning with the first film in 1979. In a dramatic twist, this novel will return us to that time, to Ellen Ripley, and to never-before-revealed secrets of the Weyland-Yutani Corporations...secrets that lead into the events of the second film, Aliens...and beyond!
REVIEW:
OK, I’m a huge fan of the films and to be honest I think it would only have been fair had they not added Ripley to this title. She was unnessessary, faced no real danger as with the time scale we know she survived and all round sadly dragged what was otherwise a solid title down from good to merely reasonable.
Whilst the action was good and hard hitting, I did find it hard to keep going with the book purely for the fact that we knew she’d live. It lost huge elements of its danger and placing it in established history really does limit what is possible. Perhaps next time they should leave Ripley in the Life Pod and give us all a new hero to face off against the Hive Foes.
Release Date: 11/10/12
SYNOPSIS:
The world as we know it has changed forever. The reason is Coldbrook. The facility lay deep in Appalachian Mountains, a secret laboratory called Coldbrook. Its scientists had achieved the impossible: a gateway to a new world. Theirs was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were unleashing. With their breakthrough comes disease and now it is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure and the only cure and the only cure is genetic resistance: an uninfected person amongst the billions dead. In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race. But will they find her in time?
REVIEW:
It’s time to turn on the nightlight and read long into the night with the latest offering from Tim Lebbon demonstrating why as a horror hound he’s one of the best to run you to ground and gnaw on your leg whilst the zombie horde approaches as here within this book is a story that has not only a lot of original elements but brings the best of the Zombie Genre to the reader with enough grotesquery to bring the most ardent horror fans retching to their knees.
Add to this top notch genre defying prose, some wonderful forward thinking and overall a book that feels cinematic throughout its pages as the revelations will have you glued to the final page. Back that up with an authorly style that’s identifiable alongside some cracking characters and all in I was more than sated. Great stuff.
Release Date: 02/08/12
SYNOPSIS:
AN ISLAND PRISON. AN OCEAN FULL OF MONSTERS. NO CHANCE OF ESCAPE.
Arrested by the Ald, scholar Bon Ugane and merwoman Leki Borle awake on a prison ship bound for the island of Skythe - a barren land warped and ruined by ancient conflict. Survival is tough and the colony's original inhabitants are neither friendly nor entirely still human.
But something else waits on the island, a living weapon whose very existence is a heresy. Destroyed many years ago, it silently begins to clutch at life once more.
REVIEW:
I love a good fantasy tale so when you get one that blends elements that should make a cracking story, I’m a reader that tends to get annoyed if I feel unfilled. Whilst part of this book had feelings that were reminiscent of Steven Eriksons Chained God, others brought a feeling of Chateau D’If from the Count of Monte Cristo. Add to this some monsters and an enclosed population and all in it should have been something spectacular.
Sadly for me I felt it that the principle character wasn’t as defined as he could have been, he didn’t move me into really caring for his fate and when the other elements started to come together it left me thinking that it was a mishmash of things I’ve seen before. Don’t get me wrong, the concept was solid and of course the prose was decent but overall due to these failings, it isn’t a title that for me stood out against the masses out there.
Release Date: 15/03/12
SYNOPSIS:
The official novelisation of the forthcoming movie Cabin in the Woods, directed by Joss Whedon. The details of the plot are a closely guarded secret, though Joss himself has described it as 'a straight-up, balls-out, really terrifying horror movie', adding, 'it is not just a slasher in the woods. It's a little more complicated than that...'
REVIEW:
OK, I haven't seen the film but I know Tim's name so I thought that his adaptation was going to be a decent offering. What unfurls is a fairly visual depiction and one that suits the authors writing style down to the ground. The prose is sharp, the description solid and when added to the authors ability to adapt and create a feeling of horror, it's a title that really did hit the spot for me as a reader.
All in a solid release and one that will do the format justice, especially if you like something to scare that you can put down, just remember to leave a gap before turning off that light.
Release Date: 29/07/11
SYNOPSIS:
Surrounded by a vast, toxic desert, the inhabitants of labyrinthine Echo City believe there is no other life in their world. Some like it that way, so when a stranger arrives he is anathema to powerful interest groups. But Peer Nadawa found the stranger and she is determined to keep him and the freedom he represents alive. A political exile herself, she calls on her ex-lover Gorham, now leader of their anti-establishment network. Then they recruit the Baker, whose macabre genetic experiments seem close to sorcery. However, while factions prepare for war, an ancient peril is stirring. In the city's depths something deadly is rising, and it will soon reach the levels where men dwell.
REVIEW:
I love a story that’s a little different to a lot of the titles already out there and Tim Lebbon is the type of author that really allows his mind to expand to encompass any tale that has a kernel of something special so much so that you’re never sure what you’re going to get in a proverbial Forest Gump type of manner.
What Echo City does is take Mega City One (or rather a city that feels like a fantasy version of Judge Dredds turf) and add a deeper horror element with a stranger carrying some undesired truth for the inhabitants that the totalitarian system doesn’t want revealed. Its beautifully done and with Tim’s talent it’s a story that has a lot of scope that will keep you entertained however where the story fails for me is that it all seems to occur in a Dark City type of environment where there’s nothing else out there and thus feels more than a little flat for expansion.
Yes there are area’s that can be explored such as how the city came to being or you have the scope to expand into the old a city is a 1000 stories waiting to happen but there is only so much that you can do and the story really has to be character driven which if they’re not that strong can fall flat fairly quickly. All in the story was entertaining but of all Tim’s books there are others out there that I’d recommend before this as a prime example of his work. I’m not saying that it didn’t fulfil what I wanted but rather just didn’t leave me with the bumps that I’ve expected at a tales end and for me that’s the pay off as far as Tim’s concerned.
Well, your probably wondering whats happening but we're part of the Tim Lebbon Blog tour, yep, the author equivalent of a cyber tour so that readers and fans can chase around the web to find out whats what about one of their fav authors along with a chance for new people to give him a go.
So here, as part of his tour, we're including not only some exclusive content but also make sure that you get the full short story by letting you know where else he's appearing. Stop One: My Favourite BooksStop Two: Allison and Busby (his UK Publisher)Stop Three: Highlanders Book Blog
Stop Four: Our LinkyStop Five: Speculative Horizons (This is Tim's Last part of his exclusive Blog story that will be appearing on May 20th.)Other stops on the tour that don't include the short story are:Stop Six: Fantasy Book Spot (23rd May)Stop Seven: Graemes Fantasy Book Review (25th May)Stop Eight: Mystery Blog as yet Unknown (27th May)Stop Nine: SFX Blog (1st June)READ THIS WHOLE PARAGRAPH BEFORE CLICKING ON THE LINKY CONTAINED WITHIN...And last but by no means least, your chance to get a signed copy of Tim's brand spanking new novel, The Island. What you'll need to do is follow the link and include our secret password. What is it? Shhhh be vewy, vewy quiet we don't want everyone hearing this, its: RHIANA. Also if you go to the other links, they'll also have a password for you to enter so you might be able to get some additional entries for this beautiful prize, we covets it already.
As a young lad, Tim has always wanted to be a write and when at the age of 9 he finished his first story he knew then that it was going to be his ideal career. After a few teenage years of starting and stopping numerous tales it wasn't until he was 20 that he finished his first horror story "Black Heart", that according to rumour is getting up the energy to manifest itself from within its hidden draw. Yet publishing was to call (Psychotrope (an independent UK Magazine) with his first published novel in 1997 by Tanjen (Mesmer.)Now, after thirty books published in the UK and US, we thought that we'd best have a word with him to see what makes him tick, what influences his work and above all how a Brit survives abroad whilst a relatively unknown in his homeland...Falcata Times: Writing is said to be something that people are afflicted with rather than gifted and that it's something you have to do rather than want. What is your opinion of this statement and how true is it to you?
Tim Lebbon: There are people I know who have to write every single day. I'm not one of those writers who goes insane if I can't get to the keyboard for a day or two ... but writing is definitely an important part of my life. If I'm not actually sitting down working, things are always still ticking over in my head. It can sometimes be distracting – I'll be reading, or watching a movie, and suddenly a plot point in one of my latest projects will resolve itself and I'll have to take notes (I'm notoriously forgetful – the amount of times I've woken up and thought, Damn, what was that fantastic, earth-shattering idea I had just when I was falling asleep last night?). So yes, I'm compelled to write because it's a part of who I am, but I certainly don't see it as an affliction, any more than having to breathe or eat.
FT: When did you realise that you wanted to be a writer?
TL: I've been writing stories pretty much since I could pick up a pencil, and I was drawing them before I could write. The idea of perhaps becoming a writer for a living hit me in my early twenties, but I've always written. I don't know what it is in me that makes me need to tell stories, and neither do I try to analyse that too much. I was born with my hat on that way, that's all.
FT: It is often said that if you can write a short story you can write anything. How true do you think this is and what have you written that either proves or disproves this POV?
TL: Short stories are a different discipline from novels, or screenplays, or poetry. Being good at one doesn't always mean you'll be proficient at another. Shorts stories are great for honing your language and craft, but they won't teach you the large scale plotting that you need in a novel. There are plenty of novelists who write very few short stories, and also writers who produce many shorts but who don’t often explore novel writing. Everyone's different. I’ve dabbled in both, as well as some screenwriting. I love trying different things.
FT: If someone were to enter a bookshop, how would you persuade them to try your novel over someone else's and how would you define it?
TL: I'd tell them I have fifteen kids at home that need feeding. I don't, I have two. But they eat for fifteen. I'd tell them, 'FALLEN is a thrilling adventure story set in a fantasy world, with danger, betrayals and staggering revelations'. As for defining my own novel, that’s quite hard – I’d call it a dark fantasy, I guess.
FT: How would you "sell" your book in 20 words or less?
TL: Please buy my book, I have fifteen kids to feed.
FT: Who is a must have on your bookshelf and whose latest release will find you on the bookshops doorstep waiting for it to open?
TL: Iain Banks (in both his incarnations), Ramsey Campbell, Michael Marshall Smith (and all his pseudonyms), John Connolly, Stephen King, and many many more. I don't keep as up to date with new books as I'd like, because there are still so many older books I'm trying to catch up on.
FT: When you sit down and write do you know how the story will end or do you just let the pen take you? ie Do you develop character profiles and outlines for your novels before writing them or do you let your idea's develop as you write?
TL: I'll have an outline and vague ideas, but the book and characters definitely come to life while I'm writing. It's an exciting process for me, almost like reading a book ... when I'm writing I'm always keen to know what will happen to the characters, and what will happen at the end. While I'm working, I'll be taking detailed notes of the next few scenes or chapters, so there is some forward planning going on ... but it's always done in a very organic way, as opposed to following a strict synopsis (due to publisher requirements I often sell a novel on the basis of a synopsis, but once I start writing I hardly ever even refer to it again ... er ... but don't tell my publishers that, will you?)
FT: What do you do to relax and what have you read recently?
TL: To relax I read, walk in the countryside with my family, go running & cycling (perhaps not as much as I'd like to), drink good real ale and wine (maybe more than I should), watch movies and TV (current favourite is THE SHIELD, my wife and I are working through the box sets ... stunning). I'm reading Iain M Banks' new Culture novel MATTER right now, a fantastic imagination, though I don't think it's his best (still a few hundred pages to go though). Just read Tom Piccirilli's THE COLD SPOT, and before that Neil Gaiman's THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, both of which were wonderful.
FT: What is your guiltiest pleasure that few know about?
TL: None. I'm very boring (and besides, that would be telling).
FT: Lots of writers tend to have pets. What do you have and what are their key traits (and do they appear in your novel in certain character attributes?)
TL: We've got a dog called Blu, a Weimaraner/Vizsla cross. He's only a year old, but the size of a moose and completely mad. He hasn't yet appeared in any book but he will at some point.
FT: Which character within your latest book was the most fun to write and why?
TL: I'll talk about both new books here, if I may ...
The two main characters in FALLEN were equally interesting to write. Ramus and Nomi are explorers – called Voyagers in the book – who have a very complex relationship: competitors, friends, betrayers, maybe even lovers. When the book came together in my head it was the relationship between these two that brought it alive, not the world or the plot or the landscape. It was a great process charting the history of these two, the destruction of their relationship, and its morphing into something else.
As for THE ISLAND, my favourite character was Kel Boon, the main guy, who's fled his old life as a soldier working for The Core (a secretive outfit hunting and killing intruders from beyond the land of Noreela... while much of Noreela still believes itself alone). But of course, there will be no happy retirement, otherwise it would be a pretty boring book. So Kel is trying to handle all this scary stuff while still trying to maintain this new life he's made for himself, which also includes a new love (the previous love of his life having been killed in an accident he had a large part in). He's a complex character, and what he goes through in the book is pretty dramatic. I like characters who change, and have to experience change around them, because I love seeing what shape they'll be in on the other side. This is what we writers do ... make characters we like, and then put them through hell.
FT: How similar to your principle protagonist are you?
TL: Not at all. I'm painfully boring. No one would want to read about me.
FT: What hobbies do you have and how do they influence your work?
TL: Reading ... er .... that's about it. I exercise, when deadlines aren't tying me to the desk. Do a lot with my family, especially as we now have the dog – we're out walking a lot, which is fabulous. I love the countryside and nature, and I think that shines through in a lot of my work. I also like real ale. It's lovely. Bring me more.
FT: Where do you get your idea's from?
TL: No idea.
FT: Do you ever encounter writers block and if so how do you overcome it?
TL: There are days when the words don't come easily, but it's all part of the process (today is one of those days …). I'll do something else for a few hours – interviews, editing, proposals, go for a run – and then get back to it. It's never affected me hugely. I've never had a prolonged period when I couldn't write ... a day at most. And as for having ideas, mine usually suffer a painful birth, but I think they're usually the best ones. It's quite rare that I have a complete 'eureka' moment ... usually I think of a great idea, then struggle to figure out how the hell it fits into a story. This is as close to a 'block' as I get, I suppose.
FT: Certain authors are renowned for writing at what many woudl call uncivilised times. When do you write and how do the others in your household feel about it?
TL: Because we've got two young kids, my writing runs pretty much as a standard job – my wife and kids leave for work and school, I write all day, then they come home & we have dinner and do family stuff. I often work in the evenings, but that's usually promotional stuff, emailing, and chatting with agents or writers I'm collaborating with (currently four and counting, on novels, screenplays and a TV series ... I love collaborating). I'd work 15 hours per day if I could, but it's nice to have the cut-off point there.
FT: sometimes pieces of music seem to influence certain scenes within novels, do you have a soundtrack for your tale or is it a case of writing in silence with perhaps the odd musical break in-between scenes?
TL: I don't have specific soundtracks. Writing both FALLEN and THE ISLAND I listened to a lot of classical music because of the lack of lyrics. Other times I'll listen to music and work well enough, though it's always by bands that I know very well – I can't listen to a new band while I'm writing. Music is a big part of my life. It makes the world go round. That, and real ale.
FT: What misconceptions, if any, did you have about the writing and publsihing field when you were first getting started?
TL: Not sure I had many misconceptions, though of course I'm still learning as I go along. I suppose if anything it was the thought that if I did ‘make it’, I'd get published in the UK because I'm a British writer. It turned out that I spent six or seven years published successfully in the mass market in the USA before I got my first deal here with the staggeringly wonderful Allison & Busby. I think that's pretty unusual.
FT: If music be the food of love, what do you think writing is and please explain your answer?
TL: Writing is the great escape. Reading is as well, to an extent, but when I write I not only visit whole new worlds, I create them.
FT: What can you tell us about the next novels?
TL: THE ISLAND is out in JUNE in the UK (hardback from Allison & Busby) and USA (trade paperback from Bantam). It's a standalone novel set in my fantasy world of Noreela, dealing with the threat of invasion from beyond, and the main character's dilemma when he's faced with trying to disrupt the potential invasion.
FALLEN is out in paperback in the USA (Bantam) and the UK (Allison & Busby). It's another standalone novel set in Noreela, the story of two competing explorers both seeking the last great discovery to be made in Noreela's founding times. But there's something waiting for them there.
I'm thrilled that both of these novels received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, and I think they're two of the best novels I've written. Seeing them on the shelves in the UK is fabulous.
FT: What are the last five internet sites that you've visited?
TL: Play.com, BBC News, Shocklines, Last Exit to Nowhere, Allison & Busby
FT: Did you ever take any writing classes or specific instructions to learn the craft? If so please let us know which ones.
TL: Nope, it never occurred to me, though I think there is some value in writing classes (and in fact I’ve taught a few myself).
FT: How did you get
past the initial barriers of criticism and rejection?
TL: Not past them yet – I still get rejected, and with the amount of books I write and publishers I work with, there are still bad reviews. I'm glad to say that the good ones usually outweigh them. It's not a case of getting past these things, really – it's just dealing with them. A friend of mine always says there's no such thing as a bad review, and there's a lot to be said for that. My first fantasy novel DUSK seemed to polarise opinion – some said I'd reinvigorated the genre, others said it was cliched and contrived. It sold really well, won a British Fantasy Award, and is still in print and selling now.
FT: In your opinion, what are the best and worst aspects of writing for a living?
TL: Worst – occasional money worries.
Best – everything else. How long have you got ...? It's the best job in the world, no doubt. I make up stuff and people want to read it, and it still shocks me to the core when I really think about that. So I don't. Another day, another chapter, and though I still find writing very hard work – always have, and probably always will - I consider myself very lucky indeed. Seeing gorgeous looking books like FALLEN and THE ISLAND on the shelves in bookshops, and remembering everything that went into writing them, is extremely satisfying.
BOOK BLURB:
The people of Noreela are just beginning an era of expansion, with explorers going constantly further into unknown territory for profit and glory. Blocking the voyagers' southward journeys, however, is the Great Divide, a cliff that reaches into the clouds. Ramus Rheel, an aging explorer battling cancer, and Nomi Hyden, whose wealth has not diminished her craving for adventure, are 'friendly enemies' who set out to scale the Divide and earn recognition as the greatest voyagers of all. When they find the lair of one of the ancient Sleeping Gods, they get considerably more excitement - and terror - than they bargained for.
REVIEW:
A prequel to Tim’s earlier works (“Dusk” (2006) and “Dawn” (2007) this novel continues exploring the world of Noreela in much the same sort of way. Add to the mix an Indiana Jones type of tale where a team is put together only to fall out and race each other to their objective. An objective that they discover was something perhaps best left where it was.
It’s a quirky tale, it move’s at its own pace (and lets face it when you’re talking about a 700 mile journey it can only go so quickly.) Nether the less it’s a tale of fascination, of discovery and above all about what each characters emotional journey when their “grail” ends up not so much the imagined cup, but something else entirely. Definitely a book if you’re looking for something a little different in the fantasy field and definitely a bit of fun. Highly recommended although the book back really doesn’t seem to do the tale justice as I only really decided to read the tale after it had been nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Awards.
