JAMES SWALLOW

The Official Site of Bestselling Author James Swallow - COMING SOON!

Books

War Stories

by

New anthologies and reprints are hitting this month from Black Library, from the might clashes of the Horus Heresy and the grim dark future of Warhammer 40,000…and I got stories in both!

Already out now is Crusade + Other Stories, a collection of Warhammer 40,000 fiction that is designed to act as an introductory volume for new readers looking to get their first taste of the 41st millennium (hence the “Start Here” flash on the cover). 

From a battle between the valiant Ultramarines and their plague-ridden Death Guard foes, to tales of alien enemies and the Imperium’s many brave defenders, this anthology brings together a collection of stories perfect for learning about the various factions of the Warhammer 40,000 universe – it’s your ideal first step into the adrenaline-fulled fiction of the 41st Millennium.
 

My contribution is the prose adaptation of my Sisters of Battle audio story Red & Black, but you’ll also find the titular novella by Andy Clark and other fiction from Dan Abnett, David Annandale, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Peter Fehervari, John French, L J Goulding, Robbie MacNiven, Steve Parker, Josh Reynolds and Gav Thorpe. 

Crusade + Other Stories is available Here in paperback, eBook and audiobook editions. 

Also out this month is the paperback reprint of the Horus Heresy anthology The Silent War, which features three short stories by me – Ghosts Speak Not, Lost Sons and Patience.The collection also includes stories by C Z Dunn, John French, Nick Kyme, Graham McNeill, Anthony Reynolds, Rob Sanders and Chris Wraight.

The Silent War is available Here in the new paperback edition, along with several others.

Humble Heresy & Black Library Reloaded

by

You may have heard of Humble Bundle; it’s a digital storefront for games, ebooks and other stuff that not only allows people to get some excellent discounts on stuff (for a limited time) but also helps support worthy charities – and you get to pay as much or as little as you want.

And for around the next 13 days, the folks at Black Library are working with the Humble Bundle team to make a very cool Horus Heresy package available, which will benefit the UNHCR refugee agency (along with any other charity organization you mught like to help out). There are price points at $1, $8 and $15 which unlock multiple novels, audio dramas, comics and other stuff.

 


The $1 pack features the first five Horus Heresy novels, including my book The Flight of the Eisenstein and my audio story Oath of Moment. $8 gets you the next five books in the series, including Tales of Heresy which features a short story by me and the Garro audio drama Sword of Truth. Shell out $15 or more and get five more novels, including my 2nd Heresy book Nemesis and the audio Legion of One. It’s all DRM-free, nearly $380’s worth of fiction on sale as cheap as bio-chips, and for a good cause too. Click Here to visit the site and see the whole set of stuff you can get.

And meanwhile, Black Library’s web presence has respawned itself into an independant website this week, which you can visit Here, sign up for the newsletter, get some free fiction and downloadable digital wallpapers.

 


They’ve also launched Tales From The Archive, dropping the prices of classic BL fiction for a short time, and among the discounted releases is the ebook edition of my Warhammer 40,000 novel Deus Encarmine, the first in my Blood Angels series from back in 2004. Check it out Here.

 

Something Borrowed (2017 Edition)

by

Ah, the Public Lending Right; the gift that keeps on giving (to writers, editors, illustrators and other booky folks) and generally helps to remind us all why libraries are important places – not just for readers but for those of us who make books happen.

Not familiar with the PLR? Read on for my annual public service announcement on the subject:
If you are a writer/editor/illustrator/etc, a resident of the UK or Ireland and you ever need a reason for donating your books to the library – on top of all the obvious ones like promoting reading and supporting this valuable and increasingly undermined public service – this is it.
The PLR is a system where authors who’ve written books that are in public libraries get a little revenue each time somebody borrows their works. It’s a way to repay writers who won’t be earning a royalty from a sale in a bookstore. The hardworking folks at the PLR office pay a nominal fee based on how borrowed you were – and in the interests of fairness, you can’t earn more than around £6000, so the big names don’t get to hog all the money.

Once more, the PLR and the libraries it springs from are under threat from the current powers that be, so if you are a writer or a reader, please do your bit to help support both as best you can.

Here’s my Top Ten Library Loans of my novels for 2016 (with 2015’s position in brackets)

1 (1) Deadline
2 (5) Fear to Tread
3 (2) Peacemaker
4 (3) The Poisoned Chalice
5 (-) Nomad (paperback & hardcover editions)
6 (10) Cast No Shadow
7 (6) Hammer & Anvil
8 (4) Nemesis
9 (9) The Flight of the Eisenstein
10 (13) Blood Angels: The Second Omnibus

For the second year running, by 24 novel Deadline holds the top slot, with the Horus Heresy story Fear to Tread and Doctor Who tale Peacemaker very close in 2nd and 3rd places. It was nice to see one of my Blood Angels omnibus editions re-enter the top ten, but I was most pleased to see my new thriller novel Nomad make a great showing!

As always, my thanks to everybody who supported their local libraries and borrowed my books!

2k16 Books

by

And my last list of the year is all about books. I got through less titles this year, but longer works so I guess it kinda evens out. Science fiction and thriller/crime titles came out almost level, and almost half my reading was digital in 2016.

My top reads of the year were Rowland White’s story of the first space shuttle flight Into The Black, my buddy Ben Aaronovitch’s The Hanging Tree, Peter Tieryas’s United States of Japan and Bob Judd’s Formula One.

Here’s the full list:
Designers & Dragons: The 2000’s (Shannon Appelcline); The Weapon of a Jedi (Jason Fry); Be The Monkey (Barry Eisler & Joe Konrath); Warlord (James Steel); United States of Japan (Peter Tieryas); Private Sydney (James Patterson with Kathryn Fox); Into The Black (Rowland White); The Escape (Cavan Scott); How To Avoid Being Killed in a War Zone (Rosie Garthwaite); The Paradise Game (Brian Stableford); The Lions of Lucerne (Brad Thor); The Hostage (James Patterson with Robert Gold); Airport Code Red (James Patterson with Michael White); The Dream Machine (Richard Whittle); Dark Clouds (John Shirley); Spare Me The Truth (CJ Carver); The Hanging Tree (Ben Aaronovitch); Kill File (Christopher Farnsworth); The Assassination Game (Alan Gratz); Tenacity (JS Law); Brinkmanship (Una McCormack); Military Slang (Lee Pemberton); Codex (Graham McNeill); Fear of the Dark (McNeill); Wild Justice (Wilbur Smith); Formula One (Bob Judd); Catalyst (James Luceno); Delete (Karl Olsberg); A Dictionary of RAF Slang (Eric Partridge); Nerd Do Well (Simon Pegg); Devil’s Due (Andrew Warren); The Farthest Station (Aaronovitch); Ahsoka (EK Johnston); Rogue One (Alexander Freed); Bloodline (Claudia Grey).