Category: Robot Overlords novel

Robot Overlords Half Price Sale

Before I wrote about witches, I wrote about Robots and it was eight years to the day when the novelisation of Robot Overlords was published! And so to celebrate, I’m selling the paperback at half price for one week only exclusively at the Woodville Village bookshop. That includes the DVD and Blu Ray bundles, and the bundle with all my books. Click here to grab your copy.

Here’s the film’s trailer to whet your appetite…

Robot Overlords is available on digital download in the all the usual places and is currently streaming in the UK on Amazon Prime.

ROBOT OVERLORDS BOOK FACTS…

  • The paperback includes my diaries while we were making the film.
  • It has a list of the whole cast and crew
  • And an exclusive short story called THE MEDIATOR PROTOTYPE!

The sale is on till Sunday 19th February 2023 at the Woodville Village Bookshop, so grab your copy now while stocks last etc…

Grab a paperback here.
Here’s a paperback with a Blu Ray steelbook.

Robot Overlords DVD and book giveaway on Instagram…

To celebrate the premiere of ROBOT OVERLORDS on Sky Movies UK today (Good Friday), the lovely people over at Gollancz are having a book ‘n’ DVD giveaway.

To enter, just pop over to the post on Instagram (via the link below), ‘like’ and leave a comment. The giveaway closes at 23.59 on 29th March. Good luck!

 

Try the Geek Apocalypse podcast drinking game…

I had good fun chatting with Steven Hesse over at the Geek Apocalypse podcast. We discuss the kinds of people you meet at MCM Comic Cons, 2000 AD, Pat Mills, indie movies vs Hollywood movies, film tie-ins, world building, plot holes, Robot Overlords and all sorts of stuff.

You can stream it here, or if you get your podcasts from iTunes click here.

There will be a video version at some point and I’ll plonk it here when it arrives, in the meantime enjoy and, if you like drinking games, take a shot every time Steven says “super duper fun”, you’ll be plastered before you know it!

The Prologue of the Robot Overlords audiobook is now on Youtube…

I’ve been meaning to do this for ages! The whole of the book’s prologue, featuring an excellent reading by Rupert Degas, is now on Youtube for your delight and delectation. Enjoy…

The full audiobook is available on Audible and iTunes, and if you’re a first time visitor to Audible then you can choose a FREE audiobook, so why not start with an epic story of Robot world domination overthrown by a bunch of kids from the UK? Go on. You know you want to…

Audible UK: http://goo.gl/fzwGCc
Audible.com (USA & elsewhere): http://goo.gl/yPrp67
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/audiobook/robot-overlords-unabridged/id1006874299

And there’s more about the book here: http://unusuallytallstories.com/robot-overlords-get-the-book/

I’ll be at the MCM Comic Con, London 23-25 October – come and say hi!

MCM Comic Con 23-25 October, Excel – London – Royal Victoria Dock

MCM2015_London_webportal

I’ll be in the Comic Village at the mega MCM Comic Con at the Excel in London. Come along and say hi, ask me about the behind-the-scenes secrets of the Robot Overlords, and get yourself a signed copy of the book (or, if you’ve already got a copy, or a DVD, or Blu Ray, then bring them with you!) this will be your last opportunity before Christmas! (After this I’m having a lie down…)

I’ll be in the company of the splendid author and illustrator of the Union-verse books Mr. Kit Cox (who kindly invited me along with the promise of good times and tea and biscuits).

Now, here comes the complicated bit… I’ll be there all day Friday, Saturday afternoon, and all day Sunday. I won’t be there Saturday morning, because I’ll be here instead…

London Screenwriters’ Festival, Saturday 24th October, 9-10am (Yes! A.M.!).

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Join me for a post-breakfast panel (bring your own croissants!) – should be good fun. Here’s the blurbery…

Robot Overlords is an unusual beast: a British indie family science fiction adventure movie starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Gillian Anderson, with a hefty (for the UK) VFX budget.

Join co-writer Mark Stay to see how this idea evolved from a two-page pitch to a finished film that premiered at the London Film Festival and topped the home entertainment charts.

Topics Mark will cover in-depth include:

Writing pitch documents

Working and writing with a director

Writing for VFX

The perils of British distribution!

Read the script (available in the booking & submissions page) then watch the movie on DVD/Blu-Ray or digital download ahead of the session to get the very most out of this in-depth dissection of one of the most ambitious UK genre films of the year.

For more info click here.

GollanczFest 2015 – behold the awesome line-up (and, er, me!)…

GollanczFest 2015: 16th-18th October – Manchester and London

 

**STOP PRESS: LONDON AND MANCHESTER HAVE SOLD OUT, BUT THERE ARE STILL TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR THE WRITERS’ DAY ON SUNDAY 18TH**

This is going to be awesome, with an amazing line-up of authors including Joe Hill, Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson, Joanne Harris, Ben Aaronovitch and Sarah Pinborough, spread over four days starting Manchester and ending in London.

Day one: Friday 17th October, Waterstones Manchester Deansgate

I’m in the CLASS OF 2015 bit with Aliette De Bodard, Alex Lamb, Al Robertson and Tom Toner and it should be great fun…

Manchester - Room 1
Manchester – Room 1 (click to enlarge)

Manchester Room 2
Manchester Room 2 (Click to enlarge)

Day Two: Saturday 18th October, Waterstones Piccadilly.

This has officially sold out, but if you’re a lucky ticket holder, then I’ll be in the Class of 2015 bit again, with a slightly different, but no less awesome, line-up:  Antonia Honeywell, Alex Lamb, Al Robertson, Tom Toner and Catriona Ward…

London Room 1 (click to enlarge)
London Room 1 (click to enlarge)

London room 2 (click to enlarge)
London Room 2 (click to enlarge)

Day Three: Sunday 18th October, Waterstones Piccadilly – Writers’ day

This has just been added so grab your tickets now! If you’re a writer, this day is gold dust. If I weren’t already going, I’d be first in line for tickets. Top writers and agents (and, er me!) talking about their craft. Unmissable…

What a line up! (Click to enlarge)
What a line up! (Click to enlarge)

Friday and Sunday, Prince Charles Cinema screenings of Minority Report and The Prestige.

And after all that, why not kick back enjoy a couple of classic movies with introductions from Pat Cadigan and Joe Hill?

minority

prestige

Really hope to see you there. It’s going to be a blast.

 

The GollanczFest is a go-go!

gollanczfest

Gollancz Fest 2015: 16th-17th October – Manchester and London, events tbc

Not sure what I’ll be doing yet, but there will be an awesome line-up of talent (and me!), so you’d have to be some sort of weird anti-geek to miss out…

Last year tickets were sold out in three weeks, so to get yours click here.

Polish Robot Overlords, aka IMPERIUM ROBOTÓW – out 14th July!

I’m delighted to report that the Polish-language paperback edition of ROBOT OVERLORDS is out on 14th July!

The Polish edition's cover art
The Polish edition’s cover art

As a huge fan of Google Translate’s butchery of foreign languages, I give you their version of the blurb…

Rise of the Empire robot man (or, Empire Robots: Human Rebellion):

Three years ago the Earth was conquered by an army of robots from a distant world. Bring your right: 1. Do not go out of the house! 2. Command observe robots! If you leave the house, you will get only one warning, then you will take care of a huge block, guard, sniper or flying Dron. You will die turned into a handful of ashes. But Sean Flynn is convinced that his father – RAF pilot who fought in the war with robots – is still alive. When he and his pack discovers a way to break the blockade of robots, begins an adventure that throws them at the mercy of the power of Lords ROBOTS.

Aah, Google… never change.

I can assure you that the good people at Wydawnictwo Amber will have done a much finer job translating my idiosyncrasies into Polish, and they’ll surely be familiar with robots as ‘Robota’ is an old Slav word, usually meaning a serf or slave, and it was first made popular by Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which is now published in the UK by Gollancz. There, don’t say you won’t ever learn anything educational on this blog!

The film is released in Poland a couple of weeks later by Kinoswiat on 31st July. Here’s the trailer…

Śmierć robotów!

 

The Robot Overlords audiobook is now available to pre-order!

9781409162520

Absolutely delighted to report that the audiobook version of ROBOT OVERLORDS is available to pre-order from Audible now – it’s released on 18th June and is read by audiobooks legend Rupert Degas, who has hundreds of audiobook credits to his name and also crops up in some of my favourite cartoons, including THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL. I’ve only heard a short excerpt, but what he’s done with the Mediator’s voice is absolutely brilliant: the love child of Stephen Hawking and a Dalek.

You will also be able to hear my dulcet tones as I’ve recorded my ‘Afterword on living life dangerously’, and shoot diaries as added extras. In early May I found myself in the beautiful Gloucester countryside recording in producer Peter Rinne’s start-of-the-art recording studio/garden shed…

The perfect man cave...
The home studio that I want when I grow up…

The audiobook will also include the short story THE MEDIATOR PROTOTYPE, an abundance of stomping, clanking and blasting Robot sound effects from the film, and excerpts from Christian Henson’s magnificent score, so it’ll be a full-on audio treat.

You can pre-order now from iTunes, Audible UK and Audible US. Happy listening!

 

 

Robot Overlords screening at the Greenwich Book Festival – Sunday May 24th – now with added James Tarpey!

STOP PRESS!

Come and see a screening of ROBOT OVERLORDS this Sunday 24th May at 2.30pm!

As part of the Greenwich Book Festival, I’ll introduce the event with a ‘From script to screen’ presentation, followed by a screening of the film. I’m pretty sure this will be your only chance to see the film before the DVD release later this year, so do please come along!

STOP STOP PRESS!

I’m also delighted to announce that I’ll be joined by James Tarpey, one of the film’s stars! We’ll have posters to sign and give away to those who buy a copy of the ROBOT OVERLORDS novelisation.

Tickets are just £6 – click here for details!

The film is rated 12A, so children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Robot Overlords: From Script to Screen, plus a screening of the film.

Starts 2.30 pm – Presentation: 45 minutes (approx.), film running time: 90 minutes – should all be done by 5.30!

Old Royal Naval College

Queen Anne Building

Lecture Theatre 080

SE10 9LS London