Posts Tagged ‘Clash of Iron’

Orbit Announce New Deal with AGE OF IRON author Angus Watson

Fantasy author Angus WatsonThe holiday season! So much waiting – waiting to open that Advent calendar, counting the days until the vacation, waiting for that one last online order to arrive so you don’t visit Aunt Ethel’s house empty-handed on Christmas day…

The bad news is we’ve got one more thing you have to wait for – and you’ll be waiting until Spring 2017. The very very good news is that we’re announcing THREE BRAND NEW BOOKS  from AGE OF IRON author Angus Watson! And that’s something worth waiting for.

WEST OF WEST is an action-packed new trilogy full of magic and adventure: a mismatched group of refugees will battle animals and monsters, determined assassins, an unforgiving landscape and each other as they cross a continent to fulfil a prophecy.

Orbit UK and US will be launching worldwide Spring 2017. And until then you’ve got the three amazing books in the AGE OF IRON trilogy to keep you happy … and they make great gifts, too! Order now and they’ll arrive in time for Aunt Ethel. Maybe.

The Iron Age Trilogy by Angus Watson

Angus Watson is a fantasy author and journalist living in London. He’s written features for many newspapers including the Times, Financial Times and the Telegraph, and the latter even sent him to America to look for Bigfoot. He is the author of the Iron Age trilogy and the upcoming West of West series. You can find him on twitter at @GusWatson or find his website at: www.guswatson.com. He is represented by Angharad Kowal at Writers House.

Meet the Author: Angus Watson

We interviewed Angus Watson, author of the Iron Age trilogy. Angus debuted last year with the action-packed historical fantasy adventure AGE OF IRON. The final book in the trilogy, REIGN OF IRON, comes out this month.

Angus Watson

What would be your quick pitch for the Iron Age trilogy?

Buy this book or I’ll drown these baby raccoons. Not really! AGE OF IRON is the best adventure story set in the Iron Age that you will ever read. Although younger readers might be better off with the Asterix books.

The final book in the series comes out this month, how does it feel to have completed the series?

I loved school and was sad to leave, but also looking forward to the next adventures. Finishing AGE OF IRON after around five years’ work feels like that. I used to think it was pretentious and a lie when authors said that characters had become their friends, but, annoyingly, it is rather like that when you spend days, weeks then months and even years sitting at your desk with only these made up people for company (and, in my case, two cats).

So, wanky as it sounds, I’m genuinely sad to leave old friends when we’ve been through so much together. However, I’m looking forward to meeting new people in the next trilogy and I daresay that some of my old friends, or at least parts of them, will be reincarnated.

And how does it feel to see the amazing reactions the book is getting?

It feels brilliant. Like spending ages on a project and then walking into a big room full of people telling you how much they like it and how well you’ve done. The odd bad review I’ve received is the opposite of that – like someone walking up to you and telling you that you’re an idiot. Luckily there aren’t enough of those yet to fill a big room, or even a small one.

The Iron Age Trilogy by Angus Watson: Age of Iron, Clash of Iron and Reign of Iron

Which character did you most enjoy writing?

Probably Dug, because he could say or think whatever the badger’s balls he wanted to.

Who are your biggest influences?

Douglas Adams, Joe Abercrombie, Patrick O’Brian, Scott Lynch, Carl Hiaasen, Iain Banks, Thomas Hardy and my Mum.

When you walk into a bookshop which section do you gravitate to first?

I buy pretty much all books online, so I’m most likely to be in a bookshop to meet a friend (note to everyone, especially internet daters – bookshops are great places to meet before pub, dinner or whatever). I used to go straight to the comic / graphic novel section so that I’d have a chance to read a substantial part of something before whoever turned up. Now I go to the fantasy section to make sure that my books are displayed prominently enough.

Where’s your favorite bookshop?

The Waterstones in Westfield, Shepherd’s Bush, London. Westfield is a vast shopping center full of the dreariest, see-them-everywhere, uninspiring, unchallenging clothes shops you can imagine. Waterstones may be a chain, but, since it sells books, it stands out from the other shops like a towering volcano island of quality and knowledge from a slurry sea of vacuous crap.

What are you working on next, can you give us a hint?

I’ve researched for a few months, and now just started writing a new epic fantasy trilogy in which a mismatched group of refugees will battle animals and monsters, determined assassins, depraved tribes, an unforgiving landscape and each other as they cross a continent to fulfil a prophesy . . . how’s that for a hint?

Cover Launch: Clash of Iron and Reign of Iron

Angus Watson’s Iron Age trilogy burst onto the epic fantasy scene last September with AGE OF IRON, an action-packed adventure in which battle-hardened warriors take on a ruthless warlord and his sadistic druids. Today we’re proud to launch the next two covers in the series! CLASH OF IRON continues the story in April this year, and the epic finale REIGN OF IRON will end the series in September.

Read AGE OF IRON today, or see what people are saying…

‘Unflinchingly bloodthirsty and outrageously entertaining’ Christopher Brookmyre

‘It simply grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go’ Bibliosanctum (five stars)

‘Watson’s tale is gore soaked and profanity laden – full of visceral combat and earthy humor, and laced with subtle magic’ Publishers Weekly

‘Would I read the next one? Yes, absolutely. Bring me my hammer, bring my beer, bring it on!’ SF Crowsnest

‘A fun and addictive read’ Fantasy Faction

CLASH OF IRON and REIGN OF IRONCovers by Larry Rostant, designed by Ceara Eliot.

Five Excellent Reasons to Set a Fantasy Novel in the Iron Age

My Orbit-published epic fantasy trilogy AGE OF IRON is set in Britain during the . . . you guessed it . . . Iron Age. After looking around for about twenty years, I learnt about Britain in the Iron Age and I’d knew I’d found the perfect place and time to set a novel. Here’s why.

An Almost Blank Canvas

The Iron Age ran from roughly 800BC to 43AD, so was relatively recent. Your great times ninety grandparents might have been running around then. The Age of Iron trilogy is set near the end of the period, between 61BC and 54BC.

This period of history was much busier than most would think. There were roads, towns and massive hillforts all over the country. However, we know almost nothing about it because the ancient Brits didn’t write and in 43AD – a hundred years after my book is set – the Romans invaded successfully, stayed for 400 years and wiped out any oral histories. The pre-Roman population was pretty big, the estimates range from one to three million, so there were loads of people, and they weren’t cavemen who sat around saying ‘ug’. They were men and women like us – full of wit, passion, inquisitiveness, jealousy, anger, love and so on. So, throughout the long Iron Age, there must have been epic love affairs, huge wars, intrigues, trysts, adventures, disasters and more, all of which we know absolutely nothing about, which, for me, screams out an invitation for us to create stories to fill the void.

It was a massive joy to learn as much as I could about the period and then make up a world and people to fill it. Anyone else can walk up a hillfort and do the same (see point five for the best hillfort to do this on). (more…)