Mushroom eBooks News

Firstly, I apologise for the lack of activity at Mushroom eBooks for the last few months. There has been a lot going on in other parts of the business as well as major events in my personal life.

I have a busy publishing schedule planned for 2011, which I will post in a couple of days when I have finalised a few things, so hopefully there will be something of interest to all you Mushroom eBooks customers, whatever your particular interests.

The big hope for the year is that I can complete the Dray Prescot series, but I am still missing a couple of manuscripts that are preventing me from proceeding. I will be making a concerted and sustained effort to obtain those manuscripts as soon as possible. I am also hoping to begin publishing other Ken Bulmer series and standalone titles. Let me know in the comments what you would like to see published.

There is a new title from Roger Taylor coming in the summer, which will be great news for his many fans who have been waiting for over a decade for something new from this brilliant fantasy author. More details soon.

The second book in the excellent “Sons of the Mariner” series by Suzanne Francis will be here in March, and we will be introducing a series of cartoon books from Doug Pike. Also, a rather unusual vampire novel will be appearing soon from Anthony Burns.

We will be introducing new ebook formats, too, including ePub and Apple iBooks, and updating some of our older books to work better and look better in current ebook reading devices.

Back soon…

The Krozair Cycle, the third omnibus of “The Saga of Dray Prescot”, by Kenneth Bulmer writing as Alan Burt Akers, is now published in ebook format.

eBook formats include Kindle, Sony Reader, PDF, eReader, Mobipocket, Rocket eBook, Microsoft Reader, and others, and can be obtained from all good ebook stores, including Fictionwise, eBooks.com, Scribd, Wowio Sony Connect, and on Amazon.com for the Kindle.

The Krozair Cycle omnibus contains the short story “Wizard of Scorpio”, and the three books, The Tides of Kregen, Renegade of Kregen and Krozair of Kregen.

Here is the “back cover copy”:

With this volume of his saga, Dray Prescot is hurled afresh into brand-new adventures on the planet of Kregen, that grim and beautiful, marvelous and terrible world four hundred light-years away beneath the red and green fires of Antares, under the Suns of Scorpio.

Kregen is a world too rich in passion and action to allow a fighting man like Dray Prescot to rest for long. Once more, then, he is launched into fresh adventures, but this time there is a hiatus which might easily break a man of lesser fire and spirit than Dray Prescot, Krozair of Zy.

For more details about Alan Burt Akers, The Krozair Cycle, and links to available ebook formats, please see The Krozair Cycle page on mushroom-eBooks.com

The paperback and hardback editions of The Spikatur Cycle, the sixth cycle in the Saga of Dray Prescot by Alan Burt Akers, are now available from all good bookshops worldwide.

The Spikatur Cycle contains the four books: Beasts of Antares, Rebel of Antares, Legions of Antares and Allies of Antares.

An ebook edition will appear later in the year.

Here is the blurb:

Four hundred light years from Earth, Kregen is a marvelous world, peopled by wonderful beings, filled with light and clamor and furor of life lived to the hilt. But Kregen has its darker side, where horror and terror batten on innocent people, where sorceries rend reason, where injustice denies light.

The Spikatur Cycle brings Prescot closer to the realization of many of his dreams. He is determined to do what he feels is laid upon him; but he finds it is not so easy, particularly when the Empress Delia and his comrades are determined to keep him out of trouble. But, he is Dray Prescot, Lord of Strombor and Krozair of Zy, and that canny old leem hunter will not be prevented from buckling up the brave old scarlet breechclout and with a sword in his fist hurtling off beneath the Moons of Kregen into fresh headlong adventure.

You can buy from Buy from Amazon, or any other bookstore worldwide.

Paperback: ISBN 9781843198475, RRP: $31.95/£18.99, 632 pages
Hardcover: ISBN 9781843198468, RRP: $56.00/£36.00, 632 pages

Suzanne Francis has brought us another excellent novel! Wintermoon Ice is the first book of the “Sons of the Mariner” series. This is an intriguing fantasy, set both in the present day and in an otherworldly place and time. The science fiction elements of time travel and alternate universes are woven masterfully into the tale.

We meet again some of the characters first encountered in Suzanne Francis’s earlier series, “Song of the Arkafina” — consisting of Heart of Hythea, Ketha’s Daughter, Dawnmaid and Beyond the Gyre. However, Wintermoon Ice can be read as a standalone novel and serves as an excellent introduction to the work of Suzanne Francis.

Wintermoon Ice is available now from all good ebook stores, including Fictionwise, eBooks.com, Scribd, Wowio Sony Connect, and on Amazon.com for the Kindle.

Here is the “back cover copy”:

Wintermoon Ice, set on present-day Earth, features Tessa Kivelson, an archaeologist who unexpectedly acquires a mirror and a journal from her long-dead grandmother, Suvi Markku. This find thrusts Tessa into danger from alien creatures called Polydactyls, and she turns to her exasperating neighbour Jakob Faircrow for help. He is a capable defender (and later, lover) but she finds his smug arrogance infuriating. Jakob and Tessa must put aside their differences long enough to discover why Suvi hid the mirror and why the Polys want it. The journal provides vital clues to Suvi’s past life in Severnessa with Jakob’s twin brother Lut — a life that will shortly intersect with Tessa’s, when a magic gateway blends past and present, and brings the two women face to face with the creator of the Polydactyls.

Wintermoon Ice is a spellbinding tale of twos: two cites, two times, two brothers and two women, who must save their world from an unspeakable terror.

For more details about Suzanne Francis, Wintermoon Ice, and links to available ebook formats, please see the Wintermoon Ice page on mushroom-ebooks.com

The Havilfar Cycle, the second omnibus in “The Saga of Dray Prescot”, is now available in eBook formats from all good eBookStores.

eBook formats include Kindle, Sony Reader, PDF, eReader, PDF, Mobipocket, Rocket eBook, Microsoft Reader, and others, and can be obtained from any of the stores linked on the right.

The Havilfar Cycle is also available in two volumes in paperback and hard cover from all good book stores, such as Amazon.

The volume contains books six to eleven by Alan Burt Akers:

Manhounds of Antares
Arena of Antares
Fliers of Antares
Bladesman of Antares
Avenger of Antares
Armada of Antares.

The blurb:

Together, the six books in this volume make up the Havilfar Cycle of the Saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen.

Dray Prescot is launched headlong into another series of adventures upon the planet of Kregen, that marvelous and beautiful, mystical and terrible world four hundred light-years away beneath the Suns of Scorpio. A new life opens for Dray, but that new life is cruelly different from all he expected and dreamed, hurling him into fresh adventure and danger among peoples and places far removed from those he knows and loves.

Hamal, the greatest power in Havilfar, is bent on conquest, and Prescot hates the Hamalese because he slaved in their diabolical Heavenly Mines. His mission is to discover the secrets of the Hamalese airboats for his own people.

The prices of all Mushroom eBooks titles on Scribd have been reduced by at least 30%, so now might be a good time to catch up with all those books you were going to buy…

Many many thanks for your support and custom over the year, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and an excellent 2010.

Renai LeMay has published a great interview with Roger Taylor over at Keeping the Door. Here’s my favourite bit:

When I speak to fantasy fans about your work, a common comment is that it has more “heart” or is “more human” than a lot of other fantasy series out there. What would be your reaction to this statement, and where do you think that sense of “heart” came from in your work?

That’s really good to hear. Ironically, one – well, me, anyway – has only limited control of how stories unfold, but it was always my very clear intention to have ‘ordinary’ people in them. Superheroes can be fun, but it’s ‘plain folk’ in extraordinary circumstances that make for real drama. I can remember when I read The War of the Worlds, it was as if Wells had placed one of those towering fighting machines in the little square at the end of the row of houses where I lived – it gave me the shivers. Very ordinary, very vivid – great stuff.

Pamela Buckmaster, speaking on behalf of Ken Bulmer’s (Alan Burt Akers) family, has asked me to send their apologies for the delay in making available the final few Dray Prescot books (volumes 46 to 52) for publishing. This is due to ongoing illness in the family, and the difficulty of finding the manuscripts, which have been moved about a lot over the years and are therefore difficult to locate. They are confident that the manuscripts will be found, but ask for our patience for a few more months.

I am sure we all wish the family well and hope for a speedy recovery.

Please leave your comments below and I will pass them on to Pamela.

The Delian Cycle, the first omnibus in “The Saga of Dray Prescot” is now available in eBook formats from all good eBookStores.

eBook formats include Kindle, Sony Reader, PDF, eReader, PDF, Mobipocket, Rocket eBook, Microsoft Reader, and others. The Delian Cycle is also available in paperback and hard cover from all good book stores, such as Amazon.

The volume contains the first five books by Alan Burt Akers:

1. Transit to Scorpio
2. The Suns of Scorpio
3. Warrior of Scorpio
4. Swordships of Scorpio
5. Prince of Scorpio

The blurb:

For the first time ever, the first five books in the Saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen are brought together in this omnibus edition. Together, these five books make up the Delian Cycle, in which Dray Prescot comes to terms with finding himself on the alien world of Kregen. Here he tries to make sense of his situation: the Star Lords, the Savanti, the marvelous places, strange beasts and stranger people. And here he pursues his greatest love of two worlds, Delia of the Blue Mountains.

Containing five books: Transit to Scorpio, The Suns of Scorpio, Warrior of Scorpio, Swordships of Scorpio, and Prince of Scorpio.

Mushroom eBooks are now available on Scribd. You can buy the books there, and also preview them — up to 40% of each book is available for preview.

You will find that prices for Mushroom eBooks on Scribd are typically lower than most ebookstores, although you may still get a better deal at Fictionwise.

About Scribd, Inc.

Scribd is the world’s largest social publishing company with more than 60 million readers each month. Scribd is changing the way people discover, share and sell original writings and documents on the Web. Its innovative document reader technology, iPaper, enables anyone to easily upload PDF, Word, PowerPoint and other document types and share on Scribd.com or embed on thousands of other websites. Scribd is backed by Charles River Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Paul Graham’s Y Combinator, the Kinsey Hills Group and several prominent angel investors. For more information about Scribd, visit www.scribd.com.

The Cotton Run is now available from all good ebookstores. Daniel Wyatt, bestselling author of the Falcon File series, The Mary Jane Mission and The Last Flight of the Arrow, has written another excellent thriller in The Cotton Run. Set during the American Civil War, it tells the story of the blockade runners, who shipped much needed supplies to the Confederates through the naval blockade off Cape Fear.

Here is the blurb:

Captain Joshua Denning is a veteran of the nighttime cotton runs through the Union blockaders off Cape Fear, near Wilmington, in 1863.

During a confrontation on the high seas outside Nassau, Denning clashes with an old adversary, Captain Robert Carlisle, from his days at Annapolis Navy Academy ten years before. The next time they meet, when Denning takes on one final blockade run, the greatest shipment of them all, only one will be victorious…

But Denning becomes distracted by Marie Keating, a beautiful, French-born woman who runs an organization that’s supplying clothing to Robert E. Lee’s army at the front.

The Cotton Run gives a different insight into the American Civil War, a story of love, hate, greed, and double-dealing that takes us deep into the exciting and dangerous world of naval combat, and the controversial blockade-running trade through the strategic Confederate port of Wilmington, North Carolina.