“It is an evil born of war. It is the end of all things.”
Four hundred years ago, Ed and Alice Rico threw themselves through a mysterious portal on the London Underground, hunting for Ed’s lost brother—Alice’s husband—Verne.
Now, starship captain Katherine Abdulov embarks on a desperate race against ruthless rival captain—and her former lover—Victor Luciano, to try and earn back her family’s trust.
Tomorrow, all their lives will be thrown together by disaster, as an ancient evil stirs among the stars, threatening the survival of all life…
“If you read only one space opera this year, it’s got to be The Recollection.” –“The Guardian”
“Stunning, fresh and exciting, great adventure, elegantly strung together.” –“SFReviews.com”
Gareth L. Powell joins the ranks of Reynolds, Banks, Hamilton and others at the forefront of science fiction.” –“SF Book Reviews”
Solaris are delighted to announce the publication of a tenth anniversary edition of Gareth L. Powell’s The Recollection.
Complete with a striking new cover, this new edition celebrates a fan-favourite from Powell and will be hitting bookshops and eReaders April 2021.
Cover design by Sam Gretton
Gareth L. Powell on the anniversary edition:
“This book means a lot to me. It was my first full-length novel. I put a lot of myself into it, and I’m really excited to see it coming out in a smart new edition.”
Editor David Thomas Moore on the new edition:
“The Recollection is a tightly plotted, smart, pacy book of epic scope – spanning more than four hundred years and a largeish chunk of the galaxy – that more than shows how Gareth went on to become a celebrated master of space opera. It deserves to be better known and I’m delighted to see it getting a new release.”
For anyone not familiar with The Recollection, here’s the blurb:
“It is an evil born of war. It is the end of all things.”
Four hundred years ago, Ed and Alice Rico threw themselves through a mysterious portal on the London Underground, hunting for Ed’s lost brother—Alice’s husband—Verne.
Now, starship captain Katherine Abdulov embarks on a desperate race against ruthless rival captain—and her former lover—Victor Luciano, to try and earn back her family’s trust.
Tomorrow, all their lives will be thrown together by disaster, as an ancient evil stirs among the stars, threatening the survival of all life…
For review copies, information, or interviews please contact Hanna Waigh, Fiction – PR & Marketing Manager: hanna.waigh@rebellion.co.uk.
Ack-Ack Macaque is back, bigger and better than ever! Gathered together in one glorious tome for the very first time, Gareth L. Powell’s award-winning Ack-Ack Macaque: The Complete Trilogy is out now!
In an alternate version of Europe where Britain and France merged in the ’50s, two unlikely heroes and one mightily pissed-off monkey come together in a sci-fi trilogy full of action, adventure, bananas and many bottles of rum.
Read on for more about the book and click the links below to order your copies…
ACK-ACK MACAQUE: THE COMPLETE TRILOGY by Gareth L. Powell
ONCE, TWICE, THREE TIMES A MONKEY!
Life is good for Ack-Ack Macaque. Every day the cigar-chomping, hard-drinking monkey climbs into his Spitfire to do battle with the waves of German ninjas parachuting over the gentle fields of Kent. But life is not all the joyous rattle of Machine guns and the roar of the engine, as Ack-Ack is about to find out…
Because it is not 1944. It is the 21st century. Nuclear-powered Zeppelins circle the globe, technology is rapidly changing humanity, and Ack-Ack has lived his whole life in a videogame…
Ex-journalist Victoria Valois finds herself drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who butchered her husband and stole his electronic soul. The heir to the British throne is on the run after an illegal break-in at a research laboratory, and Ack-Ack has been rudely awakened from his game world to find the doomsday clock ticking towards Armageddon…
*
You can check out a few of the reviews for this trilogy right here:
Fans of cigar-chomping, Spitfire-piloting monkeys rejoice! Ack-Ack Macaque: The Complete Trilogy, featuring all three novels in Gareth L Powell’s cult SF series, is coming to stores next year!
As excited as we all are, nothing could dent the cool, calm and collected Macaque. When we approched him for a comment on this fantastic news, we found him lying in an inflatable paddling pool surrounded by empty beer cans and spent shell casings.
He said, “What book? I ordered a banana daiquiri. Don’t you people ever listen?”
The author, however, is as thrilled as we are and had this to say:
“As these novels form three parts of the same story, I’m delighted to see them finally bound together in one handsome volume. And delighted to have the chance to include a new ‘final chapter’ in the monkey’s history.”
The complete omnibus collection is a new edition in the Solaris Classics line, and will be available in all reputable book shops on 16 January 2018.
Read on for more about Ack-Ack Macaque: The Complete Trilogy and click the links at the bottom of your page to order your copy now.
ACK-ACK MACAQUE: THE COMPLETE TRILOGY
BY GARETH L. POWELL
Welcome to Europe in 2058, a place where Britain and France have been united for a century and vast, nuclear-powered Zeppelins carry passengers between Paris, London and New York.
When former journalist Victoria Valois starts investigating the murder of her ex-husband, she attracts a motley assortment of unlikely allies–including a surgically upgraded monkey who drinks, smokes and curses, and can even fly a plane!
Collected together here for the first time in one volume, the award-winning Ack-Ack Macaque novels are a gripping examination of what it means to be truly human. And in Ack-Ack Macaque, they introduce us to one of literature’s most unpredictable and exciting heroes.
Ack-Ack Macaque: The Complete Trilogy is available for pre-order now! Pre-order: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|
The twenty-second day of advent is a day that will be remembered as the darkest day in the history of the North Pole. For today is the day that Claus the Merciless brings his full power to bear on the rebels.
Battle engulfs the entire front line. Elf fights elf, reindeer grapples reindeer. Weaponised Christmas Puddings fly through the air, bubbling brandy-fuelled fireballs that set vast swathes of defensive wrapping paper alight. Baubles crunch under foot. Many combatants are so thoroughly entangled in the vast stretches of sellotape and ribbon that all they can do is watch the carnage.
The fight rages from dawn to dusk, the battle ebbing and flowing, neither side winning, both sides losing. As night falls, Santa surveys the desolation his war has brought to the North Pole. Broken toys and smashed candy canes are everywhere. The air is thick with the smell of ham that has been left out too long and has gone slightly off.
‘You have done this, Rudolf,’ he says. Only Mrs Claus hears him. ‘You have destroyed Christmas…’
*
You know what Santa needs to put an end to the Rudolfite rebellion, don’t you? Yes, a monkey with a gun, in a fighter plane!
Gareth L Powell’s monkey-tastic Ack-Ack Macaque trilogy is now only 99p in eBook format – a pre-Christmas treat if ever there was one. So, get yourself over to Amazon right now and download these unforgettable tales of the finest all-swearing, all-drinking, all-fighting monkey ever to strap himself into a fighter…
The twenty-second day of advent is a day that will be remembered as the darkest day in the history of the North Pole. For today is the day that Claus the Merciless brings his full power to bear on the rebels.
Battle engulfs the front. Elf fights elf, reindeer grapples reindeer. Weaponised Christmas Puddings fly through the air, bubbling brandy-fuelled fireballs that set vast swathes of defensive wrapping paper alight. Baubles smash. Toys are thrown. Many combatants are so thoroughly entangled in sellotape and ribbon that all they can do is watch the carnage.
The fight rages from dawn to dusk, the battle ebbing and flowing, neither side winning, both sides losing. As night falls, Santa surveys the desolation his war has brought to the North Pole. Broken toys and smashed candy canes are everywhere. The air is thick with the smell of ham that has been left out too long and has gone slightly off.
‘You have done this, Rudolf,’ he says. Only Mrs Claus hears him. ‘You have destroyed Christmas…’
*
You know what Santa needs to put an end to the Rudolfite rebellion, don’t you? Yes, a monkey with a gun, in a fighter plane!
Gareth L Powell’s monkey-tastic Ack-Ack Macaque series are now only 99p each in eBook format – that’s the ENTIRE DAMN SAGA FOR ONLY £2.97! – a pre-Christmas treat if ever there was one. So, get yourself over to Amazon right now and download these unforgettable tales of the finest all-swearing, all-drinking, all-fighting monkey ever to strap himself into a fighter…
Hello readers! My name is Jake Murray, and I illustrated the covers for Gareth L. Powell’s Ack-Ack Macaque, Hive Monkey, and Macaque Attack. With the release of Macaque Attack Solaris Books asked me to pen a guest article exploring the creation process behind the book’s cover. Not being one to dismiss the opportunity to ramble on about my work, I happily agreed. Working on the Ack-Ack Macaque series has been one of the great joys of my career so far, and I hope that sharing some of the “behind-the-scenes” process will pass a bit of inspiration on. So, without further ado, let’s go!
After wrapping up the art for Hive Monkey last year, I was told that there would be a third Ack-Ack Macaque adventure on the horizon, and was excited to find out what our crass, ninja-slaying monkey would be up to next. I soon received the commission for Macaque Attack, and after reading the brief, immediately knew it would be the most epic vision of the character we’d seen yet!
In the world of book cover illustration, there can be a lot of variance between commission requirements. Sometimes the publishing team and author have fairly specific ideas of what they’d like to see on the cover. At other times, it’s up to the illustrator to pinpoint what he/she thinks would be a compelling part of the narrative to showcase. With Macaque Attack, Gareth already had some ideas in mind of what the cover should be, so my job was primarily to take those ideas and try to make them as visually explosive as possible.
The general focus of this book’s cover would be our herioc monkey leading his ragtag army of apes into battle on Mars – which is the kind of awesome thing that every sci-fi illustrator dreams of at night. Gareth had suggested a few different ways of how we might show that, from more literal depictions of an army in battle, to more conceptual ideas reminiscent of old Soviet space propaganda posters. In any case, the image would need to be unique and exciting, but still carry the same feeling of adventure and intrigue as the previous two books.
Whenever I get the opportunity to create a series of book covers, I try to imagine what each book would look like sitting next to each other on a shelf. How will a reader be able to to tell that the books all go together and yet be able to quickly distinguish each one from the others? With Ack-Ack Macaque and Hive Monkey, I had established a precedent for showing the main character’s full figure, which could be used in this new cover to create visual continuity. The way I would distinguish it from the others, however, is with color. Each of the two previous covers had made use of a particular primary color (the first one being yellow, and the second one pale blue). Since the focus of the Macaque Attack cover would be Mars and battle, it seemed a perfect solution to limit the color palette to browns and reds.
After submitting sketches to the publishing team, it was decided that the “Soviet poster” concept (concept “C” in the image above) would be the way to go. The team felt it had enough action mixed with just the right amount of quirkiness to help it feel at home with the previous two books. From there I set out to gather and photograph all of the reference imagery I would need to execute the painting.
When painting anything that needs to look real or semi-real, good visual reference is an absolute necessity. I mean, a good still-life artist doesn’t just paint an orange sitting on a table out of his head, right? He actually looks at an orange sitting on a table! So too is it with even the most fantastical images. Of course, I don’t actually have a macaque that I can dress up – and if I did, I certainly wouldn’t give him a gun. But there is an abundance of animal photography on the internet that helps me figure out what the character should look like, and I can also create and photograph various people and objects to approximate everything that should be in the painting.
One tool I make use of for painting fantastical creatures is called a “maquette,” which is basically just a fancy word for a small-scale sculpture. For the Ack-Ack Macaque cover, I sculpted a miniature head for the character which I’ve been able to use for each cover in the series. Because the maquette exists in the physical world, I can pose it and light it any way I want and it will still look like the same character in the end, as long as I’ve drawn and painted what I’m seeing correctly. This is especially important when painting multiple cover images of the same character. Ack-Ack Macaque has to look like Ack-Ack Macaque! So having a real-world physical representation of the character to look at is extremely helpful.
In addition to the maquette, I also photograph a costumed live model (in this case, myself) for pose and lighting reference. Since monkeys and humans are built pretty similarly, it would only take some adjusting of proportions (and hairiness) to transform myself into a whole army of animals. Even if I don’t have the exact items I plan to paint (my studio is sadly lacking in miniguns), I can use other household items to stand in for them and see how they affect the light and shadow of the scene. It’s basically like playing pretend in front of a camera.
Once I have all of my reference material assembled, it’s time to begin work on the final painting. I use a program called Painter 12 from Corel and a Wacom digitizing tablet to create most of my art. Though completely digital, these tools really allow me to take a traditional painter’s approach, with the added bonus of the “undo” command. The final art is created at about 250% the size of the final printed image. This ensures that it will look detailed and crisp when it is reduced to print size.
Typically I start with a detailed priliminary drawing in black and white. It allows me to really figure everything out up front so that when it’s time to put color down, I won’t be grappling with any added difficulties of form and perspective. Having a solid drawing in black and white creates a road map for your painting – as long as you follow it, you can be pretty well assured that the painting will come out solid as well.
When the preliminary drawing has been approved, I go to town painting. I start with a transparent block-in of color over my drawing to establish the overall relationships, not worrying about details. From there, I set out painting opaquely each area to completion, usually starting in the background and working my way forward. However, a lot can happen throughout the painting process, and every decision you make about a color or paint stroke will determine every following decision. Sometimes you can end up painting something early on that you won’t realize is “wrong” until you’ve finished painting everything else around it. So there can be a lot of back-and-forth in the process as well.
After roughly 30 hours of painting and repainting, I’m happy to call the piece done and email it out to the publisher for final review. If everything looks good to them, then my work is done!
And that’s how a book cover evolves from a typed email to a full-color image! Though the overall process is basically the same with every commission, each piece presents its own unique artistic challenges. Solving these visual problems and telling compelling stories is what I live for as an illustrator, and I can only hope that the solutions I come up with will inspire others to do the same!
Thanks for reading!
You can find more of Jake’s art at his website (including prints to purchase): www.murr-art.com
Macaque Attack by Gareth L Powell is out now! Click the navigation tags at the top of the page for more information and related posts.
As news of Ack-Ack’s presence this at Solaris Towers spread we found ourselves briefly in the spot light of the world’s scientific press, we did what any self-respecting publisher would do: subtly put out the word we were totally open for bribes to grant one twenty-minute interview slot with the monkey to pick his brain about his real-world experience with quantum physics.
Sadly the monkey’s reputation preceded him and we received two offers: a fruit basket (what were you thinking Hawkins?) and a bottle of Sainsbury’s second cheapest own-brand rum from Professor Stewart Hotston.
It’s with great pleasure we therefore introduce Professor Hotson in conversation with Ack-Ack-Macaque:
SH: Tell me how your species solved the non-locality problems involved in moving between worlds – especially with reference to Bell’s
AAM: To be honest with you, we stole the engines. We don’t know how they work. But then, I don’t know how a Spitfire’s engine works either, and I’m still happy to fly one.
SH: Can we then assume that all worlds exist within the same quantum field?
AAM: Sure, why not? I certainly seem to spend a lot of time in fields, mostly running away from tanks.
SH: Do your engines displace excess matter (or should I say energy) so that different universes don’t breech the 1st law of thermodynamics?
AAM: Damned if I know. They certainly use a lot of energy and make a lot of noise. Lots of static electricity too. You should see what it does to me, with all my hair standing on end. I look like a loveable plush toy.
SH: Aren’t you scared you’re going to destroy the universe?
AAM: Heh, heh, heh.
SH: Who’s your most famous physicist?
AAM: That fellow with all the white hair who was in Back To the Future. Albert Frankenstein. He invented atomic bombs and gull-wing doors.
SH: What would you say to kids who want to become scientists so that they can follow in your footsteps?
AAM: If you know what you want to do with your life, go ahead and do it. Don’t wait for anyone to give you permission. Don’t take crap from people who don’t believe in you. Find out what you need to do to achieve your goal, and then go out there and do it. Take life by the throat and shake it until all the good stuff falls out of its pockets.
SH: If all worlds are part of a universal aggregationof continuous but non-co-extensive wave functions how do you know that our destiny isn’t to be part of a hivemind?
AAM: I don’t know about you, sunshine, but my destiny is whatever the hell I say it is. No universal aggressor’s going to tell me what to think. And besides, I’d never be part of a hivemind that wanted someone like me as a member.
SH: Why aren’t you susceptible to germs in other worlds to which you have no defences? Is there an inter-dimensional version of small pox?
AAM: I try not to get too touchy-feely with people I meet, although I did pick up a nasty case of fleas on one of the worlds we visited. Tough little buggers. They appear to be resistant to all brands of flea spray. Fortunately, there’s so much alcohol sloshing around in my blood, every time they take a bite they get woozy and fall off.
SH: Are you, you everywhere?
AAM: I’ve met other versions of myself on other parallel worlds. In fact, I’ve recruited most of them into my monkey army. Sure, there are differences between us, but we share all the most important stuff: an inability to play nice with others, a healthy disrespect for authority, and a penchant for making big things go boom. That said, most of them are assholes. I’ve yet to find one half as awesome as me.
SH: If there are an infinite number of universes then there are an infinite number of universes identical to this one – so how come you keep finding ones with significant differences?
AAM: Wow, you’re seriously bending my brain banana. Infinite worlds? That’s more than like… ten, right? That’s like a whole endless playground. So much scope for havoc.
I can’t hang around here all day answering damn crazy questions. I’ve got trouble to cause, and in infinite number of places to cause it!
About
Stewart Hotston is not a dimension hopping monkey. He is a physicist who made that leap to becoming a master of the universe. When he’s not inventing money out of thin air he’s currently a grand vizier in a fest live action role play, a swordsman who’s actually read his Agrippa and a writer. He’s written more than a dozen short stories including Haecceity in Ian Whates’ La Femme anthology, Love is Stronger in Matthew Sylvestesr’s Stille Untoten and All You Can Eat in Theresa Derwin’s The Last Diner. He is currently working on a longer work called The Fox’s Hope, a story about a world where all myths are true.
Ack Ack Macaque is the star of the award-winning trilogy and the kind of monkey your mother warned you about.
To celebrate the launch of Macaque Attack on January 15th, we wanted to get an interview with the star of the ‘Macaque’ trilogy, Ack-Ack himself. Unfortunately, the first three correspondents we sent to meet with him disappeared, never to be heard from again. Finally, out of desperation, we asked the trilogy’s author, Gareth L. Powell, to interview his rowdy creation, and soon received the following transcription. Apparently Gareth arranged to meet the monkey in a bar on the harbourside in Bristol. Unfortunately, we can’t verify the accuracy of the recording, as the bar has since burned down and all the witnesses to the conversation have gone into hiding.
[Tape starts]
GLP: I am here this evening with Ack-Ack Macaque. Say hello, Ack-Ack.
AAM: [mumbles]
GLP: Please speak into the microphone.
AAM: IS THAT BETTER?
GLP: It’ll do.
AAM: You got some questions for me?
GLP: Well, yes.
[Sound of glasses clinking, spirit being poured.]
GLP: First off, I want to ask you how you feel about the new book?
AAM: How I feel? What is this, a therapy session? As far as I remember, the deal was that I tell you my life story and you write it all down and cash the cheques. There’s no ‘feel’ about it.
GLP: But this is the last one. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?
AAM: It’s a hell of a read, although there’s probably too much ‘characterisation’ in it for my taste. You spend too much time bringing to life all the people in the story. You should have put in more bits about me being heroic and blowing shit up.
GLP: We’ve been together for three years now. This might be the last time we work together.
AAM: Hah!
GLP: What about the cover illustration by Jake Murray? I thought it was very striking.
AAM: Yeah, I’m a handsome bastard. But what is it with that title? ‘Macaque Attack’. Who came up with that?
GLP: At least it rhymes.
AAM: Fuck rhyming.
[Further sounds of pouring]
GLP: You’re just being objectionable for the sake of it, aren’t you?
AAM: Oh, shut up, Powell. Why don’t you fuck off back to your garret and write another of those space operas you’re so fond of?
GLP: Maybe I will.
AAM: Yeah, don’t worry about me. You go and have fun with your space battles and alien monsters. I’ll be fine.
GLP: Are you jealous?
AAM: [Snorts] Piss off.
GLP: [After a long silence] So, as this might be your last chance, do you have anything you’d like to say to the ladies and gentlemen?
AAM: Yeah. [Clears throat] Okay. LISTEN UP HUMANS! There are always bastards out there trying to take away your freedom, your stuff and your lives. And it’s up to me to fight them. I save the world so you don’t have to. The least you can do is pick up a copy of the book. Hell, pick up copies of ALL my books, and get a load of my adventures. Find out why I’m the baddest, snarlingest, ass-kickingest monkey on this sorry excuse for a planet.
GLP: Is that it?
AAM: You want more, you’re going to have to buy another bottle. This one seems to be empty.
[Sound of glass smashing against the wall]
GLP: Hey, don’t do that. You’ll get us thrown out.
AAM: You think I give a crap? I’ve been thrown out of way better places than this.
GLP: The bouncers are coming over.
AAM: Oooh, scary.
GLP: They look angry.
AAM: Yeah? Well, watch this…
[Sound of chair legs scraping. Table flips. Recording ends.]
Macaque Attack is our 15th January in the UK, you can catch Gareth and Ack-Ack on tour (should you dare) at the following places:
The story that follows is a totally, 100% typical day in the life of our PR department.
Publishing overlord Ben Smith summons the PR department. “There’s been a delivery,” he says “it’s got your name on it,” he says.
There’s something about his smile… the fear in the department is tangible.
The walk down to reception seems to take forever. Then there it is.
The box.
Oh god, it’s huge.
“I said 5’6!” PR cries. “Maybe it’s just a trick of the light,” editorial offers up.
As the un-boxing commences PR nervously retreats into a corner, rocking gently.
“No, wait! It’s not that bad. In fact it looks great!” editorial coaxes.
Shuffling gently forward the beautiful object contained within the box is slowly revealed, and PR’s mood rapidly shifts from “Shitshitshit they’re totally going to fire me for this” to “Take my photo with the monkey. Take my photo with the monkey.”
Rapidly followed by “Hey wait, no you didn’t let me sort out my lipstick.”
If you’d like your photo with Ack Ack Macaque catch him on tour with his pet author Gareth L Powell from January next year. We’ll even let you brush your hair first.
