Tag Archives: Dangerous

‘Elite: Out of the Darkness’ is Out! Time to Celebrate!

By | |
3 Comments

 This will be a short post as I’m still sorting out the tail end of the project, but after eighteen months the book is finally out in the wild! (Overuse of exclamation marks is allowed when a writer is happy.) Apologies for missing the deadline; my excuse is that—being an indie writer—I’m author, editor, proofreader, project coordinator, publisher, agent, and promoter (with a little help from my friends). That’s quite a few hats. Fear not though space-munchkins, the writing and editing have taken up 90% of my time and I’m pleased with the result, both in terms of the story and the presentation. Until reality tells me otherwise, I shall maintain my grin even as I start work on the backers’ Epub version. I’ve thanked everyone, everywhere, it feels like, but you’ve been a great community to be part of. The book’s now yours and I hope you feel it … Continue reading →

‘Elite: Out of the Darkness’ Cover Reveal

By | |
10 Comments

After much consulting of experts (many, many thanks to Colin Barnes, Alex Bowden from Frontier, and Liam ‘Mobius’ Rafferty for their input), and the community (my thanks to all those who expressed their opinions in the poll and on the thread) we finally have a cover! It’s what you asked for: different, distinctive, yet still ‘Elite’. I hope you like it…  ‘Elite: Out of the Darkness’ is undergoing the final stages of editing and will be out ‘soon’. (For a definition of ‘soon’, please contact Michael Brookes of Frontier Developments. .) Aside: I’m still on holiday; more news and details of the book to follow…

News Update

By | |
Leave a comment

Things may have appeared static since the last post but, like watching a burrowing badger, none of the effort shows on the surface… Feedback Feedback is now coming in from final-stage gamma readers—the news is good; two have already said they’ve had to go back and re-read chapters for mistakes because they were gripped. When they did re-enter crit mode, the worst they found (so far) were typos and a couple of basic continuity issues that were easily fixed. There is still a significant amount of feedback to come, but if it keeps errors in the released book to a minimum it’s worth the wait. Cover After six concepts and over twenty rough drafts, the cover design has been finalised. I received some immensely helpful pointers from Colin Barnes, a friend of mine who is trained in graphic design and has been releasing his thriller/SF books with custom covers for … Continue reading →

‘Out of the Darkness’ is OFFICIALLY Elite and Dangerous

By | |
18 Comments

Good news this week: Out of the Darkness has been approved by Frontier. That means it stands alongside the contents of the game and the other fiction as part of the official canon, the Elite universe as envisaged by David Braben and brought to life by the Frontier Developments team. After a year and a half, this feels incredible—to have contributed something to the ever-growing epic that is Elite: Dangerous. But how ‘Elite’ is Out of the Darkness? I know what I think, but you’re going to want evidence, aren’t you? Tweeted questions (not mine) about whether David Braben has read any of the fiction go unanswered. Emailed hints, submitted alongside legitimate scene content queries, about whether Michael likes what you’ve written are studiously not acknowledged. (Yes, mine. Sad? Maybe, but writers want to know what any reader thinks, and doubly so when that reader has the power to require a re-write!) Does … Continue reading →

What is ‘Out of the Darkness’ About? And Other News

By | |
Leave a comment

  What’s the Novel About? If you’ve been wondering, here’s the current blurb: Moira Dolan, an investigator for The Proteus Collective, is forced to take on a dead-end case. How did an elite pilot, his family and their ship disappear in a well-policed star system? With so few leads, it seems her boss wants her to fail. And where is her loser brother, Keagan? Torn between her only family and last chance for a career, her journey between the stars reveals more of herself than she ever wanted to know. As the pieces fall into place, Moira and some new-found allies uncover a conspiracy: mankind is no longer the galaxy’s apex predator, and a plot to destabilise human space could cost of millions of lives… Approval How much of the blurb will remain relevant depends on the the approval process, which is ongoing. I’m hoping to hear something back later … Continue reading →

A Gollancz at the Fantastic upcoming Elite: Dangerous Books

Gallery

By | |

Unless you’re an Elite virgin or you’ve spent the past few months on a distant moon brushing your herd of verrix, you’ll know that May is Elite: Dangerous fiction month. There’s a flurry of book releases: seven novels and an anthology, from publishers Gollancz and Fantastic Books. Now all the cover art has been released, I thought now was time to celebrate the occasion by bringing them all together for a delectable dalliance with design.

I think you’ll agree, the artists have done a great job; each cover captures the drama and character of the Elite universe.

At time of writing, the three Gollancz novels (Docking is Difficult, Nemorensis, and Wanted) will be available from Amazon from 15th May, 2014 (pre-orders are open), and the four novels and anthology from Fantastic Books are now available (And Here the Wheel, Lave Revolution, Mostly Harmless, Reclamation, and Tales from the Frontier). Formats: ebook, audio, paperback and hardback. There’s too many to link to individually, so here is one for them all: Enjoy!

The writers and publishers have all been working hard to bring you an assortment of thrilling adventures (I sound like a classic Flash Gordon cinema announcer, don’t I? ) so why not give them a try? For readers of SF adventure and fans of the game, there’s something for you here.

Opinions on the covers? Any particular book exciting you? Leave your thoughts below (they won’t appear immediately, all are approved first to prevent spam).

BREAKING NEWS (April 1st, 2014): Frontier Developments May Be Forced to Rename Elite: Dangerous

By | |
2 Comments

Frontier Developments found itself at the centre of a storm of controversy this morning as another internet pressure group stepped up its campaign to ‘clean up the gaming industry and make it safe for our children’ as Anole Biddy (‘I think I look 21, don’t you?’) of No Irresponsible Playing with Plastic Leisure Entertainment Systems (NIPPLES) was heard to say to reporters, before telling them to remove their boots from her ‘immaculately manicured lawn’.

It’s a Long Way…

By | |
2 Comments

Submit! Quotation rumoured to be from an internal Frontier draft memo, ‘Maintaining Correct Relations with the Minions’, Chapter Two, ‘How the Writers MUST See Us’:   ‘Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic… regarded this earth us with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.’ H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds. As other Elite: Dangerous writers finish with editing and prepare to face Frontier’s vast and cool and unsympathetic intellects, the forums echo with the sounds of rejoicing. Yet, the reverberations are falsely hearty, covering the drip, drip, drip of insidious fear and slight loss of bladder control.