Category Archives: Books

May 2, 2015 · 4:00 pm

Just 24 hours to go to bid on signed copies of the Daedalus trilogy

Con Or BustWe’re down to the wire in the Con or Bust charity auction, which wraps up on Sunday, May 3, at 4 p.m. EDT. Thus, as of this writing, you have just 24 hours to bid on a complete Daedalus trilogy, including The Venusian Gambit, all signed by yours truly and shipped to your very door.

This is the first charity gig where I’ve been able to offer all three books, which makes it pretty special to me. And the proceeds of this auction help people of color attend SF/F conventions around the country. People of color are sadly underrepresented at most of the cons I’ve been to — though the bigger the con, the better the representation — and we’re all the better for it when we share what we love with as wide a range of people as possible. So, I’m in, and I hope you are too.

To bid, just put your dollar amount in the comments section of this page. Should you win, the auction administrators will put us together so I can sign your books — personalized if you so choose — and send them out to you.

There’s a heap of other cool stuff up for bid as well, so I urge you to surf through and see what strikes your geeky fancy. In addition, you can donate directly to Con or Bust. Recently, a generous soul has offered to match donations made directly, so good karma on you if you help out that way. Find out more about the donations and match here.

That’s enough blog-reading for now; you have some bidding to do. Go forth, good luck, and thanks in advance for contributing!

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May 1, 2015 · 5:00 pm

The Venusian Gambit featured in ITW’s The Big Thrill and BuzzFeed Community

I recently joined International Thriller Writers, an organization for authors who write thrillers and the various sub-genres associated with them. Yes, I’m very much a science fiction/fantasy writer, but I think my work does share some DNA with more conventional thrillers — and a lot of other SF/F books do, too.

(Plus, I’m looking to do something a bit more closely aligned with the thriller genre at some point, so stay tuned there.)

Anyway, as a member of ITW, I got to do a write-up about thrilling SF/F — including The Venusian Gambit — for the latest edition of The Big Thrill, ITW’s monthly newsletter. Here’s hoping we get some traditional spy/crime thriller readers to take a walk on the weird side. Give it a click and check it out.

Also, Gambit was featured by Andrew Liptak in his “30 Science Fiction, Fantasy And Horror Books To Pick Up In May 2015” posting on BuzzFeed Community. As always, I’m delighted to be in such fine literary company, and my thanks to Andrew for seeing fit to include the book.

I know Amazon has already started delivering print editions of The Venusian Gambit, but everyone else still has to wait until Tuesday, May 5, to get it downloaded or buy it in a bookstore. But hey, that’s just four days away. Have a good weekend, go see Avengers: Age of Ultron (I know you already planned that) and then start reading Tuesday!

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April 29, 2015 · 5:45 pm

The cover of Cthulhu Fhtagn! looks awesome. Pre-order now!

Like the Deep Ones slowly crawling up from the depths of the sea, more details have come to light regarding Cthulhu Fhtagn!, the Word Horde anthology of Lovecraft-inspired tales — which includes one of mine, “On a Kansas Plain.”

First off, here’s the cover:

Delightfully creepy and fun, isn’t it? Well done, Word Horde!

Also, the stars will be right on August 15, when Cthulhu Fhtagn! will be released upon an unsuspecting world. You can pre-order both the print version — signed by editor Ross E. Lockhart — and the ePub ebook in a bundle direct from Word Horde for $19.99 — which would be a very cool thing to do, as it would help Ross put out even more great fiction.

The anthology roster can be found here, and it’s a pretty fantastic bunch of writers. We’re talking 19 tales of unnerving goodness. You want this one, folks. Go pre-order it!

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April 24, 2015 · 9:00 am

Last day to enter the Goodreads giveaway for a copy of The Daedalus Incident

TDI-coverIf you’re curious about all the stuff you’ve heard about The Venusian Gambit and want to explore the Known Worlds where it all began, you’ve got a few hours left to enter to win The Daedalus Incident, the first book in the Daedalus trilogy.

The Goodreads giveaway of Daedalus ends at midnight (Pacific time), so best to get moving on it. There are three copies up for grabs this time, so your odds are better than you think. Of course, you have to register for Goodreads to enter if you’re not already a member, but it’s a pretty good site and membership is free.

And if you’re already a member and have read some or all of my books, I’d mightily appreciate it if you took the time to leave a rating and review, if you haven’t already, because word-of-mouth from readers really does help move things along. Thanks!

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April 24, 2015 · 8:47 am

The Venusian Gambit is at my house

And the circle is now complete. It’s a very lovely thing to see.

To be fair, I didn’t get all that teary-eyed, but there was definitely some warm fuzzies happening. This is the first time I’ve had all three books together on my shelf, and it’s a great feeling. The Venusian Gambit comes out on May 5, and I hope it looks just as spiffy on your shelves as well. Or on your e-reader. Whatever works for you.

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April 21, 2015 · 5:30 pm

The Venusian Gambit reviewed at Amazing Stories

Good reviews, they do not get old. At all.

Alt-history guru Matt Mitrovich, proprietor of the immensely entertaining Alternate History Weekly Update, took to the pages of Amazing Stories to review The Venusian Gambit. His take:

I really enjoyed reading this series and The Venusian Gambit was a good way to end it. The world-building in the novel was excellent. …Martinez’ characters remain complex and I am happy he kept averting many over-used tropes. …The Daedalus series was a fun mash-up of different genres and The Venusian Gambit managed to have a satisfying conclusion while leaving us with just enough uncertainty to keep it realistic. Will Martinez write more books set in his multiverse? I don’t know, perhaps I will ask him when I get the chance, but whatever he writes I am sure to pick up a copy.

Read the whole review here. To Matt’s question: At this point, I’m looking at new projects, both within alt-history/historical fantasy and without, so I’m probably not heading back to the Known Worlds any time soon. That said…I love this setting and these characters, and if I’m lucky enough to keep doing this a while, who knows? It’ll depend on whether I have a great story to tell.

Many thanks to Matt and Amazing Stories for the kind words and all the support shown for the Daedalus series. Gambit is out May 5 — click here to find out where you can pre-order it!

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April 20, 2015 · 10:00 am

Con or Bust auctions start today! Bid on a signed Daedalus trilogy!

As promised, this is your reminder that bidding is now open in Con or Bust‘s charity auction. And that one of the auction items is the complete Daedalus trilogy, including the forthcoming The Venusian Gambit, all signed. Heck, let’s even say signed and dedicated if you so choose.

You have until midnight on Sunday, May 3, to get your bids in. We’re starting off at $25, which is a pretty solid discount off the cover price for all three books. So get in there and get your bids placed! And while you’re at it, check out the other items up for auction, too. You may yet see a bid or two from me on some of these. They’re that awesome.

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April 19, 2015 · 1:41 pm

The Venusian Gambit makes Library Journal‘s monthly SF/F roundup

TVG-cover-finalI’m very happy to see that The Venusian Gambit made it into Library Journal‘s recent roundup of forthcoming SF/F titles. There’s only a handful of books mentioned out of the several dozen coming out in May, so I was pretty excited to see Gambit in there. My thanks to Megan McCardle and the whole Library Journal crew for once again showing the Daedalus series some love.

Also worth noting within the LJ roundup: A quote from The Clockwork Crown by Beth Cato (she who blurbed Gambit so nicely), and a mention of The Rebirths of Tao by all-around great guy Wes Chu.

And congratulation to Molly Tanzer for her debut novel, Vermilion, named the LJ debut of the month in that same roundup. Fun fact: The Daedalus Incident was the SF/F debut of the month in LJ two years ago. The editor of my debut? Ross Lockhart. The editor of Molly’s debut? Ross Lockhart.

The editor of the Cthulhu Fhtagn! anthology coming out in August with my short story in it? Ross Lockhart.

Ross is now the proprietor of Word Horde and has continued kicking ass and taking names, as you can plainly see. He’s a fantastic editor and all his kudos are well deserved indeed. And I can’t wait to read Vermillion as well — it sounds amazing. Way to go, Molly!

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April 16, 2015 · 5:00 pm

Nook and Kobo readers! The Venusian Gambit now available for pre-order

First there was Kindle, and now The Venusian Gambit is available on Barnes & Noble’s Nook as well as via Kobo Books. Still waiting for Apple iBooks and Google Play, but those tend to take a bit longer; I’ll post when I see them go live.

Of course, you can still pre-order Gambit in print from all the usual suspects: Mysterious Galaxy, Books-A-Million,Barnes & Noble, IndieBound and Amazon. Of course, pre-ordering from your local bookseller makes you even more awesome than you already are. And for audiobook fans, it’s due out on Audible very soon.

The Venusian Gambit officially launches May 5, and with it the Daedalus trilogy comes to an end. I’m excited to see it out there — hope everyone enjoys it!

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April 14, 2015 · 5:00 pm

Signed copies of the entire Daedalus trilogy up for auction to benefit Con or Bust

Con Or BustI freakin’ love the fact that this whole author thing allows me to meaningfully contribute to great charities. I’ve helped to raise over a grand for various charities over the past two years, which fills me with warm fuzzy karma. And it’s fantastic to see so many great people donate to awesome causes.

So let’s do it again, shall we?

Con or Bust is a great charity that helps people of color attend SF/F conventions. I think promoting diversity in fandom is very much a worthwhile endeavor, as speculative fiction has historically been about embracing differences and exploring a wide variety of perspectives. We need more of it.

This is my third time participating in the annual Con or Bust auctions, and now that the Daedalus trilogy is finished, I’m proud to offer up signed copies of all three books — The Daedalus Incident, The Enceladus Crisis and The Venusian Gambit — for auction this year.

The auction page is here. Bidding will start at $25, and I hope it goes through the roof. You can start bidding on Monday, April 20; bidding ends Sunday, May 3. Yes, I’ll remind you again when we’re up and running, but it’s never too early to begin saving up your pennies.

And yes, this includes The Venusian Gambit, which is due out May 5. With shipping, you probably won’t get it before the release date, but you’ll probably have the very first signed copy. (Well, one that isn’t an ARC.) That’s gotta be worth a few bucks, right?

Be sure to check out the other Con or Bust auctions as well. There’s a lot of great stuff there, and it’s all for a good cause. Let’s keep making SF/F the kind of welcoming, inclusive community we want it to be.

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