Amortals | Forbeck.com

Grab the Amortals Audiobook

Matt Forbeck — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 15:00:40 +0000

Last week, I stumbled over the fact that Amortals has been released as an audiobook. This is part of the deal that Audible has with Angry Robot to turn their novels into books people can hear being read by professionals. Carpathia was one of the first novels to be released under this deal, and the idea was that once Audible was able to catch up with Angry Robot’s current releases, they’d go back and start working on the older books too.

Amortals’ turn finally came up. You can now purchase it at the following places, for your listening pleasure.

Tony Award-winning actor Hayward Morse read the book aloud for us. He doesn’t have the voice I heard in my head as I wrote it, but that’s probably a relief for everyone. He’s narrated lots of other books for authors including Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Conrad, Ed McBain, Harold Robbins, Jackie Collins, Arthur C. Clarke, and Mickey Spillane. He also appeared in Death Wish 3.

Give it a listen.

You Say Amortels, I Say Amortals

Matt Forbeck — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:46:58 +0000

If you read French, you can now get a free sample of the first chapters of Amortels, the French edition of my novel Amortals, published by L’Atalante. I’m happy to see them pushing the book hard, including advertising the book in the header on their website.

If English is your native tongue, then head over to Voxael’s blog for a new review of Amortals. He loved the book and writes:

I’m not really a a sci-fi connoisseur in this area, but Amortals is possibly the best science fiction book that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. [H]e’s earned a place on my list … of authors that I trust to write something engaging and entertaining, even it’s it’s outside of my comfort zone.

Parlez-Vous Amortels?

Matt Forbeck — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:48:53 +0000

Last week, on January 19, my novel Amortals was published in French by L’Atalante Ã‰ditions as Amortels. It features a snazzy new cover by David Demaret and was translated by Denis E. Savine. Many thanks to both of them, and I hope Denis’s text is as excellent as David’s illustration – which I trust it is, but I can’t read a lick of French.

L’Atalante is a fantastic publisher that puts Amortals in excellent company, alongside works created by a staggering list of excellent authors, including Terry Pratchett, Poul Anderson, Michael Moorcock, Glen Cook, Walter Jon Williams, Lev Grossman, and John Scalzi. I’m thrilled to see Amortels reach out to a whole new audience, and I’m looking forward to seeing how my French friends and readers take to it.

Dorkland Raves over Amortals

Matt Forbeck — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:50:44 +0000

Over at Dorkland, reviewer Chris Helton loved Amortals. He starts out calling it a “a cross between Robert Heinlein and Rudy Rucker,” and he winds up saying:

If Matt Forbeck’s Amortals had come out in 1986, I would have been grouping it along side of some of the greats of the cyberpunk movement. I think this is a book that can stand beside Gibson’s Neuromancer, Sterling’s Islands in the Net, Rucker’s Ware novels, or Williams’ Hardwired.

Those are some heavy names to toss around when discussing any book, but Chris justifies it with his excellent review. Be sure to check out the whole thing.

New Reviews

Matt Forbeck — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:00:18 +0000

A pair of great reviews showed up recently. The first is for Star Wars vs. Star Trek, and Earl Davis wrote it for the Empyrean. He gives the book 4 out of 5 stars and writes:

It took one of our own, Matt Forbeck to shine an honest light on the subject and force us to laugh at ourselves… Forbeck pulls no punches, laying out lightsaber swipes and Vulcan Nerve Pinches with equal aplomb.

Over at Amazon.com, Darrin Drader tackles Amortals. He awards it a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. Among other kind things, he writes:

The story has the kind of action that you would expect from a Hollywood movie, but there’s a very touching human element to the book that you simply don’t find in a lot of action movies.

Thanks, guys!

The “Remix the Robot” Contest: Let Me Kill You

Matt Forbeck — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:48:47 +0000

My fine and generous overlords/publishers at Angry Robot just announced a brand-new contest on their website, called “Remix the Robot.” As you might already know, the mighty John Anealio recently recorded a new song called “Angry Robot,” which I helped him write. The tune started out as the lead-in for the Angry Robot podcast hosted by the multitalented Mur Lafferty, but it’s grown into its own song, the lead track on John’s still-free-to-download The Robot E.P.

This tickled the Angry Robot folks so much, they decided to set up a contest. All you have to do is remix “Angry Robot,” using the original tracks files that John’s posted, and send it in. The Angry Robots, John, and I will listen to them all and pick the best. The creator of the winning mix gets a spot in my yet-to-be-announced next novel with Angry Robot, in which I promise to kill your fictional doppelganger in an especially gruesome way.

All you aspiring musicians and dapper DJs get your act on over to the Angry Robot site for all the details. And please spread the word! You have until April 1st – no fooling!

Being My Own Boss, at Booklife

Matt Forbeck — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:35:12 +0000

Over at Booklife.com, the ever-inquisitive Jeremy L.C. Jones interviews me about the ups and downs of the freelancing life and even manages to work in a reference to the opening scene of Amortals. We cover topics ranging from what my typical day is like and why I love the way I work. Check it out.

Lester Smith Reviews Amortals

Matt Forbeck — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:00:46 +0000

My Alliterates pal, world-famous game designer Lester Smith, went out and paid his own hard-earned money to pick up a copy of Amortals and then did me another solid by taking the time to write up a review of it. Although he’s bound to be biased, Lester loved the book and is more than eloquent enough to say why.

It spins into a veritable tourbillion of a plot that delivers wilder and wilder revelations, as security and freedom (aka law and chaos) do battle, with the main character unwittingly poised at their center. This is a plot that will remain with me, among my favorites.

(Thanks, Les!) Go read the rest of it, and check out the rest of Les’s site while you’re at it.

Amortals is already on the shelves of better bookstores and available as an ebook worldwide.

More Amortals Raves

Matt Forbeck — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:57:06 +0000

Over at Amazon UK, their Amazon Vine program has produced another two excellent reviews for Amortals. Dinky writes:

This is a blast of fresh air… This book not only throws together all the elements of a good modern thriller – shoot-outs, chases, explosions, gadgets, intrigues, a sparky agent of the opposite sex, politics, hints of exotic foreign travel (as in Mars, this being sci-fi after all) – it is also written deftly… You can enjoy this as a straightforward thriller set in a theoretical, not-so-shiny future with technologically advanced guns and transport. Or you can stop every so often, just as I did, to think: yeah, what if? … Read this, please.

Samuel Taylor writes:

Amortals is a slice of light science fiction that wraps complex ideas around an action packed thriller. The book has as many explosions, chases, and gun fights as it does science fiction concepts… It has as much in common with the likes of Lee Child as it does Iain M. Banks.

That’s fine company to be in any day.

More Praise for Amortals

Matt Forbeck — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:24:50 +0000

Over at SF Signal, John DeNardo (who I met at the World Fantasy Convention) has a number of kind things to say about Amortals. He calls the book:

[T]hought-provoking rather than preachy as it deals with topics of privacy, civil liberties and caring about what happens to the world around you.

Also, the Amazon Vine program produced another great review at Amazon UK, this one from Paul Tapner. He writes:

It manages to transcend what may feel too familiar to do something new and a little different, and for that it’s worth a look.