At the weekend, All Zombies Must Die was unleashed on Xbox Live.

As you can probably guess from the title, this is a rather tongue in cheek game developed by Doublesix with a focus on multiplayer zombie slaying.

Set in the town of Deadhill, All Zombies Must Die offers a huge variety of weapons (such as Odin’s Toothpick Katana and the Dragon’s Breath Shotgun) in a four player twin-stick shooter with persistent RPG elements.

This is arena combat but with added questing elements, plus character levelling and weapons crafting too.

The quest plots are described as “insane”, the zombies plentiful and “terrifyingly funny” being rendered in cartoon style graphics.

Improvising with your weapons and using the environment to help kill the undead shufflers is all part and parcel of this hybrid action RPG.

In a press release, Doublesix noted that: “Zombies can be shot, slashed, blasted, blown up, electrocuted, torched, irradiated and zapped in a number of horrifying and hilarious ways, causing them to drop useful items like ammo, armor and hamburgers.”

Would you eat a hamburger dropped from a fetid Zombie’s pocket? No, us neither.

All Zombies Must Die is available now for 800 MS Points, just under £7.

Subtitled “The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction”, Solaris Rising is precisely that – a reboot of the George Mann edited The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction under a new editor, and an anthology of nineteen stories by well-known contemporary science fiction writers. And like any anthology, especially one without a theme, the book stands or falls on the stories contained therein. Whates clearly has a light hand when it comes to editing, and the stories in Solaris Rising cover a wide range of science-fictional modes and approaches.

Alastair Reynolds, for example, does what Alastair Reynolds does best, and in ‘For the Ages’ he has vast distances, deep time… and a story very much focused on the personal level. Likewise, Ian Watson remains true to form with an energetic tale of marooned astronauts on Mars being returned to Earth by a flying saucer and ending up living in a Spanish Wild West tourist attraction. Stephen Baxter’s ‘Rock Day’ suffers from being half set-up and half explanation, though it is affecting. Paul di Filippo provides one of the highlights in ‘Sweet Spots’, with a story of a high school student with a strange talent, though its ending pushes the central conceit a little too far. Ian McDonald’s ‘A Smart Well-Mannered Uprising of the Dead’ impresses with its local colour, though you have to wonder if the satire would have had more bite if it had been set in the West rather than an African nation – though, to be fair, it’s predicated on local culture, so perhaps it wouldn’t have worked otherwise. Dave Hutchinson tells Dr Manhattan’s story in ‘The Incredible Exploding Man’ and, while it’s done well, you have to wonder why. Adam Roberts’ ‘Shall I Tell You The Problem With Time Travel?’ is another of the anthology’s best, turning on a neat conceit, and though a not entirely serious treatment, it makes some serious points.

Ken MacLeod’s alternate history, ‘The Best Science Fiction of the Year Three’ pulls a rabbit out of a hat in the last paragraph, but it’s more the world it describes than the core idea that entices. Stephen Palmer’s ‘Eluna’ reads like an excerpt from a longer piece and suffers as a result, but the world it describes is interesting and worth a longer visit. Jack skillingstead’s ‘Steel Lake’ is among the least science-fictional in Solaris Rising but its tale of the side-effects of an anti-sleep drug are done well. Steve Rasnic Tem’s ‘At Play in the Fields’, set in a future Earth in which aliens hunt through the ruins of human cities I thought less successful. And Mike Resnick and Laurie Tom’s story of the Chinese-American captain of an interstellar mission trying to hang onto her culture, ‘Mooncakes’, is trite and old-fashioned.

Richard Salter’s time-slip serial killer in Brighton is effective, although as a mystery it’s not entirely satisfactory – but then the sf/crime story is an odd mix that rarely gels. After all, sf needs things to be explained, but crime prefers to hide things in order to delay the resolution of the central mystery. Lavie Tidhar’s ‘The Lives and Deaths of Che Guevara’ is the Boys from Brazil meets the boy from Argentina, and a clever piece about rebellions. Tricia Sullivan’s ‘The One That Got Away’ is opaque and set in a very strange world. I’m not sure how successful it is. Pat Cadigan’s ‘You Never Know’, however, is very much set in the world we know, and leads up to an affecting ending.

Jaine Fenn’s ‘Dreaming Towers, Silent Mansions’, another of the stronger stories, opens traditionally enough with a team exploring an alien city, only to turn strange and unexpected towards the end. Equally traditional is Keith Brooke and Eric Brown’s ‘ Eternity’s Children’, in which a guilt-ridden protagonist finds redemption in the forgiveness of others – in this case, the short-lived inhabitants of the planet which produces the longevity drug that makes the rest of the universe near-immortal. Finally, Peter F Hamilton’s ‘The Return of the Mutant Worms’ closes off the anthology in amusing fashion, with a tongue-in-cheek look at the author’s own career – the reference to “the best known name on the slush pile” was one applied to Hamilton himself by the editors of Interzone twenty years ago. It provides a perfect end to the book.

If there’s anything that characterises Solaris Rising it’s that most of the contributors have done what they do well. Few seemed to have moved far from their comfort zones which, I suppose, a themed anthology might have encouraged them to do. This is not a criticism, just an observation – after all, the authors in Solaris Rising are good at what they do, and they’re known for being good at what they do. It would be foolish to expect them to do something different. Despite this, the contents of Solaris Rising are varied – in mode and topic, and, it must be admitted, in quality and enjoyableness. But that is the nature of the beast.

There are those who think the short story is dying out, but the current plethora of genre anthologies and magazines put the lie to that. However, most of those anthologies are published by small presses, which means ones such as Solaris Rising are important in getting the word about short fiction’s health out there. Solaris Rising is a strong debut to what I hope will become a series.

Gears of War fans should be sprinting to their Xbox, MS points in hand, because a new batch of DLC has been released for the game.

Raam’s Shadow is, in fact, the biggest add-on ever to be released in the history of the Gears of War franchise.

The new mini-campaign is around three hours in length, on average, and is available now on Xbox Live for 1200 MS points (around a tenner).

Raam’s Shadow is the second major dollop of DLC for Gears of War 3, and it lets the player fight on both sides of the Locust war.

It features a new gears outfit known as Zeta Squad who are attempting to evacuate Ilima City and protect its inhabitants from a Locust Kryll storm.

As well as organising and fighting with Zeta Squad, players will also get to strap on General Raam’s combat boots, and storm a human stronghold to find out what life is like on the other side of the Gears coin.

The downloadable content also features more than just the campaign, with an additional “chocolate” weapon set (designed for heavy blasting action and then a tasty treat), six new multiplayer characters including Raam, and a helping of fresh achievements to the tune of 250 gamerscore.

If you’re intending to buy the works in terms of Gears DLC, it might be worth considering the season pass which costs 2400 MS points, but gives you the first four add-ons at an effective third-off discount.

If you’re a Doctor Who fan – and one of the true variety who has all the old black and white episodes on DVD, still watching them regularly – then some exciting news has emerged.

Two episodes from the sixties which were thought to be lost have been discovered and returned to the BBC, meaning we should hopefully get to see them soon.

Back in the sixties, TV shows weren’t kept archived as tapes were reused due to their expensive nature.

However, some programmes were recorded to film and sent abroad as Doctor Who was screened worldwide, and it’s a couple of these which have found their way back to the Beeb.

They were actually bought by a retired broadcast engineer at a school fête, of all places, way back in the eighties. He hadn’t realised the significance of them, and that they’re probably the only copies left, until now.

The two episodes in question are from 1965 and 1967, and they star William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton respectively, the first two actors to play the Doctor.

Unfortunately the episodes aren’t standalone, but are both part of a series.

The 1965 programme is part three of a four episode run entitled Galaxy Four, and the 1967 show is the second part of a two parter, so at least that has the conclusion to the story – which apparently involves unconvincing fish men and a plot to drain the ocean into the core of the Earth.

Sounds like classic Who indeed!

Over a hundred episodes that were broadcast in the sixties are still missing. Perhaps they’ll turn up one day, too.

ON WORLDBUILDING

Back in the days of my youth, I used to spend a good deal of my time in costume: because I was involved in my local Renaissance and Christmas fairs, because I was active in the SCA, and because … well, because I was just the kind of person who liked to run around in costume. I rather wish I was that kind of person still, because it was good, harmless fun. A common question in those days was, “Are you in a play?” It was with a great deal of weariness (because the question had been asked and answered so many times already) that I would say, “No, I’m not in a play.” But though I was not in a play, I was play-acting, and one of the things I had to learn when I started writing seriously was that my characters were neither acting in a play not play-acting. I had to learn the difference between a backdrop and an invented world with depth and texture. Here is a distillation of what I’ve learned on the subject.

Some writers seem to skip over the worldbuilding entirely and content themselves with an odd amalgam of our modern era and the Middle Ages or a future world that is oddly similar to our own (everyone wears jeans and leather jackets). On the other hand, some spend so long building their worlds, they never get around to writing their stories. There is a middle ground, and it is an extensive one, where each writer may find a place that is comfortable, yet give readers all that they need to visualize the invented world.

Much of this article will concentrate on description: not only how it reveals your world to your readers, but how you can use it to generate insights that may help you add depth and texture to the world you are in the process of building.

Rule number one (and you will find this mentioned again and again in this article) is make the details specific. In general, a few specific, concrete, or tangible details sprinkled in along the way will allow readers to build up their own picture of a person, a place, or a culture. If characters are invited into a cottage for a meal and the cottagers offer “goat cheese and a coarse brown bread sprinkled with flaxseed” — rather than simply “bread and cheese” — not only does it create a more complete picture of the meal, but it suggests herds of goats and fields of flax growing nearby. “Dates and oranges” suggest a warm climate. “Fine white bread and delicate spiced meats,” suggest wealth and luxury. Longer descriptions, if the writer does them well, can add context, texture, and color, but selectivity, discrimination in choosing your words, may allow you to describe briefly and more effectively what would otherwise require many words.

In some cases, adjectives may be the least part of a description. Use verbs, nouns (this goes back to what I said about specific details), adverbs, present and past participles used as adjectives, and do not rely too heavily on adjectives.

Descriptions should appeal to the senses. A long description might appeal to all five senses; a shorter description might only appeal to one or two. The sense of smell is particularly tied to emotional memory, and most of all to childhood memories. Description should appeal to the reader’s imagination, and not simply be a list of what is to be seen, heard, smelled, etc.

Characters

As for the characters that inhabit your world, descriptions of them, if handled correctly, show more than how each one looks, it provides insights into age, social status, and much more. A character who sweeps into a room as though he owns the place, though he is wearing a tunic five years out of date, scuffed boots, and a cloak of rubbed and stained velvet is either someone who has come down in the world, or a mountebank — the other-world equivalent of that man in Nigeria who wants to send you all his money. You need not recount his history. After this first impression, the next words out of his mouth should establish which one it is.

Such details, in turn, add insights into the world: Is there a class system? How does it work? How can members of each class recognize members of another at a glance, or according to the way they speak (accent, evidence of education, forms of address, etc.)? If someone has either elevated his status or lowered it, what are the clues and how do people respond to them? Is an individual of decayed gentility still more highly regarded than a useful and prosperous member of the middle class? Or are those who are upwardly-mobile admired for their energy and their efforts to better themselves? (Unlikely, since any class is jealous of its privileges and reluctant to admit new members. To use a broad generalization, it is only where money and the ability to make it speaks louder than anything else that this is possible.)

Worldbuilding is also shown through dialogue. If the characters really match their setting — if they are people who could believably exist within that invented world — then the thoughts they express and the words they use to express them can also tell much about the world they inhabit. A perfect line of dialogue inserted at the perfect moment can be deeply revealing as to character, at the same time bringing to life the thought patterns of an entire society.

One of the best ways to reveal an invented world is how the characters act within it: how does it mold them, how do things like social standing and custom limit them, what impact do they have on their world, to what extent are their present actions and their present situation ruled by their historical context.

It can be fairly said that worldbuilding and characterization are so closely linked, it is almost impossible to do well at the one without paying close attention to the other. For writers who are stuck in the worldbuilding stage and can’t progress, instead of concentrating on the characters you have outlined and then stalled on, consider what kind of people must live in your world and what the inherent challenges must be. Those are the characters and that is the story you should be telling.

Landscape

When describing landscape, again be specific. When describing a hill it is better to say, “the lower slopes were purple with heather, and dark pines grew on the summit” than to say, “trees and shrubs grew on the hill.” Note that the first one paints a vivid picture in one sentence, while the other uses seven words to create only a vague impression — which, as a result, may read like seven words too many. Shorter is not always … shorter. If describing places where people live (village, cities, even solitary houses) try to give each place a personality of its own. Descriptions of towns and cities should provide clues to the kind of people who live there, their habits, their religion, the economy, etc. Rather than “merchants hawked their wares from booths around the square,” a better description of a marketplace might be something like this, “From hide tents and hastily erected wooden booths men hawked their bone-handled knives, leather pouches, and crudely painted pottery. The women told fortunes and sold packets of dried herbs.” This first is generic, and the second provides clues to their society and available natural resources.

Context

Without the context of a story, the conflict, the tensions, and the emotions can fall absolutely flat, confuse the reader, or create the wrong impression. The closer the setting is to the world we and our readers personally inhabit, the more the society that surrounds the story is like our own in time or space, the more we can depend on the reader to know the context and the more things both the writer and the reader can safely take for granted. BUT once we leave that zone of comfortable familiarity, we simply have to start providing context or readers will fail to understand the tensions and emotions.

To give an example of why context matters: Imagine a scene where five men are playing cards. Suddenly, one of the men announces that he knows that one of the others has been cheating. The protagonist (we’ll call him X) starts to sweat, he feels a knot in his stomach, his hands begin to shake. The reader rightly concludes from this that X is the cheater. But what happens next, if X is exposed depends entirely on the context, and it is the context that tells the readers how worried they should be on X’s account, depending on the penalties the society he inhabits imposes on cheaters. These could be minor and good-natured, or they could be severe.

So … should the readers be sweating along with him? Should they hope he gets caught? Should they hope he doesn’t get caught? Should they consider the whole situation so trivial that it doesn’t really matter whether he is exposed or not, but wonder what all of this sweating and trembling says about him?

Depending on the context, what the readers will be feeling could be any of these.

Maps

Although maps are not as necessary to fantasy novels as some readers and writers think, there are good reasons why drawing a map may be helpful, and not just because the author thinks it would make a nice finishing detail to the published book. It has been said that “geography is destiny.” The physical conditions under which any group of people live will have a huge impact on their culture. The natural resources that are easily within their reach, where and how they get those things that are desirable but not readily available (obviously the society that obtains these things by way of trade agreements is going to be radically different than the one that gets by on piracy or border raids) the degree of isolation in which they live and their culture has developed, whether travel is difficult or easy for them and whether they are on the direct route to other, more important places, all of these things influence how people live and what they think — and so, in a work of fiction should also influence how characters think, as well as create the challenges they face, and give some direction to how they meet those challenges as the plot progresses

So a map, although not vital, is useful for determining much more than how characters who are travelling get from point A to point B, or which obstacles they will meet and need to overcome along the way. It is useful for working out details that might not otherwise have occurred while outlining the plot, and can save a writer from making thoughtless blunders.

* * * * *

A fantasy world need not be analogous to any real-world time or place. It is your invention, and as such, it is to be presumed that you know best what belongs there. However, when a writer mixes things up, it should be apparent that he or she is doing so deliberately and with forethought. There are various ways that authors can create this impression. One is to come up with some explanation why all of these unrelated things come together — for instance, the story is set near the nexus of several dimensions, where different influences either bleed over accidentally or pass through freely. Another is to create some sort of pattern to show how all the pieces fit together and stick to it. Still another is to create worlds and cultures so offbeat, so peculiar, so distinct from our own, that readers do not expect them to operate in any way that is familiar to them.

The best worldbuilding permeates a story and influences all its parts. The better it is done, the less necessity there may be for explanations. And it can be done very simply and consistently by taking one or two premises that make the imaginary world different from our, building on them and their natural consequences, and adhering to them throughout. Once the author strays from what he or she has established in the beginning, reasons, excuses, justifications (usually in the form of back story) begin to appear in great profusion in order to cover the plot holes. Because the best worldbuilding need not be complex, so long as it is consistent and revealed through specific details (so that there is less chance of being misunderstood). And if it is consistent, the reader is less likely to be thrown out of the story by those “what the heck?” moments, that detract from the storytelling.

Most of all, the best worldbuilding does not create an impression that the characters are acting against a backdrop of scenery. It should not leave readers with the impression that characters are simply wearing costumes (as I said in a recent interview, the characters should live in their clothes) or handling props. If a character picks up a sword, he should feel the weight of it, be aware at all times of the deadly cutting edge. He may not be thinking of this consciously, but he should never do anything that he would not do having that awareness. It is the same if a character straps on a blaster; she should be always cognizant that it is a lethal weapon, that there may be times when it is not set on stun. Moreover, readers should feel as though life continues when the point-of-view characters aren’t looking. They should not feel as though the environment in which your characters play out their lives only exists for the sake of the story (although of course it may very well). They should feel as if the world was there already, and that it is still going to be there when the story is over.

Some writers do all of their worldbuilding in advance, some discover the world as they write — they begin with one or two basic premises, and the logic and the consequences of those ideas just carry them along. You might call that second method “world growing” instead of “world building.” As long as the end result is sufficiently textured and consistent, it doesn’t make a difference.

Always keep in mind that the environment your characters inhabit is far more than the physical setting. It includes the cultural background, the manners, morals, and ethics of the society or societies within your novel — against which your characters react, either in opposition to that cultural environment, or in their efforts to maintain a position within it, or to protect it when it is threatened. This background ought not to be there merely as an extension of the scenery, it should contain within it some of the sources of tension at the heart of the story. The environment is also the emotional atmosphere in which the characters move, by which readers should also be affected.

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Teresa Edgerton works as a freelance developmental editor, helping new writers to develop their projects and improve their writing. If you are interested in engaging her services, you can contact her at hobgoblin26@att.net

Focus Home Interactive has announced that it has bagged another game which is being developed that’s based on the Game of Thrones books and hit TV series.

The franchise, which has suddenly got hotter than an orc torturer’s poking stick since it was aired on Sky earlier this year, has had several computer games developed for it already.

Indeed Focus has already published one, A Game of Thrones: Genesis, a real-time strategy game with a diplomatic and spying slant. While it tried something fresh, the critics found it seriously lacking in terms of implementation.

Hopefully this second effort from Focus will be, well, more focused. This Game of Thrones outing won’t just be PC only either, but also out on the Xbox and PS3.

It’s a role-playing adventure developed with the Unreal 3 engine, and with a script apparently supervised by the man himself, George RR Martin.

Starring two characters – Mors, one of the unfortunates sent out to man the wall with the Night’s Watch, and Alester, a red priest in search of redemption – Game of Thrones will offer an estimated thirty hours of gameplay.

It’s set at the same time the TV series begins, just after the hand of the King (his right hand man that is, non-Thrones followers) has passed away in dodgy circumstances.

Expect to meet familiar characters who are modelled on the TV actors such as Queen Cersei, Varys the Spider and Jeor Mormont, commander of the Night’s Watch.

Cédric Lagarrigue, CEO of Focus Home Interactive, claims the game is “faithful to the unique ambiance found in George R.R. Martin’s novels.”

He adds: “The narration, the artistic direction, the pace of the game and its realization make it one of the most exciting role-playing games to come in 2012.”

Other than that, Focus hasn’t got a lot to say about the actual gameplay, save that there will be character classes, loot and epic battles. You don’t say – just in case you thought you’d be spending all your time in the castle sewing and writing letters.

The publisher did drop a couple of more interesting snippets of info, though, and the RPG will apparently involve diplomacy as did Genesis. Also, you’ll be able to slow down time in a battle, rather like bullet-time (or sword-time, even).

Quite how that’ll work, we’re not sure – hopefully it will be a useful mechanic rather than just a gimmick.

Game of Thrones will be out in early 2012.

Nyxnissa, the ex-bel dame, was introduced in God’s War, also published by Night Shade Books in 2011. Infidel is not a direct sequel to that book, though it does follow on from its story. In God’s War, Nyx was booted out of the bel dames – state bounty hunters / assassins – goes freelance, and ends up tracking down a missing offworlder for the Queen of Nasheen. God’s War is a violent and fast-paced novel, but it is in its world-building where it really shines. Both it and Infidel are set on the world of Umayma, which was settled by Muslims thousands of years before. Now, two nations, Nasheen and Chenja, are permanently at war. Chenja is the more orthodox of the two countries, but Nasheen, because it sends all its men to fight, has become a matriarchal moderate Islamic state. There are also other nations on Umayma, not all of which are Muslim.

Also worthy of note is Umayma’s bug-based technology. Insects are used for everything, from powering vehicles – bakkies – to medicine. People who can control these insects are known as magicians, and they operate a semi-secret network, which provides instantaneous travel between their gyms. There is quite a bit of boxing in God’s War and Infidel. It appears to be the only sport mentioned; and it is both sexes who box.

In Infidel, set several years later, Nyx is once again a freelance bounty hunter, but her team from God’s War are either dead or scattered. When she discovers she is a target of the bel dames, she tracks down her old team-mates, Khos, the shifter, and Rhys, who are now living in Tirhan, a nation which has grown rich on the sale of weapons to the Chenjan-Nasheenian war. It seems the bel dames are ready to stage a coup in Nasheen, and have determined that Nyx is an obstacle. So they want her out of the way. Meanwhile, the bel dame faction which is against the coup has tasked Nyx with preventing it. Instrumental to the coup is the sale to Tirhan of some sand which can eat flesh.

Infidel drops more clues about the world of Umayma than its predecessor. The settlers spent a thousand years on the planet’s moon while the magicians attempted to terraform Umayma. There are hints that the bugs are native to the planet – and certainly there are insects which are impossible on Earth, such as dog-sized beetles and giant hornets. At one point, Nyx and her team must cross the countryside after their train is derailed, and it is only the presence of a magician which keeps them safe from the wild bugs.

While Infidel certainly reads like science fiction – giant insects notwithstanding – some elements are a little hard to reconcile. Such as the shifting. Khos can change into a dog; other characters can shift into birds. Inaya, however, is a mutant shifter and can change into a number of different things – at one point she changes into a tree, at another into a green mist. There’s no sfnal explanation for any of this. The bug technology too is not entirely convincing, with little or no indication given how the magicians control the bugs, or how the bugs actually comprise the technology.

Despite this, Infidel is a very good read. It’s not as frenetic as God’s War, but it is just as violent. People die horrible deaths; people are injured horribly. Nyx is an extremely well-drawn character, but the most interesting one in the novel is Inaya, a woman who tries maintain a normal and orthodox family life even though she is a mutant shifter and working as a spy against the Tirhani government. And this despite being brought up to believe shifters are evil and should be killed.

Perhaps the plot pretends to a complexity it doesn’t possess, and the final showdown is a bit too neat an ending, but Infidel is a well thought-out and intelligent novel, which asks a number of questions and refuses to present easy answers. Both it and God’s War are among the best of the sf novels published during 2011.

A third book, Rapture, is due to be published next year. I will be buying it.

Several fresh snippets of news have popped up regarding the much anticipated JJ Abrams Star Trek sequel, which is destined to hit the silver screen in 2013.

Abrams has apparently cast Alice Eve, of Entourage and Sex in the City 2 fame, for Star Trek 2 as it’s currently being referred to.

The British actress has also starred in She’s Out of My League, and is set to take a role in the upcoming Men in Black 3 as well as Star Trek.

What role she will be playing, however, isn’t yet clear, but sources indicate that it will be a new female character.

Both Zachary Quinto (who will always be Sylar to us) and Chris Pine will be returning for the sequel.

In other Trek 2 news, it seems that the film is likely to be shot in 3D, which the director wasn’t particularly keen on the idea of previously.

Something obviously changed his mind, possibly big wedges of cash, so standby for photon torpedoes and phasers blasting out into the cinema.

Abrams was only just confirmed as the director of the film in September, whereupon rumours swirled that the movie would be delayed until the middle of 2013.

In actual fact, it should make late spring, with the target release date being May 2013, barring any delays.

Kalypso Media has announced that the latest instalment of the Jagged Alliance series is set for release on the PC in February 2012.

The turn-based tactical combat game will see the player putting together the usual crew of diversely skilled mercenaries, this time to recapture the island nation of Arulco, which is ruled over by an evil dictator type.

Directing the rebels to defeat the iron-fisted maniac alongside your hired hands, you’ll need to have a handle on tactical combat on the ground, but also manage a number of aspects outside the battlefield.

These include diplomacy, dealing with finances, logistics and equipment, a whole range of support activities plus advancing your mercenaries through RPG style skill trees.

In terms of the actual combat, it combines turn-based with real-time, with Kalypso dubbing it “plan & go” combat. The real-time resolution helps keep the gameplay more involving and exciting, or that’s the theory anyway.

The developer notes that in combat, players can “tactically plan their assaults against enemy objectives. The new system allows for the player to switch between real-time play, and a waypoint-styled movement and combat, for ultimate battlefield flexibility.”

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action was originally slated for an October release, but the schedule slipped.

Better that than release an unfinished game, however, which seems to be the ever-present temptation these days.

Hell Train reaches the UK on the 5th of January and is set to be a fabulous offering of “bizarre creatures, satanic rites, terrified passengers and the romance of train travel, all in a classically-styled horror novel that evokes the real-life spirits of this most British of movie studios.”

Hammer was of course the legendary film company that brought us gems such as Dracula, Frankenstein, Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb and The Brides of Dracula.

Chris Fowler not only created some of the best well known taglines in movie history such as Alien’s “in space no-one can hear you scream”, but is also the author of the multiple award-winning Bryant and May Mysteries.

Synopsis:

“When American screenwriter Shane Carter is asked to revive the classic studio’s fortunes and, inspired by an old board game, writes a script where four strangers who meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War must solve a terrifying mystery if they are to survive.

As they race through the war-torn countryside, they must uncover the secrets of a locked casket and of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them. And what exactly is the devilish riddle of the train itself?!”

Praise:

“The very British spirit of Hammer Horror rises from the grave in Christopher Fowler’s rattling, roaring yarn”
– Kim Newman, author of Anno Dracula

About the author:

Christopher Fowler was born in London and has written for film, television, graphic novels and newspapers including the London Times. He is the author of more than thirty books, and has been nominated for eight national book awards.

Hell Train is due to be released on the 5th January 2012 and is available for pre-order on Amazon now.

Details:

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Solaris (5 Jan 2012)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 190799243X
• ISBN-13: 978-1907992438