Posts Tagged ‘The Iron Codex’

Iron Codex on sale, plus Dark Arts news (#SFWApro)

If you’ve read The Midnight Front, Book 1 of my Dark Arts trilogy from Tor Books, and you want to read more of my black-magic secret-history series, eBooks of Book 2, The Iron Codex, go on sale this Friday, October 25, 2019, for just $2.99.

The Iron Codex is a classic Cold War-era spy thriller, in the style of John Le Carré or Ian Fleming, mixed with Renaissance-era ceremonial black magic. I like to describe it as “Hellfire heats up the Cold War.”

The fine folks at Tor Books are offering U.S. readers an unbeatable price on eBooks of The Iron Codex, this Friday through the end of Halloween.

With Dark Arts, Book 3, The Shadow Commission, recently back from copy editing and slated for publication on June 9, 2020, now is a good time to get caught up on my action-packed series.

If you’d like to know more about the Dark Arts series, check out this new video interview of yours truly, conducted by Carl Birkmeyer of the Baltimore County Public Library. We talked about the origin of the series, its magic system, and its principal themes.

#SFWApro

The Iron Codex is up for a Dragon Award

My secret-history fantasy thriller The Iron Codex has been nominated for a 2019 Dragon Award in the category of Best Alternate History Novel!

I’m grateful to all the fans who signed up and nominated my book for this honor. Of course, my tome is up against some serious heavyweight competition, so the odds of me taking home the award are slim, at best.

Still, I urge you, whoever you are, to sign up to vote now if you haven’t already — it’s free, and all it takes is an email — and please, if you think my book deserves it, give it your vote as Best Alternate History Novel.

In addition, some of my friends have works on this year’s final ballot, in other categories. If you’re willing, I hope you’ll consider casting your votes for their works, as well:

Best Military SF Novel: Uncompromising Honor by David Weber

Best Media Tie-in Novel: Star Trek: Discovery – The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack

Best Horror Novel: 100 Fathoms Below by Steven L. Kent, Nicholas Kaufmann

Best Graphic Novel: Monstress Vol. 3 by Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda

Thanks to all who have supported my work up to this point, and to all who vote for it to win!

#SFWApro

The Iron Codex Spotify Playlist

One year ago I brought you the Spotify playlist guide for my first Dark Arts novel, The Midnight Front. I’ve chosen to reprise that effort by putting together another Spotify playlist for the second book in the series, The Iron Codex.

Music is invaluable to me as a storyteller. It inspires me with new ideas, and when I’m working, movie soundtracks often help me maintain a consistent frame of mind and emotional state that’s suited to whatever I’m working on.

Once again, to give you a look into my brain’s creative relationship with music, and how it connects to the stories that I write, I have assembled this guide to The Iron Codex’s playlist. Not all chapters or scenes have specific tracks associated with them, but those that do, I’ve done my best to annotate accordingly.

As a quick review of the playlist will reveal, the biggest musical influences this time around were spy-movie soundtracks. Specifically, Kingsman: The Secret Service, by Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson; Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace by David Arnold; and Skyfall by Thomas Newman.

Also, a fun bit — at the end are two “bonus tracks.” Neither informed any particular scene, but they were instrumental to me in defining the “headspace” for two characters in particular: Cade, whose heartbroken, soul-shaken state is evoked by John Fullbright’s earnest “Until You Were Gone,” and Briet, whose need to earn some kind of redemption is expressed by Brandi Carlile’s hit “That Wasn’t Me.”

Nota Bene: Not all of the listed tracks are available for playback on Spotify, due to ever-changing licensing permissions, etc. Those of you who collect movie soundtracks might own one or more of these discs already. If you can compile your own local playlist based on this, all the better. (more…)

Excerpt: The Iron Codex

The fires of Hell heat up the Cold War in this excerpt from The Iron Codex!

From the Tor/Forge intro:

1954: Cade Martin, hero of The Midnight Front during the Second World War, has been going rogue without warning or explanation, and his mysterious absences are making his MI6 handlers suspicious. In the United States, Briet Segfrunsdóttir serves as the master karcist of the Pentagon’s top-secret magickal warfare program. And in South America, Anja Kernova hunts fugitive Nazi sorcerers with the help of a powerful magickal tome known as The Iron Codex.

In an ever-more dangerous world, a chance encounter sparks an international race to find Anja and steal The Iron Codex. The Vatican, Russians, Jewish Kabbalists, and shadowy players working all angles covet the Codex for the power it promises whoever wields it.

As the dominoes start to fall and one betrayal follows another, Anja goes on the run, hunted by friend and foe alike. The showdown brings our heroes to Bikini Atoll in March 1954: the Castle Bravo nuclear test.

But unknown to all of them, a secret magickal cabal schemes to turn America and its western allies toward fascism—even if it takes decades….

If you have a copy of The Midnight Front, you have an earlier version of this excerpt in the back of book one. This is the copy-edited and polished version, now on the Tor/Forge Blog.

Follow my heroine Anja into a magick-fueled, globe-hopping Cold War-era spy thriller! The Iron Codex will be published in trade paperback, eBook, and digital audiobook formats in North America on January 15, 2019 by Tor Books.

FREE FICTION: “Hell Rode With Her”

Hell Rode With Her,” an original novelette excised from the manuscript of The Midnight Front, details events that befall Russian-born sorceress (aka “karcist”) Anja Kernova after she deserts from the Red Army in late 1943.

This was in fact the first part of the Dark Arts series that I wrote, and Anja’s confrontation with her countrymen during the Great Patriotic War sets the stage for the series’ second book, The Iron Codex, in which Anja is the chief target of an international magickal arms race in 1954.

The good folks at Tor Dot Com are hosting the publication of this story, which first appeared in the anthology Apollo’s Daughters. Please head over to Tor Dot Com, enjoy the story, and leave a comment so that the good folks at Tor will know people are actually reading it.

The Iron Codex will be published on January 15, 2019, and is available now for pre-order in both trade paperback and eBook formats.

#SFWApro

Video of my NYRSF reading from The Iron Codex

If you couldn’t make it to last night’s readings by me & Seth Dickinson, watch the event now for free online (starting at 22 minutes in):

I read from my upcoming Dark Arts novel The Iron Codex; Seth reads from his new original SF novel Exortia, coming next year from tor.com.

The event was curated and hosted by Amy Goldschlager at the Commons Cafe in Brooklyn, NY.

Cover Reveal: THE IRON CODEX (Dark Arts, Book 2)

The fires of Hell heat up the Cold War in my next Dark Arts novel, The Iron Codex, coming January 15, 2019, from Tor Books. The book is now available for pre-order in trade paperback, eBook, and digital audiobook from several major book retailers.

I’m honored to debut its awesome cover featuring my kickass Russian heroine Anja Kernova:

The illustration is by artist Larry Rostant, based on direction from editor Marco Palmieri, with compositing and final layout by the always amazing production team at Tor Books, led by Irene Gallo.

More about the book, the series, and its treatment of ceremonial magic can be found on: http://midnightfront.com/