The podcast I did with the lovely people at Solaris is now up and running, and you can listen to it by clicking on the link here and then following the relevant instructions on the page.  There’s the interview I did with the very well informed and affable David Moore, and there’s also my reading of a passage from Age Of Zeus, with added sound effects and that.

Trust me, you’ll be relieved I didn’t attempt accents for the non-English characters.  I’m hardly a Rory Bremner in that department, although if you want a convincing impression of a second-generation Pakistani who may or may not live in Wales, I’m your man — because that’s where every accent I do, whatever region or dialect I’m shooting for, ends up.

OK, I admit it, the entry title’s a very convoluted joke.  But the answer, according to the review pages of this month’s SFX, is three and a half.

Actually, it’s a blisteringly good review of The Age Of Zeus, with one or two minor caveats which need not detain us here.  It starts by describing my pantheon books as “wonderfully bizarre”, and dubs Zeus a “barking mad fusion of Andy McNab and Ray Harryhausen”, which is an almost perfect assessment.  It goes on to call the book “a rollicking page-turner, crammed with violence, lurid plot twists and mythic monster-battling adventure”, and adds, “The plot moves like a bullet.”  The final analysis is: “energetic and entertaining stuff”.

In all, a fine write-up, courtesy of that excellent fellow with the wonderfully bizarre name, Saxon Bullock.

This splendiferous write-up has just appeared in The Guardian, courtesy of the inestimable Mr Eric Brown.  It’s all good but here’s the beefy part: “It’s a compulsive, breakneck read by a master of the craft, with stunning action sequences and acute character observations. This is the kind of complex, action-oriented SF Dan Brown would write if Dan Brown could write.”

N.B.  Dan Brown is no relation to Eric Brown, in case you couldn’t guess.