Germany on Mars in 1889, in The Dream Forge

Anders Blixt in Stockholm Sweden writes a thoughtful and entertaining blog entitled The Dream Forge, covering a wide range of fantasy and science fiction topics, with a heavy emphasis on steampunk/dieselpunk, and frequent articles covering Space 1889 world building. The other day he did a very nice piece on the German colonial venture on Mars. The illustration shows German colonial artillery supporting Schutztruppen in a skirmish with Hill Martians in Western Dioscuria. Here's the link. Check it out.

What I've Learned From The Less-Than-Brilliant (and Sometimes the Brilliant)

I try to read widely and sample a lot of different authors, genres, and styles. Lately I've been off on a different sort of reading jag: I've been reading bad science fiction which sells well.

Now, let me explain that. In my view it isn't really bad if it sells well, because we write these books to entertain, and if lots of people find a book entertaining, it has succeeded in its essential purpose. It has "lived a life worth living." That said, these books do not meet the normal standards for good writing, and I don't just mean for flowery literary fiction; I mean the standards for the genre itself, science fiction. Nevertheless they sell. So what's going on there? That's what I wanted to find out by reading them. I'm not a cynical guy and I have no contempt for my audience, so my baseline assumption here is that they are doing something right which readers recognize but lots of us writers don't.

I believe in reading good writing as an essential way of improving your own writing, and I'm by no means giving up on that. But it occurred to me that when you read an author who does everything right, it's hard to tell which of those brilliantly executed passages are critical to her success and which are pleasing but less essential. But when you read an author who does almost everything poorly, but whose books still find a wide readership, you can be pretty sure that whatever he's doing right is pretty important. And finding it isn't exactly like finding a needle in a haystack.

I won't tell you which authors I read for this experiment because I'm not in the business of running other authors down, even by means of faint praise. I'm not a critic, I'm a writer. But what did I find? Good characters? Absolutely not. At worst they were annoying stereotypes; at best they were skill sets with one quirk thrown in to make them "colorful." Great description? No. Strong sense of theme? Nope. Redemption and a moving character arc? No way. Exciting action scenes? Sometimes, but not always or even most of the time. Imaginative world building? Nuh-uh. Intricate, original plot? Pah!

No, here's what I found those writers were very, very good at: pacing.

The one thing they seem to know well is how to move a story along briskly, scene after scene after scene. They don't lumber the front of the story up with lots of backstory.( Sometimes this is because they don't seem to have thought much about backstory, but that's a different issue.) They don't have long draggy parts in the middle where characters flounder around for pages searching for meaning and fulfillment. Scene follows scene, conflict draws the reader along. They are, in short, "page turners," if nothing else. And to be honest, sometimes they are not much else, but they are at least that.

Coincidentally, not long after I finished that reading project I picked up Harlan Coben's "Tell No One," his very first New York Times best-seller from back in 2001. Coben has become a go-to guy for crime thrillers, a solid and respected genre author, and it was fun to read this early work of his. Man, does he know how to pace a book! Kept me up until 2:30 in the morning finishing it. He has a lot of other things going for him as well, but there are also some thin parts of the plot and some places where character motivation doesn't bear too critical an examination. But the pacing just sweeps you along past those and I mostly didn't notice until I thought more about it afterwards.

So what have we learned today? I am beginning to think pacing may be the single most important determinant of success in mass-market genre fiction, and by success I mean reader satisfaction. It is the beating heart of what keeps a reader reading, what keeps her involved in the story page after page..

And the great thing is that brisk pacing does not exclude any other technique. All the chops you can bring to bear on character, plot, setting, theme, and language don't get in the way of pacing one bit if you do them right. 

Another Nice Review of How Dark The World Becomes

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 







Here is a link to a nice review of How Dark the World Becomes from Astro Guyz, the science (with a heavy emphasis on astronomy) and science fiction blog by David Dickinson. This review hit last year but for some reason I missed it until just now. I like the fact that he picks up on the book's unique (or at least uncommon) treatment of humans in a multi-species confederation, i.e. we're on the bottom instead of the top.

The Contest With No Prizes -- Lucky Winners Announced

Alas, there are no lucky winners. No one took me up on my generous offer of no prizes for figuring out the three word plays embedded in the short story "Murder on the Hochflieger Ost." For the curious, here are the answers.

You may recall that I said there were three embedded word plays. One involved an artifact, which I though everyone would get. One involved a location, which I thought would be harder. The last one, involving a character's name, I though would be all but impossible.

The Artifact
When explaining why the plans of the aether battleship are of no use to the French, Renfrew explains that they do not include the plans for the analytic engine which makes the ship so powerful. The analytic engine in question is the Improved Babbage, Model Three Hundred and Sixty.

IBM-360? Nobody caught that? Really?

The Location
Gabrielle's false business card lists the address of her appraisal firm as 13 Rue Madeleine, Le Havre, France. In the 1947 James Cagney World War II espionage film 13 Rue Madeleine, that is the address of Gestapo headquarters in Le Havre.  

The Name
Etienne Villon thinks of Gabrielle Courbiere as having the strength and majesty of a mountain, and when he thinks of her as Mont Courbiere he likes the sound of the name.

Francois Villon is probably the best-remembered French poet of the late middle ages, known probably as much for his remarkably adventurous life as for his writing, and his life formed the inspiration for Bertold Brecht's "Baal" and "Threepenny Opera," the Friml operetta "The Vagabond King", and the novel, play and film "If I Were King." Villon's birth name was probably Francois de Montcorbier.

He liked to sprinkle his poems with hidden jokes.

 

The First Ten Pages

Mickey Spillane (an under-rated writer) once said that the first chapter of a book sells it and the last chapter sells the next book. There's a recognition in that as to how important the opening of a book manuscript is. It's not a secret. People have been talking about this through much of the twentieth century, with increasing urgency toward the end. Given the rapidly escalating volume of material turned out by aspiring authors, and the tightening of standards by publishers, getting through the agent and editor gatekeepers became an area of special knowledge all its own.

This has come to mind as I'm preparing (well in advance) to teach an introductory course on writing the novel later this year. This notion of the importance of beginnings may be the single most critical idea to communicate to aspiring authors, and I've been thinking a lot about how to go about it.

One of the books produced over a dozen years ago in response to the narrowing of opportunities for writers trying to break in was The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman (2000, Simon & Schuster), a treasure-trove of useful no-nonsense advise to any fiction author, written from the perspective of what editors and agents look for as a key to rejecting, rather than accepting manuscripts. His point is simple and clear: most submissions are rejected for specific reasons which are found in the first five pages of the manuscript. Donald Maass in Writing the Breakout Novel (2001, Writer's Digest Books) makes a similar point, although he is prescriptive rather than proscriptive. He emphasizes what has to be established in those critical five pages rather than what has to be avoided.

So when I give craft talks at writers' groups, or sometimes when I critique a manuscript for someone, I'll frequently come back to the importance of a strong opening. Sometimes I get nods, but I can tell the person I'm talking to isn't completely sold. Readers need all this background information (they say, perhaps only to themselves) in order to understand the real story when it comes later. Besides (they say), many best-selling authors take their time getting started. Sure (I tell them) and when you're a best-selling author with a giant fan base, you can too. Until then, this is important.

But how important? Well, I think I finally know how to convince them. I was talking to another author in one of my writers' groups and his agent was telling him of an interesting development in publishing. Now that Barnes & Noble is effectively the only nationwide book chain, large publishers have a hard time making money from a traditionally-produced paper book unless B&N picks it up for their chain. A publisher needs that first big shot to justify the up-front investment in a print run. So at least one major publisher now has office space set aside for readers from B&N who vet manuscripts and give a thumbs-up or -down.

Now here's the really interesting part: they only read the first ten pages.

Before you go crazy with how unfair or unreasonable that sounds, remember that B&N knows how their customers shop. Customers come in to browse, they pick up a book, they read a few pages, and if it doesn't grab them, they return it to the shelf and move on.

I don't think they're crazy to think that. I've done exactly that many, many times. I remember picking up Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007, Harper Collins), reading the first two pages, and immediately going to the checkout lane and buying it.

If anything, by giving authors ten pages instead of five, they are being generous.

Murder on the Hochflieger Ost part 2

Part 2 of the audio version of the short story "Murder on the Hochflieger Ost" is now up and available. Here's the link. It's at the end of the Baen Free Radio Hour, so you can fast forward if you want, but there's always interesting stuff in there you might not want to miss.

The picture to the left is a detail from the cover of The Forever Engine. Gabrielle, of course, did not have her shotgun with her on the Hochflieger Ost, much to her dismay.

Murder on the Hochflieger Ost Audio Podcast Part 1

Baen Books has produced an audio version of "Murder on the Hochflieger Ost," the short story prequel to The Forever Engine. They are serializing it in two parts and the first part is available at this link.  For those of you new to the blog, or just forgetful, "Murder . . ." is the story of the first covert assignment of the French spy Gabrielle Courbiere, the character who plays a very prominent role in The Forever Engine. She's actually my favorite character in the book, in part because she is so unusual. Those of you who have already read the story have an idea of what I mean by that.

When part two is up I'll post a link to it as well.

A Contest Without Any Prizes!

As I mentioned a while back, the short story "Murder on the Hockflieger Ost," which is a prequel to The Forever Engine, is available as a free download from the Baen Books site. Here's the link again in case you need it. It's a fun read.

But while I was writing it, I had a little fun of my own. There are three in jokes inserted in the story, all of them plays on words, titles, or character names.

In terms of difficulty, I'd rate one of them, having to do with an artifact, a very easy find. One of them, having to do with a location, somewhat harder but not impossibly so. The last one, having to do with a character's name, is so obscure I'd say it was impossible to get, unless you have a mind prone to making associations as odd as mine is.

So any and all guesses welcome. I'll post the correct answers in four weeks and discuss the various guesses, provided I receive any. No guess is stupid--it just may not have been what I had in mind.

No prizes for correct guesses, except of course the people's ovation and fame forever.

A Nice Review of "How Dark The World Becomes"

I've been pleased with the reception of How Dark The World Becomes. It's gotten a solid 4.6 stars on Amazon, with only a single three-star review and all the rest fours and fives. It hasn't gotten a lot of published reviews, however, so I was glad to see the SFcrowsnest site in the UK post a nice review last month. Here's a link.

I'm pleased by the review not only because it's positive, but particularly because the reviewer, Kelly Jensen, finds the strengths of the story to lie above all in its characters and world building, which are two of the three parts of the novel I like most and worked hardest on.

For those curious, the third part (for me) was pacing.

On January 9th I also got a short but nice review in  the Philadelphia Weekly Press from Henry Lazarus. "Very exciting," the review claims (in part--it's not that short). I guess he noticed the attention to pacing.

Descriptive Prose

I write pretty much full-time these days so expect some blogs about writing now and then. Can't help myself.

I recently read James Lee Burke's early novel THE LOST GET-BACK BOOGIE, which was nominated for a Pulitzer in addition to re-launching his career. I've enjoyed his writing for many years but had never read this early novel and I'm very glad I did.

Burke is a master of descriptive prose. Some criticize him for going to that well too often, or for dipping too deeply. Me, I eat it up.

The novel is the story of two men who have made some seriously bad choices and are trying to put their  lives back together. One (Buddy, a blues piano player) dies, but the protagonist survives and finds a measure of peace, as the end suggests. Here are the last two paragraphs of the novel:

It’s May now, and the runoff from the snowpack on the mountain behind my house has filled the creek bed in the canyon with a torrent of white water that bursts over the boulders in a rainbow’s spray, lighting the pine and fir trees along the bank with a dripping sheen, and then flattens out at the base of the mountain and runs in a brown course through the pasture toward the river. The grass is tall and humming with insects where the water has flowed out into the field, and occasionally I can see the sun flash on the red beaks of mudhens in the reeds. The river is high and yellow, the sandbars and gravel islands have disappeared under the churning surface, and the bottoms of the cottonwoods cut long, trembling V’s in the current. I can feel the spring catching harder each day, and the irrigated fields across the river are a wet, sunlit green against the far mountains and the patches of snow still melting among the pines on the crest.

In the early evening it turns suddenly cool, you can smell wood smoke in the air, and mauve shadows fall across the valley floor as the sun strikes its final sparks against the ridge. From my front porch I can see Buddy’s cabin faintly in the gathering dusk. Even after it has dissolved into the darkness and black trees and the laughter of his sons playing in the yard, I can still see it in my mind’s eye, lighted, the wood stove lined with fire, and sometimes in that moment I’m caught forever in the sound of a blues piano and the beating of my own heart.

Beautiful, isn't it? Spring coming to the valley is an obvious metaphor for the protagonist's own possible rebirth--so obvious I think it would be clichéd if it weren't for Burke's prose.

Why does that prose lift this metaphor from cliché to something profound? I think it's because what we really see here is the rebirth of the ability of the protagonist to experience and appreciate beauty and the promise of life. This isn't what the coming of spring looks like; it is what it looks like to him. That he is capable of noticing this amazing level of detail tells us more about his soul than about the mountain valley.

I think that may be part of the secret to powerful descriptive prose: it has to tell us as much or more about the character noticing the thing as it does about the thing itself, because stories are about characters, not things, right?
 

I think another part lies in the fact that stories are about change. That's what distinguishes them from sketches and vignettes.  Very powerful description doesn't just tell us what a thing is, it shows us that thing in a moment of the present as it careens along the path from what it used to be to what it will inevitably become. But for just this one fleeting instant it is this.

That's part of it, part of great descriptive prose, but not all of it. Passages like this probably can't be completely deconstructed, analyzed, and explained without losing some of their magic. And maybe that's the real secret of great descriptions--magic.

*****

Sorry there's so much variation in font style and size. I've fiddled with this for an hour trying to get it right and Blogger (the host site) just won't cooperate. It's getting very fiddly lately, sending me odd messages about incompatible browsers (same one I've always used). I hope we're not building up to a crash of some sort, but we'll see.

The Forever Engine is Live!

Today's the first official day when The Forever Engine is live. Amazon has been shipping the advanced orders and is now posting reviews.(First one's up--four stars and a very nice write-up.) It should be in the stores as well, although I haven't yet braved "The Killer Storm of the Century" to find out if it's in my local Barnes & Noble.

Although the ratings change hourly, last time I looked the book was at number 13 for both time travel science fiction and steampunk on the Amazon best-seller lists, and that's mostly based on preorders. I don't really understand how those rankings work (and they make a point of telling you they will not reveal how they come up with them, I suppose so folks can't game the system) but since the sample size is over a million total book-like products, whatever 13th means, it can't suck.

Of course the book's been trickling out for a number of weeks. The Baen Books eArc (electronic advanced reading copy) was available a while ago and I've heard from folks that Amazon went ahead and sent the Kindle versions upon ordering starting sometime  in December, and we're right at a point in the History of Book-like Things where the electronic version approaches the importance of the physical product. We've certainly passed it for some forms of Book-like Things.

Those of you in the Midwest and east coast: stay warm. Maybe curl up with a good book.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year one and all! 2013 was a busy year for me, and a very good one. I have a number of resolutions for the new year, one of which concerns this blog. I'll leave what that resolution might be to your collective imaginations.


The immediate news is that The Forever Engine will be on the shelves in bookstores within the next week, and also available in all e-formats from Baen Books (here's a link to their site) and also available online in paper and Kindle versions from Amazon. I received a very nice advanced review in Publishers Weekly back in the November 4th issue. Here's what it said, in part, with potential spoilers left out:

"Legendary game designer Chadwick taps into his popular Space: 1889 steampunk setting with this exciting prequel novel, which sees soldier-turned-historian Jack Fargo catapulted from 2018 to an alternate 1888 by a mysterious explosive event. Although alternately amazed and baffled by a world that features airships, interplanetary travel, America split into the Confederate States and the United States, and Europe laid out along different political lines, Fargo just wants to go home. . . .(T)he world building is rock solid, the plot fast paced, the action visceral, and the stakes high. Chadwick balances scientific theory, steampunk imagery, and memorable characters with flair. . . "

I blush.

Relating to the novel, Baen Books (my publisher) and I also have a New Year's present for you. They contracted a short story from me as a prequel to the novel and as a way of giving a little more background on one of the characters. The story is called, "Murder on the Hochflieger Ost," and takes place a year before the events of the novel on an enormous luxury zeppelin plying the Berlin-to-Istanbul route--the Space: 1889 equivalent of the Orient Express. It's a free download at the Baen Books site. Just click on this link.

Tony Daniels, my editor at Baen Books and a fine writer in his own right, had some great ideas for the rewrite and nudged me toward a far better final resolution, in my opinion. A book ends up being a collaborative effort and much of the success stems from the help the author receives from others. It still ultimately comes down to the author, but I think the current trend toward self-publishing risks losing some of the collaborative effect of going through a publishing house. Yes, you can hire editors and proofreaders, but I'm not sure it's quite the same thing. Nevertheless, it's certainly here to stay, and will certainly become an increasing part of the literary scene. The economics of publishing almost dictates it for most writers. Who knows what the future will bring, but I'm happy to be with a publishing house like Baen, one that's still intimately connected to their authors and to their customers.  

Space 1889 Game Hits a Homer on Kickstarter!

For those of you who haven't been following it, the Space 1889 roleplaying game on Kickstarter finished its funding window two days ago. It had made its original funding goal within a week or the launch and then made steady progress toward the stretch goals after that. But there was a big surge at the end and it ended up hitting 483% of its original funding goal, with over $100,000 raised. There will be LOTS of supplements and adventures coming, as well as some very handsome 28mm miniatures based on the artwork for the characters.

I am delighted and a little stunned. I expected it to do well, to hits its original funding target easily, and probably double or treble that. But a nearly five-fold increase is amazing, and wonderful. With this game coming out later this year from Clockwork Productions, and the supplements coming out next year, with The Forever Engine shipping from Baen Books in January of next year, with more e-books coming in Space 1889 and Beyond from Untreed Reads, the next twelve months should be about everything Space 1889 fans could want--aside from a working aether flyer, of course.

Final Edits In on The Forever Engine

I received the final marked up copy edits of The Forever Engine a little over a week ago and just express mailed them back to the folks at Baen Books with all of my final changes. Paul Witcover at Baen did a very thorough and professional job on the copy edit and caught a  couple places where I had unintentionally mangled Gabrielle Courbiere's (the heroine's) French. That would have violated one of my cardinal rules: never make a determined woman with a lever-action shotgun look bad. Thanks for the catches, Paul.

In order to check all the edits I had to read the novel again, I had a good time doing it even though there obviously wasn't a lot of suspense for me. I couldn't tell you how many times I've read this, between the rewrites and the chapters I've read out loud at my three writing workshop groups. A lot. But I'm not sick of it, and that's a good thing. I hope you all enjoy it when it comes out in January. Baen will have an electronic advanced reading copy (eARC) out before then. I'll let you know more  when I know more. I'll also be posting at least one sample chapter here, and maybe more, when we get a little closer to publication.

Meantime the Space: 1889 Kickstarter just keeps chugging along. It's at over 250% funding now and has unlocked the Venus Sourcebook as well as a bunch of other goodies. They've added a umber of add-ons as well, including a Space: 1889 soundtrack CD--background music for playing the roleplaying game with friends or even, it occurs to me, while quietly reading The Forever Engine.

It's been a busy summer but a good one.

Venus Sourcebook May Be Next!

The cover for the Venus Sourcebook.

The Space 1889 Kickstarter project is turning out to be pretty exciting. It's at about 195% funding of the original goal with only a bit over a third of the funding period gone, so it's at the point where Clockwork Productions et al are adding additional stretch goals. Since the Venus Sourcebook unlocks (becomes available) when they hit about 225% of their original goal, I'd say the odds are very good. I know from years of experience that Venus is the world gamers asked about most concerning additional material.

This level of support for the game is very gratifying on a personal level. I imagine a lot of you know that Space 1889 was the only role-playing game I designed which I retained control of when GDW closed down. I had control of all of my work, of course, but much of it I sold or licensed almost immediately. That was business. But Space 1889 was also personal for me, so it's renewed success now makes me feel nice and warm inside.

There's more news on the literary front as well. I'll fill you in on that tomorrow or the next day.

The (New) Art of Space 1889

I've posted several pieces of art from the German (and soon to be English language)  Space: 1889 basic book before, including character archetypes. Those were done by Mia Steingraeber and have been big hits with about everyone who's seem them. The above one is not from the main book, but instead is a sample archetype from the forthcoming Venus sourcebook. Here's a link to the HeroPress site giving a little more info about the new Space: 1889 art, as well as al update on the Kickstarter project.

Two New Interviews With Your Favorite Author

Okay, I suppose it's a bit presumptuous to think I am your favorite author, but hope springs eternal.

The interviews were occasioned by the publication of How Dark The World Becomes earlier this year. They were conducted by email a couple weeks ago by Keith Brooke, well-known British science fiction author, editor, and web publisher.  The first interview (link) is in SF Signal online, which I'm sure many of you know of. The second (link) is a follow-up interview which appears in Keith's own Infinity Plus e-zine. I like the result because Keith got me to talk about some things I've never said much about publically, including the "type" of books I like to write. Take a look.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Patric Götz of Clockwork Productions, Angus Abranson of Chronicle City, and everyone else who has worked on the new Space 1889 project. It went live on Kickstarter at 6PM on Wednesday night and by Sunday morning had met its funding goal. As I write this on Sunday evening it is at 111%. Once it gets to 120%, the first stretch goal--the 32-page adventure "The Order of the Invisible Eye" by John Wick--will unlock, with more to follow that.  This is terrific news for the game and thanks to all of you who joined in to help put it over the top.

Thirty-four more funding days left.

The Return of Space 1889 part 2

When I posted about Clockwork Productions' kickstarter two days ago, I failed to give a link to the site. Not a big deal, really, as it's the only Space 1889 project on kickstarter, and you are all reasonably resourceful adults. That said, here's the link. Check it out.
Somkeone told me today that if the project hasn't made 20% of its goal in the first ten days it probably won't make it. Well, this one has hit 90% of its goal in the first three days, so I'd say there's a pretty good chance it's going to do okay in the remaining thirty-seven. Get ready for a boffo new English edition of the rules.

In the mean time, here's a look at the sculpts for their Martian Princess figure,  one of the premiums they're doing.

The Return of Space: 1889!

I'm way behind on news and views, and so you'll see several posts next week, after I return from Historicon in historic Fredericksburg, VA. But there's one piece of news which could not wait, Stop The Presses kind of news. Clockwork Productions brought us the beautifully-produced German edition of Space: 1889, and everyone wanted to know, "When will there be an English edition?" Your entreaties have been answered. The Space: 1889 Kickstarter crowd funding starts this evening, Wednesday, July 17th. I'll let them explain in detail. Here is their press release. Go take a look. I think you'll like what you see.

***

Space: 1889 Returns!

Cologne & Swindon, July 2013
Wednesday July 17th sees the launch of a new Kickstarter by Clockwork Publishing and Chronicle City to fund the new English version of the award-winning RPG Space: 1889.



“The year is 1889 and Mankind has conquered the inner planets of the Solar System and now travels through the Ether between worlds. We discovered the ancient culture of the Martians and the misty wilderness of Venus. Mercury is a world of extremes, but rich in valuable raw materials. The Asteroid Belt and the Earth’s moon, Luna, are still waiting for further exploration. And there is still a lot to discover on Earth itself.

 Under the burning sun of the Martian steppes, the steamy mists of the Venusian jungle, the deadly cold of the Dry Ice Zone on Mercury, or at the banks of the Amazon River on good old Earth – the world of Space: 1889 is full of adventures.”


Everything Jules Verne could have written.
Everything H.G. Wells should have written.
Everything A. Conan Doyle thought of but never published because it was too fantastic.
Everything you need for the adventures of the century.

 

Almost 25 years ago, well known game designer and author Frank Chadwick came up with the idea of a roleplaying game set in a world inspired by the fantastic novels of early Science Fiction authors like Jules Verne or H. G. Wells.


Space: 1889 was first published in 1988 by Game Designers Workshop, followed by several additional products, amongst them supplements like “Ironclads and Ether flyers,” adventures like “Canalpriests of Mars,” and board games like “Temple of the Beastmen.”


GDW is long gone but, nevertheless, the fan-base has hung on to this “roleplaying game in a more civilized time” and with the growing popularity of 'steampunk culture' the time has never been better to reintroduce a new edition of the game for old and new fans alike.


The Space: 1889 Crowdfunding project is a cooperation between Uhrwerk Verlag/Clockwork Publishing, Chronicle City, and the master himself, Frank Chadwick.


Already released in German in 2012, the new version features new rules, new artwork, and extended background information that hadn't been available before. Working closely with Space: 1889 creator, Frank Chadwick, a completely new rulebook has been produced, not only building on the original version from the 1980s and 1990s but expanding it in accordance with what has been produced before.


The new version of Space: 1889 uses the fast and easy to learn Ubiquity-ruleset from Exile Games Studios, an award winning system invented by Jeff Combos and used by the RPG Hollow Earth Expedition.


With this new Kickstarter project we hope to expand the exciting new Space: 1889 RPG to where it has its roots: the English-speaking world. We are hoping the core rulebook will be the start of a whole range of Space: 1889 products in English. With each reached stretchgoal, we will be adding new adventures, sourcebooks, accessories or other items.


Come and join us on an exciting voyage through the solar system and visit the deserts of Mars, the dense jungles of Venus or the icy cold of the dark side of Mercury.

About Clockwork Publishing
Clockwork Publishing (or to be more precise: Uhrwerk Verlag, which is the german name, but quite unpronouncable to our english customer base) has been publishing RPGs since 2009, including the German versions of Hollow Earth Expedition, Deadlands: Classic and The One Ring, as well as a lot of RPGs of german origin like Dungeonslayers and Das Schwarze Auge – Myranor. Patric Götz, the owner of Clockwork Publishing, is working in the RPG industry for over 15 years and still hasn't managed to find a decent job somewhere else.
About Chronicle City
Chronicle City is a British based games company set up by multi-award winning publisher Angus Abranson (ex-Cubicle 7 Entertainment; Leisure Games). Chronicle City works with a number of companies and designers, helping to publish and distribute their games. In addition they also develop and license settings to create there own roleplaying, card and board games. Angus has long been a fan and supporter of the steampunk genre, and still has the character sheet of his first Space: 1889 character from when the game was first released!
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For more information on Space: 1889, the Kickstarter the companies involved, or to arrange interviews or previews of the game and the creators behind it, please contact us on info@chroniclecity.com