Oct 6, 2020
People are creating so much interesting stuff and doing so much art that I cracked open my sketchbook for the first time in forever!
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People are creating so much interesting stuff and doing so much art that I cracked open my sketchbook for the first time in forever!
Meet Captain Isambard Smith From A Game of Battleships by Toby Frost
A Game of Battleships
320 pages
Publisher: Myrmidon Books Ltd (12 Aug 2013)
ISBN-10: 1905802773
ISBN-13: 978-1905802777
Attention! Isambard Smith and his loyal and noble friend, the psychopathic alien headhunter Suruk, are back in a fourth laugh-out-loud installment.
In the 25th Century the future of the galaxy rests on a knife-edge. The actions of one man could save the British Space Empire, or leave Earth at the mercy of deadly legions of ant-people. That one man is Captain Isambard Smith, and Earth is in a lot of trouble. After blowing up a top-secret enemy base, Space Captain Smith and his crew deserve a rest. But their holiday ends when forces unknown destroy the robot convoy they were meant to be guarding. Smith finds himself in hot pursuit of a mysterious vessel that can pass through dimensions, incurring the wrath of the dreaded Grand Witchfinder of New Eden--which would be much easier to deal with if his pilot wasn't cowering under the dashboard and his spaceship wasn't infested with man-eating toads. Meanwhile, the Empire is gathering its allies to form a united front against alien tyranny. Unfortunately, the delicate negotiations have been entrusted to Major Wainscott, a man who knows no fear and very little about diplomacy or trousers. Once again, Captain Smith must summon all his courage to unite humanity behind the Empire. His quest will take him on a journey to face his greatest fears: from the depths of space, through Hell itself--and even to France.
MEET CAPTAIN ISAMBARD SMITH:
Isambard Douglas Winston Smith is the bold captain of HMS John Pym, and a brave champion of the British Space Empire. A man to whom daring and adventure are first nature and tact is probably somewhere about fifth, Smith fervently believes that every living being in the galaxy should be free to enjoy the benefits of British rule, whether they like it or not. He is a man able to handle almost anything, except talking to girls and being pleasant to the French. Everybody has their limits, after all.
Smith was educated at Midwich Grammar School, where he demonstrated an early enthusiasm for intergalactic travel by staring into space a lot. By some twist of fate he ended up in the Captain’s Academy, New Greenwich, where he was entered into a special two-year training programme, from which he graduated with a moustache. On a field trip, he managed not to get killed by enraged aliens and befriended the M’Lak warlord Suruk the Slayer, who felt that Smith was more entertaining with his head still on his shoulders. Following that, Smith joined the Valdane Shipping and Interplanetary Haulage Company, where his eagerness to get into space was kindled by having to sit at a computer and count asteroids all day.
Had not the threat of alien invasion arisen from the ant-men of the Ghast Empire, Smith would probably still be entering data about moon-rock. Out of desperation and a lack of anyone better, his superiors gave him command of the John Pym and its semi-loyal crew of one. Since then, Smith has gone from one close scrape to another, some of which were even the fault of other people. He even persuaded a girl to go out with him.
Smith divides his time between having adventures, drinking tea and “giving Johnny space-ant a damned good thrashing”. He keeps up to date with the cutting edge in spacecraft construction by building a lot of Airfix kits. Smith is a keen follower of music, particularly enjoying the shorter songs of Pink Zeppelin, although he considers Iron Sabbath “a bit much”. Other hobbies involve sleeping, polishing his six-shot Civiliser pistol and surreptitiously looking at the ladies in the Laura Ashley catalogue.
About the Author
By day a mild-mannered representative of the UK legal system, by night a hard living, hard drinkin', whoring and gambling stereotype of a driven artist, Toby Frost is everything a writer should be: thoughtful, articulate and incapable of retaining technical information for more than 5 seconds.
What's more he is that rare thing, a writer who actually got round to writing something. Sadly, nobody wanted to publish it, so he wrote something else.
The "something else" then sat in a kitchen cupboard in Newcastle upon Tyne for three months before being plucked from obscurity by Myrmidon Books, a fine and upstanding publisher if ever there was one. Thus was Space Captain Smith born.
LINKS:
The giveaway on this tour is six exclusive Space Captain Smith fridge magnets which will be structured via Rafflecopter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Listen to chapter 1 of @isambardsmith's Wrath of the Lemming Men (@myrmidonbooks). Audiobook coming very very soon!
Wrath of the Lemming Men by Toby Frost Publisher: Myrmidon Narrator: Clive Catterall Listen to First Chapter Download mp3
" Not only did it meet my expectations, but once again Toby is expanding more and more from the base he set up in Space Captain Smith." -- Walker of Worlds. Read more.
Also worth checking out: our interview between Toby Frost and Clive Catterall.
More @isambardsmith love, this time in video: "Poor Space Captain Smith, completely unable to detect any advance from the women in his life."
Meanwhile, here's the gratuitous link to our Toby Frost audiobooks...
30 Day Book Challenge
Day 01 – The best book you read this year
Space Captain Smith by Toby Frost. Toby Frost is a genius, honestly and truely. These books are a perfect steampunk mix of victorian British pride and space oddessy, with a large helping of humour. Our hero, Smith, is a very lovable and funny character, and I really wish he was real... Just look at that mustache ;)
Perk your ears: here's the first chapter of Space Captain Smith by @isambardsmith (published @myrmidonbooks), coming soon to Iambik:
Space Captain Smith by Toby Frost Narrator: Clive Catterall Publisher: Myrmidon Ltd. Sample Chapter 1: Dowload mp3
"Gives the sacred cows of sci-fi a good kicking before racing home in time for tea." — Dick Maggs, director of BBC Radio 4's The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Space Captain Smith by Toby Frost
In the 25th Century the British Space Empire faces the gathering menace of the evil ant-soldiers of the Ghast hive, hell-bent of galactic domination and the extermination of all humanoid life.
Back in the dim and distant past when I was at university, I was introduced to the scoundrel that is Harry Flashman. Created by George McDonald Fraser, in a series of books collectively known as The Flashman Papers, dear old Flashy rode rough shod over the 19th century leaving his imaginary mark over a plethora of genuine historic events. Flashman was written as a scoundrel, a cur, a cheat, a bounder, a thief and a coward. As I'm sure you can imagine I was immediately entranced by this self confessed anti-hero. So convincing and well researched were these novels some critics believed Flashman to be a real life historical figure.
To me, the language used in each novel was a constant delight. Phrases like "damn your eyes sir! I am a British officer" were a joy and I devoured every story I could get my hands on. The covers of each novel always displayed Flash as the very epitome of English Victorian gentleman. Flashman always appeared very dapper with a smirk or sneer dancing across his face.
Why then all this discussion of Flashman? When I first saw the cover of [avhamazon locale="UK" asin="1905802137" linktype="text" picsize="small"] by Toby Frost my eyes lit up. I started to wistfully daydream about what looked like Flashman in outer space. There was a definite similarity between the covers of the Flashman novels and Space Captain Smith. I felt this could only be considered a good omen. The idea of the British Empire in space sounded like a top notch idea. When I read the blurb on the back of the book I was again pleased to discover the main protagonist's name, Isambard Smith. In my opinion any steampunk/sci-fi novel based on the concept of the British Empire in the 25th century requires that it meet the following criteria, firstly the lead should have a splendid moustache and secondly they should be named after one of Britain's greatest civil engineers.
At first glance the character of Smith is similar to Flashman. Both embody the pomposity of Imperial Britain but are steadfast in their ideals. Smith, however, is much less the anti-hero than Flashman. Some of his ideas regarding women are a trifle archaic but this is played for laughs and he is nowhere near the cad that Flashman is. Smith stumbles around the galaxy and can't understand why anyone would not want to be part of the Empire he loves. He comes across as a good natured ass that is always keen to do the 'proper' thing irrespective of the consequences.
Smith's crew on the space freighter John Pym are also engaging characters. Polly Carveth, the ship's pilot, is an android on the run. Her back story has a direct nod towards Blade Runner and the author obviously had a lot of fun writing that. The other member of the crew is Suruk a Predator like alien warrior who is overly keen on disembowelment and beheading.
'This will be unpleasant,' he said
'Lots of enemies?'
'Hideous decor'
The novel features a lot of this kind of banter. I felt that this back and forth between the characters helped to flesh out the meat of the narrative. The story has some genuinely funny moments and I found myself laughing out loud on a number of occasions. I should stress how rare an event this is when it comes to reading a novel, I often smile but don't tend to laugh aloud. There are a lot of nice pop culture references and any novel that mentions Skegness gets an A+ as far as I am concerned.
Smith and his crew are tasked with escorting a young woman from one side of the galaxy to the other. Needless to say, there are various species that are not keen for them to accomplish their task. With enemies on all sides and nowhere left to turn, it's up to Space Captain Smith to save the day.
There are currently two sequels available to this novel - [avhamazon locale="UK" asin="1905802242" linktype="text" picsize="small"] and [avhamazon locale="UK" asin="1905802358" linktype="text" picsize="small"]. Based on my experience with Space Captain Smith I hope to check them out soon, and that there will be many more to come.
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