Please join me in welcoming Ack-Ack Macaque to The Qwillery today. Ack-Ack Macaque is featured in two novels by Gareth L. Powell - the eponymous Ack-Ack Macaque (Solaris, December 2013) and Hive Monkey (Solaris, December 2013). In addition a third adventure featuring the ever superb simian, Macaque Attack, will be published in early 2015 (or late 2014 in the US and Canada).
TQ: Welcome to The Qwillery. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have you visit today. Please don't shoot anything.
AAM: I make no promises, lady. When you’ve got a massive pair of Colts strapped to your hips, every problem that comes your way looks like something that needs the crap shot out of it.
TQ: Please tell us a bit about yourself? Did you ever think when you were part of the computer game that something was just not right? What do you think of the games that have sprung up in place of your game?
AAM: When I was in the game, I was too busy fighting. There was a war on, you know. I had to deal with German planes, ninjas, tripod fighting machines… I hardly had a moment to scratch my ass, let alone ponder the deeper meanings of life. I suppose towards the end I started to get a bit suspicious. I mean, I began to realise I couldn’t die. Whatever scrap we got into, I’d always walk out unhurt, even if every other sod died. It started to bug me. Why was I different? I mean, nobody’s THAT lucky, surely? Not even someone as ruggedly handsome as me.
Since I came out of the game, I haven’t paid much attention to other games. I had quite enough of that rubbish for one lifetime. But my friend K8 says there’s some dross out there. Her favourite’s ‘Combat Capuchin’, but it just sounds dumb to me. Have you ever SEEN a capuchin fight? It’s all screaming and hair-pulling. Not impressive.
TQ: Do you have a favorite brand of cigar, cocktail, weapon?
AAM: I don’t care who makes my cigars, as long as they burn. I’d smoke a dried teabag if I had to. And believe me, there have been times in the past… Same goes for cocktails. I like a nice rum, but I've been known to nick the medical alcohol when I’ve been desperate.
When it comes to weapons, I have a pair of Colts that I like. You could shoot holes in the Moon with them.
I’ve got a favourite plane, though. The Spitfire. Man, that’s a beautiful machine. Mine smells like a zoo in summer, but it’s still head and shoulders above everything else in the sky.
TQ: Please tell us something about your latest adventure, Hive Monkey, that is not in the book description.
AAM: This is my second adventure, and picks up the story a year after the first. And this time, we’ve taken everything up a notch. For instance, in this book, you get to see what happens when I take a WWII Spitfire up against a modern Predator drone. On a motorway.
TQ: Humans. What do you think of them in general? Do you have any favorite homo sapiens?
AAM: I like some humans. Bartenders, mostly. The rest of you are too bald and hairless, and you smell kind of funny.
TQ: You're a celebrity now. What do you think of your new found fame?
AAM: Fame sucks butts. I’d rather be left the hell alone, you get me? If it wasn’t for Powell writing these books about me, I’d be able to retire somewhere quiet.
TQ: What are your plans for the future?
AAM: I’m gonna retire to a tropical island somewhere, and spend my days sitting on a beach, drinking daiquiris and taking potshots at jet skis.
TQ: Thank you for joining us and not wrecking the place.
AAM: Thank you. Now where are those bananas you promised me? COME ON, LADY, HAND OVER THE DAMN BANANAS!
AAM: I make no promises, lady. When you’ve got a massive pair of Colts strapped to your hips, every problem that comes your way looks like something that needs the crap shot out of it.
TQ: Please tell us a bit about yourself? Did you ever think when you were part of the computer game that something was just not right? What do you think of the games that have sprung up in place of your game?
AAM: When I was in the game, I was too busy fighting. There was a war on, you know. I had to deal with German planes, ninjas, tripod fighting machines… I hardly had a moment to scratch my ass, let alone ponder the deeper meanings of life. I suppose towards the end I started to get a bit suspicious. I mean, I began to realise I couldn’t die. Whatever scrap we got into, I’d always walk out unhurt, even if every other sod died. It started to bug me. Why was I different? I mean, nobody’s THAT lucky, surely? Not even someone as ruggedly handsome as me.
Since I came out of the game, I haven’t paid much attention to other games. I had quite enough of that rubbish for one lifetime. But my friend K8 says there’s some dross out there. Her favourite’s ‘Combat Capuchin’, but it just sounds dumb to me. Have you ever SEEN a capuchin fight? It’s all screaming and hair-pulling. Not impressive.
TQ: Do you have a favorite brand of cigar, cocktail, weapon?
AAM: I don’t care who makes my cigars, as long as they burn. I’d smoke a dried teabag if I had to. And believe me, there have been times in the past… Same goes for cocktails. I like a nice rum, but I've been known to nick the medical alcohol when I’ve been desperate.
When it comes to weapons, I have a pair of Colts that I like. You could shoot holes in the Moon with them.
I’ve got a favourite plane, though. The Spitfire. Man, that’s a beautiful machine. Mine smells like a zoo in summer, but it’s still head and shoulders above everything else in the sky.
TQ: Please tell us something about your latest adventure, Hive Monkey, that is not in the book description.
AAM: This is my second adventure, and picks up the story a year after the first. And this time, we’ve taken everything up a notch. For instance, in this book, you get to see what happens when I take a WWII Spitfire up against a modern Predator drone. On a motorway.
TQ: Humans. What do you think of them in general? Do you have any favorite homo sapiens?
AAM: I like some humans. Bartenders, mostly. The rest of you are too bald and hairless, and you smell kind of funny.
TQ: You're a celebrity now. What do you think of your new found fame?
AAM: Fame sucks butts. I’d rather be left the hell alone, you get me? If it wasn’t for Powell writing these books about me, I’d be able to retire somewhere quiet.
TQ: What are your plans for the future?
AAM: I’m gonna retire to a tropical island somewhere, and spend my days sitting on a beach, drinking daiquiris and taking potshots at jet skis.
TQ: Thank you for joining us and not wrecking the place.
AAM: Thank you. Now where are those bananas you promised me? COME ON, LADY, HAND OVER THE DAMN BANANAS!
The Novels
Hive Momkey
Ack-Ack Macaque 2
Solaris Books, December 31, 2013 (US/Canada)
January 2, 2014 (UK)
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 384 pages
Cover Illustration by Jake Murray
The stunning follow-up to Ack-Ack Macaque, which featured the Spitfire pilot monkey hero of a computer game who turned out to be real. The first book was met with wide acclaim upon release.
In order to hide from his unwanted fame as the spitfire-pliot-monkey who emerged from a computer game to defeat the dangerous corporation who engineered him, the charismatic and dangerous Ack-Ack Macaque is working as a pilot on a world-circling nuclear powered Zeppelin.
But when the cabin of one of his passengers is invaded by the passenger's own dying doppelganger, our hirsute hero finds himself thrust into another race to save the world - this time from an aggressive hive mind, time-hopping saboteurs, and an army of homicidal Neanderthal assassins!
Ack-Ack Macaque
Ack-Ack Macaque 1
Solaris Books, December 26, 2012 (US)
December 12, 2012 (UK)
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 416 pages
Cover Illustration by Jake Murray
In 1944, as waves of German ninjas parachute into Kent, Britain’s best hopes for victory lie with a Spitfire pilot codenamed ‘Ack-Ack Macaque.’ The trouble is, Ack-Ack Macaque is a cynical, one-eyed, cigar-chomping monkey, and he’s starting to doubt everything, including his own existence.
A century later, in a world where France and Great Britain merged in the late 1950s and nuclear-powered Zeppelins circle the globe, ex-journalist Victoria Valois finds herself drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who butchered her husband and stole her electronic soul. In Paris, after taking part in an illegal break-in at a research laboratory, the heir to the British throne goes on the run. And all the while, the doomsday clock ticks towards Armageddon...
Read my review of Ack-Ack Macaque here.
About Ack-Ack Macaque
Twitter @AckAckMacaque
About Gareth
Website : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter @garethlpowell
The Giveaway
What: One commenter will win a Mass Market Paperback copy of Hive Monkey (Ack-Ack Macaque 2) from The Qwillery.
How: Log into and follow the directions in the Rafflecopter below.
Who and When: The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59 PM US Eastern Time on December 31, 2013. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Nice to hear your side of the story, monkey :) That Powell chap does tend to hog the spotlight - I mean, he turned up and did YOUR book signing the other day! The cheek of it! Have you considered shooting him and taking all the credit you rightfully deserve?
ReplyDeleteAck-Ack, retire? I'd believe it when I see it. And maybe not even then
ReplyDeleteInteresting monkey
ReplyDeleteI hear Tahiti is a magical place! Bananas galore and plenty of rum!
ReplyDeleteGreat covers and concept!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic ride this promises to be.
ReplyDeleteI already have Ack Ack Macaque on my TBR list, I just haven't gotten to it. Now I'm definitely going to move it up the list.
ReplyDelete-April V.