Hawklords

October 2021

New editions of Time of the Hawklords (1976) and Queens of Deliria (1977) were published this year. Written in the 1970’s, and based on an idea by Michael Moorcock the new editions by publisher Apex-Verlag have smart new designs, fully revised texts and – for the first time – introductions! In my opening remarks to Time of the Hawklords I explain how I came to write the books, the reception they received and ponder whether Hawkwind are ‘New Wave SF’, while Rick Evans introduces Queens of Deliria, examining how for him both novels seem even more relevant today than they did when they first made their appearance. Apex-Verlag has also done German editions of the novels, with translations by Alfons Winkelmann.* Die Zeit der Hawklords and Königinnen von Deliria, and both English editions are available in paperback, hardback and e-Book formats.

UK & AMERICAN READERS PLEASE NOTE: Print editions may be ordered from Amazon.de (German Amazon), Epubli (https://www.epubli.de/shop) or through any bookseller for which author, title and ISBN is given.

Saved until this post but actually published last year is Joe Banks’ Hawkwind: Days of the Underground – Radical Escapism in the Age of Paranoia (Strange Attractor, 2020). Joe took on all-comers to become the undisputed champ of the crowded field of Hawkwind biography. Days of the Underground is available in a sumptuous gatefold paperback edition and as a limited edition collectors’ item comprising the paperback and a special bonus publication, Sideways Through Time. The latter is a record in full of the interviews Joe conducted with the band and others, including myself. Cover art on the paperback is by Savoy/Lovecraft/Lord Horror/Hawkwind artist John Coulthart.

Also held over until now are Apex-Verlag’s two German omnibus editions of the six Space 1999 Year Two novelisations, written at the same time as the Hawklords novels. All eight books were completed in a mad eighteen-month writing spree during 1975 and 1976, when I found myself as a single parent with two young children to bring up and taking on work that I could do from home.

* Taken from the partially revised 1995 Collector’s Guide Publishing editions. These are without introductions.