And the Winner Is...

You all remember the Sam Sykes love-in last week? Well, as of today, it's over.

By which I mean to say, I have an announcement to make. The giveaway was a tremendous success. I received around 200 entries, the vast majority of which had figured out the correct answer to the question I posed:

In Tome of the Undergates, Lenk and his miserable band of miscreants often encounter "bulbous bird-like beasts who parrot the voices of the dead". What are they called?

The answer, of course, was "Omens".

And courtesy of the lovely folks at Orion Books and the Gollancz imprint in particular, the three lucky winners of the early copies of Sam Sykes storming debut I had to give away are as follows:

...Darren Hartwell, in England.

...Brett Mastin, in Oklahoma City.

...and Christopher Dowie, in Scotland.

Congratulations to all the winners - you'll be hearing from me directly. Commiserations, meanwhile, to all the losers...

But thanks to all those who participated, whether you got a free book for your efforts or not. If that's you, don't despair just yet; it's looking like I'll have another few giveaways to host in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for your chance to win, for instance, a copy of Shadow Prowler, from Simon & Schuster, or thanks to the wonderful Mark Charan Newton, a signed proof of the US edition of his own first novel.

I know. Exciting, isn't it?