Dark Wraith of Shannara

Author – Terry Brooks

Paperback
Pages: 208 pages
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Release Date: March 25th, 2008
ISBN-10: 0345494628
ISBN-13: 978-0345494627

Official Web Site for Dark Wraith of Shannara: HERE
Trailer: HERE
Illustrator’s Web Site: HERE

Let me preface this review with a warning: I know dick all about Graphic Novels and Comic Books.

I’ve read several (I’m a big fan of the Dabel Brothers’ adaptations of various fantasy series, for instance), but I’m far from an authority on the subject. I can’t comment on the effectiveness of the panel layout, or the deftness of the inking and the delicacy of the pencil work, but what I can comment on is what I, a long timefan of Shannara, felt as I read Dark Wraith of Shannara, Terry Brooks’ first attempt at a graphic novel.

In fact, I think the opinion of reviewers such as myself are just as important as those who have a strong history with graphic storytelling. Del Rey has recently been heavily pushing their line of graphic novels, and I’d be willing to bet that the majority of Brooks’ fans have never picked up a graphic novel. So, the question is, did he (along with Edwin David and Robert Place Napton, the illustrator and adaptor respectively) succeed in roping me in this Graphic Novel virgin?
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Aidan is a happy boy, today.

Del Rey saw fit to gift him with a late Christmas present!

Hope you all had a terrific holidays and best wishes from A Dribble of Ink in the New Year!

Brian Ruckley, author of Winterbirth recently gave us a sneak peak of the cover for his next novel, Bloodheir. Pretty cool, eh? I really liked the cover of Winterbirth and I’m glad to see they’re staying with the same style.

I didn’t enjoy Winterbirth as much as some people, but I saw a lot of potential and I’m looking forward to seeing what Ruckley brings to the table in the next novel!

You can find my interview with Brian Ruckley HERE and my review of Winterbirth HERE.

Kurt Vonnegut (RIP) was a master and, even in death, can always teach aspiring writers a thing or two about the craft of writing. He shares with us his 8 rules for writing fiction.

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Rules for Writing Fiction

Chris Barzak, Sean Williams, Hal Duncan, Brandon Sanderson, Jeff VanderMeer, Scott Lynch , Karen Miller, Daniel Abraham, Tim Pratt, Tobias S. Buckell, Jay Lake.

What do all these folk have in common (besides being successful authors)? They’re all contributing writers for SFNovelists.com, a blog of impressive pedigree. Seriously, there’s no way I could list all 64 of the contributors for the blog, I’d run out of space!

You can be sure I’ll be keeping a close eye on SFNovelists.com and I think you should too!

You can check it out HERE.

Kirkus Reviews has just released their round up of what they think are the best-of-the-best of 2007!

Most notable, however, is that they chose David Anthony Durham‘s Acacia: The War with the Mein as one of the Top 10 novels! Most impressive? This is a list of all fiction, not just speculative fiction! You can find my interview with David HERE and my review of Acacia HERE.

“Good job!”, Mr. Durham!

Click HERE to view/download a PDF version of the Kirkus Best of 2007.

Tobias Buckell, the blogging author of Crystal Rain (REVIEW) and Ragamuffin, recently debuted the cover of his third novel, Sly Mongoose, on his web site.

I’m a huge fan of Buckell’s covers (I’m mean, who doesn’t love Todd Lockwood?), and this one is no exception.

Check it out.

Check out my interview with Tobias Buckell HERE.

Tell me this isn’t cool….

John at Grasping for the Wind just pointed out a very cool web site that I’m sure to keep an eye on for the next several months, and I figured some of you might want to, too.

Anthologybuilder.com lets you design your own anthology of stories. Pick and choose from any of the short stories in the web site’s database, send off your order and for $14.95 (USD) they’ll send you a bound copy of your very own anthology of stories.

The web site is currently in a beta form right now, meaning their selection of stories is rather small at the moment, but I can see this been an extremely cool resource as they fill out their library. How cool would it be to present a loved one with an anthology of your favourite short stories as a gift for their birthday or Christmas?

You can check out Anthology Builder HERE.

One of my favourite features every year has always been the kickass annual year-end review that Rob Bedford (from SFFWorld and Rob’s Blog o’ Stuff Hobbit (from SFFWorld) put together for their readers at SFFWorld.

So, it was with great surprise and delight when they asked me (along with several other of my blogging friends) to be a part of this year’s Annual Review!

Besides my self, the crew consists of:

• Rob Bedford
• Werthead
• Graeme
• Fantasy Book Critic
• Hobbit

We cover everything from whether the bestsellers of the year lived up to the hype, favourites of the year, surprises and more. It’s definitely worth the read. I just hope I don’t come off as a lightweight with such well-read and prominent bloggers as company!

You can find Part One HERE.

Alright, this is pretty cool.

Amazon.com has recently acquired a hand-scribed copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, one of only seven copies of a story that astute Potter-fans will recognize from the seventh novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Amazon.com spent a whopping £1,950,000, further proving that they have way too much money. The coolest thing about it, though, is that Ms. Rowling will be donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign. Here’s a bit pulled from the Amazon.com page about the auction.
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The cover art to be used on Eldon Thompson’s third novel has just been released and I think it’s pretty damn cool.

The painting (click on it to see a bigger version) was done by Kovecks, who also handled the artwork for Eldon’s first two novels.

Eldon is a good friend of mine and I’ve always been a big fan of his covers! If you’re into epic, coming-of-age fantasy with some nice twists on the formula, be sure to check out Eldon’s first two novels, The Crimson Sword and The Obsidian Key!

You can check out my interview with Eldon HERE.

Being reported at, well, basically every SF/F web site worth mentioning, Brandon Sanderson, author of Elantris and the soon-to-be-finished Mistborn Trilogy has been selected by Robert Jordan’s wife and editor, Harriet Popham Rigney, to finish Robert Jordan’s magnum opus, The Wheel of Time

Jordan, whose real name was James Oliver Rigney, Jr., passed away during the completion of the final volume of his genre defining, multi-volume series. Since his death, fans have been in the dark about the fate of the final novel and how it would see completion.
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All I’ve got to say is “Oh damn!”

Ned Stark from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire:

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Stephen Hunt, author of The Court of the Air and bigwig behind the SF Crowsnest, recently approached me hoping to include my blogger interview (PART ONE | PART TWO) in the December issue of his megahuge online magazine.

The November issue saw over 700k readers and over 39 million hits. That’s big business and I jumped on the opportunity to spread the word about all the bloggers I gathered together for the interview.

You can find the interview HERE. But be sure to check out the rest of the issue, there’s a lot of great stuff in there!