Brian Ruckley, author of the Godless World trilogy, has some news on what he has in the pipeline:
The working title (and so far everyone, including me, seems to quite like it, so I imagine it’ll probably survive all the way through to publication) is The Edinburgh Dead. The setting is, as you might guess, Edinburgh; specifically, Edinburgh in the first half of the 19th century. Since I write fantasy rather than history, though, it’s not quite as simple as that.
I’m taking some gruesome and rather famous aspects of Edinburgh’s past and spicing them up a bit with veteran warriors, magical conspiracies, killers both human and decidedly not, desperate combat and sinister goings-on in general. In short, it’s a dark, heroic fantasy set in 19th century Edinburgh. With swords and gaslamps.
Ruckley also mentions that it’s going to be a stand-alone novel (yay!) and we’re probably looking at late 2010 publication date, at the earliest, since he’s still in the middle of the first draft. One major criticism of his work so far has been some glacial pacing, so it’ll be nice to see him working in a format that requires him to move the story along at a quick pace. On top of this, I have a feeling his gritty style will translate well to a story set in 19th century Scotland.
It would be interesting to find out what made him make the switch from full-on Epic Fantasy to something a bit closer to Urban Fantasy. One has to wonder if Orbit‘s marketing team might have come up with the suggestion…. In any case, count me curious and excited by this news.
“In short, it’s a dark, heroic fantasy set in 19th century Edinburgh. With swords and gaslamps.”
I can’t wait to read it. Until then I will read Bloodheir (start it today) and Fall of Thanes.