In a recent interview with German website moviereporter.net, Peter Jackson sheds a bit of light on the production of the movie, which still has not been green-lit by the studio, reports theonering.net, a popular website about all things Tolkien.

The original article is down (along with the entire moviereporter.net, which seems odd), but theonering.net is a reputable website, and has broken legitimate news about the movie before. Still, take the following quote, translated from German, as a rumour, until the interview is back online:

This would push the expected beginning of filming from Spring 2010 to Summer 2010. With the mind-boggling success of the original trilogy, its interesting to see The Hobbit is running into so many roadblocks. Still, everything in Hollywood moves at a glacial pace (unless it’s a new Twilight or Saw movie, seemingly), so it’s disheartening, but not exactly surprising. As mentioned by theonering.net, there’s no indication whether this will affect the speculated Winter 2011 and 2012 release dates for the two flims.

Besides the information I posted a couple of months ago, word on Brandon Sanderson’s upcoming novel, The Way of Kings has been quiet. Not any more. Thanks to the Tor 2010 Summer Catalog, we have a rather detailed (and extremely pompous) synopsis of the first volume in The Stormlight Archive:

Source

Comparing the novel to Dune and The Lord of the Rings is certainly stretching the bounds of believability, despite Sanderson’s abilities. Frankly, it’ll likely take a good 30-50 years to see if The Stormlight Archives can even touch that upper echelon of Speculative Fiction novels, but publishing companies like Tor like to throw around hyperbole’s like they’re going out of style. Still, it sounds interesting, probably moreso on first impression than any of Sanderson’s previously published novels, so I’m certainly excited about it, just not excited enough to scrawl ‘Shallan Lives!’ graffiti all over my school campus.

Thanks to Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review for the heads up on the cover!

The Passage first caught my attention when the film rights for a still unfinished manuscript, were purchased by Scott Free Productions (Ridley Scott’s production company) at auction for 1.75 million dollars.

Source

That’s a lot of cash for an author who almost no one’s heard of, let alone read. Or, for that matter, for an unfinished manuscript (as an aside, I’ve got a few of those sitting around, if any film companies want to purchase the rights, we’ll start the bidding at 500k….) Perhaps even more surprising, though, is the sum paid for the rights to publish the novel: somewhere in the ballpark of $3.75 million dollars.

Source

That’s some serious weight behind the novel. Whether it’s worth that sort of money remains to be seen, but it seems safe to say that we’ll see a humungous push behind the novel when it’s released next year (the article in The New York Times points to a Summer 2009 release, but review copies are only just reaching bloggers hands now. Speak of, I’d love a copy, if anyone’s listening). Who knows, maybe in five years we’ll be as sick of Justin Cronin and The Passage as we are of Stephanie Meyer and Twilight; just remember, there was a time when no one knew her name.

The Magicians

Author – Lev Grossman

Hardcover
Pages: 416
Publisher: Viking Adult
Release Date: August 11th, 2009
ISBN-10: 0670020559
ISBN-13: 978-0670020553

Much fuss has been made about The Magicians, the first foray into the Fantasy genre by Lev Grossman, uber-geek, author of Codex and Senior Writer for Time magazine. The most ironic of all? The book is not being marketed as a genre novel, but rather being shelved in the Literature section at most bookstores, despite being a Fantasy novel (full of every cliché in the book) through and through.

The thing is, though, The Magicians is a good crossover novel, bridging the gap between Literature-with-a-capital-L and Fantasy, by taking the usual tropes (magic school, dysfunctional band of misfits, wizards, ‘You’re a wizard, Harry’-moments, fireballs, etc…) and throwing in all that stuff the literary folk like (sex, moral ambiguity, cocaine and whiskey, cancerous relationships, etc…). The Magicians is like Harry Potter meets The Graduate, with a little bit of Trainspotting thrown in for good measure.

Of course, general debauchery and acidic characters aren’t a magical fix-all, able to turn any Fantasy novel into a work of literary genius; but Grossman is aware of this and uses these uncomfortable literary devices as an avenue to tell a sometimes funny, sometimes painful story of young people growing up in a world they hardly understand. Like Trainspotting, The Magicians is all about Quentin’s inability to cope with the trials and travails of real life, and his constant search for Fillory, a magical world that Quentin knows will solve all his problems. As most of us know, though, finding that place rarely solves anything, rather it’s often a slippery slope, leading to bigger and more serious problems.
Read More »

Those in the know (i.e. his publisher, who wants him to succeed at any cost), claim Sykes, a 25-year-old, is going to be the debut author of 2010. You know, the next Patrick Rothfuss. I’m sure Blake Charlton and Tor Books, with the 2010 release of Spellwright, have something to say about that, along with Penguin Books and Paul Hoffman, who release The Left Hand of God in 2010. Still, if you ask me, you can’t have too many authors vying to debut novel of the year.

What really gets my attention about Tome of the Undergates, beyond the hype, is that Sykes is so young (same age as myself, as a matter of fact), and that’s almost reason enough to give it a go when I get my hands on a copy.

As for the cover, I won’t bellyache. I do like the water, though, and the general tone of the colours. I’m excited to see what Pyr Books, who is publishing the novel in North America, pulls together for their version of the cover.

Sykes himself is an amusing guy, and you can find him on his WEBSITE and on TWITTER.

Source

I’m an odd Tad Williams fan in the fact that Shadowmarch finally convinced me to give Memory, Sorrow and Thorn another (fourth) shot, at which point I firmly (and finally) became a huge fan of Williams. My experience with Memory, Sorrow and Thorn went on to surpass that with Shadowmarch, but I’ve been looking forward to new Williams books ever since (despite not being enamoured with the sequel, Shadowplay). It’d be better if Shadowrise were the concluding volume to the series, as was planned, but I’ll take what I can get at this point.

Though perhaps better known (at least in North America) for their Fantasy, Orbit Books made a splash in the Science Fiction scene this week by signing Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars Trilogy to a three-book deal. Still, with authors like Charles Stross and Iain M. Banks already under their wing, Orbit Books consistently looks to make an impact on the Science Fiction genre as equally as the Fantasy genre.

From Orbit’s website:

Adding Kim Stanley Robinson (who’s awards resume includes multiple Hugos and Locus Awards, a Nebula Award and a World Fantasy Award) is certainly nothing to sneeze at. It’s just too bad fans will have to wait until 2012 to get their hands on the first book of the new trilogy. Still, great news for Orbit and Robinson.

It comes as no surprise, but the Official Terry Brooks website has officially anounced the title of Terry’s next Shannara book, Bearers of the Black Staff:

After completing the Genesis of Shannara series last summer, Brooks took a year off to work on a new novel in his less popular Magic Kingdom of Landover series. Bearers of the Black Staff is a welcome return to the world of the Four Lands. What’s most interesting about this series, and the recently concluded Genesis of Shannara series, is that it takes place well before Brooks’ first novel, The Sword of Shannara (first published in 1977) and examines the transformation from post-apocalyptic Earth to Medieval Fantasy world complete with Elves, Trolls, Dwarfs and magic. It might not be for everyone, but Brooks continues to show growth as an author, even 30+ years later.

Filming on the much anticipated HBO adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones has concluded, reports Westeros.org, based on a statement made by Julia Frey (yeah, Frey. Fans of the series will understand.), the Video Effects Coordinator on the series.

The three counties mentioned are Northern Ireland, Scotland and Morocco. It’s hard to believe, after all the build up from the announcement of the series and the casting of the actors that the pilot has already been filmed. Of course, now the trick is paring all those hours of footage down into one nice, neat episode that’s good enough for HBO to order a whole season. Fingers crossed.

Certainly an interesting peak behind the scenes. What I find most amazing is that the archaic tools used back during the production of the first Star Wars movies created films that hold up better today than the sequels that came 20 years later. So much love and passion was poured into them, and it shows.

Dan Abnett is best known for his work in the Warhammer 40k universe, where he’s sold over a million novels, making him one of the best-selling Science Fiction authors that a lot of fans have never even heard of. From all accounts, his novels have earned this success by being some of the best Hard Military-Science Fiction on the market, regardless of being in a shared world.

It makes sense, then that Abnett has now been officially announced as having written the screenplay for the upcoming Warhammer 40k movie, Ultramarines:

Source

Given Abnett’s success writing both novels and comic books, it seems fair to think that this movie has a chance of actually being decent. He certainly has a rock solid grip on the source material. Though, with the way Hollywood works, one shouldn’t be surprised if Abnett’s script gets re-worked and re-written by different hands a dozen times before finalized.

In case you’re not completely sick of Cover Art posts here at A Dribble of Ink, I present you with the totally rockin’ cover for the Subterranean Press version of The City & The City by China Mieville.

I recently reviewed (and loved) The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe, the first in a series of detective novels that’s nothing less than Raymond Chandler meets Joe Abercrombie, with a good mix of Jim Butcher thrown in for good measure.

Things That Flit is a perfect introduction to Eddie LaCrosse, medieval gumshoe and protagonist of The Sword-Edged Blonde and the recently released Burn Me Deadly. It also serves as a good example of Bledsoe’s love-it-or-hate-it approach to writing modern prose in a pseudo-medieval world.

You can find Things That Flit HERE.

The Sword-edged Blonde

Author – Alex Bledsoe

Paperback
Pages: 320 pages
Publisher: Tor Fantasy/Nightshade Books
Release Date: June 30, 2009
ISBN-10: 0765362031
ISBN-13: 978-0765362032

The Sword-edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe is one of those rainy-day kinda novels. You know the type. It’s not the deepest book on your bookshelf, but it’s fun. It won’t stick with you for weeks afterwards, but you can’t put it down while you’re reading it. It’s got problems, but, for some reason, you’re willing to look past ‘em. The Sword-edged Blonde doesn’t set out to be anything more than what it is: a pulpy homage to Raymond Chandler, set in a world not unlike those found in any other Fantasy world. Bledsoe knew what he was aiming for, and hit the mark on the first try. Mostly.

It seems obvious: take the tried and true detective novel formula and plunk it down in a standard Sword & Sorcery world. Like Urban Fantasy throwing werewolves and vampires into the mix, putting a traditional story in a new setting can make the old feel new again and that seems to be exactly the angle Bledsoe was trying to take. He pulls more or less every cliche out of the book – a case with a personal connection to the gumshoesword jockey’s past; amnesia; a murdered prince; gangsters, gambling dens and thugs; pretty girls and dangerous fellows – but uses them all with tongue firmly in cheek, and comes out the other end with a novel that’s fun for all the right reasons.
Read More »

Another day, another Abercrombie & Fitch model in a cloak. At least this time the character represented, Randur, is a self-described playboy and pretty to boot. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the meeting where it was decided that the best way to sell novels was to make every cover look the same, just featuring a slightly different pose for menacing fellow that they hope potential readers will project on themselves. White certainly better than the cover for Newton’s upcoming novel, City of Ruin, this new cover is missing all of the Hardcover’s atmosphere that perfectly captured the tone of the novel. Seperated from the content, I do quite like the yellow/green colour pallette used, though it’s an odd choice for a bleak Dying Earth-style setting.

Aww, well. At least I know the book between the pages rocks.