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From the new Tor Books edition of Michael Moorcock’s The Sword of the Dawn:
I’d not been aware of Vance Kovacs, the artist, before this, but he’s certainly on my radar now. Looking at his web portfolio, I’m absolutely blown away.
Seriously. As an art junkie, I feel ashamed not to have heard of Kovacs before. Can anyone point out any covers he’s done besides the Elric re-issues?
Judging by this cover image (and its striking similarity to THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS and THIS), I would like to break the news that George R.R. Martin has been kicked off of A Song of Ice and Fire. The series has been handed off to the prolific Raymond E. Feist and The Winds of Winter has been re-named At the Gates of Darkness. One can assume that Pug will be teleported to Westeros, be a supreme Deus Ex Machina badass and save the day single-handedly, thus ending the series one book early.
No. It’s not done yet. So if that’s all you’re here for, you can leave now. Disappointed and ready to smash an empty beer bottle and start a bar fight.
We’ve beaten that issue to death. Bringing it up again isn’t going to solve anything or make Martin write faster (or get skinnier, or die later, or whatever gripe about him is the latest trend). However, Martin did have another little update for us and a nice peek behind the curtain at how he works as a writer. From his blog:
Snowing like hell in Santa Fe today. I feel like Jon Snow on the Wall. White everywhere I look, and still coming down.
Of course, I’m writing about Meereen, where the weather is hot and muggy, oppressive. If the snow keeps falling, I better take it as an omen, switch to a Jon chapter tomorrow.
The good news: finished a chapter today.
The bad news: it’s one I’ve finished at least four times before.
This time, though, I think I finally got it right. We’ll see. Still whacking at the Meereenese knot.
I took an especially vigorous hack two days ago, by switching to a new POV. It seems to have helped. Helps to have a pair of eyes on the inside rather than the outside here. And back story works better in recollections than in dialogue.
Let’s hope that when next week comes, I still like what I did this week.
Writing, writing…
Say what you will of Martin and the length between his books, what really fascinates me is the process behind crafting one of the most complex and morally grey Fantasy series out there today. As a writer myself, who writes is a more or less linear fashion, it boggles me that Martin is able to keep things so straight in his head. That he’s able to jump around the story (like, say, moving on to Jon Snow and the Wall, or shifting the POV to tell the story in another way), is impressive enough, but even moreso when one considers how seamless it all feels in the final product (well, at least in the first four books, I suppose I can’t speak for A Dance with Dragons).
A Dance with Dragons may not be coming out for a while, much to the chagrin of you, me Bantam Spectra and Martin himself… but damn if it don’t have faith that all this hard work will pay off. I can’t be the only one who’s bloody curious what the Meereenese Knot really is and why its giving Martin so much trouble.
Last week, we got an early look at the first two chapters of N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, a debut novel from Orbit Books that is raking in positive reviews. This week brings us the third, and final, sample chapter.
Should I pause to explain? It is poor storytelling. But I must remember everything, remember and remember and remember, to keep a tight grip on it. So many bits of myself have escaped already.
So.
There were once three gods. The one who matters killed one of the ones who didn’t and cast the other into a hellish prison. The walls of this prison were blood and bone; the barred windows were eyes; the punishments included sleep and pain and hunger and all the other incessant demands of mortal flesh. Then this creature, trapped in his tangible vessel, was given to the Arameri for safekeeping, along with three of his godly children. After the horror of incarnation, what difference could mere slavery make?
As a little girl, I learned from the priests of Bright Itempas that this fallen god was pure evil. In the time of the Three, his followers had been a dark, savage cult devoted to violent midnight revels, worshiping madness as a sacrament. If that one had won the war between the gods, the priests intoned direly, mortalkind would probably no longer exist.
“So be good,” the priests would add, “or the Nightlord will get you.”
My anticipation for this novel builds. Chapter Three of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms can be read HERE.
From Amazon.co.uk (via pornokitsch):
After their adventures on the high seas, Locke and Jean are brought back to earth with a thump. Jean is mourning the loss of his lover and Locke must live with the fallout of crossing the all-powerful magical assassins the Bonds Magi. It is a fall-out that will pit both men against Locke’s own long lost love. Sabetha is Locke’s childhood sweetheart, the love of Locke’s life and now it is time for them to meet again. Employed on different sides of a vicious dispute between factions of the Bonds Sabetha has just one goal – to destroy Locke for ever. The Gentleman Bastard sequence has become a literary sensation in fantasy circles and now, with the third book, Scott Lynch is set to seal that success.
Yeah, it’s just an Amazon blurb, but with rumours of Lynch being on the verge of handing in the final manuscript, it might be worth a second look. That all said, there have been a few incidences when Lynch was ’supposed’ to be on the verge of handing the book in, so I’ll wait for an official announcement before getting too excited.
As for the synopsis itself, frankly, it seems choppy and thrown together, full of typos (‘for ever’?) and weird sentences. I’d be curious to see where amazon.co.uk acquired it. If anyone at Gollancz has some better copy, I’d be happy to post that. Still, it’s a nice peek at the story. The most obviously interesting aspect is the prospect that readers finally get to meet the mysterious Sabetha, who has been hinted at and referred to through the first two volumes.
After the disappointing follow-up to The Lies of Locke Lamora, I think this will be a pivotal piece of the puzzle in determining if Lynch is near the top of the genre (as The Lies of Locke Lamora would suggest) or hovering just above the middle of the pack (as Red Seas Under Red Skies would suggest). Hopefully The Republic of Thieves does a better job than Red Seas Under Red Skies (REVIEW) at capturing what made The Lies of Locke Lamora so wonderful.
Thanks to the io9 Book Club and Nightshade Books, readers can get their hands on a digital copy of The Windup Girl by Paolo Baciglupi, a novel looking poised to take a run at this year’s Hugo for Best Novel.
Thanks to Windup Girl publisher Night Shade Books, people participating in this month’s book club can write in to get a free PDF of the novel, which you can read on your computer and most eBook readers. (Fine print: You will be signed up for Night Shade Books’ email newsletter when you get the free PDF – you can unsubscribe later if you don’t like it.)
To get your free ebook, write to Night Shade Books. (Click the link for the address.) If you want a hard copy with the gorgeous cover, you can order that here. Or buy it from your nice local bookseller.
Remember: Get the book read by Tuesday, Feb. 23, and we’ll start our meeting that day. The meeting will continue until the end of that week.
I recently bought a copy of The Windup Girl and look forward to finally seeing what all the fuss is about. Those with ebook readers, or those thinking of diving into the market in the future, should be all over this.
Okay, I gave the UK edition of Hoffman’s The Left Hand of God a hard time, but this is just ridiculous. Are they marketing it as a literary novel (with the inclusion the Name of the Wind-esque ‘A Novel’ tag) or a schlocky Fantasy novel (with the ham-fisted inclusion of a jackass in a hood)? I understand the idea that they want to hit a broad market with the release, but a complete mish-mash of styles is just as uncomfortable an unappealing as when Orbit tried it. I’m terrified that the hooded figure is looking out through a window cut from the front cover, his hood ending at his shoulders and revealing him in all his glory once you open the book.
I’m all for Fantasy novels trying to break new ground an broaden their appeal by straying away from the typical dude-in-a-hooded-cloak-fighting-an-orc-with-a-flaming-sword-and-a-castle-in-the-background covers, but if you’re going to do so, you’ve got to go one hundred percent, like Orbit’s recent re-issues of K.J. Parker’s The Engineer Trilogy.
James over at Dazed Ramblings has a similar rant about this charming cover.
Viliren: a city of sin that is being torn apart from the inside. Its underworld is violent and surreal. Hybrid creatures shamble through shadows and there is a trade in bizarre goods. The city’s inquisition is rife with corruption. Barely human gangs fight turf wars and interfere in political upheavals. The most influential of the gang leaders, Malum, has nefarious networks spreading to the city’s rulers, and as his personal life falls down around him, he begins to embrace the darkness within.
Amidst all this, Commander Brynd Adaol, commander of the Night Guard, must plan the defence of Viliren. A race that has broken through from some other realm and already slaughtered hundreds of thousands of the Empire’s people. As the enemy gather on the next island, Brynd must muster the populace – including the gangs. Importing soldiers and displacing civilians, this is a colossal military operation, and the stress begins to take its toll.
After a Night Guard soldier is reported missing, it is discovered that many citizens have also been vanishing from the streets of Viliren. They’re not fleeing the city, they’re not hiding from the terrors in the north – they’re being murdered. A serial killer of the most horrific kind is on the loose, taking hundreds of people from their own homes. A killer that cannot possibly be human.
It is whispered that the city of Viliren is about to fall – but how can anyone save a city that is already a ruin?
I really enjoyed last year’s Nights of Villjamur, the first major release from Mark Charan Newton, a fellow who’s become a good friend of mine over the past several months. It goes without saying, then, that I’m rather looking forward to the sequel to Nights of Villjamur set to his shelves later this year. Newton promises it’ll be even weirder than his first effort, that he’s not going to hold back this time as he attempts to revive the old New Weird. Or something like that.
Thanks to Newton and Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, we can get a peek at the novel before it hits store shelves.
In the meantime, if you’re unfamiliar with Newton’s work, check out my REVIEW of Nights of Villjamur and see why it may be in your best interests to pick up a copy (it’s out in the UK/Canada, coming soon in the US).
From Publisher’s Weekly (via Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review:
Tina Bennett at Janklow and Nesbit has closed on a sequel to Lev Grossman’s The Magicians (Viking, Aug. 2009). Molly Stern at Viking (who edited The Magicians) bought North American rights to The Magician King. The new book picks up with protagonist Quentin Coldwater five years after the original—at the end of The Magicians Coldwater is 23—when he and his friends have become royalty in the fantasy world of Fillory. Coldwater, who is dealing with the challenges of being a member of the ruling class, embarks on a dark quest in the novel, which Bennett called “Voyage of the Dawn Treader [book 5 in the Chronicles of Narnia] as rewritten by Raymond Chandler.” Viking is aiming for a fall 2011 release.
The Magicians was a bi-polar book caught in a tug-of-war between Harry Potter and Holden Caulfield – one part self-deprecating coming-of-age-story, one part caught-in-a-magic-school – and had a similarly mixed reception. Critics seemed to either love it or hate it. I fell firmly into the ‘love it’ camp, naming it my favourite book published in 2009. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to the sequel.
What is disconcerting, though, is the seeming shift in The Magician King to the more fantastical, an element of the first novel that even lovers of the book admitted was mediocre compared the earlier portions. It will be interesting to see if Grossman can address some of these criticisms now that he is giving readers more than just a brief peek at the land of Fillory.
Via ThePlenty.net, I got word that HarperCollins has released an 85-page (!!!) preview of Robin Hobb’s upcoming release, Dragon Keeper. You can read the excerpt HERE.
I’m a big Hobb fan, but since I haven’t yet been around to The Tawny Man trilogy, I’ll be holding off on Dragon Keeper and its ’sequel’ (or the-second-half-of-the-novel-disguised-as-a-sequel), Dragon Haven, for fear of spoilers.
On another note, I still can’t resist the overwhelming urge to barf every time I see that cover.
Generally, I’m not a huge fan of Baen Books‘ cover treatments, but these recoverings of Elizabeth Moon’s The Deed of Paksenarrion appeal to me in that it-reminds-me-of-being-fifteen-and-liking-badass-fantasy kinda way. Though the style of the artwork stays consistent, it’s odd that Baen would switch artists mid-way through the trilogy. Why not just commission either Harman or Lockwood to do the art for all three?
Anyone know if the books are any good?
Every year, we hear about several new authors who are the next great hope for Fantasy fiction. Some of them turn out well (Patrick Rothfuss) some of them… not so much (Robert Newcomb). The mysteriously shrouded Sam Sykes is one of those authors. With the upcoming release of Tome of the Undergates, both Pyr Books and Gollancz feel that Sykes is ready to set the genre world aflame in the same way that Joe Abercrombie did just a few years ago. The kicker? Sykes is only 25.
Talk about humbling.
I caught up with Sykes and put him to task. We talk about everything from Tome of the Undergates to Terry Goodkind’s ponytail, flaming urine to the various depictions on hell in our culture, Videogames to Canadian Prime Ministers. It’s a hell of a ride, and just may give you a taste of what Sykes is set to do when his novel hits shelves in April. Oh, and he wanted me to say that this interview put my recent one with Blake Charlton to absolute shame. And he has more hair than Charlton. Charlton should be ashamed and give up the gig.
But, well, we’ll let you all decide for yourselves.
Hey Sam. Welcome to A Dribble of Ink! Anything you want to say to set the tone for the interview?
Hi there and thanks for having me on A Dribble of Ink! Things you should probably know about me: I wrote a book, it’s called TOME OF THE UNDERGATES, it’s pretty boss, and I can (and have) defeat(ed) nine out of ten Prime Ministers.
Nine out of ten, huh? I can only assume that the missing one is my very own Prime Minister, the steely eyed Stephen Harper.
Dream on, son. There is no man, animal, manimal or machine that can defeat Putin.
Lenk can barely keep control of his mismatched adventurer band at the best of times (Gariath the dragon man sees humans as little more than prey, Kataria the Shict despises most humans, and the humans in the band are little better). When they’re not insulting each other’s religions they’re arguing about pay and conditions.
So when the ship they are travelling on is attacked by pirates things don’t go very well. They go a whole lot worse when an invincible demon joins the fray. The demon steals the Tome of the Undergates – a manuscript that contains all you need to open the undergates. And whichever god you believe in you don’t want the undergates open. On the other side are countless more invincible demons, the manifestation of all the evil of the gods, and they want out.
Full of razor-sharp wit, characters who leap off the page (and into trouble) and plunging the reader into a vivid world of adventure this is a fantasy that kicks off a series that could dominate the second decade of the century.
Normally I stay away from the tell-us-about-your-book-because-I’m-too-lazy-to-do-the-research-myself-and-can’t-think-of-any-other-good-questions-to-fill-out-this-interview questions, but since you’re a new author, why don’t you tell us a bit about your first novel, Tome of the Undergates that can’t be found in the synopsis I’ve included above?
It’s actually a surprisingly philosophical book. Not the overt, beard-stroking, “what is a chestnut” kind of philosophy, but the sort that delves deep into the psyche of people without being boring. It takes the standard idea of the adventurer in fantasy and asks the questions that are presumed to be answered in the genre: what drives someone to become an adventurer, who is largely presumed to be a graverobber, thief and unprofessional assassin? Would a group composed of many different races, religions and professions really get along so well as to perform a quest? How can they presume a benevolent deity is on their side when they continue to suffer and die? How can they presume that they are in the right when they continue to cause others to suffer and die?
Beyond this, the book is really about the six companions and what motivates them: racial agendas and what happens when one feels compelled to violate them, atonement through murder, what really goes through the mind of the last of a particular race (hint: it’s not pleasant). Basically, TOME takes a lot of the things you might be familiar with and starts sodomizing them in front of you.
Also, there is a scene in which a man gets his crotch stomped into pulp. This is in the first fifty pages or so. They would not tell you about that in a synopsis, friends!
Read More »
After centuries of calm, the Nameless One is stirring.
An army is gathering; thousands of giants, ogres, and other creatures are joining forces from all across the Desolate Lands, united, for the first time in history, under one black banner. By the spring, or perhaps sooner, the Nameless One and his forces will be at the walls of the great city of Avendoom.
Unless Shadow Harold, master thief, can find some way to stop them.
Epic fantasy at its best, Shadow Prowler is the first in a trilogy that follows Shadow Harold on his quest for a magic Horn that will restore peace to the Kingdom of Siala. Harold will be accompanied on his quest by an Elfin princess, Miralissa, her elfin escort, and ten Wild Hearts, the most experienced and dangerous fighters in their world…and by the king’s court jester (who may be more than he seems…or less).
Reminiscent of Moorcock’s Elric series, Shadow Prowler is the first work to be published in English by the bestselling Russian fantasy author Alexey Pehov. The book was translated by Andrew Bromfield, best known for his work on the highly successful Night Watch series.
A few weeks ago I offered up the cover art and a synopsis for Shadow Prowler, the first translated work from Russian author Alexey Pehov, and the first volume of The Chronicles of Siala.
Any time a Fantasy novel is translated from another language, it peaks my interest and suggests that there’s something special there, worth the extra effort, and Shadow Prowler caught my attention for that reason. Now, thanks to Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, we can read the first chapter for free.
Shadow Prowler will hit shelves in February, 2010 from Tor Books.
Author – Patrick Rothfuss
Hardcover
Pages: 72
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Release Date: July, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59606-313-6
Thinly veiled as a children’s storybook, this long-awaited sequel to Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind is a shocking departure from its predecessor. Sometime between the end of The Name of the Wind and the beginning of The Adventures of the Princess and Mr Wiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed, Kvothe, the charismatic narrator of The Name of the Wind, has undergone an unusual transformation from male Kingkiller to innocent princess. The Catch? She lives in her castle alone. Kingkiller, indeed. Denna has been replaced by an even more irredeemable soul, Mr. Whiffle, the teddy-bear.
Rothfuss expounds upon the mysteries established in The Name of the Wind, focussing most of the novel’s plot and attention on The Thing under the Bed, a nefarious soul who’d make even Stephen King cringe. Some fans may be put off by the somewhat tangential nature of The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle, what with it being a picture book and more or less ignoring the mythos set up in the first volume of the series, but those who dig past the simplistic prose, and deeper into the plot-behind-the-plot will find a story that adds yet another layer to The Kingkiller Chronicle and reveals further truths about the enigmatic mind of Kvothe.
In all seriousness, this its-a-childrens-book-for-adults from Patrick Rothfuss is a clever fairy tale that hits all the right notes to remind us old folk about the tales of our youth we may have forgotten. Rothfuss throws a twist on the formula by providing three endings to the tale, each more chilling and hilarious than the last. Strong art from Nate Taylor tops off the package and adds a charm beyond Rothfuss’ prose. It’s a fun, jaunty story that begs to be read time and again. Just beware to stop at ending one, if you don’t want your appetite ruined!
The Sanctuary of the Redeemers is a vast and desolate place – a place without joy or hope. Most of its occupants were taken there as boys and for years have endured the brutal regime of the Lord Redeemers whose cruelty and violence have one singular purpose – to serve in the name of the One True Faith.
In one of the Sanctuary’s vast and twisting maze of corridors stands a boy. He is perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old – he is not sure and neither is anyone else. He has long-forgotten his real name, but now they call him Thomas Cale. He is strange and secretive, witty and charming, violent and profoundly bloody-minded. He is so used to the cruelty that he seems immune, but soon he will open the wrong door at the wrong time and witness an act so terrible that he will have to leave this place, or die.
His only hope of survival is to escape across the arid Scablands to Memphis, a city the opposite of the Sanctuary in every way: breathtakingly beautiful, infinitely Godless, and deeply corrupt.
But the Redeemers want Cale back at any price… not because of the secret he now knows but because of a much more terrifying secret he does not.
Paul Hoffman’s The Left Hand of God has received a fair bit of hype leading up to its release, but this little preview from The Mad Hatter that really caught my attention:
Rarely do I mention a book when I’ve only just begun, but I feel so strongly about Paul Hoffman’s Fantasy debut The Left Hand of God that I had couldn’t hold back. The amount of world-building is staggering considering I am only a few chapters in. The main character Cale has never been shown kindness living in the strictest setting imaginable yet he is still impertinent and snarky. Mark my words when this is release in the US this summer it will make waves. Right now it reminds me of The Name of the Wind only about ten times darker. If Abercrombie and Rothfuss had a baby it might write something as screwed up as The Left Hand of God. I can only hope the story keeps up to the extraordinary start, but so far the hype is well deserved. I’ll most likely do a full review when I’m done.
Abercrombie meets Rothfuss? Me likey. Shockingly standard cover with slightly-higher-than-average ambience? Me give up
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