Monthly Archives: October 2010

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy Banner

As I’ve mentioned on twitter a few times, I’ve begun doing some work for the inestimable Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, a fantastic podcast hosted by John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley. Not familiar with the podcast and want to know why you add them to iTunes? How’s a list of guests including George R.R. Martin, Naomi Novik, Jonathan Coulton, Blake Charlton, Cherie Priest and Paolo Bacigalupi sound? Pretty good, no? These guys have worked with some of the biggest and best personalities in the industry and I’m excited to be on board.

Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy is now hosted by io9, and the re-launch episode features an interview with George R.R. Martin, along with a whole lot of discussion of his work (A Song of Ice and Fire-related and not).

Episode #22 — George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, joins us to talk about his short fiction, his novels, and the HBO adaptation of A Game of Thrones. Dave and John discuss Martin and his work.

Some of my favourite snippets from the show notes:

10:49 Gathering contributors for Songs of the Dying Earth

29:55 Roger Zelazny’s and Howard Waldrop’s original involvement in the [Wild Card] series

38:43 Continuity between newer and older novels; would George like to go back and change anything in his earlier books?

46:01 Hacking at the infamous “Meereenese Knot”

48:29 Merging the timelines of A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons

52:49 Will HBO streamline the series for Television?

59:02 John reminisces about Meathouse Man and… sex with zombies?

1:16:49 What to read while waiting for A Dance with Dragons; fantasy inspired and influenced by George R.R. Martin: Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora, Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber, Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun, Brian Ruckley, Swords & Dark Magic, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders, Glen Cook

So head on over and listen to Episode #22 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton

This article was originally written for and published at SFSignal. Go check it out!

Recently, Mark Charan Newton, author of Nights of Villjamur, as he’s wont to do, stirred some feathers when he challenged several bloggers to diversify their book coverage, to shift focus from all the frontlist new releases and give more coverage to the wonderful backlist of the genre. Long story short, the blogosphere can only handle so many reviews of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. Authors and novels of high profile get a huge push from their publishers, and that results in coverage from every blogger under the sun; Newton argues that it would do everyone (reader, author and reviewer alike) some good to look into the past.

Myself and Larry Nolen, from OF Blog of the Fallen, disagreed with Newton, at least in part. We agreed with Newton that diversification is a good thing, but that true diversification means so much more than just dipping your toe into the forgotten classics of the genre; rather, it’s about stepping outside the boundaries of the frontlist books (you know, those ones that are shoved down your throat through blogs, twitter, Facebook, newsletters, bookstore promotions and heft marketing budgets) and explore what else the genre has to offer, regardless of whether it was released today, a month ago or before the Toronto Maple Leafs won their last Stanley Cup (1967, for all you non-Hockey fans reading this). The Speculative Fiction genre has so much to offer that you could pick books out at random and never run out of good reading (granted, there’s an equal share of bad reading in there, but it’s good to experience that from time to time, to keep perspective), so why are we bloggers and reviewers often obsessed with keeping up with the times?

Of course, discussions on the ethics of bloggers are boring. But this call for diversification is something all readers might consider, whether they end up taking Newton’s advice or not.

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A user on the Westeros message board, where Abraham is known to post on a semi-frequently basis, has spilled some of the beans about The Dragon’s Path, the first volume of Abraham’s upcoming The Dagger and the Coin series.

It’s a very different project from the LPQ in tone, but all of Daniel’s unique personal hobby horses still show up. I mean, it is epic fantasy with dragons and trolls and sword fights and magic and dread elder gods and, damn, the whole enchilada. But it also concerns itself deeply with things like how banks form, and how control of money controls the actions of princes. I don’t know anyone else who’s that comfortable doing that sort of genre mixing.

While some fans of Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet might feel a bit maligned that he’s turning his talents towards a more traditional story and setting, it’ll be encouraging for them to hear that he’s doing it with the same sophisticated aplomb expected from the under-read author. If there’s any justice in the world, the more traditional hook will be an easier sell to booksellers and readers, leading many more people to discover Abraham’s wonderful novels.

Myself? There’s not much I enjoy more than smart Epic Fantasy. If you handed me A Dance with Dragons, The Wise Man’s Fear and The Dragon’s Path all at once (as could happen, with all three pending a 2012 release)? Mr. Martin and Mr. Rothfuss would have to get in line, cause Abraham’s at the top of my list.

A new synopsis for The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham:

Summer is the season of war in the Free Cities.

Marcus wants to get out before the fighting starts. His hero days are behind him and simple caravan duty is better than getting pressed into service by the local gentry. Even a small war can get you killed. But a captain needs men to lead — and his have been summarily arrested and recruited for their swords.

Cithrin has a job to do — move the wealth of a nation across a war zone. An orphan raised by the bank, she is their last hope of keeping the bank’s wealth out of the hands of the invaders. But she’s just a girl and knows little of caravans, war, and danger. She knows money and she knows secrets, but will that be enough to save her in the coming months?

Geder, the only son of a noble house is more interested in philosophy than swordplay. He is a poor excuse for a soldier and little more than a pawn in these games of war. But not even he knows what he will become of the fires of battle. Hero or villain? Small men have achieved greater things and Geder is no small man.

Falling pebbles can start a landslide. What should have been a small summer spat between gentlemen is spiraling out of control. Dark forces are at work, fanning the flames that will sweep the entire region onto The Dragon’s Path — the path of war.

And one for Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck):

Welcome to the future. Humanity has colonized the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond – but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for – and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer, Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations – and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

The more I read about these two releases, the higher they move up my list of must-haves. And, frankly, The Dragon’s Path has been #1 for months now. Just the thought of Abraham turing his talents to a more traditional story has me drooling. You know he’s going to deliver. The first line of that synopsis does sound eerily close to The Long Price Quartet, though….

Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose above the misty peaks of Imfaral. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

You can almost smell it in the air. It’s slavering fanboy-ism. It’s genuine excitement. For the first time since 1994, the world’s going to see a Wheel of Time sequel within a year of the previous volume. It’s an absolute testament to Brandon Sanderson’s work ethic, and people are understandably excited. Then, it’s the penultimate volume in the series. The series has been rightfully criticized for the glacial pacing in some of the middle volumes, but the end’s finally in sight and, knowing how well Sanderson writes endings, long-standing fans of the series are sure to be pleased. For guys like me, who’ve only read half the series, it’s that time of year where I consider, once again, re-reading the early books and catching up with the rest of the fans.

It comes out in a month-or-so, but, if you just can’t wait, head on over and read Chapter One: Apples First from Towers of Midnight on either orbitbooks.net or tor.com.

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