A Dribble of Ink

A new and corrupt Emperor seeks to rebuild the ancient structures of Villjamur to give the people of the city hope in the face of great upheaval and an oppressing ice age. But when a stranger called Shalev arrives, empowering a militant underground movement, crime and terror becomes rampant.

The Inquisition is always one step behind, and military resources are spread thinly across the Empire. So Emperor Urtica calls upon cultists to help construct a group to eliminate those involved with the uprising, and calm the populace. But there’s more to The Villjamur Knights than just phenomenal skills and abilities – each have a secret that, if exposed, could destroy everything they represent.

Investigator Fulcrom of the Villjamur Inquisition is given the unenviable task of managing the Knights, but his own skills are tested when a mysterious priest, who has travelled from beyond the fringes of the Empire, seeks his help. The priest’s existence threatens the church, and his quest promises to unravel the fabric of the world. And in a distant corner of the Empire, the enigmatic cultist Dartun Súr steps back into this world, having witnessed horrors beyond his imagination. Broken, altered, he and the remnants of his order are heading back to Villjamur.

And all eyes turn to the Sanctuary City, for Villjamur’s ancient legends are about to be shattered…

Whether it’s feisty cover art debates, reviews, or interviews, Mark Charan Newton, author of Nights of Villjamur (REVIEW) is no stranger to the readers of this blog. I enjoy promoting the work (and grinding the gears) of Newton, who I think is one of the bright up-and-coming young writers of the genre. City of Ruin was an improvement in almost every facet over Nights of Villjmaur; if The Book of Transformations continues Newton’s trend upward, we’re all in for a treat.

To help us decide whether the excitement is justified, Newton has recently published Chapter One of The Book of Transformations on Newton’s blog.

“You can divide infinity an infinite number of times, and the resulting pieces will still be infinitely large,” Uresh said in his odd Lenatti accent. “But if you divide a non-infinite number an infinite number of times the resulting pieces are non-infinitely small. Since they are non-infinitely small, but there are an infinite number of them, if you add them back together, their sum is infinite. This implies any number is, in fact, infinite.”

“Wow,” Elodin said after a long pause. He leveled a serious finger at the Lenatti man. “Uresh. Your next assignment is to have sex. If you do not know how to do this, see me after class.”

Name a more anticipated novel releasing this year? Tough, ain’t it? Whether you’ve read The Name of the Wind or not, it’s hard to get out from under the shadow cast by the looming release of Patrick Rothfuss’ long-awaited sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear.

In anticipation, Tor.com has posted an excerpt from The Wise Man’s Fear. Only a couple of weeks to go!

Rumors have beset the eastlands of Aeshau Vaal. Some people flee toward the cities for refuge. One regent, to answer these unseen threats, is set to recall the Convocation of Seats—something that hasn’t been done for ages. But one man doesn’t believe, and would use the fear of nations to advance the power of his dangerous League of Civility.

For Braethen, an author’s son, it will mean the sudden chance to turn his lifelong desire of entering the Sodality into a reality. But being a Sodalist is not the romantic dream he’s read about in his long years of study. As a sworn protector to the feared Order of Sheason, he must be prepared to give more than his life, and to take up a mythical weapon before his hands are even accustomed to steel.

For Wendra, raped and now heavy with child, it will mean learning the reality of a trade that travels the highways across the nations of man, even a trade in human lives. She’ll take responsibility for a pageant-wagon boy, whose street-theater is considered seditious; and find through protecting him that her ability to make song with her voice carries a great power, but one that may flow darkly.

For Tahn, it will mean finding answers to a lost childhood. Words he feels compelled to speak every time he draws his bow may finally be understood, but the revelation it will bring he may wish to have left unremembered. And though it will also introduce him to a beautiful woman of the legendary Far, the nature of their separate and very different lives will force dreadful choices upon them.

These three, and others, attended by a hard man, an exile, whose sentence is to care for orphans and foundlings in the middle of a wasteland, and by a Sheason whose uncompromising, yet best intentions are destroying his own order, will fight the past even as they face a dark future.

Because the threats are more than rumor . . .

One of the 2011′s more intriguing debut Epic Fantasies is Peter Orullian’s The Unremembered, the first volume in the (potentially very long) The Vault of Heaven series. Tor seems to be positioning it, alongside (or perhaps just below) Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archives, as one of the big, epics to fill the gap left by Robert Jordan’s soon-to-be-finished Wheel of Time. Will it actually live up to that sort of hype? It’s impossible to say. Publishers like to scream to the heavens about every new Epic Fantasy series and how it’s going to re-invent the genre and make Patrick Rothfuss look like a sales-chump (*cough*Robert Newcomb*cough*), but that’s rarely ever the case.

Still, with a beautiful cover and an reasonably interesting synopsis, The Unremembered is firmly on my radar. To help you decide if it’s worth getting excited about, Orullian’s recently released the prologue of the novel on his website.

In addition to this excerpt, Orullian has also published two short stories on Tor.com: Sacrifice of the First Sheason and The Great Defense of Layosah.

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.

I’m not much of a Science Fiction reader. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, I do, it’s just that, for whatever reason, when it comes time to choose my next novel of the pile, I always gravitate towards Fantasy. Nothing inspires me more, however, when one of my favourite Fantasy authors turns his attentions to rocket ships, outer space and laser guns.

James S.A. Corey is a pseudonym taken by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. It’s no secret that I have an enormous literature- and man-crush on Abraham. Not only that, Leviathan Wakes eschews the ordinary far-future setting and looks to tell a story of spaceships in a time when humanity still has yet to leave our solar system. This (relatively) near-future setting is more than enough to catch my interest and separate Corey’s effort from the rest of the Science Fiction cluttering up my bookshelves.

For a closer taste, you can head over to Abraham’s website and read the prologue from Leviathan Wakes. Then clear some space on your reading list for what’s sure to be one of the year’s more impressive ‘out-of-nowhere’ novels in 2011. Don’t believe me? Just check out The Wertzone’s review and bask in his enthusiasm.

Last week, I broke the seal by releasing the first look at Daniel Abraham’s The Dragon’s Path, the first volume of his much-anticipated new series, The Dagger and the Coin. You can read the prologue here. To celebrate the launch of his new website, Abraham has posted the first chapter of the novel, giving readers their first look at Captain Marcus Wester, one of the three main characters from the novel.

Marcus rubbed his chin with a callused palm.

“Yardem?”

“Sir?” rumbled the Tralgu looming at his side.

“The day you throw me in a ditch and take command of the company?”

“Yes, sir.”

“It wouldn’t be today, would it?”

The Tralgu crossed his thick arms and flicked a jingling ear.

“No, sir,” he said at last. “Not today.”

“Pity.”

If you’re an Abraham fan, you’re already dying to get your hands on the book. If you’re not, I’ve got a few reasons why I think you should be excited for The Dragon’s Path. When you’ve read the prologue, you can head to Abraham’s website to read chapter one of The Dragon’s Path. I have a feeling this isn’t the last excerpt we’ll see before the novel’s release in April.