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Brandon Sanderson spills all of A Memory of Light‘s unrevealed secrets on Twitter

By January 24th, 20133 Responses
A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Yesterday, Tor.com hosted one of their ongoing #TorChat twitter conversations, and invited Brandon Sanderson, co-author of A Memory of Light, the final volume of Robert Jordan’s long-running Wheel of Time series, to answer fan questions. And, well, it being Sanderson and Wheel of time, the questions were endless. And spoiler-filled. Egads, by the end of the chat, my virgin ears were stuffed full of more spoilers for A Memory of Light than I cared for. They were popping up on my twitter feed left and right. Ah well.

To save those of you still waiting to read the book from unwanted spoilers, I’ll hide them behind the jump. Continue reading

Review Round-Up: A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

By January 8th, 20134 Responses
A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

A Memory of Light, the final volume in Robert Jordan’s long-running Wheel of Time series, is, undoubtedly, one of the most anticipated Fantasy novels of the past twenty years, and its release today is one of the biggest events in Fantasy publishing history. I’ve gathered here many of the reviews published of the novel, and they are all glowing. Reviews that aren’t specifically marked as spoiler free are in their own section, after the jump. Enjoy!

Spoiler Free

Leigh Butler, Tor.com:

[T]his is the last Wheel of Time book you’ll ever get to read for the first time. Maybe that’s only a blip in the grand scheme of things, but for those of you like me who have invested literally decades into seeing this to the finish, you owe it to yourself to enjoy this as much as humanly possible.

Jason Denzel, Dragonmount:

The Wheel of Time books have ended for me. I cannot deny the bittersweet emotions that brings. But a strong ending gives more meaning to the journey that came before it. Sure, I can pick apart small nuances of this final book that weren’t perfect. Some little parts may not have rung as true as they could have. But by and large, it delivered in a big way.

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John Scalzi announces Morningstar, a… videogame for tablets?

By December 11th, 2012Leave a response
Morningstar, developed by Industrial Toys

Set 120 years in the future, the premise revolves around a plausible future Earth, one that has developed near space flight, but nothing much faster. The story opens with Earth discovering a signal from an alien life. This discovery kicks off something called the Morning Star protocol, an agreement that outlines what to do if alien intelligence is discovered. The research vessel MSRV-Joplin is outfitted with military weapons and sent to Saturn, where the signal is coming from, to explore.

It’s not so much an announcement, as knowledge of Scalzi’s involvement with the creation of a videogame has been floating around for a while, but this is the first concrete information about the title. Scalzi reports on the project:

As most of you know, for the last year or so I’ve been working on a video game with Industrial Toys, the new video game studio formed by former Bungie founder Alex Seropian. We’ve been quietly chugging along in the background putting the game together; my job has been working with them to create an overall game concept as well as the narrative that fits into that concept. It’s been a hell of a lot of fun, in no small part because my co-workers at Industrial Toys are some of the smartest and most creative people in the video game business.

[...]

As the trailer notes, the video game is a first-person shooter, but with a bit of a twist: It’s designed specifically for mobile gaming on tablets, which means that everything — gameplay, controls, story — was put together incorporating both the physical layout of tablets and the gameplay dynamic of mobile gaming. It’s not a port from another video game medium, in other words: It’s at home in mobile. Which is also very exciting.

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The Robert Jordan Story, Harriet McDougal and others look back on the career of a legend

By December 7th, 20122 Responses

Whether you like Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series or not (and there are many reasons to fall on either side of the fence), the upcoming release of its final volume, A Memory of Light, will be one of the biggest Fantasy events in decades. Wheel of Time has helped shaped contemporary Fantasy, and opened the doors for authors like George R.R. Martin (who launched his own series, which you maybe heard of, with a juicy quote from Robert Jordan plastered on the cover), Patrick Rothfuss, and even Brandon Sanderson, who now carries the torch for the late Jordan. To celebrate the life and career of Jordan, Tor has produced a loving video looking back at the aurhor, featuring his wife, Harriet McDougal, Tom Doherty, the big guy at Tor Books, and Brandon Sanderson.

Cover Art for Requiem by Ken Scholes

By December 6th, 20129 Responses

Well, I applaud Tor for putting an old(ish) guy on the cover, and leaving his face unobscured by a silly cloak/hood. Otherwise, it looks a lot like a Dresden Files novel, and not a whole lot like the awesome covers that the series originally debuted with. I don’t mind Chris McGrath’s art, but I think it’s a poor fit for Scholes’ series.

And, to meet my ‘obscure videogame culture reference of the day’ quota, the man’s a dead-ringer for Jeff Green (not this Jeff Green), formerly of Computer Gaming World Magazine, then Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, then Electronic Arts, then PopCap Games, then, by virtue of the universe’s perverse sense of irony, Electronic Arts, again, thanks to their acquisition of PopCap Games. *Phew*