Paul S. Kemp, a popular writer of Forgotten Realms novels, best known for The Chronicles of Erevis Cale, has announced, via his LiveJournal (via Fantasy Book News & Reviews), that he has parted ways with Wizards of the Coast and will not be finishing Godborn, the first book of the The Cycle of Night trilogy.
Normally, I would not write anything about this, but I feel obliged to let those of you awaiting the release of Godborn know that I have ended my relationship with Wizards of the Coast. As a result, I will not be writing Godborn and my contribution to the Forgotten Realms will end with The Twilight War. I sincerely apologize to those of you who were awaiting The Cycle of Night.
All that happened here is that Wizards made a decision that they thought was appropriate (and was, in fact, based on perfectly valid reasons), but that decision conflicted with what I thought was appropriate. We tried to resolve matters in good faith, but it just wasn’t to be. It’s unfortunate, but it goes that way sometimes. And that’s all I’ll have to say about it so please don’t ask for further details.
I remain grateful to Wizards for publishing my novels, and in particular have nothing but the highest of praise for my editor, Phil Athans. Honestly, my primary regret here is that I feel like I’ve let a lot of you down. So again, please accept my apologies if you were one of those awaiting Godborn.
Certainly it’s too bad to see Kemp leave the Forgotten Realms camp, as I understand that his novels were some of the best published in that world. From the sounds of it, the split between him and Wizards of the Coast was not pretty, so it should be interesting to see if Kemp continues to write in a different Shared-world or if he jumps ship and begins writing original fiction. If there’s any silver lining to this, it’s that Kemp is not leaving his publisher in the midst of a trilogy, but rather before even the first volume was published. Still, a let down for his fans, to be sure.
Best of luck to Paul.
I just hope it had nothing to do with his second Star Wars novel. Sad to see him go, but I say bigger and better. :-)
I would be 100% behind some Paul Kemp original fiction.
Oh man… It is a shame I think he was the best of the Realms writers. I think that the last book of the Twilight Wars finished warped everything up, but I am still sad that there will be no more of that great series.