Uh, yeah, I’d say that’s suitably epic for the concluding volume of The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Artist, as with many of the past volumes in the series, is Steve Stone. It’s fun, though, to think of how the cover might have looked if they’d stayed with the style of the original release of Gardens of the Moon!
It seems like just yesterday that we were in the middle of a media blitz for The Gathering Storm, the first in the Brandon Sanderson-penned Wheel of Time novels, and now we’re already getting a sniff at the release of the penultimate volume, Towers of Midnight. To go alongside the previously released prologue and Chapter One: Bad Apples, Tor.com has an audio version of the second chapter, just in time to whet your appetite for the official release, just a couple of weeks away! From what I gather, it’s a Perrin heavy chapter, so gauge your excitement appropriately.
You can listen to Chapter Two: Questions of Leadership on Tor.com. As always, to get the coolest features, you’ve got to be a member (it’s free, and easy to sign up!)
For those interested, the chapter is being discussed in full spoilerific glory here.
Author – Anthony Huso
Hardcover
Pages: 432
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: August 17th, 2010
ISBN-10: 0765325160
ISBN-13: 978-0765325167
Every year, Fantasy is inundated with novels that promise to the be the ‘next big thing’, and they almost always seem to be familiar stories, harping on the successes of the genre’s classics. Sometimes they find the success they promise (like Patrick Rothfuss’ enormous hit The Name of the Wind), and other times they wither away and never live up to the hype heaped upon their shoulders (like Robert Newcomb’s lamentable The Fifth Sorcerer); then, there are novels like Anthony Huso’s The Last Page – they’re small, quiet releases that genuinely embrace the genre’s roots, but instead of imitating their influences, they set out to create something new, something fresh.
At its very heart, The Last Page is a love story. Sure, on the surface its got prophecy and grimoires, armies and sword fights, but the true strength and soul of the novel lies in the relationship between Sena Iilool and Caliph Howl. The whirlwind love of these two is like many real-world relationships, it never quite knows itself and often redefines its rules and expectations on a whim. Instead of setting them up with love-at-first-site, Huso builds a realistic, nuanced relationship between them, as caustic as it is lustful. Sena and Caliph are both powerful figures in their own right and hidden between the lines of their tryst are powerplays and hidden agendas which sometimes align, but often contradict. They use each other constantly, but always in the name of love and lust. Like many relationships, the true root of their love (if it even exists), lies deep at the bottom of their muddy emotions and greedy machinations. It’s a refreshing change of pace in a genre that so often has the kitchenboy falling madly in love with a princess by page three.
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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…
A couple of weeks ago, I whined and complained about the early cover for Mark Charan Newton’s The Book of Transformations, the third volume in his wonderful Legends of the Red Sun series. I wasn’t the only one displeased by the cover, it seems. Newton has posted a new cover on his blog, citing fan feedback for inspiring the change. A very cool move on the part of Newton and his publisher, Tor UK.
And the result? Much better. They’ve removed the ninja-girl and shifted the focus to the city, which is much more appropriate for Newton’s work, in which the cities are as important to the story as any of the characters. I’m not a fan of obvious CG artwork in a Fantasy setting (especially when compared to the lovely artwork on the UK Hardcover of Nights of Villjamur), but as long as I look at the city as a whole, rather than focussing on the details, it’s a nice approximation of Villjamur, where the novel takes place.
The novel itself sounds great. Nights of Villjamur (REVIEW) was a solid debut, but Newton showed great progress with City of Ruin (REVIEW); if The Book of Transformations continues that trend, we’re likely looking at one of the most unique and compelling series in recent years.
Apparently I am pretty. Magic is all I see, and magic tends to be beautiful, so I have no way of properly judging the mundane myself. I have to take others’ word for it. Men praise parts of me endlessly — always the parts, mind you, never the whole. They love my long legs, my graceful neck, my storm of hair, my breasts. (Especially my breasts.) Most of the men in Shadow were Amn, so they also commented on my smooth near-black Maro skin even though I told them there were half a million other women in the world with the same feature. Half a million is not so many measured against the whole world, though, so that always got included in their qualified, fragmentary admiration.
“Lovely,” they would say, and sometimes they wanted to take me home and admire me in private. Before I got involved with godlings I would let them, if I felt lonely enough. “You’re beautiful, Oree,” they would whisper as they positioned and posed and polished me. “If only — ”
I never asked them to complete this sentence. I knew what they almost said: If only you didn’t have those eyes.
I was blown away earlier this year by The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, the wonderful debut novel from NK Jemisin, and can’t wait to get my hands on the second volume, The Broken Kingdoms, coming in just a few weeks. For those looking to whet their appetite for the second novel, Jemisin’s already released the first chapter, and has now added the second.
If you’re interested, I interviewed Jemisin a few months ago and she talks at length about the structure of the trilogy and how The Broken Kingdoms relates to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
Read Chapter Two of The Broken Kingdoms by NK. Jemisin.
