Yearly Archives: 2010

Feature Article

Article | Suvudu Blogger Interview: George R.R. Martin

By Aidan Moher February 1st, 2010

Several days ago, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist posted an excerpt from George R.R. Martin’s upcoming novella, The Mystery Knight. I don’t think anyone was prepared for the volume of vitriol and caustic commentary that would follow. Nearly 250 comments in a matter of hours, most condemning Martin for the usual reasons: he’s fat, he’s old, he’s lazy, he likes Football, he should be writing, not sleeping or shitting. These are his most die-hard ‘fans’, remember. Pat had to turn off comments on his very popular blog, something he’s never done before.

Shawn Speakman from Suvudu first caught the attention of Martin fans a year ago with his article In Defense of George R.R. Martin. I wrote a response of my own with an article titled Why You Should Cut George RR Martin Some Slack. Now, spurred by the response to the excerpt from The Mystery Knight, Speakman and Suvudu have rounded up a few bloggers and posed a series of Martin-related questions. Is new ground tread? Likely not. But it’s a subject that keeps rearing its head with every year that passes and A Dance of Dragons is not on store shelves.

Below you will find my answers to the questions posed by Suvudu. Also involved are Adam from The Wertzone, Jeff’s Fantasy Review and, of course, Shawn from Suvudu.
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Cover Art

Cover Art | The Sword of the Dawn by Michael Moorcock

By Aidan Moher January 30th, 2010

From the new Tor Books edition of Michael Moorcock’s The Sword of the Dawn:

I’d not been aware of Vance Kovacs, the artist, before this, but he’s certainly on my radar now. Looking at his web portfolio, I’m absolutely blown away.

Seriously. As an art junkie, I feel ashamed not to have heard of Kovacs before. Can anyone point out any covers he’s done besides the Elric re-issues?

News

An Aside | Breaking News: Raymond E. Feist to complete A Song of Ice and Fire

By Aidan Moher January 29th, 2010

Judging by this cover image (and its striking similarity to THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS and THIS), I would like to break the news that George R.R. Martin has been kicked off of A Song of Ice and Fire. The series has been handed off to the prolific Raymond E. Feist and The Winds of Winter has been re-named At the Gates of Darkness. One can assume that Pug will be teleported to Westeros, be a supreme Deus Ex Machina badass and save the day single-handedly, thus ending the series one book early.

News

An Aside | Update on ‘A Dance with Dragons’

By Aidan Moher January 29th, 2010

No. It’s not done yet. So if that’s all you’re here for, you can leave now. Disappointed and ready to smash an empty beer bottle and start a bar fight.

We’ve beaten that issue to death. Bringing it up again isn’t going to solve anything or make Martin write faster (or get skinnier, or die later, or whatever gripe about him is the latest trend). However, Martin did have another little update for us and a nice peek behind the curtain at how he works as a writer. From his blog:

Snowing like hell in Santa Fe today. I feel like Jon Snow on the Wall. White everywhere I look, and still coming down.

Of course, I’m writing about Meereen, where the weather is hot and muggy, oppressive. If the snow keeps falling, I better take it as an omen, switch to a Jon chapter tomorrow.

The good news: finished a chapter today.

The bad news: it’s one I’ve finished at least four times before.

This time, though, I think I finally got it right. We’ll see. Still whacking at the Meereenese knot.

I took an especially vigorous hack two days ago, by switching to a new POV. It seems to have helped. Helps to have a pair of eyes on the inside rather than the outside here. And back story works better in recollections than in dialogue.

Let’s hope that when next week comes, I still like what I did this week.

Writing, writing…

Say what you will of Martin and the length between his books, what really fascinates me is the process behind crafting one of the most complex and morally grey Fantasy series out there today. As a writer myself, who writes is a more or less linear fashion, it boggles me that Martin is able to keep things so straight in his head. That he’s able to jump around the story (like, say, moving on to Jon Snow and the Wall, or shifting the POV to tell the story in another way), is impressive enough, but even moreso when one considers how seamless it all feels in the final product (well, at least in the first four books, I suppose I can’t speak for A Dance with Dragons).

A Dance with Dragons may not be coming out for a while, much to the chagrin of you, me Bantam Spectra and Martin himself… but damn if it don’t have faith that all this hard work will pay off. I can’t be the only one who’s bloody curious what the Meereenese Knot really is and why its giving Martin so much trouble.

News

Free Readin’ | Chapter Three of ‘The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms’ by NK Jemisin

By Aidan Moher January 28th, 2010

Last week, we got an early look at the first two chapters of N.K. Jemisin‘s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, a debut novel from Orbit Books that is raking in positive reviews. This week brings us the third, and final, sample chapter.

Should I pause to explain? It is poor storytelling. But I must remember everything, remember and remember and remember, to keep a tight grip on it. So many bits of myself have escaped already.

So.

There were once three gods. The one who matters killed one of the ones who didn’t and cast the other into a hellish prison. The walls of this prison were blood and bone; the barred windows were eyes; the punishments included sleep and pain and hunger and all the other incessant demands of mortal flesh. Then this creature, trapped in his tangible vessel, was given to the Arameri for safekeeping, along with three of his godly children. After the horror of incarnation, what difference could mere slavery make?

As a little girl, I learned from the priests of Bright Itempas that this fallen god was pure evil. In the time of the Three, his followers had been a dark, savage cult devoted to violent midnight revels, worshiping madness as a sacrament. If that one had won the war between the gods, the priests intoned direly, mortalkind would probably no longer exist.

“So be good,” the priests would add, “or the Nightlord will get you.”

My anticipation for this novel builds. Chapter Three of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms can be read HERE.