Via Wired.com:
These are bloody amazing. It’s not easy to make something look sharp and contemporary while at the same time embracing the retro roots of the original source material. My favourite part? The two moons of Tatooine composing C-3po’s eyes. Hell, I even think I could convince my better-half to let me hang these on the walls of our home!
More of Moss’ work and links to order prints can be found on the original Wired.com post.
From Abercrombie’s blog (via The Mad Hatter’s Book Bookshelf & Book Review):
Therefore stand amazed as I announce that I last year signed a contract with my doughty UK publisher, Gollancz, for four more books set in the world of The First Law. That’s right. FOUR MORE BOOKS. Twice two. Or more accurately, one plus three, since at the moment, those books are looking like they’ll be another semi-standalone in the style of Best Served Cold and The Heroes, followed by another trilogy, though obviously I reserve the right to be coy and change my mind, possibly while flouncing out of a meeting. It’s a lady’s privilege, don’t you know.
In terms of timescale things are still a little hazy. I’ve been writing at the rate of about a book every 18 months or so, so one might reasonably expect the first of these books to appear on shelves sometime around the summer 2012 sort of a mark, but obviously I reserve the right to be coy and completely miss a date even that vague.
Good news to start off the year. It’s interesting (and a testament to Abercrombie’s popularity) that Gollancz has signed him to a deal without any actual plans laid out for the novels. It’s easy to suppose that the first of these will be the Fantasy/Western mash-up that Abercrombie’s spoken of before; more interesting, however, is whether the planned trilogy will return to Abercrombie’s many-times-visited world or strike off in a new direction. Despite my reservations for Best Served Cold, I’ve always felt that Abercrombie’s abilities lend themselves very well to stand-alone novels, so, in a way, I wouldn’t mind hearing that he changes his mind and continues his current trend of one-off novels.
You know how it is. There are few people who can (rightly) claim to have read widely enough to create an honest-to-goodnes ‘best’ novel of 2010 list. I know I certainly didn’t. For every great book I read, there is a handful of others out there that are likely just as deserving. So, instead, here’s a neat little list of my ‘favourite’ books from 2010, published during the year or otherwise.
I mean, really, what is there to be said about Kay that hasn’t been said before and with more eloquent words than I can write. The man’s a master of the genre and his ability to weave real world history with the fantastic is second to none. Under Heaven is a lovely, lyrical novel that continues to resonate with me months after turning its final page.
Last year I named Daniel Abraham’s A Shadow in Summer (REVIEW) as my favourite book of the year. This year, I’m going back to the Abraham pot. I’ve not yet finished the series, because I’m almost too intimidated by the series’ reputation and how strong the final two volumes are supposed to be. Like Guy Gavriel Kay, Abraham is an author I keep on the shelf for a time when I feel jaded about the genre and need to be reminded of how wonderful Fantasy can be.
It’s not often that a new author hits the stage with as much aplomb as Anthony Huso. His debut novel, The Last Page is weird and wonderful, sorrowful and heartbreaking and will appeal to fans of Steven Erikson, Mark Charan Newton and China Mieville. Quite a list of names, but one he deserves to be among. There’s not been as much talk about The Last Page as I’d like, but I hope more people are able to discover Huso’s work in 2011 and with the upcoming release of Black Bottle, the final volume in the duology.
My review of this story still perfectly sums up its triumph and why Ted Chiang is as good a writer as you’ve probably heard:
Time travel stories are notoriously hard to tell with any success. Time paradoxes, physics being broken and non-linear timelines all lead to plot holes in the hands of an inexperienced author. Novels that pull off the conceit well, like The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers or Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut are few and far between. Chiang, though, tackles the time travel motif with aplomb and challenges the reader by filling every plot hole just when they think they’ve found one. It’s at turns both clever and profound, full of smart twists and genuine insights into the compulsion we all have to live in the past, to regret turns not made or choices gone wrong. So often, time travel stories present fluid timelines, easily saved or ruined by the hero or antagonist, but Chiang plays with the idea that only the present is fluid and that what’s before us is every bit as defined as what’s passed us by. It’s a story of redemption and regret, with a melancholy air hiding just under the serpentine switchbacks of the puzzle-like time travel narrative.
A free audio version of The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate is available on StarShipSofa.
And, there you go! I read a lot of bloody good novels and short stories this year, but there’s the cream that rose to the absolute top. Hopefully 2011 will be filled with so many good reads as 2010!
