Monthly Archives: September 2011

Art

Cover Art & Synopsis | CALIBAN’S WAR by James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck)

By Aidan Moher September 30th, 2011
CALIBAN'S WAR by James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck)
Cover Not Final — Art by Daniel Dociu

We are not alone.

The alien protomolecule is clear evidence of an intelligence beyond human reckoning. No one knows what exactly is being built on Venus, but whatever it is, it is vast, powerful, and terrifying.

When a creature of unknown origin and seemingly impossible physiology attacks soldiers on Ganymede, the fragile balance of power in the Solar System shatters. Now, the race is on to discover if the protomolecule has escaped Venus, or if someone is building an army of super-soldiers.

Jim Holden is the center of it all. In spite of everything, he’s still the best man for the job to find out what happened on Ganymede. Either way, the protomolecule is loose and Holden must find a way to stop it before war engulfs the entire system.

CALIBAN’S WAR is an action-packed space adventure following in the footsteps of the critically acclaimed Leviathan Wakes.

Yesterday we had the cover for Abraham’s Fantasy offering, The King’s Blood and today we’ve got his collaborative Science Fiction (alongside the awesomely fun Ty Franck), Caliban’s War, the sequel to Leviathan Wakes (which rules, REVIEW), the second volume of The Expanse trilogy.

I’ve been informed by Orbit that this is an early, unfinished look at the cover, so expect a nice layer of polish to be added to the final copy. I loved the cover for Leviathan Wakes and this one looks like it’ll be just as great (if not quite so impressionistic and soothing). Burning Coruscant certainly promises that the action will gain scope in the second volume. That said, I don’t think the typeface works so well with this title. My excitement for the novel continues to be sky-high.

Art

Cover Art & Synopsis | THE KING’S BLOOD by Daniel Abraham

By Aidan Moher September 29th, 2011
THE KING'S BLOOD by Daniel Abraham

War casts its shadow over the lands that the dragons once ruled. Only the courage of a young woman with the mind of a gambler and loyalty to no one stands between hope and universal darkness.

The high and powerful will fall, the despised and broken shall rise up, and everything will be remade. And quietly, almost beneath the notice of anyone, an old, broken-hearted warrior and an apostate priest will begin a terrible journey with an impossible goal: destroy a Goddess before she eats the world.

An early cover nicked from the recent Orbit Books catalog. A decent continuation of the cover for the original book in the series, The Dragon’s Path. Not much else to say, other than to re-assert my slavering anticipation for the novel.

Feature Article

Guest Post | ‘Book Signings: How Not to Garner Local Support’ by T.C. McCarthy

By T.C. McCarthy September 28th, 2011

Exogene by TC McCarthySome people treat genre fiction as if it’s a dirty diaper – to be held at arms length and stuffed in a pail as soon as possible. At least that’s the impression I got on Friday, September 23rd. It all started when I went downtown to hand out fliers for my upcoming book signing and to let local representatives have free copies of my debut novel, Germline, because it seemed to me like civic organizations might want to help a local author. My expectations were a little unrealistic (see the moral of the story at the bottom)…

First stop: the Visitor’s Center, which my tax dollars support, and which I reasoned “would surely want to help a local author, especially considering not many local authors have had a shot at this kind of gig.” Not exactly. The lady behind the counter glared at me when I interrupted her knitting, and even my explanation that she could have a free copy of Germline if I could leave a few fliers for my book-signing did nothing to change her mood. She sighed and handed the book back. “Leave the flier with me,” she said, “I have no place to put them but maybe there’s room on the table outside.” OK, I thought, fine; so I tried to hand her a stack of fliers but she shook her head and went back to knitting; “I’ll only need one of those.”
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Feature Article

Article | On Meeting Blake Charlton, Robin Hobb, Peter Orullian and Todd Lockwood

By Aidan Moher September 26th, 2011

SPELLBOUND by Blake CharltonThis Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend a book signing with one of my favourite new authors (and a good friend to this blog), Blake Charlton, the ultimately witty and charming author of Spellwright (REVIEW) and Spellbound. Little did I know that a few other familiar faces would also show up that evening.

Before the event, I ran into my good friend, Shawn Speakman, who was with his friend Todd Lockwood. At this point, my jaw nearly hit the floor. If you’ve followed this blog at all, you’ll know that I’m an enormous fan of Lockwood and his art (including that on the cover of Spellwright and Spellbound). Seriously, check it out, it’s awesome. Most importantly, though, Todd turned out to be a cool guy. Very nice, very down-to-Earth. We had some fun (and laughs) talking about recent trends in cover art.

Also on hand was Peter Orullian, the almost omnipresent author of The Unremembered and one of my personal literary heroes, Robin Hobb (known in ‘real life’ as Megan Lindholm), author of many, many amazing books. Peter was cool, ‘Robin’ was a sweetheart.

But, the night wasn’t about them, it was all in the name of Blake Charlton and his recently released novel, Spellbound.

Blake Charlton, author of SPELLBOUND

For those that don’t know, Blake was diagnosed as a young man with dyslexia, a learning disability that hinders comprehension of written language. His experiences battling and overcoming his disability form much of the basis behind the protagonist of his first novel, Spellwright, who suffers from a form of dyslexia as a wizard in a world where magic is fully dependant on spelling out complicated spells. Blake wonderfully wove both his experience with dyslexia and his experience as a med-student into his presentation. Instead of just reading a portion of his novel and then fielding questions (as many authors do at book signings), Blake effortlessly and charmingly weaved the reading of his novel with real-life anecdotes explaining why characters turned out the way they did, why he wrote a scene a certain way and how his experience with nameless young patients helped form the core of his novel. It was easily one of the most diverse and genuinely interesting book signings I’ve had the pleasure to attend (and I’ve been to more than a few), so kudos to Blake for that!
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