Yearly Archives: 2011

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS Release Date AnnouncedFrom Martin’s website:

No. Sorry. Not done yet.

I’m close, though. Watch this space. When the book is done, you will read it here.

Meanwhile… there is news. Big news. The end is in sight, at long long last, and we’re close enough so that my editors and publishers at Bantam Spectra have set an actual publication date.

[…]

Yes, I know. You’ve all seen publication dates before: dates in 2007, 2008, 2009. None of those were ever hard dates, however. Most of them… well, call it wishful thinking, boundless optimism, cockeyed dreams, honest mistakes, whatever you like.

This date is different. This date is real.

Barring tsunamis, general strikes, world wars, or asteroid strikes, you will have the novel in your hands on July 12. I hope you like it.

(For what it’s worth, the book’s a monster. Think A STORM OF SWORDS.)

The dragons are coming. Prepare to dance.

And hey… thanks for waiting.

So. July 12th, 2011. That’s, like, just around the corner. Martin (and his publisher) seem very confident about his date. What do you think? Can we get honestly excited now?

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks (French Edition)Via The Mad Hatter’s Book Shelf & Book Review:

The Foul, Unnatural Murder of Gaelan Starfire & the Birth of Durzo Blint

“I got a bit of prophecy,” the old assassin said. “Not enough to be useful, you know. Just glimpses. My wife dead, things like that to keep me up late at night. I had this vision that I was going to be killed by forty men, all at once. But now that you’re here, I see they’re just you. Durzo Blint.”

Durzo Blint? Gaelan had never even heard the name.

***
Gaelan Starfire is a farmer now, happy to be a husband and a father; a careful, quiet, simple man. He’s also an immortal, peerless in the arts of war. Over the centuries, he’s worn many faces to hide his gift, but he is a man ill-fit for obscurity, and all too often he’s become a hero, his very names passing into legend: Acaelus Thorne, Yric the Black, Hrothan Steelbender, Tal Drakkan, Rebus Nimble.

But when Gaelan must take a job hunting down the world’s finest assassins for the beautiful courtesan-and-crimelord Gwinvere Kirena, what he finds may destroy everything he’s ever believed in.

I enjoyed The Black Prism well enough, but I’ve not read Weeks’ Night Angel Trilogy, but this prequel novella has me somewhat interested. More than anything, I like the idea that Orbit Books will be releasing an eBook edition of Perfect Shadow (an awful title, but whatever) both as a treat for fans of the series and as incentive for skeptics like me to give Weeks’ successful series a closer look. Plus, I’m a sucker for peerless-in-the-art-of-war-immortals-turned-farmer character archetypes.

Also, Weeks is an awesome interview.

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. CoreyDown on eBooks? Love dead trees? Maybe this will change your mind (just a little.)

Orbit Books is running a promotion that should get everyone excited. If you buy the eBook edition of either The Dragon’s Path (REVIEW) or Leviathan Wakes, Orbit will give you the other eBook for free. No strings attached.

Orbit (US), the Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group, announced an eBook promotion for THE DRAGON’S PATH by Daniel Abraham and LEVIATHAN WAKES by James S.A. Corey. The bonus eBook edition of THE DRAGON’S PATH (April 11, 2011; ISBN: 9780316175074) will feature a complimentary edition of LEVIATHAN WAKES in the same eBook package; while the bonus eBook edition of LEVIATHAN WAKES (June 15, 2011; ISBN: 9780316134675) will include THE DRAGON’S PATH.

Obviously this is a great deal for readers. Buy a wonderful book, get another wonderful book for free. More interesting, though, is Orbit’s clever trojan horse tactics to expose readers to a genre they’re perhaps not familiar with. There’s obvious crossover in Fantasy and Science Fiction readers, but if the blogosphere is any indication, there are also a lot of readers who fall solely into one genre or the other. By offering SF readers a Fantasy novel (that is no doubt going to garner some mention during the end-of-the-year ‘best of’ lists) and Fantasy readers a SF novel, Orbit is opening the doors and inviting such readers across to the other side with wide open arms. What better way to try out a new genre than with a free eBook from an author you already enjoy?

Tim Holman, Publisher and Vice President of Orbit Books, says as much:

Although the two genres are often categorized alongside each other, direct cross-promotion of new Science Fiction and Fantasy releases in this way is quite new. We’re very excited to be giving readers the chance to discover both these exciting new series at the same time.

The marketing and selling of eBooks has a lot of room to grow and evolve, but this is one sign that the publishing industry is finally catching on to the nature of digital content.

Daniel Abraham, author of THE DRAGON'S PATHWhen I first interviewed Daniel Abraham in 2007, he was relatively unknown. He’d just published his second novel, A Betrayal in Winter, and his series, The Long Price Quartet, was just beginning to gather some steam among critics and early bloggers. Since then, he’s gone on to become one of the most quietly prolific novelists in the genre (ten novels + myriad short stories in four years) and has been claimed by many (myself included) as being one of the most important young voices writing today.

The Long Price Quartet has always had a small (and dedicated) following, but The Dragon’s Path, the first volume of a new series called The Dagger & The Coin, looks to have the broad appeal to transfer his critical success to a broader audience among fans of George R.R. Martin, Scott Lynch, Terry Brooks and Brandon Sanderson.

He’s one of my favourite authors, so it’s an absolute honour to present Mr. Daniel Abraham.

The Interview

Daniel! Welcome back to A Dribble of Ink! It’s been a few years since we last worked together on an interview!

    It has. Hope the world’s been treating you gently in the meantime.

How’s life as a writer changed since then?

   Actually things have shifted around a lot. I’m doing a lot of projects right now. I’ve got an urban fantasy series I’m writing as MLN Hanover and I’ve got a gig co-authoring a space opera series with Ty Frank as James Corey, and there’s the comic book adaptation of A Game of Thrones. So in that sense, everything’s going pretty well.

   Also, I think I’ve sort of learned how to write books, which is nice.
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The Book of Transformations by Mark Charan Newton

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…

Whether it’s feisty cover art debates, reviews, or interviews, Mark Charan Newton, author of Nights of Villjamur (REVIEW) is no stranger to the readers of this blog. I enjoy promoting the work (and grinding the gears) of Newton, who I think is one of the bright up-and-coming young writers of the genre. City of Ruin was an improvement in almost every facet over Nights of Villjmaur; if The Book of Transformations continues Newton’s trend upward, we’re all in for a treat.

To help us decide whether the excitement is justified, Newton has recently published Chapter One of The Book of Transformations on Newton’s blog.

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