So, yeah. It’s available now. If you care about it, you’re probably aware. I’ll be rounding up a whole bunch of reviews over the next week, so keep an eye out for that.
Posts Categorized: News
Looks like a synopsis of Mieville’s mysterious Kraken has finally hit the web:
The Natural History Museum’s prize exhibit – a giant squid – suddenly disappears. This audacious theft leads Clem, the research scientist who has recently finished preserving the exhibit, into a dark urban underworld of warring cults and surreal magic. It seems that for some, the squid represents a god and should be worshiped as such. Clem gradually comes to realise that someone may be attempting to use the squid to trigger an apocalypse. And so it is now up to him and a renegade squid-worshiper named Dean to find a way of stopping the destruction of the world as they know it whilst themselves surviving the all out-gang warfare that they have unwittingly been drawn into…
Kraken, which is due for release in May, 2010, has been complete for a while now (supposedly handed in on the same day as The City & The City, Mieville’s most recently published novel), but was put on hold until 2010, to give The City & The City some breathing room. Say anything for China Mieville, but don’t say he isn’t bloody prolific.
As for Kraken, it’s certainly a novel I’ll keep my eye on after finishing (and enjoying) The City & The City. I mean… who can turn down apocalypse, renegade squid-worshippers named Dean and dark urban underworlds of warring cults and surreal magic? I can’t, especially when it comes from one of the leading names of mind-fuck Fantasy.
/Film, reporting on an original article by Screendaily, brings new that Iain M. Banks, and his well known Culture universe, will be coming soon to theatres near you (maybe, it is Hollywood, afterall….):
The first realisation of The Culture in cinema will be an adaptation of the brilliant short story A Gift From the Culture.
Screendaily report that Dominic Murphy will direct, and co-script with Shane Smith, his collaborator on the ‘psychobilly thriller’ White Lightnin’. It’s just one of a few projects Murphy has on his slate including Jesus Christ Airlines, about daredevil pilots delivering aid to Biafra through hostile Nigerian airspace, and an as-yet untitled film about the Bronte children and their shared world of play and fantasy.
A synopsis of the story, postded and then removed by the F&ME website:
Wrobik, a citizen of The Culture, a society which abhors violence, has been living in exile for eight years, having renounced The Culture, her gender. Now a man, in return for cancelling his gambling debts, he agrees to destroy a starship using a gun which can only be fired by a member of the culture. But disgusted by the thought of murdering innocent people, he decides to flee the city. However, before he can leave, his boyfriend, Maust, is kidnapped and Wrobik is forced to choose between following his conscience and rescuing his lover.
Now, when I reviewed Banks’ Use of Weapons las year, I was not a fan of it. At all. It’s been my only exposure to his work, but it did convince me of one thing: Banks’ style of storytelling seems made for cinema. That, plus the intriguing synopsis, has me interested in seeing how this script develops.
GameSetWatch has details on an upcoming videogame based on The Dark Tower series by Stephen King:
Following its well-received comic book adaptations, Stephen King’s beloved The Dark Tower book series is expanding further to another new media form — video games. According to a video posted on the author’s site, a new project titled Discordia will debut on November 30th.
Those expecting an action title that has Roland firing away at Mutant lobsters or an RPG taking your Ka-tet across All-World will likely be disappointed, as the project looks like an online interactive game (my guess) centered around the Tet Corporation’s secret war with North Central Positronics and Sombra Corporation, both companies under control by Insomnia/The Dark Tower villain Crimson King.
The game also focuses on a new character, NCP’s CEO Arina Yokova, a Russian national with mob ties and the leader of the Crimson Crescent. While the posted trailer doesn’t indicate whether the books’ heroes — Roland, Susannah, Eddie, and Jake (and Oy!) — will act as playable characters in the game, their portraits appear briefly in the clip.
Whatever releases this November, it will probably be the first in a series, as suggested by the “Chapter One (For Callahan!)” note toward the end of the trailer.
…
Robin Furth, King’s personal research assistant and the author of The Dark Tower: A Complete Concordance, is listed as director for the game, which is promising considering she also worked on the comic book adaptations with Peter David. Metro DMA is handling Discordia’s production.
And some images taken from the video on King’s website:
From the looks of it, and the short turn-around between announcement and release, one has to expect it’ll be a free online, Flash-based game, but it still seems like it might be worth keeping an eye on for fans of the series. Furth being involved, and it being announced loudly on King’s website, it has the potential to be another nice addition to the Dark Tower universe.
I’ve been raving about Lou Anders and Jonathan Strahan‘s Swords & Dark Magic anthology for a while now, and I’m gonna continue to do so, I expect, until the book’s been recieved, read, reviewed and shelved. I mean, seriously, look at this Table of Contents, just revealed by Anders and Strahan:
“Introduction: Check Your Dark Lord at the Door” – Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan
“Goats of Glory” – Steven Erikson
“Tides Elba: A Tale of the Black Company” – Glen Cook
“Bloodsport” – Gene Wolfe
“The Singing Spear” – James Enge
“A Wizard of Wiscezan” – C.J. Cherryh
“A Rich Full Week” – K. J. Parker
“A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet” – Garth Nix
“Red Pearls: An Elric Story” – Michael Moorcock
“The Deification of Dal Bamore” – Tim Lebbon
“Dark Times at the Midnight Market” – Robert Silverberg
“The Undefiled” – Greg Keyes
“Hew the Tint Master” – Michael Shea
“In the Stacks” – Scott Lynch
“Two Lions, A Witch, and the War-Robe” – Tanith Lee
“The Sea Troll’s Daughter” – Caitlin R Kiernan
“Thieves of Daring” – Bill Willingham
“The Fool Jobs” – Joe Abercrombie
While there’s always someone else who could be in a book like this, we’re delighted with the quality of the stories we received, grateful to the authors for being involved and to our publisher for supporting the book. It’ll be out next July and is fabulous! Oh, and there’ll be a limited edition done by Subterranean Press too, which should be awesome in its own right.
Seriously, if you’ve ever been curious about the Sword and Sorcery subgenre, this looks like the prefect place to dip your toe in. Oh yeah, and according to Ander’s (via Facebook), the tome clocks in at 155k words (which means ‘pretty bloody long’, for those of you who aren’t sure about word counts). So, June 22, 2010. Mark your calendars.
- Hugo Award
Winner
- About Aidan Moher
- Bibliography