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THE ALLOY OF LAW by Brandon Sanderson

Today, the dead town seemed completely empty, though he knew it wasn’t so. Wax had come here hunting a psychopath. And he wasn’t the only one.

He grabbed the top of the fence and hopped over, feet grinding red clay. Crouching low, he ran in a squat over to the side of the old blacksmith’s forge. His clothing was terribly dusty, but well tailored: a fine suit, a silver cravat at the neck, twinkling cuff links on the sleeves of his fine white shirt. He had cultivated a look that appeared out of place, as if he were planning to attend a fine ball back in Elendel rather than scrambling through a dead town in the Roughs hunting a murderer. Completing the ensemble, he wore a bowler hat on his head to keep off the sun.

A sound; someone stepped on a board across the street, making it creak. It was so faint, he almost missed it. Wax reacted immediately, flaring the steel that burned inside his stomach. He Pushed on a group of nails in the wall beside him just as the crack of a gunshot split the air.

Despite having some issues with the final two volumes of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, I loved, loved, loved the first volume, The Final Empire. It’s with that enthusiasm that I choose to look towards The Alloy of Law, Sanderson’s next Mistborn novel, set hundreds of years after the events of the original trilogy.

In anticipation of the release, Tor.com has released the prologue and first chapter of The Alloy of Law. There are five more excerpts to come. My first impression? Waxillium is still a stupid name.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions is set to produce an open-ended series, American Gods, for HBO, based on Neil Gaiman’s award-winning novel, while the company’s next project, Major Matt Mason, is in talks with Robert Zemeckis to direct in 3D, Playtone partner Gary Goetzman told The Hollywood Reporter.
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The series-in-development, revolving around the question “are you a god if no one believes in you?” is executive produced by Goetzman and Hanks, with Bob Richardson, and Gaiman on board as executive producer and writer.

Now slated for six seasons, each season will be of 10-12, hour-long episodes with a budget of around $35-40 million per season, targeted to debut on the cable powerhouse in 2013 at the earliest.
Rich in religious folklore that spanned millennia and featuring deities from Greek and Nordic mythology, and even the Judeo-Christian monotheistic God making an appearance, in the contemporary U.S., American Gods will be effects-heavy to do justice to the awe-inspiring power of the divine beings. “There are some crazy things in there. We’ll probably be doing more effects in there than it’s been done on a television series,” said Goetzman.

With the screaming success of Game of Thrones, it was inevitable that HBO would dip their pen back into the endless inkwell of classic speculative fiction. This time around, it looks like that will be tackling another of my favourite narratives, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods

The obvious hitch, here, of course, is that American Gods, though complex and layered, is not long enough to support six seasons of television. This makes me wonder whether the first season or two might not cover the novel and then move beyond to cover content included in Anansi Boys, some of Gaiman’s short fiction and, of course, storylines exclusive to the television series. I’m worried, too about how well the story and the characters will translate to the screen. Much of Shadow’s appeal in the novel was his enigmatic personality and some of the novel’s greatest twists might be more difficult to pull off under the more direct narration of television. Ideally, I’d love to see the show follow a format similar to The Wire, exploring a new facet of the world, a new story arc and a new cast of characters with each season.

Of course, as with anything Hollywood/TV, it’s best to take this news with some tempered expectations and enthusiasm. These things have a habit of falling through before they ever materialize.

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS Release Date AnnouncedFrom Publishers Weekly (via The Wertzone):

A few images recur in the enormously complex fifth installment of Martin’s massively multicharacter epic: the chess-like game cyvasse, small rivers flowing into larger ones, ships and armies battered by terrible storms. These themes suggest that readers should think strategically, be patient as the story grows, and brace for a beating. Martin’s fans, however, are hungry for more action and purpose, their appetites whetted by a six-year wait and the recent HBO adaptation of A Game of Thrones. Dance was originally the second half of 2005’s A Feast for Crows, sometimes criticized for shifting from battles and intrigue to slow trudges through war-torn, corpse-littered Westeros. The new volume has a similar feel to Feast and takes place over a similar time frame; Martin keeps it fresh by focusing on popular characters Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and Jon Snow, all notably absent from the previous book.

[…]

Even ostensibly disillusioned fans will be caught up in the interweaving stories, especially when Martin drops little hints around long-debated questions such as Jon’s parentage.

It’s concerning, I suppose, that Publishers Weekly likens the ‘feel’ of the book to A Feast for Crows, a novel regarded by many readers to be (far and away) the weakest volume of the series. Of course, many of those readers feel that way because the novel lacks their favourite characters; A Dance with Dragons sees the return of Dany, Jon and Tyrion, which should allay those concerns. So, A Dance with Dragons might not feature the brutal, frenetic plot of A Storm of Swords (which was, in its way, a climax novel, wrapping up the first act of the series), but that’s alight with me. If pieces are falling into place (and they sound to be, based on the PW review), then I’m okay with another novel similar to A Feast for Crows (frankly, since it covers the same timeframe as A Feast for Crows for half the novel, it’s hard to see how this could be otherwise), because, well… I like A Feast for Crows, contrary to popular opinion.

And as long as we find out what happens to Bran and Coldhands, I’ll be a happy man.

I’ve avoided quoting the entire (short) review, for spoilers abound. There’s nothing major, but the general plotlines of the Big Three™ are revealed (and sound awesome). I could suppose about the spoilers, but they’d be nothing more than ill-informed guesses; feel free to share your theories in the spoiler section, though! If you’re curious about getting an early peak at some of the novels broader secrets, check out the full review of A Dance with Dragons.

There are no ARCs of A Dance with Dragons being produced, but I’ll be reading and reviewing it as soon as I get a copy (which, if the gods smile on me, should be a short while before release). Can you believe it’s right around the corner? I can’t.

The Sword of Sha Na Na by Terry BrooksFor a bit of fun on a rainy Friday: Yesterday twitter was inundated by clever folk using the #lessinterestingbooks hashtag. How’s it work (for you twitter uninclined)? Take the title of a famous book and twist it around into a blander/funnier/less interesting rendition!

Here are some of the ones I came up with:

The Sword of Sha Na Na by Terry Brooks

Of Mucus and Jam by Stina Leicht

Canadian Gods by Neil Gaiman

Kinda Quiet and Sorta Far Away by Jonathan Safran Foer

The Middle-aged Man’s War by John Scalzi

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azerbaijan by J.K. Rowling

Lord of the Files by William Golding

The Old Man and the Pee by Ernest Hemingway

My favourite:

East of Aidan by John Steinbeck

And, to cap things off, Sam Sykes‘ favourite:

The Crystal Shart by R.A. Salvatore

So, I thought it’d fun to open the floor to you, my lovely readers, and see what your collective wit can come up with! Post away with your favourite #lessinterestingbooks in the comments section below, or let me know some of your favourites that you stumbled across yesterday on twitter!