From SFX, we’ve got a first peak at some of the confirmed casting choices for the upcoming film adaptation of The Hobbit. The big one, of course, is:

 

Martin Freeman is Bilbo as everyone expected. “Despite the various rumors and speculation surrounding this role, there has only ever been one Bilbo Baggins for us,” says Peter Jackson. “There are a few times in your career when you come across an actor who you know was born to play a role, but that was the case as soon as I met Martin. He is intelligent, funny, surprising and brave – exactly like Bilbo and I feel incredibly proud to be able to announce that he is our Hobbit.”

Absolutely spot-on perfect casting. I know him mostly for his role in Love Actually, but he’s got all the charm and lightheartedness to play Bilbo.

Also announced:

Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield

Aidan Turner as Kili

Rob Kazinsky as Fili

Graham McTavish as Dwalin

I’ll admit that I expected the Dwarves to be older actors (despite Kili and Fili being the younguns of the group, Thorin’s certainly an old guy), but the makeup and costume will make all the difference (and we know WETA, Jackson’s production company, will come through there!) And, hey, casting a guy named Aidan can’t hurt.

Also cast, but without photos available through Google Images, are Stephen Hunter as Bombur, John Callen as Oin, Peter Hambleton as Gloin and Mark Hadlow as Dori.

With Peter Jackson back on board, all they need to do is round up Ian McKellan, Andy Serkis and work out the kinks so that the film(s?) can be filmed in New Zealand again! Oh, what am I thinking… it’s going to be a long wait until filming starts in February, 2011.

It seems like just yesterday that we were in the middle of a media blitz for The Gathering Storm, the first in the Brandon Sanderson-penned Wheel of Time novels, and now we’re already getting a sniff at the release of the penultimate volume, Towers of Midnight. To go alongside the previously released prologue and Chapter One: Bad Apples, Tor.com has an audio version of the second chapter, just in time to whet your appetite for the official release, just a couple of weeks away! From what I gather, it’s a Perrin heavy chapter, so gauge your excitement appropriately.

You can listen to Chapter Two: Questions of Leadership on Tor.com. As always, to get the coolest features, you’ve got to be a member (it’s free, and easy to sign up!)

For those interested, the chapter is being discussed in full spoilerific glory here.

Apparently I am pretty. Magic is all I see, and magic tends to be beautiful, so I have no way of properly judging the mundane myself. I have to take others’ word for it. Men praise parts of me endlessly — always the parts, mind you, never the whole. They love my long legs, my graceful neck, my storm of hair, my breasts. (Especially my breasts.) Most of the men in Shadow were Amn, so they also commented on my smooth near-black Maro skin even though I told them there were half a million other women in the world with the same feature. Half a million is not so many measured against the whole world, though, so that always got included in their qualified, fragmentary admiration.

“Lovely,” they would say, and sometimes they wanted to take me home and admire me in private. Before I got involved with godlings I would let them, if I felt lonely enough. “You’re beautiful, Oree,” they would whisper as they positioned and posed and polished me. “If only — ”

I never asked them to complete this sentence. I knew what they almost said: If only you didn’t have those eyes.

I was blown away earlier this year by The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, the wonderful debut novel from NK Jemisin, and can’t wait to get my hands on the second volume, The Broken Kingdoms, coming in just a few weeks. For those looking to whet their appetite for the second novel, Jemisin’s already released the first chapter, and has now added the second.

If you’re interested, I interviewed Jemisin a few months ago and she talks at length about the structure of the trilogy and how The Broken Kingdoms relates to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

Read Chapter Two of The Broken Kingdoms by NK. Jemisin.

A user on the Westeros message board, where Abraham is known to post on a semi-frequently basis, has spilled some of the beans about The Dragon’s Path, the first volume of Abraham’s upcoming The Dagger and the Coin series.

It’s a very different project from the LPQ in tone, but all of Daniel’s unique personal hobby horses still show up. I mean, it is epic fantasy with dragons and trolls and sword fights and magic and dread elder gods and, damn, the whole enchilada. But it also concerns itself deeply with things like how banks form, and how control of money controls the actions of princes. I don’t know anyone else who’s that comfortable doing that sort of genre mixing.

While some fans of Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet might feel a bit maligned that he’s turning his talents towards a more traditional story and setting, it’ll be encouraging for them to hear that he’s doing it with the same sophisticated aplomb expected from the under-read author. If there’s any justice in the world, the more traditional hook will be an easier sell to booksellers and readers, leading many more people to discover Abraham’s wonderful novels.

Myself? There’s not much I enjoy more than smart Epic Fantasy. If you handed me A Dance with Dragons, The Wise Man’s Fear and The Dragon’s Path all at once (as could happen, with all three pending a 2012 release)? Mr. Martin and Mr. Rothfuss would have to get in line, cause Abraham’s at the top of my list.

A new synopsis for The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham:

And one for Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck):

The more I read about these two releases, the higher they move up my list of must-haves. And, frankly, The Dragon’s Path has been #1 for months now. Just the thought of Abraham turing his talents to a more traditional story has me drooling. You know he’s going to deliver. The first line of that synopsis does sound eerily close to The Long Price Quartet, though….