Posts Categorized: News

News

Wheel of Time Companion Guide set for 2015 release

By Aidan Moher January 7th, 2015
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The official companion guide for Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series will be released in November 2015.

“The story of The Wheel of Time spans fifteen books, but the fantasy world which that story resides within is more complex and detailed than even those books could relate,” describes the official announcement on Tor.com. “Only a fraction of what author Robert Jordan imagined ended up on the page, the rest going into his personal files.”

For those fans still haunted by their experience with Tor Books’ previous Wheel of Time companion, The World of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, you can rest easy. This is a complete, from-the-ground-up overhaul of the companion guide, unrelated to the previous companion published in 2001, and promises to be much more comprehensive, which only covered the first several books in the series.

Included in The Wheel of Time Companion (via Tor.com):

  • An entry for each named character
  • An inclusive dictionary of the Old Tongue
  • New maps of the Last Battle
  • New portraits of many characters
  • Histories and customs of the nations of the world
  • The strength level of many channelers
  • Descriptions of the flora and fauna unique to the world
  • And much more!

In addition to the above, the companion also promises to “[shed] light on some of the most intriguing aspects of the world, including biographies and motivations of many characters that never made it into the books, but helped bring Jordan’s world to life.”

Harriet McDougal, former Editorial Director for Tom Doherty Associates, was Robert Jordan’s wife and editor, and had a major hand in compiling this new companion. Working alongside McDougal on the project are Alan Romanczuk and Maria Simons, Jordan’s editorial assistants throughout the writing of most of the Wheel of Time. Together, they aided Brandon Sanderson as he wrote the final three volumes of the epic series.

The updated snake and wheel logo is by Sam Weber.

With people like that involved, who’s lives have revolved around the Wheel of Time for nearly two decades, fans are sure to be pleased by the final product. (Let’s just hope the artwork in this edition of the companion is better than the regrettable art included in The World of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time.)

Art

Michael Whelan to paint covers for Tad Williams’ The Last King of Osten Ard

By Aidan Moher December 20th, 2014
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Michael Whelan’s official website revealed that the legendary artist, who rarely works on cover art since semi-retiring to focus on fine art in the early 2000s, will be painting the cover art for Tad Williams’ The Last King of Osten Ard, Williams’ sequel trilogy to his modern classic, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.

The official back cover blurb provides some hints to what awaits Whelan:

In this new trilogy, Williams journeys back to the magical land of Osten Ard and continues the story of beloved characters King Simon and Queen Miriamele, married now for thirty years, and introduces newcomer Prince Morgan, their heir apparent. Also expanded is the story of the twin babies born to Prince Josua and Lady Vorzheva—a birth heralded by prophecy, which has been the subject of feverish fan speculation since the release of To Green Angel Tower in 1993.

This is tremendous news for fans of Williams and Whelan, as the artist’s work has become synonymous with Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Since the trilogy was released in the 90s, the North American editions have never featured different artwork. Let us hope, however, that we get more inspired work than Whelan’s last cover.

The first volume of The Last King of Osten Ard, The Witchwood Crown, will be released from DAW Books and Hodder and Stoughton in 2016. It is unclear if both publishers will use Whelan’s paintings, though the art that Whelan produced was not used on the Gollancz editions of Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance.

News

Australian-New Zealand actor lands role of Allanon in MTV’s The Elfstones of Shannara

By Aidan Moher December 19th, 2014
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MTV has announced the casting of Australian-New Zealand actor Manu Bennett as the Allanon in its adaptation of Terry Brooks’ The Elfstones of Shannara. This the fourth major role to be filled as casting continues for the ten-part miniseries, which airs in 2015.

Manu Bennett is the man behind the digital mask of (the much maligned) Azog from Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Hobbit. However, he’s probably better known for his role as Deathstroke on The Arrow. Judging by his physique in The Hobbit, Bennett has the size and athleticism necessary to play the lone Druid, so all that remains is the charismatic brooding and menace that make Allanon a fan favourite.

“Bennett will play Allanon, a druid who is the last of his kind in the world of Shannara,” said The Hollywood Reporter. “He is described as a wise, perceptive and serious man who knows something incredibly important has begun when the wise tree Ellcrys starts to die. He enlists Wil (Austin Butler) to fulfill his destiny and save the four lands.”

You ask me, there’s no more iconic character from my pre-teens and teens than Allanon. He’s right there with Gandalf and Alan Grant. Brooks’ Shannara novels were pivotal gateway pieces during my discovery of fantasy, and Allanon is a big part of the reason why I became so attached to Brooks’ world. There’s a gravitas to the Druid that helped to define the mentor/student role that has become a genre trope since Brooks released The Sword of Shannara 35 years ago.

Allanon is described in The Sword of Shannara as a towering, dark-skinned man, and it’s wonderful to see MTV following through on this by casting a Māori actor land for major role on the television series. I’d love to see this become a trend as MTV fills out the rest of the Shannara cast. Most of the characters Wil meets throughout the novel are Elvish (already established by the casting of Austin Butler and Aaron Jakubenko as a fair-skinned race), but there are a lot of other opportunities — notably Eretria and Cephelo, perhaps also Mallenroh — to cast native New Zealand or Australian actors in other roles.

News

Brandon Sanderson is releasing two new Mistborn novels in 2015 (kinda, sorta, not really)

By Aidan Moher December 18th, 2014
THE ALLOY OF LAW by Brandon Sanderson

“Tor Books is eye-wideningly excited to announce that TWO new Mistborn novels by Brandon Sanderson will be released in late 2015!” announced Tor.com today. Sanderson fans were already aware that the first of these novels, Shadows of Self, was due for a 2015 release, but the announcement of a 2015 release for Bands on Mourning (which is, like, the most post-ironic black metal band collaborative name ever) is a pleasant surprise.

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned in ten years of working with Brandon, it’s that he almost always delivers more than we’ve asked for and that he loves to surprise us,” said Sanderson’s agent, Moshe Feder.

Tor Books’s proclamation that Sanderson’s releasing two novels next year is a tad misleading. Shadows of Self will hit shelves in October 2015, but Bands of Mourning won’t arrive until January 2016.

Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning are the concluding volumes in Sanderson’s Mistborn pedantically-named spinoff series, the Wax and Wayne Mistborn tetralogy. Given my enjoyment of the first volume, The Alloy of Law, I’m looking forward to seeing what sort of fun Sanderson has with Wax and Wayne on their next outing(s).

UPDATE – 12-19-2014: Sanderson has revealed that there’s actually a third Mistborn novel, tentatively titled The Lost Metal, coming. This will bump the full Wax and Wayne Mistborn series to four books at its conclusion. The final three volumes announced here will be feature a more traditional trilogy structure, with The Alloy of Law acting as a prequel/set-up narrative. The trilogy will include: Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning, and The Lost Metal. Sanderson then plans to work on the next Mistborn trilogy, tentatively set in a world that mirrors the 1980s (or, he hints, there’s a possibility that he’ll write something set in an amalgam of the ’40s.)

Gollancz has announced that Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning will be released in the UK in October 2015 and January 2016 respectively.

Interview

Saga Press Reveals The Stars Are Legion, a new space opera from Kameron Hurley

By Aidan Moher December 15th, 2014

Kameron Hurley, author of The Mirror Empire and The Stars Are Legion

Kameron Hurley, author of The Mirror Empire and The Stars Are Legion

If you breathe air and read science fiction in 2014, you’ve likely heard of Kameron Hurley. She won two Hugo Awards (one for her essay, We Have Always Fought: Challenging the ‘Women, Cattle, and Slaves’ Narrative, published by A Dribble of Ink), The Mirror Empire, the first volume of the Worldbreaker trilogy made waves in the wake of Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, and, now, she’s just jumped the queue and started making news for 2016 already.

“It’s like Mad Max meets Henry V but aboard a world-sized Weyland-Yutani spaceship.”Joe Monti, Executive Editor at Saga Press

I’m excited to announce that Saga Press will be publishing Kameron Hurley’s The Stars Are Legion, a stand alone space opera, in 2016. It is the first of two science-fiction novels purchased by Joe Monti at Saga Press from Kameron Hurley. Follow along for the official press release, and an interview about the new deal and The Stars are Legion with Kameron Hurley. This is a novel worth getting seriously excited about. Read More »