Otherland by Tad WilliamsVia Variety:

Warner Bros. is heading to “Otherland,” acquiring feature rights to Tad Williams’ sci-fi book series and setting it up with Dan Lin to produce.

Studio has tapped John Scott III to script the film, based on the four books published by DAW-Penguin USA between 1996 and 2001 as “City of Golden Shadow,” “River of Blue Fire,” “Mountain of Black Glass” and “Sea of Silver Light.”

Story for the adaptation is set 100 years in the future and follows a group of unexpected heroes who must escape an assassin and make their way through epic digital worlds to unravel a conspiracy that threatens to destroy humanity.

Seanne Winslow Wehrenfennig at Lin Pictures will serve as co-producer and oversee for Lin Pictures.

Seems like a large project for the big screen. Still, I love the Otherland quartet and am curious to see it translated to the big screen. I wonder if it will be a direct adaptation or a story set in that world. Of course, it being Hollywood, I’ll save my true excitement for the trailer. Too many movies turn into vapour after being optioned.

Suvudu LogoToday is an exciting day for me. Last year, I had the opportunity to write for Tor.com and to maintain two satellite sites for them on Facebook and Twitter. It was a wonderful experience and I met many lovely people as a result. That endeavour has ended, but in its place I am proud to announce and equally exciting adventure: I’ve joined the blogging team at Suvudu, the official Fantasy/Science Fiction/Gaming blog of Random House and Del Rey.

For the most part, I’ll be covering videogames for Suvudu, something I touch on lightly here at A Dribble of Ink, but I’ve been wanting to write about more frequently. I’m grateful for the folks at Suvudu giving me a platform to do so. I already have some great interviews lined up and hope to follow those up with reviews, news, retrospectives on my favourite games and much more. Del Rey works with many of the world’s best videogame publishers and developers, which in turn will give me access to some of the industry’s best minds, a resource I’m eager to tap into. But, fear not, in addition to all the great series that Del Rey is involved with (Mass Effect, Star Wars, The Elder Scrolls, etc…), I’ll be covering a wide range of games in the genre, from Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, to The Last Guardian, Kingdoms of Amalur, XCOM, Metal Gear Solid and more. Anything that interests me or my readers. It’s a wonderful opportunity and I’ll hope that you’ll follow me over there, too.

What does this mean for A Dribble of Ink? Not much. Coverage here won’t change and there will be little crossover in content, except perhaps some posts here and there that I might port over from Suvudu as an archive.

My first article, about the delay of the Star Wars: The Old Republic 1.1 update, can be found HERE.

THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON by Saladin Ahmed

Throne of the Crescent Moon

By Saladin Ahmed
Hardcover
Pages: 288 pages
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: 02/07/11
ISBN: 0385343841

EXCERPT

Some readers might first discover Throne of the Crescent Moon through a review such as this one, others might be captured by the cover, yet others might hear about it through word of mouth. These are all common ways for a novel to find new readers, to catch the eye of potential fans. Throne of the Crescent Moon, however, has another aspect that might attract readers browsing at their favourite bookstore: the name of the author stretched large across the cover. Saladin Ahmed. In a genre dominated by Georges and Patricks, Robins and Brandons, Ahmed’s starkly Muslim name is an anomaly, a curiousity that promises to be something different, something exciting. Of course, a name is just a name, and the story between the covers of Ahmed’s debut could be a trite rehash of the typical kitchen-boy-saves-the-world novel that we’re all sick of, his ethnic background and religious heritage could have no impact on his novel, leaving readers with a story as prototypical as the cartoony cover art—but just cracking open the novel and reading the first page makes true on those promises. This is something different, something with balls, something worth getting excited about.

Throne of the Crescent Moon is the debut novel from acclaimed short fiction author Saladin Ahmed and follows one of the larger adventures of Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, the last real ghul hunter in the great city of Dhamsawaat who was first introduced to readers in Ahmed’s short fiction, including the wonderful Where Virtue Lives. Throne of the Crescent Moon is a Sword & Sorcery novel planted firmly in the tradition of the works of Leiber and Howard, and throws readers in alongside a cast of damaged, but eminently likeable heroes of sometimes questionable moral character (but always, in the end, with their hearts in the right place) and serves up more action, atmosphere and memorable scenes than many novels three times its length.
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THE BROKEN ISLES by Mark Charan Newton

Small, and presumably an early draft, but this should give us a good idea of what will be gracing the final volume of Newton’s Legends of the Red Sun. Also, obviously meant to tie in with the trade paperback release of The Book of Transformations, though, again, a different artist/style from the previous volumes of the series. This is, I believe, the first time that the title of the novel has been mentioned.

My thoughts: another hooded figure, but the execution looks decent.

OF BLOOD AND HONEY by Stina LeichtThe latest episode of the SF Signal podcast (one of the best SFF podcasts out there!) is available, discussing the best SFF novels of 2011, and I’m one of the included voices!

Novels I mention:

  • Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht (REVIEW)
  • Shadowheart by Tad Williams (REVIEW)
  • The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham (REVIEW, EXCERPT)
  • The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht (REVIEW)
  • Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (REVIEW)
  • Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan (REVIEW)

You can brush up on my favourite novels of 2011 HERE. You can listen to the episode HERE!