News

An Aside | Buy THE DRAGON’S PATH, get LEVIATHAN WAKES for free!

By Aidan Moher March 2nd, 2011

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. CoreyDown on eBooks? Love dead trees? Maybe this will change your mind (just a little.)

Orbit Books is running a promotion that should get everyone excited. If you buy the eBook edition of either The Dragon’s Path (REVIEW) or Leviathan Wakes, Orbit will give you the other eBook for free. No strings attached.

Orbit (US), the Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group, announced an eBook promotion for THE DRAGON’S PATH by Daniel Abraham and LEVIATHAN WAKES by James S.A. Corey. The bonus eBook edition of THE DRAGON’S PATH (April 11, 2011; ISBN: 9780316175074) will feature a complimentary edition of LEVIATHAN WAKES in the same eBook package; while the bonus eBook edition of LEVIATHAN WAKES (June 15, 2011; ISBN: 9780316134675) will include THE DRAGON’S PATH.

Obviously this is a great deal for readers. Buy a wonderful book, get another wonderful book for free. More interesting, though, is Orbit’s clever trojan horse tactics to expose readers to a genre they’re perhaps not familiar with. There’s obvious crossover in Fantasy and Science Fiction readers, but if the blogosphere is any indication, there are also a lot of readers who fall solely into one genre or the other. By offering SF readers a Fantasy novel (that is no doubt going to garner some mention during the end-of-the-year ‘best of’ lists) and Fantasy readers a SF novel, Orbit is opening the doors and inviting such readers across to the other side with wide open arms. What better way to try out a new genre than with a free eBook from an author you already enjoy?

Tim Holman, Publisher and Vice President of Orbit Books, says as much:

Although the two genres are often categorized alongside each other, direct cross-promotion of new Science Fiction and Fantasy releases in this way is quite new. We’re very excited to be giving readers the chance to discover both these exciting new series at the same time.

The marketing and selling of eBooks has a lot of room to grow and evolve, but this is one sign that the publishing industry is finally catching on to the nature of digital content.

Interview

Interview | Daniel Abraham, author of THE DRAGON’S PATH

By Aidan Moher March 1st, 2011

Daniel Abraham, author of THE DRAGON'S PATHWhen I first interviewed Daniel Abraham in 2007, he was relatively unknown. He’d just published his second novel, A Betrayal in Winter, and his series, The Long Price Quartet, was just beginning to gather some steam among critics and early bloggers. Since then, he’s gone on to become one of the most quietly prolific novelists in the genre (ten novels + myriad short stories in four years) and has been claimed by many (myself included) as being one of the most important young voices writing today.

The Long Price Quartet has always had a small (and dedicated) following, but The Dragon’s Path, the first volume of a new series called The Dagger & The Coin, looks to have the broad appeal to transfer his critical success to a broader audience among fans of George R.R. Martin, Scott Lynch, Terry Brooks and Brandon Sanderson.

He’s one of my favourite authors, so it’s an absolute honour to present Mr. Daniel Abraham.

The Interview

Daniel! Welcome back to A Dribble of Ink! It’s been a few years since we last worked together on an interview!

    It has. Hope the world’s been treating you gently in the meantime.

How’s life as a writer changed since then?

   Actually things have shifted around a lot. I’m doing a lot of projects right now. I’ve got an urban fantasy series I’m writing as MLN Hanover and I’ve got a gig co-authoring a space opera series with Ty Frank as James Corey, and there’s the comic book adaptation of A Game of Thrones. So in that sense, everything’s going pretty well.

   Also, I think I’ve sort of learned how to write books, which is nice.
Read More »

News

Free Readin’ | THE BOOK OF TRANSFORMATIONS by Mark Charan Newton

By Aidan Moher February 28th, 2011
The Book of Transformations by Mark Charan Newton

A new and corrupt Emperor seeks to rebuild the ancient structures of Villjamur to give the people of the city hope in the face of great upheaval and an oppressing ice age. But when a stranger called Shalev arrives, empowering a militant underground movement, crime and terror becomes rampant.

The Inquisition is always one step behind, and military resources are spread thinly across the Empire. So Emperor Urtica calls upon cultists to help construct a group to eliminate those involved with the uprising, and calm the populace. But there’s more to The Villjamur Knights than just phenomenal skills and abilities – each have a secret that, if exposed, could destroy everything they represent.

Investigator Fulcrom of the Villjamur Inquisition is given the unenviable task of managing the Knights, but his own skills are tested when a mysterious priest, who has travelled from beyond the fringes of the Empire, seeks his help. The priest’s existence threatens the church, and his quest promises to unravel the fabric of the world. And in a distant corner of the Empire, the enigmatic cultist Dartun Súr steps back into this world, having witnessed horrors beyond his imagination. Broken, altered, he and the remnants of his order are heading back to Villjamur.

And all eyes turn to the Sanctuary City, for Villjamur’s ancient legends are about to be shattered…

Whether it’s feisty cover art debates, reviews, or interviews, Mark Charan Newton, author of Nights of Villjamur (REVIEW) is no stranger to the readers of this blog. I enjoy promoting the work (and grinding the gears) of Newton, who I think is one of the bright up-and-coming young writers of the genre. City of Ruin was an improvement in almost every facet over Nights of Villjmaur; if The Book of Transformations continues Newton’s trend upward, we’re all in for a treat.

To help us decide whether the excitement is justified, Newton has recently published Chapter One of The Book of Transformations on Newton’s blog.

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Art

An Aside | An illustrated refresher for Rothfuss’ THE NAME OF THE WIND

By Aidan Moher February 28th, 2011

An illustrated refresh for Rothfuss' THE NAME OF THE WINDAlongside, well… everybody, I’ve been looking forward to finally getting my hands on The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss’ sequel to his super-debut The Name of the Wind, for years. When I received my copy a couple of weeks ago, I dallied with the idea of re-reading The Name of the Wind for the first time since it was first released. After three years, I was understandably rusty on some of the finer points of the story. But that dalliance lasted only about 15 seconds before I cracked under the pressure and started reading The Wise Man’s Fear. I tried to hunt down a detailed synopsis but could only find the inadequate one on Wikipedia. Alas, I pushed ahead anyway.

Lucky for me, and every other reader too eager to re-read The Name of the Wind, Rothfuss, along with his buddy Nathan Taylor, has published a fully illustrated (and predictably humorous) recap of The Name of the Wind to catch us all up.

Videogames

An Aside | Sword & Sorcery EP

By Aidan Moher February 25th, 2011

Would you believe that one of my most anticipated videogames is an iPhone game? No? Well, watch this trailer:

 

And this one:

 

Yeah. Combining the sensibilities and graphics of old-school adventure games and Zelda-style exploration with the intuitive iPhone interface, Sword & Sorcery EP hits all the right notes with me. It also doesn’t hurt that developer Superbrothers is able to convey more atmosphere and emotion with their pixelized hero and setting than most blockbuster games achieve with all the normal mapping and ambient occlusion in the world.

You can find out more about the game on the official Sword & Sorcery EP website.