With the release of The Gathering Storm only a few weeks away, promotional material is starting to flow freely. Here’s a video of Brandon Sanderson and Harriet McDougal (Robert Jordan’s widow) speaking about how Brandon became involved with the series.
Expect more videos like this to surface as the release of the novel draws nearer!
Via Martin himself, it looks like there’s a call out for extras to appear in the HBO adaptation of A Game of Thrones.
From Extras NI:
HBO have begun production in Belfast of their latest TV series ‘A Game of Thrones’ based on George R.R. Martin’s award winning novel of the same name. Described as “an epic struggle for power set in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom” – our extras are surely in for a treat. The starring cast includes Sean Bean, Mark Addy, Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey amongst many more.
Filming is due to take place in Northern Ireland in the last week of October and first two weeks of November and of course all our medieval and character faces that have been used on Universal’s feature film “Your Highness” will be at the top of the list for this project, however, the thing we urgently require for paid work are CONFIDENT & EXPERIENCED MALE HORSERIDERS, aged 16-60. If this describes you or someone you know, please send in a clear photo along with full name, height and contact telephone numbers to [email protected] URGENTLY.
So, it looks like I, alongside thousands of other (male) Martin fans, have about 24 hours to learn to ride a horse, get a bank loan and book a ticket to Northern Ireland. Of course, if you already qualify for those requirements… it just might be your lucky day!
Salvatore is best known for his mega-selling Forgotten Realms novels centred around the ubiquitous Drizzt Do’Urden, but this blogger feels his true strength is found in the less-read Demon Wars series. Deeper than the Forgotten Realms novels, and set in a world created from the ground up by Salvatore, the Demon Wars novels combine the fun, rolicking adventure of Terry Brooks and Raymond Feist (but with some juicy PG-13 sex and romance), light politicking, an interesting magic system, intriguing religious debate and some of the best scenes of single combat in the genre.
Now, thanks to Suvudu’s Free Library, the first volume of the seven-volume series can be read for free!
It’s available in the following formats:
Enjoy!
From the teeming cities of earth to the scrupulously realized landscapes of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, The Quiet War, an exotic, fast-paced space opera, turns on a single question: who decides what it means to be human?
Twenty-third century Earth, ravaged by climate change, looks backwards to the holy ideal of a pre-industrial Eden. Political power has been grabbed by a few powerful families and their green saints. Millions of people are imprisoned in teeming cities; millions more labour on Pharaonic projects to rebuild ruined ecosystems. On the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, the Outers, descendants of refugees from Earth’s repressive regimes, have constructed a wild variety of self-sufficient cities and settlements: scientific utopias crammed with exuberant creations of the genetic arts; the last outposts of every kind of democratic tradition.
The fragile detente between the Outer cities and the dynasties of Earth is threatened by the ambitions of the rising generation of Outers, who want to break free of their cosy, inward-looking pocket paradises, colonise the rest of the Solar System, and drive human evolution in a hundred new directions. On Earth, many demand pre-emptive action against the Outers before it’s too late; others want to exploit the talents of their scientists and gene wizards. Amid campaigns for peace and reconciliation, political machinations, crude displays of military might, and espionage by cunningly wrought agents, the two branches of humanity edge towards war . . .
Courtesy of Pyr Books, you can have a peak at the first three chapters of The Quiet War by Paul McAuley, which was recently nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
You can find the excerpt HERE.
James at Speculative Horizons, picked out some news revealing that Paul Kearney, author of The Ten Thousand, has signed with Solaris Books for two more books set in the same world as The Ten Thousand.
Jonathan Oliver, the commissioning editor for Solaris Books since it was acquired by Rebellion has confirmed a two book deal with Paul Kearney. The novels, entitled Corvus and Kings of Morning, are due for delivery in 2010 and early 2011 respectively and are set in the same universe as Paul’s successful The Ten Thousand, previously published by Solaris.
Paul’s agent, John Jarrold, was quoted as saying “The immediacy of Paul’s prose and characterisation always puts me in mind of David Gemmell, who I was lucky enough to publish in the mid-1990s…With The Ten Thousand he has created a world ripe for re-visiting. Can’t wait to read these books! And I’m very pleased to have concluded my first deal with Jon Oliver and the ‘new’ Solaris.”
I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Ten Thousand, but my experience with it made me curious to see more work from Kearney. It’s good to know he’s found a home again with Solaris Books.
