A Dribble of Ink

Alas, this edition of Free Readin’ contains no full novels, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t damn exciting anyway! What I’ve pulled together here are two early excerpts from some eagerly anticipated novels and the third is a collections of excerpts from one major publishers latest catalog.

Pyr Sampler

Pyr is offering anyone interested 327 pages of free PDF glory. Included in the download are the first chapters from many of Pyr’s most prominent authors:

You can download the Sampler HERE and also download a copy of their catalog HERE. Also be sure to check out their blog, Pyr-o-mania.

R. Scott Bakker

Switching gears a little, R. Scott Bakker, best known for his The Prince of Nothing trilogy, a gritty, dense fantasy, he know brings readers a contemporary thriller, Neuropath. Pat, from Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, really liked it:

Luckily Fantasybookspot is offering an exclusive peek at the first chapter from the novel, which you can find HERE.

J.V. Jones

Last up is the prologue for the upcoming novel from J.V. Jones, Watcher of the Dead. This is the latest installment of her increasingly long (but still highly regarded) series, Sword of Shadows.

You can find the prologue HERE and also many other excerpts from all her novels HERE.

Over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, a blog I’m sure every single one of my readers is well aware of, Pat started an interesting discussion about current things in the blogosphere and the comments section of the post has turned into a nice, revealing debate about the way blogs work.

Many influential and well known SFF bloggers have dropped by to add their thoughts (Neth from Neth Space, Larry from OF Blog of the Fallen, Wert from The Wertzone, John from Grasping for the Wind, and a whole lot more) and you’ll even see me get a good talking to near the bottom of the page. It’s definitely worth checking out and, no matter where you stand, I encourage you to leave your own thoughts (either here or on Pat’s blog) about the situation. I’m always curious to see what readers think about these issues.

You can check out the whole conversation HERE.

Remember a few weeks ago when Neil Gaiman was having the poll to see which of his novels to give away for free? Remember when American Gods won? Well now now you’re able to read, entirely for free, one of my favourite novels of all time.

Click HERE and get goin’!

Joe Abercrombie, that devilishy handsom fellow who often ekes his way into A Dribble of Ink was invited by SFX magazine to write an article concerning A Game of Thrones and it’s influence on his own writing and the Fantasy genre as a whole.

Until now the article was only available to those who were able to pick up a copy of the print magazine (i.e. not me), but SFX’s Book Club has just recently released a PDF version of it available to the public. It’s definitely worth giving a read and Abercrombie wrote a terrific follow up to the article on his blog.

You can download the article HERE.

By now, most fans of the work, will know that Brandon Sanderson, author of Mistborn, was chosen to complete the final volume of Robert Jordan’s magnum opus, The Wheel of Time. Luckily for us, over at his blog, Sanderson has been detailing his travels as he rereads the first 11 novels in the cycle.

It’s interesting to read the thoughts of someone who is both a fan and, literally, and author of the works. This obviously requires him to tackle the reread in a slightly different manner than most readers and some of his thoughts on the earlier volumes are quite interesting. If anything his comments as he rereads has settled any concerns I might have had that the final volume wouldn’t be handled correctly. He seems determined to stay true to what Jordan originally envisioned and I feel confident that Sanderson will be able to handle the job as well as any author out there.

If you’re a fan of Jordan’s work and find yourself a little skeptical about the final volume, then take the time to look over Sanderson’s blog and maybe he’ll be able to allay some of those fears.

You can find the all of the Wheel of Time related posts HERE.