Whether you like Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series or not (and there are many reasons to fall on either side of the fence), the upcoming release of its final volume, A Memory of Light, will be one of the biggest Fantasy events in decades. Wheel of Time has helped shaped contemporary Fantasy, and opened the doors for authors like George R.R. Martin (who launched his own series, which you maybe heard of, with a juicy quote from Robert Jordan plastered on the cover), Patrick Rothfuss, and even Brandon Sanderson, who now carries the torch for the late Jordan. To celebrate the life and career of Jordan, Tor has produced a loving video looking back at the aurhor, featuring his wife, Harriet McDougal, Tom Doherty, the big guy at Tor Books, and Brandon Sanderson.
Art by Chris McGrath
Well, I applaud Tor for putting an old(ish) guy on the cover, and leaving his face unobscured by a silly cloak/hood. Otherwise, it looks a lot like a Dresden Files novel, and not a whole lot like the awesome covers that the series originally debuted with. I don’t mind Chris McGrath’s art, but I think it’s a poor fit for Scholes’ series.
And, to meet my ‘obscure videogame culture reference of the day’ quota, the man’s a dead-ringer for Jeff Green (not this Jeff Green), formerly of Computer Gaming World Magazine, then Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, then Electronic Arts, then PopCap Games, then, by virtue of the universe’s perverse sense of irony, Electronic Arts, again, thanks to their acquisition of PopCap Games. *Phew*
Sword & Laser, a popular video show, podcast, and online book club community, hosted by Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt, have announced that they will begin accepting submissions for a new Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology beginning Spring 2013, titled, fittingly, The Sword & Laser Anthology. The anthology, which does not have a release date, is looking for “new, previously unpublished stories, which can fall under the headings of science fiction, fantasy, or a combination of the two.”
After years of discussion, Tom and I are finally going ahead with the Sword & Laser Anthology!
Sword & Laser is the largest group on Goodreads, with over 13,000 members, and works with many of the genre’s biggest names, like Patrick Rothfuss (who also has a video show, called The Story Board, on Geek & Sundry, the production company that hosts Sword & Laser), John Scalzi, Daniel Abraham and N.K. Jemisin. It’s unclear whether this anthology is aimed at “new” writers, or just “new” works from established writers, but, given Sword & Laser‘s industry connections, I doubt they would need to open submissions for the anthology if they weren’t hoping to also discover new writers from among their fans. Either way, it’s a terrific opportunity for writers to have their stories featured in an anthology that will, no doubt, have a huge audience.
The question remains whether the anthology is being entirely gathered and edited by Belmont and Merritt (who, while undeniable enthusiasts, are not professional editors themselves), or if an established editor/dedicated editorial staff will also be connected with the project.
On a personal note, Belmont and Merritt better be ready to be inundated by short stories penned by one “Aidan Moher.”
More information on the anthology, including early submission guidelines, can be found in the official release.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, Art by Sidharth Chaturvedi
There is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure – it is, after all, what everybody does all the time.
If HBO hasn’t already won over the Fantasy crowd with its award-winning adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris’ popular Sookie Stackhouse series, and upcoming adaptation of American Gods by Neil Gaiman, they’re looking at some potential competition from the BBC, which recently announced the acquisition of Susanna Clarke’s beautiful, bloated and baroque Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Of the acquisition, the BBC says:
[The series is] based on the bestselling novel by Susanna Clarke and adapted by Peter Harness. Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell is set during the Napoleonic Wars in an England where magic once existed and is about to return.
Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell is produced by Cuba, the production arm of leading literary and talent agency Curtis Brown in association with Feel Film and Farmoor.
Toby Haynes directs, Nick Hirschkorn will produce with Nick Marston, Justin Thomson-Glover and Patrick Irwin are executive producing. Matthew Read is the Executive Producer for the BBC.
Cuba is also the production company behind BAFTA-winning Boy A and critically acclaimed Broken.
So, not much, beside a bunch of names which most non-British fans probably won’t recognize, but it appears to be a project worth keeping an eye on. I attempted to reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell several years ago, when it was first released, and found it bland and almost impenetrable and didn’t finish it; but it’s always been on my bucket list, as my tastes have evolved significantly since then and I expect I could better appreciate Clarke’s work nowadays. This television series might be just the kick in the pants I’m looking for.
So, you might want to file this one away in the ‘Useless Genre Knowledge’ drawer, but I was a little shocked when, in an interview with Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing, Jason Denzel, webmaster of Dragonmount, and one of the few people who have read A Memory of Light, mentioned that there is a chapter in the final Wheel of Time novel that is 50,000 words long and contains as many as 70-80 point-of-view characters. For reference, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is 95,000 words long, and Lord of Chaos, the sixth volume in the Wheel of Time time series, features 47 point-of-view characters in its entirety. That’s a meaty chapter.
From Denzel:
There’s one chapter in the book, one chapter itself, that’s fifty thousand words long, or maybe more. I’ve been saying fifty thousand, but it might actually be more than that. There’s something like seventy or eighty point of views within that single chapter.
Speculating, my best guess is that the chapter covers a single major event (Rand fighting/defeating the Dark One?), viewed by dozens of different characters on the battlefield and/or around the world. At the low-end estimation of 70 characters, that leaves about 700 words and change for each point-of-view, which isn’t a lot to work with, but could be an interesting technique for showcasing the world-altering events that are sure to fill A Memory of Light. It makes me tired just thinking about it. For what it’s worth, Denzel also said that it’s the fastest he’s ever read 50,000 words.
The entire interview with Denzel is worth reading for anyone interested in Wheel of Time fandom, or salivating for the upcoming release of A Memory of Light, which Denzel talks about at length, but avoids spoilers completely.
Update: For those who don’t read the comments section of these posts, Brandon Sanderson dropped by and clarified some of the details about this chapter. It’s both smaller, and larger, than Denzel was suggesting.
Just opened the document, as I figured I could give some hard statistics on this. The chapter is just shy of 79,000 words. It contains (by my quick count) 72 scenes–but only 31 distinct viewpoints, as numerous ones repeat. (There are eight Rand scenes, for example, and six each for Mat and Egwene. Three or four each for another eight characters.)
It is not the last chapter of the book, but is a very important one, as you might have guessed. From the get-go, I lobbied Harriet to let me do this sequence as a single, massive chapter as I felt it fit with what was going on in the book as well as fitting with the series as a whole. I’m very pleased with how it turned out.
79,000 words puts it just 15,000 words (or a decent sized novelette) away from being as long as The Hobbit, and 35% of the length of the entirety of The Path of Daggers. Staggering.
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