Publisher: Night Shade Books -
Pages: 320 -
Buy: Book/eBook
Books like Zachary Jernigan’s No Return are the primary reason why the Night Shade Books collapse was a crying shame. It is bold, edgy, daring, and uneven in spots, making it both exactly the kind of book that demands to be published and one that is likely to be passed over by larger houses. In all, No Return is a quirky mash-up of speculative genres drawn into a thoroughly compelling package before petering out in the last twenty pages. While that might sound damning with faint praise, I insist that it’s a book that should be read.
Despite exceptional writing and a mind blowingly original concept, the novel ends abruptly with little resolution.
The reality is Jernigan had no shortage of capable hands guiding him as he wrote No Return. Written mostly, if not in full, during his time in the Stonecoast MFA program, his advisers were Elizabeth Hand and David Anthony Durham. But, despite exceptional writing and a mind-blowingly original concept, the novel ends abruptly with little resolution (if any) of the two disparate plot lines. I say disparate because there’s a clear intent that the story lines connect, but they never do. Even as the novel winds to a close and the plot seems ready to stitch together, Jernigan abruptly snips the chain and carries the plot into the uncertain future of a second novel.
On the planet Jeroun, God (or Adrash if you prefer) is a vindictive son of a bitch watching from the heavens and occasionally hurtling metal meteors to the earth to punish his flock. Among the human population two ‘churches’ have emerged, the white and black suits, who oppose one another on the basis of whether God exists. One half of the plot leads up to a fighting tournament between these two factions, who have become accustomed to justifying the strength of their argument through strength of arms. This portion of No Return features Vedas, one of the black suits’ best bets to win the tournament. He travels across the countryside, joined by a female pit fighter, Churls, and an artificial man, Berun, who are heading to a secular companion tournament. Read More »
Bradley P. Beaulieu, sometimes contributor here at A Dribble of Ink and author of The Winds of Khalakovo, announced this week that he has completed work on the first volume of his upcoming trilogy, The Song of the Shattered Sands, for DAW Books. Beaulieu is known for his comprehensive, diverse world building, and Twelve Kings in Sharakhai looks no different. He’s established a Pinterest board that illustrates some of the imagery he’s used as inspiration for the series, and gives readers a taste of what we can expect from the series.
In the cramped west end of Sharakhai, the Amber Jewel of the Desert, Çeda fights in the pits to scrape a living. She, like so many in the city, pray for the downfall of the cruel, immortal Kings of Sharakhai, but she’s never been able to do anything about it. This all changes when she goes out on the night of Beht Zha’ir, the holy night when all are forbidden from walking the streets. It’s the night that the asirim, the powerful yet wretched creatures that protect the Kings from all who would stand against them, wander the city and take tribute. It is then that one of the asirim, a pitiful creature who wears a golden crown, stops Çeda and whispers long forgotten words into her ear. Çeda has heard those words before, in a book left to her by her mother, and it is through that one peculiar link that she begins to find hidden riddles left by her mother.
As Çeda begins to unlock the mysteries of that fateful night, she realizes that the very origin of the asirim and the dark bargain the Kings made with the gods of the desert to secure them may be the very key she needs to throw off the iron grip the Kings have had over Sharakhai. And yet the Kings are no fools—they’ve ruled the Shangazi for four hundred years for good reason, and they have not been idle. As Çeda digs into their past, and the Kings come closer and closer to unmasking her, Çeda must decide if she’s ready to face them once and for all.
While he admits the book is still early and ‘not perfect,’ it will be going through at least two more drafts after it has passed through hands on his editors, agent and beta readers.
He also illustrates the interesting draft structure that he uses for writing his novels, saying that the draft he completed is the first finished copy, despite having ‘finished’ a ‘zeroth’ draft a couple of months ago. The [zeroth] draft is filled with so many needed changes, that I wouldn’t (under normal circumstances) send it out for review. Why? Because of the simple fact that I know there are so many things wrong with it. If you’re going to have someone review your work, you want them focusing on the things that you can’t find, not wasting their time and yours on the things you already know need fixing,” he said.
Twelve Kings in Sharakhai is due for release in 2014 from DAW Books (North America) and Gollancz (United Kingdom).
A few months ago, rumour broke that Robin Hobb was working on another book in her popular Fitz & Fool series. The new book, titled The Fool’s Assassin, is the first in what Hobb is officially calling The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy, which follows The Farseer Trilogy and The Tawny Man Trilogy.
Hobb announced today that the manuscript for The Fool’s Assassin is now with her publisher, and she is determined to keep it to three books, though her recent ‘duology,’ the Rain Wild Chronicles, exceeded that length, eventually finishing after four novels.
The Fool’s Assassin is expected for release in 2014.
Every Friday, Suvudu runs a feature called 50 Page Friday. It doesn’t take a genius to guess that they post the first fifty pages of a book, free of charge, to get you hooked. You know, like a drug dealer. This past week, they released a sneak peek at one of the year’s most anticipated novels: The Republic of Thieves.
Over on Suvudu, Lynch’s editor discusses the novel and why the rabid anticipation is justified:
I have said before that a good editor, like a good mom, tries not to play favorites. But sometimes you just can’t help it. Twice in my career, the same thing has happened to me—albeit with two different authors. Because twice I have received the first 100 or so pages of as-yet-uncompleted epic fantasy novels on submission, and twice I have felt that special shiver of gut-deep excitement and sheer acquisitiveness that said: This is something TRULY special. I must own this, and edit this. Like…NOW!
The first time I felt that was when I was given the first few chapters of a what would one day grow into A Game of Thrones. And the second time? Well, that was when I first encountered Scott Lynch. As with George Martin, I fell instantly in love with Scott’s words and Scott’s world, and then suffered (in not-quite silence) for the next year before I could finally discover What Happened Next!
The Lies of Locke Lamora is, to my mind, one of the world’s almost perfect books. It is epic, dramatic—almost operatic in its sense of glory and tragedy—and yet laugh aloud funny when it is not making you weep. The characters and the world are as memorable as any you will ever see on paper, and the concept alone—that of con men operating in a fantasy world that has never really encountered the art of the con—is sheer brilliance.
I’ll have a review of The Republic of Thieves soon, but, as a little sneak peek of my own, I’ll just say that I enjoyed the novel immensely and, despite my high expectations (and cautious optimism), Lynch impressed me with his ability to evolve the formula that worked so successfully in The Lies of Locke Lamora (if not so well in Red Seas Under Red Skies), and produced a novel that reminded me of why I fell in love with his world, characters and fiction so easily in the first place.
You can read the first 51 pages of The Republic of Thieves on Scribd… then, once you’re done that, you can salivate over the idea that the rest of the book’s only a few days away.
I’m proud to announce the sale of A Night for Spirits and Snowflakes to the Sword & Laser Anthology. This is my first fiction sale, and I’m ecstatic that it is going to become a part of a project that will (hopefully) be widely read and embraced by the SFF community.
A Night for Spirits and Snowflakes is a 7,500 word story about a young soldier caught on the losing side of a meaningless war. Soldier-turned-gravedigger, he buries his fallen comrades in shallows graves, their last moments whispering in his head. Audience to this sojourn are the spirits of those dead men, drifting like snowflakes around the boy as he lays them to rest.
If you are unfamiliar with Sword & Laser, the second largest book club on Goodreads, I wrote about my excitement the Sword & Laser Anthology last year when it was first announced. I have immense respect for Veronica and Tom and am flattered to be involved with the project.
I will have more details about the project, including the release date and a table of contents, as those details are announced.
