Posts Tagged: Fantasy

News

Scott Lynch’s The Republic of Thieves Has a Release Date. For real this time.

By Aidan Moher March 14th, 2013

The Republic of Thieves by Scott LynchThe Republic of Thieves, the long-awaited and oft-delayed third volume in Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastards sequence, finally has a release date, confirmed by his UK publisher:

The Orion Publishing Group (UK & Commonwealth) and the Random House Publishing Group (US) are thrilled to announce the publication of the third instalment in Scott Lynch’s popular fantasy series that began with The Lies of Locke Lamora. THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES will release on October 10, 2013 in the UK and Commonwealth and October 8, 2013 in the US.

Now, of course, The Republic of Thieves has had many release dates, but this one appears to be legitimate. This October, we’ll all be reading Lynch’s next novel. Simon Spanton, Deputy Publishing Director at Gollancz, discussed the release date, and

“Some of you will know about the real difficulties that gathered around this novel for Scott. I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank Scott for sticking with it. I know that he was always painfully aware of the delays and what those meant both for his publishers and his fans. So I’d also like to thank Scott’s readers for their patience and for the immense support and the profound goodwill towards Scott that they have shown during this time. It’s been a long wait but I have every faith that their patience will now be rewarded with The Republic of Thieves.”

Are you still excited for The Republic of Thieves after all this time? I certainly am. Expect The Republic of Thieves to soon be available for pre-order.

Cover Art

Cover Art for The Abominable by Dan Simmons

By Aidan Moher March 13th, 2013
The Abominable by Dan Simmons

A thrilling tale of supernatural adventure, set on the snowy peaks of Mount Everest from the bestselling author of The Terror.

It’s 1926, and the desire to summit the world’s highest mountain has reached a fever-pitch among adventurers. Three young friends, eager to take their shot at the top, accept funding from a grieving mother whose son fell to his death on Mt. Everest two years earlier. But she refuses to believe he’s dead, and wants them to bring him back alive.

As they set off toward Everest, the men encounter other hikers who are seeking the boy’s body for their own mysterious reasons. What valuable item could he have been carrying? What is the truth behind the many disapperances on the mountain? As they journey to the top of the world, the three friends face abominable choices, actions–and possibly creatures. A bone-chilling, pulse-pounding story of supernatural suspense, THE ABOMINABLE is Dan Simmons at his best.

God damn. I’ve never read Simmons, and I take issue with some of his personal politics. But, god damn, that’s a cover. The Abominable is set for an October, 2013 release.

Feature Article

“Broader Fantasy Foundations — Part Two: Romance of the Three Kingdoms” by Max Gladstone

By Max Gladstone March 11th, 2013
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, article by Max Gladstone

Art by Evan Lee

The great old stories break and bend rules modern audiences take for granted. For example: Journey to the West, which I talked about last month, is a story of high-flying magic, transformation, kung fu, divine war, and so on—that, for all its epic scope, reads more like Sword and Sorcery.

That is, to borrow Liz Bourke’s definition of S&S: Journey to the West is a story of encounter, in which central characters going about their daily business keep running into strange, fascinating, terrifying things—and befriending them, or beating them about the head and shoulders, or both.

By contrast, let’s talk about one of the best war-and-intrigue novels of all time, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. At first glance, Three Kingdoms seems an epic fantasy, in that it describes the fall of a massive empire through the lens of central characters with dynastic ambition. But, though set in a time of miracles, Three Kingdoms relies on the traditional Sword & Sorcery mix of cleverness, combat, and betrayal rather than prophecy or magic. Read More »

News

Luke, Leia, and Han confirmed forStar Wars: Episode VII, awkward love triangle speculated

By Aidan Moher March 7th, 2013
Star Wars Episode 7

George Lucas, from his awkward (though richly-furnished) office as the new ‘creative consultant’ on the Star Wars series (which, of course, he founded, raised to greatness… and then tarnished), recently confirmed, maybe accidentally, that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford will, after 30+ years, be reprising their roles in the next mainline Star Wars film.

Business Week, in conversation with Lucas, reports:

Asked whether members of the original Star Wars cast will appear in Episode VII and if he called them before the deal closed to keep them informed, Lucas says, “We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison-or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.’ ” He pauses. “Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them.” Then he adds: “I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.”

Can anyone familiar with the Star Wars Expanded Universe stuff posit what timeframe and in what capacity Luke, Leia and Han might appear? Harrison Ford is 70 now, so it won’t be a spry, planet-hopping Han, surely. My grandfather-in-law is about 75. Man. Weird.

News

How big is Westeros compared to Earth?

By Aidan Moher March 7th, 2013
How big is Westeros compared to Earth?

File this one under: amusing, irrelevant, irreverent. Tor.com‘s Chris Lough, using some trusty math remembered from High School, has analyzed a map of ‘The Known World,’ from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, which holds Westeros, Asshai, Valyria and all of our other favourite locations from the series, and compared it agains the size of the planet you sit on while reading this. (Unless you’re Commander Hadfield or another member of the Space team aboard the ISS at the time this article was written.)

He details the process:

In inches, the distance from the wall to the south coast of Dorne is a very convenient 12, making each inch equivalent to 250 miles. The Known World map is 2 feet and 11 inches wide, minus the ornamental borders, totaling 8750 miles from east to west and 5750 miles from north to south.

The next thing we need to do is decide where the equator is on Planet Westeros. For the purposes of the forthcoming measurements, I’ve chosen the former site of the city of Valyria as being right on the equator. The lands to the north and south of it are clearly equatorial desert, jungle, and savannah, and there’s a certain poetry to having Valyria—the former center of civilization in A Song of Ice and Fire’s developed world—be literally in the center of the world.

Lough’s final tally? Whatever planet holds Westeros, it’s smaller than Earth, by about 10%. His conclusion:

The distance between Planet Westeros’ “Arctic Circle” and equator is 4125 miles. On Earth, the distance between the Arctic circle and equator is 4608 miles (give or take).

If you accept the equator and “Arctic Circle” where they are, this means that the planet that Westeros is on is smaller than Earth! To put it in numbers, Planet Westeros is only 89.51% the size of Earth.

I’m note sure if his math holds up to much scrutiny (I can’t even remember high school math these days), but it’s fun to think of the world in these terms, and also to wonder at the vast areas of the planet that haven’t yet been revealed. The map used in this experiment was published in The Lands of Ice and Fire, an official companion book to Martin’s series.

And, yes, I know that Westeros is a continent, not a planet.