Posts Tagged: Orbit Books

Cover Art for Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (UK)

Map by Dave Senior and Daggers by Didier Graffetaption

From the horse’s mouth to your ears:

I’ve got a contract for three more books in the First Law world, and those will be a trilogy, and I have some rough ideas about what the content and characters might be.

Yippee. But, we already knew that, didn’t we? For about two years. In a recent ‘guest post’ (to use the term loosely, it was more of an open letter to his fans on his publisher’s website), Abercrombie addressed this trilogy, and some of the complications he’s been facing in writing it. He further describes those ideas about content and characters for the trilogy as ‘very rough.’ With his previous projects, Abercrombie has finished each book with a good idea of what was coming next, so that he was well into the writing of it by the time his previous book was published. He explains, however, that Red Country was a difficult book to write.

He says,

Red Country was pretty draining. Not that I’m not totally delighted with the results because, you know, brilliant book and all that, but I found it hard work. Felt burned out at times. Felt like I was having to reach a long way for new ideas, new ways of doing things. It was not, at all times, a joyous process. So now seems a good time to take a break, do some reading, do some thinking, recharge the creative batteries.

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Fiction, it often seems to me is becoming more preoccupied with deaths, both death itself and the manner of it in nasty, gruesome ways. Why? Many reasons I’m sure – a more cynical age for one. Another is the western obsession with Youth and Beauty as though they alone can stave off Death and Decay. As a society we are more personally removed from death than at any time in history, yet via media at the same time we are exposed – at an emotional distance – to deaths we would once never have known about. Where once bodies were laid out by their family, washed, dressed, respects given, now they are hidden away in their coffins, dressed by strangers, almost as though we’re ashamed that one of us let death overtake him. It is no longer a part and parcel of our lives in the same way – ably demonstrated by my co worker, who moonlights as an embalmer. When she tells people, almost every reaction is a variation on ‘Ewww, you touch dead people!’. So, with death removed from our real lives, less matter-of-factly “there”, perhaps we delve into it more in fiction, because it’s one of the few places we have left. Read More »

A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

A Memory of Light, the final volume in Robert Jordan’s long-running Wheel of Time series, is, undoubtedly, one of the most anticipated Fantasy novels of the past twenty years, and its release today is one of the biggest events in Fantasy publishing history. I’ve gathered here many of the reviews published of the novel, and they are all glowing. Reviews that aren’t specifically marked as spoiler free are in their own section, after the jump. Enjoy!

Spoiler Free

Leigh Butler, Tor.com:

[T]his is the last Wheel of Time book you’ll ever get to read for the first time. Maybe that’s only a blip in the grand scheme of things, but for those of you like me who have invested literally decades into seeing this to the finish, you owe it to yourself to enjoy this as much as humanly possible.

Jason Denzel, Dragonmount:

The Wheel of Time books have ended for me. I cannot deny the bittersweet emotions that brings. But a strong ending gives more meaning to the journey that came before it. Sure, I can pick apart small nuances of this final book that weren’t perfect. Some little parts may not have rung as true as they could have. But by and large, it delivered in a big way.

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The Tyrant's Law by Daniel Abraham

It’s… alright, I guess. I haven’t been blown away by any of the covers for the series, and the shift in tone and subject, if not style, is a little jarring, but, hey, swords and axes had little to do with Abraham’s series, anyways. Torches are cool, I guess. I’m neither here nor there on the cover. It’s okay. I have no doubt that what’s underneath will be rockin’. Abraham suggests there might still be minor changes coming, but the design is almost final.

Speaking of, here’s the synopsis, beware, of course, of spoilers for the first two volumes, for there are several:

The great war cannot be stopped.

The tyrant Geder Palliako begins a conquest aimed at bringing peace to the world, though his resources are stretched too thin. When things go poorly, he finds a convenient target among the thirteen races and sparks a genocide.

Clara Kalliam, freed by having fallen from grace, remakes herself as a “loyal traitor” and starts building an underground resistance movement that seeks to undermine Geder through those closest to him.

Cithrin bel Sarcour is apprenticing in a city that’s taken over by Antea, and uses her status as Geder’s one-time lover to cover up an underground railroad smuggling refugees to safety.

And Marcus Wester and Master Kit race against time and Geder Palliako’s soldiers in an attempt to awaken a force that could change the fate of the world.

The Tyrant’s Law is set for a May, 2013 release, and I’m already salivating.

Red Country by Joe AbercrombieRed Country by Joe Abercrombie
Red Country, Joe Abercrombie’s sixth novel, and third standalone novel, might have been delayed by a few weeks in the US, but lucky for fans (or those interested in sneak peeks, at least…), his UK publisher, Gollancz, has released an excerpt of the first three chapters of Red Country for readers to ogle.

‘I have suffered many disappointments.’ Nicomo Cosca, captain general of the Company of the Gracious Hand, leaned back stiffly upon one elbow as he spoke. ‘I suppose every great man faces them. Abandons dreams wrecked by betrayal and finds new ones to pursue.’ He frowned towards Mulkova, columns of smoke drifting from the burning city and up into the blue heavens. ‘I have abandoned very many dreams.’

‘That must have taken tremendous courage,’ said Sworbreck, eyeglasses briefly twinkling as he looked up from his notes.

‘Indeed! I lose count of the number of times my death has been prematurely declared by one optimistic enemy or another. Forty years of trials, struggles, challenges, betrayals. Live long enough . . . you see everything ruined.’ Cosca shook himself from his reverie. ‘But it hasn’t been boring, at least! What adventures along the way, eh, Temple?’

Temple winced. He had borne personal witness to five years of occasional fear, frequent tedium, intermittent diarrhoea, failure to avoid the plague, and avoiding fighting as if it was the plague. But he was not paid for the truth.

Far from it.

Once you’ve had your fill of Chapter One, Chapter Two, and Chapter Three, you can sit patiently on your hands, waiting for Red Country to release on November 13th, 2012 (if you’re in America), or you can rush to your nearest bookstore in the UK and probably find a copy now.