[Hobbit]

The cover is now available for Polity Agent, the fourth Cormac novel, due October 2006:

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/1405054980.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg


and from the Press release:

From 800 years in the future, a runcible gate is opened into the Polity and those coming through it have been sent specially to take the alien 'Maker' back to its home civilization in the Small Magellanic cloud. Once these refugees are safely through, the gate itself is rapidly shut down - because something alien is pursuing them. The gate is then dumped into a nearby sun. From those refugees who get through, agent Cormac learns that the Maker civilization has been destroyed by pernicious virus known as the Jain technology. This, of course, raised questions: why was Dragon, a massive biocontruct of the Makers, really sent to the Polity; why did a Jain node suddenly end up in the hands of someone who could do the most damage with it? Meanwhile an entity called the Legate is distributing pernicious Jain nodes ...and a renegade attack ship, The King of Hearts, has encountered something very nasty outside the Polity itself.

Sounds good!

Hobbit

[nealasher]

Hah! Not so good for me at the moment since I'm presently grinding my way through the final page proofs. I enjoyed writing it, but once you've read it backwards and forwards about seven times, it gets a bit wearing. Thanks for that, Hobbit.

[Hobbit]

Of course, I should be sympathetic..... :D

Sure it'll be worth it in the end, though, Neal.

It is interesting to see a publishing timeline on this, though.

Hobbit

[nealasher]

I shouldn't complain. Prior to 2000 I would have sold my entire family into slavery for the opportunity to do what I'm doing now.

[nealasher]

Here's a reminder for those who might be interested or in the vicinity:

I'll be signing copies of Polity Agent this coming Saturday the 7th October between 1 – 2pm at Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Ave London WC2H 8JR. This shop is at the Junction with Neal Street. Nearest Tubes: Tottenham Court Road, Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Holborn.

If you can't make it to the signing, don't forget to pre-order your signed copy from the store. I'll also probably be chilling in the pub around the corner afterwards too.

have a good one

[Mithfânion]

Neal

The next Polity books is called Line War then? When is that due for release?

Is Hilldiggers completely unrelated then?

[nealasher]

Mithfanion, yes, the next book in the Cormac sequence is called Line War, but the next book to be published by Macmillan will be Hilldiggers. This book is set in the Polity (but further in the future) and stands alone. Here's a brief blurb for it and the cover:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6365/3159/1600/Hilldiggers.0.jpg

During a war between two planets in the same solar system – each occupied by adapted humans – what is thought to be a cosmic superstring is discovered. After being cut, this object collapsed into four cylindrical pieces, each about the size of a tube train. Each is densely packed with either alien technology or some kind of life. They are placed in three ozark cylinders of a massively secure space station. A female scientist, conducting research there, falls pregnant, gives birth to quadss, then commits suicide.

By the end of the war one planet has been devastated by the hilldiggers – giant space dreadnoughts employing weapons capable of creating mountain ranges. The quads have grown up and are assuming positions of power in the post war society. One of them will eventually control the hilldiggers.

[Mithfânion]

Neal

I'm a bit confused by that synopsis.

What are these quads?

Are the Hilldiggers part of the new technologies found in the four cylindrical pieces which are stored in the space station, or do they have nothing to do with them?

Great cover btw.

Finally, I read that Line War is due for an April 2008 release, is that correct?

[nealasher]

"What are these quads?" Four children.

"Hilldiggers" – giant space dreadnoughts employing weapons capable of creating mountain ranges.

Your question about the relation of the hilldiggers to the bits in the space station ... well, it's in the book. That's the whole point of a blurb: to stimulate curiosity and hopefully get potential readers to open the book!

[NovaWasp]

Ok, I just have to know something about Polity Agent.

I'm in the middle of the US version. I've spotted some British spellings, but the measurements are in yards and miles. Gridlinked is in metres, kilometres, etc..

Did this one get localised? Did you write in English measurements, Neal? If it is localised, they did it with a find replace on the measurements only. Because, I can't imagine you wrote something was 225,308.16 Kilometres (140,000). Should I be thinking kilometre every time I read mile?

Ok, so not to be entirely nit-picky. I've now read Gridlinked, Line of Polity, Brass Man, Cowl, The Skinner (first one, St. Louis Airport find), and the Voyage of the Sable Keech. I'm partially finished with polity agent, brilliant so far, and have in my possession Africa Zero, The Engineer Reconditioned, and Prador Moon. Now that I've established my credentials, so to speak, two things strike me:

1 - This is the future. Like a lot of Herbert's work, it doesn't feel like 1986 with faster than light space ships. It's SciFi that deals with computers in a compelling believable manner. Herbert nixed the computers, likely due to the fact that he couldn't project they're ultimate place in societey. Azimov and Clarke gave them important plot elements in series where they'd previously been hardly mentioned. AI plays an important and believable roll. I like it.

2 - The pacing is excellent. Cliff Hangers are well used and the humour adds to the mix. My only complaint is that I read slow, and I am often left thinking everyone is going to die horribly on the next page when I go to bed.

thanks,