Well I'm glad to hear that you're that anxious...My wife actually uses the text-to-speech aspect of her kindle. The voice is a bit robotic but she's used to hearing things that way - all in all not a bad hacked substitute.Originally Posted by Khale
Well I'm glad to hear that you're that anxious...My wife actually uses the text-to-speech aspect of her kindle. The voice is a bit robotic but she's used to hearing things that way - all in all not a bad hacked substitute.
Thrilled to hear this. Will finish Theft of Swords on my Kindle (already finished first half--nice work Michael!--and will be on to book two shortly, and then pick up the sequels when they come out on Audible.
Re: Tor's fall catalogue: Hum. Lots of books getting bumped, yeah. Too bad. That's just the way of things, though. Disappointing though some of the absences are it's an interesting list, and I could see myself checking out a couple things on there: There's Felix Gilman, of course; I will totally get round to The Half-Made World one day. I get very good vibes off of Tina Connolly's Ironskin -- her short fiction has apparently been extremely well-received. The idea of Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead speaks to me for some reason, though that could be simply because I'm a sucker for people-using-magic-to-get-on-with-work kinds of stories, and this sounds like it might be one of those. Tor's track record with secondary world fantasies contains some big misses but also some big hits for me, so I'll at least keep my eye on that.
And the new Erikson, which is joyous of course. I swear I will try his stuff again one day.
There's been some faint plaintive wailing from interested epic fantasy fans wanting to know what gives with John Gwynne's debut, So Deep a Malice, wailing which I will join. Given that the book's supposed to come out in December, the fallow times, but does not yet appear on amazon, and that the book's not listed in the Tor fall catalogue despite the fact Tor had world rights [this is based solely on a press release I saw like years ago, my memory of which may be faulty], my wholly uneducated guess would be that we'll be hearing the book's been pushed to 2013. If they're planning for it to be a big thing I'm sure they'll wanna make sure the editing's all tidy and it's as good as it can be. And maybe not release it in December.
Speaking of December and what's not coming out in it, Orbit posted some finished and near-finished covers for their fall / winter season on their site the other day, and Kate Eliot's Cold Steel was not among them, so we fans must wait a little longer. I shall likely console myself with Abercrombie's A Red Country. Abercrombie's particular brand of unleavened grimness and extreme cynicism is wearing a little thin for me, to be honest, but I still grin like a fool when I read the blurb for this one.
Orbit has apparently acquired that gritty epic fantasy Gollancz won't stop spamming us with blurbs for, Miles Cameron's The Red Knight. They will publish in early 2013 in the States, it's sounding like.
Appropos of Orbit, they have also just signed James S A Corey [Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck] for three more Expanse novels plus five novellas to be set in the same future history. Good space opera times ahead. Hope Abraham doesn't burn himself out writing all these books, or give himself some sort of coronary; having that much molten awesome flowing through your veins all the time has got to do something to the frail human form.
Sf and fantasy author Nalo Hopkinson, who has not had a new novel in some years, has a ya book out this month, entitled The Chaos and -- I believe -- set in Toronto. If it's half as good as her stuff from the early 2000s, specially Midnight Robber, this is a big deal.
Orion put Lynch's The Republic of Thieves in their catalogue again? As a big fan of both author and series I kind of wish they'd stop doing that. Not sure it's helpful. Lynch said this on his blog the other day [apologies if we're not meant to repost this kind of stuff, but it feels pretty directly relevant and is very to the point. Plus Lynch is always fun to listen to.]:
"Also, when I have accurate information about Republic to give out, I will give it out. It will blaze in every form of social media I use. My publishers will print publicity notices and shoot them directly into your brains with arrows. ... You will not miss it when it happens. This is really the last I'd like to say about it until it's time to say something useful."
So 2012 is not confirmed. I wish him all the good fortune in the world and look forward to times filled with wit and thievery when they come.
I've recently started using pinterest and I find it kind of addictive. I have a board for releases I'm looking forward to that you can find here. Definitely a work in progres but it's a good way for me to organize books that aren't relesed yet.
Yeah I really like the looks of John Gwynne's debut, So Deep a Malice, so hopefully it could still get squeezed in this year.
And Lynch's, Republic would be awesome to have this year. Lotsa fans dying for that one.
The John Gwynne book is now actually up on Amazon UK, for December this year.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Malice-The-F...3841054&sr=1-1
Looks to be pretty large at 672 pages listed.
I will also be getting the US edition of Cameron's The Red Knight which is also due early December.
Thats good news, I have my eye on Malice. Thanks, Mith
Thanks! Very glad to be wrong about the Gwynne book [though I wonder when we get it over here?] I'm still a sucker for big, sprawling epics done well, so I have to admit it warms my heart unreasonably to see an intimation that it might be loooong.
What does not warm my heart, and actually disappoints me disporportionate to its importance, is that they've changed the title. "So Deep a Malice." It's theatrical. It's grandiose. It wears its heart on its sleeve, says "what up yo I am epic". "Malice." It's almost too easy in comparison, that little one word title. Less unique, less recognizable. I think it's chicken, frankly; at least that's my immediate reaction.
The new Orbit catalogue is looking very interesting. I'm beginning to be drawn in to the idea of Cameron's The Red Knight, I admit. [Incidentally, it appears to be going for short and sharp; I think I saw a 300 page count in the catalogue. Always nice to have a range of techniques in epic fantasy.] Other highlights for me include Peter Higgins fantastical pseudo-Stalinist Russia novel Wolfhound Century, and Robert Jackson Bennett's American Elsewhere -- I've been waiting for a fantasy author to really drill down into the "American dream" for some little time now. Francis Knight's Fade to Black, about a mage whose powers feed on pain who lives in a vertical city, also sounds like it could be good fun, potentially. And Abercrombie's Red Country and Iain Banks' The Hydrogen Sonata look great of course -- there's a blurb for the Banks now; I must depart, but shall post it later if nobody else does. Oh, and if anyone checks out the Orbit catalogue and wishes to remain unspoiled on Red Country be aware that the sales copy contains one spoiler that is quite large. I think we actually have the info in this thread already, a couple pages back, though, so I guess the cat is out of the bag.
The sucker in me looks at the new Greg Bear, Serpent Moon, and is all "oooh, spaceships, horror". The cynic in me thinks it looks an awful lot like his last original sf novel, Hull Zero Three, with which I had what we might call a mixed experience.
With thanks to the Locus forthcoming list, it seems Ian McDonald's second Everness young adult novel will be coming out in September, which seems incredibly fast, and will be entitled Be My Enemy.
Still no cover art for Malice so they still could go with the longer name.
The Higgins books looks fantastic, definitly getting that as soon as it is out.
That new Bennett book does not excited me as much as his just released "The Troupe" which just arrived at my doorstep and looks very good indeed.
Agreed on the new name for John Gwynne book btw, a bit of a loss, but insignificant compared to my pleasure at finally seeing a release at all.
Otherwise, The Hydrogen Sonata may see me give a Banks Culture novel another chance after I gave Surface Detail and Matter a pass, they did not look very interesting to me from synopsis and excerpts. I really do hope this is better, I like how it seems to tie back the Culture origins. And Androids and Culture avatars are cool of course
I had bad feeling about Higgins book. The name of protagonists are not russian or soviet names, just some kind of author inventions, impossible mismatch of names and families from different nationalities. Seems he didn't do any substantial research into general soviet/russian history/language, not saying about stalin's russia. Just another "Winds of Khalakovo". In my experience no research into subject is symptomatic of sub par literature.
PS the site of the book is in quite bad taste - samovars, WWII fallen memorials and Malevich painting all in ugly mix.
The only thing missing are white bears drinking vodka while dancing on lenin tomb.
( http://www.memoriousland.com/index.html )
Last edited by s271; April 9th, 2012 at 02:20 AM.
Aww, thanks. Hope you like it.
*outs self as Francis Knight*
Hi Francis: welcome!
LOL. The secret's out, though I thought you'd *outed* yourself HERE.*outs self as Francis Knight*
Well done on the contract. Looking forward to reading more.
Mark
Mark
I did yes, but I reckon about two people read it, so I double outted, just to be sure
Welcome fellow Orbit author. I hope your launch goes well.I did yes, but I reckon about two people read it, so I double outted, just to be sure
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