Looking forward to 2009

[Werthead]

Another splendiferous cover, already posted elsewhere but hell, it's worth mentioning twice:

 

[Luke_B]

Holy crap, that books sounds awesome too:

Frey is the captain of the Ketty Jay, leader of a small and highly dysfunctional band of layabouts. An inveterate womaniser and rogue, he and his gang make a living on the wrong side of the law, avoiding the heavily armed flying frigates of the Coalition Navy. With their trio of ragged fighter craft, they run contraband, rob airships and generally make a nuisance of themselves. So a hot tip on a cargo freighter loaded with valuables seems like a great prospect for an easy heist and a fast buck. Until the heist goes wrong, and the freighter explodes. Suddenly Frey isn't just a nuisance anymore - he's public enemy number one, with the Coalition Navy on his tail and contractors hired to take him down. But Frey knows something they don't. That freighter was rigged to blow, and Frey has been framed to take the fall. If he wants to prove it, he's going to have to catch the real culprit. He must face liars and lovers, dogfights and gunfights, Dukes and daemons. It's going to take all his criminal talents to prove he's not the criminal they think he is ...

 

[hawkwind]

I was hoping for a sequel to Fade but anything by Wooding is definitely on my Read Right Now List.

 

[Alex]

Just finished twelve by Jasper Kent and I was immensly dissapointed. The author is an ok writer (not good, but ok) but the story and how it unfolds is so incredibly, excuse my french, lame. It is unbelievable how the author contradicts himself over and over again in the book. I'll paste my spoiler box here if anyone wants to discuss why it was lame.

Spoiler

How come (un)living legends like the vampires are supposed to be in this book are so incredibly stupid and easy to kill? These 12 vampires are supposedly a weapon against Napoleons 500000 soldiers. Three vampires kill around 30-100 in a few minutes in a couple of sequences in the book. Yet the male protagonist Aleksei, who isn't depicted as a godly martial artist in any way, is able to kill 2 of these vampires unarmed with the help of a broken chair. He then proceeds to singlehandedly slay 7 of these vampires in hand to hand combat (most of in which he was unarmed). It was so ridiculous that I was actually laughing at the author while I was reading the book. The last "twist" where one of the vampires actually was human and was only faking also was incredibly stupid. Ridiculous! The last part where the faking vampire manages to escape from the russian army consisting of 30000 soldiers was also hillarious. He simply took his knife, cut his bonds, killed 2 guards and ran away. Stunning display! The hundreds of soldiers simply either missed their shots or got knifed down/shoved away. I almost threw the book away at that point.

 

[suciul]

Just finished twelve by Jasper Kent and I was immensly dissapointed.

This is what suspension of disbelief means I loved the book and the stuff above never bothered me overmuch, but I can see your point.

On the other hand vampires as a species are even more ultra-ridiculous and I could write an essay on what is silly about the whole notion of vampires and the whole caboodle from wooden stuff killings, blood sucking - a question to ponder what about if a vampire drinks the blood of a chimp, would it nourish it, considering humans and chimps are 98%+ dna similar -, but what's the point?

When you stop and critically analyze a sff book, most likely you will be able to shoot it to pieces - I never found yet a genre book that I read and I could not savage if I wanted, but again what's the point - so it matters a lot where your suspension of disbelief stops...

 

[Hobbit]

I'd agree with that point 'wot suciul said.

I also thought that one of the problems that happens with age is that

Spoiler

the vampires become less and less reactive/emotional to events (and perhaps more prone to exploding!). Constant emotional stimuli has led them to be less reactive to things that humans respond to. Constant exposure to death leads to a numbness to it.

Certainly, vampires are aware of a weakness, having to return to coffins, But it worked for Van Helsing.....

It does perhaps partly explain

Spoiler

the need for human overseers

that the older vamps have.

Mark

 

[afterroots]

This is what suspension of disbelief means I loved the book and the stuff above never bothered me overmuch, but I can see your point.

On the other hand vampires as a species are even more ultra-ridiculous and I could write an essay on what is silly about the whole notion of vampires and the whole caboodle from wooden stuff killings, blood sucking - a question to ponder what about if a vampire drinks the blood of a chimp, would it nourish it, considering humans and chimps are 98%+ dna similar -, but what's the point?

When you stop and critically analyze a sff book, most likely you will be able to shoot it to pieces - I never found yet a genre book that I read and I could not savage if I wanted, but again what's the point - so it matters a lot where your suspension of disbelief stops...

This doesn't make any sense to me. You might suspend disbelief if within the parameters of the author's world vampires exist or that they can kill multiple humans in seconds. This is part of the authors world he's created. If you then have an unarmed man with no martial prowess slay two of these vampires you've contradicted your own 'rules'.

- Vampires exist in world - OK
- Vampires will slaughter multiple humans easily in combat - OK
- Humans are not modified or differentiated from known 'real' humans in any way - OK
- Average normal human slaughters multiple vampires unarmed - WTF

This is like Lois Lane whooping Superman's ass in hand to hand combat. 'Oh well Superman is obviously not real so if i can believe that then it's hardly a stretch for me to believe that an ordinary average women could unman a super buff flying alien.'

 

[JamesL]

I really enjoyed Twelve, and will have a review up shortly.

While I do concede there were issues with the novel, none of them really spoilt my enjoyment of it. I think overall it was a good read, with some nice twists and turns.

 

[Alex]

I really enjoyed Twelve, and will have a review up shortly.

While I do concede there were issues with the novel, none of them really spoilt my enjoyment of it. I think overall it was a good read, with some nice twists and turns.

I think there is a big distinction between the "fantastic" and the unbelievable.

It's when the fantastic becomes unbelievable that I usually tend to find the book boring. In twelve I found so many aspects of the book unbelievable that it became downright bad. This has in no way to do with anything like "Ofcourse it's unbelievable. Vampires don't exist".

I mean unbelievable as in: "Confronted by 25 enemies Jack who had never held a sword before killed them all in under 1 minute. After the brief battle Jack thought: "Lucky for me my enemies had slept badly the day before and hence were slow to react".

In my opinion there were several of these elements in the book and I can't stand books like that=(

This doesn't make any sense to me. You might suspend disbelief if within the parameters of the author's world vampires exist or that they can kill multiple humans in seconds. This is part of the authors world he's created. If you then have an unarmed man with no martial prowess slay two of these vampires you've contradicted your own 'rules'.

- Vampires exist in world - OK
- Vampires will slaughter multiple humans easily in combat - OK
- Humans are not modified or differentiated from known 'real' humans in any way - OK
- Average normal human slaughters multiple vampires unarmed - WTF

This is like Lois Lane whooping Superman's ass in hand to hand combat. 'Oh well Superman is obviously not real so if i can believe that then it's hardly a stretch for me to believe that an ordinary average women could unman a super buff flying alien.'

This is exactly my point. The author builds up a certain premise and you get into the story. All of a sudden he "breaks his own rules" making the story utterly unconvincing.

P.S: If more people want to discuss this I'll gladely create a new thread. Bear in mind though that these are opinions we are voicing, not facts=) Discussions such as these seem to have the tendancy to end up in:

- "I'm right!"

- "No! I'm right!".

 

[suciul]

This is exactly my point. The author builds up a certain premise and you get into the story. All of a sudden he "breaks his own rules" making the story utterly unconvincing.

Would not mind a thread; my point (not that clear in my mind at the time, but clarified by unrelated discussions regarding Bakker's Earwa) is that as a reader you believe "the author builds up a certain premise and you get into the story", but what you actually see is a snapshot, a very thin slice of that, and in your mind you complete the picture with "real world" analogs which may or may not apply.

So for example Aleksey may emanate a psychic field that weakens vampires in his presence - that's a ridiculous example on purpose prima face, but not inconsistent with the existence of the vampires - once you go into the fantastic, you can escalate the stakes in any way you want - see Heinlein and his latest books when he commingled all his heroes

My point is that once you accept one implausible (vampires - after all there is no explanation for why they exist, they are just given), accepting another implausible (Aleksey's prowess against them without explanation) does not violate any "rules". It's up to you to suspend disbelief or not...

For me, vampires are hard to believe in, so I rarely enjoy a book with them, and when I do I am willing to overlook minor niggles like that. But I accept that for you it may be different. It still comes down to where you draw the line in your suspension of disbelief.


So:

" Vampires exist in world - OK
- Vampires will slaughter multiple humans easily in combat - OK
- Humans are not modified or differentiated from known 'real' humans in any way - OK
- Average normal human slaughters multiple vampires unarmed - WTF" - who says Aleksey is an average human??? He is the hero after all... Sure if the soldier on the street would have Aleksey prowess, yeah I would see point 4, but remember how others fared against the vampires ....

 

[Mithfânion]

It's quite simple really; maintaining suspension of disbelief is directly related to the internal consistency of the world as established by the author.

You can't say "it's Fantasy, you have to suspend disbelief". Suspending disblief is possible if it is not broken by the author failing to be internally consistent.

My point is that once you accept one implausible (vampires - after all there is no explanation for why they exist, they are just given), accepting another implausible (Aleksey's prowess against them without explanation) does not violate any "rules".

I've not yet read Twelve. With that said.....

If the vampires in Twelve are able to take out several other people with considerable ease, but then encounter the hero who proceeds to take them apart, then the author needs to establish what makes him so special. If that has not happened, internal consistency has been demolished.

 

[Hobbit]

the author needs to establish what makes him so special. If that has not happened, internal consistency has been demolished.

Well, he is a trained soldier, proven in combat: though not a superhero type figure. But I will go back to the point that the vampires are sluggish; awoken from their sleep and the other reasons I gave above.


Mark

 

[kcf]

Well, add my voice to the chorus of praises for Twelve. I thought it was a wonderfully realized novel. I didn't ever have any problem with the suspension of disbelief discussed here.

 

[Werthead]

Going round the web, it looks like JV Jones' Watcher of the Dead will now be an early 2010 release.

Guy Gavriel Kay has said his new book will likely be a late 2010 release.

Pat Rothfuss is working on The Wise Man's Fear but didn't seem to think its completion was imminent, so that may slip to early 2010.

I'm hoping we will hear some news about Scott Lynch's The Republic of Thieves in the forseeable future, otherwise the late 2009 release for this is starting to look fairly shaky as well.

GRRM's A Dance with Dragons does actually look doable for a late 2009 release. But at the same time, we've been here before. Still, the last update seemed positive about the possibility.

A Memory of Light, Vol I looks doable for November. There may be an announcement on this before the end of April.

I'd be very surprised if Steven Erikson's Dust of Dreams wasn't released in 2009, but at the same time there's been a total absence of information on the book in the last few months. By now I'd have been expecting completion confirmation and would be expecting to see the prologue on Malazanempire soon, with the cover art to follow in maybe March or April. However, no news at all. Maybe it'll be a few months later than normal this year, say in the autumn rather than the summer?

 

[mjolnir]

Re Kay: Kay has confirmed he's working on a new book? Where can I find his words on this glorious news? [I'm something of a fan.]

This will be old news for many here, and may well have been posted already, but Ricardo Pinto's Stone Dance of the Chameleon trilogy is to be finished at last, with the publication of The Third God late this March. I've heard good things, [and bad things], from many, so perhaps some time this year I'll have to read The Chosen and see for myself now the series is done.

Here's hoping for Lynch news as well, though as with GRRM and Rothfuss I'll be happy to wait until it's ready. As per Scalzi's post on the subject of release dates and the way authors work, I'm sure there're things we don't know. It'll be along. Or it won't. And that would suck. But we'd get over it.

Still, ... hopin'
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grandma Webcams

 

[Mithfânion]

Mr. Shivers by Robert Bennett is one I'd been waiting for, that seems such a cool book. Orbit is publishing that in January 2010.

They've also put back Bullington's Sad Tale of the Brothers Gossbart from September to November. Tad Williams' Shadowmarch 3 has also been put back to 2010.

William Horwood's Hyddenworld and Daniel Duguay's The Motley Man, both new series starts for Tor UK this year, have been put back to February 2010. A shame that, they both looked really interesting.

It seems like most of the best authors are slipping away from us once again in terms of 2009 releases. This seems to happen every year. Still, there is loads of good stuff yet to come this year.

Rothfuss: Yes, I would love to see it in the Fall as originally predicted but given that Gollancz has moved to April 2010 and that Rothfuss, while in a good writing groove, mentions nothing of when it will probably be done, I think 2009 is out as well.

 

[PeterWilliam]

Clearly, 2010 will provide a ton of known quantities and, thus quite a haul in good reads. I like how 2009 is shaping up, however. Something unexpected, unforeseen will rise up and draw attention. I can't wait to see which story/author/publisher capitalizes upon the opportunity.

 

[Werthead]

Apparently Richard Morgan's change of schedule (he was supposed to be writing the Black Man sequel but was talked into writing all three books of the fantasy trilogy in a row) means that the sequel to The Steel Remains, The Dark Commands (formerly The Cold Commands), will now be out in June 2010.

 

[mjolnir]

Yes, many of the well-known great authors do seem to have a book coming out next year ... every year, don't they? But genius takes time.

Yes, those two Tor UK series starters look interesting, though they weren't on my immediate radar in a summer that also contained 'Crombie and Chris Wooding. Perhaps Tor UK is holding the books in order to get sequels in the can before launching.

I've heard, [not from mysterious hip sources, just from the knowledgeable around here], that Daw likes to do very thorough edits on the novels they publish, so I'm inclined to agree that Rothfuss's Wise Man's Fear probably won't appear this year, even if he does finish it before the fall. Also, Williams's Shadowrise and The Wise Man's Fear are both likely to do quite well, so Daw might not want them too close together.

Is the Bullington novel UK only, or is Orbit US publishing it too? There's also a new epic coming from Orbit, called The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N K Jemisin, though I'm not sure if it's happening on both sides of the pond.

I'm sure someone, [probably me], mentioned this upthread, but Daniel Abraham's The Price of Spring is now a definite release for July. [At least, it's listed in the Tor summer catalogue that Mith linked, which makes it sound pretty definite to me.] The UK omnibus of An Autumn War and The Price of Spring will follow in September, under the title Seasons of War. The series still doesn't seem to be getting its props, but I hear that Patrick Rothfuss blurbed An Autumn War, so perhaps that'll help a little.

Morgan: I enjoyed The Steel Remains quite a lot, -- more than many people seem to have, -- so I'm perfectly willing to wait how ever long he needs to make the sequel great. It's going to be a tough act to follow, but quite honestly I've got faith. [I think I actually prefer A Land Fit For Heroes to Black Man thus far, for reasons that are for an in-depth discussion thread rather than here.]

I only seem to be contributing to this thread recently. I'm reading many of the other discussions, [particularly the "Reading in..." threads], and I've been reading good stuff, but I'm going to university and am finding I haven't the time to come up with thoughts on each book.
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The hot box vaporizer

 

[Werthead]

Apparently Gollancz are also publishing the UK debut of Brandon Sanderson by releasing the Mistborn trilogy over 6 months. The first one should launch around the same time as Orbit's A Memory of Light, which could lead to some good cross-marketing. The rapid release of Sanderson could be as big a hit for Gollancz as Brent Weeks was for Orbit last year, especially since the Sanderson books have a lot better buzz and reviews around them.

I'll need to find out more, but I imagine Kearney's Corvus, set in the same world as The Ten Thousand, will hit in 2010. The Monarchies of God omnibuses are apprently still having problems and are slipping further into 2009. I wouldn't be shocked if they fell back to 2010 as well, if Solaris cannot resolve the problems they are having with Gollancz and Ace over the original manuscripts.