The never-ending Dark Elf

R.A. Salvatore recently made a new book deal with Wizards of the Coast for six new books, all of them about his favourite character Drizzt Do’Urden, the renegade Dark Elf who has spawned countless dual-wielding Dark Elf Rangers in D&D sessions across the world. This is news that both made me happy to read yet another book about Drizzt, but also made me groan a bit because it’s yet another book about Drizzt.

Salvatore has written 20 (!) books about Drizzt, which is surprising because if any author would try to write a fantasy series of 20 books he would be stoned to death by his readers. If you even try to write only half of that you would have a series that eventually start to decline in quality* until you just try to keep things rolling for the planned end.

What makes the never-ending books about Drizzt work is that they are not part of a single series, instead consisting of six different series of 3-4 books. You have The Dark Elf Trilogy (3), The Icewind Dale Trilogy (3), Legacy of the Drow (4), Paths of Darkness (4), The Hunter’s Blade Trilogy (3), and Transitions (3). I have read them all, and I can guarantee that the books actually gets better.

Drizzt was never even intended as a main character. He was created as a sidekick for the Icewind Dale Trilogy, and afterwards got a series all on his own where his past is told. The very same thing happened to Artemis and Jarlaxle, who went from being enemies of Drizzt to their own series, The Sellswords (also very good by the way, I would probably want to read more about them than Drizzt). It seems like something that would happen to a TV series, where a side character steals all the show and get a spin-off.

So maybe Jordan shouldn’t have planned The Wheel of Time to be gigantic, but instead set the aim low and build on it from there? Losing a bit of that epic’ness but hopefully gaining focus and quality.

Maybe we could even have ignored Perrin.

* Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind.**

** What? I’m just sayin’…

2 Comments Jan 12, 2010 Regis News

And it’s done!

Twitter Tidbit for one and all from Jim Butcher.

The Dresden Files book 12, Changes, is now finished!

FINISHED! BWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAAAAAAAH!

4:48 AM Jan 4th from TweetDeck

2 Comments Jan 5, 2010 Ardua Twitter Tidbits

E-volutionary

First and foremost, Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful time and here’s to 2010 and all that lays before us.

It being a New Year, it is of course time to talk about the future and in particular e-books. Yes again, don’t give me that look. Specifically I’d like to talk about the perception of e-books and readers and mention some of the hurdles ahead. Part of this comes from two articles Regis linked me to and part of it is from good old personal experience.

Starting with the articles we have two big ones in the e-lit world, DIY book scanning and Copyrights & The Blind. In a way both are related in that they each deal with copyright, but both also show a glimpse of a possible future.

We won’t deal with the loaded issues that are DRM and copyrights, rather some of the comments made. There are already e-readers for blind people, but never one to miss an opportunity, Amazon plans to make a blind accessible Kindle. Daniel Reetz, in the scanning article, was prompted to make his cheap book scanner by book prices for his college courses.  As that community grows, there will be more and more available for people to download. It may be free, it may be pirated or it may come from the industry itself.

“There have to be things that you get with an e-book that you don’t get by making your own copies,” says Samuelson. “It’s not such as stark challenge for copyright owners, because not many people are going to take the trouble to make their own scanner system. Most of us want the convenience of buying digital books for the Kindle, Nook or Sony Reader.” -Pamela Samuelson, a professor at University of California at Berkeley, who specializes in digital-copyright law.

Webcomics have even commented on the possibilities of greater uptake in e-readers. Anyone who has ever had a packed commute next to someone trying to read a broadsheet newspaper would welcome Mr. Business getting his news through a reader or a phone. Perhaps it is a little too sci-fi to imagine, but I would love to see school children up to college students being freed of the burden of expensive and oftentimes heavy schoolbooks. That same device could be used for your morning paper and your evening read. Some companies already have readers planned for professionals. Dvd sales nowadays include special features above and beyond the movie, even in the “regular” edition of a disc. Some authors already publish companions to their universes that further flesh out and explain the book in your hand. The one I saw most recently was a fable and folklore book based in the Discworld which can be used to give greater background to Unseen Academicals.

In the end it comes down to how it is used and why. Certainly this is something I ran into with my father this Christmas. Trying to pick a gift for me, he knew I wanted an e-reader. I had my eye on the Sony Reader before they shelved it and re-launched with two versions of the same. I would love to own a Kindle, but they were unlikely to be on sale. My father, who has been a technology early adopter all his life, couldn’t understand why I’d want such a device, or why he’d pay so much for what he saw as a one trick pony. In the end it was easier to tell him to get me something else (I’ll tell you what it is when I actually get it). This Christmas I myself picked up several books. We asked here before if you prefer paper or plastic and people were divided. However e-readers are here to stay and they are no one trick pony, not for long anyway. E-readers are e-volving, if you’ll pardon the pun, and they aren’t just about the book in your hands anymore. I have my novel for my commute beside me and I admit freely that I love the feel and smell of the paper, but I would adore a device to fill in for all the other paper in my life. The paper we’re forced to live with or have to carry for whatever reason.

I foresee the fight between e-reader and print book going on for a while more. It is like the battle waged between digital cameras and film cameras. Both have their supporters and detractors, however going forward the cold plastic device you may imagine a reader to be may not necessarily be trying to replace your warm fantasy printed world. In my mind, nothing will beat a coffee, biscuit and good book in your hands, no matter how many buttons it has. At the same time, I want one. Not for that warm time with a good drink and good book, but for all the other times I’d be carrying material that needs or deserves reading.

Perhaps e-readers will win us over in the end by offering those special features like our movies, earning their place beside the paperback and your favourite cup, the handy tool for textbooks and papers tasked to support our fantasies.

8 Comments Jan 4, 2010 Ardua Articles

Review: The Year of Our War

The Year of Our WarThe Year of Our War is one of those books that only got picked up by me because it was standing on the fantasy shelf. I knew nothing about it, but as I tend to do with all new books I pick up on impulse I jump in with both feet, because it’s often on such occasions that I find the gold nuggets in a genre more and more populated by stereotype stories and never-ending series. And a gold nugget this is.

Right from the start it’s clear that this is no ordinary book. The world of the Fourlands incorporate elements from the renaissance as well as the modern world. At first it was a bit off-putting to discover things that don’t normally exist in your average fantasy world – such as drugs, cigarettes, newspapers, t-shirts, and jeans – since it seemed that the author didn’t go all the way when creating the new world. But once I learned to see through my scepticism and my own foolish notions of what is right and what is wrong in fantasy worlds it was easy to lay back and enjoy the ride.

The Fourlands has been waging a long and bloody war against a race of huge and monstrous insects, and it’s not going well. Ruling the Fourlands is the immortal and mysterious Emperor, assisted by The Circle, of which each member is the embodiment of a profession and through contests granted immortality. Among them is Jant, the Messenger, whose spot in the Circle has been fairly secure for the last two hundred years as he is the only one in a race of winged people who can fly. However, Jant seems intent to recklessly push the boundaries of both immortality and the patience of his friends to the limit with his addiction to a lethal drug. But it’s only when he is deeply within the effects of the drug – in quantities that would kill mortal men – that Jant can travel to a bizarre and dark alternate world, where he start to see a way to save the Fourlands against the insect threat. If the world is real that is.

Although the book is mainly about those immortal, Swainston does a good job at displaying the view from those that are not. Because after all, bitterness and envy run can only run high when looking at those that will never die, and knowing that you will. The character Swallow is determined to be the first Musician in the Circle, but it’s hard to see art as equal to swordsmanship when the biggest issue of a realm is killing insects before they kill you.

I like when books are intentionally vague in details of the world and not just cram all the worlds history, secrets, and present events into the first few chapters or prologue. If, after the first chapter, you are not wondering “how?” or “why?” and want to continue reading then the author did something wrong. But you could also take the secrecy too far, and I think that’s one of the books few flaws; unless you have read a summary of the story (like this review) it will require some effort to fully get into the world. Just a simple thing that everyone in the Circle have three different names is enough to confuse the best of us.

The book is well paced, and with flashbacks and present events it paints the bizarre and complicated picture of the world without banging you on the head with information. Although Jant has the traits to become your typical anti-hero I feel it would be an insult to already redeemed anti-heroes by including him in their midst. Jant is, to put it plainly, a douchebag, and considering that he was a douchebag before he became immortal – and still is two hundred years later – I’d say he is not likely to change his ways. But oddly enough it’s still fascinating to read about him.

This is a book much recommended if you have grown tired of your usual fantasy and like something weird. It’s a story told from the perspective of strange people with strange habits in a strange world, but it’s a good story – and that’s all that matters.

0 Comments Dec 16, 2009 Regis Reviews

The Furniture Rule

Robot Overlord with laser pirate sword

Robot Overlord with laser pirate sword

I read an interesting article in Guardian about authors who pretty much wrote science-fiction, but refused to acknowledge that what they wrote was, in fact, science-fiction. The story might take place in the future, might explore the effects of apocalyptic events… but there are no lasers or robots. Therefore not sci-fi, right? In a way it’s understandable to refuse to be categorized and keep your doors open to a wider audience, but on the other hand it seems crazy to alienate the readership that is most likely to pick your book up. It reminds me a little of when the Sci Fi Channel changed its name to SyFy to become “less geeky.”

We categorize books to help us go to the right shelf and find the kind of books we like, and it also helps publishers who can market their books to the right audience. Without properly categorized books I would probably have my mom buy me Twilight for Christmas with the explanation “it stood between that George Martin and Elizabeth Moon that you like…”

But there certainly is a negative side to categories as well. For example, you wouldn’t get me to pick up a book from the “Vampire Romance” section even if the author had won the Nobel-price in literature. I shy away from some categories like vampires to garlic (sorry, I’ll stop picking on Twilight now), and I can only expect that normal people do the same. How many readers have George R.R. Martin lost at first glance because it’s filed as “fantasy” and seems to be about dragons?

The very same author also has a view of categories that I read in Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective some time ago. He calls it “the furniture rule”, and it basically boils down to that a work is categorized based on the furniture around it. If your hero is surrounded by dragons, knights and wizards then it’s going to be filed under fantasy. If there are space ships, aliens and lasers then it’s going under science-fiction. Of course nothing is never this clear, because where do you file a book about time travelling knights armed with lasers riding on dragons*? Or a detective wizard in our modern world? Or a western gunslinger in a post-apocalyptic world with strange portals?

I’m getting a magazine from my local fantasy/sci-fi bookstore a few times per year, and at first I was a bit surprised when I saw books there like Conn Iggulden’s historical fiction (I love that genre-name) books about Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan. Yes, it’s certainly not fantasy, but I have read them and I enjoyed them very much. In fact, if you like fantasy this is the kind of books you should also like.

No, let a story be just a story. Instead of only reading books from a certain genre search across the boundaries of categorization and sometimes heed the “if you liked this one…”-advice. Who knows, it just might stand in the Vampire Romance shelf.

* Sadly there is no such story yet. But admit, you would read it.

2 Comments Dec 8, 2009 Regis Articles

Review: The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

The Gathering Storm UK CoverIt’s always hard to compare the last books in a series to the earlier ones, mostly because it’s in the last ones that all the climatic battles will take place and all the storylines will come to an end. You cannot have a third act without an act one and two, yet the third act will in almost every case be seen as ‘the best part’. That is very much how I feel about The Wheel of Time right now. It has dragged out for eleven books, and when Brandon Sanderson now takes over after the unfortunate death of Robert Jordan he has the honor of wrapping up all the story lines, kill all the characters, and write out all the battles. Question is: is he up for the task?

The tone of the novel is set right from the start in the prologue, with a loaming black storm and a sense that the battle is upon the world. I knew since the last DragonCon that part of the prologue was done by Robert Jordan himself, but where Jordan stopped and Brandon Sanderson begun I couldn’t tell at first. I did notice his style later during the reading, and Sanderson is definitely less free with his descriptions, instead preferring a tighter writing that still paints pictures satisfactory. Several times during the reading I entirely forgot that I was reading a different author than Jordan, only to be reminded later by noticing how “fast” things seemed to be moving.


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3 Comments Nov 6, 2009 Regis Reviews

Translations and the duty of publishers

"Robert Jordan" @ Flickr

Back when I started reading fantasy my English was crap. So the natural process was to pick up book translated to Swedish, in my case books by David Eddings. These days I wouldn’t touch an Eddings book even with a long stick, but back then it was they who got me into fantasy. One thing led to another, and I ended up borrowing translated Wheel of Time books (the translated title is “The Saga of the Return of the Dragon” or something stupid like that) from a friend who had all the books (to that date).

Reading translated books is a pain. Not only is there a margin for misinterpretation from the translator (ask me about the Swedish version of Lord of the Rings), but you first have to wait for the author to write and publish the book, and then for the local publisher to translate and publish it. Since for some unfathomable reason English to Swedish translations turns up with a much larger volume of words, the already thick Wheel of Time books each has to be cut in two. So while the rest of the world grumbles and mutters about eleven books, Swedish people are looking at twenty-two books. Yes, that’s right. Twenty-two.

Each of them for the price of a full book of course.

Now this could be a tragic tale in itself, but what is worse is that the Swedish publisher now has decided not to translate and publish the last three (to be six in Swedish) books by Brandon Sanderson.

The publisher cites declining sales and the death of the original author as reasons, and I guess that seems reasonable. No one really wants to wait another year for the translation when a new book is published. I know I didn’t. The entire mission of translating and publishing a vast book series like Wheel of Time seems doomed to fail at start, but I guess they didn’t anticipate it would take them twenty-five years to do it. When I started reading it all those years ago it wasn’t finished, and as soon as I ran out of translated books I picked up the untranslated ones and never looked back. I guess everyone will do that now.

But doesn’t the publisher have some kind of duty to fulfill the task they set out to do, no matter how long time it takes? What of all the people who have twenty-two books in their bookcase and can never complete the series?

1 Comment Nov 4, 2009 Regis News

Have a Butchers

Jim ButcherOr for the rest of you, come have a look.

The wedded writing duo of Jim Butcher and Shannon K. Butcher have quite a few tidbits for you.

First up is the man himself and the upcoming launch of Codex Alera book 6, First Lord’s Fury (Available from Amazon right now for a mind-boggling $9). If any of you can stand the suspense and fancy a minor spoiler, I direct you to the preview page on Jim’s site where every Tuesday we’ll get just a little more, so far we’re up to Chapter 3.

Shannon too has a book launch this November with the second in her Sentinel Wars series with excerpts for both “Finding The Lost” and the first book “Burning Alive” available on her site above.

Both can also be found on Twitter for those of you out there who have the social media bug. @Longshotauthor for Jim and @ShannonKButcher for Shannon.

(Word of warning though, Jim recently gave us the first line to the next Harry Dresden book, Changes, on Twitter. Spoiler doesn’t quite cover it.)

0 Comments Oct 28, 2009 Ardua News Twitter Tidbits

Warming up for The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm US CoverToday is the day when the long-awaited sequel to the way too long fantasy series The Wheel of Time is released. The writing and publishing of this series is a story in its own way, although I doubt even Robert Jordan would have been able to squeeze ten more than five books from it.

I think anyone that has started reading a long fantasy series that is currently unfinished (and it seems fantasy is a genre cursed with long series) lives with the fear of the author dying before it is completed, or the author simply seems to focus on other things (yes, I’m looking at you George R.R. Martin). It’s like reading a Sherlock Holmes story and finding the last revealing chapter to be ripped out. Now you will go around wondering who killed the butler, and you will never find out!

Well, that is exactly what happened to The Wheel of Time. After having squeezed out eleven books in the series Robert Jordan passed away in September 2007. Add insult to injury, Jordan had even proclaimed that the next book would be the last, even if it killed him. Funny as it is… no wait, that’s too cheap.

While fans were still left in shock, it was announced that Brandon Sanderson had been chosen to finish the series. Jordan had wisely (as in ‘someone would have dug him up, made him into a zombie, and forced him to reveal the end’-wisely) made plenty of notes so that at least the ending would be as Jordan had planned.

As Sanderson progressed – and he kept readers up to date on his blog – a dreadful discovery was made. It was just too much content to squeeze into one book. And after some more time, that it wouldn’t even fit into two books! The final volume of the series – by Jordan named A Memory of Light – was to be chopped up in three books: The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight (could be changed), and A Memory of Light.

This is where we now, with The Gathering Storm being released today. My copy has yet to arrive, probably thanks to me living in a backwards country where polar bears reportedly roam the streets. But when it arrives I will likely do like I do with all new fantasy books by favorite authors: burn through it and keep food, sleep, and communication from the outside world to a minimum until it is finished. And then it must be reviewed!

How do you review a Wheel of Time book? Well…


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3 Comments Oct 27, 2009 Regis General

Book Release: Strange Brew

Strange Brew is a new anthology of urban fantasy is out including new short stories by Jim Butcher and Patricia Briggs.  Jim’s Last Call follows Harry Dresden as he’s tracking down Meditrina Bassarid, a wine-loving maenad who is wreaking havoc in a Chicago bar.  Seeing Eye, by Patricia Briggs, is about a blind witch named Wendy Moira Keller who helps a werewolf search for his missing brother.

4 Comments Jul 9, 2009 Brian News
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