Regis
Matt (also known as Regis) is an avid gamer and lifelong fantasy reader. When not writing about himself in third-person he likes to work with webdesign, always with a cup of tea at hand.
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 [...]
Review: The Year of Our War
The 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 [...]
The Furniture Rule
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 [...]
Review: The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
It’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 [...]
Translations and the duty of publishers
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 [...]
Warming up for The Gathering Storm
Today 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 [...]
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson released
Brandon Sanderson’s somewhat experimental book Warbreaker was released yesterday. It is experimental because Sanderson decided to continuously publish the story chapter by chapter and revision by revision on his blog, giving readers an insight into the writing process. From the earliest rough draft to the final version, all is available for download on his blog, even now that the hardcover book has gone to bookstores. Whether this experimental process is a success (i.e. people actually paying for it) remains to be seen.
Personally I started reading an early version of Warbreaker a long time ago, and while I enjoyed the story [...]
Read the prologue from The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb
The prologue to Robin Hobb’s new book The Rain Wild Chronicles is available for your reading pleasure on Voyager UK’s blog. The Rain Wild Chronicles is a standalone two-part novel that follows the events after the Liveship Traders Trilogy. The first part is The Dragon Keeper and will be available at the end of this month. The second part is The Dragon Haven.
Robin Hobb is famous for her books about FitzChivalry and the Liveship Traders, both of which take place in the same world (The Realm of the Elderlings). Most recently she wrote Solder Son Trilogy, set in a new [...]
David Eddings is dead
Fantasy author David Eddings, aged 77, passed away last night. He is most famous for his series about Belgarion (The Belgariad, The Malloreon) and Sparhawk (The Elenium, The Tamuli).
Eddings has a special place for me since he was the author who introduced me to fantasy. It was during a book sale ten years ago or something that I picked up The Diamond Throne (mostly because of the awesome cover art by Keith Parkinson), and thanks to its accessibility it was soon followed by many other authors.
His writing feels more aimed at a younger audience — something that made me feel [...]
Author of the Week: George R.R. Martin
George R.R. Martin was born on September 20, 1948, is still alive and kicking, and mostly famous (in our circles) for his fantasy epic A Song of Ice and Fire (hereafter simply known as ‘Ice and Fire’, because the full title is too long, and the acronym ASoIaF is almost as bothersome to write).
When writing this first sentence I checked out Robert Jordan’s biography to see when he was born, so that I could scare you by drawing some parallels between unfinished epic fantasy series and old age. Uncanny as it might seem, Jordan and Martin were born on the [...]
-
Recent Comments
-
