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 [...]
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 [...]
Have a Butchers
Or 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.
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.
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 [...]
Mythopoeic Awards: 2009 Finalists
Fantasy hard-hitters Neil Gaiman, Ursula K LeGuin, Gene Wolfe, Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett are amongst the finalists for the 2009 Mythopoeic Awards, announced yesterday.
The awards are given by the Mythopeoic Society, a non-profit organisation promoting ’study, discussion and enjoyment of fantastic and mythic literature’.
Nominees for the Scholarship Awards, which reward study of fantasy literature, are especially interesting to note. Mostly because they’ve just listed lots more things to go on my reading list!
The finalists, in full, are:
Adult Literature
Carol Berg, Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone (Roc)
Daryl Gregory, Pandemonium (Del Rey)
Ursula K. Le Guin, Lavinia (Harcourt)
Patricia A. McKillip, The [...]
Hugo Nominations: Best Novel 2009
The nominations for this year’s Hugo award for best novel are:
Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)
Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)
For once, I’ve read all of these. The Scalzi, Stross and Doctorow stories fall more under science fiction. Well, more or less. Anathem is very hard to place, and I’m willing to call it “speculative”, and not try to pin it down any further. The Graveyard Book is definitely fantasy. So I’m better informed than in [...]
Interactive Rights for A Song of Ice and Fire acquired
Cyanide Studios has acquired the interactive rights for the A Song of Ice and Fire series of books by George R.R. Martin.
This is pretty big news for ASoIaF fans, but really, I’m not sure how this will be pulled off. The only type of game this could really produce is something like Civilization or maybe an RTS. There’s just not enough magic in the series for Cyanide to pull off a RPG of any kind, and the types of characters you could play would be pretty limited. A sellsword or a knight. There’s just no room for diplomats, politicians, and [...]
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