Four days into our vacation I have already gone through the same number of books. If the stack I brought is to last until our trip back, I may have to slow my pace somewhat. It might slow down of itself, though, as the ones I’ve read so far were some of the more anticipated books that I brought.
Just the other week, we picked up a nice stack of books for our summer holiday from, among other places, SF Bokhandeln in Gothenburg. We hope to make up for not having had time to read as much as we’ve wanted to over the last months by indulging in a few reading marathons over summer. No doubt, others have similar plans, and so we thought we’d share some of our ideas for good summer reads.
Katherine Kerr, Kate Elliot, Constance Ash, and other authors have started up a group blog, titled Deep Genre. Already some interesting posts are up, speculating on the future of the genres and of the U.K. genre publishing business. Go and read it, and add it to your aggregator.
After two years of waiting for word on his next novel, there’s now a deluge of information from Kay’s official site, Bright Weavings. All the details about the new book, from its title, a brief synopsis of the premise, and the entirety of the prologue can be found here.
A short essay by Carey has been posted to her new publisher’s site. It is titled "On becoming Imriel", and in it she discusses how she ended up writing more Kushiel books after the conclusion of the previous story, and what was difficult about changing to a new first-person point of view while still writing within the same setting and about many of the same characters. We also get some tiny spoilerish tidbits about Kushiel’s Scion.
A quite interesting interview with Jacqueline Carey can be found over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. She answers questions about her writing, for example why she started writing fantasy, and also gives some little tidbits of information about Kushiel’s Scion, which will be released on June 12th.
Via Sci-Fi Wire, it’s been announced that Dark Horse Comics has acquired the rights to Fritz Leiber’s stories of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (collected in a number of volumes, such as The First Book of Lankhmar and The Second Book of Lankhmar). Dark Horse plans to republish the stories, as well as reprinting a comic adaption by Mike Mignola and Howard Chaykin.
Most exciting of all, Dark Horse will launch a new original series, which will adapt stories into comic form as well as produce original comic stories (much like Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord have done, to popular and critical success, with Conan). Hopefully the team on the original comic series will be as high-caliber as Busiek-Nord and Mignola-Chaykin.
Dabel Brothers Productions have provided us with some advanced reading copies of their current series for review, and we gave them a try. All in all, the three series we read look pretty good, with the licensed properties in particular earning some special distinction. DB Pro says they’re going to provide science fiction and fantasy comics “done right”, and we think with these comics (and, of course The Hedge Knight) they’re on their way to doing this. Commentary on the three series we’ve read (Marshal, Magician: Apprentice, and Red Prophet) below the fold.
Comics renaissance man Mark Smylie—award-winning writer-artist-creator of the brilliant fantasy epic comic Artesia, founder of Archaia Studio Press, and sole creator of the award-nominated Artesia: Adventures in the Known World RPG (PDF available through Drive Thru RPG)—responds with interesting answers to an interview at Broken Frontier.
Artesia is a terrific work (we’ve recently mentioned a ten-page preview of the upcoming Artesia Besieged series, for those who want a taste), and is something that any self-respecting fan of epic fantasy (especially in the style of George R. R. Martin, as politics play a major role in these stories) and/or comics should check out. Word is that a hardcover release of the first collection is in the offing for an August release.
Scott Lynch, author of the forhcoming fantasy novel The Lies of Locke Lamora which has generated a great deal of buzz (and a purchase of movie rights by Warner Brothers even before the publication of the book), is interviewd at The Bookseller. Therein, he discusses how he came to find a publisher, his penchant for killing his cast of characters (which he blames on George R.R. Martin who, perhaps not coincidentally, has been quite vocal in his praise for the novel), and more.
This is one to keep an eye on.
A ten page preview of the continuation of Mark Smylie’s fantastic Artesia, Artesia Besieged, has been posted on Newsarama. The Artesia series is very probably the best fantasy work being published today in the American market, and Mark Smylie has proven himself to be a man of many talents, what with the Artesia RPG that he single-handedly created pulling in a great deal of popular and critical praise (and an Origins Awards nomination for Best Role Playing Game).
If you’re a fan of epic or heroic fantasy, expansive world-building, gritty medieval politics, and big set-piece battles, this is a series you must check out.
Guy Gavriel Kay has made an interesting post on his forum, discussing how readers bring themselves into the reading experience, and why reactions to a scene, character, or novel can vary so widely from one reader to another. To some degree it’s elementary, but it’s a good thing to remind people of from time to time when they get into discussing their reactions to a work of literature.
Via Emerald City, we learn that Ian Cameron Esslemont, Steven Erikson’s collaborator on the Malazan Empire setting and author of the small-press-published Night of Knives (which tells the tale of Dassem Ultor around the time of the deaths of Emperor Kellanved and Dancer), will now be published through Bantam UK. They will be republishing Night of Knives in hardcover, and then will be releasing Esslemont’s next Malazan book, The Return of the Crimson Guard, something Malazan fans will definitely be looking forward to.
Press release below the cut.
As part of her April update (and no, its not a joke), Jacqueline Carey has put up the first chapter from Kushiel’s Scion on her website, providing a tasty sampling of the book that is due out in June.
Anne Bishop has posted to her sff.net newsgroup and two Yahoo Groups discussion lists dedicated to her books that her next project (following Belladonna, the conclusion of the Ephemera duology that started with Sebastian) will feature Surreal, Daemon, Lucivar and Jaenelle. In other words, we get to return to the Realms of the Blood, for a story that will take place after the stories found in the Dreams Made Flesh collection. This one will not be a collection, however, but a full-sized novel. As a bonus, the book will also contain a reprint of the Surreal short-story "By the Time the Witchblood Blooms".