Kurt Vonnegut, acclaimed author of novels such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle has passed away at the age of 84.
Sarah Monette has posted to her livejournal that she will be auctioning off a freshly printed ARC of The Mirador, with the proceeds from the auction going to the John M. Ford Memorial Book Endowment. The auction will open on April 12th and it will run for twenty-four hours, closing at the same time on April 13th. More details here.
The annual Locus Magazine poll is currently running, and voting is open to everyone who’s interested. The awards has one of the largest voter bases among SF/F literature fandom, and is very well-laid out, with suggestions for each category plus room to include fill-ins.
The deadline is April 15, so vote quickly.
The Dabel Brothers are continuing their teasing when it comes to their planned comic book adaption of Steven Erikson‘s acclaimed Malazan Book of the Fallen epic fantasy series. First, they gave us Whiskeyjack and now some friends have joined him. The new sketches feature Sorry, Tattersail, and Topper.
An except from Fatal Revenant, the second book in The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, has been added to Donaldson’s official site. The second half of the first chapter will be posted on May 9th, and the book is due out in October.
After a bit of a reading dry spell, the Easter weekend ended up being dedicated to a bit of unplanned but very enjoyable binge reading as the copy I won of Anne Bishop’s Belladonna arrived, shortly followed by the long-awaited Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner.
Sarah Monette has put up the first chapter of The Mirador, the sequel to Mélusine and The Virtu, on her website. The book is due out on August 7th, and hopefully we’ll get a few more sample chapters before then, as the first chapter looks very promising (not the least the addition of Mehitabel as a narrator).
Jacqueline Carey has updated her official site with a sample chapter from for Kushiel’s Justice, the second book in the second Terre d’Ange trilogy. She also notes that the Signed Page will have signed copies available and that they will be holding a contest for a copy of the book as well.
Nippon 2007, site for this year’s ... has announced that the final ballot was incorrectly reported due to technical errors. Specifically, in the Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) category, it appears that Pan’s Labyrinth should be on the list while Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest should be removed.
Our lengthy list of all the nominees, including a bevy of useful links, has been updated accordingly.
Via Making Light, the nominees for the Hugo Awards have been published. There’s a lot of interesting titles on the list, which we’ve linkified extensively for the benefit of the curious.
Daniel Abraham has given the Fantasy Book Critic an informative interview covering a wide range of topics. He discusses his start in publishing (including how he became an colleague and friend of George R.R. Martin) to his current projects, including the forthcoming A Betrayal in Winter, the sequel to the critically-acclaimed A Shadow in Summer.
Also discusses is his work on the latest Wild Cards book, Inside Straight (due from Tor at the start of 2007), and a new, all-original Wild Cards comic series from Dabel Brothers Productions and Marvel Comics.
A “sizzle trailer”—featuring partially-completed effects, and in some cases very rough test imagery, aimed at international exhibitors and distributors—has shown up online for the filmed adaption of Phillip Pullman‘s much-praised young adult fantasy novel, The Golden Compass. It looks like a lush realization of the novel’s alternate world.
Over at Comic Book Resources, Howard Chaykin spends some time discussing his work on adapting Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser to comic form.
The trailer to the forthcoming fantasy film Stardust, based on Neil Gaiman’s and Charles Vess’s award-winning illustrated novel, has been placed online. With an amazing cast featuring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfieffer, Robert De Niro Starring Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfieffer, Sienna Miller, Peter O’Toole, and more, it looks as gorgeous as Vess’s vision of this tale of the mundane world brushing shoulders with Faerie.
Tad Williams, author of such books as The Dragonbone Chair and Shadowmarch, has given an interview at Broken Frontier where he discusses his upcoming work on Aquaman from DC Comics.