After Tolkien, Jordan, Goodkind, Brooks, and Eddings, the fantasy author that I really got into was J.V. Jones, who happened to be the first female fantasy writer I ever read. Needless to say she left quite an impression on me as not only are all of her books—The Book of Words trilogy, The Barbed Coil, Sword of Shadows series—an important part of my collection, but she convinced me to try out other female authors who have since become favorites of mine including Robin Hobb, Jacqueline Carey, Kate Elliott, Margaret Weis, Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Haydon, Kristen Britain, etc. Unfortunately, with Ms. Jones’ last couple of releases there’s been a dramatic increase in wait time with her newest book “A Sword From Red Ice” finally seeing the light of day—Released October 16, 2007 (Tor) for US readers and October 18, 2007 (Orbit UK) for UK readers. Since Ms. Jones has been out of the spotlight for a while now, what better way to celebrate the release of her new book than with an interview :D So much love & respect to George Walkley from Little, Brown UK for the hookup, and to J.V. Jones for taking time out of her hectic schedule to answer a few questions. Also, be sure to watch Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist who will also be interviewing Ms. Jones, and I believe is taking questions…
Q: For someone who hasn’t read one of your novels, how would you describe your writing style, what book of yours would you recommend first picking up (and why), and what can readers expect with your titles?
J.V. Jones: For me, the only thing worth writing about is people and their personal conflicts. I hope my books have characters that readers care about. My main aim as a writer is to make my characters as real as possible. I want readers to feel that they know the Dog Lord, Raina Blackhail, Effie Sevrance, etc., and if they met them on the street it would be like meeting old friends (or enemies).
Q: “A Sword From Red Ice”, the long-awaited third volume in your current Sword of Shadows series is finally coming out this month (October 16, 2007 for US readers, October 18, 2007 for UK). Can you tell us a bit about the book without giving anything away?
J.V. Jones: A Sword From Red Ice is about families, about the joy, misery and guilt they bring, and how complicated the ties that bind us to our families are. It's also about families created through choice--fostering and friendship--and how we can finds things lacking in our real families in unexpected places.
Q: Some of the criticism aimed at your last book focused on too much exposition and too little dialogue or action. Do you ever pay attention to readers’ remarks and use that input when writing? Specifically, did you try to address any of these issues with “A Sword From Red Ice”?
J.V. Jones: I write the book I want to read. It's a simple as that.
Q: Fair enough :) On the flipside, your strengths include characterization and your descriptive abilities/world-building. Are these more important to you as a storyteller than say, the plot, pacing, etc., and what do you feel are the keys to writing great characters or establishing a realistic setting?
J.V. Jones: To me world-building is setting a stage for the characters. I want the world to provide realistic moral, social and economic boundaries. The fun happens when the characters overstep those boundaries. When I write for my characters I try to tell the truth. All the ignoble, insecure, jealous, small-minded stuff is right there next to the decent stuff.
Q: What’s the status report on the fourth Sword of Shadows book and where does it fit in relation to the series as a whole?
Q: For someone who hasn’t read one of your novels, how would you describe your writing style, what book of yours would you recommend first picking up (and why), and what can readers expect with your titles?
J.V. Jones: For me, the only thing worth writing about is people and their personal conflicts. I hope my books have characters that readers care about. My main aim as a writer is to make my characters as real as possible. I want readers to feel that they know the Dog Lord, Raina Blackhail, Effie Sevrance, etc., and if they met them on the street it would be like meeting old friends (or enemies).
Q: “A Sword From Red Ice”, the long-awaited third volume in your current Sword of Shadows series is finally coming out this month (October 16, 2007 for US readers, October 18, 2007 for UK). Can you tell us a bit about the book without giving anything away?J.V. Jones: A Sword From Red Ice is about families, about the joy, misery and guilt they bring, and how complicated the ties that bind us to our families are. It's also about families created through choice--fostering and friendship--and how we can finds things lacking in our real families in unexpected places.
Q: Some of the criticism aimed at your last book focused on too much exposition and too little dialogue or action. Do you ever pay attention to readers’ remarks and use that input when writing? Specifically, did you try to address any of these issues with “A Sword From Red Ice”?
J.V. Jones: I write the book I want to read. It's a simple as that.
Q: Fair enough :) On the flipside, your strengths include characterization and your descriptive abilities/world-building. Are these more important to you as a storyteller than say, the plot, pacing, etc., and what do you feel are the keys to writing great characters or establishing a realistic setting?
J.V. Jones: To me world-building is setting a stage for the characters. I want the world to provide realistic moral, social and economic boundaries. The fun happens when the characters overstep those boundaries. When I write for my characters I try to tell the truth. All the ignoble, insecure, jealous, small-minded stuff is right there next to the decent stuff.
Q: What’s the status report on the fourth Sword of Shadows book and where does it fit in relation to the series as a whole?J.V. Jones: I think there'll be five books in the series. The fourth book, which I'm currently writing, doesn't have a title yet.
Q: You’ve basically just written fantasy so far. Have you ever thought about writing a different genre or maybe in another format such as comic books, television, movie scripts, videogames, etc?
J.V. Jones: I'm a big fan of crime fiction. Reading it has helped me with plotting: a good crime novel lives or dies by its plot. One day I'd like to try my hand at solving a murder or two.
Q: I would definitely read that! So I really enjoyed The Book of Words trilogy but I thought you took a major leap forward writing-wise with “The Barbed Coil”, which has carried over in your Sword of Shadows series. What do feel have been the biggest improvements that you’ve made as a writer since “The Baker’s Boy” (1995)?
J.V. Jones: The Baker's Boy was the first book I wrote--no short stories or previous work--so I hope I've improved as a writer since then. Technically, one learns how to write tighter sentences, and how better to pace and plot a story. Overall, I try to be more honest now. At first I worried if one of my characters did something less than perfect. Will the readers still care about him? Now I let the characters be themselves; good, bad and ugly.
Q: In the past year, two of fantasy’s great authors passed away in Lloyd Alexander and Robert Jordan, the latter of which provided a blurb for your novel “A Fortress of Grey Ice”. Is there anything you would like to say?
J.V. Jones: I was very sorry to hear about the death of James Rigby, who wrote as Robert Jordan. As you mentioned, he graciously provided a cover quote for one of my books that has been used by publishers in several countries. Reading “The Eye Of The World” seventeen years ago was a thrilling experience for me. He was writing on the grand scale of Tolkien. He'll be missed.
Q: What’s been in your reading pile lately?
J.V. Jones: When I'm writing I tend to read a lot of non-fiction: it's where I get most of my ideas. Ice by Mariana Gosnell is a fascinating book full of interesting facts about ice, and is probably required reading for anyone writing fiction with the word "Ice" in the title. By that token, “Stiff” by Mary Roach is required reading for anyone writing about dead bodies.
Q: I’ll keep that in mind ;) Do you have anything else you’d like to say to your audience?
J.V. Jones: To learn more about the books and how I write visit my website jvj.com
Q: You’ve basically just written fantasy so far. Have you ever thought about writing a different genre or maybe in another format such as comic books, television, movie scripts, videogames, etc?
J.V. Jones: I'm a big fan of crime fiction. Reading it has helped me with plotting: a good crime novel lives or dies by its plot. One day I'd like to try my hand at solving a murder or two.
Q: I would definitely read that! So I really enjoyed The Book of Words trilogy but I thought you took a major leap forward writing-wise with “The Barbed Coil”, which has carried over in your Sword of Shadows series. What do feel have been the biggest improvements that you’ve made as a writer since “The Baker’s Boy” (1995)?
J.V. Jones: The Baker's Boy was the first book I wrote--no short stories or previous work--so I hope I've improved as a writer since then. Technically, one learns how to write tighter sentences, and how better to pace and plot a story. Overall, I try to be more honest now. At first I worried if one of my characters did something less than perfect. Will the readers still care about him? Now I let the characters be themselves; good, bad and ugly.
Q: In the past year, two of fantasy’s great authors passed away in Lloyd Alexander and Robert Jordan, the latter of which provided a blurb for your novel “A Fortress of Grey Ice”. Is there anything you would like to say?
J.V. Jones: I was very sorry to hear about the death of James Rigby, who wrote as Robert Jordan. As you mentioned, he graciously provided a cover quote for one of my books that has been used by publishers in several countries. Reading “The Eye Of The World” seventeen years ago was a thrilling experience for me. He was writing on the grand scale of Tolkien. He'll be missed.
Q: What’s been in your reading pile lately?
J.V. Jones: When I'm writing I tend to read a lot of non-fiction: it's where I get most of my ideas. Ice by Mariana Gosnell is a fascinating book full of interesting facts about ice, and is probably required reading for anyone writing fiction with the word "Ice" in the title. By that token, “Stiff” by Mary Roach is required reading for anyone writing about dead bodies.
Q: I’ll keep that in mind ;) Do you have anything else you’d like to say to your audience?
J.V. Jones: To learn more about the books and how I write visit my website jvj.com
9:01 AM | 
Posted by
Robert |
PS Publishing has launched their new Webstore HERE and in celebration of its launch, 50% off the cover price of all pre-2007 book titles (back-issues of Postscripts magazine are not included) will be available until the end of November 2007, that is while supplies last so don’t miss out! Meanwhile, in support of Alison Croggon’s YA fantasy series Pellinor, there’s now a comprehensive website that readers can check out HERE. If you haven’t heard of the series here’s a blurb from Tamora Pierce (Protector of the Small, The Circle Universe)—“An epic fantasy in the Tolkien tradition, with a strong girl hero who is entirely believable in her struggles to master herself and learn the secrets of her identity. I couldn't put it down!" According to this press release HERE, Solaris Books has acquired the world mass market rights to Brian Lumley’s latest Lovecraftian story collection, The Taint and Other Novellas: Best Mythos Tales Volume One, which will be published in late 2008 with a second, as yet untitled volume, to be published the following year. Hey, I’m a fan of Lumley and I love Lovecraft so this sounds like something to look forward to :). Solaris also has an EXTRACT to “The Blood King” (January 2008), the sequel to Gail Z. Martin’s “The Summoner”.
Around the blogosphere, A Dribble of Ink has an interview with Mark J. Ferrari (The Book of Joby) HERE, the Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin’ Book Review interrogates Nathalie Mallet (The Prince of the Golden Cage) HERE, Fantasy Debut has a load of stuff going on including giveaways for “The Book of Joby” HERE and Amanda Ashby’s “You Had Me At Halo” HERE, Gav’s Blog has a UK competition for a copy of Jeff Somers’ “The Electric Church” HERE, Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review reviews Naomi Novik’s “Empire of Ivory” HERE, Grasping for the Wind covers Terry Pratchett’s “Making Money” HERE, Neth Space is a father!!!, Of Blog of the Fallen has a wonderful review of Neil Gaiman’s “Fragile Things” HERE, SciFiChick checks out the new Stars: Death Star novel HERE, The Bodhisattva has a very comprehensive review HERE on “Night of Knives” by Ian Cameron Esslemont, The Book Swede is hosting a US-only giveaway for Mayer Alan Brenner’s “Catastrophe’s Spell” HERE, and The Genre Files explores some interesting topics such as the quality of fantasy. Last, but definitely not least, I haven’t said enough about La Gringa’s The Swivet, which is an excellent blog run by someone with a lot of experience in the book industry (publicity/marketing) and is a tremendous asset to publishers, authors and bloggers alike. She does a great job of staying on top of the latest book reviews, interviews, genre acquisitions and much, much more, so be sure to bookmark The Swivet if you haven’t already…
In Fantasy Book Critic news, I have so many books to review that I’m not even going to try and list of any them here. However, if you are curious about what I have to read, you can check out my ‘Review Pile’ on the Fantasy Book Critic Myspace page HERE which is pretty comprehensive, and there’s also an index of all of the books that have been reviewed (77 at last count!), authors interviewed and other articles that have appeared on the website. Speaking of interviews, I have a bunch for you in the near future. Already completed are Q&As with J.V. Jones, R.A. Salvatore (by David Craddock), Kristen Britain and Joel Shepherd, and I’m waiting on answers from Catherynne M. Valente, Wayne Barlowe and will also be interrogating Charlie Huston, David Keck and many others. So, starting tomorrow, keep your eyes peeled! Finally, you may be wondering, who the heck is David Craddock? You may or may not remember, but a while back I was trying to get a feature going for guest reviewers. Needless to say, that idea didn’t pan out, so when the opportunity arose for Mr. Craddock to contribute to Fantasy Book Critic, I was pretty excited, especially because of his background—pursuing a Bachelor Degree in English at Kent State University; wrote professionally for IGN, Shack News, Gameworld Network, Played To Death Magazine, et cetera—the fact that he’s a huge fantasy fan, and an aspiring novelist. So I hope you’ll give Mr. Craddock a warm welcome and I think you’ll be extremely pleased with what he brings to Fantasy Book Critic…
Around the blogosphere, A Dribble of Ink has an interview with Mark J. Ferrari (The Book of Joby) HERE, the Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin’ Book Review interrogates Nathalie Mallet (The Prince of the Golden Cage) HERE, Fantasy Debut has a load of stuff going on including giveaways for “The Book of Joby” HERE and Amanda Ashby’s “You Had Me At Halo” HERE, Gav’s Blog has a UK competition for a copy of Jeff Somers’ “The Electric Church” HERE, Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review reviews Naomi Novik’s “Empire of Ivory” HERE, Grasping for the Wind covers Terry Pratchett’s “Making Money” HERE, Neth Space is a father!!!, Of Blog of the Fallen has a wonderful review of Neil Gaiman’s “Fragile Things” HERE, SciFiChick checks out the new Stars: Death Star novel HERE, The Bodhisattva has a very comprehensive review HERE on “Night of Knives” by Ian Cameron Esslemont, The Book Swede is hosting a US-only giveaway for Mayer Alan Brenner’s “Catastrophe’s Spell” HERE, and The Genre Files explores some interesting topics such as the quality of fantasy. Last, but definitely not least, I haven’t said enough about La Gringa’s The Swivet, which is an excellent blog run by someone with a lot of experience in the book industry (publicity/marketing) and is a tremendous asset to publishers, authors and bloggers alike. She does a great job of staying on top of the latest book reviews, interviews, genre acquisitions and much, much more, so be sure to bookmark The Swivet if you haven’t already…
In Fantasy Book Critic news, I have so many books to review that I’m not even going to try and list of any them here. However, if you are curious about what I have to read, you can check out my ‘Review Pile’ on the Fantasy Book Critic Myspace page HERE which is pretty comprehensive, and there’s also an index of all of the books that have been reviewed (77 at last count!), authors interviewed and other articles that have appeared on the website. Speaking of interviews, I have a bunch for you in the near future. Already completed are Q&As with J.V. Jones, R.A. Salvatore (by David Craddock), Kristen Britain and Joel Shepherd, and I’m waiting on answers from Catherynne M. Valente, Wayne Barlowe and will also be interrogating Charlie Huston, David Keck and many others. So, starting tomorrow, keep your eyes peeled! Finally, you may be wondering, who the heck is David Craddock? You may or may not remember, but a while back I was trying to get a feature going for guest reviewers. Needless to say, that idea didn’t pan out, so when the opportunity arose for Mr. Craddock to contribute to Fantasy Book Critic, I was pretty excited, especially because of his background—pursuing a Bachelor Degree in English at Kent State University; wrote professionally for IGN, Shack News, Gameworld Network, Played To Death Magazine, et cetera—the fact that he’s a huge fantasy fan, and an aspiring novelist. So I hope you’ll give Mr. Craddock a warm welcome and I think you’ll be extremely pleased with what he brings to Fantasy Book Critic…As The Wheel Turns - A Robert Jordan Memoir
By: David Craddock
On September 16, 2007, James Oliver Rigney Jr., known as "Robert Jordan" to his legions of fans around the world, succumbed to cardiac amyloidosis. I have spent the past month in shock, stopping to stare at my Wheel of Time hardback collection and wondering what can possibly be said--or rather, what hasn't already been said--about this author that readers of fantasy literature have placed on a pedestal along with the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien. What did this man, who could craft 800 page behemoths with such depth and history that one could almost consider them richer in culture and civilization than our own planet Earth, mean to me as a reader? A writer?
In short: everything.
I have been a reader all my life. I started with picture books before quickly and eagerly graduating to "chapter" books, digesting the likes of Judy Blume, R.L. Stine, and Roald Dahl faster than my parents could buy them. I would read for fun, I would read to complete my local library's summer reading program, and when incentives such as Pizza Hut coupons from my elementary school were involved, I would read for competition. I loved meeting new characters, and I loved discovering new authors that served to introduce me to their characters, and their worlds.
Fantasy literature was relatively unfamiliar to me in 1996, my freshman year of high school. It wasn't that I didn't like it, or had no interest in reading it, but simply hadn't gotten around to testing those particular literary waters. During Christmas of that same year, my Uncle Brad bought my sister a hefty paperback entitled The Eye of the World. He thought she might enjoy it, but my sister didn't show interest, so my Uncle decided to hand the book over to me. I turned it over in my hands, examining the cover, as well as the praises of book critics littering the back cover and the first several pages. So this is a fantasy book, I thought. Haven't read one of these before. Might as well give it a shot.
Within minutes, I was obsessed. I quickly latched onto Rand al'Thor, who had to flee his village with his friends Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara after their village, the Two Rivers, was attacked by Trollocs, goblin-like creatures, late one night. When Rand's love interest, Egwene al'Vere, and the village nurse, Nynaeve al'Meara, decided to tag along, the characters' relationships began to blossom, and my interest grew parallel.
Each character had their own unique histories, their own storylines with their own ambitions, and I came to care about each and every one of them. The best moments in any Wheel of Time novel, at least for me, came when the characters would all end up in the same place at the same time. For me, and for so many other fans of Jordan's work, those meetings became family reunions, and I would not miss attending them for anything--not even schoolwork.
When the 1997 spring semester began, I was almost finished with The Eye of the World. So enraptured was I with "Randland"--to my knowledge, Robert Jordan never officially named his world, so fans took it upon themselves to call it the aforementioned--that I would take my seat in one class, read until the bell rang, race to my next classroom, and read there as well. As soon as I finished one book, I would beg my mother to drive me to the nearest bookstore--I couldn't drive yet--so that I could pick up the next volume. She encouraged my reading, and was always willing to purchase me a new book when I wanted one--of course, I don't think she knew I read in school from first bell to last. Reading during school was perfect, because I didn't have distractions such as setting the table, washing dishes, or taking out the trash to interfere with my reading.
Inevitably, school presents its own set of "distractions," and though I knew that a teacher would, eventually, comment on my lack of attention in his or her class, I just didn't care. All I wanted to do was read.
One day during my freshman English course, just such an event occurred. I was, of course, wrapped up in a Wheel of Time novel, so I didn't hear the class start to snicker until I looked up and saw my teacher, Mr. Christine, standing over me. He was completely straight-faced: no grin, no frown. What could this mean? "See me after class," he said. I closed my book and waited for the bell to ring. After all the other students had departed, I trudged across the room to Mr. Christine's desk. He sat back, studied me for a moment, and said, "I notice you've been doing a lot of reading in my class."
"Yes, sir," I said.
"What are you reading?"
"It's a fantasy series called The Wheel of Time."
"Do you like fantasy?"
"I've never read it before. I got the first book as a Christmas gift."
Mr. Christine nodded, studied me for a few moments longer, then got up and rummaged through one of the small bookshelves he kept in the classroom, each of which was stuffed with novels for students to read once they'd finished their assignments. This was a rarity, for high school kids generally prefer to pass notes, whisper among themselves, or spit wads of paper at one another until they're finally allowed to go home at the end of the day.
After a few minutes, Mr. Christine turned to me and handed me a slim, yellow book--literally, for not only was the cover itself yellow, but the book's 250 pages had also yellowed with age. "My wife got me this for Christmas in 1982," my teacher said. "I haven't read it in years. Why don't you take it? If you like it, you can have the rest."
I stared wide-eyed at the book. Pawn of Prophecy, by David Eddings. Wow! A teacher who had not punished me for reading during his class each and every day for almost two weeks, but who had instead given me something new to read. I came back the next day and said, "I really enjoyed the book."
He blinked at me. "You finished it already?"
I nodded. "Yeah. It was great."
Mr. Christine smiled, and said, "I'm not too surprised. Here." With that, he reached under his desk to withdraw a plastic bag with four other books, the last four of the series.
Though Jordan's Wheel of Time series remains a favorite of mine to this day, the waiting time between book releases sometimes extended to as long as two and a half years, which meant I was inevitably forced to seek out other reading material. I found my way to Terry Goodkind, Sara Douglass, Terry Brooks, R.A. Salvatore, Margaret Weis, Tracey Hickman, Trudi Canavan, and countless other authors--but the day a new Robert Jordan novel came out, I was at my local bookstore the moment it opened for business, literally bouncing on my toes to get the newest installment to take home and read straight through without interruption.
Although my Uncle is the one who gave me my first fantasy book, Jim Rigney is the man not only responsible for introducing me to high romance, but persuading me--through the use of excruciating waits between releases--to branch out and read other material. Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Elayne, Min, Nynaeve, Lan, Moiraine, Siuan--all of these characters and so many more were all of Jordan's creation, and all of them were responsible for starting me on a reading and writing path that will never end.
Thank you, Robert Jordan. May the Creator shelter you, and the Light illumine you always...
By: David Craddock
On September 16, 2007, James Oliver Rigney Jr., known as "Robert Jordan" to his legions of fans around the world, succumbed to cardiac amyloidosis. I have spent the past month in shock, stopping to stare at my Wheel of Time hardback collection and wondering what can possibly be said--or rather, what hasn't already been said--about this author that readers of fantasy literature have placed on a pedestal along with the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien. What did this man, who could craft 800 page behemoths with such depth and history that one could almost consider them richer in culture and civilization than our own planet Earth, mean to me as a reader? A writer?In short: everything.
I have been a reader all my life. I started with picture books before quickly and eagerly graduating to "chapter" books, digesting the likes of Judy Blume, R.L. Stine, and Roald Dahl faster than my parents could buy them. I would read for fun, I would read to complete my local library's summer reading program, and when incentives such as Pizza Hut coupons from my elementary school were involved, I would read for competition. I loved meeting new characters, and I loved discovering new authors that served to introduce me to their characters, and their worlds.
Fantasy literature was relatively unfamiliar to me in 1996, my freshman year of high school. It wasn't that I didn't like it, or had no interest in reading it, but simply hadn't gotten around to testing those particular literary waters. During Christmas of that same year, my Uncle Brad bought my sister a hefty paperback entitled The Eye of the World. He thought she might enjoy it, but my sister didn't show interest, so my Uncle decided to hand the book over to me. I turned it over in my hands, examining the cover, as well as the praises of book critics littering the back cover and the first several pages. So this is a fantasy book, I thought. Haven't read one of these before. Might as well give it a shot.
Within minutes, I was obsessed. I quickly latched onto Rand al'Thor, who had to flee his village with his friends Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara after their village, the Two Rivers, was attacked by Trollocs, goblin-like creatures, late one night. When Rand's love interest, Egwene al'Vere, and the village nurse, Nynaeve al'Meara, decided to tag along, the characters' relationships began to blossom, and my interest grew parallel.
Each character had their own unique histories, their own storylines with their own ambitions, and I came to care about each and every one of them. The best moments in any Wheel of Time novel, at least for me, came when the characters would all end up in the same place at the same time. For me, and for so many other fans of Jordan's work, those meetings became family reunions, and I would not miss attending them for anything--not even schoolwork.
When the 1997 spring semester began, I was almost finished with The Eye of the World. So enraptured was I with "Randland"--to my knowledge, Robert Jordan never officially named his world, so fans took it upon themselves to call it the aforementioned--that I would take my seat in one class, read until the bell rang, race to my next classroom, and read there as well. As soon as I finished one book, I would beg my mother to drive me to the nearest bookstore--I couldn't drive yet--so that I could pick up the next volume. She encouraged my reading, and was always willing to purchase me a new book when I wanted one--of course, I don't think she knew I read in school from first bell to last. Reading during school was perfect, because I didn't have distractions such as setting the table, washing dishes, or taking out the trash to interfere with my reading.Inevitably, school presents its own set of "distractions," and though I knew that a teacher would, eventually, comment on my lack of attention in his or her class, I just didn't care. All I wanted to do was read.
One day during my freshman English course, just such an event occurred. I was, of course, wrapped up in a Wheel of Time novel, so I didn't hear the class start to snicker until I looked up and saw my teacher, Mr. Christine, standing over me. He was completely straight-faced: no grin, no frown. What could this mean? "See me after class," he said. I closed my book and waited for the bell to ring. After all the other students had departed, I trudged across the room to Mr. Christine's desk. He sat back, studied me for a moment, and said, "I notice you've been doing a lot of reading in my class."
"Yes, sir," I said.
"What are you reading?"
"It's a fantasy series called The Wheel of Time."
"Do you like fantasy?"
"I've never read it before. I got the first book as a Christmas gift."
Mr. Christine nodded, studied me for a few moments longer, then got up and rummaged through one of the small bookshelves he kept in the classroom, each of which was stuffed with novels for students to read once they'd finished their assignments. This was a rarity, for high school kids generally prefer to pass notes, whisper among themselves, or spit wads of paper at one another until they're finally allowed to go home at the end of the day.
After a few minutes, Mr. Christine turned to me and handed me a slim, yellow book--literally, for not only was the cover itself yellow, but the book's 250 pages had also yellowed with age. "My wife got me this for Christmas in 1982," my teacher said. "I haven't read it in years. Why don't you take it? If you like it, you can have the rest."
I stared wide-eyed at the book. Pawn of Prophecy, by David Eddings. Wow! A teacher who had not punished me for reading during his class each and every day for almost two weeks, but who had instead given me something new to read. I came back the next day and said, "I really enjoyed the book."
He blinked at me. "You finished it already?"
I nodded. "Yeah. It was great."
Mr. Christine smiled, and said, "I'm not too surprised. Here." With that, he reached under his desk to withdraw a plastic bag with four other books, the last four of the series.
Though Jordan's Wheel of Time series remains a favorite of mine to this day, the waiting time between book releases sometimes extended to as long as two and a half years, which meant I was inevitably forced to seek out other reading material. I found my way to Terry Goodkind, Sara Douglass, Terry Brooks, R.A. Salvatore, Margaret Weis, Tracey Hickman, Trudi Canavan, and countless other authors--but the day a new Robert Jordan novel came out, I was at my local bookstore the moment it opened for business, literally bouncing on my toes to get the newest installment to take home and read straight through without interruption.
Although my Uncle is the one who gave me my first fantasy book, Jim Rigney is the man not only responsible for introducing me to high romance, but persuading me--through the use of excruciating waits between releases--to branch out and read other material. Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Elayne, Min, Nynaeve, Lan, Moiraine, Siuan--all of these characters and so many more were all of Jordan's creation, and all of them were responsible for starting me on a reading and writing path that will never end.
Thank you, Robert Jordan. May the Creator shelter you, and the Light illumine you always...
On one side you have Sarah Monette, a John W. Campbell-nominated novelist/short story writer whose bibliography includes The Doctrine of Labyrinth series (Mélusine, The Virtu, The Mirador reviewed HERE) and the 2003 Spectrum Award-winning short “Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland.” On the other side you have Elizabeth Bear, the 2005 John W. Campbell Award winner for Best New Writer and prolific author of the Jenny Casey trilogy (Bantam Spectra), “Carnival”, “Undertow”, “Whiskey & Water” (Roc), and numerous short fiction. What happens when you put the two together? You get a pretty special pairing whose collaborations include “Ile of Dogges” (reprinted in Gardner Dozois' Year’s Best Science Fiction for 2006), the forthcoming "Boojum" short story (Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Jeff & Ann VanderMeer) and the novel “A Companion To Wolves”.
When I first started “A Companion To Wolves” I thought it was just going to be another run-of-the-mill fantasy. I mean you had humans who bonded telepathically with wolves; trolls & wyverns for enemies; and Norse culture/mythology as a major influence in the naming of characters, places, & things, the northern setting, and the religion (Othinn, Ragnarok, Freya, et cetera). Of course I should have known better. While I haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading any Elizabeth Bear, I have read and enjoyed Ms. Monette’s The Doctrine of Labyrinth books, which are known for being of a different breed. One of the most intriguing aspects about her series is the way she explores relationships and sexuality, both of which are carried over into “A Companion To Wolves”. Basically, the bond shared between the wolves and the humans is very intimate and closely follows the rules of a pack mentality. In other words, each ‘pack’ is led by a dominate female or konigenwolf, with the rest of the wolves and their partners falling into a hierarchical rank. For the humans bonded to the wolves, they are driven by the same primal urgings as their brothers or sisters. Nowhere is this more evident than when a bitch or she-wolf goes into heat. Since all of the Wolf-Brethren are male, mating season obviously introduces a number of interesting conflicts; not just among the wolfheall, but also with how the bonded are perceived by some of the wolfless. While the sexual practices of the wolfheall was the most startling difference in an otherwise familiar fantasy tale, there were other variations that I appreciated. For instance, I liked how the humans and wolves communicated not by words, which is a common trope, but by smell and imagery—sun-warmed pine boughs, the scent name of the konigenwolf Viradechtis is one such example. I also liked the pack mentality which led to different takes on politics & relationships, and the more matriarchal gender roles practiced by the trolls & svartalfar (a dwarf-like race) though I thought the authors didn’t spend enough time in this area.
What I didn’t like as much were the names. There’s a whole smorgasbord of them, both wolves & bonded, and since a lot of them are similar, it’s kind of hard to keep track of who’s who even with the dramatis personae included by the authors. Plus, tithe-boys, potential wolfcarls, select a new name if they are chosen and that just adds to the confusion. Also, I was a little disappointed that the history behind how humans & wolves first started bonding with each other wasn’t explored in fuller detail; that the trolls were depicted mainly as monsters without any say on their part (except towards the end), and the svartalfar were almost as underdeveloped.
Of the story, it’s fairly conventional. Told in a third-person point-of-view, “A Companion To Wolves” centers on Njall, a boy on the cusp of manhood who becomes bonded to Viradechtis, a konigenwolf who will one day lead her own pack with Isolfr—Njall’s chosen name—by her side. Learning the ways of a wolfcarl, developing friendships & love, submitting to the passions of the heat, regaining the respect of his father, et cetera, are all part of the more intimate storylines. The broader picture deals with the increased threat of trolls invading the wolfhealls’ lands, the dwindling numbers of the wolfcarls, and a race thought to be mere legend who hold the key to defeating the trolls once and for all, if Isolfr can discover the way…
According to Ms. Bear’s website, “A Companion To Wolves” originally started as a satirical novella on the “companion animal fantasy” subgenre, but eventually evolved into something much more profound. What Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear have done with “A Companion To Wolves” is taken a worn-out idea and breathed new life into it, delivering a richly crafted fantasy that is familiar enough to let readers feel right at home, while opening their eyes to a whole new world of possibilities. Because of its uncompromising sexuality, “A Companion To Wolves” is definitely geared more toward an adult audience and may turn off certain readers, but I thought it was easily the most accessible novel that I’ve read by Ms. Monette, and I think fans of Robin Hobb, Lois McMaster Bujold, Anne McCaffrey and of course the collaborating authors, should think highly of the book. In the end, I may have had a few quibbles with the novel, but it was nothing serious and I’m sure that I won’t be the only one clamoring for Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear’s swift return to the world of Iskryne…
When I first started “A Companion To Wolves” I thought it was just going to be another run-of-the-mill fantasy. I mean you had humans who bonded telepathically with wolves; trolls & wyverns for enemies; and Norse culture/mythology as a major influence in the naming of characters, places, & things, the northern setting, and the religion (Othinn, Ragnarok, Freya, et cetera). Of course I should have known better. While I haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading any Elizabeth Bear, I have read and enjoyed Ms. Monette’s The Doctrine of Labyrinth books, which are known for being of a different breed. One of the most intriguing aspects about her series is the way she explores relationships and sexuality, both of which are carried over into “A Companion To Wolves”. Basically, the bond shared between the wolves and the humans is very intimate and closely follows the rules of a pack mentality. In other words, each ‘pack’ is led by a dominate female or konigenwolf, with the rest of the wolves and their partners falling into a hierarchical rank. For the humans bonded to the wolves, they are driven by the same primal urgings as their brothers or sisters. Nowhere is this more evident than when a bitch or she-wolf goes into heat. Since all of the Wolf-Brethren are male, mating season obviously introduces a number of interesting conflicts; not just among the wolfheall, but also with how the bonded are perceived by some of the wolfless. While the sexual practices of the wolfheall was the most startling difference in an otherwise familiar fantasy tale, there were other variations that I appreciated. For instance, I liked how the humans and wolves communicated not by words, which is a common trope, but by smell and imagery—sun-warmed pine boughs, the scent name of the konigenwolf Viradechtis is one such example. I also liked the pack mentality which led to different takes on politics & relationships, and the more matriarchal gender roles practiced by the trolls & svartalfar (a dwarf-like race) though I thought the authors didn’t spend enough time in this area.
What I didn’t like as much were the names. There’s a whole smorgasbord of them, both wolves & bonded, and since a lot of them are similar, it’s kind of hard to keep track of who’s who even with the dramatis personae included by the authors. Plus, tithe-boys, potential wolfcarls, select a new name if they are chosen and that just adds to the confusion. Also, I was a little disappointed that the history behind how humans & wolves first started bonding with each other wasn’t explored in fuller detail; that the trolls were depicted mainly as monsters without any say on their part (except towards the end), and the svartalfar were almost as underdeveloped.
Of the story, it’s fairly conventional. Told in a third-person point-of-view, “A Companion To Wolves” centers on Njall, a boy on the cusp of manhood who becomes bonded to Viradechtis, a konigenwolf who will one day lead her own pack with Isolfr—Njall’s chosen name—by her side. Learning the ways of a wolfcarl, developing friendships & love, submitting to the passions of the heat, regaining the respect of his father, et cetera, are all part of the more intimate storylines. The broader picture deals with the increased threat of trolls invading the wolfhealls’ lands, the dwindling numbers of the wolfcarls, and a race thought to be mere legend who hold the key to defeating the trolls once and for all, if Isolfr can discover the way…
According to Ms. Bear’s website, “A Companion To Wolves” originally started as a satirical novella on the “companion animal fantasy” subgenre, but eventually evolved into something much more profound. What Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear have done with “A Companion To Wolves” is taken a worn-out idea and breathed new life into it, delivering a richly crafted fantasy that is familiar enough to let readers feel right at home, while opening their eyes to a whole new world of possibilities. Because of its uncompromising sexuality, “A Companion To Wolves” is definitely geared more toward an adult audience and may turn off certain readers, but I thought it was easily the most accessible novel that I’ve read by Ms. Monette, and I think fans of Robin Hobb, Lois McMaster Bujold, Anne McCaffrey and of course the collaborating authors, should think highly of the book. In the end, I may have had a few quibbles with the novel, but it was nothing serious and I’m sure that I won’t be the only one clamoring for Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear’s swift return to the world of Iskryne…
Order “God’s Demon” HERE
Read An Excerpt HERE
From acclaimed artist Wayne Barlowe, whose distinctive stamp can be found in literature (Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials, Expedition), film (Harry Potter 3 + 4, Blade II, Hellboy), television (Discovery Channel’s Alien Planet, Babylon 5) and videogames (Dead Rush, Prototype) as well as appearing in numerous museums, Time, Life and Newsweek (for a much more comprehensive list of accomplishments, read Mr. Barlowe’s biography HERE), comes the creator’s latest visionary piece “God’s Demon”, an extraordinary fantasy novel set in the bowels of Hell.
Influenced by John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” (Barlowe recently did pre-production artwork for the film adaptation) and his own artbooks Barlowe’s Inferno (1998) & Brushfire: Illuminations from the Inferno (2001) – none of which I’ve read unfortunately – “God’s Demon” introduces an underworld where Lucifer is missing, the land is divided into territories each governed by a Demons Major or Minor (former seraphim), and Beelzebub is the ruling Prince Regent. While most of the Fallen have accepted their lot as demons presiding over the damned, one Demon Major named Sargatanas has not forgotten where he came from, and it’s reflected in the architecture of his city Adamantinarx-Upon-the-Acheron and the way he rules. It’s because of the inadvertent machinations of Lilith though, Beelzebub’s unwilling consort, that Sargatanas becomes enlightened and decides to seek that which no other Fallen had ever thought to pursue – a return to Heaven. Aided by his Prime Minister Valefar, the Captain of the Flying Guard Eligor, and a soul who was once a great general in Life, Sargatanas sets in motion a war against Beelzebub that, succeed or fail, will leave Hell forever changed…
If you’re an epic fantasy lover like I am, then I definitely think Wayne Barlowe’s “God’s Demon” will appeal to you. Strip away the fact that the book takes place in Hell, the characters are either fallen angels or damned souls, and the plot is more or less about finding redemption, and what you have are some fairly recognizable fantasy components. There’s the all-too familiar hierarchy between lords & peasantry; war, always a favorite plot device, is prominently featured; there’s also a sprinkle of court politics & intrigue; a magic system; worldbuilding is a major aspect in the book; characters are decisively good or evil; and no fantasy is complete without such common themes as love, vengeance, hope and so forth. Of course, what makes “God’s Demon” unique in the first place are its biblical trappings, however skewed they may be. For instance, souls aren’t just another variation of slaves or peasants; they are literally used as building materials in the construction of cities, weapons or steeds. War itself is given a whole new dynamic since demons follow their own set of rules and employ much more creative strategies than men. Magic comes in the form of sigils, glyphs & emblems, and whenever a demon dies, they leave behind a disk that can be absorbed by another demon, thus gaining the defeated’s knowledge and power. And finally, Sargatanas’ journey for forgiveness, while simplistic, is a powerful one and is quite a welcome relief from the endless variations of prophecies, ancient evils and chosen ones that is found in a lot of fantasy literature. In essence, “God’s Demon” is both like and unlike any fantasy that you’ve read.
Writing-wise, Mr. Barlowe’s novel is much like his artwork – creative and full of detail. In fact, the very strength of the book lies with the vividness & imagination in which Hell and its occupants are brought to life, especially the architectural splendor of its cities Adamantinarx and the capital Dis, and the unforgettable menace of such standout villains as General Moloch, Baron Faraii, the sorcerer Lord Agaliarept, and scene-stealer Beezlebub whose body is composed of thousands of flies. Another of Mr. Barlowe’s strengths is his ability to write great action scenes. Whether it’s a one-on-one confrontation or an epic-scale battle, the action in “God’s Demon” is just breathtaking. I was particularly floored by the book’s climactic moments which included the final memorable showdown between Sargatanas & Beezlebub the Fly. Not quite on the same level however, was the characterization (lacked a bit of depth) and the story (pretty straightforward with little unpredictability), but really it’s hard to complain. If I’m not mistaken, “God’s Demon” is Mr. Barlowe’s first actual novel, so taken in that context, it’s impossible not to be impressed by the author’s overall performance, which comes across as amazingly confident and inspired.
In a novel that wonderfully marries the familiar with the imaginative, the biggest and most pleasant surprise about “God’s Demon” is just how accessible it is. Because of the subject material I thought the book was going to be a very dark and graphic read, but in reality, the novel is actually quite emotive and uplifting. In closing, it looks like Tor has another winner on their hands. Not only is “God’s Demon” a tremendously compelling epic that will satisfy fantasy readers many times over, it is also a startling artistic accomplishment. From beginning to end, I was completely immersed in the dazzling vision of Hell conjured by Wayne Barlowe, and I strongly hope that he returns to the underworld in the very near future. For while “God’s Demon” effectively stands on its own, the Rebellion has only just begun and there is much of Hell left to be discovered…
Influenced by John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” (Barlowe recently did pre-production artwork for the film adaptation) and his own artbooks Barlowe’s Inferno (1998) & Brushfire: Illuminations from the Inferno (2001) – none of which I’ve read unfortunately – “God’s Demon” introduces an underworld where Lucifer is missing, the land is divided into territories each governed by a Demons Major or Minor (former seraphim), and Beelzebub is the ruling Prince Regent. While most of the Fallen have accepted their lot as demons presiding over the damned, one Demon Major named Sargatanas has not forgotten where he came from, and it’s reflected in the architecture of his city Adamantinarx-Upon-the-Acheron and the way he rules. It’s because of the inadvertent machinations of Lilith though, Beelzebub’s unwilling consort, that Sargatanas becomes enlightened and decides to seek that which no other Fallen had ever thought to pursue – a return to Heaven. Aided by his Prime Minister Valefar, the Captain of the Flying Guard Eligor, and a soul who was once a great general in Life, Sargatanas sets in motion a war against Beelzebub that, succeed or fail, will leave Hell forever changed…
If you’re an epic fantasy lover like I am, then I definitely think Wayne Barlowe’s “God’s Demon” will appeal to you. Strip away the fact that the book takes place in Hell, the characters are either fallen angels or damned souls, and the plot is more or less about finding redemption, and what you have are some fairly recognizable fantasy components. There’s the all-too familiar hierarchy between lords & peasantry; war, always a favorite plot device, is prominently featured; there’s also a sprinkle of court politics & intrigue; a magic system; worldbuilding is a major aspect in the book; characters are decisively good or evil; and no fantasy is complete without such common themes as love, vengeance, hope and so forth. Of course, what makes “God’s Demon” unique in the first place are its biblical trappings, however skewed they may be. For instance, souls aren’t just another variation of slaves or peasants; they are literally used as building materials in the construction of cities, weapons or steeds. War itself is given a whole new dynamic since demons follow their own set of rules and employ much more creative strategies than men. Magic comes in the form of sigils, glyphs & emblems, and whenever a demon dies, they leave behind a disk that can be absorbed by another demon, thus gaining the defeated’s knowledge and power. And finally, Sargatanas’ journey for forgiveness, while simplistic, is a powerful one and is quite a welcome relief from the endless variations of prophecies, ancient evils and chosen ones that is found in a lot of fantasy literature. In essence, “God’s Demon” is both like and unlike any fantasy that you’ve read.
Writing-wise, Mr. Barlowe’s novel is much like his artwork – creative and full of detail. In fact, the very strength of the book lies with the vividness & imagination in which Hell and its occupants are brought to life, especially the architectural splendor of its cities Adamantinarx and the capital Dis, and the unforgettable menace of such standout villains as General Moloch, Baron Faraii, the sorcerer Lord Agaliarept, and scene-stealer Beezlebub whose body is composed of thousands of flies. Another of Mr. Barlowe’s strengths is his ability to write great action scenes. Whether it’s a one-on-one confrontation or an epic-scale battle, the action in “God’s Demon” is just breathtaking. I was particularly floored by the book’s climactic moments which included the final memorable showdown between Sargatanas & Beezlebub the Fly. Not quite on the same level however, was the characterization (lacked a bit of depth) and the story (pretty straightforward with little unpredictability), but really it’s hard to complain. If I’m not mistaken, “God’s Demon” is Mr. Barlowe’s first actual novel, so taken in that context, it’s impossible not to be impressed by the author’s overall performance, which comes across as amazingly confident and inspired.
In a novel that wonderfully marries the familiar with the imaginative, the biggest and most pleasant surprise about “God’s Demon” is just how accessible it is. Because of the subject material I thought the book was going to be a very dark and graphic read, but in reality, the novel is actually quite emotive and uplifting. In closing, it looks like Tor has another winner on their hands. Not only is “God’s Demon” a tremendously compelling epic that will satisfy fantasy readers many times over, it is also a startling artistic accomplishment. From beginning to end, I was completely immersed in the dazzling vision of Hell conjured by Wayne Barlowe, and I strongly hope that he returns to the underworld in the very near future. For while “God’s Demon” effectively stands on its own, the Rebellion has only just begun and there is much of Hell left to be discovered…
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s REVIEW of “The Blade Itself”
Thanks to Jill from Pyr Books, I was sent a review copy of Joe Abercrombie’s debut “The Blade Itself” and an interview with the author was arranged which Joe obligingly agreed to. As grateful as I was for the chance to talk to Mr. Abercrombie, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to come up with any questions since Joe has already been interviewed so thoroughly by Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, A Dribble of Ink, SFX, & more. After completing “The Blade Itself” though, which turned out so much better than I was anticipating, I just had to dig a little deeper into the crazy mind of Joe Abercrombie. And wouldn’t you know it, the interview turned out to be one of the most enjoyable interviews that I’ve had the pleasure to be a part of. So if you haven’t read a Joe Abercrombie book yet, I’m hoping the following Q&A will persuade you to get off your assess and correct that little oversight :D
Q: In my review of “The Blade Itself” I wrote that your book “is simultaneously an homage to fantasy of old, a satirical riff on clichés common within the genre, and a contemporary revision” and you responded on your blog (thank you very much!!!) that I got you. So breaking it down, what parts of “The Blade Itself” best represented your homage to the genre, your mockery of clichés, and revisioning of familiar ideas?
Joe: It’s a homage to the genre in that it incorporates a lot of classic settings and events. A magic tower. A frozen North and a desert South. A fencing championship. A decaying empire beset by enemies without and within. A quest into the unknown for an ancient artifact of great power, that might save the world, or destroy it. You’d think you’d read it all before except…
It’s a satirical riff. As one reviewer put it, “it focuses on the rubbish side of life to humorous effect.” I think epic fantasy can sometimes take itself a bit too seriously. It’s important to make your readers laugh. Then when you kick ’em in the nuts it’s twice as painful. And then, of course…
It’s a modern revision. The characters aren’t ever quite what they seem to be. There are no heroes, no villains, and no right sides, just people trying to stay alive in desperate circumstances. And things don’t always come out the way they do in the stories. Clichés, tropes, whatever you want to call them – they create expectations that help you surprise the reader when you do something differently. And surprising the reader is what I’m really interested in.
Q: From what I’ve seen so far, the sequel to “The Blade Itself” is getting even more positive reviews than the first book. What makes “Before They Are Hanged” (currently available in the UK and due out in the US March 2008) a better novel in your opinion?
Joe: I read them both recently, in sequence, in an effort to make sure the third book didn’t contain any howling errors, and I certainly feel the writing is better in the second one – smoother, leaner, more controlled. Also, there’s a lot of setting up to do in the first – the world, the characters, their history. In the second we can get straight into the story, and the relationships between the characters, which for me is the key area. I felt it was a big step forward in pretty much every way.
Q: “Last Argument of Kings” (Click HERE for a synopsis and extract from the book), which concludes The First Law Trilogy, is set for a UK release March 20, 2008 via Gollancz. What’s the latest progress report on the book, and how do you feel it stacks up to your other books in terms of story, writing-wise and entertainment value?
Joe: The book’s finished and advance reading copies should be going out to the lucky few in the next month or so. Again, I feel it’s an improvement in pretty much every area – a widening of the scale and an increase in pace and drama, but with the added bonus that you get the conclusion of the various plots, and the shocking truths are revealed before your weeping, laughing, disbelieving eyes. Hopefully it will demonstrate where I’ve been going all along, and put the previous two books into a slightly different light as well. After all, the end of a series is really its most important part, and the part where I think readers are most often disappointed. I don’t think anyone who’s liked the other two books will be disappointed with this.
Oh no.
It’s an epic sweep of love and war, a sprinkling of sex and a whole lot of violence, witty banter, moral complexity and bad language, topped off with a cartload of pant-wetting surprises . . . what more could a fan of fantasy, or anything else, possibly ask for?
Q: Well, it’s probably too much to hope that I’ll be one of those ‘lucky few’ to get an ARC so when can US readers expect “Last Argument of Kings” to hit bookstores?
Joe: “Before They are Hanged”, should be flying out of US bookstores in March ’08, and, with any luck, “Last Argument of Kings” will be following six months later, in September, a mere year after they first bought “The Blade Itself.”
Q: Excellent! So the plot for The First Law trilogy was pretty much mapped out from the beginning I believe, but I’m sure changes have been made since then. What have been the most significant changes to the trilogy?
Joe: I’m pretty careful in my planning, and I don’t usually end up writing anything that isn’t important in some way or other, so there haven’t really been any major cuts made from the manuscripts (at the level of whole chapters, say). From the planning standpoint, I did originally have a seventh point-of-view character in mind who was going to come in at the start of the second book. By the time I got there, though, it felt like I had more than enough content already, so he hit the cutting room floor, and is little more than a name mentioned in passing. Perhaps in another book…
In terms of the editing, the most significant change made was that the Dogman chapters were originally written in the first person (as an ‘I’ rather than a ‘he’). I try to use a slightly different approach with each character, and this was something I was keen to have a go at. It worked very well for those chapters, I think, and gave them a real sense of intimacy, but Simon Spanton (editorial director at Gollancz) found it more than a bit weird in the context of the rest of the book, which is all written in the third person.
I was very reluctant to make that change, initially, and it took quite a while for me to come around to the idea, and to alter the writing, technically, in a way that still gave the chapters the same feel. In the end I think perhaps those chapters lost some of their punch, but they came to fit much more happily into the rest of the book. So a good decision, overall. Maybe I’ll try fiddling with the first person again at a later date…
Q: I think that would have been an interesting dynamic, but like you said, there's always next time. As a writer, what have been the biggest improvements that you’ve made from your earliest incarnations of “The Blade Itself”, and in what areas would you like to get better still?
Joe: The main thing is that I’ve got quicker – my first drafts, though far from good, are a lot better than they used to be – and that’s the same thing as being better, because it leaves you more time for the reading over and refining which is 90% of the work in any case. Plus it leaves extra time for me to pontificate on my blog and scour the Internet for the very slightest breath of opinion about me or my books expressed in any language anywhere in the solar system.
In terms of further improvement, I feel there is definite room for growth in the area of my advances. They are still far too small for my taste.
Q: LOL. In one of your interviews you stated that for you characters and story take precedence over environment and worldbuilding. Why and what do you feel are the keys to writing a great story and characterization?
Joe: What’s more important to you? Your family and friends or your house? One’s your life. The other’s the setting for it. That’s a no contest in my book. Worldbuilding’s great, in its place, I just don’t feel that it should ever cramp the characters or the story. It should always be revealed in passing, as the background for the action, never be the focus of anything.
For me, the key to great story is unpredictability. I love to be shocked when I read something. Of course, to really surprise someone, you have to establish a baseline within which they think they know what’s going to happen. This is one of the attractive things about writing within a genre. Readers come along with a set of expectations ready-made for you to twist to your own evil purposes.
The keys to great characterization are humour and honesty. If a character can make you laugh, you’re already a long way towards being engaged with them even if they’re otherwise disgusting.
But, of course, different readers will all have different opinions about what makes a great story or characters for them, as well as what the balance should be between worldbuilding and action. So, in the end, there are as many answers to these questions as there are people in the world, as there are grains of sand upon the beach, as there are stars in the clear, cold, infinite night sky.
That, my child, is the greatest fascination, and the greatest frustration, of being a writer.
Can I get any more pompous?
Q: Very well put :) In August you announced a two-book deal with Gollancz for two more novels set in The First Law universe, the first of which is titled “Best Served Cold”. You provided some details HERE, but could you tell us how far along you are with the books, in what timeline they fit in relation to The First Law Trilogy, and the possibility of writing a sequel to the trilogy or providing prequels about such characters as Logen Ninefingers, the Northmen or Glokta?
Joe: Best Served Cold is planned out and the first of seven parts is mostly written, but new characters mean new approaches, and I’m still experimenting with exactly how I’m going to write them. As you say, characters are the most important thing for me, and it can take a while for each of them to really develop their own voice. The book takes place in Styria, a land of feuding city-states, intrigue, betrayal and good hair, maybe three years after the end of The First Law.
Honestly, the second book isn’t much more than a twinkle in my agent’s eye right at the moment, but it will probably be a kind of fantasy war-story, set in the North, and focusing on the events leading up to and including a single climactic battle, as seen from both sides. Expect blood on the snow, plenty of fur, and big men swapping darkly humorous one-liners. Zing.
When it comes to prequels and sequels, at least focusing on the same main characters, I feel it’s generally better to quit while you’re ahead (though there may be some varying opinions about whether I’m ahead or not) than flog a dead horse. I think to improve as a writer you need to try new things, new characters, new types of story. If you keep on pedaling the same old same old then ultimately readers will tire of you, and there’s always some hot new writer waiting in the wings with something fresher. You’ve got to change and develop, even if that’s going to mean some wrong steps along the way.
But never say never. Dead horse flogging can be a surprisingly profitable business and daddy needs a swimming pool…
Q: What about other non-First Law related projects? Anything that you’re working on or ideas that you could talk about? What about branching out into a different format, such as writing a comic book, or a videogame or movie script? Any thoughts?
Joe: Well I was approached recently, entirely out of the blue, about the possibility of doing some writing for a well-known US Sci-Fi TV Show. I can’t say which one, in case it’s a less good one than you’re thinking of, and you’re disappointed. But I’d certainly be interested in having a stab at it if I was asked. On the whole, though, trying to write a novel a year, maintain the blog, work the day job, and help bring up a one-year old keep me pretty busy. Giving myself more work isn’t necessarily my first priority.
Q: Well that’s definitely a workload ;) As you mentioned, you’re also working a ‘day job’ (freelance film editor). What will it take for you to become a full-time writer?
Joe: Enormous sales? Because I’m freelance I don’t have to give up in any final sense, I can just take jobs here or there if I want or need to, and write the rest of the time. Plus, despite the wonderful publishers I work with, writing is fundamentally a very lonely profession, and it’s nice to get out of the house from time to time. So I don’t know that I’d ever want to write completely full-time, even if it was a financial possibility.
Q: That’s a good point. Now interestingly, I’ve read that you’re not very “well-read” in fantasy literature and that a lot of your influences actually come from outside the genre. Do you think this gives you an advantage in bringing a unique perspective to the genre, and if so, why?
Joe: Possibly … in the same way that an industrial architect might bring unfamiliar and innovative techniques to house design, maybe?
Honestly, though, I think uniqueness (if I dare use the word) is sometimes a bit over-rated. Much beloved of critics but perhaps not so much of readers. You can be unique and still be, for want of a better word, shit. A man with an arse for a face is unique, but I don’t know that I’d want to be him. To write an appealing story, I think you need to balance the original with the familiar, and for me, quite small nuances of style and approach can be enough to make some familiar components fascinating all over again. If it’s a choice between the two, I’d much rather be good than unique.
But clearly either one would be something.
Q: Speaking of outside influences, film & television were a major inspiration in your writing and “The Blade Itself” definitely has a ‘visual’ feel to it. So has there been any progress in bringing the book to the silver or small screen, or any format for that matter, and if so, can you share any details? If not, what would be your dream adaptation?
Joe: A couple of approaches at the most basic level. Are the rights available? Yes they are. Stony silence while tumbleweeds roll past.
I think we must concede that chunky fantasy series, even ones as relatively slim as mine, are rarely going to be that attractive to producers. They’re always going to be an enormous, expensive challenge to film. The Lord of the Rings movies have raised the bar spectacularly and stuff like Red Sonja and Hawk the Slayer probably wouldn’t cut it any more (if they ever did in anything other than a slightly camp, mildly titillating way), so I’m not holding my breath.
My dream adaptation would be one that meant I didn’t have to work. Ever again. Of course that might not stop me working. But it would be very nice to have the option.
Q: In fantasy literature, cover art is a bit of an issue, especially how important it is in selling a book, how fantasy covers are considered generic, the difference between international & stateside covers, et cetera. What are your thoughts on this subject, how do you feel about your covers so far, and why are the US/UK covers basically the same?
Joe: Well cover art will always be an issue, as in 99% of cases it’s really the key marketing tool a publisher has for a book. Naturally they tend to be generic, because it makes very good sense, especially in a genre, to imitate books that are already successful. It’s a not-very-secret code that says to readers, “hey, you liked that book with the dragon and the horned helmet? You’ll love this book with the dragon and the horned helmet. It’s a dragon and a horned helmet sort of a book. You like those. Buy it. Buy it now.”
However creative publishers want to be, and however creative some authors and some readers would like the publishers to be, it’s very, very difficult to escape that simple commercial reality. Books have to sell, and generic covers really help them sell. Genre books rely on genre readers, and if the genre readers can’t find the books, who will?
Having said that, Gollancz are probably the most adventurous SF/fantasy imprint in the world when it comes to the design of their books. My own covers I actually like a lot (not that I had much to do with the ideas, really, very few authors do). I think they’re basically very pretty and get across some sense of the content, don’t turn off genre readers, but equally they’re not embarrassing to a more mainstream reader. They’re the one aspect of the books, in fact, for which I’ve never heard anything but praise. They’ve also got steadily better, and I really love the most recent one – I think that will be a beautiful book, in every sense (ha ha). I’m not generally a fan of literal cover art (a painting of the hero on a charger, sword aloft) because, unless they really hit the nail on the head, which they rarely do, they tend to cramp the reader’s imagination in quite a fundamental way. So these work well, for me.
US and UK covers are more or less the same, with some minor changes to the lettering, because Lou Anders from Pyr liked the UK cover and thought it did the job he wanted it to do. If it ain’t broke…
Q: Now that you’re officially a published author, what’s the best thing about being one, the worst, and what’s the biggest misconception of an author?
Joe: Misconception – that we’re all over ten feet tall. I am, in fact, just a shade over nine feet. But my eyes do flash with a mysterious fire.
Worst thing – bad reviews. Reading one, however insignificant the writer, is still like being stabbed in the face with a cheese-grater.
Best thing – my toilet seat carved from a single massive diamond. It’s kind of cold when you first sit on it. But it soon warms up.
Q: In other interviews, you’ve chronicled your journey from first starting “The Blade Itself” to finding a publisher, and finally seeing the book published. What about finding a US publisher? How difficult was that and why Pyr Books?
Joe: To be honest, that wasn’t a decision I was particularly involved with. I sold world volume rights to Gollancz, and they’ve then been responsible for selling the rights on to other markets wherever and whenever they could get interest. Put simply, Pyr were the first publisher to make an offer for the US rights, perhaps a year after the book was first published in the UK, and I was delighted to say yes.
Having said that, I’m very happy with Pyr. Lou Anders, who runs the imprint, is a man with great taste, a sharp eye, and a keen sense of humour, and he puts great effort and enthusiasm behind everything on his list.
You can put the knife down, now, Lou.
Q: (Thanks to Chris from The Book Swede for the inspiration behind this question) What is the one question that no one ever asks you, but you wish they did, and how would you respond?
Joe: Would you be willing to sell film rights in The First Law for an obscene quantity of money?
No, I have my artistic integrity to consider. Only kidding. Where do I sign?
Q: As a film editor, you’ve been working on documentaries and live concerts. I’m assuming you’re a pretty big music lover. Who are some of your favorite artists and albums?
Joe: The band who’ve been on my CD player more than any other over the past year or two are the Killers. Love both their albums. Beyond that, anything and everything. If you’re going to spend six weeks working on a concert, and hear the same music over and over and over again, you have to get to like it. Narrow tastes is an option that leads quickly to insanity.
Q: The Killers, not bad ;) So another hobby of yours is videogames. I don’t know if you get much time to play nowadays, but what are your thoughts on the latest Next-Gen systems? Also, feel free to list any favorites :)
Joe: Oh, my days. It’s the dream question. My thoughts on any system, next-gen or otherwise, are that they’re only as good as the games you can get on them. At the moment there doesn’t seem to be anything out there really floating my boat. In general, I feel like there’s too much emphasis on graphics and not enough on gameplay. Maybe I’m just getting old, but beauty does nothing for me unless there’s something going on upstairs as well. Alright, that’s a lie, but you know what I mean.
As for my favourites, well: Elite (the biggest leap forward in gaming ever by a country mile), Dungeon Master (the great-grandfather of fantasy RPGs), Street Fighter II (most of what I did at University), Final Fantasy VII, Shogun: Total War, Baldur’s Gate, Resident Evil 4 and many, many, many more.
Q: In reading I don’t think you check out much of the current fantasy being released, but surely there must be some newer authors that have impressed you with what their doing? Any opinions or recommendations?
Joe: I haven’t read his book, but that Pat Rothfuss is certainly impressing the hell out of me with his sales, and the breadth of excellent opinion he’s generating. All the signs seem to be that he’s going to be next big, big thing. Then of course there’s Scott Lynch, who needs no introduction to anyone with access to the internet, and there’s Tom Lloyd over here in England. Hey, what do you know? I’ve just realized that all four of us are published by the same imprint – Gollancz in the UK. There must really be some very clever people running that list.
In spite of appearances.
Q: What about books? What’s been in your reading pile lately?
Joe: Reading’s for squares, man. But seriously. The last book I read was “Hawkwood” by Frances Stonor Saunders, and it’s non-fiction about the first great English mercenary captain to fight in renaissance Italy. Good stuff. I read a lot more history than I do fiction, on the whole. Reality is far more insane than fantasy, a lot of the time.
Q: Very true that. Well, all good things must eventually come to an end, so do you have any closing remarks?
Joe: The same as usual. Drink more water, eat more fruit, and buy “The Blade Itself”. Hey. It’s still great advice.
Q: In my review of “The Blade Itself” I wrote that your book “is simultaneously an homage to fantasy of old, a satirical riff on clichés common within the genre, and a contemporary revision” and you responded on your blog (thank you very much!!!) that I got you. So breaking it down, what parts of “The Blade Itself” best represented your homage to the genre, your mockery of clichés, and revisioning of familiar ideas?
Joe: It’s a homage to the genre in that it incorporates a lot of classic settings and events. A magic tower. A frozen North and a desert South. A fencing championship. A decaying empire beset by enemies without and within. A quest into the unknown for an ancient artifact of great power, that might save the world, or destroy it. You’d think you’d read it all before except…It’s a satirical riff. As one reviewer put it, “it focuses on the rubbish side of life to humorous effect.” I think epic fantasy can sometimes take itself a bit too seriously. It’s important to make your readers laugh. Then when you kick ’em in the nuts it’s twice as painful. And then, of course…
It’s a modern revision. The characters aren’t ever quite what they seem to be. There are no heroes, no villains, and no right sides, just people trying to stay alive in desperate circumstances. And things don’t always come out the way they do in the stories. Clichés, tropes, whatever you want to call them – they create expectations that help you surprise the reader when you do something differently. And surprising the reader is what I’m really interested in.
Q: From what I’ve seen so far, the sequel to “The Blade Itself” is getting even more positive reviews than the first book. What makes “Before They Are Hanged” (currently available in the UK and due out in the US March 2008) a better novel in your opinion?
Joe: I read them both recently, in sequence, in an effort to make sure the third book didn’t contain any howling errors, and I certainly feel the writing is better in the second one – smoother, leaner, more controlled. Also, there’s a lot of setting up to do in the first – the world, the characters, their history. In the second we can get straight into the story, and the relationships between the characters, which for me is the key area. I felt it was a big step forward in pretty much every way.
Q: “Last Argument of Kings” (Click HERE for a synopsis and extract from the book), which concludes The First Law Trilogy, is set for a UK release March 20, 2008 via Gollancz. What’s the latest progress report on the book, and how do you feel it stacks up to your other books in terms of story, writing-wise and entertainment value?
Joe: The book’s finished and advance reading copies should be going out to the lucky few in the next month or so. Again, I feel it’s an improvement in pretty much every area – a widening of the scale and an increase in pace and drama, but with the added bonus that you get the conclusion of the various plots, and the shocking truths are revealed before your weeping, laughing, disbelieving eyes. Hopefully it will demonstrate where I’ve been going all along, and put the previous two books into a slightly different light as well. After all, the end of a series is really its most important part, and the part where I think readers are most often disappointed. I don’t think anyone who’s liked the other two books will be disappointed with this.
Oh no.
It’s an epic sweep of love and war, a sprinkling of sex and a whole lot of violence, witty banter, moral complexity and bad language, topped off with a cartload of pant-wetting surprises . . . what more could a fan of fantasy, or anything else, possibly ask for?
Q: Well, it’s probably too much to hope that I’ll be one of those ‘lucky few’ to get an ARC so when can US readers expect “Last Argument of Kings” to hit bookstores?
Joe: “Before They are Hanged”, should be flying out of US bookstores in March ’08, and, with any luck, “Last Argument of Kings” will be following six months later, in September, a mere year after they first bought “The Blade Itself.”
Q: Excellent! So the plot for The First Law trilogy was pretty much mapped out from the beginning I believe, but I’m sure changes have been made since then. What have been the most significant changes to the trilogy?
Joe: I’m pretty careful in my planning, and I don’t usually end up writing anything that isn’t important in some way or other, so there haven’t really been any major cuts made from the manuscripts (at the level of whole chapters, say). From the planning standpoint, I did originally have a seventh point-of-view character in mind who was going to come in at the start of the second book. By the time I got there, though, it felt like I had more than enough content already, so he hit the cutting room floor, and is little more than a name mentioned in passing. Perhaps in another book…
In terms of the editing, the most significant change made was that the Dogman chapters were originally written in the first person (as an ‘I’ rather than a ‘he’). I try to use a slightly different approach with each character, and this was something I was keen to have a go at. It worked very well for those chapters, I think, and gave them a real sense of intimacy, but Simon Spanton (editorial director at Gollancz) found it more than a bit weird in the context of the rest of the book, which is all written in the third person.
I was very reluctant to make that change, initially, and it took quite a while for me to come around to the idea, and to alter the writing, technically, in a way that still gave the chapters the same feel. In the end I think perhaps those chapters lost some of their punch, but they came to fit much more happily into the rest of the book. So a good decision, overall. Maybe I’ll try fiddling with the first person again at a later date…
Q: I think that would have been an interesting dynamic, but like you said, there's always next time. As a writer, what have been the biggest improvements that you’ve made from your earliest incarnations of “The Blade Itself”, and in what areas would you like to get better still?
Joe: The main thing is that I’ve got quicker – my first drafts, though far from good, are a lot better than they used to be – and that’s the same thing as being better, because it leaves you more time for the reading over and refining which is 90% of the work in any case. Plus it leaves extra time for me to pontificate on my blog and scour the Internet for the very slightest breath of opinion about me or my books expressed in any language anywhere in the solar system.
In terms of further improvement, I feel there is definite room for growth in the area of my advances. They are still far too small for my taste.
Q: LOL. In one of your interviews you stated that for you characters and story take precedence over environment and worldbuilding. Why and what do you feel are the keys to writing a great story and characterization?
Joe: What’s more important to you? Your family and friends or your house? One’s your life. The other’s the setting for it. That’s a no contest in my book. Worldbuilding’s great, in its place, I just don’t feel that it should ever cramp the characters or the story. It should always be revealed in passing, as the background for the action, never be the focus of anything.For me, the key to great story is unpredictability. I love to be shocked when I read something. Of course, to really surprise someone, you have to establish a baseline within which they think they know what’s going to happen. This is one of the attractive things about writing within a genre. Readers come along with a set of expectations ready-made for you to twist to your own evil purposes.
The keys to great characterization are humour and honesty. If a character can make you laugh, you’re already a long way towards being engaged with them even if they’re otherwise disgusting.
But, of course, different readers will all have different opinions about what makes a great story or characters for them, as well as what the balance should be between worldbuilding and action. So, in the end, there are as many answers to these questions as there are people in the world, as there are grains of sand upon the beach, as there are stars in the clear, cold, infinite night sky.
That, my child, is the greatest fascination, and the greatest frustration, of being a writer.
Can I get any more pompous?
Q: Very well put :) In August you announced a two-book deal with Gollancz for two more novels set in The First Law universe, the first of which is titled “Best Served Cold”. You provided some details HERE, but could you tell us how far along you are with the books, in what timeline they fit in relation to The First Law Trilogy, and the possibility of writing a sequel to the trilogy or providing prequels about such characters as Logen Ninefingers, the Northmen or Glokta?
Joe: Best Served Cold is planned out and the first of seven parts is mostly written, but new characters mean new approaches, and I’m still experimenting with exactly how I’m going to write them. As you say, characters are the most important thing for me, and it can take a while for each of them to really develop their own voice. The book takes place in Styria, a land of feuding city-states, intrigue, betrayal and good hair, maybe three years after the end of The First Law.
Honestly, the second book isn’t much more than a twinkle in my agent’s eye right at the moment, but it will probably be a kind of fantasy war-story, set in the North, and focusing on the events leading up to and including a single climactic battle, as seen from both sides. Expect blood on the snow, plenty of fur, and big men swapping darkly humorous one-liners. Zing.
When it comes to prequels and sequels, at least focusing on the same main characters, I feel it’s generally better to quit while you’re ahead (though there may be some varying opinions about whether I’m ahead or not) than flog a dead horse. I think to improve as a writer you need to try new things, new characters, new types of story. If you keep on pedaling the same old same old then ultimately readers will tire of you, and there’s always some hot new writer waiting in the wings with something fresher. You’ve got to change and develop, even if that’s going to mean some wrong steps along the way.
But never say never. Dead horse flogging can be a surprisingly profitable business and daddy needs a swimming pool…
Q: What about other non-First Law related projects? Anything that you’re working on or ideas that you could talk about? What about branching out into a different format, such as writing a comic book, or a videogame or movie script? Any thoughts?
Joe: Well I was approached recently, entirely out of the blue, about the possibility of doing some writing for a well-known US Sci-Fi TV Show. I can’t say which one, in case it’s a less good one than you’re thinking of, and you’re disappointed. But I’d certainly be interested in having a stab at it if I was asked. On the whole, though, trying to write a novel a year, maintain the blog, work the day job, and help bring up a one-year old keep me pretty busy. Giving myself more work isn’t necessarily my first priority.
Q: Well that’s definitely a workload ;) As you mentioned, you’re also working a ‘day job’ (freelance film editor). What will it take for you to become a full-time writer?
Joe: Enormous sales? Because I’m freelance I don’t have to give up in any final sense, I can just take jobs here or there if I want or need to, and write the rest of the time. Plus, despite the wonderful publishers I work with, writing is fundamentally a very lonely profession, and it’s nice to get out of the house from time to time. So I don’t know that I’d ever want to write completely full-time, even if it was a financial possibility.
Q: That’s a good point. Now interestingly, I’ve read that you’re not very “well-read” in fantasy literature and that a lot of your influences actually come from outside the genre. Do you think this gives you an advantage in bringing a unique perspective to the genre, and if so, why?
Joe: Possibly … in the same way that an industrial architect might bring unfamiliar and innovative techniques to house design, maybe?
Honestly, though, I think uniqueness (if I dare use the word) is sometimes a bit over-rated. Much beloved of critics but perhaps not so much of readers. You can be unique and still be, for want of a better word, shit. A man with an arse for a face is unique, but I don’t know that I’d want to be him. To write an appealing story, I think you need to balance the original with the familiar, and for me, quite small nuances of style and approach can be enough to make some familiar components fascinating all over again. If it’s a choice between the two, I’d much rather be good than unique.
But clearly either one would be something.
Q: Speaking of outside influences, film & television were a major inspiration in your writing and “The Blade Itself” definitely has a ‘visual’ feel to it. So has there been any progress in bringing the book to the silver or small screen, or any format for that matter, and if so, can you share any details? If not, what would be your dream adaptation?
Joe: A couple of approaches at the most basic level. Are the rights available? Yes they are. Stony silence while tumbleweeds roll past.
I think we must concede that chunky fantasy series, even ones as relatively slim as mine, are rarely going to be that attractive to producers. They’re always going to be an enormous, expensive challenge to film. The Lord of the Rings movies have raised the bar spectacularly and stuff like Red Sonja and Hawk the Slayer probably wouldn’t cut it any more (if they ever did in anything other than a slightly camp, mildly titillating way), so I’m not holding my breath.
My dream adaptation would be one that meant I didn’t have to work. Ever again. Of course that might not stop me working. But it would be very nice to have the option.
Q: In fantasy literature, cover art is a bit of an issue, especially how important it is in selling a book, how fantasy covers are considered generic, the difference between international & stateside covers, et cetera. What are your thoughts on this subject, how do you feel about your covers so far, and why are the US/UK covers basically the same?
Joe: Well cover art will always be an issue, as in 99% of cases it’s really the key marketing tool a publisher has for a book. Naturally they tend to be generic, because it makes very good sense, especially in a genre, to imitate books that are already successful. It’s a not-very-secret code that says to readers, “hey, you liked that book with the dragon and the horned helmet? You’ll love this book with the dragon and the horned helmet. It’s a dragon and a horned helmet sort of a book. You like those. Buy it. Buy it now.”However creative publishers want to be, and however creative some authors and some readers would like the publishers to be, it’s very, very difficult to escape that simple commercial reality. Books have to sell, and generic covers really help them sell. Genre books rely on genre readers, and if the genre readers can’t find the books, who will?
Having said that, Gollancz are probably the most adventurous SF/fantasy imprint in the world when it comes to the design of their books. My own covers I actually like a lot (not that I had much to do with the ideas, really, very few authors do). I think they’re basically very pretty and get across some sense of the content, don’t turn off genre readers, but equally they’re not embarrassing to a more mainstream reader. They’re the one aspect of the books, in fact, for which I’ve never heard anything but praise. They’ve also got steadily better, and I really love the most recent one – I think that will be a beautiful book, in every sense (ha ha). I’m not generally a fan of literal cover art (a painting of the hero on a charger, sword aloft) because, unless they really hit the nail on the head, which they rarely do, they tend to cramp the reader’s imagination in quite a fundamental way. So these work well, for me.
US and UK covers are more or less the same, with some minor changes to the lettering, because Lou Anders from Pyr liked the UK cover and thought it did the job he wanted it to do. If it ain’t broke…
Q: Now that you’re officially a published author, what’s the best thing about being one, the worst, and what’s the biggest misconception of an author?
Joe: Misconception – that we’re all over ten feet tall. I am, in fact, just a shade over nine feet. But my eyes do flash with a mysterious fire.
Worst thing – bad reviews. Reading one, however insignificant the writer, is still like being stabbed in the face with a cheese-grater.
Best thing – my toilet seat carved from a single massive diamond. It’s kind of cold when you first sit on it. But it soon warms up.
Q: In other interviews, you’ve chronicled your journey from first starting “The Blade Itself” to finding a publisher, and finally seeing the book published. What about finding a US publisher? How difficult was that and why Pyr Books?
Joe: To be honest, that wasn’t a decision I was particularly involved with. I sold world volume rights to Gollancz, and they’ve then been responsible for selling the rights on to other markets wherever and whenever they could get interest. Put simply, Pyr were the first publisher to make an offer for the US rights, perhaps a year after the book was first published in the UK, and I was delighted to say yes.
Having said that, I’m very happy with Pyr. Lou Anders, who runs the imprint, is a man with great taste, a sharp eye, and a keen sense of humour, and he puts great effort and enthusiasm behind everything on his list.
You can put the knife down, now, Lou.
Q: (Thanks to Chris from The Book Swede for the inspiration behind this question) What is the one question that no one ever asks you, but you wish they did, and how would you respond?
Joe: Would you be willing to sell film rights in The First Law for an obscene quantity of money?
No, I have my artistic integrity to consider. Only kidding. Where do I sign?
Q: As a film editor, you’ve been working on documentaries and live concerts. I’m assuming you’re a pretty big music lover. Who are some of your favorite artists and albums?
Joe: The band who’ve been on my CD player more than any other over the past year or two are the Killers. Love both their albums. Beyond that, anything and everything. If you’re going to spend six weeks working on a concert, and hear the same music over and over and over again, you have to get to like it. Narrow tastes is an option that leads quickly to insanity.
Q: The Killers, not bad ;) So another hobby of yours is videogames. I don’t know if you get much time to play nowadays, but what are your thoughts on the latest Next-Gen systems? Also, feel free to list any favorites :)
Joe: Oh, my days. It’s the dream question. My thoughts on any system, next-gen or otherwise, are that they’re only as good as the games you can get on them. At the moment there doesn’t seem to be anything out there really floating my boat. In general, I feel like there’s too much emphasis on graphics and not enough on gameplay. Maybe I’m just getting old, but beauty does nothing for me unless there’s something going on upstairs as well. Alright, that’s a lie, but you know what I mean.
As for my favourites, well: Elite (the biggest leap forward in gaming ever by a country mile), Dungeon Master (the great-grandfather of fantasy RPGs), Street Fighter II (most of what I did at University), Final Fantasy VII, Shogun: Total War, Baldur’s Gate, Resident Evil 4 and many, many, many more.
Q: In reading I don’t think you check out much of the current fantasy being released, but surely there must be some newer authors that have impressed you with what their doing? Any opinions or recommendations?
Joe: I haven’t read his book, but that Pat Rothfuss is certainly impressing the hell out of me with his sales, and the breadth of excellent opinion he’s generating. All the signs seem to be that he’s going to be next big, big thing. Then of course there’s Scott Lynch, who needs no introduction to anyone with access to the internet, and there’s Tom Lloyd over here in England. Hey, what do you know? I’ve just realized that all four of us are published by the same imprint – Gollancz in the UK. There must really be some very clever people running that list.
In spite of appearances.
Q: What about books? What’s been in your reading pile lately?
Joe: Reading’s for squares, man. But seriously. The last book I read was “Hawkwood” by Frances Stonor Saunders, and it’s non-fiction about the first great English mercenary captain to fight in renaissance Italy. Good stuff. I read a lot more history than I do fiction, on the whole. Reality is far more insane than fantasy, a lot of the time.
Q: Very true that. Well, all good things must eventually come to an end, so do you have any closing remarks?
Joe: The same as usual. Drink more water, eat more fruit, and buy “The Blade Itself”. Hey. It’s still great advice.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP: Clive Barker, The Electric Church, Diana Gabaldon, Adaptations, etc.
On October 30, 2007, the new Clive Barker book “Mister B. Gone” finally comes out and in anticipation of its release, the author has issued a letter about the book to you, the reader. So read on below for that and be sure to pre-order “Mister B. Gone” HERE. Also, watch out for the audio version which will be voiced by none other than Doug Bradley, the star of Hellraiser! For more information, visit Clive Barker at clivebarker.info and his Official Clive Barker Myspace, and don’t forget to sign up for your chance to win “Mister B. Gone” HERE:
“Dear Reader,
I’ve always wanted to write a book that will play with the reader in a way that has never been tried before.
Enter Jakabok, a vicious, demented and blood-thirsty demon. He was an occupant of hell for many years, and he knows how to cause every kind of mischief; grief, anguish and agony are his food and drink. But Mister B., as Jakabok likes to be called, is no longer an occupant of the underworld. He’s in this book.
Let me be clear: Mister B. is not in this book as Scarlett O’Hara is in Gone with the Wind. The terrifying Mister B. will be possessing this book, watching you from its words. He can feel the pressure of your fingers on the pages, he can hear your breath and your mutterings, he can also hear your heart quicken. That’s what he loves most: the quickening heart, the clammy hands. Any proof that the terrifying tales which he tells are working their dark magic.
You see, Mister B. has ambitions, and he’ll use every trick he knows to get what he wants from you. He’ll entertain you with his stories of the war between heaven and hell that is going on around us all the time; he’ll threaten you with horrors only those who’ve seen the depths of the underworld could possibly know. He’ll even throw in some gallows humor when he’s in the mood.
But what does he really want? And what is he prepared to do to you to achieve his ends? The book has plenty of answers. But to the get to them, you’ll need to read, and with every page you turn Jakabok comes closer to you. Closer, ever closer. Tasting the sweat in your fingertips as it sinks into the page where he waits.
Welcome to the world of Mister B. He is delighted to meet you. Really he is.”
—Clive Barker—
In continuing support of Orbit Book’s release of Jeff Somers’ “The Electric Church” (reviewed HERE by yours truly), the publisher is giving away a Near-Future Dystopia Survival Kit from thinkgeek.com, packed with items that might just help you elude Dennis Squalor's electric monks. The kit includes:
1) An RFID Blocking Wallet to keep your info hidden from scanning monks.
2) A Lazer Tripwire set to help secure your computer from SFF snoops.
3) A Wall Safe that looks like a power outlet to keep sensitive info away from prying eyes.’
4) A Super Ear that can amplify sound up to 50 decibels to monitor chatter outside your safehouse.
5) And a Ninja remote – which gives you control over most TVs, and might even shut down an Electric Church monk in a pinch.
To enter, just send an email to orbit@hbgusa.com with the words “Electric Church Sweepstakes” in the subject line. Giveaway ends Wednesday, October 31st, 2007, 9:59 AM EDT and you can read the Official Rules HERE.
Diana Gabaldon, bestselling author of the Outlander Series, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (August 2007) and the forthcoming Lord John and the Hand of Devils novella collection (November 27, 2007), is offering listeners six new Podcast episodes, the first two are now available, with the remaining episodes coming out every Monday until November 5th. The episodes will provide insight into the character of Lord John, a day in the life of Diana Gabaldon, what military men think of her novels, and much more. Visit the author’s website HERE to play the episodes.
Want more Diana? If you have a question you'd like to ask Diana Gabaldon that you think may not be covered in the podcast episodes, she'll be appearing in the virtual world of Second Life on October 11th at 6PM Pacific. Complete details can be found HERE.
In adaptation news, I’m so far behind I’m just going to provide links courtesy of Coming Soon:
Update on the J.J. Abrams Star Trek film
Pixar bringing Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars to the big screen
Image Comics’ graphic novel “The Last Christmas” optioned
More Philip K. Dick stories to be adapted
EverQuest videogame picked up by Avi Arad!
Halo movie not happening?
I Am Legend website now live
Illustrated novel The Plucker optioned by New Line
YA book “The Night Tourist” bought by Universal
Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” adaptation has a director!
Guillermo del Toro adapting H.P. Lovecraft (Awesome!!!)
The Dragon Ball Z movie finds a writer/director
Brandon Mull’s “The Candy Shop War” sold!
Dean Lorey’s “Nightmare Academy” finds a writer
"Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire” by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden to directed by David Goyer! (Read this if you haven’t already!)
“Dear Reader,
I’ve always wanted to write a book that will play with the reader in a way that has never been tried before.
Enter Jakabok, a vicious, demented and blood-thirsty demon. He was an occupant of hell for many years, and he knows how to cause every kind of mischief; grief, anguish and agony are his food and drink. But Mister B., as Jakabok likes to be called, is no longer an occupant of the underworld. He’s in this book.
Let me be clear: Mister B. is not in this book as Scarlett O’Hara is in Gone with the Wind. The terrifying Mister B. will be possessing this book, watching you from its words. He can feel the pressure of your fingers on the pages, he can hear your breath and your mutterings, he can also hear your heart quicken. That’s what he loves most: the quickening heart, the clammy hands. Any proof that the terrifying tales which he tells are working their dark magic.
You see, Mister B. has ambitions, and he’ll use every trick he knows to get what he wants from you. He’ll entertain you with his stories of the war between heaven and hell that is going on around us all the time; he’ll threaten you with horrors only those who’ve seen the depths of the underworld could possibly know. He’ll even throw in some gallows humor when he’s in the mood.
But what does he really want? And what is he prepared to do to you to achieve his ends? The book has plenty of answers. But to the get to them, you’ll need to read, and with every page you turn Jakabok comes closer to you. Closer, ever closer. Tasting the sweat in your fingertips as it sinks into the page where he waits.
Welcome to the world of Mister B. He is delighted to meet you. Really he is.”
—Clive Barker—
In continuing support of Orbit Book’s release of Jeff Somers’ “The Electric Church” (reviewed HERE by yours truly), the publisher is giving away a Near-Future Dystopia Survival Kit from thinkgeek.com, packed with items that might just help you elude Dennis Squalor's electric monks. The kit includes:1) An RFID Blocking Wallet to keep your info hidden from scanning monks.
2) A Lazer Tripwire set to help secure your computer from SFF snoops.
3) A Wall Safe that looks like a power outlet to keep sensitive info away from prying eyes.’
4) A Super Ear that can amplify sound up to 50 decibels to monitor chatter outside your safehouse.
5) And a Ninja remote – which gives you control over most TVs, and might even shut down an Electric Church monk in a pinch.
To enter, just send an email to orbit@hbgusa.com with the words “Electric Church Sweepstakes” in the subject line. Giveaway ends Wednesday, October 31st, 2007, 9:59 AM EDT and you can read the Official Rules HERE.
Diana Gabaldon, bestselling author of the Outlander Series, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (August 2007) and the forthcoming Lord John and the Hand of Devils novella collection (November 27, 2007), is offering listeners six new Podcast episodes, the first two are now available, with the remaining episodes coming out every Monday until November 5th. The episodes will provide insight into the character of Lord John, a day in the life of Diana Gabaldon, what military men think of her novels, and much more. Visit the author’s website HERE to play the episodes.Want more Diana? If you have a question you'd like to ask Diana Gabaldon that you think may not be covered in the podcast episodes, she'll be appearing in the virtual world of Second Life on October 11th at 6PM Pacific. Complete details can be found HERE.
In adaptation news, I’m so far behind I’m just going to provide links courtesy of Coming Soon:Update on the J.J. Abrams Star Trek film
Pixar bringing Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars to the big screen
Image Comics’ graphic novel “The Last Christmas” optioned
More Philip K. Dick stories to be adapted
EverQuest videogame picked up by Avi Arad!
Halo movie not happening?
I Am Legend website now live
Illustrated novel The Plucker optioned by New Line
YA book “The Night Tourist” bought by Universal
Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” adaptation has a director!
Guillermo del Toro adapting H.P. Lovecraft (Awesome!!!)
The Dragon Ball Z movie finds a writer/director
Brandon Mull’s “The Candy Shop War” sold!
Dean Lorey’s “Nightmare Academy” finds a writer
"Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire” by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden to directed by David Goyer! (Read this if you haven’t already!)
Recently I mentioned how I missed reading horror. Well thankfully it’s October, which means Halloween, which means lots of new horror releases for me to sink my teeth into :D So next on my list is a book that I’ve been anticipating for a while now—“Eat the Dark” by Joe Schreiber. Another newcomer to the horror scene, Mr. Schreiber scared the shit out of a lot of readers last year with “Chasing the Dead”, the author’s excellent debut. In his sophomore effort “Eat the Dark”—title inspired by Ray Bradbury’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes”—Joe delivers another horrifying page-turner…
Hospitals in general are pretty scary. I mean I’ve always been creeped out by them. So imagine if you will that you’re in an abandoned hospital, it’s nighttime, there’s no power, and you’re trapped with a well-documented serial killer on the prowl. That’s the basic setup for Mr. Schreiber’s “Eat the Dark”. Not the most original or complicated premise I know, but there’s plenty of surprises along the way and for the six unfortunate individuals—Mike Hughes, his wife Sarah, their son Eli, security guard Steve Calhoun, MRI tech Jolie Braun and Dr. Edward Walker—who find themselves in that situation, it will be a night of terror that will never be forgotten, if they even survive that is. For the reader, it’s one hellishly good time :D
The first thing you’re going to notice when picking up “Eat the Dark” is how compact it is. 208 pages doesn’t seem like much, but trust me, the book packs quite a punch. Some of that is due to events taking place over the course of a few hours, which automatically increases the novel’s level of immediacy. Mainly though it has to do with the way the book is written. Chapters are extremely short usually ending on tiny cliffhangers; narratives ricochet from one perspective to the next with increasing velocity; and very little time is wasted on set-up, exposition or character development. Basically, from the outset we’re in the hospital, characters are introduced, little details about their lives are revealed—Steve is an alcoholic, Mike’s a cheater, Sarah has really good hearing, Jolie is a slut, et cetera; and the plot is underway. Before you know it, serial killer Frank Snow is on the loose, bodies are falling and the real fun has begun…
Descriptively, Joe Schreiber is a very visual writer and for me, reading the book was like watching it come to life on the big screen. In fact, as far as structure, tone & pacing, “Eat the Dark” is constructed very much like a movie and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if someone comes along and options the novel for film adaptation if it hasn’t been done already.
On the negative side, I just had a few minor bones to pick with the book. First, I thought the epilogue was pretty generic, I felt the ‘big secret’ that one of the characters shared with Frank Snow was underwhelming, and the whole deal with Mike & Sarah being brought closer together at the end was just a little cliché ;) My biggest concern though is that “Eat the Dark” shares a lot of similarities with “Chasing the Dead”—serial killers who like to make their victims follow instructions; young children placed in terrifying situations; the books’ diminutive lengths & short timeframes; how history plays a role in the story; the mixing of horror, thriller, mystery & supernatural elements—and I’m afraid that this might become an ongoing trend from the author. Hopefully not though and I guess we’ll find out with Mr. Schreiber’s next book “The Black Wing”.
In the end, Mr. Schreiber easily avoids the dreaded sophomore jinx with a book that is just as engaging and visceral as his impressive debut “Chasing the Dead”. In fact, possessing the ‘velocity’ of a Dean Koontz thriller and evoking chilling Clive Barker-like imagery, “Eat the Dark” is an even tighter, better written and more intense nail-biter than its predecessor. So horror readers everywhere, hang on because Joe Schreiber is here to stay…
Hospitals in general are pretty scary. I mean I’ve always been creeped out by them. So imagine if you will that you’re in an abandoned hospital, it’s nighttime, there’s no power, and you’re trapped with a well-documented serial killer on the prowl. That’s the basic setup for Mr. Schreiber’s “Eat the Dark”. Not the most original or complicated premise I know, but there’s plenty of surprises along the way and for the six unfortunate individuals—Mike Hughes, his wife Sarah, their son Eli, security guard Steve Calhoun, MRI tech Jolie Braun and Dr. Edward Walker—who find themselves in that situation, it will be a night of terror that will never be forgotten, if they even survive that is. For the reader, it’s one hellishly good time :D
The first thing you’re going to notice when picking up “Eat the Dark” is how compact it is. 208 pages doesn’t seem like much, but trust me, the book packs quite a punch. Some of that is due to events taking place over the course of a few hours, which automatically increases the novel’s level of immediacy. Mainly though it has to do with the way the book is written. Chapters are extremely short usually ending on tiny cliffhangers; narratives ricochet from one perspective to the next with increasing velocity; and very little time is wasted on set-up, exposition or character development. Basically, from the outset we’re in the hospital, characters are introduced, little details about their lives are revealed—Steve is an alcoholic, Mike’s a cheater, Sarah has really good hearing, Jolie is a slut, et cetera; and the plot is underway. Before you know it, serial killer Frank Snow is on the loose, bodies are falling and the real fun has begun…
Descriptively, Joe Schreiber is a very visual writer and for me, reading the book was like watching it come to life on the big screen. In fact, as far as structure, tone & pacing, “Eat the Dark” is constructed very much like a movie and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if someone comes along and options the novel for film adaptation if it hasn’t been done already.
On the negative side, I just had a few minor bones to pick with the book. First, I thought the epilogue was pretty generic, I felt the ‘big secret’ that one of the characters shared with Frank Snow was underwhelming, and the whole deal with Mike & Sarah being brought closer together at the end was just a little cliché ;) My biggest concern though is that “Eat the Dark” shares a lot of similarities with “Chasing the Dead”—serial killers who like to make their victims follow instructions; young children placed in terrifying situations; the books’ diminutive lengths & short timeframes; how history plays a role in the story; the mixing of horror, thriller, mystery & supernatural elements—and I’m afraid that this might become an ongoing trend from the author. Hopefully not though and I guess we’ll find out with Mr. Schreiber’s next book “The Black Wing”.
In the end, Mr. Schreiber easily avoids the dreaded sophomore jinx with a book that is just as engaging and visceral as his impressive debut “Chasing the Dead”. In fact, possessing the ‘velocity’ of a Dean Koontz thriller and evoking chilling Clive Barker-like imagery, “Eat the Dark” is an even tighter, better written and more intense nail-biter than its predecessor. So horror readers everywhere, hang on because Joe Schreiber is here to stay…
Congratulations to Kelly Rogers (Canada) who was randomly selected to win the Orbit Books Prize Pack featuring Brian Ruckley's "Winterbirth", Jeff Somer's "The Electric Church", Karen Miller’s “The Innocent Mage” and the first three books in the Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow, all thanks to Orbit!!!
Congratulations also to Sarah Tompkins (Tennessee) who was randomly selected to a SET of Sarah Monette’s books including "Mélusine", "The Virtu" and "The Mirador" thanks to Ace Books!!!
Congratulations also to Sarah Tompkins (Tennessee) who was randomly selected to a SET of Sarah Monette’s books including "Mélusine", "The Virtu" and "The Mirador" thanks to Ace Books!!!
Finally, congratulations to Ellen Krohn (Tennessee), Patty Hightower (Tennessee), James Bischoff (Minnesota), Kate Weber (Virginia) and Max Lehman (California) who were all randomly selected to win a copy of David Gunn’s “Death’s Head” thanks to Transworld!!!
Sprawling, multi-volume fantasy series have always been a favorite of mine. What I like about them is the large cast of characters, the worldbuilding, the epic story—the more complicated the better—and the lengthy page count. What I’ve recently realized is that a space opera is much like an epic fantasy series with only a couple of obvious differences: the space setting and futuristic technology in place of a magic system. “Stealing Light” from author Gary Gibson—associated with the Glasgow Science Fiction Writer’s Circle (Hal Duncan)—is being hailed by the publisher as “the breakout novel from an exciting new talent in British science fiction” in the vein of Peter F. Hamilton, a master of the space opera. Now I haven’t read either of Mr. Gibson’s other novels (Angel Stations, Against Gravity) or his short fiction, and I’ve only just been introduced to Mr. Hamilton (The Dreaming Void reviewed HERE), but let me tell you, “Stealing Light” is one of those rare titles that is even better than advertised.
Welcome to the 2500s, a future where human civilization has expanded throughout the Milky Way galaxy thanks in large part to the Shoal, a technologically-advanced, aquatic alien species. In return for helping mankind colonize, establish interstellar trade, and receive alien technologies, humanity made a promise to abide by the Shoal’s rules. Namely, they could only colonize in a specified area; they would never try to replicate certain technologies, especially the transluminal drive (faster-than-light travel); they could only interact with certain alien species; and Clause Six. Setting the stage, Deep Dreamers—the Shoal’s equivalent of oracles—have glimpsed a terrifying future where the entire Shoal Hegemony is destroyed. To prevent this catastrophic outcome from happening, Trader-In-Faecal-Matter-Of-Animals, a sort of Shoal special agent, sets out to alter the course of the future which somehow involves Dakota Merrick, a former machine-head pilot for the Consortium and survivor of the Port Gabriel massacre. Life has been tough for Ms. Merrick ever since the ‘incident’ and it only gets worse when she gets on the bad side of gangster Alexander Bourdain. In order to avoid Bourdain’s wrath, Dakota agrees to join a colonial survey that will hopefully help resolve the Freehold-Uchidan conflict, one of the book’s many subplots. Ms. Merrick will eventually learn that the survey is just a cover for a discovery that holds tremendous ramifications for both humans & Shoal alike—a derelict starship with faster-than-light technology that predates the Shoal (supposedly they were the only race with that capability). From here, expect plenty of edge-of-your-seat thrills, riveting SF action, and startling revelations, the most shocking of which is not how the Shoal acquired faster-than-light technology, but what else it can do…
Unlike some space opera that I’ve read, Mr. Gibson’s “Stealing Light” hooks you from the get-go and keeps you hooked through all 489 of its pages. While the book features a fairly large-scale plot and is somewhat complex involving various subplots, “Stealing Light” is actually very accessible and easy to follow. Part of it has to do with the author’s decision to limit the narratives to a small number of characters—Dakota Merrick, xeno-data archaeologist Lucas Corso, Trader-In-Faecal-Matter-Of-Animals—which helps to give the book a more intimate feel despite its bulk. It also helps that the characters are well-written and likeable, especially Dakota who gets fleshed out the most, aided by numerous flashbacks that detail the Port Gabriel incident which plays an important role in current events. I did think Corso was a little underdeveloped, that Trader didn’t get enough face time, and that the villains—Moss, Senator Arbenz, the Mansell brothers—were a bit generic, but there’s plenty of time to learn more about Corso & Trader later and for Mr. Gibson to come up with even nastier bad guys :)
Another reason the book reads so easily is that the author does a wonderful job of pacing, balancing the story with a near-perfect mix of highly visual action sequences—an asteroid-planet disintegrating; deadly hand-to-hand combat including confrontations against hard-to-kill assassins; space battles; a supernova, et cetera—, detailed background information, and political-socio-religious intrigue, though to be honest, “Stealing Light” is not nearly as thought-provoking thematically as other SF. Stylistically, Mr. Gibson reminds me of Peter F. Hamilton. In other words, instead of being ornate or sophisticated, the prose is straight-forward and almost workmanlike, which is actually a plus in the book and yet another reason for “Stealing Light’s” accessibility.
Creatively, Mr. Gibson does employs a lot of familiar concepts in his book—faster-than-light space travel, semi-sentient spaceships, oracles, prophecy, holographic projections, bots, AIs, an archaic society where citizenship is earned through challenges—but he counters with such intriguing ideas as headless, S&M attired bead-zombies; the Uchidan religion which preaches salvation through technology; Giantkillers; weapons that can destroy stars; and a pretty interesting theory about a Maker race who sets out traps to destroy entire species. Personally, I thought Mr. Gibson did a fantastic job of introducing new applications and reinventing established ones (Ghost technology, the transluminal drives, coreships), and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with in the next two books.
Speaking of which, yes “Stealing Light” is the opening volume in a trilogy, but don’t let that scare you. While there’s a sort of mini-cliffhanger at the end of the book, Mr. Gibson actually does a pretty good job of wrapping up the story and resolving most of the immediate plotlines while leaving the major ones for the forthcoming sequels. So if you’re worried about being left unsatisfied, don’t be since “Stealing Light” reads like a standalone novel and if the publisher/author follow through on their plan, then we’ll be seeing “Stealing Fire” & “Stealing Time” soon in 2008 & 2009 respectively.
In conclusion, I’m extremely grateful to Pan MacMillan for sending me a copy of “Stealing Light”. Otherwise, I might never have been introduced to Gary Gibson who is definitely an author to keep an eye on. And, I might never have read “Stealing Light” which is easily one of the most enjoyable science fiction books that I’ve finished this year, and would make a great starting point for readers new to the genre…
Welcome to the 2500s, a future where human civilization has expanded throughout the Milky Way galaxy thanks in large part to the Shoal, a technologically-advanced, aquatic alien species. In return for helping mankind colonize, establish interstellar trade, and receive alien technologies, humanity made a promise to abide by the Shoal’s rules. Namely, they could only colonize in a specified area; they would never try to replicate certain technologies, especially the transluminal drive (faster-than-light travel); they could only interact with certain alien species; and Clause Six. Setting the stage, Deep Dreamers—the Shoal’s equivalent of oracles—have glimpsed a terrifying future where the entire Shoal Hegemony is destroyed. To prevent this catastrophic outcome from happening, Trader-In-Faecal-Matter-Of-Animals, a sort of Shoal special agent, sets out to alter the course of the future which somehow involves Dakota Merrick, a former machine-head pilot for the Consortium and survivor of the Port Gabriel massacre. Life has been tough for Ms. Merrick ever since the ‘incident’ and it only gets worse when she gets on the bad side of gangster Alexander Bourdain. In order to avoid Bourdain’s wrath, Dakota agrees to join a colonial survey that will hopefully help resolve the Freehold-Uchidan conflict, one of the book’s many subplots. Ms. Merrick will eventually learn that the survey is just a cover for a discovery that holds tremendous ramifications for both humans & Shoal alike—a derelict starship with faster-than-light technology that predates the Shoal (supposedly they were the only race with that capability). From here, expect plenty of edge-of-your-seat thrills, riveting SF action, and startling revelations, the most shocking of which is not how the Shoal acquired faster-than-light technology, but what else it can do…
Unlike some space opera that I’ve read, Mr. Gibson’s “Stealing Light” hooks you from the get-go and keeps you hooked through all 489 of its pages. While the book features a fairly large-scale plot and is somewhat complex involving various subplots, “Stealing Light” is actually very accessible and easy to follow. Part of it has to do with the author’s decision to limit the narratives to a small number of characters—Dakota Merrick, xeno-data archaeologist Lucas Corso, Trader-In-Faecal-Matter-Of-Animals—which helps to give the book a more intimate feel despite its bulk. It also helps that the characters are well-written and likeable, especially Dakota who gets fleshed out the most, aided by numerous flashbacks that detail the Port Gabriel incident which plays an important role in current events. I did think Corso was a little underdeveloped, that Trader didn’t get enough face time, and that the villains—Moss, Senator Arbenz, the Mansell brothers—were a bit generic, but there’s plenty of time to learn more about Corso & Trader later and for Mr. Gibson to come up with even nastier bad guys :)
Another reason the book reads so easily is that the author does a wonderful job of pacing, balancing the story with a near-perfect mix of highly visual action sequences—an asteroid-planet disintegrating; deadly hand-to-hand combat including confrontations against hard-to-kill assassins; space battles; a supernova, et cetera—, detailed background information, and political-socio-religious intrigue, though to be honest, “Stealing Light” is not nearly as thought-provoking thematically as other SF. Stylistically, Mr. Gibson reminds me of Peter F. Hamilton. In other words, instead of being ornate or sophisticated, the prose is straight-forward and almost workmanlike, which is actually a plus in the book and yet another reason for “Stealing Light’s” accessibility.
Creatively, Mr. Gibson does employs a lot of familiar concepts in his book—faster-than-light space travel, semi-sentient spaceships, oracles, prophecy, holographic projections, bots, AIs, an archaic society where citizenship is earned through challenges—but he counters with such intriguing ideas as headless, S&M attired bead-zombies; the Uchidan religion which preaches salvation through technology; Giantkillers; weapons that can destroy stars; and a pretty interesting theory about a Maker race who sets out traps to destroy entire species. Personally, I thought Mr. Gibson did a fantastic job of introducing new applications and reinventing established ones (Ghost technology, the transluminal drives, coreships), and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with in the next two books.
Speaking of which, yes “Stealing Light” is the opening volume in a trilogy, but don’t let that scare you. While there’s a sort of mini-cliffhanger at the end of the book, Mr. Gibson actually does a pretty good job of wrapping up the story and resolving most of the immediate plotlines while leaving the major ones for the forthcoming sequels. So if you’re worried about being left unsatisfied, don’t be since “Stealing Light” reads like a standalone novel and if the publisher/author follow through on their plan, then we’ll be seeing “Stealing Fire” & “Stealing Time” soon in 2008 & 2009 respectively.
In conclusion, I’m extremely grateful to Pan MacMillan for sending me a copy of “Stealing Light”. Otherwise, I might never have been introduced to Gary Gibson who is definitely an author to keep an eye on. And, I might never have read “Stealing Light” which is easily one of the most enjoyable science fiction books that I’ve finished this year, and would make a great starting point for readers new to the genre…
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