The Roadmap

"Reappraise the past, re-evaluate where we've been, clarify where we are, and predict or anticipate where we are headed" - Toni Cade Bambara (1939 - 1995)

I love the anticipation of my new books. The ever growing TBR pile is a tower of pleasure :). Here's what I'm expecting to read during the next few weeks, in order:

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

Kay is one of my favorite authors. He's never disappointed and has never failed to impress. I'm so looking forward to reading his latest book.

Blurb

An epic historical adventure set in a pseudo 8th century China, from the author of the 2008 World Fantasy winner, Ysabel. Under Heaven is a novel of heroes, assassins, concubines and emperors set against a majestic and unforgiving landscape. An epic historical adventure set in a pseudo 8th century China, from the author of the 2008 World Fantasy winner, Ysabel. Under Heaven is a novel of heroes, assassins, concubines and emperors set against a majestic and unforgiving landscape. For two years Shen Tai has mourned his father, living like a hermit beyond the borders of the Kitan Empire, by a mountain lake where terrible battles have long been fought between the Kitai and the neighbouring Tagurans, including one for which his father - a great general - was honoured. But Tai's father never forgot the brutal slaughter involved. The bones of 100,000 soldiers still lie unburied by the lake and their wailing ghosts at night strike terror in the living, leaving the lake and meadow abandoned in its ring of mountains. To honour and redress his father's sorrow, Tai has journeyed west to the lake and has laboured, alone, to bury the dead of both empires. His supplies are replenished by his own people from the nearest fort, and also - since peace has been bought with the bartering of an imperial princess - by the Tagurans, for his solitary honouring of their dead. The Tagurans soldiers one day bring an unexpected letter. It is from the bartered Kitan Princess Cheng-wan, and it contains a poisoned chalice: she has gifted Tai with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses, to reward him for his courage. The Sardians are legendary steeds from the far west, famed, highly-prized, long-coveted by the Kitans.

Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill

I used to read more horror books but I still love a good horror story when I find one. Adam Nevill's Apartment 16 is one that sounds very promising so I'll be reading it very soon.

Blurb

Some doors are better left closed . . .

In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.

A young American woman, Apryl, arrives at Barrington House. She's been left an apartment by her mysterious Great Aunt Lillian who died in strange circumstances. Rumours claim Lillian was mad. But her diary suggests she was implicated in a horrific and inexplicable event decades ago.

Determined to learn something of this eccentric woman, Apryl begins to unravel the hidden story of Barrington House. She discovers that a transforming, evil force still inhabits the building. And the doorway to Apartment 16 is a gateway to something altogether more terrifying . . .

The Exodus Gate by Stephen Zimmer

I really liked the blurb of The Exodus Gate, the first book of the Rising Dawn Saga. Furthermore, it's the first time that I'm going to read a work of Stephen Zimmer's. I'm pretty excited about it.

Blurb

The Exodus Gate, by Stephen Zimmer, is a modern fantasy novel that is the first release in the Rising Dawn Saga. The story unfolds around Benedict Darwin, host of a popular late night radio show that deals with the paranormal. Benedict comes into possession of a virtual reality simulator that turns out to be something far greater and more powerful than he ever expected. Meanwhile, supernatural powers from the depths of the Abyss and their human allies are working tirelessly to bring about a One World Government. They are also laboring to bridge the boundaries between time and space to bring back the Nephilim, the monstrous offspring of Fallen Avatars and humans that were destroyed in a Great Flood that occurred long ages ago. An epic tale of courage, hope, and adventure, with fantastical realms and exotic creatures, The Exodus Gate is sure to appeal to a wide range of fantasy readers. The first edition also feature 15 full page illustrations by the artist Matthew Perry.

Crown of Vengeance by Stephen Zimmer

Back to epic fantasy with the first book of the Fires in Eden.

Blurb

On a night that begins no different from any other, strange mists engulf Janus Roland, Erika Laesig, Mershad Shahab, and several others going about their lives in a quiet midwestern town.

When the mist dissipates, they all find themselves looking up into the bright skies of a new, incredible world. Without explanation of why it has happened, or any notion of where they are, they embark upon a grand adventure within the fantastical world of Ave (pronounced ah-vay).

Some find themselves in the lands of the Saxan Kingdom, while others have emerged within the lands of the Onan, one of the tribes in the Five Realms confederation. Storms of war loom over both Saxany and the Five Realms, as invasion forces mass under the inspiration of The Unifier, a mysterious, captivating figure whose influence has swept across the surface of Aveever since His rise to power in the Gallean duchy of Avanor.

It is a war that will be fought in the skies, upon the seas, on land, and even in places non-physical in nature.

A majestic, epic fantasy that begins many adventures and journeys across a diverse and enthralling world, filled with races and creatures both familiar and new, Crown of Vengeance lights the flame of the Fires in Eden series, bringing to life a bold, far-ranging, and grand new venture within the realms of fantasy literature.

Kraken by China Miéville

One of the most anticipated titles of 2010 for me.

Blurb

Deep in the research wing of the Natural History Museum is a prize specimen, something that comes along much less often than once in a lifetime: a perfect, and perfectly preserved, giant squid. But what does it mean when the creature suddenly and impossibly disappears?

For curator Billy Harrow it's the start of a headlong pitch into a London of warring cults, surreal magic, apostates and assassins. It might just be that the creature he's been preserving is more than a biological rarity: there are those who are sure it's a god.

A god that someone is hoping will end the world.

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

Guy Gavriel Kay is one of my favorite authors. His books are such treats that since I heard about his latest book, Under Heaven (UK, US, Canada), I have been looking forward to holding a copy of it in my hands. I'm very excited because I'll be reviewing it very soon.

In the meantime, here's what's promised:

Publisher: HarperVoyager (twitter)
Publishing Date: 29 April 2010
Paperback: 576 pages

An epic historical adventure set in a pseudo 8th century China, from the author of the 2008 World Fantasy winner, Ysabel. Under Heaven is a novel of heroes, assassins, concubines and emperors set against a majestic and unforgiving landscape. An epic historical adventure set in a pseudo 8th century China, from the author of the 2008 World Fantasy winner, Ysabel. Under Heaven is a novel of heroes, assassins, concubines and emperors set against a majestic and unforgiving landscape. For two years Shen Tai has mourned his father, living like a hermit beyond the borders of the Kitan Empire, by a mountain lake where terrible battles have long been fought between the Kitai and the neighbouring Tagurans, including one for which his father - a great general - was honoured. But Tai's father never forgot the brutal slaughter involved. The bones of 100,000 soldiers still lie unburied by the lake and their wailing ghosts at night strike terror in the living, leaving the lake and meadow abandoned in its ring of mountains. To honour and redress his father's sorrow, Tai has journeyed west to the lake and has laboured, alone, to bury the dead of both empires. His supplies are replenished by his own people from the nearest fort, and also - since peace has been bought with the bartering of an imperial princess - by the Tagurans, for his solitary honouring of their dead. The Tagurans soldiers one day bring an unexpected letter. It is from the bartered Kitan Princess Cheng-wan, and it contains a poisoned chalice: she has gifted Tai with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses, to reward him for his courage. The Sardians are legendary steeds from the far west, famed, highly-prized, long-coveted by the Kitans.

Review: Farlander by Col Buchanan

Title: Farlander
Author: Col Buchanan
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tor
Publishing Date: 5 Mar 2010
Hardback: 384 pages
Series: Book one of The Heart of the World

Summary

Mercian Free Ports are the last unconquered lands standing before the Holy Empire of Mann. The shield, six bands of wall of sheer gray stone, towering some ninety feet in height, has protected the island of Khos for over three centuries. But the Shield of Khos is under siege and the full might of the Imperial Forth Army is taking its toll slowly on the city. Poverty reigns, food becomes scarcer by day, men die or go mad fighting in narrow tunnels under the walls. In all this misery, Nico, a young lad, desperately hungry, makes a mistakes and gets caught stealing a fat purse from a dark-skinned farlander named Ash. In prison, Ash visits Nico and offers him a second chance: to take him on apprentice, for Nico to become a Rōshun.

Don’t Judge A Book By It But...

Despite its central sword-wielding hooded figure I liked this cover. I probably looked past this person and saw the promise of a puzzling world on the background. After having read the book, it even makes more sense now.

Review

When I asked myself what I liked most about Col Buchanan's Farlander, my immediate answer was "the way he tells his story". It almost felt like Buchanan could write about anything and could still make it sound enjoyable. He has a powerful style that made me deeply connect with the story and the pages started to turn by themselves. The plot, even though sounding not very intricate, is very well constructed and satisfyingly intriguing.

I was glad to have a map but I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about the Farlander's setting. When I saw the zeppelin-like flying ship on the background of the book cover, I was somehow hesitant, asking myself how far the modern world would seep into the fantasy. I was pleasantly surprised with the result. Buchanan introduces some of the more modern sides of Farlander's setting in a very well planned and controlled manner without pushing the reader to a jump of faith. On the spiritual side, I loved the belief system that he created. The history of the Holy Order of Mann and their perverse faith are particularly poignant. In some parts, the story also contains a slight touch of magic without using the usual concepts.

Farlander's characters add to the charm of the book. Please forgive me the comparison but I thought I saw some Fitz (Robin Hobb) in Nico in more than one occasion. I'm sure Buchanan's smooth style has something to do with it too. Even though they don't jump out of the book, they are, in general, very enjoyable characters.

Buchanan uses also very satisfactory and harmonious parallel story threads. Without rendering them too sophisticated, he controls smoothly the flow of the story.

All in all, Col Buchanan's Farlander is an excellent fantasy debut that I greatly enjoyed. His engaging style is a good indicator for me to pick up his future books without hesitation.

Rating: 9/10

Quotes

"In the worst of days were laid the seeds of better times." - The Great Fool

"Do not judge a man for the path that he follows. Unless you have walked each and every step in the same direction, you cannot tell another where he is headed, nor what he leaves behind." - the Blessed Prophet

"The seeds of things show what fruits will come of them." - the Seer

Cover Art: The Technician by Neal Asher

Here's the cover art of Neal Asher's new Polity novel called The Technician. This is one big ugly beast! And that's all I have to say...

The Theocracy has been dead for twenty years, and the Polity rules on Masada. But the Tidy Squad consists of rebels who cannot accept the new order. Their hate for surviving theocrats is undiminished, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is at the top of their hitlist.

Escaping his sanatorium Tombs is pushed into painful confrontation with reality he has avoided since the rebellion. His insanity must cured, because the near mythical hooder called the Technician that attacked him all those years ago, did something to his mind even the AIs fail to understand. Tombs might possess information about the suicide of an entire alien race.

The war drone Amistad, whose job it is to bring this information to light, recruits Lief Grant, an ex-rebel Commander, to protect Tombs, along with the black AI Penny Royal, who everyone thought was dead. The amphidapt Chanter, who has studied the bone sculptures the Technician makes with the remains of its prey, might be useful too.

Meanwhile, in deep space, the mechanism the Atheter used to reduce themselves to animals, stirs from slumber and begins to power-up its weapons.

Cover Art: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

 

I like the cover art and the idea of using a spider-like space craft. But the thing that gets me excited about this book is not its cover but its promise. Decide for yourself:

Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons - the Dilemma Prison - against countless copies of himself. Jean's routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . . The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future - a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

Spellwright by Blake Charlton

US Cover	UK Cover

Blake Charlton's Spellwright (UK, US, Canada) has been very popular in the Blogosphere thanks to some very positive early reviews and that's what I'm going to read next. In North America, it's going to be published on March 2. In the UK, unfortunately, it's going to be even later: July 8.

However, in the meantime, you should have a look at these excerpts. Looks like a very good book, I'm telling ya!

• Prologue to Spellwright by Blake Charlton (The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review)
• Exclusive excerpt from Blake Charlton's Spellwright (Pat's Fantasy Hotlist)

It's also interesting to see that the US edition of Spellwright has one of those rare book covers that look nicer than their UK counterparts.

Apartment 16 by Adam L G Nevill

Adam Nevill's Apartment 16 is one of the books that I'm looking forward to. I've always enjoyed good horror books and I'm expecting good things from Apartment 16. It is going to be published on May 21.

Some doors are better left closed...

In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.

A young American woman, Apryl, arrives at Barrington House. She's been left an apartment by her mysterious Great Aunt Lillian who died in strange circumstances. Rumours claim Lillian was mad. But her diary suggests she was implicated in a horrific and inexplicable event decades ago.

Determined to learn something of this eccentric woman, Apryl begins to unravel the hidden story of Barrington House. She discovers that a transforming, evil force still inhabits the building. And the doorway to Apartment 16 is a gateway to something altogether more terrifying . . .

Check also Adam Nevill's new Web site. It's pretty cool!

Schism Between Authors and Readers

Something that Jay Wells said on twitter made me think if there's schism between authors and readers. She said:

Saddest thing about this e-book drama is it's creating schism between authors and readers because of some misconceptions about how publishing works.

I think she's partially right, because most readers don't get how the publishing of a book works, they probably don't think about it. But the biggest complaint that I hear around me and on Internet is not about authors, it is about publishers. I have the impression that they are pictured as greedy companies that are always getting an unfairly big part of the cake, keeping all the reins while paying authors peanuts.

Regarding "the current e-book drama", I think readers don't really trust publishers. Regarding e-book pricing, they want from the publishers, at least, a trustworthy dynamic scheme as it is applied to paper books. If the publishers say "e-book prices will always be available at 70% of the p-book prices" then I'm sure most of the readers will be go home to their reading devices happily. However, they don't trust such a promise because currently one can pay $14.99 for an e-book from the same publisher that's selling the mass market paperback for $7.99. Now, this is upsetting!

So it's not so much authors that they are angry with, because readers know that their hands are tied. However, readers believe that authors are still closer to the publishers than themselves. For example, to protest the unavailability of an e-book, they can decide to give unfair 1-star reviews to a book, hoping that the author whose book's Amazon rating is harmed will be strong enough to change some things.

In this current e-book pricing struggle, I think one of the questions that a reader asks himself is "Why would an author, especially someone who is already published, not consider a royalty program such as Amazon's?" Amazon's new royalty program says:

This new program can thus enable authors and publishers to make more money on every sale. For example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option, and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option.

It just looks like readers are eager but most authors and all publishers are afraid of the e-book phenomenon.

Cover Art: The Ragged Man by Tom Lloyd

I'm not a big fan of dragons but I think the cover of Tom Lloyd's The Ragged Man shows enough skeleton and the evilest of dragons to impress any fantasy lover.

Tom Lloyd's The Ragged Man is the forth book of The Twilight Reign series:

Continuing the powerful epic that started with The Stormcaller: Lord Isak is dead, his armies and entire tribe in disarray. It falls to King Emin to continue the war alone, and the Menin are only too happy to meet his challenge. In Byora, Ruhen is developing his 'Saviour' persona. The Harlequins start preaching in his name and many of the pilgrims who flock to him are recruited to be 'Children', disciples who spread Ruhen's message. All over the Land people are starting to see Ruhen as the answer to their troubles. A showdown is coming: battle lines are finally drawn and the atrocities quickly mount. The spectre of the Great War looms, but in this age the Gods cannot and will not come to King Emin's aid. With the peoples of the Land turning against Emin and his few remaining allies, their only chance for survival lies in the hands of a dead man. 

Update: (9 Feb 2010)

Here's the final version of the cover (click to enlarge):

Price of e-Books: The Biggest Enemy?

Since they became popular, mostly thanks to the e-Paper readers such as Sony Readers and Amazon's Kindle, e-Books have had three major enemies: DRM (digital rights management), geographic restrictions and high prices.

Readers have always given out about DRM and Geo-restrictions. They don't make sense and they are, at best, frustrating for the reader. I've always believed that the high prices have constituted a lesser threat to the success of the e-Books. This is because I think that as e-Readers become more popular, a reasonable and more-or-less global pricing scheme will set in. I'm not so sure about it anymore.

Amazon's $9.99 upper limit was an excellent start in the US. However publishers have never been happy about this artificial price limit. I guess they never liked the fact that e-Book sales have cannibalized their hardback sales, which is where they mostly make their money (please correct me if I'm wrong on this one. I've always assumed so with my limited knowledge).

Amazon's recent failure in its arm-wrestle with Macmillan and authors' joining the clash were the first indicators of Amazon's defeat not only in this fight but in this war. Not surprisingly, Amazon is also cornered by increasing competition, especially the new Apple gadget, iPad.

There's no doubt, at least in my mind, that electronic content is the future of reading. At the end of the day, I think most of the e-Reader users are happy to absorb some of the device cost because of the convenience of using such gadgets. However, ultimately, they believe that e-Books have to be commercialized considerably cheaper than their dead-tree editions. I'm just hoping that the time we'll see a general consensus about how much an e-Book should cost is not so far away.

Do Our Old Favorites Still Count?

  

I'm not a re-reading type of guy. I'd like to believe that it's because I read carefully, savoring each word and I remember the details of the books I love pretty well (Except maybe the Malazan books where one needs to be a computer to process all this complexity in one go). And at the same time there's so many other books to read that my TBR pile is never thin at any given time.

Recently, when I thought about it, a question came to my mind. "Would I love my old favorite books if I read them the first time today?"

The thing with the first impression is that you only get it once, therefore the question above remains hypothetical. Nonetheless, I wonder would books like Herbert's Dune, Jordan's The Eye of the World or even Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings have the same effect on us if they were first published today.

Fantasy Author Alexander Lohmann

Last week I posted an article about the fantasy/cover artist Jesse van Dijk whose amazing work includes some cover arts created for the books of German fantasy author Alexander Lohmann. This post inevitably generated some discussions about Alexander Lohmann's books. As I stated in the original post, my German linguistic skills are quasi non-existent, therefore I haven't been lucky enough to read his books, the reviews or the blurbs correctly. And I certainly didn't have the information whether we will ever see them in English or not.

However Internet is a wonderful thing that makes communication so much easier and faster. The ball started rolling when I contacted Mr. Lohmann's publisher. Then Mr. Lohmann kindly stopped by and gave a very detailed information about his books. I'm copying his comments (that you can see in the original post) below:

To add my share to the speculation (after I was informed of Yagiz' query by my publisher) ;-)

"The Day of the Daggers" (as I would put it if I were to translate the book) is not quite tolkienesque. The Prequel was ("Fellowship of Twilight" - a story about a group of heroes, dispatched by the Dark Lord to regain his priceless artefact. They have to fight against a bunch of good guys determined to destroy the very same precious - and instead they mostly fight against themselves, as creatures of darkness are not known for their teamwork). That should account for the blurbs.

The "Daggers" take place a few years after the "Twilight" and depict a more modern setting - I would call it a "revolutionary fantasy novel". The "Fellowship of Twilight" was a mixture of high fantasy and parodistic reflection of the LotR, the "Daggers" in contrary tell a bleak story: In the aftermath of the events described in the first book, there is a revolution in the "Realm of Evil", and the Dark Lord and his minions are overthrown by the least of their followers, the gnomes, who establish a reign of terror in the Lands of Darkness. I used the setting of this book to contrast the traditional fantasy "Evilness" with the evil we can get out of our own history. And I thought it might be interesting to imagine what might have been if some sort of "French revolution" hadn't been conducted by humans but by and against goblins, trolls, wraiths and other not-so-friendly creatures.

The "Lightbearer", the third of the books, will be published in may and take place another 1.000 years after the gnome rebellion. The scenery will be even more modern and describe a world full of magic and technology alike. In this setting, the dark elve Frafa - whose youth during the revolution is described in the second book and who is an old and powerful sorceress by now - discovers that the Dark Lord is still alive an pulling his strings in the background, leading the whole civilisation into the abyss, as it depends on the very same resource that slowly destroys it from the inside. As the Dark Lord tries to keep his secrets, Frafa is compelled to flee and to defeat this ancient evil simultaneously and to this end even to ally with the old enemies of her race.

I hope I have all the questions about the books answered ;-) I don't know if they will ever be available in English. Time will tell ...

And, yes - I like the covers of my books, too :-) But I fear they will not be the same in foreign editions. But I was very pleased to see the approval the covers find even outside the intended market.

Thanks for your interest,

Alexander Lohmann

The author is currently working on the "Lightbearer". The book itself is completed and it is in the process of being edited. It will be the final installment of the "Peoples of the Dark Side" series and what follows next is still to be decided. As he puts it himself "I might bring forward another, more epic project".

If you have read Mr. Lohmann's books I'd love to hear about your thoughts. And if you speak German, go and get your copies so that you can tell me about them later.