The Heroes Wallpaper, Wild Cards Film & TV Deal and The Liveship Traders Graphic Novel

Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes was one of my top reads this year. For the other fans out there, I'd like to point out that Orbit posted a The Heroes-themed wallpaper in various sizes (including iPad and iPhone).

If you're into graphic novels then you probably already know the graphics novel publisher Soleil. They had already published Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy and now it seems they signed the deal to continue the job with the following trilogy, The Liveship Traders. Unfortunately, they are not available in English but French and Dutch speakers can enjoy them.

The current success of the new TV series Game of Thrones seems to be helping George R. R. Martin a great deal. The fans of Martin's Wild Cards series will be delighted to hear that SyFy Films has acquired the rights to this series. I look forward to seeing them.

UK Cover Art: City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

Harper Voyager has revealed the UK cover of Robin Hobb's City of Dragons, the third instalment of The Rain Wild Chronicles.

I like this cover much better than the US cover shown below:

City of Dragons will be published on 7 Feb 2011.

Blurb

The dragon keepers and fledgling dragons have discovered a route to the lost city of Kelsingra but there is one problem: they need to be able to fly to cross the treacherous waters and enter the fabled city. At first, only a few dragons are willing to try – the others are either too ashamed of their deformed wings and feeble muscles or too proud to risk failure and humiliation.

But the rewards waiting at Kelsingra for those brave enough to take to the air are worth more than they could possibly imagine. This was a city built for dragons and their keepers. Alise Finbok is overwhelmed by the treasures she finds there, and spends hours carefully uncovering wonder after wonder, recording her findings for posterity. She knows the knowledge will change everything the world thought about dragons and the Elderlings.

Yet rumours of the city’s discovery have floated down the Rain Wild River and reached envious ears in Bingtown and beyond. Adventurers, pirates and fortune hunters are coming in droves to pillage what they can from the city. Will the dragons, only just finding their strength, and their keepers, who are changing in their own mysterious ways, be able to fend them off?

And what has happened to Tintaglia, the dragon-mother who started it all? Has she really abandoned her offspring forever? Or will she too return to seek the riches of Kelsingra…

"The Reindeer People" and "Wolf's Brother" Reissued by Harper Voyager

Robin Hobb is one of my favourite fantasy authors. She wrote under the pseudonym Megan Lindholm from 1983 to 1992 and now Harper Voyager are reissuing two of her books, The Reindeer People and Wolf's Brother. The books will be published right after Hobb's upcoming book The Inheritance containing short stories written as Hobb and Lindholm (a duality that is perfectly captured by the beautiful cover art).

The Reindeer People

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Harper Voyager; (Reissue) edition (28 April 2011)
ISBN-10: 0007425449
ISBN-13: 978-0007425440

Book Depository - Amazon UK

A voyage of discovery into the life of a remote aboriginal community in the Siberian Arctic, where the reindeer has been a part of daily life since Palaeolithic times.

The Reindeer People is the first in a series of reissues of Megan Lindholm’s (Robin Hobb) classic backlist titles. It is set in the harsh wilderness of a prehistoric North America, and tells the story of a tribe of nomads and hunters as they try to survive, battling against enemy tribes, marauding packs of wolves and the very land itself.

Living on the outskirts of the tribe Tillu was happy spending her time tending her strange, slow dreamy child Kerlew and comunning with the spirits to heal the sick and bring blessing on new births.
However Carp, the Shaman, an ugly wizened old man whose magic smelled foul to Tillu desired both mother and child. Tillu knew Carp’s magic would steal her son and her soul. Death waited in the snows of the Tundra, but Tillu knew which she would prefer…

Gritty and realistic, it’s reminiscent of Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear but written in the compelling style of the author who produced the bestselling Assassin’s Apprentice.

Wolf's Brother

Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Harper Voyager; (Reissue) edition (28 April 2011)
ISBN-10: 0007425430
ISBN-13: 978-0007425433

Amazon UK

The compelling sequel to The Reindeer People , a saga of magic and triumph in an ancient world.

Kerlew stared at the immense stone that jutted up from the tundra. Power radiated from it like heat from a fire. It attracted the boy and filled him with fear.

And then he was alone.

There was a brush of sound, of dark moving shadows and then the sudden flash of a glistening eye. He pressed his palms back against the stone’s rough surface and faced the night creatures that surrounded him.

The magic is strong in Kerlew. Every day it grows, reaching out to the Wolf spirit that will be his guide. But the magic in Kerlew that calls to the beasts and to the spirit world also calls to Carp, the evil old shaman, who follows Kerlew and his mother, Tillu, across the frozen wastes. When he finds them, he will bind them to him, and shape Kerlew’s powers for his own uses.

The Inheritance

Hardback
Publisher: Harper Voyager (31 Mar 2011)
ISBN-10: 0007273797
ISBN-13: 978-0007273799

Book Depository - Amazon UK - Amazon US

A collection of novellas and short stories from one of the most critically acclaimed authors in the fantasy genre, Robin Hobb. Including work written under her pseudonym, Megan Lindholm

Bingtown heiresses rub shoulders in this wonderful collection with vampires and alien musicians, tramps and feral cats.

In The Homecoming, Lady Carillion Carrock and a number of other Jamaillian nobles are sailing to the Cursed Shores. Their journey is not by choice: for plotting against the Satrap, their wealth has been confiscated and they have been exiled. Until now, Carillion has done nothing but lead a life of privilege. She believes they are bound for wondrous cities, cities where ancient kings and queens dusted their skin with gold and wore jewels above their eyes. But when she is marooned by the ship’s unscrupulous captain, she will soon discover the grim reality of what survival in the Rain Wilds entails.

The Silver Lady is a would-be writer, ekeing out a dull existence by working in a Sears store. The one day a man comes in: fortyish, pleasant-looking. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except he says his name is Merlin, and he’s about to change her life.

Rosemary got involved with the wrong man. Pell is lazy, good for nothing, a bully. Her best friend Hilia knew it and so did her tom cat, Marmalade. But love is blind: Rosemary had Pell’s baby, renovated the cottage his grandfather left in his will, turned its land to good use; and then he left her for another woman. Now he’s back, and something must be done…

Seven Essential Fantasy Reads

Last week, The New Yorker published an article called Seven Essential Fantasy Reads. It contains a list of 7 books recommended for "a beginning fantasy reader ready to graduate to more serious (but not too serious) fare":

• The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
• Anything (but particularly Tigana) by Guy Gavriel Kay
• Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind
• Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
• The Scions Of Shannara by Terry Brooks
• The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
• Gardens Of The Moon by Steven Erikson

I like the list above however I have a few points to make:

Currently, I'm halfway through Gardens of the Moon and I believe that it would scare anyone new to the genre. So I would replace Gardens Of The Moon with George R. R. Martin's outstanding A Game Of Thrones.

Kay and Hobb are my favorite authors and Tigana is one of my all time favorites. However it is a long book. I have the impression that one of his shorter books, such as The Lions Of Al-Rassan, would be more appropriate.

My third and last point is about The Name Of The Wind. I absolutely loved the book however I would really hesitate in writing down Rothfuss' name instead of Joe Abercrombie's. I read The Name Of The Wind and Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy back to back. Even though their stories and their styles are different, for me, it certainly would not be easy to pick one over the other. Therefore, I would add another book to the list above: The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.

By the way, Aidan Moher wrote an excellent blog entry about this list where he highlights some pretty valid points.