Saturday 11 April 2009

Malazan at 10: An old interview with Steven Erikson

And when I say old, I mean old. This interview was done by The Guardian in October 1999, a few months after Gardens of the Moon was published. It's very interesting, expanding on how the Malazan series was picked up for publication, the tug of war between Orion and Bantam over the series, what Erikson was doing at the time and how the deal (which I believe remains a record-setter for a debut fantasy series, shattering that set by Goodkind a few years earlier, although I could well believe someone like Rothfuss has broken it) changed the author's life.

5 comments:

Gabriele Campbell said...

I can't help but it sounds like the author of that article has a few sour grapes to eat and never read a Fantasy book before, or he would not stumble over words like merlon and vambrace. ;)

Unknown said...

Agreed. The interviewer sounds like a dick.

Anonymous said...

I think the interviewer is writing for people who don't know what a merlon or a vambrace are. This was a guardian piece, not some post on SFFWorld.

Unknown said...

Obviously that is case, Anon. But he could have explained those things (although, it wasn't really necessary for the reader to know about them given the article was about money) in a matter of fact manner. Instead he comes off like he is trying to distance himself from those nerdy fantasy guys.
"Oh. Vambraces...Get a load of this geek." *rolls eyes*

Gabriele Campbell said...

I learned those words when I read Ivanhoe, and that one's not shelved among Fantasy. :)

Btw, it really annoyed my English teacher because I used words he didn't know.