After much debate (and some requests) I have signed up with crowdfunding service Patreon to better support future blogging efforts. You can find my Patreon page here and more information after the jump.
The Wertzone
SF&F In Print & On Screen
Saturday, 16 January 2077
Support The Wertzone on Patreon
After much debate (and some requests) I have signed up with crowdfunding service Patreon to better support future blogging efforts. You can find my Patreon page here and more information after the jump.
Monday, 17 February 2025
RIP Viktor Antonov
Thursday, 13 February 2025
Netflix and Wizards of the Coast put FORGOTTEN REALMS live-action show into development
Monday, 10 February 2025
RIP Chris Moore
Esteemed British science fiction artist Chris Moore has sadly passed away at the age of 77. Moore is best-known for his memorable covers for Gollancz books, including for their SF Masterworks line, and his frequent art for the likes of Alastair Reynolds and William Gibson.
Moore was born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire in 1947. He was educated at Mexborough Grammar School and Doncaster Art School. In 1972 he joined forces with Michael Morris to form Moore Morris Ltd., and worked on graphic design and cover art for book, magazine and record covers, operating out of Covent Garden in London. The partnership dissolved in 1980, when Moore moved out of the capital. During his time there he'd created cover art for artists including Rod Stewart, Journey, Fleetwood Mac, Status Quo, Pentangle and Rick Wakeman.
In 1974, art director Peter Bennet suggested that Moore start creating covers for science fiction novels, a genre Moore had little interest in or knowledge of (outside of seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey). But Moore agreed and was soon producing art for new books and reprints alike of Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Anne McCaffrey, Clifford D. Simak and Arthur C. Clarke. Heading into the 1980s, he also become a preferred cover artist for mainstream authors including Jeffrey Archer, Jackie Collins and Wilbur Smith.
In 1989 Moore was sought out to produce concept art for Stanley Kubrick's A.I., but Kubrick took against Moore's agent and tried to go around him to employ Moore directly, which Moore felt was unethical so passed on the opportunity.
Saturday, 8 February 2025
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
Tuesday, 4 February 2025
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER legacy sequel series in development
Saturday, 1 February 2025
Netflix's THE SANDMAN to end with Season 2
Rebecca Yarros sells 12 million copies of her EMPYREAN series in under two years
Rebecca Yarros' Empyrean fantasy series has sold (non-paywalled reference) a startling 12 million copies in less than two years, marking it as one of the fastest-selling fantasy series of the 21st Century. The first book in the series, Fourth Wing, was published in May 2023 and was followed by Iron Flame in November 2023 and Onyx Storm in January 2025. Two more books are projected to bring the series to a conclusion.
Onyx Storm itself is the fastest-selling adult novel published in the last twenty years, shifting 2.7 million copies in its first week on sale. Onyx Storm saw bookshop midnight openings, launch parties and other events that haven't been seen since the release of the final Harry Potter novel in 2007, without the dual adult/child appeal of that book.
For comparison, Yarros' sales in two years are approaching half those of Brandon Sanderson's non-Wheel of Time books in twenty (Sanderson has sold 40 million books, with over 12 million of those being his three Wheel of Time novels, for approximately 28 million sales of his solo work). Yarros has sold approximately a quarter of the total sales of her colleague Sarah J. Maas, who has sold just over 40 million books in thirteen years. 12 million is also approximately the same number of books that George R.R. Martin sold of his Song of Ice and Fire series before the TV adaptation began.
The only author who can be said to had a more impressive debut was Patrick Rothfuss, who shifted over 10 million copies of his debut novel The Name of the Wind alone (though nowhere near as fast).
With two more books to come and an adaptation of the books underway at Amazon MGM Studios, it's clear that these figures are only going to continue rising in the future.
What will be interesting to see is if this influx of new readers benefits the rest of the fantasy genre, but it does confirm that Romantasy's current sales dominance is no danger of ending soon.
Monday, 27 January 2025
New MURDERBOT editions criticised for poor quality
As I noticed previously, readers have been calling for omnibus editions of the critically-acclaimed Murderbot Diaries science fiction series for some years. The series, by Martha Wells, consists of five novellas and two short novels which has been positively festooned with awards, praise and strong sales, but their high prices for a short page count have put them out of the reach of more frugal SFF fans.
The books have been reissued in the last few weeks in new omnibus editions to hopefully address the issue. Whilst the format is still not generous - with only two books per edition rather than a more appropriate three (the first three novellas combined only come to 450 pages) - it was still a marked improvement over prior editions in terms of value for money. Unfortunately, the new editions have been called out for terrible proofing and formatting.
The problem appears to be that the books have been released in a print-on-demand format, with all the hallmarks of shoddy formatting and/or corrupted files being used. Given the publisher is Tor Books, the largest and most popular SFF publisher in the United States, and its UK off-shoot, the poor quality of the books is most surprising, especially given they are charging the price of a full, properly-formatted and edited paperback edition.
The three omnibus volumes are each a different height and size to the others, with the cover images not aligned correctly, and in the interior there is an inefficient use of space.
Multiple reviewers have pointed out the problem on the Amazon review pages, and via BlueSky, noting they have returned the books for a full refund.
Hopefully this problem can be fixed quickly; as one of the highest-profile science fiction book series of recent years, and with an imminent TV adaptation on Apple TV+, it would be a shame for new readers to be put off by poor quality books. The series, and readers, deserve better.