New Steven Erikson book and interview

Spanish fantasy blog Knight of the Laughing Tree has interviewed Steven Erikson. It's a very interesting piece (the English translation is towards the bottom of the article) with several new pieces of information.

First up, from Amazon, there is also confirmation that The Second Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach will be released on 20 September 2018. This book will collect the novels Crack'd Pot Trail, The Wurms of Blearmouth and The Fiends of Nightmaria into one handy volume.

From the interview, Erikson confirms that he is working on The God is Not Willing, the first volume of the Toblakai Trilogy which is set five years after The Crippled God and sees the return of Karsa Orlong. He has also mused writing a more epic-scaled work of science fiction, but won't be seriously considering that until the Malazan books are cleared from the table. He also confirms that the encyclopedia/companion volume remains a possibility but they probably need someone to do it for them, since both he and Esslemont are committed to writing the fiction for many years to come.

Pleasingly, he also confirms that the fan maps (including the one I adapted from D'Rek's fine work on Malazanempire.com) are pretty close to the "real thing" as well.

Most intriguingly, Erikson confirms that they were close to finalising a deal for a TV series based on the Malazan universe. The proposal was for a story following Tavore's adventures during the events of Gardens of the Moon, Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice, presumably ending with her taking command of the Malazan 14th Army and preparing to head for Seven Cities. This deal collapsed at the last minute, which is a shame. Erikson remains hopeful of a new deal being found soon.

The interview as a whole is very interesting and well worth reading.

New Steven Erikson interview at Black Gate

Black Gate have undertaken a video interview with Steven Erikson about his fantasy work and the recent decision to delay the final Kharkanas book for the time being.

It's a fascinating interview, even if Erikson's assertion that Voyager is preferable to Deep Space Nine is one I would disagree quite strongly with!

Scott Lynch on THE THORN OF EMBERLAIN

The Helsinki Times caught up with fantasy author Scott Lynch whilst he was at WorldCon in Finland last month. They chatted about his fantasy series, The Gentleman Bastard, and Scott's inspirations and future plans.

Scott confirmed that the fourth book in the series, The Thorn of Emberlain, should be finished before the end of the year and then published next year. He is very happy with how the book has turned out, and notes that it marks a major shift in the series. Originally Thorn of Emberlain was supposed to be where the series starts, but he couldn't make the characters work without more backstory, so The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies and The Republic of Thieves were essentially written as prequels.

The Thorn of Emberlain introduces two new factors to the series: Emberlain itself as a sort-of permanent new base for our characters, instead of each subsequent book featuring a new city, and Anton Strata as a new major character, a teenage claimant to the throne of the Kingdom of the Seven Marrows whose ascent is tested by Locke and Jean's latest scam.

Lynch also expands further on his love of Japanese RPGs and his appreciation for the mighty Matt Stover.

Interview with R. Scott Bakker

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist has interviewed R. Scott Bakker ahead of its release of The Great Ordeal, the third volume of The Aspect-Emperor. Bakker expands on the reasons for the splitting of the novel in two and the delays in publication.

 
The Great Ordeal will be published on 12 July 2016 (having been delayed a few days) in the United States and on 29 September 2016 in the United Kingdom. The Unholy Consult, the fourth and concluding volume of The Aspect-Emperor, will be published in July or August 2017.

Lois McMaster Bujold on ebooks, villains and not having a UK publisher

One of the biggest mysteries in science fiction publishing is why Lois McMaster Bujold, possibly the most award-festooned living author of the genre, doesn't have an English publisher.
 

The "pointless dude in hood on the cover" isn't purely a recent phenomenon.

In a new interview with the New Zealand Herald, Bujold expands on this, citing the failure of her novel Paladin of Souls in the UK. The book was not well-marketed and had some pretty terrible cover art (see above). The book sold less than 10,000 copies in the UK, which is unusual for a book that sold hundreds of thousands in the United States and bagged numerous awards, including both the Hugo and the Nebula. With the failure of that book (and the apparent under-performance of several earlier novels when UK editions were attempted), British interest in her work dried up.

This isn't unprecedented. There quite a few authors who are big in the USA but obscure in the UK, or who once were big but have since dropped off the radar. But the sheer disparity between Bujold's American profile and her lack of success in the UK is quite remarkable.

The interview points out that not having a UK publisher isn't simply problematic for attracting would-be UK fans, but also causes issues in getting English-language copies of books to some Commonwealth countries, in particular New Zealand and Australia. However, Bujold cites the rapidly expanding profile of ebooks in helping her win fans worldwide.

She also discusses her new novel, the trouble with writing villains and how she handled her protagonist Cordelia, a woman in her seventies living in a society where people can live into their 120s in reasonable health. It's an interesting read.

Big interview with George R.R. Martin

The South Bank Show, Britain's biggest art and culture TV show, had an episode devoted to George R.R. Martin and Game of Thrones earlier this year. You can now catch it (while you can!) on YouTube:

The interview takes in Martin's entire career, but focuses on A Song of Ice and Fire and its TV adaptation. As well as Martin, contributions are taken from historians, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and writers such as Lisa Tuttle and Neil Gaiman.

Scott Lynch on overcoming depression to hit the bestseller lists

Way back in 2006, the hottest voice in fantasy was a young American author named Scott Lynch. His first novel, The Lies of Locke Lamora, was released to immense critical acclaim and reasonably strong sales. He followed it up in 2007 with Red Seas Under Red Skies, a well-received sequel. These were the first two books in a sequence called The Gentleman Bastard, planned to run to seven volumes, with Scott vowing to continue releasing a book a year, along with side-novellas.

In the event, the third book in the sequence, The Republic of Thieves, was not released until 2013. In the meantime Scott disappeared from view, aside from occasional mentions that he was working on the book. In 2010 he publicly admitted that he was facing a serious battle with depression. Depression affects many millions of people worldwide, and those in the creative industries seem to be disproportionately affected by it. Scott received many letters and emails of support, along with the backing of his publisher, and was able to get back into writing. The Republic of Thieves rewarded that faith by hitting the bestseller lists. The fourth novel in the series, The Thorn of Emberlain, is tentatively scheduled for the end of this year.

The Relentless Reading blog has interviewed Scott at some length here about the future books in the series, his other writing plans (interestingly, he has another novel in the works apparently not related to his core series) and how he came to grips with his situation. It is honest, forthright and very much worth a read.

A previously unpublished interview with Iain M. Banks

Strange Horizons have published a previously unreleased interview with the late Iain M. Banks. The interview was conducted in 2010 and focuses on the Culture, the signature SF setting of so many of Banks's novels. It was carried out by former student Jude Roberts as part of her PhD.

A brief extract:

The way the Culture came about initially was as—I thought at the time—a single-use solution to a particular problem. I was getting ready to write Use of Weapons and I knew that Zakalwe was this sort of ultimate warrior guy, just very martially able, but I wanted him to be on the side of the good guys somehow. Squaring that circle was the problem, so I came up with the idea of the Culture as his ultimate employers: a society basically on the side of the angels but willing to use people like Zakalwe (utopia spawning few warriors, as the later-written poem says) to do its dirty but justified work. The "justified" bit always having something to do with statistics; from the beginning the Culture had to be able to prove—rather than simply assert—that it was generally doing the right thing, even when it interfered without permission in other societies. That was it, initially, but then the Culture proved to be the nucleus around which all my other until then rather nebulous ideas started to cluster and take shape, and it just developed—naturally, it felt—by itself, from there.

The full interview is very much worth reading for any fan of Banks, space opera or SF in general.

A game designer's perspective on HERO QUEST 25th Anniversary Edition

Gamezone Miniatures, a Spanish company, are crowdfunding a new edition of the classic Hero Quest boardgame, as related previously. Gamezone have repeatedly said they have the legal rights to do so, and have been in consultation with Hasbro about it.

However, game designer Mike Selinker, a veteran of both Hasbro and Paizo, pours cold water on these claims in an interview with Gaming Trend and a discussion board on Board Game Geeks. In both cases, he points out that Gamezone may indeed have the Spanish trademark for the game, but this does not automatically allow them to re-release the game without Hasbro's permission. The fact that they are doing so, and that Hasbro has not yet stopped them, hints at another possibility: that their Hero Quest game will have substantially different rules to the original game and will merely be using the same name and the same generic fantasy archetypes.

If so, this will be disheartening to the majority of backers, who no doubt committed funds on the basis that this would be a simple remake of the original game, rules and all. Selinker's conclusion is that the end product will be either infringing of Hasbro's copyright (if Hasbro don't stamp on it first) or will be de facto fraudulent (the game they deliver will not be the game backers were expecting), with neither alternative appealing.

It looks like this controversy will run and run, at least for a while.

Video interview with Scott Lynch

Scott Lynch chews the fat with Suvudu over The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies and The Republic of Thieves, as well as dropping some big hints as to where the series goes next.

Interview with Brandon Sanderson

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Joel Williams, a writer for CNN's website, who had interviewed Brandon Sanderson last year ahead of the publication of the final Wheel of Time novel, A Memory of Light. Ultimately the website decided not to publish the interview so Joel kindly offered to let me publish it here. As it was written for a more general audience than the SFF hardcore, there's little new information here, but it's always interesting to here Sanderson's thoughts on finishing off The Wheel of Time.

When it comes to the Epic Fantasy genre, Robert Jordan is a legend. You know what Robert Frost is to poetry? Jane Austen is to literature? That’s what Robert Jordan is for fantasy. Jordan started his book series, The Wheel of Time, in 1990 and proceeded to publish 12 more books in the series before passing away in 2007 of a rare blood disease. He left the series unfinished and his millions of fans wondering if they’d ever know how the epic saga ended. Much like the characters in the books they loved so much, millions of Wheel of Time devotees needed a hero. Among dozens of other characters, the series follows Rand al’Thor, a backwoods youth who finds out that he is the next in a long line of reincarnated heroes destined to fight “The Dark One” to rid the world of evil. Not doing it for you? Don’t worry. There’s almost certainly another character in the series that will pique your interest. Jordan was notorious for spending lots of time developing side characters, often to the detriment of plot momentum. But it’s those side characters, and the love Jordan obviously felt for them, that turned casual readers into devoted fans.

Jump back to 2007. With the series in jeopardy, Jordan’s widow and editor Harriet recruited accomplished fantasy author Brandon Sanderson to finish the series using Jordan’s notes. With the Wheel of Time series having sold upwards of 40 million books, you can understand the pressure Sanderson felt to do the job right. As a lifelong fan of the series himself, Sanderson knew that this was an opportunity to end the saga as Jordan would have wanted. I spoke with Sanderson shortly before the final volume of Wheel of Time was set to hit the shelves. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation.

Despite the fact this his series takes up a lot of real estate on bookstore shelves, Robert Jordan is not a household name. Why is that?

Sanderson: Epic fantasy is a very challenging genre, I love it, but I’m aware it’s a little harder to pick up. When you go to a bookstore and there’s a series of 14 books, where one is bigger than three other books. That’s not for everyone. But for those of us who read Epic, that big thick book is part why we love it. Not because it’s thick, but because it’s an entire world.

What was it like to take on the project of finishing Jordan’s series? Did you have any idea what you were you getting into? Did any unexpected challenges come up?

Sanderson: I certainly did not know what I was getting into. I started reading these books when I was 15, back in 1990, and I’ve loved them ever since. So I was aware of the complexity of the series and I understood how excited people were, but I didn’t know how much or little Mr. Jordan finished before he passed away. So on the one hand I had an inkling, but on the other I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Famously, before he passed away, Jordan had been telling fans that this book would be so big that they would have to sell luggage carts to get them out of the bookstores. He was planning an enormous, epic finale to his series. That’s what I was anticipating. When I got the notes it was all there, in theory. The notes indicated a great epic book. But not a whole lot had been done yet. He had written some important scenes, but most things were just outlines or pre-outlines. A project that I expected to take year and half, ended up taking up five years of my career in order to do it right.

You mention that started reading the books at the age of 15. As a fan of the series, did you ever think you’d be the one called upon to finish the series?

Sanderson: It completely blew my mind. When Robert Jordan passed away I made the choice that I didn’t want to be the literary version of an ambulance chaser. So I said to my agent, we’re not going to pursue this. I would love to do it, but I don’t think it’s appropriate. When I got called about it, it completely blindsided me. I had consciously decided I wasn’t even going to let myself consider it. I never thought I’d be here where I am. I’ve gotten to participate in the dreams and vision of an author that inspired me to be a writer in the first place. That’s been incredible, but if you had asked me what are the chances of doing something like this, I wouldn’t have given myself any reasonable chance.

Are you concerned because you were a fan, you put something in that might’ve been cut by Jordan? Are you confident you ended it the way he wanted it?

Sanderson: There were a lot of holes in the notes. I had to put in scenes where I don’t know if Jordan would’ve put it in. We’re different writers. The idea was to capture the feel, the mood, the tone. [Jordan’s widow] Harriet was also his editor. She discovered Jordan when she was working as an editor and then she married him. I like to joke that it’s one way to make sure your editorial advice is taken. If I strayed, Harriet would let me know. She has the final say. And we’ve been upfront about it, I’m not ghostwriting this. I’m a coauthor. There wasn’t enough done to be finished off by a ghostwriter, it needed somebody to fill in holes. That’s why I was brought on and that’s what I’ve been doing.

When you were working on this project did it all feel like you were cheating on your world? Maybe feel like you were cheating on a spouse?

Sanderson: [Laughs] That’s an interesting way to put it. Not cheating on a spouse, but cheating on my hobbies. I was still able to release Way of Kings, which is my big capstone epic I’d been working on up until that point. I was still able to do a book in the Mistborn sequence. I had to put a lot aside, but it didn’t feel like I was cheating because I view these characters as closely to my own as possible. Beyond that Jordan, even though I never knew him, was a mentor to me. His writing is what I studied when I was trying to figure out how to be an author. I picked up Wheel of Time and tried to figure out, how is he doing this? I wouldn’t have said yes to anything else, but I said yes because it was Wheel of Time and I was so familiar and attached to these characters.

It’s all coming to end, for yourself as well as the millions who read the books. What does that mean to people reading the books?

Sanderson: I can get a sense for it because I felt it myself in 2007. When I first was offered the project, and we signed contracts and I flew to Charleston where Harriet lives and I read the last scene that Jordan had written. The last scene in the book and the epilogue are his writing. I read that and got the same sense fans are having now. Having been on a long journey, with many wonderful experiences along the way, and having time to think about what it meant and why you loved it so much. It’s bittersweet, when a journey is done. There’s a sense of loss and regret. I felt it back then and I suspect that’s what a lot of fans are going to be feeling.

Matt Stover interviews Scott Lynch

Matt Stover, author of the splendiferous Acts of Caine SF/fantasy series, talks to Scott Lynch, author of the also-splendiferous Gentleman Bastard series, over on the Orbit blog.

No, I haven't got one. No, you can't have it afterwards if I do get one.

Scott has also revealed that ARCs of The Republic of Thieves are being assembled at Gollancz Supreme Headquarters in preparation for distribution to the masses. Since revealing this news, Gollancz Towers have become encased in an impenetrable forcefield and ED-209s have been seen patrolling the grounds, so don't even think about it.

An interview with, er, me

The Fantastical Librarian blog has posted an interview with myself about blogging, reviewing and so forth. Some interesting questions there on why I started the blog and why it has such a silly name :-)

GAME OF THRONES & WINDS OF WINTER news

A round-up of some recent news about Game of Thrones and the books it is based on.

First up, HBO has found its Riverrun. With filming of Season 3 of the show now entering its second month, shooting is focusing on the ancestral castle of House Tully. Gosford Castle in County Armagh is standing in for the castle, apparently with both exteriors and interiors being filmed there.

Looks like an excellent match for the castle from the books, though presumably the Red Fork and Tumblestone rivers will be added later with CGI.

George R.R. Martin has also conducted an in-depth interview with the Spanish ASoIaF website Asshai.com. Martin's interviews for several years have focused on the TV series and very general questions, so it's good to see a plot and character-focused exchange like this one. Note that there will be spoilers for those who have not yet read A Dance with Dragons. In a separate interview Martin has also stated that he now has 200 completed and semi-finalised manuscript pages for The Winds of Winter, as well as a further 200 pages in draft form. This means that roughly a quarter of The Winds of Winter exists in at least an initial form, but given how the writing went on A Dance with Dragons it is not really possible to extrapolate a potential release date from this info.

The next A Song of Ice and Fire-related releases will be Inside HBO's Game of Thrones by Bryan Cogman (25 September), an insider's guide to the TV series, and The Lands of Ice and Fire by Jonathan Roberts (30 October), the first-ever canon collection of maps of the world of Westeros and Essos, approved by GRRM.

Eastercon 2012

This weekend I attended Eastercon 2012, the largest annual British science fiction and fantasy convention. This year it was held at a hotel adjoining Heathrow Airport. For the first time in its history, the convention was sold out in advance, likely due to the presence of George R.R. Martin (although having authors such as Joe Abercrombie, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Chris Wooding, Lisa Tuttle, Pat Cadigan and Cory Doctorow didn't hurt either).

Finally!

Time and budgetary constraints meant I could only attend for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, though I did manage to catch the Game of Thrones TV panel, featuring actors Miltos Yerolemou (Syrio Forel) and John Bradley West (Samwell Tarly). Gethin Anthony (Renly Baratheon) and Natalia Tena (Osha) could also be found around the convention, though they didn't take part in the panels. This was followed by a Wild Cards panel where GRRM talked about the long-running shared world setting with John Jos. Miller, Pat Cadigan, Paul Cornell, David Anthony Durham, Gail Gerstner-Miller and his wife, Parris McBride (who played in the original RPG games that led to the creation of the setting).

The meat of the convention, as normal, happened at the bar and the late night parties. I met Adrian Tchaikovsky (author of the highly enjoyable Shadows of the Apt series) for the first time (he's halfway through writing the tenth and final book in the series) and caught up with a whole raft of other contacts. No massive exclusives, although Joe Abercrombie is heavily into the edits on A Red Country and confirmed that it looks like the UK edition will keep the 'A' in the title whilst the US edition will drop it (as seen on the already-revealed cover art). Gollancz also announced that they are bringing the Wild Cards series to the UK, with the original three books to be published before the end of the 2012 and then the 'new generation' books starting with Inside Straight to follow next year. A plan for the 'middle books' (including the long-missing iBook volumes) hasn't yet been decided upon, aside from the possibility of releasing them as ebook-only editions. Elsewhere, Chris Wooding confirmed he was just about to start working on the fourth Ketty Jay book as well.

The Gemmell Award nominations were announced, to much frowning (there definitely seemed to be a consensus amongst many present - though not the award organisers to my knowledge - that the award could do with being moved to a juried format), and there was much discussion of the Hugo shortlist, not least the renewed GRRM vs Rowling contest caused by Game of Thrones Season 1 going up against the final Harry Potter move in the Long-form Dramatic Presentation category. Previously, The Goblet of Fire bested A Storm of Swords to the 2001 Best Novel Hugo Award, so it'll be interesting to see how it falls out this year. Otherwise the main topic of interest regarding the Hugos was that the novels on the list were books people had actually heard of, with particular positive surprise over the presence of Leviathan Wakes on the list.

My biggest moment at the convention was interviewing GRRM on the Sunday. We talked for about an hour about his career, from short stories through ASoIaF and the TV series, before he fielded questions from the floor. Some interesting stuff there. The interview was recorded and live-streamed, although it seems to have vanished from the Internet now. Once it resurfaces I will link it here.

Overall, it was an interesting - not to mention nerve-wracking - experience. But good fun for catching up with old friends and contacts and making some new ones.

Edit: Interview linkage.

Interview with R. Scott Bakker

I recently interviewed R. Scott Bakker for the Orbit Blog. We talked about his epic fantasy sequence, the influence of George R.R. Martin and the prospects of a Prince of Nothing film or TV series appearing, as well as some info about his next book, The Unholy Consult (due for 2013 publication, it looks like).

Mark Lawrence interviews me

Mark Lawrence, the author of Prince of Thorns and its forthcoming sequel, King of Thorns, has published an interview with me on his blog which may be of interest.

Interview with R. Scott Bakker, Part 2

Pat has posted the second part of an interview with R. Scott Bakker here. This is an interesting exchange as Scott gets into some detailed discussions of the metaphysics and backstory of his world, some of which may be spoilerish for The Unholy Consult, the next book in his series.

New interview with R. Scott Bakker

Me, Pat and Larry recently teamed up for an interview with R. Scott Bakker. Part 1 of the interview is here and Part 2 should be along in a few weeks (Pat's off on holiday in the meantime).

In the interview Bakker talks about worldbuilding, his hopes for the ultimate critical appraisal of the series and laces in a few hints about the final book in the Aspect-Emperor series, The Unholy Consult.

Joe Abercrombie interviews George R.R. Martin

Before Game of Thrones began airing in the UK, Joe Abercrombie flew over to LA and sat down to record a television interview George R.R. Martin about the books, the TV series, A Dance with Dragons and more. Part 1 is here and Part 2 here. Grab 'em before Sky gets them taken down.