Speculative map of Joe Abercrombie's world

Doing some random googlage, I came across the following fan-map of Joe Abercrombie's world by poster 'Scubamarco' at Deviantart. I saw a very early version of it posted on SFFWorld years ago, but had missed out on the revised version (to take account of the map of Styria in Best Served Cold):


Styria is accurate but obviously everything else is highly speculative, although the Old Empire and Northlands being linked is based on an observation by Joe that if they weren't, our heroes could have just made the journey in Before They Are Hanged by sea. Nice work!

Peter Watts recovering from a major operation

SF author Peter Watts, the writer of Blindsight and the new Crysis 2 novel, has posted at length about his brush with necrotizing fasciitis, a disease which literally eats flesh and resulted in his leg being stripped down to the muscle.

Watts talks about his experience here, complete with some fairly stomach-churning photos, but fascinating insights into the disease and its treatment. Best wishes to Peter for a speedy recovery.

EDIT: I'll reiterate these photos are pretty gruesome right from the start, to the point that he drops in a calming photo of his cat at the halfway point to break up the grimness.

Clarifying some DANCE WITH DRAGONS points

The news about A Dance with Dragons has resulted in a storm of questions and uncertainty, some of which have been clarified over the last day or so. Here's the info people seem to want to know.

Completion versus publication date
As Martin stated yesterday, A Dance with Dragons is not entirely completed yet, but it has been mostly delivered. Both Voyager and Bantam have had the Lannister's share of the manuscript for some considerable time, and editing work has been going on for much of the writing period. According to my info, the American publishers have even typeset and formatted most of the book, and are just waiting for the last couple of chapters to be handed over. They've also completed work on the maps (according to some sources twice, as they decided to redo the maps due to the quality of some of the fan maps produced in the last few years) and apparently the appendices, bar a couple of tweaks.

Martin has also confirmed that his current page-count is just a smidge over 1,500 in manuscript, and the draft pages he's working on and editing at the moment should carry it to 1,550, or just a bit longer than A Storm of Swords in length.

Split in two?
A Dance with Dragons will be published in one volume in hardcover and tradeback in the UK and USA. It should also be published in mass-market paperback in the USA in one volume, probably 18-24 months after US release. However, the mass-market paperback for the UK edition will be in two volumes, published a year or so after the hardcover. Those British fans thinking on holding for the paperbacks for reasons of cost should know that it will be more cost-effective to get the hardcover, since the hardcover will likely be hugely discounted on release.

E-books
Voyager are definitely planning a Day 1 e-book release alongside the hardcover. I also understand that Bantam are planning to do the same thing.

Cover art
The British cover art for A Dance with Dragons remains what was unveiled back in 2009, the silver cover with the sword hilt on it. Voyager have no plans to change this image, or the existing cover art for the series which they've stuck with since 2003.


The American cover art for A Dance with Dragons has changed, however. The original green cover (in keeping with A Feast for Crows and the 2002 American reissues) has been ditched for good, as has the variant cover featuring a dragon in a green and black spiral. George posted two images for the American cover, and it is unclear if one or both will be used (similar to how The Name of the Wind had two variant covers), or if one is for the ebook and one for the hardcover etc etc. This still needs to be clarified.



Maps
A Dance with Dragons will feature redrawn and new maps of Westeros, plus the first map we've ever seen of the Free Cities.

Relationship with A Feast for Crows
Last year Martin confirmed that some AFFC characters will appear in A Dance with Dragons as well. This is because some of the storylines in AFFC actually took place earlier than others in the book (particularly the Greyjoy/Iron Islands chapters), in fact during the events of A Storm of Swords, and ADWD can re-synch those storylines. ADWD also catches up with the events of AFFC between the 50 and 75% mark and more AFFC characters appear at the end of the book.

What about stuff being moved into The Winds of Winter?
Martin has confirmed that some chapters and POV characters have moved from A Dance with Dragons into the next book, making up about 100 manuscript pages.

Some info on the sequel to THE PASSAGE

Justin Cronin's The Passage was one of the biggest-selling and highest-profile genre releases of last year. The American paperback is due to hit on 17 May with a new cover and also an extract from the sequel, now revealed to have the working title The Twelve. The Twelve is currently due for release in 2012. The UK paperback of The Passage is already available.

New BLADE RUNNER movie in the works

A new Blade Runner movie is in the works. The good news is that it's not a remake, but will be either a sequel or prequel to the original 1982 movie.


The reason for the indecision is that the production company who have picked up the rights don't have a specific story in mind, but feel that with modern technology they can realise Philip K. Dick's world on-screen in a fresh and interesting way, and are talking to producers and directors about ideas. They even disclose (whilst admitting that it likely won't happen) that they'd kill to get Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott involved in some fashion.

Colour me sceptical. Another story set in the same world of replicants yet unrelated to the original film could work, but a direct sequel or prequel to Blade Runner - a movie where so much of its power is based on its ambiguity and question-raising ending - seems unnecessary and redundant. Interesting to see what becomes of this project.

More GAME OF THRONES TV goodness

Possibly feeling outdone by GRRM's announcement of A Dance with Dragons' publication date, HBO have released two more intriguing videos.

The first is being touted as the first 'proper' trailer for the series. Compared to the numerous videos already released, I'm not sure what the distinction is, but it's definitely one of the most impressive to date. It gives us our first proper glimpse of the Wall and some footage not seen before. I am informed that the music is not the final music which will be used in the TV series.

More intriguing is the fact that Will and Bran refer to 'the White Walkers' rather than 'the Others'. The term 'Others' was used at this point in the pilot script, suggesting a deliberate decision to use the term 'White Walkers' instead. This may be to avoid confusion with Lost, which is both understandable and a bit lame (A Game of Thrones was published eight years before Lost began airing, after all).

The second is a behind-the-scenes look at production design. This is particularly interesting as it gives us our first look at the Red Keep as it will be depicted in the TV series. Considering that elsewhere the series has toned down the fantastical elements (Winterfell, for example, seems to be much less massive and Gormenghastian as in the novels), they seem to have gone to town on the Red Keep, which is colossal.

The Artisans: Paul Inglis

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS will be released in July 2011

Yeah, you're reading that right.

For reals.

A Dance with Dragons will be published worldwide on 12 July 2011, by Bantam in the United States and by Voyager in the UK. That's about four months from now.

As a bonus, GRRM also unveiled the new American cover for ADWD, to fit in with the new editions of the rest of the series being published later this month. Interestingly, ADWD has variant covers, the gold one above and a silver one (otherwise the same) you can see through the above link.

Martin has also confirmed that A Dance with Dragons is huge, and may exceed A Storm of Swords in size. The hardcover will be over 900 pages in length, and once again the UK mass-market paperback will be in two volumes (the hardcover will still be in one). ASoS was over 420,000 words in length, which means that ADWD is so huge it notably outstrips even recent books like The Way of Kings, The Wise Man's Fear and Steven Erikson's last few books in size.

Good news, obviously!

Interview with GRRM about it here.

And since some have asked for a reposting, here are all the new American ASoIaF covers, which should be hitting the shelves across the USA by the end of the month:

The Maester's Path

HBO have stepped up their marketing for Game of Thrones. Last night they launched a new trailer for the series:

Today they launched a new website called The Maester's Path. Each week from now to the start of April new puzzles will be unveiled which, when solved, will lead to rewards. The first puzzle revolves around the 'scents' of parts of Westeros (and beyond), a reference to the promotional boxes of scents sent out last week to various critics and bloggers. Westeros.org has handily collected all the symbols together here. What reward do you get? The first full scene from the series :-)

In related news, all four ebooks of the series should now be available in the UK from Voyager, and the TV tie-in edition of the first book should be properly unveiled in the next couple of weeks or so.

Shadowmarch by Tad Williams

Tensions wrack the court of Southmarch Castle. King Olin has been captured by the bandit rulers of Hierosol in the distant south and is being held for ransom, but raising the money is beggaring the kingdom. Olin's heir Prince Kendrick is trying to hold the country together whilst his younger twin siblings, Barrick and Briony, have their own problems to face.


Meanwhile, in the far north, beyond the enigmatic Shadowline, the Twilight People are raising fresh armies to return to the March Kingdoms and avenge their defeat in a war three centuries ago. Far to the south, on the continent of Xand, a common girl is taken to wife by the Autarch, the god-emperor of Xis, for reasons utterly unknown to anyone. And far below Southmarch Castle, ancient secrets wait to be discovered...

Shadowmarch is the first book in the four-volume series of the same name, and is epic fantasy at its most straightforward. Tad Williams made his name with Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, a big series which arguably helped establish the modern fantasy paradigm (Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire followed in the trail it blazed) before switching to the far more original SF cyberfable Otherland. With Shadowmarch, Williams has returned to his roots, going once again for that big fat fantasy sweet spot.

This is a questionable choice for those who are familiar with the genre, since there are elements of Shadowmarch which recall not only other big fantasy series, but Williams' own prior work. With the best will in the world, it's hard not to feel that Shadowmarch Castle is a rebuilt Hayholt, a feeling enhanced by the presence in both works of sinister faerie folk and a race of diminutive good guys. Echoes of A Song of Ice and Fire can also be detected, from the barrier stretching across the northern border of the kingdom to the misadventures of a princess (well, almost) on another continent, although the details are rather different.

Oddly, despite being pretty traditional, Shadowmarch remains an engrossing read. Williams is an accomplished-enough writer that in his hands even the most familiar of plot twists feels fresh and interesting. His ability to juggle moments of genuine menace alongside ones of amusing whimsy (the Funderlings and Rooftoppers initially feel incongruous but become a more intriguing subplot as the book develops) adds a sparkle to the sometimes plodding political intrigue and the somewhat vague menace from the Twilight People (whose motivations and goals are not so much under-developed as left completely unexplained). The vast Shadowmarch Castle may feel a bit close to the similarly Gormenghastian edifice of the Hayholt (from Memory, Sorrow and Thorn), but it's also an atmospheric and rich setting for the story.


The characters are an interesting bunch, although again we are treading familiar waters here, with Briony as the tomboy-princess-who-wants-to-mix-it-up-with-the-boys and Barrick as the crippled-prince-who-harbours-a-dark-secret, not to mention the innocent-young-girl-who-becomes-a-major-power-unexpectedly and the soldier-on-a-mission-to-prove-himself. Again, Williams uses some nice elements of characterisation to bring these archetypal figures to life and make the reader care about what happens to them, but their familiarity may be an issue to some readers. The most interesting character is probably Chert, simply because dwarves get short shrift in most fantasy (to the point why you wonder authors bother to include them) and it's good to see one not only at the centre of the action, but also as the most well-developed character in the book. Unfortunately, a few side-characters are less complex, and a few are downright cliches (particularly some of the "Get this peasant out of my sight!" nobles).

Ultimately, Shadowmarch (***½) is the epic fantasy novel as remade by Blizzard Entertainment: totally unoriginal, very comfortable and somewhat predictable, but polished to a terrific sheen and enjoyable for all its familiarity. At the same time, that familiarity does make it impossible to recommend unreservedly. The foundations are solid, however, and certainly I'll be checking out the next book. The novel is available in the UK and USA now, along with its sequels Shadowplay, Shadowrise and Shadowheart.

New China Mieville cover bonanza

In the UK, Pan Macmillan are rejacketing all of China Mieville's books in a new cover style. All nine of his books are getting this treatment and should be on the shelves shortly.


Mieville's debut novel, King Rat (1998) and the first two Bas-Lag novels, Perdido Street Station (2000) and The Scar (2002).


The third Bas-Lag novel, Iron Council (2004); his short story collection, Looking for Jake and Other Stories (2005), and his YA novel Un Lun Dun (2007).


The multi-award-winning The City and The City (2009), Mieville's latest novel Kraken (2010) and his next novel Embassytown, due for publication in May 2011.

The new covers are appropriately dark and moody, but I'm not certain if they'd stand out enough on the shelf to attract attention. It'll be interesting to see them in the flesh, as it were, and if they result in a boost to his growing profile.