Results tagged “george r. r. martin”

Beginning in the late 1970’s, Marvel Comics began producing a comic book “what if” scenarios centered around their superheroes.

I loved them. Each issue would twist what was known to be true about the Marvel universe and create an alternate reality—just for one issue usually—that helped explore the characters and the situations that make them who they are. Some of my favorite issues are What if… the Hulk had the brain of Bruce Banner?, What if… Phoenix had not died?, What if… Spider-Man’s clone lived? and What if… the alien costume had possessed Spider-Man?

Note: Some of those What If…? issues became canon and made it even more fun!

I decided to ask a similar question but set in our own sci-fi/fantasy universe:

What if… Scott Lynch, George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss all published their respective next novels on the same day?

The odds of this happening are so small it makes it almost an impossibility. In short, it will never happen. Although Hollywood movie studios grab up opening dates for movies more than a year out—and rarely will place a movie on a date that has already been grabbed by a major movie—I do not think book publishers decide to not publish a book because another major author already “owns” the release date. While three massive-selling books publishing on the same day could happen in the book world, it wouldn’t.

But what if it did?

I travel around the internet(s) quite a bit. I read various blogs. The consensus is the books by Scott Lynch, George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss are all late. They are late for varying reasons that I won’t go into here. The important thing to point out is around the blogosphere these late books receive a great deal of discussion from earnest—and sometimes angst-ridden—readers who spend a great deal of time and energy writing about those writers, their forthcoming books and their feelings about having to wait, wait, wait.

It is testament to how loved each of those writers are.

George, Pat and Scott all know this.

The question is what would happen if those three books were released on the same day?

Here is the cover for the forthcoming March 2010 anthology Warriors, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.

This book has everything!

• Stories from the Spinner Rack by George R.R. Martin
• The King of Norway by Cecilia Holland
• Forever Bound by Joe Haldeman
• The Triumph by Robin Hobb
• Clean Slate by Lawrence Block
• And Ministers of Grace by Tad Williams
• Soldierin’ by Joe Lansdale
• Dirae by Peter S. Beagle
• The Eagle and the Rabbit by Steven Saylor
• Seven Years from Home by Naomi Novik
• The Custom of the Army by Diana Gabaldon
• The Pit by James Rollins
• Out of the Dark by David Weber
• The Girls from Avenger by Carrie Vaughn
• Ancient Ways by S.M. Stirling
• Ninieslando by Howard Waldrop
• Recidivist by Gardner Dozois
• My Name is Legion by David Morrell
• Defenders of the Frontier by Robert Silverberg
• The Scroll by David Ball
• The Mystery Knight by George R.R. Martin

There are simply too many stories there I want to read! The Martin. The Novik. The Hobb. The Williams. The Beagle.

Come on! We have to wait until March!? *sighs*

Scott Lynch, the author of the unbelievably great reads The Lies of Locke Lamora and sequel Red Seas Under Red Skies, has released an excerpt from his forthcoming third novel, The Republic of Thieves!

If you haven’t read the first two books in the series, what the hellfire are you waiting for?! The Lies of Locke Lamora is one of the best books I have read.

Enjoy George R. R. Martin?

Enjoy Patrick Rothfuss?

Grab the novels by Scott Lynch!

To read the new excerpt from The Republic of Thieves, click HERE!

Adapting a book into a movie or television series is always a frightening prospect—but can be exhilarating as well in the right hands!

First, I will always be one of those people who believes the book will always be better than the movie. Since each of us have been blessed with a movie theater behind our eyes, we are given the opportunity to envision characters exactly as we believe them to be upon reading a book. That is part of the fun of reading. But the sad reality is we all “see” characters differently and, in giving a casting director power over those thoughts, can influence or sometimes outright destroy what we ourselves saw on the silver screen in our heads.

Second, despite the first point, I am utterly excited about what is happening with the pilot episode of A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin!

HBO, the cable network that has brought us such hits as The Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome and now the vampire-fantasy hit True Blood, has not only purchased the rights to produce seasons of episodes based on A Song of Ice & Fire series by George R. R. Martin, but they have already begun production and casting for the pilot.

As a fan of A Game of Thrones this has been scary and exciting at the same time!

George has been slowly releasing the casting information as it has been confirmed. Rather than go into each actor cast and post my thoughts on each—mostly because I know what I see in my head probably contradicts what you see in your head—I decided to gather together some of the better news stories about what is occurring and post those links here for your perusal:

• Not A Blog
• A Dribble of Ink
• The Wertzone
• The Hollywood Reporter
• Westeros Casting
• IMDB

I have no doubt, as news progresses, that George will keep us all in the loop. And since his fan base is legion, I also have no doubt we will start seeing some pictures from Northern Ireland where the pilot will soon be shot.

Is this exciting for you? What do you think about all of this? Are you scared about the prospect of an HBO series? Would you rather George not have any distractions and finish A Dance With Dragons?

Winter is Coming—to HBO!

Every once in a while, science fiction and fantasy is given love from the literary world.

Usually only a little love though.

The New Yorker, the long-standing quintessential magazine of New York City known for its breadth of reporting, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, cartoons and poetry, has run an article titled “Seven Essential Fantasy Reads: Going to Second Base.”

Now if the New Yorker was only read in New York City, I’d say their opinion is a small sampling, despite that city’s diversity and population. But the magazine is read all over the world and offers some of the best glimpses into literary fiction.

The writer, Macy Halford, asked her Yale physics friend to come up with the seven must reads for a fantasy nerd. Needless to say, I was interested in what a Yale guy could come up with. Turns out he didn’t do too badly—Tad Williams, Terry Brooks, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robin Hobb, Terry Goodkind, Patrick Rothfuss and Steven Erikson.

Click HERE to read the article.

George R. R. Martin took part in this weekend’s Worldcon.

In a way, Robert Jordan was there as well. Definitely his work, if not his spirit.

Brandon Sanderson, who is finishing the three-book conclusion to The Wheel of Time series, attended Worldcon. While on a panel, he spoke about writing the final three books of A Memory of Light, how many pages of notes Robert Jordan left behind before his untimely death, and gave hints about what people will see in The Gathering Storm. He also spoke about the Mat trilogy Jordan sold to Tor.

A Wheel of Time fan went to the panel and reported on it. You can find a break down of what Brandon had to say HERE!

I really hope Brandon pulls this series off. An early reviewer enjoyed the forthcoming book, although it was read by a very biased fan. We’ll have to wait until November to find out for ourselves!

I wonder what else will come out of Worldcon this weekend…

George R. R. Martin is one of the formidable forces in the fantasy genre.

He also is one of the nicest and sweetest men you will ever meet and he genuinely cares for all around him.

The first time I met him was at the San Jose Worldcon in 2002. I had been invited by Terry Brooks to attend the convention and while flying there discovered I was sitting next to the best friend of George’s wife Parris. Upon landing and claiming our baggage, the friend asked me at the curb if I needed a ride to the hotel and convention. I told her I didn’t want to impose. Then a rented town car pulled up and out stepped George. Almost clucking like a motherly hen, he quickly ushered me into the car where we all talked about the flight and the convention and how nice a weekend it was going to be.

At that time, I had not read A Game of Thrones. I really had no idea who George was. Much later I realized how paramount he was to the industry.

I still marvel over his generosity that day at Worldcon.

While at this weekend’s current Worldcon in Montréal, Quebec, Gazette writer Matthew Surridge met up with George and did a short 10 minute interview/podcast with him.

Key points:

• George has over 1000 finished manuscript pages for his next book, A Dance With Dragons.
• His previous four books in the series have come in between 1100 manuscript pages and 1500 manuscripts pages.
• He thinks the book will be around 1200, although he will not put an expected finish date on the project
• HBO is moving forward with the Ice & Fire pilot. It is going to be shot in October in Ireland.
• Originally, the story of A Dance With Dragons was meant to be the second book of a trilogy, but the first book grew in the telling.
• Sean Bean has been cast as Ned Stark.
• George talks about why Dance is late, due to the complexity of the series and the amount of rewriting he does.
• Listen to the podcast for the rest!

Perhaps we will see more from Worldcon as the convention continues throughout the weekend!

Let’s hope!

Tis a sad day for me.

Kind of.

I’ve been a ravenous Tad Williams fan since August 1990, when he published Stone of Farewell, the second book in his epic fantasy Memory, Sorrow & Thorn. I can still remember, several years later, picking up To Green Angel Tower and feeling the heft of the novel and all the possibilities that could reside within. Oh, how I loved re-reading the first two books and then diving into that mammoth last book. It still gives me goosebumps.

It appears his next conclusive hefty book is getting a different treatment!

Tad returned to “epic” fantasy in 2004 with Shadowmarch. Originally it was an online serialized venture but Tad quickly decided to publish it in book form and write two sequels to tell the entire story—Shadowplay published in 2007 and Shadowrise was to publish later this year or early 2010. An odd beginning, but I was happy to see Tad return to his roots!

And here comes an odd ending for the Shadow trilogy!

Tad wrote this on his Facebook page today:

“Jell-o brain, Night Two. Just got back from New Jersey and a story conferencing day. All good work, but it’s now three a.m. and my brain…well, you know. Wibble-wobble-wibble. However, one piece of news for the Tad readers. Shadowrise is definitely going to have to be two volumes, but only a few months apart.”

So, no longer a trilogy. Kind of like Memory, Sorrow & Thorn shouldn’t have been, I suppose, since that last story could barely handle the physical binding of the book!

I’m conflicted here. On the one hand, it echoes George R. R. Martin. Anyone who remembers how A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons came to be will immediately cringe. But on the other hand, it pretty much means Tad has too much material for the last book—which means more words for us to read long into the night!

So we wait. And we see. I know that Todd Lockwood has either started or entirely completed the cover to Tad’s next book.

Hopefully Tad will write more about this when he returns from New York City!

Stay tuned!

We’re quickly closing in on our one year anniversary and thought it’d be kinda fun to take a look back at our most popular posts during that time.

1. The Top 10 Horror Movies of 2008

We’re starting to get used to the fact that this page will just be the most popular thing on this site (save for the library and homepage). Matt Schwartz counts down 10 of the best horror flicks to debut on the silver screen in 2008. By the looks of things, this has become your default list as well. If you’re one of the few who haven’t found this one, give it a look and get ready to leave the lights on for a while - there are some really scary stuff here.

2. In Defense of George R. R. Martin

If you’re a fan of Martin’s then you surely have an opinion on the time between his books. Shawn Speakman weighed in with this well-thought out article about writing, fandom, and if a contract exists between writer and reader.

3. The Real Fantastic Stuff, an essay by Richard K. Morgan

Here’s one that really got the blood boiling in some of our readers. Richard K. Morgan wrote a short essay on one of the forces that interested him in writing a work of fantasy. That force? The belief that Tolkien, considered a master of the genre, could have done even more with his writings. Then the conversation erupted. Check out the article and the comments in one of our most controversial posts to date.

4. Our George R. R. Martin April Fool’s Day Post

Hoo-boy, here’s a post that was meant as a convincing April Fool’s Day joke that might have been a little too convincing for some people. Most readers picked up on the trick, but even so, this is the first (and only, to my knowledge) that we decided to slap a disclaimer on. Remember, this one is only a joke.

5. The Temeraire series: Looking forward to Book 6

If you ask me, one of the coolest things about Suvudu is the chance to get sneak peeks into upcoming books, behind-the-scenes stuff, or other access that’s otherwise a little more difficult to come across. Here’s on example, Betsy Mitchell wrote about the upcoming Temeraire book (#6) with a short look at what sets the book up and a little bit about Naomi’s research in Australia. Some really cool pictures from Naomi’s trip also feature in the article. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

I’ve professed this before.

Neil Gaiman is a god.

Or maybe he’s just a very talented writer with a fantastic imagination who has the ability to succinctly make a point with a flare!

A few days ago on his Journal, Gaiman decided to answer a question posed him by a fan concerning the perceived lateness of A Dance With Dragons by George. R. R. Martin. My thoughts on this were documented in my article In Defense of George R. R. Martin, so it won’t surprise anyone that I fall on the side of Gaiman and his opinion.

Gaiman sums it up quite nicely with one sentence:

“George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.”

That’s right! He said it! George is not your bitch.

Pause. Soak it in. Become one with the philosophy.

It is important to point out that Gaiman didn’t need to answer that question. He decides which questions to answer and post on his Journal. The spite many send toward Martin is a spite most authors are aware of on some level; I can’t even tell you how many author events I’ve attended where a fan asks the writer what they think of George R. R. Martin. For whatever reason, Gaiman felt it necessary to chime in on the subject.

You can read the entirety of his thoughts on his May 12th Journal!

Gaiman makes some great points. I’ll post two I think are important.

***This entry was one of our April Fool’s Day 2009 posts. We ask that you not take the information in this post literally. It was just in the spirit of having a little fun. Thanks for reading!***

Yes, folks, the time is finally here! We received the manuscript in
secret yesterday, and instead of all that tedious editing and cover
debating and buildup to release with author tours or Comic Con
announcements … We decided to just get the book out as soon as
possible. We heard your cries (and ours) and thought this the best of
all possible worlds. There’s a twist, however. The manuscript is too
long.

(click through to see our brilliant solution that is … almost unique)

Despite some of the misgivings that run through the internet(s) concerning George R. R. Martin, he is very smart at times. Almost too smart.

Yes, he is roundly perceived as being late in delivery of A Dance With Dragons, Book Five in A Song of Ice & Fire, arguably one of the best fantasy series of all time. Yes, he is aware of the misgivings out there from some of his more zealous fans as he is reminded by them daily.

But there is more to A Song of Ice & Fire than four books!

George has also written three short stories set in Ice & Fire featuring two characters named Dunk and Egg—The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight. The first two appeared in the Robert Silverberg edited Legends anthologies; the last one, The Mystery Knight, is forthcoming in a new anthology titled Warriors.

It was announced yesterday on the George R. R. Martin website that Warriors has been completed and turned in. The new anthology is edited by George and his friend Gardner Dozois, and will feature short stories from authors like Tad Williams, Robin Hobb, Naomi Novik, Cecilia Holland, Joe Haldeman, Lawrence Block, Joe Lansdale, Peter S. Beagle, Steven Saylor, Diana Gabaldon, James Rollins, David Weber, Carrie Vaughn, S.M. Stirling, Howard Waldrop, Gardner Dozois, David Morrell, Robert Silverberg and David Ball.

Quite the group of great writers!

Warriors will be released in late 2010 or early 2011, according to George on the NEWS page of his site.

That is genius!

Why?

Where does that release date fall in the grand scope of A Song of Ice & Fire?

If A Dance With Dragons is released later this year, the release of Warriors—if it holds true—will be almost directly in the middle of the average three year period it will take George to write The Winds of Winter. It will help assuage those more zealous fans, giving them something to read while they wait for the next full volume. Could it be happenstance? Perhaps. But George is also one of the editors on the project and has a choice when the new anthology will be released. The question is: Who decided that?

I believe it was probably George. And if it was, he is one shrewd mofo!

Warriors and The Mystery Knight are riding toward us!

And I can’t wait!

Trolls.

Trolls are everywhere.

Under bridges. Within walls. In sewers. And on the internet(s).

But the Internet troll is the most peculiar of the specie. This kind of troll is someone who posts controversial or inflammatory messages in an online community with the only intention of provoking other users into an emotional response. They often lack good manners, are immoral in their thinking, and basically hate for the sake of hating. They are an ugly aberration of good online folk and voice outlandish criticisms that often bear no fact in reality. By using that erroneous information they often steal other people’s lives, turning them into trolls as well!

They be evil. Wholly evil!

The people I mostly directed my In Defense of George R. R. Martin article toward are trolls. And as I wrote HERE, George wrote his own post directed at those spiteful little creatures who populate certain areas of the internet(s).

Yesterday, author Patrick Rothfuss wrote his own blog post concerning trolls, although his post is more directed toward educating those trolls and releasing them back out into the wild rather than condemning them.

Click Concerning the Release of Book Two to read Pat’s thoughts on his life, why his second book is taking so long to be finished, and a very cool thing he is doing for his fans!

Plus he has cool cartoons. Gotta love that!

Beware of trolls! Fight them where you see them!

Ever since I grew weary of reading erroneous facts behind bandied about online concerning George R. R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons, and ever since I wrote my article In Defense of George R. R. Martin, discussion has increased many fold between those who slander George and those who defend him. It has been great fun for me to read both sides and reaffirm my own feelings on the subject, as well as learn a few things I hadn’t known before I wrote the article.

I wish some of the naysayers could learn as easily and toss aside their misconceptions.

Well, it looks like all of those discussions have reached George himself.

Yesterday George posted two entries on his website concerning some of these discussions, accompanied by a status update of A Dance With Dragons:

• Update: A Dance With Dragons
• From George: To My Detractors

In short, I applaud George for saying something on the subject as well as updating his fans about A Dance With Dragons—even if it will probably stir the pot even more. It was also nice to have him speak on some of the very things I wrote about in my article…

And maybe we’ll get A Dance With Dragons this fall!

Keep those fingers, toes and dragon tails crossed!

Acacia, Book One of The Acacia Trilogy, was released to much fanfare from fantasy fans and bloggers. Some likened it to the large epic A Song of Ice & Fire by George R. R. Martin; others likened it to the sweeping historical novels found in the fiction section of the bookstore.

I think both are right.

The author of The Acacia Trilogy, David Anthony Durham, has both backgrounds. He loves epic fantasy and he loves the historical novel. In a way, he blended them together, to create a wonderful novel with great characters in Acacia.

Now he has released the cover artwork and some information for Book Two in The Acacia Trilogy, titled The Other Lands!

Some spoilers for Acacia in the summary ahead…

I’m not exactly sure what I mean by that, but I think that’s because my brain is functioning on a slightly lower register than it normally does. 

I think that’s what happens after 18 hours of Comic-Conny goodness.

Surprisingly, my spirit has yet to be dampened.  Not only did we have four very successful in-booth events with the talented Felix Gilman, David J. Williams, Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge, and Ellen Kushner, but the word is out: Random House publishes science fiction!

By my count (and I can only speak for myself personally, as my ventriloquist lessons have not been going as well as I’d of hoped), I’ve been asked 77 times when the next George R.R. Martin book, A Dance With Dragons, is going to be coming out.  So far, my favorite response to that is: “Hey, we’re in the fantasy business.  If we tell you Fall 2009, then we’re doing our jobs!”  It gets a chuckle, then a few hard looks, and then that slumping resignation realizing that, at the end of the day, this guy in a booth isn’t going to take off his mask, reveal himself to be George, and deliver a finished copy into their hands.  For this, I apologize.

I also think I might have lost some weight, as with all the excitement, I didn’t really eat anything between 8 in the morning and 6:30 at night, when I happily munched on a handful of Nilla Wafers.  And, let me tell you: as exciting as the events with our authors were, eating those cookies became a special time for me.

So, I’m willing to call this thing a success.  However, unlike a certain person who will remain nameless, I will not count this Comic Con a victory until I have truly completed the mission given to me.

Tomorrow:  You’ve been warned.

Peter V. Brett has also weighed in on the George R. R. Martin dilemma. Peter is a new writer whose first book, The Warded Man, is about to be released in the US on March 10, 2009. He comes at the situation swirling around George and A Dance With Dragons with a unique perspective, as Peter’s second book, The Desert Spear is a bit behind schedule. It is a good article and a good look into what it’s like to be a writer.

To read Peter’s thoughts, visit his blog at Peephole In My Skull and read his article Leave George Alone!

The blog article I wrote last week titled In Defense of George R. R. Martin has caused quite a bit of discussion on this website and elsewhere on the internet(s). I wrote the article not necessarily to defend George as he is quite capable of doing that himself but to dispel beliefs of error that pervade many of his readers out there, beliefs that drive them to ill-conceived anger concerning the perceived “lateness” of A Dance With Dragons.

Here are some other articles recently written about George and A Dance With Dragons:

• Adam Whitehead over at the UK website The Wertzone has written two articles that act as companion pieces to my own. He looks at the writing of A Dance With Dragons with different eyes than my own and, with a lot more research and knowledge of the books, comes to the same conclusion.
  A Defence of Dragons, Part I | A Defence of Dragons, Part II
• Aidan Moher over at A Dribble of Ink has also added a companion pieces to my initial article, spending time talking about each of my conclusions and adding his own informed spin on things.
  Why You Should Cut George R.R. Martin Some Slack

I am sure there will be other articles written on this soon, some agreeing with my conclusions, others not. That is the miracle of discourse. If at all curious, read those other articles; they bring a lot to the discussion.

This long article is about author George R. R. Martin and, more importantly, the misgivings and negativity some of his more vocal fans have concerning the lateness of his forthcoming book, A Dance With Dragons.

George really needs no introduction. Since the release of A Game of Thrones in 1996, he has been a growing fixture in the fantasy genre, his fan base growing with every release of his series, A Song of Ice & Fire. In November 2005, Time magazine branded George the ‘American Tolkien.’ While I believe that remains to be seen—after all the series is not yet finished and I must read the entirety of it to truly give such a grand title associated with J.R.R. Tolkien—the one thing I am certain of is A Song of Ice & Fire is an extremely powerful story that invokes passion in all who read it.

That passion is a double-edged sword, able to cut an enemy as quickly as its bearer. While the four books and two short stories that comprise A Song of Ice & Fire are universally garnered as being some of the best storytelling ever, animosity swirls around George. The fourth book, A Feast For Crows, took five years to be published and it contained only half of the characters fans have come to love. Upon publishing A Feast For Crows, George posted that he was near to completing the other half of the story, A Dance With Dragons, with the novel coming to bookstores quickly.

That was three years ago and A Dance With Dragons is still not complete.

This has aroused a great deal of anger for many of George’s fans. Five years is a long time to wait for a sequel to arguably one of the best fantasy series of all time, especially when most writers are able to produce sequels between one and three years. But as I’ve come to discover, anger is one of the least logical emotions we possess; it can lead people to conclusions that are not wholly accurate—if not down right wrong. Much of the animosity I see written about George and his lateness is colored by that kind of anger and, while I believe there are two instances where fans of A Song of Ice & Fire are more than allowed their ire, most of it lacks any authenticity whatsoever.

This article hopes to dispel some of those erroneous angry feelings and assumptions out there—or at least give a different side to things that most readers probably have not thought of.

Tall order, I know.

It is always difficult when a writer has a hard time finishing a sequel. We as readers usually want the next book as quickly as possible and rarely give understanding to the necessary time needed for the writer to produce said book. Sometimes a writer takes longer to write a sequel than readers are willing to give—leaving rancorous animosity and outlandish opinions bandied about to give meaning.

It can get pretty ugly for some of those authors.

George R. R. Martin is one of them. He took five years to published A Feast For Crows, and, once he released that book said he was “almost done” with the next book, A Dance With Dragons. That was three years ago. And while I understand why many of his fans are angry and upset, I see the other side of the coin and fall on the side of Mr. Martin when it comes to his craft of writing, how he spends his time, and the history of him splitting A Game of Thrones into two books. I’m considering writing a very long article about my feelings concerning Mr. Martin and his fan base. We’ll see if I want to tackle that!

Today I was reminded, however, that three or even five years is nothing when it comes to past sequels coming to readers late.

Sci-Fi Wire has posted an article titled Which SF writer has made us wait the longest for a sequel? It details some of the longest waits for readers in the genre and you’d be amazed at how many decades some of those books took to be written and published! For me, the Dark Tower releases were always torturous waits. A Princess of Landover by Terry Brooks is a sequel 14 years in the waiting.

Take a look at that list and see how good you guys really do have it!