Results tagged “tor.com”

As I reported yesterday, author Brandon Sanderson was in Seattle on November 18th for The Gathering Storm tour.

I took pictures of his stop at The Signed Page, the dinner afterward, and the actual event at the University Bookstore.

I also filmed video of Brandon talking, reading from The Gathering Storm, and answering questions from the fans!

The event was a lot of fun. Brandon is very enthusiastic about his role finishing what he considers the best epic fantasy of all time. He has been a fan since his early teenage years and when the opportunity to finish the Wheel of Time series presented itself, he could not imagine another person doing it. As he says in the video, the main characters in Jordan’s opus were Brandon’s best friends during high school. Before Harriet even approached him, Brandon had read and re-read the books numerous times.

I have no doubt after listening to him that he is the right person for the job.

Continue on, watch the videos, and enjoy this time to revisit the Wheel of Time:

Part I of V: How and why Brandon became involved in the Wheel of Time

More videos! There are five altogether. Continue on for the reading and Q&A!

Fantasy has regained its New York Times bestselling status!

The Gathering Storm, the first book in the concluding trilogy in the Wheel of Time series, has hit #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestselling list!

It pushed The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown to #2 for the first time since the new Robert Langdon story debuted.

The last fantasy novel to hit #1 was Dark Slayer by Christine Feehan on September 10, 2009.

Tor Books, Brandon Sanderson, and Harriet McDougal have done a great job in promoting this new Wheel of Time novel. It has been two years since Robert Jordan died but a group of very dedicated people have spent time and energy to compete his opus. It is a monumental event to hit #1 on the Times—not only for Wheel of Time fans, Robert Jordan’s widow, and completing writer Brandon Sanderson—but it is a wonderful acknowledgment for the fantasy genre as a publishing entity.

Congratulations to all involved!

I wear many hats. A bald man can never have too many!

One of them is owner of The Signed Page, a website service that helps genre fans get signed or personalized books from their favorite authors for cover price. On November 19th, I will welcome author Brandon Sanderson for an online signing here in Seattle for the release of The Gathering Storm, the first book of the Wheel of Time conclusion trilogy.

I just returned from the book distributor where I picked up the initial 132 copy order of The Gathering Storm. I will be picking up more soon. Today is the first day I could pick the books up and I decided to take a picture of them stacked neatly in my office corner while they await Brandon and his extra attention.

They do exist! And over the next few days bookstores will begin receiving their copies of The Gathering Storm, to be put on the shelf on the publication day of Tuesday, October 27th!

For those without a calendar, that’s five days.

The end is about to begin.

It is a very good time to be a sci-fi/fantasy reader!

Over the last few years we have seen an influx of great blogs run by fans. These blogs represent normal readers wanting to help others with their reading habits. Eventually publishers decided to get into the blog game and now there are many more tools and resources for all sci-fi/fantasy readers!

The power of the people have helped the people out!

Tor.com, one of those new blogs, has evolved recently, adding a bookstore to their website. It only includes print books at the moment but it will soon expand to include ebooks as well. The coolest thing about their new store, however, is their Special Picks section where authors and editors suggest great books for everyone to read!

Definitely check it out!

Congratulations, Tor! Lookin’ good!

Again, if you haven’t read Chapter 1, go to Tor.com, here, and then come back to us to read Chapter 2, here. Believe me, you won’t necessarily miss anything by reading this first, but Greg went out of his way to write them in order for a reason, so why don’t you try it his way?

I’m really excited about this book, and I hope you will be, too.

Happy reading!

I don’t want to give to much away, but Norse Code is about as fun as you’ll have reading about the end of the world. Granted, I’m biased (I like good books), but I think what makes this novel so enjoyable is how Greg balances the very “human” nature of these supernatural beings with the magical apocalypse going down all around them.

In other words: Hermod’s my boy.

Happy reading!

I am seeing artist Todd Lockwood this weekend at NorwesCon, so I thought it would be fun to feature one of his newest covers.

Here is the cover to The Grave Thief by Tom Lloyd!

Mr. Lloyd is a Pyr author. The Stormcaller, his first book, is quite good. I loved the two previous covers in the series but I’m sad to say this cover just doesn’t work for me.

Overall I give it 3/5 stars.

I love the artwork and especially the unique angle of the scene, but the general layout of the cover is wrong in my mind. The fonts are wrong. And the painting just seems washed out.

So, what do you think of it?

Am I just way off base here? Am I biased because of Todd and the cover art itself isn’t good? Or is there something to my opinion?

Still, the cover is better than most out there! Tom Lloyd is a lucky, lucky author to have such covers grace his US editions!

I am in the middle of reading Lamentation by Ken Scholes and so far I am greatly enjoying it! It is quite unique and very well written, two things I demand of fantasy these days, and if you haven’t read it yet go out and buy a copy! Good stuff!

To read the Prelude and Chapter One, click HERE!

One of the simply great things surrounding this series, The Psalms of Issak, is the fact the first two books are completely finished and edited while the third is near completion. Canticle, Book Two, won’t arrive in bookstores until October 13, 2009, giving Ken a great lead time on Book Three. For those of you who like authors to deliver at least once a year, Ken Scholes is the author for you!

The other wonderful thing I am seeing from Tor-Forge is consistent cover art on Ken’s books. I like that. A great deal! And I know the fans do too. Irene Gallo is one of the best art directors in the business and she has outdone herself when it comes to Ken’s covers. Again, great stuff!

Irene and Tor.com have posted a fun and informative article about cover art and the progression artist Greg Manchess took from sketch to finished product as he created the cover art for Canticle.

Enjoy!

Can you hear the outrage spreading across the internet(s)?

Boy, I can.

This morning Tor-Forge announced that A Memory of Light, the conclusion volume of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, will begin publishing in November 2009. That’s the good news!

The bad news? A Memory of Light is going to be broken into three separate books released one year apart each, the first of which is titled The Gathering Storm.

Can you hear that? It’s the sound of angry, money-strapped fans.

As the news spreads across the internet(s), the blogs are unanimously saying the same thing. Why three volumes?? Tor and the Estate of Robert Jordan support the decision for three volumes, stating a 750,000 word book cannot possibly be published in a single volume. And their summation I completely agree with. A book that is 750,000 words cannot possibly be held physically in a single binding. But as with most things there is more beneath the surface of their summation.

I say it can be published in two volumes. Easily.

And here are some numbers to prove it.

The image of what appears to be the cover to The Gathering Storm, Book One of Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, has been making the rounds across the internet(s).

But there are some things that set off my warning signals… that this cover isn’t legit.

Or possibly just isn’t finished.

If one looks closely at the cover, which is a small resolution image anyway, you’ll see it reads “Sequel to the #1 New York Times Bestseller Crossroads of Twilight.” As most of you know, book publishers tend to put the title of the last book to be released on the cover. The last book in the Wheel of Time series was not Crossroads of Twilight but Knife of Dreams.

Then there is the artwork itself. I know the quality of Darrell K. Sweet’s artwork has been lessening over the years—just look at his work on Eye of the World compared to Knife of Dreams, but this image seems too choppy even for him.

And one more thing. Information that The Gathering Storm would be published only in trade paperback surfaced alongside this image. Huh? A Memory of Light will be one of the largest cash cows for Tor this year. They wouldn’t release it as a trade paperback and lose that money. The surfacing of this cover and the information surrounding it just makes no sense.

I say don’t believe in this cover until Tor posts it legitimately on their website.

I wrote Brandon Sanderson upon viewing this cover, and he had no information about it. He was actually shocked at it, particularly the hardcover / trade paperback issue. He did confirm though that the first book will come out November 2009 and he will be touring for it!

I love Irene Gallo, the art director at Tor, and she does a fantastic job on the covers she oversees. You’ll see how much I like her in a post this weekend. The several oddities concerning this cover though make me believe this was a mock-up with mock-up art that was accidentally released.

So I warn: Take it with a grain of salt!

Or don’t believe everything you read!

Even this! Ha!

Howdy, y’all, I’m Kaitlin Heller, editorial assistant at Del Rey Books, and welcome to MATTERS / ANTIMATTERS, the new Suvudu/Tor.com joint venture!

In each post, I’ll discuss a topic of interest to the science fiction, fantasy and general genre community, and Steven Padnick, my *cough* colleague at Tor Books, will offer a response on Tor.com. Or vice versa.

Steven and I have a long-standing debate about spoilers. I’ve been known, on occasion, to flee the room while he discusses Battlestar Galactica with friends, or put my hands over my ears and yell “Puppies!” loudly when he brings up Angel seasons 1-4 (I’ve only seen 5). I am, to put it mildly, not the sort of person who would wear this t-shirt.

But as Steven pointed out in yesterday’s blog post, there are maybe sometimes possibly a few reasons why being spoilerphobic is a bad thing. Perhaps. Let’s examine, shall we?