Brent Weeks kicks off a video blog tour today — answering questions from John at graspingforthewind.com about his forthcoming book, THE BLACK PRISM. Find out how THE BLACK PRISM is different from the Night Angel Trilogy, where the inspiration for the color magic system came from, and why Kip isn’t your typical fantasy hero.
Stay tuned over the next few weeks for more video interviews from some of your favorite sff sites!
THE BLACK PRISM is coming out August 25, (US | UK | AUS) and to help introduce you to the amazing new world Brent has created we’ve just launched the “What Color is Your Magic?” quiz on www.brentweeks.com. Take the quiz and find out what kind of drafter you’d be.
Me?
Take the quiz at Brent Weeks.com
It seems that I like to blow things up. Hm…Don’t know if that surprises anyone. But wait, it gets better! “Yellows tend to be clear thinkers, intellect and emotion in perfect balance.”
Whoa. Thanks Brent! I am in perfect balance:)
The most visible part of San Diego Comic-Con – and the hardest part to explain to non-geeks – is the costumes. I was trying to explain to a friend who had never been to any con before (talk about sink or swim, your first public geek experience being SDCC) that Comic-Con is like the prom, and everyone who dresses up is totally Prom King and Queen of their own personal universe. People who maybe are too shy, or just not attention-seekers normally can dress up as a kick-ass superhero and feel like a rockstar all day at con. All day people want to take pictures of you, tell you how awesome your costume is, tell you how much they love your character (and the more obscure, the better accolades). I have never dressed up for a con, but I have hit more than a few halloweens in NYC dressed up as Lara Croft, Dark Phoenix, assorted Jedi, and a few vampires, and it is kind of a heady experience. I can only imagine to do it at a con is even better. (more…)
I had high hopes of blogging my first San Diego Comic-Con as it was happening (or at least, at the end of each day) but I woefully underestimated the sheer craziness going on every minute of the day and night. Even prepared with multiple cameras and an iPad, there wasn’t a spare minute to post! So, I’m going to be catching you all up now, categorically.
There is so much thorough SDCC coverage around the web that I’m going to try to keep this stuff edited to unique pics taken by me (or Orbit/Yen team members) and try to keep it edited down to a few topics. But don’t doubt for a second that I have a bajillion pics of bespandexed cosplayers posing like they practiced all year…and you know they did. (more…)
The other day I happened to be reading through Janet Fitch’s post on 10 Writing Tips That Can Help Almost Anyone. The list is worth reading, but I was particularly struck by Tip #7: Smarten up your protagonist.
Fitch writes, “The more observant [your protagonist] can be, the more vivid will be the world you’re creating.” This is no doubt true, but it’s not what leaps to my mind when I think about smart protagonists. (more…)
The August pick for io9.com’s Book Club is N.K. Jemisin’s THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS! Click here to read the first chapter.
We’re excited for Nora, especially because you can look forward to reading the second book, The Broken Kingdoms in November 2010. (more…)
‘This is one of the great ironies of contemporary literature: the books that ask the deepest and most profound questions tend to be situated in the most marginalised of genres . . . Ken MacLeod’s The Restoration Game, like his previous novels The Execution Channel and The Night Sessions, are works of science fiction so worryingly close to reality that he may well be hailed as a prophet . . .’
So says Scotland on Sunday and I’m hardly inclined to argue. As you can see, Ken MacLeod‘s latest novel, The Restoration Game, published earlier this month, is already garnering high praise from the critics:
As ever, MacLeod’s grasp of political intrigue is first rate, and in Lucy he’s created a complex heroine forever in doubt as to the true nature of events’ Guardian
This is a writer at the peak of his powers’ SFX
Hear! Hear! And to celebrate publication, we are delighted to present this small but perfectly formed interview that Ken did on a recent trip to Orbit Towers.
What, exactly, is the hitherto undisclosed secret of Ken MacLeod? Watch closely and learn. The answer may shock you . . .
Comic-Con San Diego is right around the corner! If you’re attending, be sure to stop by the Orbit US booth (#1116) throughout the convention for signings and giveaways, and mark your day planner with the events below to meet our authors.
And if you’re in the San Diego area but didn’t get a pass to Comic-Con – don’t fear! The reading on Sunday with Brent Weeks, Brandon Sanderson, and Patrick Rothfuss is open to all. Full schedule and all the details after the jump! (more…)
When the manuscript that eventually became THE UNIT landed on my desk, I was a little skeptical. I’m a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction but after having recently read The Road and playing Fallout 3 more than was strictly healthy, I wasn’t sure I was ready for the grueling, depressing grind of another story about the end of times. Oh, how wrong I was…
THE UNIT is the post-apocalyptic story I hadn’t realized I was waiting for. Unflinching, honest, brutal, tender, and, above all, humane– Terry DeHart’s debut floored me on the first read. It’s not that it’s not dark. It’s not that horrible things don’t happen to good people. But it does what so many post-apocalyptic stories fail to do, it reminds us of the essential humanity of every player in the story.
One of my colleagues instantly pegged it as, “hey, it’s like The Road if they ever fought back” which, moving beyond the glib, was exactly what I thought was missing from Cormac McCarthy’s excellent, soul-crushing, tale.
Anyhow, you don’t have to take my word for it:
a striking picture of human vulnerability and strength.” — Publisher’s Weekly
Like a crowbar to the skull, the lethal narrative intensity of this novel comes from its brutal realism and all-too plausible story line.” — Explorations
And io9.com picked it as one of their July picks with a description that trumps any copy I’ve ever come up with:
You’ve got a zombie plan, I assume. How’s your fallout preparedness? Vacationing in the Sierra Nevadas, the Sharpe family survives a nuclear strike, but anyone who’s ever read Alas, Babylon! knows that’s the easy part. Now they’ve got to deal with radioactive snowstorms and killer teenagers. Jerry, a badass ex-Marine, just wants to get his family home to Sacramento, while his wife, Susan, does her level best to keep nurturing the kids. Their daughter, Melanie, tries to maintain her pacifist convictions, while her brother, Scotty, goes totally Red Dawn on the people chasing them. Worst family trip ever.” — io9.com
THE UNIT is out in stores now. Read the first chapter here and go download a wallpaper for your computer or mobile device here.
When it comes to fantasy, I don’t mind if a writer ignores reality. This shouldn’t be that odd. Fantasy is, by definition, an escape from reality. Or, if not an escape, at least a chance to see a world that might have been. The important element is that, either way, fantasy is just reality as we know it with a tweak here or there that allows the impossible to happen.
I go into fantasy with eyes wide open, knowing that reality can be, will be, discarded if it allows a human to teleport or an invasion of space robots. I don’t need a justification beyond this is fantasy, and that’s what makes it awesome. (more…)
