Recently in News Category
Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist: THE NAME OF THE WIND is now available in paperback:
Only the Bookscan numbers are in (it will be a while before we get a full tally), but it looks as though The Name of the Wind has surpassed the sales of both George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and Terry Goodkind’s Wizard’s First Rule.
Woah! If it beat out A Game of Thrones and Wizard’s First Rule, I am going to have to check this book out. I really enjoyed those two books, especially A Game of Thrones.
According to the Associated Press, Arthur C. Clarke has passed away.
[HT: Charles Stross]
Well, somebody else is giving away a copy of The Last Wish. Over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, there are four copies of the book available. I’ve already sent in my entry!
I am really looking forward to The Last Wish finally being available in the US. I have heard nothing but good things about the series.
Thanks to Orbit Books for linking to the giveaway, and for both getting the book to the states and making it available through a fellow blogger!
From Neil’s Journal Kids! Free! Book!:
For the next month, your free copy of American Gods is waiting for you at http://tiny.cc/WRiXE
Feel free to spread the link as widely as possible around the web. If it works, and people read it, then a) we may be able to put up another book and b) sooner or later they’ll simply let us give away the book in electronic form….
There is some follow-up discussion of the pros and cons of making a book freely available if you check out the free book section of Neil’s Journal.
There’s even a fancy little flash widget you can stuff onto your own sites.
From the announcement:
Tor Books announced today that novelist Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to finish the final novel in Robert Jordan’s bestselling Wheel of Time fantasy series. Robert Jordan, one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th and early 21st centuries, died September 16th after a courageous battle with the rare blood disease amyloidosis.
The new novel, A Memory of Light, will be the twelfth and final book in the beloved fantasy series which has sold over 14 million copies in North America and over 30 million copies worldwide. The last four books in the series were all #1 New York Times bestsellers, and for over a decade fans have been eagerly awaiting the final novel that would bring the epic story to its conclusion.
Dragonmount was able to interview Brandon Sanderson before the announcement was made.
There are some sample chapters and a free ebook available on his site: http://www.brandonsanderson.com/
One of my favorite authors, one whose books I have unfortunately yet to review here, has announced that he has been diagnosed with a form of early onset Alzheimer’s. His Discworld novels are some of my absolute favorites and you really owe it to yourself to try a few of them if you haven’t already. I’m roughly only a third of the way through the series myself and each book I have read has been a real treat and often had me laughing out loud.
From the announcement, An Embuggerance:
I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s, which lay behind this year’s phantom “stroke”.
We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, I expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there’s time for at least a few more books yet :o)
PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as ‘I am not dead’. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it’s too soon to tell. I know it’s a very human thing to say “Is there anything I can do”, but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.
Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels among others, has passed away today. The Wheel of Time series is a big chunk of my to-be-read pile. Currently, book twelve of the series is still unfinished and is supposed to be the final novel in the series. I’ve read the first few novels already, but I think I will wait until I hear what will be happening to it before I start reading the series from the beginning. I don’t want to be left hanging after reading eleven books of that size. :)
According to Robert Jordan’s official blog, the story made it out of his head at least, so there is some hope:
Epilog: Yes he is continuing to work through all of this medical calamity. [A Memory of Light] is going into the word processor and onto audio tapes almost daily. Not every day mind you, because the medical fight takes first priority. But, he told you he’d finish and he will. Fact is that it has been finished in his head for years. During a recent family sit around, he became the Gleeman and told the bones of it ALL to Harriet and me. You read that right, I did say ALL. Don’t ask, ain’t telling. Two and a half hours of story telling by the Creator himself went by in the twinkling of an eye. Truly magical. All I can say is WOW! Best stuff he’s ever done. MOL is going to knock your socks off! That’s a promise.
Maybe I’ll just read his Conan stories for now instead.
Okay, so I haven’t hit my goal of one review per week yet, but I’ve spent a good bit of time recently working on my MediaConsumer plugin to help power this site. I have now added the first review and used the plugin to automatically insert the book image and link to Amazon.
Next up is adding the various lists of books: ones I have finished and plan to review, ones that I am reading, and ones that I will be reading.
