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The Paul Kearney Thread

ThRiNiDiR

By ThRiNiDiR,
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Werthead Council Member

Werthead

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Using grimdark in relation to WH40K is fine, as it's where the term came from. However, there may be a confusing clash between the original usage (satirical, OTT science fantasy) and the current, vague general usage (sex and violence, a bit like GRRM and Abercrombie, maybe?).


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Antonius Pius Council Member

Antonius Pius

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However, there may be a confusing clash between the original usage (satirical, OTT science fantasy) and the current, vague general usage (sex and violence, a bit like GRRM and Abercrombie, maybe?).

I thought that was 'gritty'.

Grimdark still sounds like satire to me, but I might not be up to date with the hipsters.

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Werthead Council Member

Werthead

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Cover art for The Wolf in the Attic, due in late 2015.



Umbra Sumus should be out before then, but the Black Library play their release schedules very close to their chest, so we probably won't hear about it until it's just a few weeks before release.



Paul sat down literally today to start writing a novel he's been planning and thinking about for four or five years, so that sounds interesting. What it's about is completely unknown. I imagine that this book, whatever it is, will be out in 2016.


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Werthead Council Member

Werthead

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Not sure why, but that book description seems sooooooo corny.

Most of Kearney's plot descriptions sound fairly corny at a basic level (The Ten Thousand and Hawkwood's Voyage certainly did). It's what he does with them that's more interesting.

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wolverine Council Member

wolverine

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Most of Kearney's plot descriptions sound fairly corny at a basic level (The Ten Thousand and Hawkwood's Voyage certainly did). It's what he does with them that's more interesting.

I liked The Monarchies of God quite a bit when I read it 10 years ago (or so). I was interested in how it was edited later on but I don't know if I would remember it well enough to recognize the changes.

Read the first two of the Macht books and just haven't gotten around to the third yet although I thought the first two were fairly solid as well.

I think you could write corny descriptions for those, but I don't think you have to.

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Lord Barger Freerider

Lord Barger

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I'm guessing that the Sea Beggars series is never gonna be finished?

This is Paul Kearney's response in a interview earlier this year concerning Sea Beggers: "It’s on indefinite hold. Bantam gave me a very large advance for that series, but the sales just were not there, so by holding onto the rights I think they’re trying to recoup as much as possible of their investment. Fair enough on one level. But there is a dog-in-the-manger aspect to it also. The truth is I have no idea if the Sea Beggars will ever be completed, which is a damned shame. It was one of my favourites, and great fun to write. Plus, I fell a little in love with Rowen."

http://fantasticalimaginations.wordpress.com/2014/01/31/interview-with-paul-kearney/

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Werthead Council Member

Werthead

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It should be noted that it's Bantam USA who are holding things up. Bantam UK gave up the rights but the US division refused. It's been asked why, if Bantam US are still selling the first two novels, they don't simply release the third (it's been paid for already!), and Bantam have simply failed to answer. It's all very bizarre.


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Jussi Council Member

Jussi

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New blurb for The Wolf in the Attic:

In 1920's Oxford a little girl called Anna Francis lives in a tall old house with her father and her doll Penelope. She is a refugee, a piece of flotsam washed up in England by the tides of the Great War and the chaos that trailed in its wake. Once upon a time she had a mother and a brother, and they all lived together in the most beautiful city in the world, by the shores of Homer's wine-dark sea. Anna remembers a time when Agamemnon came to tea, and Odysseus sat her upon his knee and told her stories of Troy.

But that is all gone now, and only to her doll does she ever speak of it, because her father cannot bear to have it recalled.

She sits in the shadows of the tall house and watches the rain on the windows, and creates worlds for herself to fill out the loneliness. The house becomes her own little kingdom, an island full of dreams and half-forgotten memories.

And then one winter day, she finds an interloper in the topmost, dustiest attic of the house. A Romany boy named Luca with yellow eyes, who is as alone in the world as she is. In this way she meets the only real friend she will ever know.

The Wolf in the Attic marks an exciting, new chapter in Kearney’s career, moving away from the epic and military fantasy for which he’s known to create an enchanting new story of a young girl, that retains the essence of Kearney’s world building and stylistic prose. The Wolf in the Attic is a poignant and touching story, with a timely exploration of our cultural sense of self; one which will have fans of Tolkien and Pullman finding a new home amongst its pages.

http://solaris-editors-blog.blogspot.fi/2014/10/announcement-paul-kearney-wolf-in-attic.html

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Werthead Council Member

Werthead

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I was waiting to see if Solaris were going to do that. Apparently they're really excited about the book and wanted to give it a bigger marketing build-up. I've read the first few chapters, and I can see where they are coming from: it's mining a similar vein to Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane but it's much, much better (it's not really like OatEotL at all, but it's the closest thing I can think of).



Unfortunately, there's also been a major snag with the WH40K book (there's already a US urban fantasy series called Dark Hunters, which Black Library was unaware of, despite it being one of the biggest-selling urban fantasy series on the planet - it's bigger than The Dresden Files - by one of its most famous authors, Sherrilyn Kenyon) and that's likely to need rescheduling as well. I'm waiting to hear back from Paul on what's going on with that one.


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Maester Llama Landed Knight

Maester Llama

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Kenyon's Dark Hunters? Oh yes, I'd heard of that vaguely. It is, as you say, a big sales deal -- I don't know that much about the series but so far as I can tell all of Kenyon's work [and she is productive] ends up on the NYT bestseller list. BL was unaware? Seriously? Oh well, kind of absurdist mistake that could happen to anyone. Sucks though. Hopefully they get it retitled and re-marketed quickly; I haven't gotten into Kearney's fiction yet but something really needs to go right for him very soon.



The Wolf in the Attic sounds very much my speed, and I'm excited about trying it. I'm glad Solaris are behind the book in a big way. Was looking forward to reading it this year, but if the delay gives the book a better shot that's good news -- though they did have half a year or so left to market until the original release date, so whatever they've got planned now must really be quite something.


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