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Tad Williams announces THE LAST KING OF OSTEN ARD, a sequel to MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN


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On 6/3/2016 at 6:37 PM, Jiriki said:

I agree that the Tolkien-style prose in MS&T is very good. It struck me again today, as I was re-reading Stone of Farewell, and came across a passage where Amerasu talks about the voyage of the Gardenborn across the black seas. That passage, as well as many others, is incredible.

I don't agree that the characters are relatively black-and-white. One of the main points of the series is that there never are any easy answers: Ineluki, as vengeful and evil as he is, has very good reasons to hate mankind, as does Queen Utuk'ku. Of the main antagonists, only Pryrates and Earl Fengbald appear to be evil with no redeemable, good qualities. Guthwulf starts off doing quite bad things, but is redeemed in the end.

It's the same with the "good guys"; there are many shades of gray: Cadrach, arguably a protagonist, refuses to reveal the secrets he knows until it's too late to do anything, and spends most of his time fleeing his problems or, even worse, robbing people. Sir Camaris, the great hero of yore, turns out to have been an adulterer. King Presbyter John's "holy kingdom" was built on 70 years of lies and deceit. After Lector Rannesin's death, Mother Church is ruled by Velligis, a man too scared to stand up to Pryrates. These are just some examples.

It's one of my favorites, too, and it's hard finding many other series that are similar. (I personally think ASOIAF may be closest to it.)

 

 

You're certainly right regarding the characters. I think I was still so much in the moment with the Feist books, that I forgot how nuanced Cadrach etc are. And to hell with the naysayers, I loved the saccharine ending. I am not much of a crier by any means, but I was pre-glistening just before Rachel finally sees Simon, and had a full double-eye downpour running into my beard on this winter's re-read. And, as we keep saying, damnit I wish I could find anything similar in tone and pace. Others disagree, but those long wonderful descriptions of everything suit my visual mind terrifically. 

Just now reading his Wiki, it mentions Hobb, Jordan, then (gag) Goodkind among similar American authors. For shame, Wikipedia.

Now that I have finished zooming through Feist's first trilogy, I believe I won't be back to Midkemia, well, ever. But I never tried the Bobby Dollar series, will have to see if my library has a copy!

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  • 4 weeks later...

New blurb for The Witchwood Crown:

http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com/ProductDetailPage.aspx?sku=0756410606

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The first book in The Last King of Osten Ard, the sequel trilogy to the epic Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, which propelled Tad Williams into bestseller status and defined him as one of the most important fantasy writers of our time.

THE DRAGONBONE CHAIR, the first volume of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, was published in hardcover in October, 1988, launching the series that was to become one of the seminal works of modern epic fantasy. When the third book in the trilogy, TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER was published in March, 1993, it remained on the New York and London Times bestseller lists for five weeks. Many of today’s top-selling fantasy authors, from Patrick Rothfuss to George R. R. Martin to Chrisopher Paolini credit Tad with being the inspiration for their own series.

Now, twenty-four years after the conclusion of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Tad returns to his beloved universe and characters with THE WITCHWOOD CROWN, the first novel in the long-awaited sequel trilogy, The Last King of Osten Ard. Thirty years have passed since the events of the earlier novels, and the world has reached a critical turning point once again. The realm is threatened by divisive forces, even as old allies are lost, and others are lured down darker paths. Perhaps most terrifying of all, the Norns—the long-vanquished elvish foe—are stirring once again, preparing to reclaim the mortal-ruled lands that once were theirs….

Series Overview: The New York Times-bestselling epic fantasy trilogy Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, about Simon, a young castle servant who saves his kingdom from evil, defined Tad Williams as one of the most important fantasy writers of our time. This series finds Simon, now decades into his reign as King of Osten Ard, facing a dire new threat to the land.

 

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Hey, guys.  Just wanted to let you know that today I finished and sent off The Witchwood Crown to my publishers.  1172 pages in ms., approx. 340K words.  Still shorter than TGAT, but one of my longer novels.

 

Tad posted this info on his own message board. The final revisions are in and the book is ready to go.

http://www.tadwilliams.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=899115#p899115

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On 30.6.2016 at 11:24 AM, Calibandar said:

That's a lot of words telling us pretty much nothing about the story ( not a comment to you Jussi, I appreciate you posting it!).

I will tell you nothing of the story neither but if you want an opinion from someone who has read it, biased as it might be: here's mine:

 

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And I can confirm that Ylvs knows her stuff.

Williams posted on his message board yesterday with some updates: The Heart of What Was Lost is receiving some more touch-ups, but The Witchwood Crown hasn't been through that process yet. But they are still good to go for January and April of next year. Tad says he'll be sick of Osten Ard by the time he gets to Empire of Grass, which will be the third new book (and second in the new series).

(Link above contains some very minor spoilers).

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On 11.7.2016 at 10:56 AM, Calibandar said:

Fulminant even! ;)

Sounds very promising, very much looking forward to this book, and the January prequel with the excessively long name.

 

Bad choice of words? Meant brilliant and utterly awesome.

English is not my native language, you see?

And HOWWL is not that long ;-)

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  • 2 weeks later...

New blurb for The Heart of What Was Lost:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heart-What-Was-Lost-Memory/dp/1473646634/

Following directly on from the events of TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER, the Norns and the Storm King Ineluki have been defeated at the Battle for the Hayholt; Seoman and Miriamele, the new king and queen, order their victorious armies to shadow the retreating Norns.

One of the enemy group is escorting the huge funeral cortege of one of their leaders, on their journey they become detached and trapped in the ancient fortress of Tangleroot on the frontier. As well as their dead lord, they carry a great magical artefact, a stone called the Heart of What Was Lost, one of the last relics of their ancient civilization. Soon the fortress is invested, the battle commences, and bloodshed and magic flow.

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On 4/3/2014 at 4:30 PM, Rill Redthorn said:

Based on GRRM's recommend, I tried to read this series, but got so bored halfway through the second book I ended up returning the trilogy to the library unfinished. Should I give it another try this summer? Williams just never seemed to be willing to move the plot along!

 

 

 

 

Am I the only one who feels this way?

 

No,

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some news here, regarding The Shadow of Things to Come:

(minor spoilers for that book)

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The Shadow Of Things To Come will feature the fall of Asu’a 500 years ago, told from the perspective of a Nabbanai envoy from the court of [Imperator Enfortis]. So we’ll see Asu’a before its fall, [and] probably witness Ineluki killing [the Erl King] Iyu’unigato…

 

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So from what I am reading , Shadow of Things to come will be a standalone that in terms of releases, is expected to follow Witchwood Crown. Any update on how far along he is with this second standalone? 3 releases in 2017 would be awesome.

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Nope it won't. Publication wise Shadow will follow the second book in the proper series, Empire Of Grass. So I would not expect it before 2019. He has not written a word of both of them so far and will start with Empire next month.

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20 hours ago, Calibandar said:

Thanks ylvs. I suppose we might tentatively say, or hope, that Empire of Grass comes sometime out in 2018.

I hope so, too. But we shall see. I'm content with getting two Osten Ard books in a single year, so if I have to wait a while for the next three, I'll be fine with that. But we won't have to wait too long: there's never much more than a couple of years between Tad-books.

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