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

[Drowned Crow]

Based on the apocalyptic title, I'm wondering if this series will concern the Unbeing which destroyed the Garden. When you also consider the western land that the people of Rimmersgard fled and lost Khandia, it seems like horrible things happen to continents in this world quite often.

[peterbound]

Ugh. I'm going to go back and try a re re read. Hope it's gotten better as I've gotten older.

[Shinrei]

Based on the apocalyptic title, I'm wondering if this series will concern the Unbeing which destroyed the Garden. When you also consider the western land that the people of Rimmersgard fled and lost Khandia, it seems like horrible things happen to continents in this world quite often.

That's an intriguing theory. I hope you are right. Because the last king of OA could just mean after Seoman there will be a democracy or something along those lines, does not mean it has to be apocalyptic ;)

[Galactus]

I always figured Unbeing was more of a state than an actual thing.

[Jiriki]

Also, Amaterasu mentions that she could feel the spray of the ocean, among other imagery of water, when talking about the sea trip. Still, she could be purposely obscuring the truth, and to be honest, the Sithi are so alien like that I wouldn't be surprised if they really were (of course, all that would apply to a advanced race of fairies as well).

Another possibility is that something was lost in the translation. Amaterasu and other Sithi are trying to communicate highly advanced concepts that in Simon's language they had no words for, so metaphors would have to work.

Excellent points. Indeed, there are several points at which the Sithi refer to things in terms that are difficult for humans to understand, or have difficulty with human concepts. Aditu has difficulty understanding why Simon calls the summer of Jao e-Tinukai'i "magic". Amerasu says the Westerling word 'haunted' describes the Sithi's situation better than any of their own words.

Also, Amerasu was actually born on one of the ships as it crossed the Ocean Indefinite and Eternal. Yet she also says at one point that she remembers the voyage, indicating that either newborn Sithi have very good memories or it was a very long journey (or both).

Based on the apocalyptic title, I'm wondering if this series will concern the Unbeing which destroyed the Garden. When you also consider the western land that the people of Rimmersgard fled and lost Khandia, it seems like horrible things happen to continents in this world quite often.

This post has been called out on the TW message board as interesting commentary. The Unbeing that destroyed the Garden is really one of those unanswered questions that I'd love to finally read.

Williams stopped by the board today and answered some questions, including the fact that he's already written three or four chapters, and the books will have Norns in them.

[kephv]

Excellent points. Indeed, there are several points at which the Sithi refer to things in terms that are difficult for humans to understand, or have difficulty with human concepts. Aditu has difficulty understanding why Simon calls the summer of Jao e-Tinukai'i "magic". Amerasu says the Westerling word 'haunted' describes the Sithi's situation better than any of their own words.

Also, Amerasu was actually born on one of the ships as it crossed the Ocean Indefinite and Eternal. Yet she also says at one point that she remembers the voyage, indicating that either newborn Sithi have very good memories or it was a very long journey (or both).

This post has been called out on the TW message board as interesting commentary. The Unbeing that destroyed the Garden is really one of those unanswered questions that I'd love to finally read.

Williams stopped by the board today and answered some questions, including the fact that he's already written three or four chapters, and the books will have Norns in them.

That they were on the ships for so long (must have been years) could be another hint that it's actually space she was talking about, else they're on a planet the size of Jupiter.

Anyway, about the books, Tad has said (got this from his forum) that we've already met the Last King in the previous books -- he didn't say who it was though. Also, the Norns will be a major focus of the books, similiar to how the Sithi were in MS&T (makes me think that Aditu's prophecy that the lands that no mortals have walked through before refers to Norn ones); and that one or two focal characters will be Norns. Not sure if he meant strict pov or similar to Aditu and Jiriki in MS&T, but if I had to guess I'd say the latter.

[mandred torgridson]

Good News!

I liked the original books and I am looking Forward to reading some slower paced Fantasy with classic vibes. In General I prefer the "modern" take on Fantasy with all the complex characters etc. but sometimes I love to read something more traditional with black and White, epic journeys etc.

MS&T has been one of the best in this vein

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

DC,

Based on the apocalyptic title, I'm wondering if this series will concern the Unbeing which destroyed the Garden. When you also consider the western land that the people of Rimmersgard fled and lost Khandia, it seems like horrible things happen to continents in this world quite often.

I've always thought "the Garden" sounded like another planet.

[SpaceChampion]

Perhaps it wasn't a space journey, but a journey through other "dimensions", and the Sithi had to travel through a billion dimensions to get to one containing someplace habitable. The "ocean spray" might be intrusion of other dimensions into the ship's bubble of reality. Unbeing could be the collapse of their original dimension.

I read MS&T in the '90s during uni when I caught the worst flu I've ever had. My one bedroom student apartment on the 18th floor had suicide windows, meaning windows that opened really wide and if you got up on a chair to reach the shelf above them for cereal or a can of soup, you could fall straight through them without touching anything. I consider MS&T as possibly having saved my life by keeping me in bed reading instead of looking for lunch while delirious with the fever and not paying attention to whether the window was open or closed.

[Drowned Crow]

I've always thought "the Garden" sounded like another planet.

I just don't see that making sense. Why would the Niskies, who are deeply attached to the ocean, be so upset about the Sithi preventing them from continuing in their journey after arriving in Osten Ard?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

DC,

I don't know. Why are they upset about beimg limited to Osten Ard's sea when they do get to travel it? Perhaps because rhe sea they long for was something much more vast and less easily traveled that needed incredibly specialized ships, like space itself,

[Crazydog7]

MST was the first epic fantasy I read I think I might have been 14? Anyway its like what people used to say about war moments of extreme tedium broken up by moments of sheer terror. When it works it really works but more often then not it follows Simon as he walks from place to place to call it a fantasy traveloge is insulting I've actually read traveloges that were better at holding my interest. I read book one skipped book two and went right to book three and I don't feel like I missed anything.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

CD,

You did. You missed Simon's enire visit to the home of the Sithi.

[Olaf]

Interview with Tad about returning to Osten Ard

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2014/04/tad-williams-interview-on-returning-to-osten-ard.html

[Calibandar]

I'm interested in finding out when the 1st one is coming out. I've got to think the first one will at least come out next year.

[Arataniello]

Locus are usually pretty good at keeping their list of forthcoming books up to date, based on all latest news. The current listing does not show the first volume in the new Osten Ard trilogy coming out this year, and given that TW has a couple of harcovers slated for release in 2014, I think that pretty much means 2015 at the earliest.

http://www.locusmag.com/Resources/ForthcomingBooks.html

[Alytha]

Very happy about this :)

MS&T was one of the series that made me fall in love with the fantasy genre. Yes, it is sometimes a bit slow, but even on rereads I've really enjoyed it. (with the possible exception of Simon erring around under the Hayholt in the dark for ages). And I looove the Sithi. I could read descriptions of them and their cities for hundreds of pages. I hope the new books will have Sithi :)

Concerning their origin, I've always assumed that it's like the Tolkien elves, that came from a place not quite in the same world. Never seen them as space aliens.

[Calibandar]

Locus are usually pretty good at keeping their list of forthcoming books up to date, based on all latest news. The current listing does not show the first volume in the new Osten Ard trilogy coming out this year, and given that TW has a couple of harcovers slated for release in 2014, I think that pretty much means 2015 at the earliest.

http://www.locusmag.com/Resources/ForthcomingBooks.html

Yeah in the interview Olaf linked to Williams says he thinks of Fall 2015 for the first book.

[Shryke]

Concerning their origin, I've always assumed that it's like the Tolkien elves, that came from a place not quite in the same world. Never seen them as space aliens.

Yeah, the book is actually fairly clear on it being water they are crossing.

However, like alot of the geography beyond the horizon of Osten Ard, there's something decidedly mystical about the whole thing. There's a sense of the land changing, of things being connected to the land and a general supernatural element to the landscape in general. Even humans come fleeing ... something across the ocean and never hear from it again. Unbeing chasing both to the land or what, I don't know. Osten Ard is a really weird bubble with no contact with the outside. (although that could just be bad world-building)

An interesting sidenote to that is there's mention that the great plains to the east of Osten Ard where to some extent created by receding waters after the Sithi arrived, with the implication in part being somehow related to their not being allowed to return to the Garden.

[Alytha]

I've wondered if Shadowmarch and MS&T are somehow related...the humanoid Qar have a lot in common with the Sithi. Just leaves the question of what happened to the rest of the Qar.