Gormenghast Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 So that's the Orbit project: http://www.staffersbookreview.com/2014/05/kj-parker-a-glimpse-behind-the-curtain.html the hiatus came about because I’m embarking on a new project (for Orbit) which is several orders of magnitude more ambitious (and scary and nerve-wracking) than anything I’ve attempted before, and I had to have more than one go at the first part of it before it was fit to see daylight And now: It’s a sequence of novels—I’m writing it in novel-length chunks of around 150,000 words—and at the same time a pearl necklace of consecutive novellas How many of these "chunks", because if the whole thing is 8 parts then I doubt it's 150k each. That would be definitely "epic" sized. 1 million words is roughly equal to 2500 pages... Or it might mean that the 150k are split across 8 parts, and so that it goes on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Moody Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Or it might mean that the 150k are split across 8 parts, and so that it goes on? I suspect that's what it means. There are approximate print lengths for the first three parts of The Two of Swords on Amazon's product pages, and they're 87, 51, and 75 pages. Some of the recent publicity mentioned the ending not having been fully written, which seems unlikely if the last part is only six months away. The theory on Parker being Kim Holt is discussed here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gormenghast Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Yeah, it's likely a 300k thing, split in two. And then split in four each. So each of the eight is roughly 35k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Moody Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 I don't think so. Unless Orbit is using very close and tiny print for these estimates, 35K apiece would translate to higher page counts than that. 150K is probably the total for all eight parts of The Two of Swords, with the next chunk possibly having a different title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gormenghast Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Not too convincing. A 150k book is roughly 400 pages, or slightly less. So when all 8 parts are published you have, like, a book of 375 pages with "many viewpoints". That's not enough space for a story where you really have a number of POVs. 300k would look more reasonable to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Moody Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 The problem is still the page counts. 87+51+75=213, and 3/8 of 300,000 is 112,500. Which would equal a ridiculous 530 words per "page." More, actually, since some of those "pages" are probably mostly empty front and back matter. As I said, I don't think the eight announced parts are the whole of this project. (They may just be what's close enough to release to be open to pre-orders.) It sounds like there's a viewpoint shift with each part, after all, and eight is hardly a lot of viewpoints by epic fantasy standards. Plus the "pearl necklace" metaphor: eight pearls is a pretty cheap necklace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gormenghast Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Well, then it doesn't convince me as a storytelling medium. Reading something like 47 pages a month for an ongoing story isn't going to be so "satisfying". Could you imagine reading something like ASoIaF that way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord of Rhinos Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 But the entire point is to avoid cutting back and forth, which is why Parker talks about novellas. It sounds like each chunk is meant to be a somewhat self contained story that shows a war from a different perspective. I just started reading my first Parker novel, the Company, the other day. So far it is...different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 Guest Post: K.J. Parker on The Two of Swords and the Merits of Serialization Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Moody Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 The first three parts are out. Based on the number of Kindle locations, part one is about 30,000 words, part two is about 15,000, and part three is about 25,000. But as Lord of Rhinos suggests, the parts are distinct sections of the story rather than arbitrary slices. I've just started part two. So far I like it a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Moody Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Parker is Tom Holt: http://www.pornokitsch.com/2015/04/interview-hello-my-name-is-k-j-parker.html. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgambino Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Parker is Tom Holt: http://www.pornokitsch.com/2015/04/interview-hello-my-name-is-k-j-parker.html.Very anticlimactic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendan Moody Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 It's what I was expecting despite not having paid much attention to the identity guessing prior to yesterday. The first-person narration in the historical novels as Thomas Holt is just so much like the first-person in Parker's short fiction. Honestly, the surprising thing to me style-wise is that Tom Holt and Thomas Holt are the same writer, if you see what I mean. Anyway, I've now finished the second part of The Two of Swords, and I'm already hooked. The POV shifts are used to great effect in balancing revelations with new mysteries. The structure suggests at least nine installments, by the way, and probably a lot more: twenty-odd, perhaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 KJP is male!!!!! :o I doubt that highly. Ya, i'm with you on that. hah! both of you were wrong! :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Hey. I can admit when I'm wrong. Although this might be some clever ruse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Yeah that's just...meh.I feel like a DC Villian who just found out Bruce Wayne is batman."He is? Oh yeah that makes sense I guess"I know some people are going to be pissed about the gender thing though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterOJ Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 I know some people are going to be pissed about the gender thing though. How so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearly Headless Ned Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 This enhances Holts standing as a writer of note (not that he wasn't well regarded before of course). What are peoples feelings on him as a writer now that there's all this extra body to his, errm, body of work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Selig Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 I have no idea who Tom Holt is, so kind of "whatever" reaction from me. Why were so many people convinced Parker must be a woman, BTW? Surely not because of the books and stories themselves, since from what I've read 98% of the important characters are male. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterOJ Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 I have no idea who Tom Holt is, so kind of "whatever" reaction from me. Why were so many people convinced Parker must be a woman, BTW? Surely not because of the books and stories themselves, since from what I've read 98% of the important characters are male. I never really understood that either. I always thought his books read much more like something that came from a male author. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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