Scott Lynch's THORN OF EMBERLAIN

[Jussi]

I don't think so. This new catalogue was released last week.

[banjax451]

It was missing from the Random House catalog that included the same time period that was linked in the forthcoming books thread a few months ago - that might be the one you were thinking of Darth.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Wasn't this scheduled to be published last September?

[Darth Richard II]

16 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Wasn't this scheduled to be published last September?

Yes, then Lynch got married and moved and it got delayed and there's been no news. Just news that there might be news.

 

24 minutes ago, banjax451 said:

It was missing from the Random House catalog that included the same time period that was linked in the forthcoming books thread a few months ago - that might be the one you were thinking of Darth.

Yeah that's what I was thinking of.

 

Hope we get an update soon.

[Calibandar]

On 3/9/2017 at 0:32 PM, 3CityApache said:

But This  post we were referring to, was made on February 9th... The update from March 1st wasn't so huge after all.

I'm just glad we got that huge update end of February or end of March. 

It really has clarified everything.

Positively Rothfussian.

[Darth Richard II]

7 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

I'm just glad we got that huge update end of February or end of March. 

It really has clarified everything.

Positively Rothfussian.

You talking about the joke update or did I miss something?

[3CityApache]

Well, the joke update was a result of a lack of the real one, which was earlier announced by Scott.

[Real Heir of Bear Island]

Last bit of actual news about the book I've been able to find was this:

http://gentlemenbastards.com/news-from-scott-thorn-of-emberlain-update-and-take-action/ 

 

Books seems mostly written but needs the ending flushed out, then editing. I doubt we will see it before January of 2018. 

Sanderson is finishing up his 4th/5th draft of a completed Stormlight 3. He will likely be done in early May and that book isn't schedule to drop until September. The point is if a completed book will take 5 months, and Lynch isn't even done with draft 1, we have sometime to wait. 

Oh Well, I've been reading lots of Jack Vance lately, plan to start re-reading the first two Stormlight books in the run up to the release of the third. Hopefully by then we have a Winds of Winter or Lynch or Rothfuss release date and I can start re-reading those in the run up to the respective release. Otherwise I willI give Erikson another go as I haven't been able to get through book 1. 

 

 

[Brother Longfoot]

So, I saw earlier today a sort of actual update in an interview Scott gave during Worldcon- http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/culture/14975-worldcon-75-interview-with-author-scott-lynch.html.

Basically, he thinks that he can complete it within the next 2 months and gives some details about the story and new characters.  From the description, I'm wondering whether Locke and Jean (and Sabbatha) will still be the most central characters.

Also, while I agree with a commentator on Reddit Fantasy (where I saw the story) that it was probably not the greatest idea of Scott to just abandon updating his Tumblr when he had promised lots of news, evidently the lack of updates is because of NDAs involved with the different things he alluded to.

So yeah, I'm still taking things with a grain of salt, but this makes me relatively optimistic that the book will be out by next year.

[JamieM]

I admire your optimism, but, seriously, don't hold your breath...

Lies of Locke Lamora was the book that reactivated my long dormant love of Genre fiction, it was that good. I read it in 2008 and Red Seas had also been released at that time, not as good but still fantastic, the world and characters just as vivid (missed the rest of the Gentleman Bastards though..) and I was positively rabid for the rest of the series, checking in weekly on the forums for discussion and progress, and then nothing for five years. My enthusiasm was drained by the time Republic of Thieves came out. I bought the hardback and still haven't read it, and it's because I know what is waiting for me when I do. Years of waiting, wondering, getting my hopes up (Sept 2016 is definitely happening..) to then have them dashed on the rocks. *None* of this is Scott's fault. I chose to start reading what I knew was an unfinished series with no prior knowledge about the author, his writing style and habits, and personal life. It should never be forgotten that the man dealt with, and probably lives with most days, a serious mental illness that will challenge every aspect of your life and frequently want it to end. This is hard enough, and I speculate, when you are working 9-5 in an office and still have a fixed routine that can give you some form of propulsion forward, and a necessity to socialise with the people around you, but when you are a writer, most likely working in isolation, constantly in your own head and own world, well.. I don't like to speculate how hard it is to even get out of bed, let alone find the discipline to be Stephen King and knock out six pages.

I guess my (verbose) point is, and this applies just as much to Rothfuss, I feel, that the latter of the above over-rides any feelings of anger or frustration towards the author on my part. It's like a friend who you keep trying to make plans with and they say they'll come out and never do.. eventually you have to move on and be ready to welcome them back if they ever come around, but in the meantime you make new friends and do other things. Unless many of the people writing in this thread, and the multitude of others that permeate the internet, about Lynch, Rothfuss, GRRM, JV Jones et al change their perspective they are doomed to a cycle of repetitive frustration and disappointment with a person that is incapable of giving them what they want.

They don't owe us updates either, they would certainly be nice, and are an important tool for marketing and maintaining a fanbase, but they know this and will still make their decisions accordingly.

I hope Scott Lynch can find genuine happiness and fulfilment in his life, and if he also publishes some more books that would be great too, but if he doesn't, there is always Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson, Daniel Abraham, Mark Lawrence, NK Jemesin and many others that will fit in with how often you want new books - make them your new best friends.

[Calibandar]

On 9/6/2017 at 6:42 PM, Brother Longfoot said:

So, I saw earlier today a sort of actual update in an interview Scott gave during Worldcon- http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/culture/14975-worldcon-75-interview-with-author-scott-lynch.html.

Basically, he thinks that he can complete it within the next 2 months and gives some details about the story and new characters.  From the description, I'm wondering whether Locke and Jean (and Sabbatha) will still be the most central characters.

Also, while I agree with a commentator on Reddit Fantasy (where I saw the story) that it was probably not the greatest idea of Scott to just abandon updating his Tumblr when he had promised lots of news, evidently the lack of updates is because of NDAs involved with the different things he alluded to.

So yeah, I'm still taking things with a grain of salt, but this makes me relatively optimistic that the book will be out by next year.

Good interview. As with GRRM, the conventions eat big chunks out the writing time and he at least admits it openly.

You can only look sceptically at the idea that he goes home and actualy finishes "Thorn" in the next 8 weeks as he's said similar things so often now. Hopefully it is really the case.

[Darth Richard II]

All the NDA talk makes me wonder if he's got something Star Wars related in the pipeline.

[Gaston de Foix]

1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

All the NDA talk makes me wonder if he's got something Star Wars related in the pipeline.

Maybe, although given the difficulties he is struggling with, why would he be offered or accept a book under contract with deadlines? 

[Darth Richard II]

3 minutes ago, Gaston de Foix said:

Maybe, although given the difficulties he is struggling with, why would he be offered or accept a book under contract with deadlines? 

Could be one of the ones based on the films? If he has to go from a screenplay I would thin that would be easier. Heck I Can see him writing the Han Solo movie tie in, that would be a great fit. (Which means they'll get some doof to do it).

[Vaughn]

The best, best quote from that piece that I wish 90% of writers would follow is this:

" The real question in worldbuilding is not how much can I dump on the page, but how much can I get away with not actually telling people? Because the alternative is to get this inelegant info-dumpy writing style, in which everyone who is meeting everyone else is taking extra time in their dialogue to explain what they’re doing." 

Neal Stephensen and GRRM are the kings of this. Great writers, fantastic imaginations and yet so liberated by their success that their writing is larded with too many details which pad out stories to unwieldily lengths. Tolkein wrote stories set in a deeply imagined world but he had the good graces to publish a lot of those backstories in other books. Nowadays authors seem to feel that if they've thought up a detail about just how some aspect of their world works, they are obligated to dump that onto the reader. And then to see top selling talents in the genre world publish these doorstops I think enables lesser writers to follow their lead and just info dump on the reader, to no-one's benefit. Read 'Nine Princes in Amber' or a Gibson book and deeply imagined worlds are being inhabited by the characters without having to detail every damn aspect. Oh, Amber trades with nearby shadows? Neat. I don't need to know more. GRRM or NS would probably take 50 pages to hash out every detail of the currency exchange or historical basis of the trade. Another example is Dune - a book of sweeping scope with copious details, but only as interludes or chapter headers to fill in key gaps in the readers knowledge. 

 

Tl:dr If Tolkein were alive today, I fear LoTR would actually be a 8 book series combing the Simarrilion, LoTR and all the other stuff. 

 

PSS - can't wait for the new Lynch whenever it arrives. Sweeping fantasy with a sense of fun and yet real stakes and loss is my jam. 

[Darth Richard II]

Eh I don;t think GRRM is that bad with the infodumps, but I read way too much 90s fantasy growing up so any book that doesn't open with a 100 page section about the awesome world and its races and magic system seems light on the info dumps to me.

[Vaughn]

11 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Eh I don;t think GRRM is that bad with the infodumps, but I read way too much 90s fantasy growing up so any book that doesn't open with a 100 page section about the awesome world and its races and magic system seems light on the info dumps to me.

Yeah how well it's done matters and of course personal taste but I remember growing up that there were many fantasy/sci-fi series where you didn't get the endless info dumps and yet the worlds seemed rich enough to be engaging. Pern, stuff from Fritz Lieber, Zelazny, even YA stuff like "Taran" - those were all pretty efficient yet engrossing books. Similarly, people could write an epic story in say 5 mid-sized books vs. the bloated stuff that gets pumped out now.

[banjax451]

On 9/11/2017 at 8:38 PM, Darth Richard II said:

Eh I don;t think GRRM is that bad with the infodumps, but I read way too much 90s fantasy growing up so any book that doesn't open with a 100 page section about the awesome world and its races and magic system seems light on the info dumps to me.

Same. If anything, GRRM seems light to me after that.  And after Anathem...  

Anathem is more or less "the infodump as novel."

 

On 9/8/2017 at 4:32 PM, Darth Richard II said:

All the NDA talk makes me wonder if he's got something Star Wars related in the pipeline.

That...that's an interesting thought. The change in direction and the extensive (still ongoing) reshoots would (maybe) explain a little bit if he was signed to write the Han Solo novelization. Maybe a longshot, but....

Still think it's more likely that the NDAs are on other things. A gaming world, perhaps. Something like that.

[Darth Richard II]

Really, 90s fantasy was infodump-tastic. Just thinking about some it makes me laugh.

[banjax451]

18 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Really, 90s fantasy was infodump-tastic. Just thinking about some it makes me laugh.

I just had an amusing thought about the opening chapter of Weis/Hickman's "Rose of the Prophet" trilogy. Yeah yeah...it was late 80s, not 90s, but the entire prologue/opening chapter was an extensive info dump explaining world/pantheon/magic system.