Some Aspect Emperor news-S. Bakker

[unJon]

Just got an email from the Admin on the Three Seas forum...makes it sound like we could be waiting awhile still....

I know we don't do this all that often, but I wanted to send you all an email to let you know that we've just started a new forum here at Three Seas Online for speculation about R. Scott Bakker's next work set in the Three Seas. Entitled The Great Ordeal, it should be out sometime in the next year or two, and there is beginning to be some chatter about it.

So if you've got something to say, drop on by.

Sovin Nai,

Administrator

[Zadok]

I hope that he stays with Overlook Press for his US books. They did such a kick-ass job with keeping the coverart the same as Canada and putting out a great quality trilogy in hardcover. Definetly looking forward to this release.

I got the US version of the first two books and they both had the lame "castle walls and face in a circle" covers.

[Jussi]

Little, Brown Book Group has the same synopsis of The Great Ordeal as Amazon:

http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/search/bookde...78&Source=3

[DrBloodmoney]

I got the US version of the first two books and they both had the lame "castle walls and face in a circle" covers.

You bought the orbit paperbacks... they look shitty. These are the Overlook hardcovers released in the States:

tDTCB

tWP

tTT

[Zadok]

You bought the orbit paperbacks... they look shitty. These are the Overlook hardcovers released in the States:

tDTCB

tWP

tTT

They're the trade paperbacks and Overlook put them out. I got the trade paperback canadian version of the last book as well and Penguin gave it the "good" cover.

[DrBloodmoney]

They're the trade paperbacks and Overlook put them out. I got the trade paperback canadian version of the last book as well and Penguin gave it the "good" cover.

Yup. You're right. I hate when they change the coverart from the hardcover. Especially when the hardcover coverart is so great.

Hopefully they go with good coverart for the hardcover release of AE.

[Calibandar]

Got another reply from Penguin Canada:

Good afternoon,

Penguin Canada lost the rights to this book, the rights have now gone to

Overlook in the U.S., sorry we are not aware of any Canadian publisher.

Regards

Penguin Canada

So it seems there is no Canadian publisher at all. No chance of the cool Canadian editions coming out anyway, and that's a shame, I wonder how this happened?

So sofar it will only be published " sometime" in 2008 by Overlook in the US, who as far as I know do not publish in Canada.

[Caligula_K]

Got another reply from Penguin Canada:

Good afternoon,

Penguin Canada lost the rights to this book, the rights have now gone to

Overlook in the U.S., sorry we are not aware of any Canadian publisher.

Regards

Penguin Canada

So it seems there is no Canadian publisher at all. No chance of the cool Canadian editions coming out anyway, and that's a shame, I wonder how this happened?

So sofar it will only be published " sometime" in 2008 by Overlook in the US, who as far as I know do not publish in Canada.

Not much to say except that this sucks in about every possible way.

[Spring Bass]

I actually don't mind the Trade Paperback cover (although it isn't as good as the hardback, it still is fairly cool-looking), what does it mean that Penguin "lost" the rights to the book? Did Overlook somehow underhandedly get them?

[Larry.]

Perhaps this is a question that Pat can ask Scott in the upcoming interview - publisher rights and cover art?

I need to search for that email address - new compy and all due to a fried old computer means all sorts of lost files...and email accounts.

[Calibandar]

Word on the US release from Overlook is that the book will come out in August 2008. Which is a good deal later than the March UK release obviously, so I can imagine US readers getting it from overseas.

[DrBloodmoney]

Word on the US release from Overlook is that the book will come out in August 2008. Which is a good deal later than the March UK release obviously, so I can imagine US readers getting it from overseas.

I'll be waiting for the overlook edition most likely. They're one of my favorite imprints and they always have very high quality hardcovers -- hopefully they have decent coverart.

[pat5150]

Don't despair, for I should have copies for you guys to win!

Patrick

[Jora]

Have you been in any contact with Scott, Pat? Has he received the interview questions?

[pat5150]

Have you been in any contact with Scott, Pat? Has he received the interview questions?

Yes, I replied that he would get to them as soon as possible. . .

So I'm now waiting for Erikson, Bakker and Lynch to get back to me with their answers. And let's not forget Peter F. Hamilton and David Anthony Durham.

All in all, a couple of interesting interviews on the way!

Patrick

[Bastard of Godsgrace]

Neuropath is now listed on Amazon.co.uk:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neuropath-Scott-Bakker/dp/0752891510

[Larry.]

Hey Pat (sorry if it sounds like I've been following you over three different boards, but it happens when wotmania is down for hours ):

Could you PM me here or NB me at wotmania the full list of questions that were submitted? I'm curious to see what you, Rob, and Neth came up with it and to see if mine were the worst of the lot

[Calibandar]

If you wasted his precious Internet time by asking him the monkey question again then yes, they would have been

As long as Pat's asked him the questions we listed here in the other thread a while back we should be fine.

BoG, that's interesting, May 2008 for Neuropath then.

Synopsis fot those who don't want to be linked:

Tom's life is not what it once was. His marriage to the beautiful Nora is on the rocks and he now sees his two young children only on her say so. His best friend - and best man - Neil has moved away to California to teach neurology and he barely sees him. He has one successful book - on human psychology - but he now wiles away the time trying to teach bored grad students things that they are often not equipped to understand. But that all changes when Neil comes back into his life. For it seems that his best friend was no teacher - he was working for the US government, cracking the minds of suspected terrorists. But now it is Neil himself that has cracked and gone AWOL - what's more he has left behind evidence that he has been employing his unique skills on civilians - obsessed with the idea that he can control the human brain. Thus begins a terrifying sequence of events as Neil starts to kidnap and mutilate people with a connection to Tom. He damages their brains selectively and then releases them - often leaving them mad. But it is only when he gets near his ultimate target does he reveal the full horror of his plan...

[Larry.]

Such a serious, literal-minded person.

But if you want to see what I sent in for the questions, here ya go:

Despite being quite prevalent in our own society, drugs are rarely, if ever, mentioned in fantasy settings. What inspired you to have rampant drug use/abuse be part of Acacian society?

The cover of Acacia depicts chains in place of roots. What sorts of "chains" should we be looking for within the novel?

When writing Acacia, did you struggle much with the "voice" you wanted to convey, or did the limited third-person PoV come easy to you?

In writing Acacia, what elements of our histories came out strongest to you while writing it and later while revising the finished drafts?

Will we see any explication on "God-Talk" and on the Santoth in later volumes?

In the interview you did with Doubleday that was included in the review copies, you mention that Dariel is a revolutionary. In which ways can we see this developing in the first book?

There? Happy, prick?

[duckman]

Here's Peter Watts' take on Neuropath ( from http://rifters.com/real/2007/05/neuropath.html ):

I've just finished reading a draft of R. Scott Bakker's soon-to-be-released Neuropath. Holy shit.

The neurology of consciousness. The advantages of nonsentience. People neurologically stripped of their behavioral constraints so that they can make the necessary Big Decisions of life and death without getting caught up in touchy-feeling shackles like conscience and morality. All the major themes of Blindsight and a bunch of those from the rifters trilogy thrown in for good measure...

And does he stick them in a hard-sf spaceships-and-aliens chassis that only hardcore skiffy geeks will read? Does he locate his story in a future so close to the Singularity's event horizon that society itself has grown strange and forbidding to the average reader? Does he present his arguments through characters so twisted and specialised that most readers have no choice but to regard them as more alien than the aliens they encounter?

No. He sets it a mere decade into the future, in the context of a serial killer police procedural. Instead of aliens and freaks he uses sexy FBI agents and divorced psychologists. This guy is basically writing about Blindsight-type issues, but is aiming them squarely at a da Vinci Code audience. He is dealing with the same existential questions, but has rendered them accessible for beach readers. He has done exactly what I would have done, if only I'd been smart enough.

At least Blindsight came out first. I can cling to that. Because trust me: when Neuropath hits the shelves, it's gonna be "Peter who?"

I've only heard excerpts of the book, but I've been anxiously waiting for it ever since Scott first mentioned it. It's looking like next summer's going to be pretty good for spec. fic books, with Bakker's Aspect Emperor and Neuropath, Lynch's Republic of Thieves and novellas, Erikson's Toll the Hounds, and maybe even Rothfuss' next. Who knows, Martin might actually get ADWD published by then too!