The Books We Are Expecting in 2011

[Calibandar]

Cool. Odd they haven't updated for ADWD though. Maybe they're being cautious?

I expect that is because this new Locus list was sent out on March 1st, which was before Martin announced the release date. The forthcoming book lists always gets published in the monthly magazine first, and then two or three weeks later it appears online.

[Jussi]

Berkley Fall 2011 catalog (includes DAW and Ace):

http://booksellers.penguin.com/static/pdf/berkley-fall11.pdf

New American Library Fall 2011 catalog (includes Roc):

http://booksellers.penguin.com/static/pdf/nal-fall11.pdf

[pat5150]

C. S. Friedman's Legacy of Kings will indeed be released in September. The final manuscript has been turned in on time and it went through the editorial process. So there is no reason it should be postponed...

Got a copy of the file waiting for my attention. Can't wait to see how it will all end! :D

Patrick

[Mjolnir]

And now, in a turn to the extremely discouraging and annoying, we have the news that Ian Tregillis's second Milkweed novel, The Coldest War, will not be coming out in October this year. Due to a series of unfortunate events not his doing, which seem to amount largely to people involved at his publisher [Tor] doing absolutely fuck all for the Milkweed books over an extended period -- including but not limited to allowing the second novel to sit unedited for near as long as it took George R R Martin to write A Storm of Swords -- Coldest War can now not come out on revised schedule. Sounds like there was no malice involved and everyone is genuinely very sorry, but it's still kind of sucky.

Look, I can't do links from here, and I'd quote it but it's quite long and it's one of those things where it's probably best if bits of it aren't read out of context. But go to Tregillis's blog [the url for his site is his name .com]; he does a very complete and thorough breakdown of what went wrong and how there's still hope we'll see The Coldest War in a strong final state, albeit in 2012.

[Werthead]

Sounds like there was an editorial screw-up at Tor. Melinda Snodgrass's Edge books have also been affected, by the look of it.

[Mjolnir]

Yeah, editorial screwup is certainly what it sounds like based on what Tregillis wrote. Very disappointing, but hopefully the worst is over now, as Tregillis has changed editors in a wholly amicable fashion [still within Tor, so they'll still publish the series] and it looks as though things might be looking up for the Milkweed books. Hope so, as Bitter Seeds was excellent. Would be great to see the eventual paperback of that book and the hardcover of Coldest War pick up a bit of a following. Both for themselves because they deserve it and because Tor's developed what looks from outside like a very mild but noticeable habit over the last couple years of picking up fascinating novels/series [Daniel Abraham, Elizabeth Bear, Tregillis, Snodgrass, edit: and Beth Bernobich's Erithandra books, I've just been reminded; this is ridiculous] and then kind of going "ah fuck it" and leaving them out in the cold when they fail to take big immediately.

On another note: Night Shade Books has put a very generous, 15-chapter excerpt of Beaulieu's slavic-tinged fantasy-with-elementals-and-airships The Winds of Khalakovo up on their website in Epub and PDF, and I just finished it.

I like it [i mean, I finished a hundred-plus page excerpt]. This beginning sets up a dominant culture [focusing on the nobility] that's simultaneously very grand and powerful and in very bad shape, fighting holding actions against mysterious disease and the growing power of this other group that they oppress, [who seem to be the folk with the majority of the magic, though the dominant culture has magic of their own.] I'm not entirely clear on how the world works yet, which is as it should be because this is only the first hundred pages, but the descriptions do feel a little choppy and clunky occasionally. One minute it'll infodump, the next it'll bust out some magical thing without really explaining it. The prose also sometimes infodumps character emotion.

Said infodumps [of both the world-building and characterizational variety] and other wobbles are very minimal, however, confined to lines or short paragraphs, and the rest of the extract reads very smoothly. For every sequence that brings the fantasy elements into the spotlight that feels a little jerky there's one that comes off efortlessly and intrigues [particularly one involving immersing body parts in fire]. It stays focused on the immediate situation while managing to hint at the inevitable broader story. I'm not sure I love the main characters yet but they definitely have my attention, and even by the end of the extract are growing into a very interesting group to read about. By the hundred page mark the family dynamics are growing very interesting and tangled, [because a little dysfunction is always fun to read about.] What's shown of the culture and customs feels well-grounded, but different enough from the standard faux-medieval we always get pissed off at to really catch the reader's interest. [i'm no Slavic/Finish culture expert, know nothing about it, but there were a couple bits -- a steam-to-snow bath scene, and a dance sequence, that felt very much inspired by cultures in that part of the world; fascinating stuff to see in a fantasy novel.]

Some of Night Shade's marketing -- I think it was marketing, and not a review -- likened it to Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea, and granted marketing's job is to tell alluring lies but whoever wrote that was high; the styles are completely different; both books have islands and ships of some kind in them and that's about it. But Beaulieu's got a very cool start here, so far as I'm concerned. I'm definitely interested in seeing the whole book. Excerpt's probably long enough for pretty much anyone to figure out how interested they are in the whole thing so I encourage y'all to go thense to Night Shade's website and check it out.

[Calibandar]

I've read the whole blog post from Tregillis. Clearly there is only person to blame here, that being the editor who simply didn't do his job, but since he fully owned up to it and called himself a total fuck-up, well I guess there isn't much point in talking about it anymore. Unfortunate for Tregillis, but chin up, and move on.

[beniowa]

I saw the bit about Tregillis, which is a shame.

And apparently, Paul Kearney's Kings of Morning has also been delayed. Amazon is now listing it as the end of November, though I have no idea how accurate that is.

[red snow]

Richard Morgan posted he has finished "The cold commands". He says it still needs some editing etc but I guess it should be safe for coming out before the end of the year.

[Jussi]

Tor fall 2011 catalog has been revealed:

http://edelweiss-assets.abovethetreeline.com/MM/pdfs/Tor%20Fall%202011%20noMP.pdf

There is no sign of Ken Scholes' Requiem or Anthony Huso's Black Bottle.

Here are some blurbs:

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

A new Mistborn novel by the #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds.

Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history — or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice.

One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will.

After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax has been forced by family tragedy to return to the metropolis of Elendel. Now he must reluctantly put away his guns and assume the duties and dignity incumbent upon the head of a noble house. Or so he thinks, until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.

The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge

At last, the direct sequel to the Hugo Award–winning bestseller A Fire Upon the Deep!

Ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one hundred children who were in cold-sleep aboard the vessel that brought them.

While there is peace among the Tines, there are those among them — and among the humans — who seek power…and no matter the cost, these malcontents are determined to overturn the fledgling civilization that has taken root since the humans landed.

On a world of fascinating wonders and terrifying dangers, Vernor Vinge has created a powerful novel of adventure and discovery that will entrance the many readers of A Fire Upon the Deep. Filled with the inventiveness, excitement, and human drama that have become hallmarks of his work, this new novel is sure to become another great milestone in Vinge’s already stellar career.

Ganymede by Cherie Priest

The third book in the Clockwork Century series, following Cherie Priest's steampunk adventure — and runaway hit — Boneshaker and its sequel, Dreadnought

The air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he’s happy to run alcohol and guns wherever the money’s good, he’s not sure the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side effects. But reforming is easier said than done: the captain’s first legal gig will be paid for by sap money, because the Seattle Underground is in dire need of supplies.

New Orleans is not Cly’s first pick for a shopping run. He loved the Big Easy once, back when he likewise loved a beautiful mixed-race prostitute named Josephine Early, but that was a decade ago. He’s still on Jo’s mind, he learns when she sends him a telegram about a peculiar piloting job. It’s a chance to complete two lucrative jobs at once. He sends his old paramour a note and heads for New Orleansl, with no idea of what he’s in for — or what she wants him to fly.

But he won’t be flying. Not exactly. Hidden at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain lurks an astonishing war machine, an immense submersible called the Ganymede. This prototype could end the war, if only anyone had the faintest idea of how to operate it… if only they could sneak it past the Southern forces at the mouth of the Mississippi River… if only it hadn’t killed most of the men who’d ever set foot inside it.

Now the only question is whether Cly and his crew will end up in the history books, or at the bottom of the ocean.

Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright

The first book in an all-new space adventure!

John C. Wright burst upon the SF scene a decade ago with the Golden Age trilogy, an innovative space opera. He went on to write fantasy novels, including the popular Orphans of Chaos trilogy. And now he returns to space opera in Count to a Trillion.

After the collapse of the world economy, a young boy grows up in what used to be Texas as a tough duellist for hire, the future equivalent of a hired gun. But even after the collapse, there is space travel, and he leaves Earth to have adventures in the really wide open spaces. But he is quickly catapulted into the more distant future, while humanity, and Artificial Intelligence, grows and changes and becomes a kind of superman.

[Mjolnir]

Thanks for posting the catalogue, Jussi. Interesting read as always.

It's not as strong a catalogue as Tor usually offers though, for my personal money. Certainly they seem to be trying some new stuff, what with having several manga / graphic novels on the list that look interesting, and Rudi Rukker's autobiography, but the backbone of it, the fiction ... I dunno, I usually find myself sitting up and going "ooh" a bit more than I did this time. I mean, the Sanderson and the Priest are both very cool and I'll probably read them, and Vinge's The Children of the Sky is an event obviously and will probably prompt me to read A Fire Upon the Deep at last. But outside of that...

-- Even though we've already hashed out the Ian Tregillis issue it was disappointing to see just how many series continuations which might have been expected to appear are missing in action. There's Tregillis's Coldest War of course, and as Jussi points out Huzo's Black Bottle and Scholes' Requiem [though is that done? I know Scholes' writing pace had slowed for a while for very good reasons, so this one might just be one of those unavoidable things that happens and not Tor's fault.] Beth Bernobich's [completed] Queen's Hunt is also absent, as is Felix Gilman's Half-Made World sequel -- though again that might just not be done. I was also looking forward to reading more about this debut, called Unwrapped Sky by a guy named Rjurik Davidson, which sounds like epic fantasy but with some quite unique concepts powering it, which was supposed to be a fall release from Tor. Ah well, perhaps in the spring.

-- Good to see a new Jay Lake novel on the list, Endurance, sequel to the massively-problematic-but-good-hearted fantasy Green. I'll approach, but with caution. This sf novel The Highest Frontier -- can't remember the author's name, sorry, and loading the catalogue on this damn machine takes forever -- also looks potentially cool; I'm a sucker for intricate future society and, yes, for speculative school environments when done extremely well, so I'll be looking out for that. And Lev A C Rosen's steampunk debut, All Men of Genius, sounds potentially interesting; I have yet to find the book that really "does" a speculative version of Victorian London for me, despite how many try; perhaps this'll be it.

-- I see Tor's moving Marie Brennan's historical fantasy with fey series into hardcover with the new book, With Fate Conspire. I read the first one, Midnight Never Come, and found it just okay; anyone read later books in the series and if so do they improve? Maybe I need to look into this new one.

[Dr Adder]

looking forward to

The Burning Soul by John Connolly

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

[Jussi]

it was disappointing to see just how many series continuations which might have been expected to appear are missing in action. There's Tregillis's Coldest War of course, and as Jussi points out Huzo's Black Bottle and Scholes' Requiem [though is that done? I know Scholes' writing pace had slowed for a while for very good reasons, so this one might just be one of those unavoidable things that happens and not Tor's fault.] Beth Bernobich's [completed] Queen's Hunt is also absent, as is Felix Gilman's Half-Made World sequel -- though again that might just not be done.

I don't know if Scholes has finished Requiem. Other "missing" books include:

A King in Cobwebs by David Keck (I wonder what happened to this one)

Curse of a Dark God by John Brown (not yet done)

KOP Killer by Warren Hammond (total mystery)

Working the Gods' Mischief by Glen Cook (I believe this is finished)

[Stego]

The main problem at TOR is their editors are a bunch of jackasses. Jim Frenkel is well established as an asshat, and I've always thought the Neilsen-Haydens were giant fuck-wads too. The Tregellis thing proves that quite well, IMO.

Go edit some more Goodkind, Patrick.

[pat5150]

And apparently, Paul Kearney's Kings of Morning has also been delayed. Amazon is now listing it as the end of November, though I have no idea how accurate that is.

Just heard back from Paul, and Kings of the Morning has indeed been pushed back to next fall. He says it has nothing to do with the new GRRM, as some people suspected...

Ah Stego... How I miss your blogging! :P

Patrick

[Werthead]

I thought Frenkel edited Goodkind?

Kings of Morning's delay is a pain in the backside, but it's probably a healthier place than just five days before ADWD, which is where it was previously. I have no doubt KoM would do well in the long run, but first-week sales might have been affected by people preferring to drop £25 on the new GRRM instead. And no, I don't think that's the reason for the delay ;)

[duchess of malfi]

Is there any word at all on the second half of Emma Bull's duology that started with Territory? Seems like it has been a while... <_<

[Mjolnir]

Keck, ... oh, wow, I'd forgotten about that completely. Yeah, wonder what happened.

I just dug the copy of Wizard's First Rule a friend gave me years ago out of a cupboard, and the copyright page definitely says edited by James Frenkel. Did Frenkel at some point say "fuck this, I'm off" and pass Goodkind over to Nielsen Hayden? [Oh, and according to said copyright page The Yeard drew his own maps.]

I know editors only by the work they edit, and James Frenkel [Goodkind aside] edited Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet and I believe he's the editor of Sarah Monette's forthcoming novel so as far as that goes he's alright with me, but having never been to conventions etc as Stego has my experience of him doesn't go beyond the works his editorial hand's been on. I have some very limited experience watching Patrick Nielsen-Hayden interact with people online, and in that setting have, I admit, seen him be quite aggressive and rude and generally dickish.

Oh, and you know that Daniel Wilson book Robopocalypse that Spielberg's meant to be making into a big-ass movie? Well, Publishers Weekly thinks it's shite:

Roboticist Wilson (How to Survive a Robot Uprising) turns to fiction with this bland and derivative series of connected vignettes describing a rebellion by humanity's robot helpers. ... Steven Spielberg has optioned the property; perhaps the melodrama will play better on the screen than it does on the page. (June)

Hmm. Not a promising beginning, but I'll be interested to see what other reviews it gets.

[Mjolnir]

Sorry for the double post. Just saw this:

duchess of malfi, on 17 03 2011

Is there any word at all on the second half of Emma Bull's duology that started with Territory? Seems like it has been a while...

I've been waiting for this too, and so far as I know no there hasn't. However ...\

This latest Tor catalogue shows a new trade paperback edition of Territory coming out in December. Tor have, in the past, used tradeback reissues like this to raise the profile of a previous book in a series when the next one's coming relatively soon. Slim hope, but it makes me think that Claim might potentially, maybe, come out next year.

[Werthead]

I remember Goodkind once saying that he didn't listen to his editor's advice at all aside from one time when he put his foot down on an issue (in Faith of the Fallen, I believe) and Goodkind had to change one whole sentence. Goodkind was so furious that he later switched to another editor and reinstated the changed line.

We can take that with a gram of salt, but it does indicate that Goodkind did change editors at some point. I must admit I thought he was with Frenkel all the way through, based on some comments Stego made a few years back (from a Worldcon, I believe) where Frenkel was making some noise on a panel about how Goodkind had changed fantasy and being bullish about Goodkind being a good author. I may be completely misremembering that though.