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Daniel Abraham's second thread


Werthead

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Thanks for the awesome summary. It's very encouraging to hear that SciFi is committed to making the adaptation genuinely good*, and that the authors are so involved and find it to be such a positive situation -- that's a lot of work they're doing with the production.



*I'm rooting for SciFi to work their stuff out, really I am, but it sounds like a couple of the shows that represent their beginning of this attempt to get their shit together still have major issues, so it's doubly nice to hear they're going so amazingly far beyond what's required here.



And could the word after Nemesis be "Games"? Pretty sure I've seen Nemesis Games as the title for book 5 mooted somewhere. Or have they changed it?



Also great to hear Cibola Burn is doing so well out of the gate [oh shit, there's a pun in there, I am sorry], and that the next one is going to be so kickass. It is really beginning to happen for The Expanse, isn't it? Now the same just needs to happen for The Dagger and the Coin!



I'd have thought Geder would actually be quite invested in whether people pronounce his name correctly. "OMG the g is hard why can't you pronounce my name why do you mock me so you must not love me you must think I'm incompetent why do you hate me and think I suck you must be a traitor die die immediately."


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REG, thanks for that. Can't wait for the TV show, especially given the level of creative control the authors seem to have over it...







In the Expanse Universe, they try to stick to actual physics as much as possible, but will break things in cases where the general public won't notice - this is their "smell test" or "wikipedia test."





This is actually one of the things I like most about the books - there's evidently been a lot of thought put into making them realistic without cramming them full of jargon. Little things like the whole treatment of acceleration/gravity in space and on space stations.



The entirely realistic assessment of humanity's colonisation of an alien planet in CB was probably my favourite thing about it - there's no need for terrifying super-predators or physically/mentally superior species, the most likely candidate for "kill all humans" would easily be microbes.


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Am excited to get my hands on Cibola Burn followed by Widow's House later this year. Really wish they were coming to Joe Beth in Lexington like George and Brandon Sanderson. :crying:

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can folks be careful with spoilers. Some of the comments are verging on it regarding "cibola burns". Not a problem yet but thought I'd mention it before it does.






Am excited to get my hands on Cibola Burn followed by Widow's House later this year. Really wish they were coming to Joe Beth in Lexington like George and Brandon Sanderson. :crying:





It's nice to get a double dose of fun in the SFF department every year courtesy of Dan and Ty.


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I got all of my first edition Long Price Quartet books signed, expect to see them up on ebay shortly. j/k that's never going to happen.

Until I got to the second sentence, I was afraid I was going to have to revoke your nerd card. :P

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I'm glad everybody enjoyed my poor recap of an awesome event. Seriously, if there's any chance you can attend one of these, do it - you won't regret it. #6 above were my words not theirs btw.






Great summary there REG :)



A total of 9 books - this should keep syfy busy for many a season if they deliver what appears to be promised.



Also think it's great that fans and authors enjoyed the fact they had time to have a proper chat. Like you said it could be one of the last chances we all get. It's a lot harder to do that when there's a queue of several hundred.





There were literally only like 12 of us there, and one of them was Dan's friend and fellow author Carrie Vaughn (the only woman :lol:). The last two signing events I went to were Neil Gaiman and Martin - each of which was cut off at 1000 people. This was great and such a different experience. I doubt they'll be pulling a thousand people next year, but 150-300 is definitely realistic (or two years depending on when the show is released).






Thanks for the awesome summary. It's very encouraging to hear that SciFi is committed to making the adaptation genuinely good*, and that the authors are so involved and find it to be such a positive situation -- that's a lot of work they're doing with the production.



*I'm rooting for SciFi to work their stuff out, really I am, but it sounds like a couple of the shows that represent their beginning of this attempt to get their shit together still have major issues, so it's doubly nice to hear they're going so amazingly far beyond what's required here.



And could the word after Nemesis be "Games"? Pretty sure I've seen Nemesis Games as the title for book 5 mooted somewhere. Or have they changed it?





When they were talking about how they decided on SyFy, they talked about how the former head of the network loathed science fiction and the fans of science fiction even more. It sounded like that was information they got directly from the people with whom they're working at the network.



It might have been Nemesis Games, but that doesn't feel quite right to me. That was the one thing during the signing that I thought I really wanted to remember, repeated in my head a couple of times even, and poof, it is gone. :lol: If you've seen that elsewhere, then it probably is correct. It's been their tentative title for awhile now according to Dan, and "we're keeping it" according to Ty.






REG, thanks for that. Can't wait for the TV show, especially given the level of creative control the authors seem to have over it...





This is actually one of the things I like most about the books - there's evidently been a lot of thought put into making them realistic without cramming them full of jargon. Little things like the whole treatment of acceleration/gravity in space and on space stations.






Ty talked about the Epstein drive a bit, and how it is based on a theory that potentially could work, but likely would not in actuality. And they'll never say what it is so that people could then poke holes in it. This is also the reason they never give dates in the book - they don't want people looking up planetary positions and poking holes for specific dates (even though they do look up and know those themselves). They also go through and strike out any specific time frame and make it more vague when they're editing.






Until I got to the second sentence, I was afraid I was going to have to revoke your nerd card. :P





;)


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Ty talked about the Epstein drive a bit, and how it is based on a theory that potentially could work, but likely would not in actuality. And they'll never say what it is so that people could then poke holes in it. This is also the reason they never give dates in the book - they don't want people looking up planetary positions and poking holes for specific dates (even though they do look up and know those themselves). They also go through and strike out any specific time frame and make it more vague when they're editing.

;)

Never noticed the lack of dates before but it's quite striking now you mention it. God, geeks are hardcore I can just imagine the whole "mars would never be that close to earth on that date - tearing me completely out of the story so I can no longer enjoy it". Then again there may be people trying to work out the date based on any comments as to where planets are in relation to one another.

Did they mention if the novellas will keep popping up in between the main series? I usually find them relatively fun,

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Never noticed the lack of dates before but it's quite striking now you mention it. God, geeks are hardcore I can just imagine the whole "mars would never be that close to earth on that date - tearing me completely out of the story so I can no longer enjoy it". Then again there may be people trying to work out the date based on any comments as to where planets are in relation to one another.

Did they mention if the novellas will keep popping up in between the main series? I usually find them relatively fun,

Yeah, nerds can be the worst. :)

They did say they're under contract for one (or two, I can't remember) more novella, but the odds that they write more are extremely high because they both really enjoy doing them.

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Yeah, nerds can be the worst. :)

They did say they're under contract for one (or two, I can't remember) more novella, but the odds that they write more are extremely high because they both really enjoy doing them.

We're all guilty of it given the right criteria. Funny how authors consciously avoid feeding them material though.

I'd like the novella to become more popular again - especially in the e-format. It's such a nice way to give a bit of background on a character or shed some light on an aspect of the series without having to force it into a book. A bit like a webisode I guess (which could be a neat idea for the show).

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I didn't realize it was only out in Hardcover. The OCD in me will have to come to terms with the fact it won't match on my shelf, or I'll have to wait. Hmmmm...

:dunno:

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I didn't realize it was only out in Hardcover. The OCD in me will have to come to terms with the fact it won't match on my shelf, or I'll have to wait. Hmmmm...

:dunno:

My collection is a bit of a mongrel one anyhow. First is trade, 2nd digital, 3rd likely to be digital and 4th hardback. The collector in me thought having a first edition may be worthwhile with the show on the horizon. That and the fact I could get the physical copy for the same price as the kindle.

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I didn't realize it was only out in Hardcover. The OCD in me will have to come to terms with the fact it won't match on my shelf, or I'll have to wait. Hmmmm...

:dunno:

Let me make it even worse for you - the large print on the spine for the first three books is the name of the book, for the new one James S.A. Corey is the big print with the name in very small print.

Dan pointed that out when somebody asked about it being in HC only. Then he said wait until next year, when the front will probably have The Expanse ready big at the top then James S.A. Corey then Nemesis Games at the bottom and a picture of the cast instead of the lovely covers they have now.

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Let me make it even worse for you - the large print on the spine for the first three books is the name of the book, for the new one James S.A. Corey is the big print with the name in very small print.

Dan pointed that out when somebody asked about it being in HC only. Then he said wait until next year, when the front will probably have The Expanse ready big at the top then James S.A. Corey then Nemesis Games at the bottom and a picture of the cast instead of the lovely covers they have now.

Haha, I notcied that. It looks weird sitting next to the others.

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Let me make it even worse for you - the large print on the spine for the first three books is the name of the book, for the new one James S.A. Corey is the big print with the name in very small print.

Dan pointed that out when somebody asked about it being in HC only. Then he said wait until next year, when the front will probably have The Expanse ready big at the top then James S.A. Corey then Nemesis Games at the bottom and a picture of the cast instead of the lovely covers they have now.

Don't forget the fact it will have the actors on the cover!

Joe Abercrombie spoke about this at a signing once and said ultimately it's a good thing when the Author's name becomes larger than the Book's title as it means the author sells enough to be the main point of advertising. So the good news is that the publisher will probably keep publishing that author's books.

I've started to treat it as a nice thing - I can see the author's increasing success as I look along the shelf. It also means I was in there back when it was "indie" to like them :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finished CB tonight and really enjoyed it. Another stellar entry in the series. I really like the unique characters they keep introducing like Murtry. The constant interplay of themes in each book where the villain may even be right, from a certain point of view. I'm also a big fan of the mostly self contained narrative structure of each book so far.

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