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White-Luck Warrior X: X Marks the Slog


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For GRRM yes. But he's an exception. What I can tell you is that the time between handing in the manuscript for White Luck Warrior and it's actual US publication, was 11/12 months.

So in Bakker's case, if he manages to finish before the end of the year, a Fall release date is sadly the best that can be hoped for, which will make it 2.5 years since WLW was released.

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Not an expert on this, but grrm handed in the final thing on april 20th, which was 3 months before publication. I know this was superfast and most of the editing was already done, etc.. But isnt 1 year a bit on the long side?

I would think that summer is still possible. But i guess it depends how he deals with his new time schedule

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The turnaround time is largely out of bakkers hands regardless. If a publisher has a slot open it'll come out then. If not, he'll wait. He's not like Martin where he'll just get everyone to move things completely out of the way. He has to wait some.

And that can mean a year - or more.

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But to think that it’s only year 8-of-the-Darkness-that-Comes-Before.

Good point. But Bakker should realize there's only so much time to convince the Kingdoms of Men that the Non-God is due to rise and we must raise an Ordeal to New Jersey Golgotterath to stop this...

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Does he have a contract with a publisher to make the final books in the series after Unholy Consult? I remember that being a potential issue.

Don't think that that has been disclosed to anyone. I actually suspect that there isn't one, and that they look into that as they go along, reviewing sales and such. The reason I think there isn't one is:

1) Scott's lamentations on his blog, at least back when one could find a non-philosophy post, about sales, going to back to teaching andsoforth. It at no point suggests to me that his writing future has been secured beyond TUC.

2) I remember speaking with Penguin Canada a few years ago about when The Judging Eye would come out, and I got a reply from them there was no new Bakker book under contract at this point, and this was well post- TTT publication. This employee may have been misinformed though, or not, but again it sounds as if they review it as they go along.

I'd be happy for at least this last book in the trilogy to come out myself, that would be a sigh of relief. Similar to Winds of Winter.

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R. Scott Bakker is not your caste-menial.

In this case I think it is fair enough he is taking longer. He's had to start a day job again and he now has family committments.

With regards to contracts for the final two books - I'm sure it's fairly normal for them not be contracted until nearer the time (I was staggerred that Adrian Tchaikovsky's book 10 had only just been commissioned and that's when he was turning in book 9 of a series that was always proposed as a 10 parter).

I'm not sure what the working environment in writing in Canada is like but from authors I've met in the UK, you pretty much have to have a day job unless you hit big with a series (Abercrombie) or write enough books, screenplays etc to get by (Chris Wooding). While it's a crying shame that Bakker's series isn't big (and I'm convinced one day it will be) it doesn't surprise me that he can't make a living solely off the writing.

Hopefully he can adjust to the different approach and I'll be happy to wait longer for the books to eventually turn up.

Fingers crossed he considers self-publishing if he doesn't get a contract for the duology. Digital distribution should be relatively cheap and I'd hope there's enough of a fanbase to encourage him to finish.

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I think Wert had mentioned in the past that the UK sales were solid enough that they'll keep publishing the books. It's just the US publisher that has been troubling. If worse comes to worse (and Bakker decides to keep going), we can always pay to have the book imported.

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I think Wert had mentioned in the past that the UK sales were solid enough that they'll keep publishing the books. It's just the US publisher that has been troubling. If worse comes to worse (and Bakker decides to keep going), we can always pay to have the book imported.

To be fair, his books are on most shelves of bookstores in the UK. Maybe we have better taste or like alien attacks.

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It's just the US publisher that has been troubling.

I believe there have been troubles with the US sales of Neuropath and Disciple of the Dog (Tor/Forge), but not with the Second Apocalypse series (Overlook Press). Overlook wrote in the Winter 2011 catalog:

R. Scott Bakker's previous books with Overlook have sold over 125,000 copies
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That's good news, although it only averages out to 25,000 copies/book. Don't tie-in novels for genres like Warhammer have print runs like that for their paperbacks?

I'm not surprised about Neuropath and Disciple of the Dog. It took forever for the former to find a US publisher, and the latter bombed. As I've said before, I think Bakker should really stop trying to write thrillers, and should try his hand at writing a horror novel. He's got a gift for creating vividly horrifying imagery in his books, and he could probably do the creepy sexualization in many horror stories with gusto.

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I took Neuropath to be a horror novel rather than a thriller. A Stephen Kingish thriller.

I think Bakker should read Kiernan's latest shorts collection. That's the style he should be aiming for, where the horror is [not] weighed down by lecturing.

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Bakker could easily do horror, based on some of the scenes in his 2nd apocalypse books.

I think a lot of authors would be happy to have warhammer 40K fiction sales. In the UK it is very healthy and rock solid in terms of sales according to one of their editors. I think they said they were selling at Abercrombie levels (although this was back when his third book had just come out but he was still the hottest thing on the block in terms of UK sales back then).

I'm not well versed in 40K but Bakker could probably fit quite well into that dystopian future and pseudo religion!

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I'm not well versed in 40K but Bakker could probably fit quite well into that dystopian future and pseudo religion!

I'm sure he could, but I very much doubt he would want to. Not enough intellectual/philosophical challenge. And there's hardly any sexuality (in the WH I've read anyway), so another theme he can't subvert. ;)

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Boy, this series has been a rollercoaster. From the dark days of TWP where I hated the books so much that I spoiled them for myself so I wouldn't have to worry about reading them to the awesomeness of TJE and now WLW where I could actually stand the characters.

I know that all topics for discussion have been exhausted for a while but I've just finished this book and I have a question that has been bugging me and I didn't see in the previous threads: What the fuck was Achaiman's plan?

Now, I get that Achaiman may not know that every Dunyain is like Kellhus, he may assume that it's something specific to Anasurimbors. But seriously, what the fuck was he going to do? Walk into the birthplace of Kellhus, potentially filled with other versions of him and just ask? Does he think that knowing is a defence? Cnaiur knew. Esmenet knew. Achaiman himself is only protected by the fact that he's a deranged, revenge-driven maniac but if he looked at things he might end up in the same predicament as Sorweel and Esmenet. How exactly does he expect to deal with Dunyain?

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