Cover Unveiled for The House of Discarded Dreams by Ekaterina Sedia

Vimbai moves into a dilapidated house in the dunes, trying to escape her embarrassing immigrant mother, and discovers that one of her new roommates has a pocket universe instead of hair, there is a psychic energy baby living in the telephone wires, and her dead Zimbabwean grandmother is now doing dishes in the kitchen. When the house gets lost at sea and creatures of African urban legends all but take it over, Vimbai has to turn to horseshoe crabs in the ocean, to ask for their help in getting home to New Jersey.

The House of Discarded Dream is one of those books it feels like I've been talking about forever. Ekaterina Sedia has quickly become one of my favorite Fantasy author as she is will to push things in new and sometimes strange directions.  The cover treatment this time around is gorgeous and steps away from the look of Fantasy books with more of a lit look that works for Sedia. I love the title font as well as the coloring of the imagery. The font is the same used on the recent reissue of The Alchemy of Stone from Prime Books.

The House of Discarded Dream is set for a November publication from Prime Books.

You Might Also Like:
REVIEW | Paper Cities Edited by Ekaterina Sedia
What is the Weirdest Book You've Ever Read?
MISHMASH | Table of Contents for Running With the Pack ed. by Sedia

INTERVIEW | Lou Anders Editor of Pyr

Lou Anders should need no introduction to the regular readers of this blog as his work as impresario of Pyr Books since its inception has been quite lauded as they are now celebrating their fifth year.  Anders has been nominated for numerous awards including the Hugo and Philip K. Dick as well as winning the Chesley Award for art direction.  He has also edited some well known anthologies such as Sideways in Crime, Fast Forward 1, and the forthcoming  Swords & Dark Magic and recently retitled Masked.

MH: Thanks for taking the time out to update us about your latest happenings.

LA: My pleasure.

MH: With Pyr celebrating its 5th anniversary this year it seems you are growing the imprint in many new and different directions. One of those seems to be Steampunk. Are you at all worried about doing too many Steampunk related books? I'm still a huge fan of the subgenre, but with Akers' The Horns of Ruin, Resnick's The Buntline Special, Clay and Susan Griffith's Vampire Empire, and Mark Hodder's Burton & Swinburne in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack it does seem like a lot. Plus George Mann's Ghosts of Manhattan just came out and Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt has elements of Steampunk as well. Do you feel Steampunk is that in and will be for years to come? Or do all these books just rock too much not to publish?

LA: No, Yes, and Yes. Or, to elaborate. We'll hit our 100th title around this coming September, with only the Tchaikovsky and Ghosts of Manhattan available then, so while it may look like a lot of steampunk coming down the pike, there are still plenty of alternatives in our list. We're also up to publishing over 30 books a year, so the books remaining aren't even that big a percentage of the overall. I've taken an oblique angle on steampunk too - the Tchaikovsky are really epic fantasy with hints of steam, in the same way that steam works its way into China Mieville's Bas Lag books. The Akers is, interestingly, what China has been calling noird, a sort of fusion of New Weird and Noir, and has elements of both epic and urban fantasy in there as well. Mann's book is 1920s New York, not Victorian England, and Resnick's is Weird West. The Hodder is actually the only Victorian steampunk of the batch. Though I should admit to having just bought The Society of Steam from Andrew P. Mayer, a duology about a sort of steampunk Justice League-type association of superheroes. So, okay, yes, there's a lot of steam coming, ahem, down the pipe. But we're also moving into vampire fiction, with Jasper Kent's Twelve and Thirteen Years Later and Clay & Susan Griffith's Vampire Empire series, werewolves with MD Lachlan's Wolfsangel and James Enge's The Wolf Age, and have just purchased our first YA title, Ari Marmell's Household Gods. You'll see more sword & sorcery in the fall with Sam Sykes Tome of the Undergates (as well as the Enge), more epic with the fourth book in Tchaikovsky's series, and, of course, we have Ian McDonald's next science fiction masterpiece out in a few months.

Now as to whether steampunk is "that in" - that is certainly the impression I get when I talk to B&N and Borders. But I'd say that rather than being a subgenre, we'll see it as a spice you can choose to add to the mix, as the Tchaikovsky books do, which is why I am perhaps interested in so much that touches on the edges without the Victoriana, which I was hesitant to approach head on. That being said, the Mark Hodder book just rocked too much not to publish. As did they all.

MH: You mentioned quite a few Pyr books in the pipeline, but the only Sci-Fi read mentioned was McDonald's new book. What other Sci-Fi is upcoming?

LA: Actually, I would argue that, although in fairness it may not be clear from our description, Mark Hodder's Burton & Swinburne in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is very much SF. The book is one of the best time-travel novels I've ever read, and the only steampunk novel I've read to explain the steampunk setting as the result of a very specific divergence between this world's history and our own. We also have Paul McAuley's utterly brilliant Cowboy Angels, about a secret branch of the CIA that are conducting Black Ops projects into parallel universes, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch is currently hard at work on the sequel to Diving into the Wreck.

MH: You mentioned Ari Marmell's Household Gods as your first entry into YA, but I read Finlay's The Prodigal Troll, which Pyr published a few years back and that definitely had a YA feel to it as well so this doesn't feel that far afield. I know some publishers end up putting YA books in the normal adult SFF section like Tor did with Zoe's Tale rather than YA. Do you know what kind of strategy you'll be taking with it? Was there anything in particular that drew you to this Household Gods?

LA: Well, first, it's early days here, and this is our first and only YA acquisition as of this moment, but we took it on with the expectation of publishing it in the YA section of the bookstore, not the adult section. It's too soon for me to discuss strategies though as to what drew me to it, Household Gods was actually submitted to me first, as an adult fantasy offering, and I fell in love with it, and Ari's writing style and imagination, but felt it was too short for the adult SF&F category. I asked him if he could expand it, and to his credit, he told me honestly that he could not. But I loved - loved! - his style, and let him know how much I'd like to work with him, so we put our heads together, he showed me five different proposals, and The Goblin Corps, a tale of an elite military force of orcs, goblins, trolls, kobolds, etc... in a Dark Lord's army, was the one I chose. He's just delivered that manuscript as of a few weeks ago - and it rocks! Meanwhile, I never forgot Household Gods, and then one day it hit me like a ton of bricks that with its teenage protagonist it really was a YA, and its word count wasn't problematic for that category either.

MH: What gets you excited about a new submission?

LA: Depends on how you mean. If it's excited *about* a submission, since I demand a few paragraphs synopsis before I agree to read, then there has to be a hook in the description that interests me. But if you mean, while I'm reading, which is how I think you mean it -- then its excitement itself. There's a great scene in the movie Ronin where DeNiro is going to an arms deal and says to his partner, "Remember, if there is any doubt, there's no doubt." That's how I read. If I am in a manuscript and I look up at my wife and say, "I am not sure what I think about this," she replies, "You don't like it. Put it down and move on." But if I am jumping up out of my chair to run tell her about it, and she says, "Hey, shouldn't you be reading it?" and I say, "But..but... you wouldn't believe what just happened?" then we know I am going to go after it. Whenever they survey kids about why they like Harry Potter the answer is always something like "because something happens on every page." Which I take to mean that people want their entertainment to, you know, entertain them.

MH: I've had similar things happen with my wife, especially when reviewing books. She'll say things like "I don't think you liked it much. You barely told me anything about it." Which is a bit of a check for me to get at what didn't click. Once you know you like a project enough to want to publish it what is the process? And without mentioning any specific titles do any of the projects you ever want to do get turned down?

LA: Once I want to go for a project, I call an acquisition's meeting, which is a phone conference where I will present 1 to 4 titles to my boss and a few other board members, discuss what the book is and why I want to go after it. I've only been turned down at this stage maybe four times in 100 books, which is a testament both to their trust in me but also that we've been a team for six years now and have a pretty good understanding of what it is we're going for with the line. Once approval has been given, I email or phone the agent with an offer and negotiations start. This is a boring, tedious process and not worth going into here. Then the book goes into production and we put an illustrator on the cover and the fun starts. Having been at this for six years now, I've obviously seen plenty of books that I either passed on or was outbid on come out from other houses (as has everyone). I'm very proud that when I've tracked their performance, I've been pretty accurate in my judgment as to how the books I've passed on would do, and also right about how good the ones that got away were.

MH: Do you have any particular pet peeves about submissions and manuscripts? Or any habits when reading them?

LA: I'm not quite sure if this is what you mean, but basically I require synopsis first before agreeing to read the manuscript, and I say "no" to a lot right at this stage. I take all my submissions as Word docs, and read on Stanza for iPhone and now iBooks for iPad. I tend to read either while walking or while in Starbucks.

MH: Are there any bad or over used tropes of genre fiction or are they just author tools to be twisted?

LA: There is nothing new under the sun. Nor are there any bad tropes. It is entirely in the execution, always.

MH: You've been quite busy on the anthology front lately with two really interesting line-ups. First you have Swords & Dark Magic, which looks to be quite an authoritative look at the Swords & Sorcery genre from the last 50 years albeit with all-original stories. And you also have With Great Power..., which is a awesome line-up of authors taking on superheroes in prose form. How did the process for selection and procuring the stories differ? Was it easier or harder to work with a co-editor as you are doing with Swords & Dark Magic?

LA: Thank you. When Jonathan Strahan and I set out to do Swords & Dark Magic, we wanted it to be a definitive look at today's S&S, and we feel we've really succeeded. With names like Abercrombie, Cherryh, Cook, Erikson, Keyes, Lee, Lynch, Moorcock, Silverberg, Wolfe, we feel like it really is a great mix of the masters and the new guard, and has every indication of being the book folks are expecting it to be. With Great Power... (which may be getting retitled for reasons you can probably guess at [retitled to Masked: see update here]), stands out for me in that apart from being a book of costumed heroes in prose adventures, the book actually boasts that 9 of its contributors currently write for DC or Marvel. We've got Mike Carey, Paul Cornell, Peter David, Gail Simone, Matthew Sturges, Bill Willingham, and others -- all names that are very well known to contemporary comics readers, which is something other super-prose anthologies haven't had. As to the process - anthologies can either be open read or invite only, meaning that you either have a reading period, during which you get a deluge of submissions and after which you pick the best, or you have a closed anthology in which the editorial discernment occurs at the level of who you invite. I do all my anthologies invite only. I couldn't possible read all the Pyr Books submissions and read short story submissions too, and I view anthologies as a change for me to both say something about the genre that I think needs to be said and to work with writers that I've always wanted to work with. So the process for both books was very similar, with the difference that I've never co-edited before, and I really enjoyed working with Jonathan. With the caveat that you should never say never, I'm not sure that I'll be doing too many more solo anthologies in future. I have some other projects I want to devote myself to for the immediate future - my own writing not least among them - but I really enjoyed working with Jonathan and we've left the door open for future collaborations between us.

MH: Does that mean we'll have some new Anders authored work to look forward to? So far all I've found is your story And How His Audit Stands in the The Clockwork Jungle Book, which was a hoot and a half. Any chance you're trying to do more with it?

LA: Thank you very much for that! No, that was a one-off. I have a swords & sorcery novelette that is out on submission right now though, which began bubbling unbidden out of me while I was (co)editing Swords & Dark Magic, which I hope to be the first of a planned series of at least five loosely-linked tales, maybe more. And I'm exactly at the half way point of a Young Adult urban fantasy novel that I plan to have finished and ready to shop by the end of the year. There is a short story related to the novel (and actually a sequel to it, though it was written first) that is also out on submission now.

MH: Sounds great. Did any of this have to do with your NaNoWriMo experience last year? How did it feel to push out 50,000 words in a month?

LA: Ah, well, basically early last year George Mann asked me for a fantasy short for the Solaris Book of New Fantasy series, and then did me an immense favor by not telling me that the project was off when Solaris went up for sale (else I never would have finished it). I used the opportunity to test the characters for the YA - they've been in my head for several years now - and wrote the story as occurring six months after the end of the novel. Though the anthology never came out, George and enough test readers were happy with the story that I was encouraged to tackle the novel for my NaNoWriMo. I have to say NaNoWriMo was one of the hardest experiences of my life, mostly for the strain it put on my family, who were very patient with me, and because I had not one but two convention appearances to make during the month of November (including a GoH spot at OryCon). I actually finished the 50k words at Friday night between 2am and 3am at the hotel room in Portland. I put it all aside, and have spent the time in between polishing the S&S short. I thought the NaNoWriMo results were all a jumbled, disjointed mess, but just read them through this past Sunday and was stunned to find that's only true of the last two to three thousand words. The first forty-eight thousand are actually pretty damn solid! My harshest critic (my wife) is currently reading through it now, and after I get her feedback I'm going to start in on the second half. So I have to say I found NaNoWriMo incredible beneficial, if an exhausting marathon. What was the most amazing to me was the way it forced you to write even when the tank was on empty, and related to that, how what came out at such times wasn't the garbage you would expect.

MH: Who is the dream author, living or dead that you've never had a chance to work with? And why them?

LA: As a kid, and after a huge Edgar Rice Burroughs kick, my two favorite authors were Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock. They defined fantasy for me far, far more than Tolkien ever did -- which is not to knock Tolkien, who was a genius. But I am much more of an S&S guy than an epic fantasy guy - I always responded to antiheroes, moral ambiguity, and reluctant protagonists no matter what the genre is. Childhood heroes were Batman (over Superman), James Bond, Spock (over Kirk), the Outlaw Josey Wales. As an adult, it's been my privilege to work with Mike Moorcock five times now, most recently with a new Elric story (!) for Swords & Dark Magic, and so it seems greedy to wish that I could have worked with Leiber too. But I wish that I had known about and involved myself in the convention world sooner than I did, so that I could have at least met him. Given that it was possible, it's actually a fairly big regret of mine.

MH: To go along with my other obsession what is your favorite type of hats? (or just your favorite hat)

LA: I wish that I looked good in hats, but sadly I look horrible in them. I even look bad in most baseball caps. This is doubly tragic given that I shave my head and frequently need sun-protection. I have found one baseball cap that I don't look utterly goofy in, and that's it. But I did have a huge hat collection at one time, which included cowboy hats, a Trilby of the style worn by Inspector Clouseau, and, of course, a Deerstalker (though Holmes never actually wore one). But I've a question for you - before the Batman: The Animated series cartoon reconciled them into one person, which of the two Mad Hatter villains was your favorite - Jervis Tetch or the red haired "imposter" from the 1980s?

MH: Honestly, the way DC handled the Mad Hatter character confused me at the times.  But I'd say I'm more of a fan of Tetch, since he was the real crazy one not being able to tell what is real and what isn't instead of just trying to control everyone's mind.  Although one of them had a monkey, which would sway me, but I can't for the life of me remember which one any more. I just recently read the first of Frank Beddor's Hatter M graphic novels and found the way he twisted Carroll's world really intriguing. The Hatter is a badass bodyguard to the Queen with knifes that sprout from nowhere.

Thanks for playing along. I'll let you play us out. Feel free to plug away.

LA: Plug you say? Well, everybody keep an eye out for Jon Sprunk's Shadow's Son, first in a fantasy trilogy about an assassin with the power to melt into the shadows who has an invisible girlfriend. Also forthcoming is Matthew Sturges's (of DC/Vertigo fame) next work, The Office of Shadow, which might best be described as Sandbaggers in the world of the Fae. For more, see: http://www.louanders.com/, http://www.pyrsf.com/, or Twitter @Pyr_Books.  On Facebook as "Lou Anders" and also at here.


You Might Also Like:
REVIEW | Swords & Dark Magic ed. by Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders
REVIEW | Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk
REVIEW | Midwinter by Matthew Sturges
REVIEW | Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann
REVIEW | Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky
INTERVIEW | Kristine Kathryn Rusch author of Diving Into the Wreck

BEA 2010 Show Rundown and Swag

I've been going to BEA of Book Expo America for the past few years. In many ways I've seen the show decline, especially with the abysmal third day last year.  This year BEA was moved to midweek with only two exhibit days.  I think this was a smart move for the show.  Energy on the floor was higher than I've seen it the past few events and the pace was quite frantic at times.  The aisles were especially clogged on Wednesday in not only the big publishers, but in nearly ever aisle I walked down.  Great to see this.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  On Tuesday I got in and had a lovely dinner at Crema in the West Village.  I highly recommend this place. A very good laid-back atmosphere and delicious drinks.  But it was the food I'll be remembering for weeks. I had their version of Peking Duck with mole sauce, which was outstanding and quite reasonable.  After dinner my wife and I went to Madame X's for the Steam Salon hosted by Liz Gorinsky from Tor.  I didn't get there until a little after 7 and was worried I would miss some of the festivities, but things were just getting rolling.  [some links go to photos as mine didn't come out well] This was a great venue for the gathering.  Something a little bigger might have been nice or a mic for the readers, but for the most part the readings went well. Before everything started I introduced myself to Cherie Priest who introduced me to Tor Steampunk aficionado Liz Gorinsky and Caitlin Kittredge.  All three were quite nice and nicely costumed for the event.

First up was Felix Gilman, who was much younger than I thought who did a short reading of The Half-Made World.  I was in the back of the room so it was a little difficult hearing the quiet Brit, but what I caught was good.  I also bought a copy of his Thunderer, which he signed for me and we discussed doing an interview.  Next up was Catherynne Valente who was dressed up Victorian style with bustle and all.  Catherynne was doing a reading from Deathless, which is her take on Steampunk coming from Tor in 2011. Quite intriguing. After this there was a brief break and I recognized Amber and Justin from Tor both of whom I've been corresponding with for a year now and we got to talking for a bit about this and that.  I learned Dot is leaving Tor and we all shared sad faces.

Up next was George Mann who enlivened the room a bit with his reading from his Newbury and Hobbes books.  At this point my energy and that of my wife was waning so we dashed out back to our hotel before Cherie's reading. This was just the first night of falling down.

Wednesday was the first exhibit day of the show.  There were long lines waiting to get in, but pushing was at a minimum.  Wandering around BEA is a bit of a trap.  If you ever go make at least a loose plan of Publishers to visit and signings to go to otherwise you'll likely not get there.  Don't forget comfortable shoes and bags with long handles to carry your booty.  They give away loads of nice bags as well, but it's always best to come prepared. And I know this goes against usual logic, but don't grab every book you see given away. Decide if it is actually something you'd remotely be interested in before absconding away.  There is probably someone else who'd enjoy that mystery more than you if  you don't read any.  I see so many people not even look at the title and throw it in a mountainous bag.

First I stopped by some of the big publishers to see what they had laid out for the taking.  My first find was Steve Martin's first full length novel An Object of Beauty that I hadn't even heard about.  I greatly enjoyed his two novellas Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company. The Shopgirl movie is one of my faves.  Martin is just as good at writing as he is at stand-up with moving and funny works.  My wife and I had split up and when we met up again it turns out she grabbed a copy as well so we gave the extra to a friend we ran into. I grabbed a few more galleys all of which are noted below and than I was off to Gilman's signing of The Half-Made World.  Cherie Priest was signing Dreadnought immediately after he finished so I wandered over to one of the author stages to kill time where a YA panel on Paranormal Fiction was going on with Richelle Mead, Holly Black, Ivy Devlin, and Andrea Cremer. It was a good discussion marred by some technical difficulties at the start, but I had to leave before it was over to get in Cherie's line, which by the time I got there was past the roped area. When I was finished it was still just past the ropes and they ran out of books before her allotted hour was up.  Goes to show you that being early is important for those must have books. Cherie is definitely going up in the world.   After the signings I went by some of the genre publishers to see what they had going on and to say hi to a few people I correspond with. I also stopped by Graphic Novel row where Todd MacFarlane was signing The Haunt.

Thursday was a bit more sedate in terms of people, but it was still pretty busy.  A friend of mine came in to wander a bit with me, which was nice. Hopefully this friend will get their stuff together this summer to start doing some reviews here - that means you Vapor.  I went to Karen Miller's signing and said hello to Alex from Orbit while there. We kidded for a minute about the next cover kerfuffle I'm likely to start.   Than I was on to the Joshua Braff signing for his second novel Peep Show after his The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green, which showed great promise.  I stopped by the Steampunk panel with Cherie, Catherynne, and Felix for a little bit, but had to move on to meet-up with friends.  They were shooting the panel so hopefully it will be online in the coming weeks.  After that I stopped by the Games Workshop booth where Nick Kyme was signing one of his Warhammer novels.  Next I tried to go back to the Graphic Novel area for a Garth Ennis signing and found out it was the day before.  Oh, well.  But I did happen upon the Paizo booth and talked with the publisher for a moment and he gave me a copy of the anthology Before They Were Giants even though they weren't giving them out.  After that I lost steam quickly and headed home with my two bags full of booty. Below are pics of what I grabbed and the usual info.

Haunt by Todd MacFarlane - This autographed and from what I've heard so far so basically MacFarlane continuing his venom stuff.

Dreadnought by Cherie Priest - Autographed by the very kind Cherie.  I must get to this soon.

The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman - Gilman's Steam-Western, which had me even more intrigued after his short reading at the Steam Salon.

Before They Were Giants edited by James L. Sutter - This is a collection from Paizo of the first published stories from well known authors such as China Mieville, Ben Bova, Greg Bear, Kim Stanley Robinson, William Gibson, Cory Doctorow, and many, many others.  Plus after each story there is a small interview with each discussing where they were in life and also if they would change anything about the stories if they could.

Steppe by Piers Anthony - This also came from Paizo as part of their Planet Stories line of reprints.

Witches Incorporated by K.E. Mills - This is autographed from Mills aka Karen Miller.

The Prodigal Mage by Karen Miller -  Even though I have the hardcover I had to get an autographed copy.

The Noise Within by Ian Whates - I never found the Solaris booth, but my friend snagged me a copy of Whates' novel.

Salamander by Nick Kyme - Warhammer here I come.  

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach - If you didn't enjoy Roach's Stiff than something is wrong with you.  The follow-up Spook wasn't as interesting, but I'm more than willing to give this a shot. I opted to take the book and run instead of waiting in the 150+ long line.
Peep Show by Joshua Braff - This is Braff's sophomore effort, which I'll probably read over next vacation.  Great cover. I got it autographed.
Savages by Don Winslow - This was the much ballyhooed crime novel of the fair and the copy sounded interesting.
The Sherlockian by Graham Moore - The lost journal of Arthur Conan Doyle.  This has the propensity to be really good or truly bad.  Time will tell.
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin - The biggest find of the show.  My wife will start in on it first though.  She was a big Shopgirl fan.

Word on the street is Book Expo will be going back to 3 exhibit days next year.  Now I go and fall down and rub my feet.

You Might Also Like:
Checking in from Book Expo America 2009 | Friday
Checking in from Book Expo America 2009 | Saturday

INTERVIEW | Jon Sprunk author of Shadow's Son

Jon Sprunk is the author of the Fantasy debut Shadow's Son from Pyr Books, which I just recently reviewed. Sprunk only has a few short story credits to his name so little was known about him, which is why I had to corner him. This is the first interview I have ever conducted without first reading one of the author's books prior so in some ways it was a challenge for me, but I think it accomplishes what I set out to do.

MH: What first drew you to Fantasy and Science Fiction?

SPRUNK: I read a great deal as a child (and still do), but SFF stories always held a special magic for me. They possessed a sense of wonder that more mundane adventures couldn't match. In the end, I suppose its a matter of taste and predilection.

I believe the first fantasy novel I read was a little tale called Kothar and the Wizard-Slayer by Gardner Fox. From there I discovered Robert E. Howard's Conan series before moving on to works by writers such as Leiber, Moorcock, Eddings, and Lovecraft. Those are still the voices that whisper in the back of my head when I'm reading, or writing, for that matter.

MH: You started as a short story writer, but have admitted you wrote a novel early on. Was your short story writing important to your development to long form? And what was wrong with that first novel?

SPRUNK: I was first published as a short story writer, but I have always been--in my heart--a novelist. However, its difficult to crack into the novel market. Short stories are good way to pad your resume, if you will, and they're also valuable to hone your technique. Among other things, writing shorts taught me how to: pace for length, write with brevity without sacrificing emotional content, know when a story just isn't working, and (sometimes) how to fix it.

As for that first novel, well, the simple answer is that I tried to build a million-dollar mansion with a pair of scissors and some duct tape. I just didn't have the right tools for the job. It took me years to develop those tools. And, by the way, I think I'm still developing.

MH: What can you tell me about Shadow's Son to whet our appetites? It definitely seems in the vein of Swords & Sorcery.

SPRUNK: I suppose S&S is as good a category as any. My agent describes the book as a fantasy version of the movie Batman Begins. That might be stretching it, but I like to think I keep the reader on his or her toes. The hero, Caim, is a freelance assassin. He's damned good at what he does, but he gets in over his head when he finds himself in the middle of socio-political plot that threatens the heart of the empire. That's the tagline, but really it just means you get a ringside seat to a rousing good brawl.

MH: Hmm, Batman Begins... What kind of character is Caim? Sword slinging hero? Cold-hearted killer? Assassin with passion?

SPRUNK: The short answer is that Caim is human. He loves, hates, mourns, despises, and cherishes, just like all of us. At the start, he may be slightly dysfunctional. Okay, more than slightly--he's a train wreck of a person. But the events of this novel stretch his perceptions, both of himself and the world around him. Is he a hero? I can't answer that. He is the engine that drives the story. You'll have to tell me if he is heroic.

MH: What does Sword & Sorcery mean to you?

SPRUNK: S&S means adventure--danger, magic (hence the sorcery), and lots of pointy metal objects (and the swords). The fantasy stories I fell in love with as a child were S&S like Robert E. Howard's Conan and Moorcock's Elric series and, to quote Master Yoda, forever have they dominated my destiny.

MH: Where there any real life experiences that helped shape Shadow's Son?

SPRUNK: Not really. I mean, I tried to make a living as a freelance assassin, but there aren't many listings for that kind of work in the classifieds. On a more serious note, one of the book's central themes is loss, specifically the loss of a loved one. The passing of my mother when I was a child had a monumental effect on my life. In this book I explore the path of an individual who has suffered that kind of loss and never recovered.


MH: The beautiful cover art by Michael Komarck depicts a ghost-like woman standing behind Caim. What kind of role does she play?

SPRUNK: First, I have to take off my hat to Mr. Komarck. I'm extremely honored that this artwork is going to be attached to my humble novel. The ghost-like woman is Kit. She is Caim's best (and maybe only) friend. She also happens to be completely intangible to everyone else but him.

MH: How do your stories take shape? Are you a detailed outliner or more streams of consciousness?

SPRUNK: I do make outlines for my novels, but I'm not a slave to them. The story can, and often does, veer away from my finely-laid plans, and I am content to follow new ideas as long as they lead to someplace interesting. When I'm doing it right, it feels like both the logical and the creative sides of my brain are working in tandem. For short stories, the experience is more like flying by the seat of my pants; I grab an idea, and try to ride it to a suitable (and entertaining) conclusion.

MH: What are your greatest strengths as an author? (world-building? characters? suspense?)

SPRUNK: I have no idea. I believe that's for the reader to decide. Hopefully, my greatest strength is presenting a story that many people can enjoy.

MH: As a debut author you have to tell your obligatory road to getting Shadow's Son published story. And how was your first World Fantasy Con?

SPRUNK: Well, I wired a large bribe to the publisher... Actually it happened when I least expected it. I had just read the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. I was so impressed that I emailed Lou Anders at Pyr Books. Among my praise for his work, I mentioned I had a fantasy novel and would he be interested in seeing it? Long story short, he took a peek, and liked it enough to offer me a contract. At that time I didn't have an agent, so I picked his brain and he suggested JABberwocky. A couple weeks later I had an agent and a contract for three books. It felt like I'd won the lottery, but better because I worked very hard to get to that place.

World Fantasy was a wonderful experience. There was an atmosphere of camaraderie among the people there. And it's pretty awesome to just be hanging out at the bar and watch one of your author-idols walk past.

MH: In keeping with the name of this blog what’s your type of hat?

SPRUNK: I prefer baseball caps for everyday wearing, but my favorite is an old bomber-pilot-type hat that I got from my grandfather. I still wear it outside in the winter when I shovel the driveway.

MH: What are 2 things about you most people don’t know? Do you have a pet monkey you keep sequestered in the backyard?

SPRUNK: Two things, huh? Okay, (1) I play a mean guitar on Guitar Hero/Rock Band, and (2) I originally wanted to move to Japan to study martial arts after high school, but my parents talked me into going to college. Since that's where I met my wife, I suppose I have to give them props.

MH: Very nice. I'm only decent at Guitar Hero. Forever stuck on medium. Thanks for your time!

To learn more you can visit Jon's blog or following him on twitter.

You Might Also Like:
REVIEW | Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk
REVIEW | The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe
REVIEW | The Prodigal Mage by Karen Miller
LOOKING FORWARD | Fantasy Books to Watch for in 2010

Cover & Blurb Unveiled for Richard Kadrey's Kill the Dead (Sandman Slim 2)

What do you do after you’ve crawled out of Hell to wreak bloody revenge? If you’re Stark you turn to bounty hunting, tracking and decimating whatever rogue monsters you’re paid to kill. Stark hates the work, but he needs the money, especially the big bucks Lucifer is offering. In town as an advisor on a biopic of his life, Lucifer needs protection, and he wants Stark as his bodyguard. But the gig isn’t all bad; there is the very sexy, very hot French porn star Brigitte Bardo, a friend of Lucifer’s in LA to remake her reputation as a legit actress. While it isn’t love, it’s pretty damn good, and after 11 years of demonic chastity, it’s enough for now.

Stark has enough trouble juggling a diva devil and a scorching French bombshell without a zombie plague to complicate matters. And just what happens when a human-angel half-breed is bitten by the living dead? His human side begins to die, transforming him into an unstoppable angel of death—a killing machine devoid of emotion or thought, with no regrets or future to worry about. Not a bad way to be when you’re choices are limited. Now, Stark has to decide...if he does finds a cure for the zombie infection, will he take it?

Richard Kadrey made a name for himself in the late 80's and early 90's as a pioneer in Cyberpunk with books like Metrophage and Kamikaze L'Amour. With the Sandman Slim series he has brought an edge to Urban Fantasy seldom seen which is why it made my best of 2009 list. Coming later this October we'll be treated to some more of Kadrey's Stark no pulled punches style with Kill the Dead. This is a man not afraid to stab an Angel in the back.

The cover is perfect for the series.  It is stark and desolate yet colorful like Kadrey's prose. I especially like the clashing of the green sky with the orange type. Sandman Slim just came out in mass market for those who didn't take the hardcover plunge. Also, the hardcover is on sale at Amazon for $9, which is a steal and a great little package.

You Might Also Like:
REVIEW | Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
RECOMMENDATIONS | Best Books of 2009 (That I've read)
Free Reading & News Mishmash | Jay Lake & Richard Kadrey

Cover Unveiled for Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

Found this via DragonMount:

After a few false starts we finally have the final cover for the penultimate book in The Wheel of Time series for The Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson.  I have to say this is one of the best covers of the series, but the eBook relaunch art keeps blowing me away.  If you visit DragonMount you can take a gander at the full wraparound art by Darryl K. Stewart.


You Might Also Like:
REVIEW | Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
Covers Unveiled for Brandon Sanderson, Chris Wooding, & Pierre Peval
Cover Unveiled for Ken Scholes's Antiphon

VIDEO | The Machinery of Light Trailer

I've just finished the very complex The Mirrored Heavens, which kept getting better and better. It is very much a mix of Cold War Thriller and Cyberpunk with a hole lot of action. In honor of the release of the third and final book in David J. Williams' Autumn Rain series here is the well done trailer for The Machinery of Light.

You Might Also Like:
VIDEO | Neil Gaiman on a Trampoline
VIDEO | Evolution of a Steampunk cover
REVIEW | Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams

REVIEW | Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk (Pyr)

"A killer stalked the shadows."
-first line from Shadow's Son

That first line is very telling about this solid story, which unfolds in Jon Sprunk's debut, Shadow's Son. The city of Othir is the center for nefarious political and not so political dealings. Caim has made a name for himself in Othir as the go-to man for assassination. He is given a job that looks to be a simple sneak and stab turns into anything, but as Caim is thrust into the middle of a deep plot to change the political structure of the region.

Josey a rich, spoiled heiress is dragged into these dealings far too quickly for someone of her pampered upbringing.  Caim is often accompanied by Kit a rambunctious and quick-witted entity with no physical presence who can only be seen and heard by Caim. Think of Kit as Caim's as to Harry Dresden's Bob the Skull only a much more loose lipped, freewheeling fairy godmother who is scantily clad. Kit is the jealous type and is quick to runaway whenever the mood strikes.

Wonderful fight sequences is what you expect out of a Swords & Sorcery novel and Sprunk more than delivers on that front as Caim swirls out of the darkness and into the hearts of his enemies.  In many ways Shadow's Son isn't a very new plot as we have damsels in distress, cold-blooded assassins, and a political situation ripe for the toppling. Yet Shadow's Son revels in the tropes of Swords and Sorcery keeping it an engrossing, page turner. If you are a reader just after a fun story Shadow's Son is a pleasure. Caim is certainly a likable, albeit closed off, character who rolls with the punches. Caim has unusual powers involving pulling shadows around him. There appears to be more to them, but their extent is still unknown as Caim has pushed himself away from them most of his life.

Josey was at first playing the damsel role to the utmost and falling a bit flat what with her prissy and sheltered nature, but I was surprised in the last third how quickly I grew to care for her. Sprunk does have a habit of being too quick to kill off some characters as he probably could have gotten a bit more out of them, buts he gets to the heart of the matter quickly and effectively. Where Shadow's Son excels is in the area of baddies.  Ral is Caim's nemesis of sorts. Both are assassins. Only while Caim does it because he is good and it is a living, Ral revels in his deeds to fuel the lifestyle he was born into and frittered away, who seems to love to spread his sense of entitlement around. Caim's other foe Leviticus is quite impressive as he bleeds through the world with strange and impressive powers. I could have definitely used a few more fight scenes with Leviticus, but Sprunk is clearly holding that for later in the series.

Shadow's Son had me up late at night as nearly every chapter ended in climax after climax of tight action sequences to see how Caim will get out of the next scrape.  Fans of Brent Weeks and Brandon Sanderson will certainly find plenty to like here, but in a much smaller package as it is less than 300 pages. I give Shadow's Son 7.5 out of 10 hats. Even though this is the first in a trilogy Sprunk does an admirable job at having a clear culmination to most of what he started while leaving plenty left open for the next volumes as things escalate. Sprunk shows loads of promise as he hones his craft. The sequel in this trilogy, Shadow's Lure, will most likely be out sometime next summer, which will delve further into Caim's origins and mysterious powers. Hopefully we'll get more Kit as well because she was missed by me during most of the middle.


You Might Also Like:
REVIEW | The Sword Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe
REVIEW | Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes
REVIEW | Midwinter by Matthew Sturges
REVIEW | Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

NEWS | New Neal Stephenson collective project

According to Mark Teppo, author of The Codex of Souls series, he'll be working on a collective fiction project headed by Neal Stephen called The Mongoliad. This is no normal collaboration or book though. In fact details are still a bit sketchy, but here's what I've found out thus far. Teppo starts by saying:

I gave notice at my day job today. Fourteen years I've been there. Wrapping it up in the next two weeks to go be a writer full-time. I know. All of a sudden, isn't it? Well, it's been a long process of working in the wee hours of the day and night, but I've finally reached a point where I can't do everything all the time. I have reached the point of needing to simply.

Of course, it get complicated when Neal Stephenson twitters& today that "Our first demo of the new novel I am writing with Greg Bear, Nicole Galland, Mark Teppo, and others" will be happening next week in San Francisco.

This is the Sekrit Project. Called The Mongoliad...

According to Stephenson's Facebook where the first announcement was made:

For those of you who don't know, The Mongoliad is a sort of serialized story, created by Neal Stephenson, and written by Neal, Greg Bear, Nicole Galland, and a number of other great authors. It will be told via custom apps on iPad, iPhone, Kindle, and Android, and will be something of an experiment in post-book publishing and storytelling.

This one has caught me quite by surprised, but Stephenson is the driving force and writer of the first story in this series(?) Foreworld,  but many other names look to be heavily involved. In some ways this reminds me of John Scalzi's Metatropolis as that was a collaborative world, but Stephenson seems to be taking this much farther afield and into the future using diverse platforms. Stephenson and company have set up a site for the collective called Subutai Corporation, which will carry more info as it is released as well as The Mongoliad. This project isn't only prose though as it looks like video will also be a component somehow and who knows what else. Here is a bit about the world:

The Mongoliad is a rip-roaring adventure tale set 1241, a pivotal year in history, when Europe thought that the Golden Horde was about to completely destroy their world. The Mongoliad is also the beginning of an experiment in storytelling, technology, and community-driven creativity.

Our story begins with a serial novel of sorts, which we will release over the course of about a year. Neal Stephenson created the world in which The Mongoliad is set, and presides benevolently over it. Our first set of stories is being written by Neal, Greg Bear, Nicole Galland, and a number of other authors; we're also working closely with artists, fight choreographers & other martial artists, programmers, film-makers, game designers, and a bunch of other folks to produce an ongoing stream of nontextual, para-narrative, and extra-narrative stuff which we think brings the story to life in ways that are pleasingly unique, and which can't be done in any single medium.

If you'll be in San Francisco on the 25th of May you can catch of preview of what we are in store for at the SF App Show. Since it will be released on Droid I'll definitely be taking a gander. Can you feel the meta? I know I do.

Hats off to Mark Teppo who is moving on to being a full-time writer. It must be daunting to make that move, but he is involved in a project at the ground floor that could help usher in a new way of publishing and interactive with stories.

UPDATE: Here is a bit more I just learned:

We're also working closely with artists, fight choreographers & other martial artists, programmers, film-makers, game designers, and a bunch of other folks to produce an ongoing stream of nontextual, para-narrative, and extra-narrative stuff which we think brings the story to life in ways that are pleasingly unique, and which can't be done in any single medium.

You Might Also Like:
REVIEW | Lightbreaker by Mark Teppo
REVIEW | Heartland by Mark Teppo
REVIEW | Paper Cities edited by Ekaterina Sedia
INTERVIEW| Mark Teppo author of Lightbreaker

NEWS | China Miéville has released the Kraken so what's next?

With China Miéville's Kraken just being released in the UK, Pan Macmillan has announced a little about his next new novel. This just in from the Pan Macmillan newsletter:

We’ve also just done a new deal for the next book from China Miéville. His latest novel Kraken (out now) is a fantastic romp through a London that only China could create. The new book Embassytown which we will publish in May next year is a brilliant science-fiction novel.

This should mean Embassytown will be release around the same time in the states as Del Rey, Miéville's US publisher generally tries to match them within a month of each other.  What little I've heard about this new book is that it will be more Sci-Fi than any of his other previous novels.  Here is a tidbit from an interview he recently did:

However he revealed his next book is already with his editor – ’science fiction, aliens and spaceships, but I don’t want to give too much away’ – and should be out next year, while adding he has a bunch of books in mind that he wants to write in the future.

Kraken will be released later next month stateside, which is still too far away for me.

UPDATE: Here is the blurb for Embassytown:

"Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe.

Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie.

Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes.

Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts.

And that is impossible."

You Might Also Like:
REVIEW | The City & The City by China Mieville
REVIEW | Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
Covers Unveiled for China Mieville's Kraken
VIDEO | Mieville, Ringo, and Link Sci-Fi Discussion from Book Expo 2009