Here's brief overview of what I have on tap for you guys between now and the Holidays. . .Book Reviews
I'm almost done with K. J. Parker's Devices and Desires, and I've started GRRM's Dreamsongs, volume 1 (Canada, USA, Europe). At the rate I've been reading this year, I reckon that I'll go through 6 or 7 additional titles before the year is out.
I'm trying to figure out which books I'll be reading, but I'm having a hard time deciding. David Anthony Durham's Acacia (Canada, USA, Europe) is a sure bet, as I want to see if it will crack my Top 10 of 2007. I have an ARC of GRRM and co.'s newest Wild Cards book, Inside Straight (Canada, USA, Europe), on its way, which means that this one will be read as well. As to which other novels will make the cut, I'm not certain. The second Dreamsongs volume seems likely, but that's a lot of GRRM in a short span of time. Carrie Vaughn's Kitty and the Silver Bullet (Canada, USA, Europe) is another sure shot. Any suggestions!?! I've got too many books to choose from!;-)
Of course, the arrival of my ARC of Ian Cameron Esslemont's Return of the Crimson Guard will trump any of these titles!
Interviews
R. Scott Bakker emailed me to let me know he had no idea exactly when he'd get the opportunity to transcribe the hard copy of his answers and send them back to me. He and his wife bought a house, and it's undergoing heavy renovations at the moment.
I have a 9-way interview in the pipeline, this time with GRRM and his 8 Wild Cards collaborators. Special thanks to Ran and Mormont of Westeros for the help they provided to put this one together!:-) I'm really curious to see how this Q&A will turn out, for there is the possibility that it will turn into a nuthouse! The questions have been sent, so we'll see how everything works out!
Giveaways
Upcoming contests will include a giveaway for Joel Shepherd's Killswitch (Canada, USA, Europe). Another one will feature a full set of K. J. Parker's The Engineer trilogy: Devices and Desires (Canada, USA, Europe), Evil for Evil (Canada, USA, Europe), and The Escapement (Canada, USA, Europe). There will also be a contest for Carrie Vaughn's latest Kitty novel, Kitty and the Silver Bullet.
And stay tuned, for I will have the most fucked up giveaway yet in December. Indeed, I will have two Advance Reading Copies of the newest Wild Cards title, Inside Straight, autographed by George R. R. Martin, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Daniel Abraham, Carrie Vaughn, Michael Cassutt, Caroline Spector, John Jos. Miller, Ian Tregillis and S. L. Farrell, up for grabs! If those prizes are not collector's items, then I don't know what is!;-)
Speaking of collector's editions, I will also be giving away two limited editions from Subterranean Press, Novik's His Majesty's Dragon and Erikson's Gardens of the Moon. Cool, eh!?!
Year-End Awards
Yep, the Tairy Awards will be back this year, once again in honor of the Yeard himself! Look for that post during the last week of December.
Milestones
Yesterday spawned an immense "fuck me" moment for me. The Hotlist reached its 500,000th page view, which is still hard to believe. I mean, I knew it was coming, of course. But to actually see it happening was shocking. . .
NFL Showdown
The New York Giants won against the Miami Dolphins last Sunday, which means that the Giants are now 6-2. It was Dallas' bye week, so the Cowboys are still 6-1. Which means that the showdown between both teams next Sunday will determine who's the best team in the NFC. Not only that, it could also help decide whether GRRM or I will win our friendly wager.
Needless to say, I really want to see a character based on me get offed in A Dance with Dragons or the next ASOIAF volume! Go Cowboys, I say!:p
8 commentaires:
Man, are you actually on speaking terms with GRRM?????
Nice! Some really cool stuff coming up. That 9-way interview should be wild and I'm looking forward to reading "Inside Straight" myself :D
Also, just to let you, I have a Joel Shepherd giveaway scheduled as well starting November 1st. It will be for the whole Cassandra Kresnov trilogy though...
Sounds like you read about twice as fast as me (I average two books a month); all the more reason why your reviews are so important, so you can read the bad stuff and I don't have to. :)
Good to hear that Mormont and Ran put you on the right track with the interview.
Which reminds me, where are you up to on ASoIaF itself? It looks like ADWD won't be finished until after Xmas now, but it would be ironic if the review copy arrived - surely one of the biggest 'scoops' of the Hotlist's existence - and you still hadn't read books 3 or 4 ;-)
As some have already pointed out, I forgot to mention that I have an interview with J. V. Jones in the pipeline...
Anonymous 1: Yes, I do exchange emails with GRRM almost every week, for various reasons.:-) Life is so unfair, I know!
Robert: The 9-way interview scares us a little, but it has the potential of being one of the most interesting interviews I have ever done. Ellio and Iain and I have done our best to involve every author, so it should be a good one!
Anonymous 2: I do my best to leave the bad stuff to other reviewers!;-) Doesn't always work, mind you, but I've been quite lucky since I've started reviewing novels. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my luck will continue to hold!
Adam: Yep, Ran and Mormont were both a great help, especially Mormont, who's a huge Wild Cards fan. As for ASOIAF, I still have ASoS and AFfC to go through. But as there is no possibility for me to get an early read of ADwD before the editing process is done and they decide whether or not they're sending me a set of proofs (there won't be ARCs, I believe), I have ample time to read both volumes! I wanted to read ASoS before the Holidays, but with reviews for DREAMSONGS and INSIDE STRAIGHT coming up, that's too much GRRM is so short a span of time.
For those of you wondering why I haven't yet finished ASOIAF, check out my reviews of AGoT and ACoK. It's all GRRM's fault!:p
Hmm. Didn't you blitz through five or six Malazan books in just a couple of months a year or two ago? A full course of GRRM is much easier to swallow.
Just started Dreamsongs myself, oddly enough, but I'm waiting until the ARC of a concluding volume of a certain debut trilogy by a British fantasy author drops through the letterbox (I've been told it's due in the next few weeks) and it's easier to drop an anthology halfway through and come back to it later ;)
No worries, I'll go through both ASoS and AFfC in no time when I actually sit down to read them. Which, if all goes according to plan, should be early in 2008.
As for the new Abercombie, Joe told me that the ARCs should be heading our way in a few short weeks. With you living on the right side of the pond, you'll have the chance to read it before I do! Bastard!;-)
500 000??? Ok, you're not a secret anymore... ;) Respect.
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