When I announced that I was considering retiring from the SFF Blogosphere a little over a week ago, it felt as though December 31st was a lifetime away. Trouble is, it's coming pretty fast now that I've actually had time to sit down and think about what I have on my plate till then.
I haven't made up my mind yet. . . I'm giving myself a few weeks to think matters through. I have to admit that I was more than a little astonished to realize that my announcement generated such a buzz around the Blogosphere and Twitter. I received love and was dragged through shit in equal measures!
Since I don't want to make commitments I can't honor before New Year's Eve, this list will be a bit shorter than previous editions. If I do decide to keep going, it will just be business as usual. And if not, at least I'll go down swinging!
Book Reviews
I'm done with Peter V. Brett's The Warded/Painted Man (Canada, USA, Europe), so you can expect a review soon. I'm currently plodding through Stephen R. Donaldson's atrociously slow-moving Against All Things Ending (Canada, USA, Europe). Still have about 200 pages to go, so there is more than enough time for the author to turn everything around. But as things stand, it is probably the weakest Covenant book ever. At work I've just begun Harry Connolly's Games of Cages (Canada, USA, Europe).
Given that we only have three months to go in 2010, at the rate I'm going it means that I can read about 10 novels before the end of the year. And if I'm calling it quits, I want to go out in style. So I was able to secure early reads for a few eagerly anticipated SFF titles:
- Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson's Towers of Midnight (Canada, USA, Europe)
- Ian Cameron Esslemont's Stonewielder (Canada, USA, Europe)
- Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes (Canada, USA, Europe)
- Steven Erikson's The Crippled God (Canada, USA, Europe)
- R. Scott Bakker's The White-Luck Warrior (Canada, USA, Europe)
I heard back from Patrick Rothfuss' editor, and I might get lucky and score one of the extremely limited ARCs (they will be numbered and tracked to prevent people from posting them online) for The Wise Man's Fear (Canada, USA, Europe). So I might get the opportunity to polish this one off as well.
Finally, I'm also trying to get an early read for Scott Lynch's The Republic of Thieves (Canada, USA, Europe), but I haven't heard back from the parties involved. . .
If I do get my hands on the last two, it would mean that there would be room in my reading schedule for about three titles. And I'm at a total loss as to what to read. . . I'll likely give R. Scott Bakker's Disciple of the Dog (Canada, USA, Europe) a shot. But other than that, there are simply too many novels in my "books to read" piles to choose from. So I guess I'll be playing it by ear. At least until my decision is made. . .
In any case, whatever I decide to do, you have a lot to look forward to in the next three months!
Interviews
This last Q&A with Jasper Kent was the only one I had in the works.
I'm waiting to hear back from George R. R. Martin regarding the possibility to do something special to promote the HBO TV series. That's the only project I have on the backburner for the moment.
There should be couple more interviews before the year is out, though. You can expect something with Joe Abercrombie and Steven Erikson, and probably a few more surprises. ;-)
Giveaways
Right now, the only contest that's been confirmed will be a giveaway for signed copies of Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson's Towers of Midnight. Stay tuned for that!
But there will be more, have no fear!
Guest Blogs
I've invited a few authors to be guest reviewers and I've heard back from a number of them. They include Peter V. Brett, Sam Sykes (hopefully reviewing a Twilight book), and Daniel Abraham, among others. Maybe they can show me how it's done! :P
That's it for now. . . But I think most of you will agree that there's some cool stuff coming your way! =)
I haven't made up my mind yet. . . I'm giving myself a few weeks to think matters through. I have to admit that I was more than a little astonished to realize that my announcement generated such a buzz around the Blogosphere and Twitter. I received love and was dragged through shit in equal measures!
Since I don't want to make commitments I can't honor before New Year's Eve, this list will be a bit shorter than previous editions. If I do decide to keep going, it will just be business as usual. And if not, at least I'll go down swinging!
Book Reviews
I'm done with Peter V. Brett's The Warded/Painted Man (Canada, USA, Europe), so you can expect a review soon. I'm currently plodding through Stephen R. Donaldson's atrociously slow-moving Against All Things Ending (Canada, USA, Europe). Still have about 200 pages to go, so there is more than enough time for the author to turn everything around. But as things stand, it is probably the weakest Covenant book ever. At work I've just begun Harry Connolly's Games of Cages (Canada, USA, Europe).
Given that we only have three months to go in 2010, at the rate I'm going it means that I can read about 10 novels before the end of the year. And if I'm calling it quits, I want to go out in style. So I was able to secure early reads for a few eagerly anticipated SFF titles:
- Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson's Towers of Midnight (Canada, USA, Europe)
- Ian Cameron Esslemont's Stonewielder (Canada, USA, Europe)
- Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes (Canada, USA, Europe)
- Steven Erikson's The Crippled God (Canada, USA, Europe)
- R. Scott Bakker's The White-Luck Warrior (Canada, USA, Europe)
I heard back from Patrick Rothfuss' editor, and I might get lucky and score one of the extremely limited ARCs (they will be numbered and tracked to prevent people from posting them online) for The Wise Man's Fear (Canada, USA, Europe). So I might get the opportunity to polish this one off as well.
Finally, I'm also trying to get an early read for Scott Lynch's The Republic of Thieves (Canada, USA, Europe), but I haven't heard back from the parties involved. . .
If I do get my hands on the last two, it would mean that there would be room in my reading schedule for about three titles. And I'm at a total loss as to what to read. . . I'll likely give R. Scott Bakker's Disciple of the Dog (Canada, USA, Europe) a shot. But other than that, there are simply too many novels in my "books to read" piles to choose from. So I guess I'll be playing it by ear. At least until my decision is made. . .
In any case, whatever I decide to do, you have a lot to look forward to in the next three months!
Interviews
This last Q&A with Jasper Kent was the only one I had in the works.
I'm waiting to hear back from George R. R. Martin regarding the possibility to do something special to promote the HBO TV series. That's the only project I have on the backburner for the moment.
There should be couple more interviews before the year is out, though. You can expect something with Joe Abercrombie and Steven Erikson, and probably a few more surprises. ;-)
Giveaways
Right now, the only contest that's been confirmed will be a giveaway for signed copies of Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson's Towers of Midnight. Stay tuned for that!
But there will be more, have no fear!
Guest Blogs
I've invited a few authors to be guest reviewers and I've heard back from a number of them. They include Peter V. Brett, Sam Sykes (hopefully reviewing a Twilight book), and Daniel Abraham, among others. Maybe they can show me how it's done! :P
That's it for now. . . But I think most of you will agree that there's some cool stuff coming your way! =)
12 commentaires:
Really appreciate the effort you have put into the site. Being a cloistered writer, your site is my window to what's going on out there. Have you considered instead of giving it up cold turkey, passing the torch?
That way you can step away for awhile and let someone, or a select group, run the site until you make a final break or decide you want to continue it.
It would also give you the opportunity to only submit what and when you want and if you don't like the way the site is being run without you, close it down once and for all and be done with it.
Gave up on the Wheel of Time after book 4. Other than that the list is pretty fantastic. I'm going to shriek like a twilight fan when my copy of the Crippled God arrives.
You know I hate you, right?
Most of those books you'll get early are on my most wanted list. And you plan to give this up. You really need to rethink your retirement.
Those five books are hugely anticipated, really looking forward to read some impressions.
Hopefully we'll get something soon :)
I would really be looking forward to Daniel Abraham's guest blog! That guy is woefully underrated.
Hey Pat,
I, for one, will be sorry to see an end to your blog. I've been an avid reader for many months.
Let me say that I highly recommend Bakker's "Disciple of the Dog." I ordered it from Amazon.ca (couldn't wait for the US release) and have actually reviewed it on my own blog. (I'm not going to pimp my blog on your site, but if you would like to read it--it's spoiler free--feel free to comment as much and I'll email you my URL ... unless of course by using my Wordpress login, you have access to it that way.) It's a great read. I'm eagerly anticipating "White-Luck Warrior" as well. Bakker is, quite frankly, one of the writers of fantasy on the scene at the moment.
In any event, thanks for the memories, even though I mostly remember never winning any of your giveaways! :)
-Jason
Hey Pat,
First of all, I hope you continue blogging. If you're tired of it, take a break for a few weeks, or even months. If not that, just announce you will be posting more irregularly. It's your game. But I wouldn't give it up if I were you.
Secondly, I cannot wait to read your reviews of those arc's, incredbly highly anticipated books. I'm most curious about the Bakker. It would be awesome if you could get advance reviews of Rothfuss and Lynch as well.
I also think you need to reconsider retiring from writing this blog. This is the only blog I go to every single day to find out what's new and exciting. I enjoy reading all your reviews and love hearing about your travels. If you stop I will be totally lost - please don't go or hand it over to someone else.
Hello Pat,
I, for one, will be sad to see your Blog go - I check it daily and you've turned me onto quite a few authors that I probably would have not tried otherwise.
If you're looking for something quick to read and quite different from other things you've reviewed (AFAIK), you might want to check our Aliette De Bodard's Servant of the Underworld. Its a Fantasy novel set in Pre-Colombian Aztec Empire.
I did my first book review of it on Amazon and on my own blog here:
http://coryanicenturion.blogspot.com/
I hope you enjoy it!
As I mentioned when I responded to some of the comments from the Swan Song??? post, I could never hand over the reins and pass the torch to other people. This has been Pat's Fantasy Hotlist for nearly 6 years. The blog has one voice, which I think is why it has enjoyed this kind of success. So Pat needs to figure into the equation, or there is no Pat's Fantasy Hotlist...
As I said, I'm giving myself a while to think matters through... I'd be sad to leave the game, that's for sure...
Would hate to see you go, Pat, but those would be some ridiculously good books to end on if you did.
Seriously though, you better leave the website up no matter what happens. You are my resource for discovering new authors/series!
hey pat,
Yaj, still lots of interesting stuff I look forward on reading here... (and maybe winning ;).
But please rethink your retirement!
A belgian fan ;)
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