04 August, 2010

It's News To Me #18

I love how we never suffer for some good news and updates with genre fiction. Here's the latest:

Cover Art

Hrm...hrm...I think I just threw up with this new one by Robin Hobb.


















Both of these covers, UK on the left, US on the right, have me sold on this series. Any Picks for your favorite?

I'm going with the almost-never-better-and-why-the-heck-is-that US cover by Todd Lockwood and published by Pyr. It's close either way.

News

There's an interview with Brent Weeks over at Grasping for the Wind. I'm really excited for The Black Prism and this has me salivating:



Rowena Cory Daniells, author of The King's Bastard [US] [UK], is guest-posting at Mad Hatter's talking about the books that have influenced her writing:
The Mad Hatter’s post on reading outside the spec fic genre made me think about the books I read outside the genre I write in. Don’t get me wrong, I love fantasy, science fiction and horror and I was reading these books before I knew what genre was.

But unless we want to regurgitate what has gone before, writers need to expand their horizons. So I thought I’d look at some books that have helped fuel my Creative Crucible.


Books


Have you heard of I Am Number Four [US] [UK] yet? Of course of course and the more I hear, the more I like it. Dave Brendon has a number of excerpts going on his blog (chapters 1 through 8 in fact). Here's the blurb:
Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books—but we are real.

Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. we have lived among you without you knowing.

But they know.

They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They killed them all.

I am Number Four.

I am next.
Chapters 2 & 3, Chapters 4 &5, Chapters 6 $ 7, Chapter 8

I want to read this book for the author's name alone and then the blurb sounds cool too. :)

And that's the news...at least to me.

9 comments:

Todd Newton said...

If The Stormcaller hadn't been an absolute snooze, I might be more excited for the Lloyd cover arts. He definitely didn't sell me on the rest of the series with the first installment.

Bryce L. said...

Ahh, that's good to know. I kept hearing similar things, so maybe that won't be a series for me. Thanks.

BStearns said...

I Am Number Four actually sounds really interesting, I'll havta check out the excerpts. And I absolutely love Todd Lockwood's work, so I have to chose his cover. Got any more info on the book? Cheers!

-Bryan
www.sff-hub.com

Bryce L. said...

@Bryan - I probably should have mentioned it in the post, but The Ragged Man is actually the fourth book in the Twilight Reign series, beginning with The Stormcaller. But, as Todd says above, I may be rethinking this series.

Todd Newton said...

Give the first few chapters a try without buying it. It never really gets better than that.

Honestly, I will probably wonder for years whether his plot & writing improved over the series, so I'll have to attempt it at some point. Stormcaller is just such a lame duck, though.

Anonymous said...

For "I am number four"; check this out http://iamnumberfourfans.com

Ciao
Maarten
Italy

Bryce L. said...

Thanks Maarten, that's a pretty cool site. They're definitely giving I Am Number Four quite the marketing boost.

ediFanoB said...

The King's Bastard is one of my current reads and I like it.

Bryce L. said...

@edi - That's good to hear, I think I'll have to pick it up, maybe after your review. Thanks.