Merry (Almost) Christmas & Happy Holidays!
I would give someone’s left kidney ( 
) to be enjoying a white Christmas, but since I’m sitting in the heat, I’ll just wish everyone who is having a white Christmas a very special and warm white Christmas. 
To all the rest of you, I hope your day / evening is a wonderful one – hope you’re with family and friends, enjoying every moment!
And I hope each and every one of you get some awesome books for presents – there’s nothing quite like opening a present, surrounded by family, and then seeing a book you’ve been pining for.
Keep safe, happy reading, and, as always,
Be EPIC!
(Dude, whoever you are, this kicks ass. )
Vlogs and Grandpa’s Ghost
Hey Everyone,
I don’t have anything specific for you today except to point you towards Joan Del La Haye’s blog; Joan is a South African (like me, and yes, we rock, ) Horror writer, and a cool person besides.
The first reason to head over is to read her short story, Grandpa’s Ghost – a cool little story featuring a pretty damn dysfunctional family;
And then you can check out Joan’s Vlogs – here’s the first, and then Joan reads two scenes from her novel, Shadows (one of the scenes is hot and steamy, so be warned!).
Until tomorrow,
Be EPIC!
Totally Tor: Twelve Days and Twelve Doctors!
Hey Everyone!
The story I sneak-peeked for you in the last Totally Tor post, The Trains that Climb the Winter Tree, has gone live over at Tor.com, so go ahead and read the tale in its entirety – you know you want to…
And thanks to Irene Gallo, I’ve got some news for you about an awesome celebration of Dr Who – just click on the logo below to get all the details, and don’t forget to mark your calendars!
I’ll be winding down soon as we move towards the year; look out for a guest-review of Jasper Fforde‘s Shades of Grey and hopefully a final-2010 review of the Jordan-Sanderson epic, Towers of Midnight.
Be EPIC!
Double Review: The Force Unleashed 2 Graphic Novel & Audio Book (Novel)
Let me make one thing clear before I begin with the review: I haven’t yet read Sean William’s first The Force Unleashed novel. After reading the TFU2 graphic novel, I’m definitely going to be reading it after Fate of the Jedi Vortex (busy with that, now), for reasons which will become clear as you read these reviews.
The Force Unleashed 2 Graphic Novel:
If you haven’t yet read this, then I’ll recommend that in all honesty you shouldn’t bother. 
The one thing that impressed me about The Force Unleashed’s graphic novel was that there was a clear, coherent story, and that characters were focused on as and when it was needed. It was really like reading a novel, and I was able to immerse myself in it. Not so with The Force Unleashed 2. First of all, the focus of the tale seems to be on Boba Fett; now, I’m a big fan of the awesome bounty hunter, but the focus was so, well, focused, on him that the graphic novel should have been titled Boba Fett Tracking a Target (or something similar). If the tale was about the clone then I’m sorry to say that Haden Blackman failed miserably. Clone-not-Clone does appear, don’t get me wrong, but most of the time this happens when Boba comes into contact with him. I, like everyone else on the planet who knew the storyline of The Force Unleashed 1, wanted to know how it was possible that Galen / Starkiller was alive, or how he had returned; following Boba’s adventure was not something that concerned me – if both Boba’s and Galen’s / Starkiller’s storylines had unfolded parallel to each other, the effect might have been different. But with the focus being so heavilly shifted to Boba, well, a big fail indeed.
Also, The Force Unleashed 1 resonated with myriad emotions, while The Force Unleashed 2 seemed too dry – another reason why choosing Boba as the tale’s vehicle wasn’t the best choice. There’s plenty of tales involving Boba, go ahead and read those if you want a tale that does him justice.
Now, onto the art: I can do a passable body, as well as a handful of action poses, but I can’t draw faces at all. It’s probably the biggest reason why I’m a blogger and budding writer and not an illustrator. So I’m not one to judge illustrations, really – but was it too much to ask to let Clone-not-clone at least look like Galen / Starkiller? Thanks to Sam Witwer, Galen / Starkiller has very distinctive facial features, and Brian Ching, Bong Dazo and Wayne Nichols did an excellent job in The Force Unleashed 1; unfortunately, there’s nothing of Sam Witwer in the Galen / Starkiller of The Force Unleashed 2. The guy might as well be someone completely different, and I found myself just not believing that this was Darth Vader’s ex-secret apprentice. Omar Francia and Manuel Silva do a great job (I certainly couldn’t match them, for sure), but if they could make their Boba resemble Temuera Morrison, they could have made their Starkiller resemble Sam Witwer. Unless I’m completely missing something and Sam’s likeness was not allowed to be used at all (which could be the case; I’ve only thought about that now). Whatever the case, making the Apprentice look like someone else entirely didn’t help the tale, either – I just couldn’t connect with the character when he appeared.
Diego Rodriguez’ colours are excellent – he added mood where it was needed and a vibrancy to all the action scenes, a job well done. And Michael Heisler’s lettering was spot-on, succeeding in bringing across what emotion there was.
But these, unfortunately, aren’t enough to save the graphic novel. I wasn’t expecting my breath to be punched from me (as The Force Unleashed 1 did), but I wasn’t expecting such a weak product. I get the feeling (although I may be wrong on this count, too) that this graphic novel was a rush-job, and that’s a shame. Either way, it’s just not the tale, or the graphic novel, it could have been.
4 / 10
To order your copies, click here for Amazon US, here for Amazon UK, and here for Kalahari.net customers (South Africa). I wanted to link to the product at Exclusive Books, but their website is down for maintenance. Head over to Haden Blackman’s website here.
The Force Unleashed 2 Novel by Sean Williams:
As I said earlier, I haven’t yet read Sean’s first The Force Unleashed novel, so I can’t tell you whether this novel is better or worse than the first novel. But I will say that, once again, Sean has managed to craft an excellent tale, worthy of being included in the massive Star Wars mythology.
One of Sean’s great strengths as a writer is that he really brings the characters he uses to tell the tales alive, and this remains the case in The Force Unleashed 2. Everyone, from Juno Eclipse to Rham Kota to Darth Vader, resonate in their own way.
Juno was one of the stars, in my opinion; her struggle throughout the novel as she tries to reconcile herself to her duties and to her grief (due to Starkiller’s death in The Force Unleashed 1) were not only entertaining but also cemented her in the EU as a character that deserves more exploration; Rham Kota was excellent as the clone-not-clone’s conscience / mentor – he’s definitely one of the harder Jedi out there, uncompromising and focused, seeing the world in black and white rather than variations of grey, and he excels at constantly pushing the clone-not-clone in directions both emotional and mental, which served to give the tale a great sense of ‘struggle’ on the clone-not-clone’s part. Vader is his usual menacing, calculating self – this worked for me, because I was still wondering, right up to the end, whether him prodding the clone-not-clone would end up bearing fruit. In The Force Unleashed Vader was surprising – in The Force Unleashed 2 he is still surprising but is also the Vader that captured the dread of millions.
The other characters were great, too, but Sean’s focus had to, necessarily, be on the three main characters; Mon Mothma does come across as being a bit of a (excuse me) bitch, and Leia Organa shows the hints of rebelliousness and humour that have made her such a great character (even through to Fate of the Jedi Vortex). Garm Bel Iblis was a bit of a no-show, though – anyone could have taken the role he has in the novel, though to be fair, he doesn’t do much.
Action-wise, the novel is awesome; remember that scene from the cinematic where the clone-not-clone has this massive rancor-killer bearing down upon him, and then we watch as he ignites his lightsabers and runs at it, then Force-jumps into the air towards it? Well, you find out what happens, and it’s kickass. There are plenty of other scenes and Sean manages to make each scene a spectacle of Force-abilities, acrobatics and explosions; what more could a Star Wars fan want?
Plot-wise, the novel is more an exploration of what it means to journey towards finding yourself than anything else, which sounds like ‘Oh hell, ‘finding yourself’?!’ but hear me out – considering how the novel ends (and, presumably, the game), this journey works. Remember how The Empire Strikes Back was a really emotional movie? Well, The Force Unleashed 2 is similar – we’ve got a cast of characters that are living in an extremely dangerous time, what with Emperor Palpatine, Vader and the entire Galactic Empire gunning for them, and these characters are still getting over the shock of the death of the man that inspired the Rebel Alliance. There’s plenty of action, intrigue and philosophy (staples of Star Wars, in my opinion), but I didn’t get the sense that there wasn’t enough. Don’t, however, expect an amazing revelation (as there was in The Force Unleashed); I think we’ll have to wait for The Force Unleashed 3 for that.
One thing that does bug me (and this isn’t about the novels) the choice of having someone as insanely powerful as Galen / Starkiller actually exist. Displays of power of the kind that Galen / Starkiller can unleash will be remembered, or at the least, noticed. Yoda, for instance, or Ben Kenobi would feel such massive Force abilities, wouldn’t they? I guess I’m just thinking aloud here, but it is something that bothers me (or maybe I’ve just been reading too much Wheel of Time, ).
Anyway, The Force Unleashed 2 is an excellent novel, more akin to the breath before the plunge than a headlong rush down the Death Star’s trench, and that is definitely a strength. Great action and excellent characterization combined to give me a really enjoyable and attention-keeping read. I definitely recommend this!
To order your copies, click here for Amazon US, here for Amazon UK, and here for Kalahari.net customers (South Africa). Check out Sean’s website here, and head over to the official Star Wars website here.
The Force Unleashed 2 Unabridged Audiobook:
Once again, the team that brings us these excellent productions did an excellent job! I have no idea what all Kevin Thomsen does as producer for these projects, but the man does himself proud once again. Jonathan Davis narrated this project and did another sterling job. Along with Mark Thompsen, Jonathan Davis is one of my favourite Star Wars audiobook narrators, and his voice(s) along with the sound effects and music, make this another excellent project.
10 / 10
Order your copies here for Amazon US, here for Amazon UK and here for Kalahari.net customers (South Africa).
Be EPIC!
John Jarrold’s Corner: Deals, Deals, Deals!
It’s been a while since I posted news about how John‘s clients are kicking ass, so let’s get into it!
PRESS RELEASE – ESTONIAN RIGHTS DEAL FOR SUZANNE MCLEOD
Hannah Whitaker, Senior Rights Manager at Orion, has sold Estonian rights to Suzanne McLeod’s debut urban fantasy THE SWEET SCENT OF BLOOD to Varrak, who will publish in spring 2011.
World rights in six novels by Suzanne have been acquired by Jo Fletcher at Gollancz from agent John Jarrold. Rights have also been sold in a number of other markets, including the USA, Russia and Germany.
Awesome news for Suzanne and readers in Estonia! I know, I know, I *will* be getting into Suzanne’s series soon, don’t look at me like that!
Next up:
PRESS RELEASE – TURKISH RIGHTS DEAL FOR HANNU RAJANIEMI
Hannah Whitaker, Senior Rights Manager at Orion, has sold Turkish rights to highly-praised SF debut THE QUANTUM THIEF by Finnish science fiction novelist resident in Scotland, Hannu Rajaniemi, to Pegasus.
World rights in THE QUANTUM THIEF, plus two further books, were acquired pre-emptively by Simon Spanton of Gollancz (who published in September 2010) from agent John Jarrold for a high five-figure sum in pounds sterling, on the basis of one chapter. Rights have also been sold in the USA, Germany, Spain and Finland.
And a remarkable fourth reprint of Gollancz’ trade paperback edition has just been confirmed.
Hannu’s march to world domination is gathering steam, it seems! Congrats to him!
And lastly:
PRESS RELEASE – PRE-EMPTIVE TWO-BOOK WORLD RIGHTS DEAL FOR DEBUT FANTASY NOVELIST
Julie Crisp, Editorial Director of Pan Macmillan in London, has concluded a pre-emptive World Rights deal for two epic fantasy novels in a series called THE FAITHFUL AND THE FALLEN by new British author John Gwynne with agent John Jarrold, for a very good five-figure sum.
SO DEEP A MALICE, the first volume in the series, will be published by Tor UK in 2012, followed by its sequel TERROR OF HEAVEN in 2013.
With one foot in Celtic myth and the other loosely straddling the imagined beginning of the Roman empire, this fresh and original fantasy takes two worlds, old and new, and demonstrates the clash that will occur when the modern tries to overthrow established traditions.
Set on a continent called the Banished Lands, populated by men and giants, dark forests, dreadwolves and draigs; this debut fantasy follows the story of Corban, a young man who just wants to become a warrior, but whose path will lead him to so much more. Populated with original and engaging characters, set in a primal, feral world, soon to become the battleground of angels and demons, this is a tale of love and betrayal, truth and courage, friendship and loyalty. An epic and intimate coming-of-age tale filled with mystery, Machiavellian politics, adventure, joy and tragedy.
Julie Crisp said of the acquisition, ‘This is an incredibly exciting book. It gave me the same feeling when reading it that I had when I first read George R R Martin, Robert Jordan and Patrick Rothfuss. I fell in love with the characters, the world building and the detailed imagining. The beginning of a brand new series, this is a contemporary epic fantasy that I’m sure will gather an enthusiastic and loyal readership and we’re thrilled to be publishing John at Tor UK.’
John Jarrold said: ‘I’m not sure I’ve seen a major fantasy novel that I would recommend more strongly to readers of George R R Martin in the last ten years. I’ve now read it three times and I am still emotionally involved with the characters and storylines throughout, which is a wonderful achievement for a new writer. Julie’s enthusiasm was immediate when it was submitted to major publishers on both sides of the Atlantic, and she was able to bring her senior colleagues on board with a very strong pre-emptive offer within days.’
Sounds pretty intruiging! I’ll keep my eye on this one for sure (and hopefully by the time Book 1 hits the shelves I’ll have finished Suzanne and Hannu’s novels…).
Until tomorrow,
BE EPIC!
When you go down to the Mall today…
Remember this?
Well, check this out:
The Mall is definitely one of my must-reads for 2011, not least because SL Grey is a pseudonym for two South Africa authors. I’m looking to focus a bit more than I have on Horror in the new year, and have Joe D’Lacey’s books coming up, too. What better way to kick it off than with The Mall?
Check out more info on SL Grey over at Book SA and Facebook, and follow SL Grey on Twitter; pre-order your copies here (hardcover) and here (Kindle Edition, available for a limited time from December 25th). The book will be available from Corvus from June 1st!
Be EPIC!
I Am Number Four – Movie Trailer and Film Tie-In Cover
Since I really enjoyed this book, I thought I’d post this for other fans. I get gooseflesh every time I watch the trailer (yes, the book was *that* much fun), and I’m really excited to watch it. First off, here’s the movie’s poster:
Number Four’s glowing hands look pretty damn cool. Next up, the trailer:
Yep, you can find me in line to watch it as soon as it’s released in South Africa. And finally, the film tie-in cover (no word yet on whether it’ll get to us, but I’m thinking the chances are very good):
So, what do you think? I think we’re looking at the next craze – perhaps not as massive and singularity-like as The Twilight Saga – but at least something to divert attention, at least until Breaking Dawn Part 1…
Be EPIC!
Giveaway Winner: A Matter of Blood by Sarah Pinborough
A winner has been drawn!
Thanks to all the entrants! I wish I could give you all prizes but unfortunately, well…
Anyway, without further a-do, the winner of the first book in Sarah’s The Dog-Faced Gods trilogy is >>>
Kahlan! Your copy will be on its way to you as soon as I’ve got your address. Congrats!
Since the year is almost done, I’ll be commencing with giveaways again next year – and I’ve got some awesome stuff to giveaway, trust me!
Thanks again to all the entrants, you guys rock! To tide you over, here’s the cover-art for Book 2 in the trilogy, The Shadow of the Soul, which will be published in April 2011:
Be EPIC!
Review: Predator – South China Sea by Jeff Vandermeer
I started reading this novel after I watched Predators. The movie impressed me, taking the Predator back to its hunting roots, and then I rewatched Predator (Schwarzenegger) and Predator 2; yes, AvP 1 and Avp 2, as well… I found myself thinking about the movies and the Predator all over again – its technology, what it looks like (skin, armour, face), the way it moves, the way it growls and snarls. It’s always been my favourite alien and watching these movies again just reinforced that. So I tucked into South China Sea, hoping that I would find the same things that originally drew me to the alien hunter…
And let me tell you, Jeff doesn’t disappoint!
The very first aspect of the novel that drew me in was Jeff’s ability to introduce characters that instantly made me curious, and to make those characters unique and intriguing; the novel has a big cast (read the book’s blurb and you’ll see what I mean) and I was hoping that the POV jumping wouldn’t negatively affect the plot – it’s damn difficult to write even one character, and giving life to a large cast is insanely difficult. But Jeff proved my fears unfounded. Each character has a back-story -sometimes not a nice story to experience, but always interesting- with some characters getting more of a focus than others; this technique (or perhaps I should say, ‘Demand of the Story’) kept me guessing, and led to many surprises. I experienced plenty with this cast – mind-numbing fear, an incremental fall into madness, an almost inhuman focus, hysteria and sadness… And also not from the characters you would expect! This juggling was masterful, showcasing Jeff’s talent of using that most important story-telling vehicle: the character.
Jeff also knows how to do action! There are plenty of scenes that really widen the eyes – a hectic scene involving a rhino, gun battles, even extremely tense discussions. Practically every page of this novel is laced with passages and sentences that not only kept me flipping the pages but kept my eyes moving at a feverish pace. And yes, I winced too many times to count. The most awesome set-piece was a massive battle at the end of the novel – the tactics alone involved in this scene were excellent, but there’s so much more in the scene -and throughout the novel – that had me set on the path of reading more of Jeff’s work. He’s got a particular way of writing action scenes, putting you right there to feel the blood-spray and the struggle not to vent your bladder! (or something smellier…)
My favourite aspect of this novel? The Predator is a hunter once more. I’m sure that most people see the Predator species as cool, ruthless rasta-ET’s who have awesome ways of dealing death, but what they represent has been lost through the years, even in some of the comics (I’m reading Predator: Cold War now, and hunting just doesn’t seem to factor into the storyline). Jeff steers the alien hunter back to its roots, an awesomely so. I got the sense that the creature was on an actual hunt, and that it was actively thinking about how to take down its prey; it employed actual tactics, set traps, etc. None of this got lost in the story, either. And this task must have been damned difficult – how do you write POV scenes from the point of view of a being that we know next to nothing about? Ask Jeff, ’cause in my opinion, he pulled it off, and awesomely so.
There’s so much else going on in this novel that I could talk about, but I’ll leave that to the readers after me – suffice it to say that South China sea would kick every Predator-movie’s ass for plot, characters, action and focus. Not only was this an awesome, thrilling book about the most badass alien out there, but it was also a book that got me hooked on Jeff’s style and talent. If you want to re-capture that sense of ‘holy shit, this thing is fucking awesome!’ you may had after the first Predator movie, read this novel.
My only niggle about this book is that one of the Predator’s weapons was just a bit too much – overkill, in fact. It’s not a weapon I’ve seen a Predator use before (well, you know what I mean) and I was confused at first when I read the scene in which it was used. It’s probably just me, but it seemed a bit ‘out of character’ for a Predator to use such a weapon.
Barring the above, the novel is awesome; full of action, gore, thrilling set-pieces, one of the most amazing human-against-Predator duals I’ve ever experienced, and a definite talent at creating believeable, interesting and attention-grabbing characters. If you’re a Predator fan, read this book, and I’m pretty sure you’ll agree.
9 / 10
And you don’t have to take my word for it – Graeme reviewed South China Sea last week.
For more info on Jeff and his work (Finch will be the next title from him that I’ll be reading), head over to his website; to order the book, click here for Amazon UK, and here for Amazon US.
Be EPIC!
Totally Tor: News and How to Take Over The Genresphere!
Hehehe did I just coin a phrase? Anyway, let’s get into it!
First off, Tor.com is bringing us a new story by Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn; it’ll go live on the site on the 21st of December, but registered users (yep, I’m one of them) will have the story in their inboxes a week early. Here’s editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden to tell you a bit more:
“Our Christmas story for 2010, “The Trains that Climb the Winter Tree” by Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn, is shocking, lyrical, inventive, and as you might guess, a little mad. It will appear on the site on December 21st, but if you were a registered member ofTor.com, you’d be getting it a week early, personally emailed to you by elves and wood sprites laboring in the vast Tor.com network operations center.”
And here’s a short excerpt of the story to whet your imagination:
It was the middle of the night when the elves came out of the mirrors.
Everyone in the house was asleep. Outside, the city slumbered. Silent as shadows, the warriors went from room to room. Their knives were so sharp they could slit a throat without awakening their victim.
They killed all the adults.
The children they spared.
The bodies were carried away, back through the mirrors. Four of the elves swiftly stripped naked. They put on the adults’ nightclothes over their sexless bodies. Their own clothing they hid at the bottom of dresser drawers where the children never went. Then each one slowly and carefully assumed the form and features, down to the most intimate details, of Father, Mother, Grandmother, and Great-Aunt Adelaide.
Meanwhile, the other warriors were fetching boxes from the far side of the parlor mirror. With preternatural grace they removed from them tiny, toy-sized locomotives and passenger cars, boxcars, coal hoppers, refrigerator cars, gondolas, tank cars, flatbeds piled high with logs, floodlight cars, mail cars, ore cars, cabooses, and a tiny string of circus cars with gorillas in cages and giraffes poking through the roofs. . . .
Unwrapped tissue paper foamed up into drifts, which were then whisked magically away. Clever elfin fingers assembled tracks and placed alongside them stations, houses, bungalows, garages, churches, restaurants, fruit and vegetable stands, a roller rink, a grain elevator, a lumberyard, a coaling station, factories, water towers, and a central roundhouse with a turntable. Bridges spanned imaginary rivers. Tunnels split papier-mâché mountains. The transformers were hooked up, the electrical connections made, and the trains set in motion.
Then the elves left. The four who remained went to three separate bedrooms where they lay down and pretended to sleep. The one who was not Father pretended to snore.
It was Christmas Eve, and nobody outside the house knew that life inside it had changed forever.
Here’s the artwork commisioned for the story, done by the excellent Gary Kelly:
Next up, Tor.com is taking over the Genresphere! Tor.com has already launched Tor.com Fantasy (run by the excellent Aidan of A Dribble of Ink) and Tor.com Steampunk (Ay-leen the Peacemaker does the honours here), but the latest news (which hit today) is that Tor.com has also started Tor.com Science Fiction, run by none other than Mark Chitty from Walker of Worlds!
This is really great to see – sure, it’s a Tor.com endeavour but the news covered by each satellite will not be limited to Tor.com or, for that matter, Tor; there’s something to be said for a big publisher realizing that readers everywhere read widely, not limiting themselves to specific authors or publishing houses – these endeavours are squarely about getting the news out there. So a hearty well-done to everyone involved!
Here are the links you need:
Tor.com Fantasy – Facebook / Twitter
Tor.com Steampunk – Facebook / Twitter
Tor.com Science Fiction – Facebook / Twitter
And finally, the Solstice Giveaway is still running, so make sure of your entry! (Note – I *hope* it’s still running – couldn’t get into Tor.com to verify, seems I’m having a problem with my connection)
That’s it for now, see you back here tomorrow.
Be EPIC!
