Wheel of Time News

So, there is huge Wheel of Time news out today and I know everyone is talking about it. Some of my old friends over at Wotmania have started a new Wheel of Time blog called The Thirteenth Depository, and it is simply spectacular (especially some of the original art work). Since Wotmania plans on closing shop in a few months and future evolution of the site is in doubt, I love to see that the wealth of information is being preserved (Larry has been slowly posting other SFF-related articles and interviews and I may begin to in the near future as well). Anyway, I highly encourage any level of fan to visit.

And about all that other news about A Memory of Light - personally, I think it's a hoax centered around some nugget of truth. I highly doubt that three books is anywhere near reality and that cover art is especially horrendous (and apparently not approved). The title for Volume One seems reasonable enough to me, but is also likely a fabrication. For more info, see Adam's post at the Wertzone and Brandon Sanderson's posts. I'll be waiting to see what Tor's official press release looks like - it's anticipated to come next week.

Larry's Fun Little Game

I’m not a big fan of ‘memes’, but I saw this over at the OF Blog (I know it’s not really a meme, but it’s close). Anyway, I found it caught my eye, so I’ll jump in.

Five Recent Reads:

The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick (currently reading)

Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie (review)

The Inferior by Peadar Ó Guilín (review)

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (review)

The Traitor by Michael Cisco (review)

Seeing all these together makes things seem rather more eclectic than I had realized.

One I Am About To Start Reading:

The Martian General’s Daughter by Theodore Judson (this upcoming release by Pyr looks very good)

Mind Melded

The folks over at SF Signal have a long-running feature – The Mind Meld – where they pose a single question to a group of invited participants in the SFF world. Somehow I was chosen as one of the bloggers in a group including editors and authors. It was a lot of fun and I encourage you all to go read – some of the answers might just surprise you. Participants include David G. Hartwell, James Patrick Kelly, John Joseph Adams, Paul Raven, Alan Beatts, Niall Harrison, and Larry of the OF Blog of the Fallen.

The question posed was

From your point of view, how has the proliferation of online book reviews affected the publishing world?

Some of excerpts include

Online reviewing at this point is a hopeful mess…
-David Hartwell

Everyone wants something different from a book …and the anarchic economics of internet publishing mean that all those needs can be supplied in proportion to demand.
-Paul Raven

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what publishers, booksellers, authors or reviewers think of a book.
-Alan Beatts

…when was the last time you saw Gary Wolfe reviewing Steven Erikson or Kate Elliott?
-Niall Harrison

…it may mean a sort of Darwinian fight in the near future to see which blogs are best qualified…
-Larry of OF Blog of the Fallen

How about that for a self-serving, pretentious answer?
-Ken of Neth Space

Isn’t it great to see quotes taken out of context?

Interesting Discussion on Differences

Over at the OF Blog of the Fallen, Freebird/Dylanfanatic/Larry has posted an interesting blog about differences (such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.) of authors and readers. I comment at length there and don’t really have the energy to rehash and update it.

So, do you have gender preferences in your reading? How about other cultural preferences? It is my belief that this is the case to some degree or another for all of us – which is not (necessarily) a bad thing. I also believe in the value of challenging one’s self from time to time. For those of us that are part of the English as our only language, Western culture, when is the last time you read a book that was translated from some other language?

Anyway, comments and discussion is certainly encouraged.