News and Winners Announced

Well, I’m seemingly hopelessly behind around here. I review pretty much every book I read and I generally only read one book at a time. A quick glance over at the Currently Reading widget shows 4 books. Well, I’m really only reading one right now – Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound). I’ve finished the others, but still need to right reviews for them. I got behind with work and personal travel last month, almost got caught up, and then got really busy again. Dust of Dreams is a huge book (just shy of 900 pages in hardback), so I’ll probably get caught up before I finish reading it. And maybe I’ll find some spare time for other posts, but we’ll see.

Anyway, enough about me. With the help of Random.org, winners have been chosen for the WIND BAGS OF DUNE giveaway…err… the giveaway of two copies of The Winds of Dune by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) and 5 string Winds of Dune bags from the good people over at Tor Books. So the winners are…

Winds of Dune bags:

• David from Toronto, Ontario
• Linda from Burford, Ontario
• John from Winder, Georgia
• Ric from Cutler Bay, Florida
• Bill from Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Signed copies of The Winds of Dune:

• Jeff from Fitchburg, Massachusetts
• Andrew from Toronto, Ontario

Congrats to all the winners!

The Winds of Dune Giveaway!

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a giveaway around here, so when Tor approached me, I couldn’t turn them down. In celebration of the release of The Winds of Dune by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) going on sale tomorrow (August 4th), I have 5 Winds of Dune bags (black and white string backpacks) to give away, and 2 signed hardback copies of The Winds of Dune as a grand prize.

Synopsis:

Paul Atreides, Muad’Dib—cheered as a hero, worshipped as a messiah, hated as a tyrant—has vanished into the endless deserts of the planet Dune. Blinded in an assassination attempt and grieving after the death of is beloved Chani, Paul abandons his newborn twins and leaves his galaxy-spanning empire in the hands of his young sister Alia.

Living in self-imposed exile on Caladan, Lady Jessica and the faithful Gurney Halleck receive word that Paul has vanished and is presumed dead. They race to Dune, the Heart of Muad’Dib’s empire, where they find a planet in turmoil and Jessica’s daughter Alia— along with the resurrected Duncan Idaho—willing to impose more and more extreme measures to maintain order.

Fuelling the flames of dissent, the outspoken rebel Bronso of Ix, once a friend of Paul Atreides, releases hateful treatises and disrupts sacred ceremonies, doing everything he can to destroy the myth of Paul-Muad’Dib, who—through his Jihad and his corrupt priesthood—is responsible for more deaths than any other in history.

As winds of rebellion brew and treachery occurs from outside the government and within, Jessica discovers that her son had plans that extend far beyond history, and that Muad’Dib may have knowingly planted the seeds for his own downfall. And that Bronso of Ix has a secret mission of his own, one that will force Jessica to choose between the memory of her son and the future of the human race…

The authors are touring as well – dates are found at The Winds of Dune webpage.

So, if you want a chance to win the backpack or a signed copy of The Winds of Dune, all you need to do is email me at nethspace [at] gmail [dot] com (remove the at and dot as needed) or use the relatively spam-free link in the sidebar. The subject of the email needs to be WIND BAGS OF DUNE* and be sure to include your name and mailing address (snail mail, US and Canada only). Contest is open for the next 2 weeks, so get your entry to me by August 18th (Arizona time) for the chance to win. Good Luck!

Edit: I edited the contest details after clarification from Tor - there are 5 bags and 2 copies of the book for giveaway. Sorry about the confusion (trust me, odds are good for giveaways are here).

*Ok, so the real reason I agreed to sponsor a giveaway in this case was because I simply could not resist this pun.