The Lair

Lots of snippets about new books to be published this year. I just finished Going Postal by Terry Pratchett a few weeks ago. I think I like the newer Pratchetts’ works more than the older ones for some reason. That might well be because I like Vetinari and Vimes and the City Watch series more than the others. But at any rate, it was a great read. Even book 29 (Monstrous Regiment) was ok. Of course, Monstrous Regiment did seem a bit … umm … contrived to me. And the punchline, the surprise at the ending, was a touch predictable. Be that as it is, it seems like 2005 will be a bumper year for new books to read.

It’s a sad feature of my life that I’m open to the manipulations and dangling carrots of series. Does anyone remember the Batman series that screened on TV ? Well, other than their notable contribution to the art of visual sound effects (blam! biff! bong! pow! bang! kapow!), they also had this corny cliffhanger phrase at the end of each episode. And what will happen to our heroes next ? Tune in, same bat time, same bat channel to find out!. Aargh. I’m a sucker for those fake cliffhanger plot lines and it seems that book publishers and authors have discovered how to tap into the motherlode as well.

So who are the contenders due for their piece of action from me this year ? Let’s see, shall we ?

• JK Rowling - The Half Blood Prince.

  Yeah. I read Harry Potter. So what ? At least this is one of the series which I feel reasonably sure will actually end in my lifetime. A supposedly finite number of books in the series and a regular publishing schedule. Well sorta, there was a huge delay between book 4 and book 5, wasn’t there ? All the same, not too bad overall. The series started in 1996, I believe. I hopped on the bandwagon quite a bit later. Book 6 is out on the 16th of July.

• George RR Martin - A Feast for Crows.

  Man, this one took almost forever. I finished the first three in 2002 and it’s taken three years of waiting for this monster to turn up. And it turns out that he’s actually not done with this book, but just half finished. Egad. The planned length of the series just grew by one book. So, total 7 in the series now and book four is due out 26th of July.

• Robert Jordan - Knife of Dreams.

  As much as it sickens me to say it, I need to note down that Robert Jordan’s eleventh book in the Wheel of Time series is due out this year. And is seemingly slated for release on the 11th of October. Ugh. If the other two series had at least some semblance of a regular publishing schedule, a finite number of books promised and above all, books in which things … wait for it … actually happen, well.. the Wheel of Time series is all the more noticeable by it’s absence of said qualities. Actually, I started on the series by reading Book 4 umm.. 7 years ago. Found it in the bargain bin of a bookstore, read the synopsis, looked interesting and hey .. it was cheap. So I bought it. It took me around three years to track down and read all other 7 that were available at the time. And I, for the first time in my life, actually bought a hardcover edition of book 9 when it was released in the US. Ah, the depths to which I sank. Crack addicts couldn’t tell a sorrier tale. Only, after the weak tasting milk powder that Jordan tried to induce me to snort as book 10, I went to my own version of the twelve step. Not again. So, the release of another Wheel of Time book is moot. I’m not going to buy any more till he finishes the damn series. Whenever that may be. It’s a popular refrain on the newsgroups that the publishers may simply hire a ghostwriter once Robert Jordan dies and keep on shovelling book 50, book 51, book 52 ad nauseum at regular two year intervals.

  Sound bitter much? Anyway, moving on. Book 11 is one step closer to the much rumoured (but never definitely confirmed) target of 13 books.

And one I haven’t read yet, Orson Scott Card published book 8 of the Ender Saga in March. Tis called Shadow of the Giant and it’s on my read-soonish list.

And speaking of sagas, Orson Scott Card reviews the Revenge of the Sith. George Lucas and OSC might have more in common than they both realize.