Cellist of Sarajevo vs. Author Steven Galloway

Saw this story, on the Book Ninja this morning.

Now I can easily understand how the cellist would be upset over the fact that his face has been printed on this book’s cover without permission or notification, but what boggles my mind is that this man is accusing author, Steven Galloway, of stealing his story? Or as he puts it “my work, my, my sadness, my tragedy.” I did not realize that life came with a copyright.

Back in 1992, cellist Vedran Smailovic, performed atop a pile of rubble for 22 days during the Bosnian conflict. Now I’ve seen some of these images before produced on posters and the like before. They are very beautiful, and the act was quite inspiring. So much so, that it continues to inspire and then along comes Steven Galloway’s book.

What I take from this article is that Galloway treated the matter very respectfully in the physical writing. The cellist character appears only for the first five pages and never actually speaks. The rest of the novel is a fictional work focusing on three other characters. What Smailovic did was a public performance, live art. I can’t see him receiving compensation for anything, unless he actually owned that photo that was used on the cover. As a performer isn’t he technically a public figure?

Buzz Aldrin Writes?

Yeah, Buzz Aldrin the second man to walk on the moon. Who knew! And he writes Sci-Fi no less!

Encounter with Tiber (1997) by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes
The Return (200) by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes

Sadly both are out of print, though used copies seem to be readily available on Amazon.  I know it is a celebrity novelty purchase, but still…I want them.  I want them badly, and actually the blurb to The Return has really piqued my interest.  Hmmmm.

Book Review ~ Mainspring by Jay Lake

 

Mainspring by Jay Lake
Paperback List Price: 7.99 
Pages: 386  ISBN: 978-0765356369
Publisher:  Tor 
Kindle format available?: No
Sony eReader format available?: No

The Plot: Hethor Jacques, a simple clockmakers apprentice, receives a visit from one of God’s angels who he believes to be Gabriel. The mainspring of the world is winding down. If the Key Perilous is not found, the heart of the world will stop ticking and God’s greatest work will cease to be. Hethro’s journey will take him far beyond the equatorial wall to the south and away from his simple home in Connecticut forever.

My Thoughts: Meh. It was okay. The visual concept Lake created was interesting, much along the lines of William Paley’s divine watchmaker theory for intelligent design. His Earth is an irreducibly complex mechanism of brass plates and gears. The ticking of the world can be heard by only a few as it turns on a fixed metal track around the sun. Many place names are familiar, but a number of things contrast greatly against our own known history. England never lost the war and still rules over the American territories, and the navy does have a fleet of airships! I love airships, I really do.

My problems with the book were that Hethor never really took on too much depth in the story until the last chunk, but by then it was too late to really do much. The same could be said of most of the supporting characters in the story as well. Characters would be kidnapped only to show up again, only to disappear and the reappear only to die without actually doing anything. They moved through Hethro’s quest, but they didn’t really further it actively for the most part. And as I mentioned, Hethor just wasn’t a strong enough character to really drive the story forward. It wasn’t a hard read, and the story did move along at a good pace.  I won’t write it off as a completely negative experience.  I reiterate, it was okay.  

I also have a problem when authors interpret a West Indian accent as placing the word “Mon” at the ends of sentences and that’s it. I grew up in the Carribean, and I can tell you that the dialect is so much richer than that. Granted this is a very very small point and should not be a big deal to anyone else as the West Indian character appears only in one scene, but it mattered to me because I have a personal connection to the region.

Book Review ~ Whitechapel Gods by S.M. Peters

Whitechapel Gods by S.M. Peters
Paperback  List Price: 6.99
Pages:  384   ISBN: 978-0451461933
Publisher: Roc
Available for the Sony Reader?: Yes
Available for the Kindle?: Yes

Synopsis:  The area known has Whitechapel has been seized by two new Gods and turned into a mechanized hell.  For years the citizens of Whitechapel have lived in fear of their omnipotent overlords, giving up their lives to their gods cruel desires.  A small band of rebels has been nipping at the heels of Grandfather Clock and Mama Engine, waiting for the chance to bring these powers down.  Now with the help of a bright young man from the outside named Aaron, a weapon has been discovered able to strike that necessary fatal blow.  But the gods of Whitechapel are aware, and a third unknown power rages in the Underbelly of the city. 

My Thoughts:  Kudos go to the cover designer & artist.  That is a gorgeous cover and very appropriate for the novel.  

The rest though was a bit underwhelming.   The descriptions were very poor, so even though I imagine Whitechapel looked like the dark and predatory beast I didn’t have a solid visual grasp of the place at any point in the book.  The characters too were a bit nebulous as well, though clearer than the setting.  The plot itself was predictable, and the only real surprise was the epilogue which was very vague and came out of nowhere.  

Now to the good points.  There were a few characters I really like, especially Tommy and Oliver.  Tommy is both hilarious and pitifull.  You really end up feeling for the man as a disease known as “Clacks” slowly eats away at his human parts. He is utterly devoted to Oliver in the way one might expect of a puppy, and who can hate puppies.    Oliver (while be the typical rebellion leading do-gooder) is the type of hero you can root for, but he has a powerful character voice once he comes into his own.  John Scared is also a great villian, especially when he is interacting with his “children”.  It is endearing in a completely creepy manner.

WoT ReRead: The Great Hunt

So I’m actually on book seven now even if I’m way behind on blogging about this adventure.  At least I won’t be in want of a topic for a while though.    Now onto what I remember of book two!

The Great Hunt is an excellent sequel, and while I may have my problems with him later, I’m glad we get to spend so much time in Rand’s head.  It is both sad and exciting watching him trade his shepard’s life for the sword and grow up become a  man who can lead a nation(s).   I think it is because of the regret and emotion that I remember from him in this second book that I still can’t hate him even when he deserves it later on in the series.  

To a lesser extent, Perrin’s also plods down the road to self-acceptance on this trip, being forced into a situation where he has to call on the wolves after Hurrin’s dissapearance.  The difference being that at the end of the second book, Perrin backtracks and continues on ignoring the wolves and blocking them out of his head until Jarra in The Dragon Reborn.  

I sometimes get to thinking of Perrin as Rand’s shadow.  There are so many parrellels between the two, where as Matt has always seemed more off on his own.  Both have been described by women as both big and gentle.  Both are physically marked in some way that they can’t hide underneath a necktie like Matt, what with Perrin’s golden eyes and Rand’s Aiel heritage that sets them apart from normal Westland society. Both their weapons were pretty much given from someone who was near kin.  Struggling with madness is more of an active struggle for them, than the creeping disease Matt suffered from the taint of Shadar Logoth.  And lastly, the reader is often brought into the dreams of Rand and Perrin, whereas Matt’s are always  closed to us.

Goodkind to Publish Trilogy with Putnam

I saw an announcement of this in PW and went to do a bit more research. With The Swords of Truth novels at a close, author Terry Goodkind moves to Putnam with his new project. The Press Release:

TERRY GOODKIND, #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AND INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED NOVELIST, MOVES TO G. P. PUTNAM’

S SONS FOR A THREE-BOOK DEAL

G. P. Putnam’s Sons to Publish First Book,

A Contemporary Thriller,in Hardcover in Fall 2009

New York, New York, June 26, 2008 … Terry Goodkind, the internationally renowned and #1 New York Times bestselling author, has agreed to write three new novels for G. P. Putnam’s Sons, it was announced today by Ivan Held, President, G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Held acquired the U.S. hardcover and paperback rights in a joint venture with Berkley Books. G. P. Putnam’s Sons will publish the novels in hardcover; Berkley Books will publish the paperback editions. All three will be edited by Susan Allison, Vice President, Executive Editor, Berkley Books. Terry Goodkind is the author of The New York Times bestselling epic series, the Sword of Truth, which concluded with the final installment, Confessor, in November 2007. To date, Goodkind’s books have sold some twenty-five million copies worldwide. Terry Goodkind is represented by literary agent Russell Galen.

Ivan Held said: “We are very excited with Terry’s new book and are thrilled to be given the opportunity to share these novels with an even wider market. We recognize the potential to broaden his mainstream audience and I am convinced we can vastly expand his already huge following.”
Terry Goodkind said: “With the completion of the Sword of Truth series in the fall of 2007, and the debut in the fall of the television series based on my first book (produced by Sam Raimi and syndicated by Disney’s ABC Television Domestic Syndication Division), I’m excited about the new challenges that lie ahead, and my partnership with Putnam.”
Susan Allison commented: “Terry is an extraordinary storyteller. He believes in the qualities that make an ordinary man an American hero. I look forward to a long and close relationship.”
Russell Galen said: “Fifteen years ago, an unknown writer named Terry Goodkind sent me a letter asking me to read his first manuscript. Since then we’ve worked together to sell more than twenty-five million copies of his books in more than 20 languages: books which changed literature, and the lives of many people, with a new kind of storytelling that smashed boundaries and crossed genres. Now, as we bring his future works to a new home at Putnam/Berkley, we feel we’ve found the right home and the right foundation to launch him on an even bigger, bolder, more ambitious publishing adventure.”

The first book, yet to be titled, will be a contemporary thriller set in an American city. Resonances from his previous works will be recognizable to his existing readership, but the book will, at the same time, stand completely on its own as a mainstream work.

Terry Goodkind’s first novel, Wizard’s First Rule (Tor Books, 1994) immediately established him as one of the world’s bestselling authors. The story of the Sword of Truth started growing in Goodkind’s mind during the early 1990s while he was building his house in the forests of the northeastern U.S.

Goodkind was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, where he also attended art school, one of his many interests on the way to becoming a writer. Besides a career in wildlifeart, he has been a cabinet maker and violin maker, and he has done restoration work on rare and exotic artifacts from around the world — each with its own story to tell, he says.
While continuing to maintain the northeastern home he built with his own hands, in recent years he and his wife, Jeri, have created a second home in the desert southwest, where he now spends the majority of his time.

###

Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Viking, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Penguin Press, Riverhead Books, Dutton, Penguin Books, Berkley Books, Gotham Books, Portfolio, New American Library, Plume, Tarcher, Philomel, Grosset & Dunlap, Puffin, and Frederick Warne, among others. The Penguin Group (http://www.penguin.com) is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.

My Thoughts: I suppose I am excited about this. I really enjoyed the first three books and number six of the series; however, I could barely get through the later installments. I don’t really like Richard, at all. He bores the crap out of me as he just comes across as being too perfect of a hero to me at least. I do respect Mr. Goodkind’s world building abilities. The world and magic system he built up in the Sword of Truth novels were fantastic, but the characters just fall somewhat flat.

I am looking forward to him starting a new series. It should be interesting to see what he comes up with working from a fresh palette once again

Dabel Brothers to Adapt The Wheel of Time

Squeeeeeeee!

The official press release from dabelbrothers.com

But for those of you too lazy to click on the link:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dabel Brothers Publishing announced today that they will adaptRobert Jordan’s bestselling Wheel of Time series, which has sold more than 14 million copies in North America alone, into comic book format. The first issue is scheduled to release in December 2008.

The Wheel of Time began in 1990 with the publication of The Eye of the World; ten more volumes have followed. The most recent four books of the series have reached #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. It is the story of a world – both our past, and our future – in which the battle between the Light and the Shadow must be fought every day; and of the people, both ordinary and extraordinary, who must fight that battle. Jordan wrote eleven volumes of the series and one prequel; he was unable to complete the twelfth and final volume before his death in 2007. That volume, A Memory of Light, will be completed by Brandon Sanderson, a writer chosen by Jordan’s widow and editor, Harriet McDougal, and published by Tor Books in 2009.

The Dabel Brothers published a comic adaptation of Jordan’s A New Spring in March 2005. In conjunction with that project, Robert Jordan provided them with extensive notes for use in further possible publications, including character descriptions and other visuals.

“I’m delighted to be working with the Dabel Brothers! Their work is splendid. Robert Jordan liked it enormously,” says Harriet McDougal.

Graphic-novel collected editions of the individual comics will be distributed by Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group. The deal was negotiated by Jordan’s agent, Nat Sobel.

Robert Jordan was born in 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina. He taught himself to read when he was four with the incidental aid of a twelve-years-older brother, and was tackling Mark Twain and Jules Verne by five. He was a graduate of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, with a degree in physics. He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army; among his decorations are the Distinguished Flying Cross with bronze oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with “V” and bronze oak leaf cluster, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with Palm. A history buff, he also wrote dance and theater criticism. He enjoyed the outdoor sports of hunting, fishing and sailing, and the indoor sports of poker, chess, pool, and pipe collecting. He began writing in 1977 and continued until his death on September 16, 2007.

My Thoughts:

I think it is amazingly cool that Mr. Jordan left notes behind for just such a thing.  It saddens me terribly that he has past on and will be unable to complete his fine work.  What a wonderful gift it is though that he took such care and time to prepare all those notes so that others may continue on in his stead.  Once again, as always, thank you Robert Jordan!

Book Review: Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright

Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright
Paperback List Price:  6.99
Pages: 336  ISBN: 978-0765349958
Publisher: Tor Books 
Available for the Kindle?:  Yes
Available for the Sony Reader?: No

I picked up Orphans of Chaos for the kindle one week as one of the free books from Tor.  It’s not the type of book I’d have ordinarily picked up in the store, but so long as it was free, why not right?  I am really glad this book was chosen as one of the promotions.  I was completely hooked from the very beginning.  Wright did a fantastic job of structuring and keeping up the pace even through the sometimes long and logic heavy musings of his characters.  I’m not knowledgeable enough to vouch for the science.  As a reader, I don’t really like physics & tech-heavy sci-fi as it tends to detract from the plot for me; however, this book had it all in the right amounts.  I ate up the logical arguments of the characters as I would a box of Girl Scout cookies. ^_^  Yum.

The five main protagonists in this first installment of the series are the unknowing hostages of a war between the inhabitants of Chaos and the one time rulers of our ordered world, the pagan gods.  Reared since infancy on an isolated estate in the English country side run by a motley crew of mythological figures, the five teens begin to uncover the truth of their pasts as they grow to adolescence.   Struggling against the bonds that contain their physical beings and own unique powers, the five work together against their caretakers in hopes of gaining their freedom. 

I was worried about the Greek gods thing since as the basic archetypes that have spawned countless heroes and villains, they all so often come off as seeming both diminished and generic.   They were handled well though for the most part in this book.  Aphrodite was the atypical blonde bimbo goddess like normal, but the backstory Wright wove around characters like the Sirens, Oceanus, and Saturn were all really interesting.  The aspect I found most interesting were the powers that were given to both the children and their captors and how those paradigms reacted with one another.  Both the good guys and the ambiguously bad guys are so evenly matched that it the sense of conflict was very strong throughout the novel.  It’s only their own intelligence and creativity that gives the children any edge in their struggles.

Free E-Book from Tor ~ Flash by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

If you haven’t signed up at Tor.com yet to receive weekly free e-books, what on earth are you waiting for?

Currently available right now is Flash by L.E. Modesitt and aside from formats included in the newsletter it is also available at the Kindle Store. I’m so excited about this one.  I’ve really wanted to check out some of Modesitt’s Sci-Fi as I’ve -loved- his fantasy but I’ve never really gotten around to picking any up.  There always seems to be something else to buy when I’m at Borders.

Not Dead Yet

Anyone reading this will note the rather long time lapse between this and my last post.  I don’t have an excuse for you….I have a BILLION. The first of all being that I have not had one full week yet without company since finals.  

I have not forgotten about this blog.  Things will pick up from here again; I promise.