The first trailer for George R.R. Martin’s HBO Game of Thrones series hit this week, so if you’re itching to check it out, click play below. After you’ve got your fix, I encourage you to check out a few of the reviewed we’ve compiled this week, and a great interview with N.K. Jemisin we located as well. Winter is Coming!
If you’re looking for a few good book reviews, you’ve come to the right place this week. I’d really like to check out Shadowrise and The Stormcaller when I find some time to fit them into my reading schedule. Also this week, a pair of interviews: video of Raymond E. Feist commenting on his 30 book series, his methods of character development, and how he feels fans have received his work over the years, as well as a transcript of an interview with the great Peter S. Beagle. We continue to follow the development of the Firefly comic series (solely because Patton Oswalt is hilarious), and we cap the week with news about Frank Frazetta and the family feud that has been surrounding his work for years.
Four reviews kick off our fantasy blogosphere roundup this week, with reviews of books by Tad Williams, Joe Abercrombie, Ian C. Esslemont and Seressia Glass. Following this is the fantastic news that HBO has approved A Game of Thrones, so we’ll be seeing something more than a static image soon. A few covers were released this week, for Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, and Brent Weeks’ The Black Prism. Check out the interview with Brandon for his comments on his new series. I’m not sure I’m into the new photo realistic cover as exhibited on Weeks’ novel; we’ll have to keep an eye on this and see if it becomes a trend. And last but not least, some sort of explanation as to why Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter made the Amazon top 5 yesterday.
Winter is almost here. George R.R. Martin announced that he’s 1,261 pages into A Dance with Dragons, supporting my prediction the novel would be released in 2010, and in general giving me a good feeling all over. Jim Cameron plans to release an Avatar prequel novel in 2010, which he has not begun writing yet. Ambitious, but what do you expect from one of the most ambitious filmmakers in history. Perhaps the the interview of the decade, with R.A. Salvatore interviewing Margaret Weis on her new novel with Tracy Hickman and writing in a world based on role-playing games in general. We cap this week where I turn back my clock an hour here in Brazil by turning back the clock and remembering countless hours spent with the red box, the first in the old Dungeons & Dragons boxed set.
I don’t think we’ve ever had a more eclectic brew on the Fantasy Blogosphere. We start this week off with a pair of reviews at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist and Grasping for the Wind, and balance those out nicely with three interviews, including the second we’ve spotlighted in the “Patrick Rothfuss interviews other fantasy authors” series. He’s following up his interview with Joe Abercrombie with a conversation with Brent Weeks. We touch on a new novella by Steven Erikson, give Brandon Sanderson the nod for his work on The Gathering Storm, and round out the week with a lesson on writing from George R.R. Martin, and the icing on the cake: a cage match between Steven Erikson and R. Scott Bakker. Mmm, Tasty.
After checking out the “Proof that Every Fantasy Book Cover Must Contain a Sword” post over at io9, I opened it up on my iPod Touch and went over to my bookshelf for comparison. I definitely had a few laughs, as not only is the chart true, but some of the categories, like “Completely dark cover of meaninglessness” are hilarious.
One thing that immediately jumped out at me was that there seems to be a recent trend that Orbit Books did not include in their fantasy book cover analysis. It seems that everywhere I turn I’m seeing new fantasy books come out with “mysterious hooded figures” on the cover, or at least “mysterious cloaked figures”. Below are some samples of what I mean.
What do you think caused this trend? The popularity of video games like Assassin’s Creed? The element that this type of cover adds that blends the fantasy/urban fantasy genres? Either way, we’re inundated.
