We’ve talked before about the choice between Paper and Plastic and the e-volution of the e-book genre. For me personally, I never thought I would end up getting an e-reader. Right now in my day to day life I work with a PC, carry a netbook and have a PC at home. I have a quite reasonable phone that I am sure I could get an e-book onto if I really wanted, assuming that I don’t simply use the various other computers I have access to. There are Kindle and nook applications for PCs so why would I bother?

More importantly though, reading has always been for me a visceral experience. I can feel the weight of the book in my hands while its images play out in my head. I can enjoy the texture of the paper and the memory link to when I first started reading every time I turn a page. As much as the words impart feeling, the whole connection with the book in my hands carries meaning. Touch is a powerful thing.

Then I went and ruined it all by touching the Barnes & Noble nook. It wasn’t just myself that fell for the machine. Both my wife and my mother-in-law now want their own and so we will all be getting our hands on an e-reader.

Why? Well… perhaps my resistance to e-readers hasn’t been all based upon the association in my head of touching my books. Perhaps it was simple aversion to early adoption. New gadgets are a risk after all. Sure there are those who will charge out into the technological frontiers and grab the first run of every new machine that comes out, but I no longer count myself as one of them. In fact had I come across the nook one or two weeks earlier, I probably would have no interest in it.

I have toyed with the Sony E-reader  and felt nothing for it. Had I seen the nook before the 1.3 firmware update, it’d have gone the same way. A cool looking gadget but ultimately passed over. The update however has sold me on what Barnes & Noble are doing. To my mind it is no longer a gadget, it’s an experience. The nook wants you to read and does what it can to help you. If you’re lucky enough to live in North America (currently nook does not ship internationally, but that won’t stop me) bringing your nook into a store on a Friday will net you a free book. No mess, no fuss. Wonder if you want to read that new Dan Brown book? Pop into the store and you’ll get an hour per book per day to read as much of the book as you can manage. Elsewhere you’ll only get some sample chapters. Does your friend have a nook and do you have something they simply must read? The LendMe feature will grab the book from your nook and give it to them for a week or two.

Sure it also does a few games now and has a basic web browser. Sure it can play music and sure people have hacked it to run android apps but none of those ever interested me before. What interested me was how they’ll still bring you to the bookstore and how the nook itself is trying to help you read instead of simply being a flashier method for reading.

I look forward to getting my nook and who knows? Maybe it’ll help me review more books as I won’t have to worry any more about buying a paperback that I may not enjoy and filling my scant shelf space. I will still buy my favourites in print of course, but having touched the nook, I’ve found a place in my library for it.

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(Now someone help me restrain Regis, it’s a good cause but I don’t think Paypal accept kidneys.)

Salvatore has written 20 (!) books about Drizzt, which is surprising because if any author would try to write a fantasy series of 20 books he would be stoned to death by his readers. If you even try to write only half of that you would have a series that eventually start to decline in quality* until you just try to keep things rolling for the planned end.

What makes the never-ending books about Drizzt work is that they are not part of a single series, instead consisting of six different series of 3-4 books. You have The Dark Elf Trilogy (3), The Icewind Dale Trilogy (3), Legacy of the Drow (4), Paths of Darkness (4), The Hunter’s Blade Trilogy (3), and Transitions (3). I have read them all, and I can guarantee that the books actually gets better.

Drizzt was never even intended as a main character. He was created as a sidekick for the Icewind Dale Trilogy, and afterwards got a series all on his own where his past is told. The very same thing happened to Artemis and Jarlaxle, who went from being enemies of Drizzt to their own series, The Sellswords (also very good by the way, I would probably want to read more about them than Drizzt). It seems like something that would happen to a TV series, where a side character steals all the show and get a spin-off.

So maybe Jordan shouldn’t have planned The Wheel of Time to be gigantic, but instead set the aim low and build on it from there? Losing a bit of that epic’ness but hopefully gaining focus and quality.

Maybe we could even have ignored Perrin.

* Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind.**

** What? I’m just sayin’…

The Dresden Files book 12, Changes, is now finished!

FINISHED! BWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAAAAAAAH!

4:48 AM Jan 4th from TweetDeck

I hope you had a wonderful time and here’s to 2010 and all that lays before us.

It being a New Year, it is of course time to talk about the future and in particular e-books. Yes again, don’t give me that look. Specifically I’d like to talk about the perception of e-books and readers and mention some of the hurdles ahead. Part of this comes from two articles Regis linked me to and part of it is from good old personal experience.

Starting with the articles we have two big ones in the e-lit world, DIY book scanning and Copyrights & The Blind. In a way both are related in that they each deal with copyright, but both also show a glimpse of a possible future.

We won’t deal with the loaded issues that are DRM and copyrights, rather some of the comments made. There are already e-readers for blind people, but never one to miss an opportunity, Amazon plans to make a blind accessible Kindle. Daniel Reetz, in the scanning article, was prompted to make his cheap book scanner by book prices for his college courses.  As that community grows, there will be more and more available for people to download. It may be free, it may be pirated or it may come from the industry itself.

“There have to be things that you get with an e-book that you don’t get by making your own copies,” says Samuelson. “It’s not such as stark challenge for copyright owners, because not many people are going to take the trouble to make their own scanner system. Most of us want the convenience of buying digital books for the Kindle, Nook or Sony Reader.” -Pamela Samuelson, a professor at University of California at Berkeley, who specializes in digital-copyright law.

Webcomics have even commented on the possibilities of greater uptake in e-readers. Anyone who has ever had a packed commute next to someone trying to read a broadsheet newspaper would welcome Mr. Business getting his news through a reader or a phone. Perhaps it is a little too sci-fi to imagine, but I would love to see school children up to college students being freed of the burden of expensive and oftentimes heavy schoolbooks. That same device could be used for your morning paper and your evening read. Some companies already have readers planned for professionals. Dvd sales nowadays include special features above and beyond the movie, even in the “regular” edition of a disc. Some authors already publish companions to their universes that further flesh out and explain the book in your hand. The one I saw most recently was a fable and folklore book based in the Discworld which can be used to give greater background to Unseen Academicals.

In the end it comes down to how it is used and why. Certainly this is something I ran into with my father this Christmas. Trying to pick a gift for me, he knew I wanted an e-reader. I had my eye on the Sony Reader before they shelved it and re-launched with two versions of the same. I would love to own a Kindle, but they were unlikely to be on sale. My father, who has been a technology early adopter all his life, couldn’t understand why I’d want such a device, or why he’d pay so much for what he saw as a one trick pony. In the end it was easier to tell him to get me something else (I’ll tell you what it is when I actually get it). This Christmas I myself picked up several books. We asked here before if you prefer paper or plastic and people were divided. However e-readers are here to stay and they are no one trick pony, not for long anyway. E-readers are e-volving, if you’ll pardon the pun, and they aren’t just about the book in your hands anymore. I have my novel for my commute beside me and I admit freely that I love the feel and smell of the paper, but I would adore a device to fill in for all the other paper in my life. The paper we’re forced to live with or have to carry for whatever reason.

I foresee the fight between e-reader and print book going on for a while more. It is like the battle waged between digital cameras and film cameras. Both have their supporters and detractors, however going forward the cold plastic device you may imagine a reader to be may not necessarily be trying to replace your warm fantasy printed world. In my mind, nothing will beat a coffee, biscuit and good book in your hands, no matter how many buttons it has. At the same time, I want one. Not for that warm time with a good drink and good book, but for all the other times I’d be carrying material that needs or deserves reading.

Perhaps e-readers will win us over in the end by offering those special features like our movies, earning their place beside the paperback and your favourite cup, the handy tool for textbooks and papers tasked to support our fantasies.

Right from the start it’s clear that this is no ordinary book. The world of the Fourlands incorporate elements from the renaissance as well as the modern world. At first it was a bit off-putting to discover things that don’t normally exist in your average fantasy world – such as drugs, cigarettes, newspapers, t-shirts, and jeans – since it seemed that the author didn’t go all the way when creating the new world. But once I learned to see through my scepticism and my own foolish notions of what is right and what is wrong in fantasy worlds it was easy to lay back and enjoy the ride.

The Fourlands has been waging a long and bloody war against a race of huge and monstrous insects, and it’s not going well. Ruling the Fourlands is the immortal and mysterious Emperor, assisted by The Circle, of which each member is the embodiment of a profession and through contests granted immortality. Among them is Jant, the Messenger, whose spot in the Circle has been fairly secure for the last two hundred years as he is the only one in a race of winged people who can fly. However, Jant seems intent to recklessly push the boundaries of both immortality and the patience of his friends to the limit with his addiction to a lethal drug. But it’s only when he is deeply within the effects of the drug – in quantities that would kill mortal men – that Jant can travel to a bizarre and dark alternate world, where he start to see a way to save the Fourlands against the insect threat. If the world is real that is.

Although the book is mainly about those immortal, Swainston does a good job at displaying the view from those that are not. Because after all, bitterness and envy run can only run high when looking at those that will never die, and knowing that you will. The character Swallow is determined to be the first Musician in the Circle, but it’s hard to see art as equal to swordsmanship when the biggest issue of a realm is killing insects before they kill you.

I like when books are intentionally vague in details of the world and not just cram all the worlds history, secrets, and present events into the first few chapters or prologue. If, after the first chapter, you are not wondering “how?” or “why?” and want to continue reading then the author did something wrong. But you could also take the secrecy too far, and I think that’s one of the books few flaws; unless you have read a summary of the story (like this review) it will require some effort to fully get into the world. Just a simple thing that everyone in the Circle have three different names is enough to confuse the best of us.

The book is well paced, and with flashbacks and present events it paints the bizarre and complicated picture of the world without banging you on the head with information. Although Jant has the traits to become your typical anti-hero I feel it would be an insult to already redeemed anti-heroes by including him in their midst. Jant is, to put it plainly, a douchebag, and considering that he was a douchebag before he became immortal – and still is two hundred years later – I’d say he is not likely to change his ways. But oddly enough it’s still fascinating to read about him.

This is a book much recommended if you have grown tired of your usual fantasy and like something weird. It’s a story told from the perspective of strange people with strange habits in a strange world, but it’s a good story – and that’s all that matters.

Robot Overlord with laser pirate sword

I read an interesting article in Guardian about authors who pretty much wrote science-fiction, but refused to acknowledge that what they wrote was, in fact, science-fiction. The story might take place in the future, might explore the effects of apocalyptic events… but there are no lasers or robots. Therefore not sci-fi, right? In a way it’s understandable to refuse to be categorized and keep your doors open to a wider audience, but on the other hand it seems crazy to alienate the readership that is most likely to pick your book up. It reminds me a little of when the Sci Fi Channel changed its name to SyFy to become “less geeky.”

We categorize books to help us go to the right shelf and find the kind of books we like, and it also helps publishers who can market their books to the right audience. Without properly categorized books I would probably have my mom buy me Twilight for Christmas with the explanation “it stood between that George Martin and Elizabeth Moon that you like…”

But there certainly is a negative side to categories as well. For example, you wouldn’t get me to pick up a book from the “Vampire Romance” section even if the author had won the Nobel-price in literature. I shy away from some categories like vampires to garlic (sorry, I’ll stop picking on Twilight now), and I can only expect that normal people do the same. How many readers have George R.R. Martin lost at first glance because it’s filed as “fantasy” and seems to be about dragons?

The very same author also has a view of categories that I read in Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective some time ago. He calls it “the furniture rule”, and it basically boils down to that a work is categorized based on the furniture around it. If your hero is surrounded by dragons, knights and wizards then it’s going to be filed under fantasy. If there are space ships, aliens and lasers then it’s going under science-fiction. Of course nothing is never this clear, because where do you file a book about time travelling knights armed with lasers riding on dragons*? Or a detective wizard in our modern world? Or a western gunslinger in a post-apocalyptic world with strange portals?

I’m getting a magazine from my local fantasy/sci-fi bookstore a few times per year, and at first I was a bit surprised when I saw books there like Conn Iggulden’s historical fiction (I love that genre-name) books about Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan. Yes, it’s certainly not fantasy, but I have read them and I enjoyed them very much. In fact, if you like fantasy this is the kind of books you should also like.

No, let a story be just a story. Instead of only reading books from a certain genre search across the boundaries of categorization and sometimes heed the “if you liked this one…”-advice. Who knows, it just might stand in the Vampire Romance shelf.

* Sadly there is no such story yet. But admit, you would read it.

The tone of the novel is set right from the start in the prologue, with a loaming black storm and a sense that the battle is upon the world. I knew since the last DragonCon that part of the prologue was done by Robert Jordan himself, but where Jordan stopped and Brandon Sanderson begun I couldn’t tell at first. I did notice his style later during the reading, and Sanderson is definitely less free with his descriptions, instead preferring a tighter writing that still paints pictures satisfactory. Several times during the reading I entirely forgot that I was reading a different author than Jordan, only to be reminded later by noticing how “fast” things seemed to be moving.

Moving plots constantly forward has sadly been one of Jordan’s lacking feats, but something that Sanderson apparently has no trouble with. The book slows down a bit in the middle, but it is barely noticeable and no way near as painful as in some of the later books of the series. Yes, Winter’s Heart, I’m looking at you.

With only a few chapters about Mat, and Perrin only with a few pages, the entire book is more or less only about Rand and Egwene. Elayne and the Black Tower are completely absent, which is somewhat annoying, especially considering the ending of Knife of Dreams. One of the bigger faults of the Wheel of Time series is that it tries to do too much with too many people. If you let every character – and there is a lot of them – have their share of pages not much will happen, and if you only focus on a few you will miss the others.

While The Gathering Storm only focuses on two storylines it manages to do so wonderfully well. Rand struggle with his madness as he gathers his forces for the Last Battle and desperately tries to force the rest of the world under his banner. As people around him continue to worry about the Dragon Reborn’s sanity, he himself turns even more inwards as he tries to find a way to actually defeat the Dark One. Meanwhile, Egwene does all she can to reunite the shattered White Tower without breaking it completely, but even from within it’s no easy task.

Unlike the other books in the series, you can actually feel the Last Battle loaming over the world, instead of it being something everyone just talks about. The book is definitely a lot darker than others in the series, and I only expect it to get darker from here. It will be a scene with Rand in the middle of the book that will shock you deeply. You will get the impression – very strongly – that the Dark One is not just sitting and waiting, and that he is deviously cunning.

Since I hadn’t read anything of Sanderson’s work previously I was a bit concerned that characters would feel unfamiliar, but I felt that he nailed almost every one of them perfectly. The “almost” is there because of Mat, who I felt wasn’t entirely familiar. He was more humorous – up to the point where I actually laughed out loud on several occasions – but while he had previously been more of a sardonic rogue he was almost too much here. I didn’t dislike him – I actually liked him very much – but I didn’t recognize him as the Mat from previous books.

Sanderson does a wonderful job on all the other characters, and even does a fairly good job on most of the women. I didn’t notice any who complained about the sweetness of their tea, Aes Sedai didn’t think so much of themselves (they still do, only a bit less), Nynaeve kept her braid-pulling to a minimum, and Egwene didn’t want to box someone’s ears all the time. He even managed to make Cadsuane into a slightly more understandable character, and that is no small feat.

Although the Forsaken are having appearances and clashes with Rand, they are not providing the usual action-filled climatic endings like in previous books of the series. Instead (I don’t think I spoil anything here) there is a very powerful and emotional scene with Rand, standing at the top of Dragonmount, where he begins to doubt the very cause he is committed to, the futility, and why he fights. It is very possibly the best scene in the series, and a perfect ending that sets the tone for the remaining two books.

So to conclude, The Gathering Storm might have a new writer, but the series remains true to its vision and there is not a single time I felt that Jordan would have done differently. It is extremely well written, and it’s nice to see storylines that has kept going throughout the series come to conclusions in most satisfying ways. The Gathering Storm is without a doubt the best book in the series so far, and it strongly shows that Sanderson is committed, and perfect, for the job of finishing the most epic fantasy series of them all.

Back when I started reading fantasy my English was crap. So the natural process was to pick up book translated to Swedish, in my case books by David Eddings. These days I wouldn’t touch an Eddings book even with a long stick, but back then it was they who got me into fantasy. One thing led to another, and I ended up borrowing translated Wheel of Time books (the translated title is “The Saga of the Return of the Dragon” or something stupid like that) from a friend who had all the books (to that date).

Reading translated books is a pain. Not only is there a margin for misinterpretation from the translator (ask me about the Swedish version of Lord of the Rings), but you first have to wait for the author to write and publish the book, and then for the local publisher to translate and publish it. Since for some unfathomable reason English to Swedish translations turns up with a much larger volume of words, the already thick Wheel of Time books each has to be cut in two. So while the rest of the world grumbles and mutters about eleven books, Swedish people are looking at twenty-two books. Yes, that’s right. Twenty-two.

Each of them for the price of a full book of course.

Now this could be a tragic tale in itself, but what is worse is that the Swedish publisher now has decided not to translate and publish the last three (to be six in Swedish) books by Brandon Sanderson.

The publisher cites declining sales and the death of the original author as reasons, and I guess that seems reasonable. No one really wants to wait another year for the translation when a new book is published. I know I didn’t. The entire mission of translating and publishing a vast book series like Wheel of Time seems doomed to fail at start, but I guess they didn’t anticipate it would take them twenty-five years to do it. When I started reading it all those years ago it wasn’t finished, and as soon as I ran out of translated books I picked up the untranslated ones and never looked back. I guess everyone will do that now.

But doesn’t the publisher have some kind of duty to fulfill the task they set out to do, no matter how long time it takes? What of all the people who have twenty-two books in their bookcase and can never complete the series?

The wedded writing duo of Jim Butcher and Shannon K. Butcher have quite a few tidbits for you.

First up is the man himself and the upcoming launch of Codex Alera book 6, First Lord’s Fury (Available from Amazon right now for a mind-boggling $9). If any of you can stand the suspense and fancy a minor spoiler, I direct you to the preview page on Jim’s site where every Tuesday we’ll get just a little more, so far we’re up to Chapter 3.

Shannon too has a book launch this November with the second in her Sentinel Wars series with excerpts for both “Finding The Lost” and the first book “Burning Alive” available on her site above.

Both can also be found on Twitter for those of you out there who have the social media bug. @Longshotauthor for Jim and @ShannonKButcher for Shannon.

(Word of warning though, Jim recently gave us the first line to the next Harry Dresden book, Changes, on Twitter. Spoiler doesn’t quite cover it.)