I almost gave this post a rather grand title along the lines of “The Most Important Introduction to Fantasy?” I decided to let my British reserve win out, but I think Epic could well be the best thing to happen to Fantasy newbies for a long time. It’s an anthology that, quite obviously, takes Epic Fantasy as its premise, and editor Joseph John Adams has drawn together a quite spectacular roster of new and established authors.
This is a big event. Rather bigger than I could reasonably cope with on my own (I’m delicate in massive crowds…), but what a blast! Also, perhaps the most insanely generous place I’ve ever been to. I was there from just after 9am until 2:30pm, and people forced on me 14 books! Ok, “forced” is probably pushing it, but still – they were more than happy to give them to me, and in seven instances, also sign them! So, below is just a quick run-down of the day, and some info on the books I picked up – all of which should feature on the blog at some point in the near future, and obviously some sooner than others. It was also nice to bump into some friendly faces – Myke Cole, Joshua Bilmes, Michael “Mad Hatter” and Jennie from Fantasy Faction, and a handful of other drive-by hello-enjoy-goodbye moments.
Anyway, here’s the pile of awesome:
As some readers may already know, I’ve not been reading fantasy or science fiction for very long. Because of this, most of my SF/F reviews have been of newly or recently released titles.
In 2011, this will change.
I’m not going to stop reading and reviewing new titles (far from it – there are just too many exciting novels published this year to forgo), but I am going to do something I’ve been meaning to do for some time now – that is, catch up on the ‘classic’, ‘great’, and established fantasy titles and series. The reviews will all be prefixed as “Latecomer”, so should be easy to find as and when they start arriving.
I haven’t got them all picked out, yet, but here is a first selection of titles I’ll be reading (please feel free to leave suggestions in the comments):
James Barclay, Dawnthief (Gollancz)
George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones (Voyager)
Tad Williams, Shadowmarch & The Dragonbone Chair (Orbit)
Neal Asher, Gridlinked (Tor)
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Empire in Black and Gold (Tor)
Joe Abercombie, The Blade Itself (Gollancz)
Robin Hobb, Assassin’s Apprentice (Voyager)
Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire (Gollancz)
Tom Lloyd, Stormcaller (Gollancz)
Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World (Orbit)
Steven Brust, The Book of Jhereg (Ace)
Whether or not I get to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series will depend on how much I like the latter’s The Way of Kings, which I have already bought for my Kindle.
So, there’s the selection I’ve come up with for the moment. I’m sure there are others, and there’s no set order in which I’m going to read them, and there’s no guarantee that I will end up in the mood for them, but they’re all series I’ve been meaning to read for some time, and I just don’t want to keep putting them off for much longer. If I had to put money on it, I’d say James Barclay and Joe Abercrombie are the certainties, with Tom Lloyd and Adrian Tchaikovsky the two most likely after them.
Anyway, watch this space…
