Max Gladstone's Blog, page 14

TWO SERPENTS RISE is Out Today!

As of today, TWO SERPENTS RISE, my next novel, is available wherever books are sold.  I’m a bit overwhelmed.

I spoke with Alyssa Rosenberg of ThinkProgress about the book, magical economics, the Craft Sequence, and other insanity—the interview ended up being really great, and you should check it out!

I also dropped by SF Signal to write about how “You got your fantasy in my science fiction!” and vice versa.

Books, Bones, and Buffy came out with a great early review of the book, which I’ll stick up on the wall with PW’s Starred Review, the review where Locus compares me to Tolkien, and the bit where the RT called it a “stellar, engaging read.”  Because this process is scary, y’all, and it helps to be reminded that some folks think I’m getting it right.

So why wait? Buy the book today on Amazon, IndieBound, Barnes and Noble, or Powell’s, depending on your personal preference.  And if you want a bit of a teaser, I assembled this TWO SERPENTS RISE TEASER TRAILER SCRIPT, which if you read it should give you a decent movie trailer’s worth of an idea what you’re in for.

Thanks so much, everyone.  Happy reading!

TWO SERPENTS RISE – Out Tomorrow – Trailer Today!

TWO SERPENTS RISE comes out tomorrow, everybody.

This is awesome.

I’ve always loved trailers, and I wanted to put one together for this book.  While I don’t have access to the hardware and expertise required to actually shoot a trailer for something like Two Serpents Rise, I do have a copy of FinalDraft, a PDF exporter, and a sense of humor.  So I present to you:

TWO SERPENTS RISE TEASER TRAILER SCRIPT

Warning: this trailer obviously features scenes from the book.  It’s light on plot, high on spectacle—think atmospheric teaser rather than ENORMOUS PLOT REVEAL INSANITY.  But if you’re very spoiler conscious, maybe stay clear?  Or don’t.  As you wish.

TWO SERPENTS RISE Signings, and THREE PARTS DEAD $2.99 Sale

Greetings human beings from Planet Getting Ready For Book Launch, where we spend our days listening to Vienna Teng and Cake as we prepare for our book to come out NEXT TUESDAY AAAAH.

I am compiling schemes with regard to the plans I mentioned yesterday for Two Serpents Rise giveaways—expect more on that when I’ve assembled a sufficient lead time on my various guestblog posts and interviews.  In the meantime, I thought I’d fill y’all in on signing plans for TWO SERPENTS RISE, and announce an awesome sale Tor’s running for the rest of the month.

SIGNING / BIG EVENT SCHEDULE TIME:

Tuesday, October 29: LAUNCH PARTY at Pandemonium Books and Games, 4 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA, 7:00 PM!  Come say hello, have a pastry, hear me read, recommend me books, grill me about magic systems, discuss your favorite Star Wars theories, communicate with me in Hawkguy-creepy-Russian-speak (basically you just say bro a lot), have a great time!
Tuesday, November 5: Reddit AMA at r/fantasy!  I did one of these super question-and-answer sessions last year, and it was a blast.  I look forward to even more blasting.
Saturday, November 9: New York City Signing at Enigma Bookstore, 33-17 Crescent Street, Astoria, New York, 7:00 PM!  I am informed that Astoria is actually within New York City, even though it’s not within New York County, which—awesome!  I’ll be signing with some other folks here—Laura Ann Gilman and Hal Johnson—and we should have an excellent time.
Tuesday, November 19: Signing at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, MA, 7:00 PM! Back in the habit, just like Sister Act 2.  Readings.  Signings.  Possible performance art!  Probably no performance art.  But still, not an event to miss.
December 6-8: Anonycon in Stamford, CT.  Last year we ran a game based in the Craft Sequence world.  This year, possibly more games?  Also I’ll be there writing and hanging out and signing books, so come and say hi!

More madness will transpire throughout the next several weeks, but those are the in-person and / or live highlights.  However!  You may be interested to know, in case you didn’t already, that in preparation for the TWO SERPENTS RISE launch, Tor Books has cut prices on THREE PARTS DEAD ebooks down to $2.99 for the rest of the month of October.  Always wanted an electronic copy?  Get one now!  Available wherever fine ebooks are sold!  For example, available on Barnes and Noble! iBookstore! Those Guys Named After The River!  Other places too, I’m sure.

Time to run, but rock on folks!

First Carton of Two Serpents Rise Arrives!

A strange box showed up at my door yesterday.  I wonder what it might contain!

 

Well, okay.  Fair enough.  The post title kind of gives it away, right?

 

Look at them all—beautiful.  And I’d like to get them in the hands of people!  I have an idea, a scheme.  What if I were to give some of these books away under the condition that the giver then pass the book along, and the next reader pass it along in turn?  We could write a list in the front of the book of everyone who has read it so far.  Thoughts?

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago, in a Hive Far Far Away?

There are no humans in Star Wars.

This should be obvious from the title card.  We’re a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.  Human beings evolved on this planet, Sol 3, over the last sixty million years or so depending on how you count.  If we don’t want to go all “Chariots of the Gods?” we have to throw out the notion that the people represented by human actors in Star Wars movies are in fact human.  They’re something else.

Why represent them as human?  Let’s assume that the Star Wars movies are dramatizations of real history: that Luke, Leia, Han et. al. actually existed in a galaxy long, long ago (etc.), and that George Lucas accessed this history via the Force and wanted to represent it on film.  Star Wars tells the story of a dominant-species empire arising from a pluralistic society, then being overthrown by courageous rebels and warrior monks.  Lucas had to cast this drama with human actors, and the obvious choice was to use unmodified humans to represent the most common species.

While convenient, this approach does present one problem: watching the Original Trilogy, we assume that the ‘humans’ of the GFFA (Galaxy Far Far Away) are biologically and sociologically identical to Sol 3 humans.  When obviously they’re not!  In fact, I think a few important context clues present a very different picture of the dominant race of the Original Trilogy.

Gender is the most important clue.  The Original Trilogy has a shortage of women when considered by the standards of a two-sexed mammalian species.  Leia is the most prominent female, and the only one to feature in all three movies.  Aunt Beru and Mon Mothma also have named speaking roles.  Aside from these three, I can’t think of another definitely-female-definitely-’human’ in the series.  In RotJ Leia describes her mother, who is obviously a queen.  These females all possess at least local political and social authority.

Family is a second important clue—or, rather, the absence of family.  With one notable exception, people in the series don’t talk much about parentage.  No non-Force sensitive male ever describes his family, if I recall correctly.  Han, Lando, Wedge, Biggs, Tarkin, Dodonna, and so forth, all might as well have sprung from the brows of their ships.  In six+hours of film about war, I would expect to see someone to drop at least a single reference to parents of some sort.  The lack of strong family ties suggests that parenting relationships are much less close for most GFFA ‘humans’ than for Sol 3 humans—which in turn suggests large brood sizes, short gestation periods, young ages of maturity, or all of the above.

So we’re looking for an organism with large brood sizes, young ages of maturity, short gestation periods, and relatively few fertile females who naturally assume positions of social and organizational authority.

Here is my modest theory: the GFFA’s ‘humans’ are in fact sentient hive insects, organized around a single queen, a handful of fertile males, and a horde of infertile female soldiers.  For parsimony’s sake, let’s assume that Force sensitivity in this species is possessed by fertile males and females, and that male actors used to represent non-Force sensitive characters are actually representing infertile females.

This explains a few things:

The Emperor’s Reproductive and Political Strategy.  The Emperor, a fertile male, has  replaced the old Queen, substituting the use of clone warriors for ‘normal’ biological reproduction.
The Horror of the Clone Wars.  The true horror of the Clone Wars thus becomes clear.  They’re not just wars in which cloning technology is used.  They’re wars in which the fundamental structure of the ‘human’ species is inverted: wars in which queens are killed, hives consolidated, and clones take the place of biological reproduction.  Wars about the use of clones instead of queens.
The Deal with Jabba’s Humanoid Slaves.  Doesn’t it seem weird that a presumably hermaphroditic gastropod should be so fascinated by displaying captive females of another phylum in bikinis?  The Hive Insect theory makes this habit a clear and calculated display of dominance, communicating to ‘human’ visitors that Jabba is to ‘human’ queens as queens are to drones and soldiers.  (This also suggests that Jabba’s interested in twi’lek girls because they look like ‘humans,’ but may be easier to come by—giving his character a bit of extra complexity, since he wants to communicate dominance to his followers in this way but isn’t able to do more than pretend until Leia comes along.)
Why Kill the Jedi?  I mean, sure, kill the old ones, but wouldn’t it be easier to convert younglings than wipe them out?  Well, drones in the absence of a queen naturally rear fertilized eggs into new queens.  If Palpatine is trying to destroy queen-dom, he cannot permit the existence of any drones who are not perfectly loyal to his New Order.  Conversion is apparently a brutal process.  Vader survived it; Luke might survive it.  Perhaps no one else did.
What’s with all the Death Stars?  It isn’t hard to annihilate all life on a planet from orbit.  If you’re in orbit, you’ve already done the hard part—just tractor some rocks into the surface.  Obviously a superweapon is nice to have, but why not build just the weapon and the shielding system?  That would be cheaper, certainly.  It seems that the superweapon is only part of the purpose of the Death Star—the Star is in fact an artificial hive, built as the perfect environment for the Emperor’s new clone-based society.

Admittedly, this doesn’t explain what’s going on between Leia and Han.  It’s possible that Han is in fact a drone and doesn’t know it—he is phenomenally lucky, after all, which suggests Force sensitivity.  On the other hand, it seems reasonable, given the importance of queens, that some sort of queen-soldier pairbonding could occur.  This may even be the sort of relationship that the Emperor is intending to replicate with Vader.

So that’s a theory.  I mean, what’s more likely—a Galaxy Far Far Away full of psychic alien super-bees, or one in which you can cross thirty solar systems and run into three women with speaking parts?

—

DISCLAIMER: I love Star Wars.  It rocks.  And precisely because of this, it’s fun to tweak.  Obviously, the above argument only refers to the OT; the EU features a much broader range of characters and situations, and I don’t want to be responsible for creating a consistent interpretation of the prequel trilogies.  (Though just off the top of my head, Naboo-’humans’ do seem to fit with Hive Insect theory.)

ComicCon Panel Today, Signing Tomorrow!

I’ve been an absentee blogger for the last couple weeks, I know, but it’s been for a good cause.  If all goes according to plan I’ll have an Exciting Announcement or two in a few weeks.

Today, I break radio silence because I want to fill you all in on my New York Comic Con schedule.  Read on!

Myth and Magic in the City

Today (Friday Oct. 11), 2:45PM, Room 1A17

Speakers: Anna Jarzab, Anton Strout, F. Paul Wilson, Jeff Hirsch, Max Gladstone (that’s me!), Benedict Jacka, Tonya Hurley

What’s the deal: Alternate histories, parallel worlds, mages and saints shape modern day fantasy and new legends in the making. Join Max Gladstone (Two Serpents Rise), Anna Jarzab (Tandem), Jeff Hirsch (The Eleventh Plague), Anton Strout (Stonecast), Benedict Jacka (Chosen) and Tonya Hurley (Precious Blood) as they discuss the art of writing Urban Fantasy with F. Paul Wilson (Dark City), one of the originals of the genre.

(This’ll be interesting!  Once again it looks like I’m on the borderline, with Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise both set in fantasyland circa late-millennial capitalism rather than in, say, Kansas City with fantasy elements.  Should make for a great discussion.)

Also today (Friday Oct. 11), 4PM, Autographing Table 21

Right after the UF panel, everyone runs over and signs books at Autographing Table 21!

TOMORROW  (Saturday Oct. 12), 5PM, Tor Books, Booth #2223

SIGNING (AND FREE BOOKS!) With me, myself, and I.

Tor has copies of Three Parts Dead, and we should have a few early finished copies of Two Serpents Rise for giveaway.  Come by, say hello, and let me scribble on your stuff!

Okay, I need to eat breakfast and then run off to this madhouse convention, but rock on, team internet, and I’ll see you soon.

Romantic Times Loves Two Serpents Rise. Also, xo Orpheus Anthology launches today!

xo Orpheus launches today!  If you liked my story Drona’s Death—about fatherhood, war, gods, and close air support—check out the other myths re-imagined and reconfigured in this anthology.  I’m here, Kit Reed is here, Brian Aldiss is here, Emma and Peter Straub are here, Madeline Miller’s here—august company.

On a related note, Romantic Times Book Reviews (reviewers of basically all genres in addition to romance) gave Two Serpents Rise four and a half stars—their highest rating!  (The story behind why Romantic Times doesn’t give out five star ratings is pretty awesome, and can be found here.)

According to RT Book Reviews:

Newcomers and fans of the series alike will enjoy the mystery, demon-caused mayhem, and fast-moving plot in this stellar, engaging read.

I hope you’re not surprised that this book contains mayhem.  Minor spoilers, I suppose.

 

A Week of Building Things

This week, I make stuff.

This week, I take level and compass and protractor and lumber plane and varnish to a manuscript, because next summer I want to have an awesome book to share with people.  This week I pray I won’t need a blowtorch in addition to the aforementioned tools.

This week, I write and code another scene for a game that will bring players deeper into the Craft universe than I’ve been able to take them already.  More choice, more magic, more demons, and more doubt.

This week, I have my hands full.

Next week, you’ll see more from me.

In the meantime, what’s on your plate?

Cover Proofs for Two Serpents Rise Are In!

I just got the cover proofs of Two Serpents Rise, and check it out.

Here’s a detail of the cover, complete with quotes from Carrie Vaughn and All Things UF:

And here’s the back cover, full of nice things people (including Elizabeth Bear, Tina Connolly, Publishers Weekly, LibraryJournal, Strange Horizons, and io9) are saying about this book and the last one:

Feeling pretty good over here.  Oh yeah.

New Short Story, Plus Library Journal Review, Plus 2SR News, Plus I’m Back!

I’m glad to see that you all have handled my radio silence with your usual aplomb.  I’ve spent the last week or so out of the country, in Ireland, on important Drinking Guinness and Listening to Music and Seeing Ancient Ruins business.  I spent time on a tiny island that could very easily have been the basis for an HP Lovecraft story, but rather than being creepy in any way it was really welcoming and beautiful and touching.  More on that later.  And also about Star Wars and bees.

I have to run off and buy supplies for dinner—Steph and I have, post-Ireland, sworn off alcohol and anything that vaguely resembles fish and chips for at least a few days—but I do have a few things to note!

First: I have a story, called Drona’s Death, in the anthology XO Orpheus, which comes out this month.  XO Orpheus is a collection of retellings of myths, and I contributed a piece adapting one of my favorite stories from the Mahabharata.  Check it out—you can read the full piece for free at tor.com:

The war rages on, and Drona is its heart.

I’m glad this piece is out there, (a) because it’s good and (b) because I don’t actually have a lot of current fiction available for free on the web.  The stuff I link at the right is good, but it’s also a few years old—I’m much better than that now, I think.

Also, Library Journal has nice things to say about Two Serpents Rise, adding to the general good vibes we’ve already received from PW and Locus:

Gladstone follows his acclaimed debut, THREE PARTS DEAD, with another fast-paced fantasy thriller set in the same world. This time, he focuses on the sprawling city of Dresediel Lex, rich in a history and culture reminiscent of the Aztecs, which serves as a dramatic backdrop for the novel’s action. This worthy sequel should receive attention from fans of China Miéville and Steven Erikson.

This book is netting me some seriously blushworthy comparisons.  I can’t bench nearly enough to be compared to China Mieville.

In other 2SR-related news, I’m chatting with the narrator for my audiobook tonight about pronunciations, tone, and the like.  The narrator is Chris Ciulla, and he seems like a pretty awesome reader.  Claudia Alick did a great job with Three Parts Dead, and I’m looking forward to having two stellar audiobooks out for this series.

Oh, and I saw some sketches for the next book cover today, and they’re GREAT but I can’t share them with you.  So hah!