Knot of Shadows hc releases soon
Later: Word on the Street (or at least from Uncle Hugo's) is that SubPress now doesn't expect to be printing this novella till the end of February, for release early March. I'm glad I wasn't more definite in my announcement... Other publishers are also having supply chain problems about paper, apparently.
Earlier: The Subterranean Press signed limited edition of the novella "Knot of Shadows" is due for release shortly. (SubPress sometimes has issues with their printers, so release dates tend to be a little vague.) Anyway, I was very pleased to see another pro review of it, in the venerable Locus magazine:
https://locusmag.com/2023/01/paul-di-...
Which answers, in a very satisfactory way, a question I'm finding ever harder to get settled in the draft stage, whether a story well into a series would work as a stand-alone for a newcomer who hadn't read any others. Yay! Granted di Filippo is very genre-savvy, which gives him a leg up, but still.
"Knot of Shadows" may be pre-ordered directly from SubPress, or from Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore or Dreamhaven Books & Comics here in Minneapolis. As a limited edition, it will not be available through Amazon or the like this round.
https://subterraneanpress.com/knot-of...
Be warned it's a pretty slim vol for the price; the economics of this sort of collector's publishing would take a whole 'nother essay. Cheap reading e-copies are available on 4 vendor platforms as usual, Kindle, Nook, Apple Books, and Kobo.
Ta, L.
Earlier: The Subterranean Press signed limited edition of the novella "Knot of Shadows" is due for release shortly. (SubPress sometimes has issues with their printers, so release dates tend to be a little vague.) Anyway, I was very pleased to see another pro review of it, in the venerable Locus magazine:
https://locusmag.com/2023/01/paul-di-...
Which answers, in a very satisfactory way, a question I'm finding ever harder to get settled in the draft stage, whether a story well into a series would work as a stand-alone for a newcomer who hadn't read any others. Yay! Granted di Filippo is very genre-savvy, which gives him a leg up, but still.
"Knot of Shadows" may be pre-ordered directly from SubPress, or from Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore or Dreamhaven Books & Comics here in Minneapolis. As a limited edition, it will not be available through Amazon or the like this round.
https://subterraneanpress.com/knot-of...
Be warned it's a pretty slim vol for the price; the economics of this sort of collector's publishing would take a whole 'nother essay. Cheap reading e-copies are available on 4 vendor platforms as usual, Kindle, Nook, Apple Books, and Kobo.
Ta, L.
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Jonathan
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Jan 31, 2023 04:52AM
In the Locus review, the mild criticism of Alixtra’s role has some validity in principle, but of course he hasn’t read the preceding stories and doesn’t realize how she came to be there. Penric didn’t recruit her as an assistant: he was more or less obliged by circumstances to accept her as a student. If Penric wanted an assistant with complementary rather than similar skills, I wonder what sort of assistant he’d be looking for? A shaman perhaps? But he has some shaman tricks of his own by now. A saint could be occasionally useful, but would disturb Desdemona.
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Jonathan wrote: "In the Locus review, the mild criticism of Alixtra’s role has some validity in principle, but of course he hasn’t read the preceding stories and doesn’t realize how she came to be there. Penric did..."Ayup. Alixtra wasn't intended as a Watson to Pen's Holmes, as the reviewer was led to posit by the mystery structure of that particular tale, but rather, one of those shout-outs to faithful series readers updating a side character whose fate they may be interested in. Different narrative role.
I'll know the story really worked if the reviewer goes back and reads more from the series voluntarily, not for work.
(Pen actually has a bright assistant at hand already, Nikys, but she's rather busy at the moment!)
:-), L.
Yes, thanks, I thought that’s what Alixtra was there for. It’s a bit of a snag, when you write so many appealing minor characters, everyone wants to read more about them—I want to read more about them—but the stories would be overcrowded if you tried to cram them all in.
Lois wrote: "Ayup. Alixtra wasn't intended as a Watson to Pen's Holmes, as the reviewer was led to posit by the mystery structure of that particular tale, but rather, one of those shout-outs to faithful series readers updating a side character whose fate they may be interested in. Different narrative role."Indeed, and as a faithful series reader, I was very happy to see her again. The same goes for the look-ins on the Corva sisters we get in the recent stories. It's good to know that all the "pets" Pen and Des have rescued over the past few years are thriving! :)
Lois wrote: "(Pen actually has a bright assistant at hand already, Nikys, but she's rather busy at the moment!)"
I miss Nikys. She seems to have retired to the sidelines in the recent stories. Is there any chance we'll see her in a leading role (with/without POV chapters) in a future story, the way we did in the Mission/Dance/Prisoner trilogy?
Mitali wrote: ..."I miss Nikys. She seems to have retired to the sidelines in the recent stories. Is there any chance we'll see her in a leading role (with/without POV chapters) in a future story, the way we did in the Mission/Dance/Prisoner trilogy?"Not sure. Readers who call for her seem to consistently underestimate or devalue how much 24/7 attention and energy keeping small children alive takes, especially in a hazardous and grueling pre-industrial setting. She is doing a critically important job in story-now. So any plot with her would have to either work around child-care, or take place later in her life when the demands ease a bit. Or be a disastrous/horrific interruption of some kind, which I'm presently unwilling to inflict upon the poor woman.
Ta, L.
Lois wrote: "Pen actually has a bright assistant at hand already, Nikys, but she’s rather busy at the moment!"Well, Nikys is his wife: she assists in his domestic life, not normally in his working life. As you point out, she doesn’t have time to be a sorcerer’s assistant. Even if she had the time, it’s not clear in what way she could make herself useful in his working life; although doubtless you could think of something if you put your mind to it.
Skip ahead some years, and you could get some comic moments out of Nikys and the children all trying to be sorcerer’s assistants. The situation has potential. Although they might be genuinely useful at times, not merely comic. I’m reminded of Amelia Peabody and her precocious son Ramses, in the series of novels by Elizabeth Peters.
Lois wrote: "Mitali wrote: ..."I miss Nikys. She seems to have retired to the sidelines in the recent stories. Is there any chance we'll see her in a leading role (with/without POV chapters) in a future story, ..."It is a shame there is not a domestic comedy or something of the like percolating in the back of your mind with these characters. I'd love to have some just calm moments with Pen and Nikys sipping tea in the morning sunshine, taking a pause from getting the kids ready for an outing or school or whatever the equivalent is. I keep picturing their home as villa with dappled sun and cozy nooks for tea or wine and fruit. I need to reread some to see if my memory and imagination match with your descriptions.
Remember, Nikys did contribute in an important way in Knot, finding and obtaining the dolphin pin and thus allowing Pen to find and converse with the fellows who provided the corpse with a burial at sea of sorts and compete his understanding of the chain of events.I also enjoy the little domestic bits we get in the Penric tales and would love a story composed mainly of such aspects of their lives, even though I suppose that the critics would say "nothing happens". I like "slice of life" stories.
But whatever Lois decides to write about. (But I am glad that she hasn't written a domestic disaster that would force Nikys front and center to save her children.)
Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries would be a better comparison if Alixtra were Penric's legman (or amanuensis, as I think Wolfe calls Archie at some point).
I'd love to read a story of Nikys. I have to believe that any children of Nikys and Pen would be the bright, inquiring sort who get into any amount of trouble. But then I will read (and buy!) anything that Lois chooses to add to that series.
