Mark Lawrence

Saturday, 8 February 2014

Brandon Sanderson gets Jorg on his cover...

[UPDATE] In the comments below Katarzyna Chokecka-Jedrasiak (who blogged on this subject ten days ago) has pointed me at the forum comments on the Polish publisher's website where the publishers announced yesterday that because of contractual issues with the artwork they will now be going with a different cover and the release of The Way of Kings in Poland is to be pushed back a month.

I should note once more, I've made (and have) no complaint about the use of Jason Chan's cover for Sanderson's book. It's common practice to get multi-use out of covers, generally there are no contractual issues, and it's a great image that deserves to be seen. I blogged about it to share the news - it's fun to have something in common with such a big name - and to note my surprise owing to the level of book specific detail on the cover. [/UPDATE]

According to many sources - including the publisher's facebook page, this is to be the cover of Brandon Sanderson's novel, The Way of Kings, in Poland...

King of Thorns in Poland has this cover:

so the original Jason Chan art is definitely unused in Poland, and Jason is to be congratulated for getting his work on as high a profile book as The Way of Kings. I do wonder, though, what Sanderson fans will make of the cover detail specific to King of Thorns and full of meaning for that book, but presumably a bit random for any other work...

The dog skull...

Jorg's view ring showing the planet from orbit...

Jorg's burn scar...

Friday, 7 February 2014

What's in a name?

A recent discussion on twitter with Teresa Frohock, Kameron Hurley, ML Brennan, Courtney Schafer & Justin Landon brought to light the fact that many female fantasy authors - especially when writing epic or dark fantasy - are encouraged to use gender neutral names. This pressure arises because of a perception that readers of epic fantasy are less likely to buy books by women.

More surprising were reports that publishers sometimes ask female authors to emphasize the romantic elements in their work - i.e. to add some if they're not there or to bulk up what is there.

Teresa Frohock made the case that the blurbs on the back of female authored fantasy focus on the romantic elements of the story. One might also contend that the covers of female authored fantasy books often have a different theme to them than the male authored work.

I ran a quick poll of my followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook to see if I changed the K in Mark to a Y and became Mary Lawrence ... would that have affected their decision to buy Prince of Thorns?

The results indicate that 20% of those who voted would have been less likely to have bought the book.

& here's the result after opening the poll to reddit r/fantasy where the demographic is reportedly heavily skewed toward male readers. Here the % who would be less likely to read rises to 27% ...

Being a scientist, I have a theory. It's not a justification. I will pick my words very carefully to avoid any such implication - but inevitably someone will read this the wrong way, quite possibly on purpose.

I should note here that every single person (bar one short-lived publicity guy) I've interacted with in my various English language publishers has been a woman. I understand this is not an uncommon experience. It's foolish to suggest that these professionals are in any way biased against women. They are, however, making a living in an industry where sound commercial decisions are a must if they're to succeed as individuals and if their companies are to survive where others fail. Moreover the poll is the only 'solid' evidence here - the anecdote is interesting but beyond my experience - I offer it for debate, not as accusation.

My axioms:

- women are equal to men in their ability to write dark/epic fantasy

My evidence:

- the poll suggests a small but significant bias in the readership against female authors
- anecdote implies that female authors are sometimes asked to emphasize romantic elements
- commercial pressure given the bias (or perception of it) might lead publishers to select male authored work in this area over female. [note, the reverse may hold true for some other types of fiction.]

My thesis:

- this could be a vicious circle. The perception of a bias leads to selection of male authors and to changing female authored work to be more suited for a different market. This in turn may actually fulfill the prophecy - the female authored work will be more romancey, not because that's how women write but because that's what gets selected and where they get pushed. This in turn makes the reader bias technically correct - they may be less likely to get the epic/dark feel they're after from the female authors who make it to print. This reinforces the bias that strengthens the commercial pressure and so on and so on...

I wondered what kind of blurb and cover I might have got for Prince of Thorns if I really were a Mary Lawrence. It's impossible to tell. Though people have speculated on a number of alternatives!

Joe Abercrombie directed me to the upcoming female authored Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay:

And my editor, Jane Johnson, suggested (on the spur of the moment) that if I wrote such a book it might get a cover image like this by Tomasz Jedruszek!

I'm quite tempted to write that book now!

It should be added that the cover, blurb etc, shape our expectations about a book, even coloring what we take from it as we read. Certainly the 'dark' perception of my work causes people to focus on certain elements (say torture for example, which is not shown 'on screen' in Prince of Thorns) while ignoring them in other books that are perceived as light-hearted (The Lies of Locke Lamora contains at least one gruesome torture scene and numerous executions). So people may well over-play the romance elements in a female authored book and underplay them in male authored books... would some Jorg-Katherine reference have made it to the Prince of Thorns blurb if I were Mary? We'll never know.

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Dark, Darker, Darkest!

Or perhaps dark, darker, 'grimdark' as some would have it.

I was ... surprised by this comment on reddit the other day (referring to a book called 'The Darkness That Comes Before' that I've read and enjoyed):

Its darker than absolutely anything being written today <snip> After you read it, grimdark writers like Abercrombie and Lawrence will look like children in ghost costumes shouting "boo!"

Which I added to my observation of quite a few quotes over the years that my books are trying very hard to be dark, trying too hard to be darker, failing laughably to be darkest.

I boggle somewhat for several reasons

Firstly I've never felt my work to be particularly dark and it seems that the bulk of my readership agree with me.

Secondly there's the implication that I tried to be as dark as possible and Prince of Thorns was the result. Which is laughable. I could write something infinitely more dark with no effort. I didn't want to ... so I didn't. If I had then I doubt anyone would have published it, but since I was writing without any thought for publication I had complete liberty to do so. It just wasn't interesting to me to write that.

Thirdly, many of these comment carry the implication that this 'darkness' is some calculated and commercial tactic that authors enter into after close study of current trends to milk the public...

... here I can only speak for myself since I have observed that my writing process is very very different to many other authors. I would be very surprised to find that other writers were doing what has been suggested - but I've been very surprised before. What I can say is that I'd never heard of Abercrombie, Bakker, Morgan or any of the other writers lumped (or sometimes not lumped) into this supposed race to the bottom. I had read George Martin's first ASOIAF book by the time I started Prince of Thorns. I didn't expect to get published, I had no plans to try and be published, I had no appreciation of current trends, and if I did it would not have interested me. I wrote what I wanted to, for my own reasons. My inspiration was a book around 40 years old at the time.

It seems to me that there is a radical misconception among many commentators on the genre about how books are written, about the thought processes authors go through, and about the content of at least some of the books they choose to vilify as 'grimdark'.

There have been some heated debates across the blogosphere of late about genre and gender, followed by less heated debates about having less heated debates. These latter have focused on the tendency to assume the worst of the other party, and have repeatedly reiterated the idea that someone else calling for more of the thing they like is not the same as calling for less of what you like (the phrase 'zero sum game' has been drafted in from the literature of game theory). I'm far from sure that's actually true, publishing schedules, shelf-space and readership not being subject to arbitrarily rapid expansion - but that's another debate. What I am fairly sure of is that much of the detraction aimed at 'grimdark' (whatever it is exactly ... other than 'the thing I don't like'), often by people who don't seem to have read what they're complaining about but just 'have this feeling' ... what I'm fairly sure of is that this criticism really does seem to have the flavor "we want less of this thing - it's bad - it's wrong - we don't approve".

But perhaps I'm reading it wrong :)

In any event. I really don't think there's a race to go dark. You only have to look at the horror genre to see how dark things can get. And even there I generally get a sense of restraint, because whilst there may be a small market for torture porn I'm guessing that the people with the imaginations to really bring that stuff to life just don't fancy going there. They'd rather write something with more levels, more interest, and that exercised a spectrum of emotions. Rather than darkness as a goal in my writing I've always sought to move and exhilarate my reader - to make them passionate - to make them have to turn the page, not dread it.

Sunday, 2 February 2014

Dominoes, with books.

Here's a game I played with Justin Landon of Staffer's Book Reviews - the rules should be self-apparent:

(you will note it's the first non-trivial word that counts, not 'the' or 'a' etc)
(plurals and singular don't match but you can ignore apostrophes)
(single world titles match both ways)
(paper books only)
[contest has ENDED - though you can still have your efforts included]

And here's the longest chain I could make with books I own:

To reverse a title, turn the book upside down. So here we have: Lord:Lord/High:High/Deryni:Deryni/Rising:Rising

What's the longest chain you can make? Send me a photo & I'll put it here. The best one will win a FANTABULOUS prize! Send me your entry at empire_of_thorns@yahoo.co.uk

7? From Anita

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / The Girl Who Played With Fire / Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince / Prince of Thorns / King of Thorns / A Clash of Kings

'King' and 'Kings' don't match at the end, so it's a 6, but it still beats me!

8! From Vanessa.

Dreaming the Eagle / Eagle and the Raven / the Raven Queen / Queen of the Amazons / Last of the Amazons / the Last King / King of Thorns / Prince of Thorns

eagle:eagle/raven:raven/queen:queen/amazons:amazons/last:last/king:king/thorns:thorns

9! From Garrett.

The Spy Who Haunted Me / Dead to Me / Walking Dead / Dead Man Walking / Three Parts Dead / Three / Three Days to Dead / Dead Iron / Iron Kisses

10? From Malin

So this uses Swedish books (which is fine) and matches 'kung' to 'king' which I'll allow since they're the same word, but it also matches compound words 'onskasang' to 'sang' which is a step too far. So really it's a valiant 6 - which still beats me, but not Garrett.

11? From Harry

The Final Empire / Empire in Black and Gold / Storm of Swords / The Gathering Storm / A Gathering of Light / The Light of Burning Shadows / The Way of Shadows / The Way of Kings / The Last Argument of Kings / Last and First Men / The Sum of All Men

I've ruled against tablets but since we have a 12 and a 20 below the point is moot!

14? From Kent

Dark of deep below / dark prince / prince of thorns / king of thorns / dragon king / dragons of winter night / white night / white wolf / hunting wolf / the night is for hunting / night dragon / dragons of winter night / dead of night / deadhouse gates

Sadly 'dragon' and 'dragons' don't match, plus 'dragons of winter night' is used twice, and 'dead' and 'deadhouse' don't match... reducing a proud 14 to a gutsy 7.

12! From T.O. (A historian takes the lead!)

A non-fantasy selection! A taste of Scotland / A taste of Ireland / Great folk tales of old Ireland Great Commanders and their Battles / Great air Battles / Alfred the Great / Alfred warrior King / The Winter King (Bernard Cornwell's legend of Arthur) / Winter King (Thomas Penn's biography of Henry VII) / King of Thorns / Prince of Thorns / Edward Prince of Wales and Aquitaine: a Biography of the Black Prince

A new leader!

20! From Amanda (yay for physicists!)

Introduction to Electrodynamics / (An) Introduction to Quantum Physics / (An) Introduction to Thermal Physics / Introduction to Quantum Mechanics / Fundamentals of Quantum Mechanics / Fundamentals of Physics / Physics For Scientists and Engineers/ with Modern Physics / (The) Physics of Stars / Astrophysics I Stars / Introduction to High Energy Astrophysics / (An) Introduction to Active Galactic Nuclei / Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei / (An) Introduction to Modern Astrophysics / Galaxies in the Universe An Introduction / Astronomy Volume II Stars & Galaxies / Astronomy / Laboratory Experiments for Astronomy / Laboratory Exercises in Astronomy / Astronomy A Beginner’s Guide to the Universe / Exploration of the Universe

24? Vivianne

*At the Mountains of Madness / The Mad Ship / Ship of Magic / Cold Magic / Cold Fire / Fire / A Fire in the North / Kings of the North / Way of Kings / The Way of Shadows / Shadows / *Shadow Souls / *The Emperor's Soul / The Emperor's Knife / Knife of Dreams / Dust of Dreams / The Kingdoms of Dust / *Kingdom of Gods / *God's War / Warbreaker / *Breaking Dawn / The Robots of Dawn / *I, Robot / **I Zandramas Spår

Some self-confessed rule bending here means that really it's a 10-chain.

27! Cherie

Crystal line / crystal singer / the wind singer / shadow of the wind / shadow's edge / fate's edge / fool's fate / fool moon / shadow moon / shadow dawn / dawn spell / spell bound / blood bound / blood lines / power lines / the white mists of power / white night / city of night / city of bones / dragon bones / dragon's fire / fire dragon / dragon prince / prince of thorns / king of thorns / the wolf king / night of the wolf [ breaks] summer knight / summer tree

33? Michael

Prince of Thorns / King of Thorns / Magician King / Magician / Magician: Apprentice / Assassin's Apprentice / Assassin of Gor / Blood Brothers of Gor / Prince of the Blood / Prince of Chaos / Lord of Chaos / Lord of Castle Black / Black Sun Rising / The Rising / The Shadow Rising / Shadow of a Dark Queen / Queen of Blood / Reign of Blood / To Reign in Hell / When We Join Jesus in Hell / When True Night Falls / Darkness Falls / Lost in Darkness / Last Exit for the Lost / The last Dark / Dark of the Sun / Book of the New Sun / Book of the Short Sun / Midnight Sun / Towers of Midnight / The Two Towers / The Two Dead Girls / Bull Running for Girls

OK, I'm impressed! There's a quibble over Magician / Magician: Apprentice being the same book, but if they are then it's still a 32.

39! Doug

Seeker / Angel seeker (reversed) / Night angel / White night (reverse) / White dragon / Dragon Prince / Prince of thorns / King of thorns (reversed) / King of Dreams / City of lost dreams (reversed) / City and the City / City at the end of time / Time of the dark / Dark man / Hollow man (reversed) / Hollow City / City in winter / Wolf of winter (reversed) / Wolf speaker / Speaker for the dead / The book of the dead (reversed) / Book of the Mad / Mad ship / Ship if magic / Magic in the blood / Blood of Dragons / City of dragons (reversed) / City of Sorcery / Queen of Sorcery (reversed) / Honor of the queen (reversed) / Witch queen (reversed) / Witch world / World without end / Magicians end (reversed) / (The Magicians by Grossman goes here, I haven't found where it's currently at yet.) / Magicians apprentice / Assassins apprentice (reversed) (Hobb) / Kronor the Assassins (reversed) / Kronor the betrayal / Betrayal in winter / Winter rose / Rose daughter / Daughter of the blood / Promise of Blood (reversed) (McClellan) (not shown cause I just thought of it:-)

Promise of Blood & The Magicians not counted in the 42.

...however Honor of the Queen appears to be matching both ways ... so it's 'only' 29.

Probably salvageable into something longer than 29 though.

52! Michael

With the last hours ticking away are we looking at our winner with this 2nd bite at the cherry by Michael? (photo sent in high res with titles readable)

(Strange) Strange Harvest (Harvest) / (Harvest) Dark Harvest (Dark) / (Dark) Dark Gods (Gods) / (Gods) Other Gods (Other) / (Other) The Other Side (Side) / (Side) The Darker Side (Darker) / (Darker) Darker Angels (Angels) / (Angels) The Ash Angels (Ash) / (Ash) The Sea of Flesh and Ash (Sea) / (Sea) Fire Sea (Fire) / (Fire) A Darkness Forged in Fire (Darkness) / (Darkness) Lost in Darkness (Lost) / (Lost) Last Exit for the Lost (Last) / (Last) The Last Dark (Dark) / (Dark) Dark of the Sun (Sun) / (Sun) The Book of the New Sun (Book) / (Book) The Book of Dreams (Dreams) / (Dreams) Dreams of Terror and Death (Death) / (Death) Swords Against Death (Swords) / (Swords) A Crown of Swords (Crown) / (Crown) Crown of Shadows (Shadows) / (Shadows) Knight of Shadows (Knight) / (Knight) The Knight (Knight) / (Knight) Summer Knight (Summer) / (Summer) A Shadow in Summer (Shadow) / (Shadow) Shadow of a Dark Queen (Queen) / (Queen) Queen of Blood (Blood) / (Blood) Reign of Blood (Reign) / (Reign) To Reign in Hell (Hell) / (Hell) When We Join Jesus in Hell (When) / (When) When True Night Falls (Falls) / (Falls) Black Mercy Falls (Black) / (Black) Lord of Castle Black (Lord) / (Lord) Lord of Chaos (Chaos) / (Chaos) Prince of Chaos (Prince) / (Prince) Prince of the Blood (Blood) / (Blood) Blood Brothers of Gor (Gor) / (Gor) Assassin of Gor (Assassin) / (Assassin) Assassin's Apprentice (Apprentice) / (Apprentice) Magician: Apprentice (Magician) / (Magician) Magician (Magician) / (Magician) Magician King (King) / (King) King of Thorns (Thorns) / (Thorns) Prince of Thorns (Prince) / (Prince) Rise of a Merchant Prince (Rise) / (Rise) I Will Rise (I) / (I) I Am America (And So Can You!) (You) / (You) Bleed For You (Bleed) / (Bleed) Bleed With Me (Me) / (Me) Fear Me (Fear) / (Fear) Fear Nothing (Nothing) / (Nothing) Nothing's Sacred (Sacred)

68! Doug

The Gathering Storm : Storm of Swords : Crown of Swords : Crown of Shadows : Lord of Snow and Shadows : The High Lord : High Deryni : Deryni Rising : Black Sun Rising : The Black Unicorn : The Last Unicorn : Last Call : First Rider's Call : The First Dragon : Dragon Prince : Prince of the Blood :The Blood King : King of Thorns : Prince of Thorns : Prince of Demons : Queen of Demons : Shadow of a Dark Queen : Shadow Moon : Fool Moon : Golden Fool : The Golden City : City of the Lost : Lost in a Good Book : The Book of Three : The Drawing of the Three : Drawing Out the Dragons : The Shadow Dragons : The Shadow Rising : The Dark is Rising : Dark River : River God : God's War : The Paradise War : Trouble in Paradise : Trouble On Cloud City : City of the Dead : King of the Dead : King's Dragon : Dragon Rule : Wizard's Fist Rule : Witch & Wizard : Winter Witch : The Dragons of Winter : Winter Prey : Night Prey : Dragons of Winter Night : Night's Daughter : Daughter of the Empire : Servant of the Empire : Servant of the Dragon : Red Dragon : Red Shadows : Plague of Shadows : The Emperor's Plague : The Emperor's Knife : Knife of Dreams : Dust of Dreams : Graveyard Dust : The Graveyard Book : The Book of Lost Things : The God of Small Things : The Scourge of God : Scourge of the Betrayer

70! TJ

Seeker (mcdevitt) / Angel seeker (reversed) (Shinn) / Night angel (weeks)
White night (reverse) (butcher) / White dragon (McCaffery) / Dragon Prince (Rawn)
Prince of thorns / King of thorns (reversed) / King of Dreams (Silverberg) / City of lost dreams (reversed) (flyte) / City and the City (mieville) / City at the end of time (Bear) / Time of the dark (hambly) / Dark man (King) / Hollow man (reversed) (simmons) / Hollow City (wells) / City in winter (helprin) /Wolf of winter (reversed) (volsky) / Wolf speaker (pierce) / speaker for the dead (card) / The book of the dead (reversed) (Lee) / Book of the Mad (Lee) / Mad ship (hobb)
Ship if magic (Hobb) / Magic in the blood (monk) / Blood of Dragons (Hobb) / City of dragons (reversed) (Hobb) / City of Sorcery (Bradley) / Queen of Sorcery / (reversed) (Eddings) / Witch queen (reversed) (Siegel) / Witch world (Norton) / World without end (Russell) / Magicians end (reversed) (feist) / Magicians apprentice (canavan) / Assassins apprentice (reversed) (Hobb) / Kronor the Assassins (reversed) (feist) / Kronor the betrayal (feist) / Betrayal in winter (Abraham) / Winter rose (McKillip) / Rose daughter (mckinley) / Daughter of the blood (bishop) / Scenting Hallowed Blood (reverse) (Constantine) / Scenting the Dark (Kowal) / Dark is Rising (Cooper) / Shadow Rising (reverse) (Jordan) / Shadow (duncan) / Shadow of the Wind (Zafon) / Name of the wind (reverse) (rothfuss) / name of the rose (eco) / Crystal rose (bohnhoff) / Crystal city (card) / City of Bones (wells) / bones of haven (green) / guards of haven (reversed) (green) / guards guards (pratchett) / phoenix guards (reversed) (Brust) / Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix (reversed) (rowling) / Harry Potter and the half blood prince (rowling) / prince of fire and ashes (reiman) / ashes of victory (weber) / victory (cooper) / victory of eagles (novick) / fortress of eagles (reverse) (Cherryh) / fortress of ice (Cherryh) / ice dragon (Martin) / Dragon (Brust) / Dragon knight (Dickson) / True Knight (reversed) (dexter) / True Game (tepper) / End of the game (reversed) (tepper) / End of the matter (Foster)

105! Queen Nadine *winner*

Numerous close-ups provided to cover entire set in legible detail.

The repeat titles (mostly 'calculus' are separate books by different authors)

1. The Big Book of Movie Music

2. Soul Music

3. The Emperor’s Soul

4. The Emperor’s New Mind

5. Children of the Mind

6. Children of the Blood

7. Prince of Blood

8. Dragon Prince

9. King’s Dragon

10. The Wizard King

11. Wizard War

12. On War

13. On Thermonuclear War

14. The Forever War

15. The Forever King

16. King of Thorns

17. Prince of Thorns

18. The Prince

19. The Mystery of the Vanished Prince

20. Secret Seven Mystery

21. Secret Seven Win Through

22. A Man Rides Through

23. Man and Boy

24. The Lost Boy

25. The Lost Gate

26. The Seventh Gate

27. Seventh Son

28. Asterix and Son

29. Asterix at the Olympic Games

30. Mathematical Games

31. Mathematical Magic

32. Secret of the Sixth Magic

33. Secret Seven on the Trail

34. Blood Trail

35. Daughter of the Blood

36. Daughter of the Empire

37. Foundation and Empire

38. Foundation

39. Foundation’s Edge

40. Shadow’s Edge

41. Shadow

42. Shadow Moon

43. New Moon

44. New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics

45. Foundations of Higher Mathematics

46. The Foundations of Geometry

47. Geometry: An Introdcution

48. Introduction to Real Analysis

49. Analysis on Manifolds

50. Calculus on Manifolds

51. Calculus for Scientists and Engineers – Early Transcendentals

52. Calculus – Early Transcendentals

53. Calculus

54. Calculus

55. Calculus – Single Variable

56. Calculus – Single Variable

57. Calculus

58. Calculus – Early Transcendentals

59. Calculus – Early Transcendentals

60. Advanced Calculus

61. Advanced Calculus

62. Advanced Calculus

63. Advanced Calculus – An Introduction to Analysis

64. Analysis in Vector Spaces

65. Linear Topological Spaces

66. Linear Algebra Ideas and Applications

67. Linear Algebra with Applications

68. Linear Algebra with Applications

69. Linear Algebra with Applications

70. Linear Algebra

71. Algebra

72. Algebra

73. Contemporary Abstract Algebra

74. Contemporary Geometry

75. Vector Geometry

76. Vector Calculus

77. Advanced Calculus

78. Advanced Modern Engineering Mathematics

79. Understanding the New Mathematics

80. Understanding War

81. War Day

82. The Light of Day

83. Lord of Light

84. Lord of Snow and Shadows

85. The King of Light and Shadows

86. The King’s English

87. The Short Story in English

88. The Big Short

89. Big Red

90. Snow White, Blood Red

91. Mr. Snow

92. Mr. Small

93. Small Gods

94. American Gods

95. An American Dream

96. A Midsummer Night’s Dream

97. Midsummer Night

98. White Night

99. The White Gryphon

100. The Black Gryphon

101. Black Swan Green

102. Green Mars

103. Princess of Mars

104. A Little Princess

105. Big and Little