Cover Art: Whelan painting the final Wheel of Time & Pratchett's latest

Tor recently announced the cover artist for AMOL ( A Memory of Light), the final book in the long-running wheel of time series - Michael Whelan. Last year, I posted here about how he was picked to design the cover for the AMOL ebook, and now, due to the previous cover artist's death, he will be designing the jacket for the print books too.
He does pretty good work (see The Way of Kings cover here). I just hope these are better than the really ugly covers we've seen from Tor before - see earlier Wheel of Time covers here. In contrast, the ebook covers are impressive! My favorites are the ones by Sam Weber (pictured to the right here) and Raymond Swanland.



In other exciting Pratchett news, the cover for Dodger is here. Dodger is an upcoming Victorian-era novel, not set in the Discworld. This is probably going to be a good place to start for non-Pratchett readers too. What a fantastic year this is going to be for Pratchett fans!! Dodger in September, a new June release collaborative novel, and a new Discworld novel later this year to conclude the Moist van Lipwig trilogy.

Girl Genius! New book coming out

The most vibrantly coloured, vividly-told steampunk Webcomic out there - Girl Genius - is releasing book 2 in 10 days. 


Let the countdown begin!

I read this everyday, usually right after lunch - it is such a nice jolt to start the second half of the day with.


The store link - http://us.macmillan.com/girlgeniusomnibusvolumeone/PhilFoglio
Blurb: 
"The Industrial Revolution has become all-out war! Mad Scientists, gifted with the Spark of genius, unleash insane inventions on an unprepared Europe. For centuries, the Heterodyne family of inventors kept the peace, but the last Heterodyne disappeared twenty years ago, leaving their ally Baron Klaus Wulfenbach to maintain order with his fleet of airships and army of unstoppable, if not very bright, Jaeger Monsters. 

At Transylvania Polygnostic University, Agatha Clay dreams of being a scientist herself, but her trouble concentrating dooms her to be a lowly minion at best. When her locket, a family heirloom, is stolen, Agatha shows signs of having the Spark in a spectacular, destructive fashion and captures the attention of the Baron—and the Baron’s handsome young son, Gilgamesh."

A Memory of Light - Draft done!

Brandon Sanderson tweeted saying he's done with draft one of A Memory of Light, the final Wheel of Time book!

We know that he isn't touching parts of the story that have already been written by Robert Jordan. We also saw a lot of improvement between the previous two books, and certainly we shall see a fantastic series ending novel!

There is a lot happening in the books just now, building towards the climax - Rand's mind is whole, the men's Black Tower is a crazy place, Semirhage, Graendal, Mesaana lie defeated, the White Tower stands united; On the flip side, Moridin's grand plan is yet unveiled, the Aiel undead is a surprise twist, we still don't know the song the Leaf People have (and perhaps the travellers are looking for...) AND MORE. There are tons of unresolved questions and prophecies, so this book is really going to have a lot riding on it.
Second half of 2012 is the release!


You can read my review of Towers of Midnight here
Read a review of The Gathering Storm here
Never heard of the Wheel of Time before? Go right here!

Missing: One McCaffrey

The recent passing (21st Nov,2011) of Anne McCaffrey will affect all SFF readers everywhere. While she isn't my "all time fav" author, her books have been part of my reading repetoire, and I'm sure, part of many other scifi-fantasy lovers' reading lists.


Her DragonRiders of Pern stories defined dragons in books, and set the bar for other authors to beat. While reading her books now might feel a little trite, it is only because she was the first to write in that style, and has been inspiration for many other popular writers.
A good place to start would be the Harper Hall books.


Not just Pern: If you haven't read any non-Pern McCaffrey books, may I suggest the Acorna series, or the Planet Raiders series, or the Crystal universe. Yes, she was a prolific writer with a long career!


Need inspiration?
Here are some of the best covers, in a Tor post written by the cover illustrator himself, Michael Whelan: 
The Inspiration of Anne McCaffrey (Tor.com)

Avatar: The Last Airbender Re-Watch!

This lazy Saturday morning I was looking at Tor.com for inspiration on blog posts, and discovered that they are halfway through an Avatar: The Last Airbender re-watch.
Now, to some people, this might not be a call to action - but clearly they are not Avatar fans!
Avatar: The Last Airbender (link to Wiki) is an Emmy award-winning animated TV series, with much critical and fan acclaim. Every episode has been carefully drawn and is an emotional and fun journey - while the first few episodes are more whacky and young, we get to meet and grow with the characters.
Aang, the last Airbender, might be the only one left who can battle the vicious Firebender army that wants to conquer the world.

He has help, of course: The Waterbender Katara and her brother Sokka who discover Aang and his flying pet bison.
What is awesome about all the fighting in this anime, is that each technique has roots in actual Chinese Martial Arts, with different styles embodied in different techniques in the anime.
I'm going to re-watch this series, and you should watch the episodes too!
More info from Tor.com here: Link to re-watch page
Please note that I am only referring to the anime TV series in this post, not the ghastly movie.

Sneak Preview of new Brandon Sanderson novel!

The amazing Tor.com has the first two chapters of Brandon Sanderson's sequel to the Mistborn novel. The Law of Alloy, to be released in November, is set in a time much after Vin and Co, where our heroine is remembered as a God.
Rumors say that this novel will also unveil at least 1 new Alloy used by the Allomancers.
Quoting from the prologue:

"Today, the dead town seemed completely empty, though he knew it wasn’t so. Wax had come here hunting a psychopath. And he wasn’t the only one."

If you haven't read Brandon Sanderson before, he has a free novel on his website - and aside from the Robert Jordan/Wheel of Time books, has established a new epic in The Way of Kings: My review here
Read the prologue and Chapter 1 at TOR here: The Alloy of Law (excerpt)
More excerpts will be out on Tor from the book over the next few months.