Acacia ARCs
As an early Christmas present my editor, Gerry Howard, had a couple of copies of the advanced reading copies of Acacia dropped on my doorstep on Christmas Eve. Very nice surprise. These are essentially deluxe galleys of the book, meant to get distributed to booksellers, reviewers, people in the know. I like how they look, although the cover is only halfway there. The art people are still working on the real cover, so this one has some of the details, but has bracing words in the center instead of an image. You can click on them to get a better look.
The most incredible thing about this is just to see the novel in book form, to hold it in one hand and flip through the pages. It's a moment all novelists (and aspiring novelists) long for, and so far the experience hasn't gotten any less wonderful.
Oh, and one other thing. You may notice the subtitle at the bottom of the front cover. It's Book One: The War With the Mein. I think this is the first time I've said anything about this publicly. There it is. Book One, which can only mean that Book Two is meant to follow...
posted by David Anthony Durham at
6:17 PM
4 Comments:
Wow, sounds epic and looks gothically charged. Glad to see the mention of book 1 too. How's book 2 coming? Got Ben the Ursula Le Guin Wizard of Earthsea trilogy for xmas. I still remember those books vividly.
Hey Jamie,
Thanks for writing. Book 2 lives only in my head right now, but that'll be changing very soon. I'm done with Colorado College teaching for a couple of months. That's supposed to give me time to get to work. Of course, I'll be doing three trips during that time, one to Maine to teach for the Stonecoast MFA Program, one to California, and one to Washington DC to speak at Smithsonian event. So, hmmm... How much work will I get done?
Great that you got to pass on LeGuin's Earthsea books. You wrote "trilogy", so I'm assuming you gave Ben the first three books. There are three more, you know. After a considerable delay, LeGuin returned to Earthsea with "Tehanu", "Tales from Earthsea" and "The Other Wind". I haven't read them, but I want to. They get somewhat mixed reviews, but that doesn't discourage me. I think in general LeGuin has been brilliant enough that I trust her. She's just ahead of her times on occasion.
Part of what I loved about Earthsea when I read it as a kid - without really knowing I loved it - was that she created in Earthsea an overtly multi-cultural world, one in which Ged and most of the characters are people of color. She describes them accordingly, in shades of brown. Strange thing, though, is that for almost as long as the books have been out readers have missed this aspect of them. That's unfortunate, but for me it was also an inspiration that effected my work.
Yeah, got Ben the 1st 3. But I have read Tehanu - great as far as I can remember - not the others though. And you're right, its a far more multicultural world in Le Guins than most 'fantasy' writers. For instance, what about 'His Dark Materials' trilogy?
I can't remember what the cultural diversity is like in "His Dark Materials" books. I do know that I liked them quite a bit, and that they were unusual and inventive enough that I was fully engaged. I hope the upcoming movie doesn't stink...
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