La Rebelión

Here's something I'm happy to see. It's my most recent foreign publication - The Risen in Spanish! 

La Rebelión. 

I rather like that. Spartacus, in this version, is Espartaco. I rather like that, too.

Here's the copy text:

El nuevo libro del autor del best seller El orgullo de Cartago. Una novela soberbia sobre Espartaco, el legendario gladiador, y la revuelta de esclavos que encabezó y a punto estuvo de someter a Roma y sus invencibles legiones.

En esta emocionante novela histórica somos testigos de la rebelión más famosa de la historia desde diversos, y a veces opuestos, puntos de vista, entre ellos el del propio Espartaco, el visionario cautivo y gladiador cuya constancia y carisma convierten la fuga de una prisión en una rebelión multicultural que amenaza a un imperio; el de la profética Astera, cuyo contacto con el mundo de los espíritus y sus augurios guía el desarrollo de la rebelión; el de Nonus, un soldado romano que se mueve a ambos lados del conflicto en un intento, en parte desesperado, de salvar la vida; el de Laelia y Hustus, dos niños pastores incorporados a las tropas de la rebelión de los esclavos, y el de Kaleb, el esclavo al servicio de Craso, el senador romano y comandante que carga con la poco envidiable tarea de aplastar una insurrección de meros esclavos, todo ello en un entorno de violencia, heroísmo y traición.

Lo que está en juego con la rebelión de Espartaco es nada menos que el futuro del mundo antiguo. Nadie aporta más brío, inteligencia y frescura a la novela sobre la época clásica que David Anthony Durham.

Sounds good, huh?

PUB DAY

Pub Day. That's today. THE RISEN out in paperback. :-)

Another Uprising

Oh, right. There's a book of mine coming out in paperback, like, soon. April 18th, actually! The Risen! I just got a box of books today. I rather like the way they look. 

Also, it's nice for this Book Reporter mention to pop up. I'm on there, though you have to scroll down a bit to get to the listing.

Open Letters Monthly

Just noticed a smart review of THE RISEN at Open Letters Monthly. Very pleased with it.

I like these folks. Of course I do, considering they say things like: "Durham delivers a fuller, grittier, and more satisfying one even than the standard-bearer, Howard Fast’s 1951 blockbuster Spartacus. This is a near-perfect thinking-person’s dramatization of the Spartacus story..." They also quote from the novel several times, which is nice because I get to go, "Hey, I wrote that!"

All Smiles

I woke this morning to a lovely surprise.

George RR Martin just did a post on his Not a Blog called "Good Stuff". It's about films he's liked recently, and TV series, books he's read or is looking forward to reading. You know where I'm heading, right?

He wrote: "Also on hand is David Anthony Durham's new historical novel, THE RISEN, his take on Spartacus. DAD never disappoints, and Spartacus is another fascination of mine... I look forward to seeing how Durham's take on him differs from Howard Fast's and Colleen McCullough's."

Wow. Needless to say, I'm all smiles.

He Was Spartacus - WSJ

Pleased to say that THE RISEN just picked up a stellar review, this one from the Wall Street Journal! The reviewer is Allan Massie, quite a veteran of Roman biographical novels himself. So I'm pleased.

He said some very nice things, including, "THE RISEN is full of blood, thunder and excitement. Spartacus is an inspiring, attractive hero."

 (I've linked to the review just because, but sometimes only subscribers can actually read the whole thing. Other times it appears for me. Weird.)

"an absorbing new historical novel about Spartacus..."

The Washington Post has nice things to say about THE RISEN.

The Risen Is Historical Fiction for Fantasy Fans

Jeff Somers has written a terrific article about magic and belief in THE RISEN for the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog. Wow. As an author it's rare and wonderful to read such a thorough, insightful engagement with my work. Yay!

Historical Novel Society on THE RISEN

And here's another generous review of my new book, just a couple days ahead of pub date.

Book review: Legend of Spartacus retold in 'The Risen'

Very generous review of THE RISEN at the Fredericksburg Freelance Star!

Spartacus Speaks!

Very pleased to announce that there's going to be an audiobook version THE RISEN! It's been in the works for a little while now, but I'm mentioning because I have the visual of the cover to now:

Tantor Media is the publisher, and the wonderful Steven Crossley is doing the narration. Hey, he was good enough for the likes of Salmon Rushdie, David Mitchell, Ian McEwan, Jane Yolen, Peter F Hamilton, Alexander McCall Smith, Diana Wynne Jones, Garth Nix, Connie Willis... to name a few. I'm pleased he's now giving a Durham novel the treatment. I look forward to hearing it. It appears on May 3rd, same as the hardback! It's not up on Audible yet, but I suspect that will happen on pub day.

PW Reviews Spartacus

Here's a nice thing: Publishers Weekly's review of THE RISEN.

My favorite line: "Monumental in scale and rich in intimately portrayed characters, Durham’s (Pride of Carthage) brilliant rendering of slavery and the horrors of war gives the novel its emotional impact." Yay for that!

A New Book!

Got back yesterday from a few days away and found a cryptic note from a neighbor I didn't know, asking me to call in once I'd seen the note. Went over and found a very cheery gentleman (not cryptic at all). He'd received a delivery of two boxes of books for me!

Which books? These ones. Finished copies at last...

Kirkus Reviews The Risen!

I'm pleased to say that my new novel just received it's first pre-publication review. It's from Kirkus Reviews, and it's pretty good. Even has some film casting suggestions!

Think Brad Pitt's interested?

You can read it HERE.

Page Proofs!

I'm p leased to say I recently received and read the page proofs of my next book, THE RISEN - a historical novel about the Spartacus rebellion in ancient Rome. 

Everything looks good, so it's back in my publisher's hands, scheduled for publication in May of the new year!

Spartacus Reveal

At long last, I can reveal the cover for my forthcoming historical novel, The Risen! It's scheduled for publication in March 2016, and it'll look like this...

Acceptance!

Very happy to say that I just heard back from my editor on my recently delivered Spartacus manuscript. It's a go. He likes it and has officially accepted it!

There's still plenty of revising work to be done, but it's a big relief to get the confirmation that the book exists, and will be my next publication with Doubleday/Anchor. Book # 7 with them!

Oh, and I think it has a title now. It will likely be this:

The Risen: A Novel of Spartacus

Spartacus Bunny, The First Sketch

So, I dunno. The Durhams were out walking in the hills the other day, and we got to talking about my Spartacus novel. Somehow, out of that, came the idea for a graphic novel: The Spartacus Bunny Wars.

Why bunnies? Ah... Why not?

I asked my daughter, Maya, to come up with an early sketch of the gladiator. She choose to focus in on a closeup. This is what she produced:

We think it my be a little too catlike at the moment. Obviously, we wouldn't want to write The Spartacus Cat Wars.

That would just be... ridiculous.

Just for the record, this is not the direction I'm going in for my novel. Perhaps it should be, though...

Andy Whitfield

I find myself rather shocked by the death of Andy Whitfield. He's the actor that played Spartacus in the Starz series. Only 39, he died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Part of the shock is that he's younger than me, fitter than me, richer than me, and that it seems so unfair that just as his career takes off he has to start fighting for his life.

I guess the other thing is that I liked the guy. Spartacus: Blood and Sand is a very different approach to the rebellion than I'll be taking with my novel. It's highly sexed up, peopled by chiseled men with no body hair and lingerie models, with gallons of blood splatters and some really over the top gore. I was almost embarrassed to watch it. But I did. It was strangely addictive, and the writers were pretty sharp in terms of turning the screws on the plot in surprising ways.

Few of the characters look like they would have historically. Far from being chiseled, gladiators were well-fed so as to be covered with a nice layer of protective body fat. They'd have been carrying extra weight intentionally, since any added inches of fat have to be passed through before a blade can do damage to important organs.

There were quite a few moments that the series manifested itself more as fantasy than history, but I'm okay with that. If I wasn't I wouldn't have reason to write my own Spartacus book. My point is that despite my differences with the series, I enjoyed it. And part of why I enjoyed it was Andy Whitfield.

I'm sorry to see him go.

So, My Next Book Will Be…

Yes, it’s official. I’ve come to terms with my publisher, Doubleday and Anchor Books, for a new book contract. I sold them on a proposal that - for one book, at least - returns me to straight historical fiction in the vein of Pride of Carthage. It seems I can’t help but be drawn to writing about enemies of Rome. In this case, my subject will be the slave rebellion lead by the gladiator Spartacus.

You might ask, “Spartacus: The Novel? Really?”

To which I’d say, “Yep.”

Honestly, I’d be interested in writing about this event for a long time. As with any terrific subject, writers and filmmakers have touched on the Spartacus story in various ways over the years. I hope to give my own spin on it, one that uses the full potential of a novel to capture both the large-scale drama of it and also create intimate fictional portraits that bring it to life. I’m itching to get back into the gritty, brutal, beautiful terrain on ancient Italia. I sense a long research trip coming up…

It’s early days yet and the actual writing is yet to be done, but here’s a bit of what I wrote in my proposal…

“Spartacus. You know the name, but how much do you really know about his rebellion? It’s great stuff, ripe two thousand years after the fact for a grand retelling. Spartacus was a gladiator that led a slave uprising that shook Rome between 73-71 BCE. He escaped his brutal imprisonment with a small band armed only with kitchen knives and simple weapons. Within a year, tens of thousands had broken their chains and joined him. For three years he ranged up and down the Italian peninsula, defeating every army Rome threw at him, winning allies and followers all the way. He was eventually defeated, but the reasons why have more to do with insurmountable odds and with the follies of others than with any mistakes on Spartacus’ part. There’s a reason his name and story has lived on. His is a terrific tale, and I’d like to tell it for our times.

Like Pride of Carthage, my Spartacus novel will be an epic about an inspired enemy of Rome, told through a variety of points of view that capture the complexity of the entire conflict. Like Hannibal, Spartacus commanded with panache and deadly skill, drawing a vast host of followers and racking up victory after victory in the process. And, like Hannibal, his actual exploits may be best brought to life with a rigorous historical novel, one that combines the amazing but incomplete historical record with a novelist’s embellishment.

Spartacus’ story has three components that convince me to embark on this journey. 1) A larger than life, mythic persona that’s rooted in a real life, personal story. 2) Panoramic battles that pit charismatic underdogs against a vastly powerful oppressor, complete with twists and turns of fate that match every inspired victory with hair-pulling betrayals to balance them. 3) A foundation in social, economic, political issues that continues to have resonance and relevance two millennia later.

Various groups have mythologized Spartacus in various ways over the years, but none of them have done it like I would. What I love about his story is how tangible the tension is between his personal objectives and the larger drama that his inspired actions put him at the center of. The inner conflict is evidenced in the historical record. On one hand he wanted nothing more than to flee the nightmare of gladiatorial slavery and return to his rugged, Thracian homeland (Bulgaria). On the other hand, he couldn’t escape the effects of his brilliant leadership. His oratory skills and personal charisma made him a magnet that drew thousands upon thousands to him, all of them looking for freedom, for justice, and for revenge...”

So that, friends, is a big part of what I’m going to be working on the coming year. Just between us, though, it’s not the only thing. I’ve got more than one thing cooking these days, and that has me very excited. I’ll report on more when I can...