Not Much To Live Up To, Then
July 26th, 2006Hearing some interesting things about Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley. Orbit supremo Tim Holman has described it as the most commercial debut fantasy from a British writer that he’s ever read.
You can’t say that many times in a career without looking foolish so I’m looking forward to getting an advance copy. It’s out in October.
Amazon describes it like this: “It is a godless world. An uneasy truce exists between the human clans and ancient races. But now the clan of the Black Road move south, and their arrival will herald a new age of war and chaos. Behind it all seems to be one man, Aeglyss, a man whose desire for power will only be sated when he has achieved his ultimate goal: immortality.”
I’ll keep you posted…
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Just finished my copy a couple of nights ago. To be honest it’s more of a quasi-medieval adventure yarn than an epic fantasy; got a definite historical-Gemmell vibe, edging into Erikson or Kearney from time to time, and it really ought to appeal to fans of Bernard Cornwell’s Arthurian and/or middle ages stuff.
And it’s definitely blessed with good, rational world-building and well-written, well-rounded characters. My only criticism would be that the plot is just a tiny bit predictable in one or two places, but plenty of scope for the story to head off in some interesting directions in the next volume or two, so I’ll be looking forward to those.