26 June, 2009

Bona Fide: Weekly Roundup #26

Hello and welcome to a new issue of my weekly roundup. Last Sunday we entered the summer season in Europe, which is nice as long as we don't get temperatures above 25 °C. But I know we will get some hot days... Then I only want a leafy bower, an iced drink, and an awesome book. Another possibility is to watch a good movie in an air-conditioned cinema. Hope you enjoy summer and my roundup.


Authors

Even in this economic crisis it is possible to earn a lot of money with SFF books. Here are two examples:

Brandon Sanderson sold four books to Tor. A deal which could exceed $2.5 million.

Science fiction author Alastair Reynolds signed a 10-book deal with Gollancz worth £1m.
To be honest I'm not envious. I hope that both of them will write extraordinary good books which we will love.

And there is one more author worth mentioning: George R.R. Martin. Like a lot of other people I'm still waiting for the release of A Dance with Dragons. He mentioned on his Not A Blog that he has had a very productive period. Fingers crossed that this period will continue... because god knows we have all waited long enough.

Books

Robin Hobb is one of my favorite authors. This week, The Dragon Keeper, the first book of her new Rain Wild Chronicles series hits bookstores. The following book trailer contains more information. I can't wait to read it:


Hopefully you read the review of Hyperion by Dan Simmons on this blog. But he is more than only a science fiction author. He wrote books in other genres. I think during the summer you should read books with a cool background. And Mr. Simmons has something to offer:

Terror

Dan Simmons tells the story of the last expedition of John Franklin, who tried to find the Northwest Passage in 1845 with the ships HMS Terror and HMS Erebus. Based on the know facts, Dan Simmons presents an expressive and quite impressive metaphor of the expedition. I felt the cold on nearly every page. Let's not forget the intense description of the feelings of the expedition members. Beside all the obvious fun, the reader gets to learn a lot about the customs and traditions of the Eskimos.
The appendix contains the list of crewmembers, a glossary and explanations of Eskimo terms. I recommend this book warmly to everyone who is interested in Arctic Zones, Explorers, and the depths of the human soul.


Blogosphere

Don't know whether you followed the heated debate over at OF-Blog in his "When Do You Stop Whoring Yourself Out" or not. I don't want to comment here--I left comments over there. From my point of view, Aidan responded very well and in a positive way. Please read A Dribble of Ink » Blog Archive » Article | Where’d the Enthusiasm Go?
Andrew Lipson likes LEGO. And I admire when he renders Escher pictures into LEGO. Visit his site. I promise you won't regret it...

Quote of the Week

The quote of this week just impress my love for books:

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them

Arnold Lobel, (1933 -1987)

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