just a brief message to let you know what most people have probably assumed for a long time — Keeping the Door is to be put on ice permanently from now on. With my responsibilities towards my main site Delimiter, I just don’t have enough time to continue to work on a second site on a different topic — any pretense at doing so would be to give false hope.

I have enjoyed publishing the site immensely and our endless discussions about science fiction and fantasy literature and will leave it up for posterity — but for the forseeable future it will see no more articles, and comments will be closed. I will continue to post brief thoughts about sci-fi and fantasy books through my Twitter account as I read them, however, as I will obviously never lose my passion for the genre ;)

I do intend to become a moderately regular commenter in the talkback on other sites, however — so I won’t disappear completely. I will be frequenting:

• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist
• Neth Space
• The Wertzone
• A Dribble of Ink

Hope to see you around ;)

Cheers,

Renai LeMay
Editor, Keeping the Door

It’s probably the most eagerly anticipated fantasy book in the genre at the moment: George R. R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons, which the author has been writing for at least five years since 2005, when he last published a book in his epic series A Song of Ice and Fire.

Although there is currently no hard completion date for the book, GRRM recently gave an update on how it’s not just the fans and his publishers that are angsty about getting the book out. As summarised by Winter is Coming:

“You know, it’s no secret that this last book [A Dance with Dragons] has taken much, much longer than I thought it would and much, much longer than anyone wanted it to. My editors and publishers are not happy with that, there’s an element of my fans that are vociferously angry about that, and most of all, I’m unhappy about it. But my goal has always been to make it the story I want to tell and to make it as good as I can.”

Martin reportedly said that at a certain point, “when the stress really got to me”, he had to stop thinking about how long it takes the author to write a book and just write “one page at a time, one sentence at a time, one word at a time” — without worrying about the fact that he had “40 chapters left to do”.

Frankly, I do feel sorry for GRRM.

Not every writer can be as workmanlike as current boy wunderkind Brandon Sanderson, who is currently reliably churning out a major novel each year, and in some ways seems to regard writing as more of a manufacturing process than an art.

No, GRRM is more case in the mould of a writer like Patrick Rothfuss; a writer that must struggle — at times desperately — with their art in an attempt to achieve not only sublimity in their writing, but also the organisation of a complex plot.

And yet, if there is one thing that you can say about GRRM, it is that he has achieved that sublimity in his writing. A Song of Ice and Fire is one of the great modern fantasy epics. Am I impatient for GRRM to finish it? Of course I am. But I’m content to wait for him to finish it in his own time. We’re rooting for you, Mr Martin :)

Ever since Patrick Rothfuss published The Name of the Wind in 2007, much of the fantasy-loving book world has been living in a state of suspense, wondering whether the US author could follow such a strong debut up with a worthwhile sequel. Well, it looks like we can rest easy — early reviews of that sequel — The Wise Man’s Fear — are in, and they are nothing if not positive.

Writes Pat at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist:

“So was it, in the end, worth the four years it took to be published? Let me set your mind at ease. For those who enjoyed The Name of the Wind, you can safely go ahead and pre-order The Wise Man’s Fear. It’s everything its predecessor was, and then some!”

Pat adds that if you didn’t like the first book (and, let me say, I understand that not everybody enjoys the sort of deep introspective and slightly tortured fantasy fiction that The Name of the Wind represents), you might as well not get Rothfuss’ second effort. However, what is fantasy without a bit of walking on the dark side? ;)

Jo Walton, writing on Tor.com, appears to agree with Pat:

“The Wise Man’s Fear was worth waiting for. It’s about as good as this kind of fantasy can possibly get … I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of immersing myself completely in the world and the events. It’s such a great world, and the people are like real people, and what happens is endlessly entertaining. The only caveat I have is that there’s likely to be another long wait for the third one. But … it’s worth it.”

I have to say, personally, The Wise Man’s Fear is one of the fantasy books I am most looking forward to in 2011. Bring on the continuation of Kvothe’s tale :)

Mariposa, the latest novel by American science fiction author Greg Bear, went on sale last week, accompanied by a limited set of generally positive reviews.

Bear is best known among fans for books like 1985′s Eon and 1987′s The Forge of God, although he has written a variety of other novels, including fantasy books, Star Trek books, and in general has diversified out of the hard science fiction sub-category he mainly wrote in in the 1980′s.

Mariposa pictures an America which has been driven to near bankruptcy by crushing foreign debt. But there is one success story – the Talos Corporation, which trains soldiers and provides logistics and troops for the US Government. But the company’s end goals are somewhat more nefarious – the destruction of the government itself.

From the book’s blurb:

Three FBI agents are all that stands between Talos’s CEO Axel Price and the subversion of our nation. Fouad Al-Husam is working undercover in Lion City, Texas, on the Talos Campus—but he may have just overplayed his hand. Agent William Griffin will engage in a desperate diversion to try to rescue Al-Husam, and the top-secret information he literally carries in his blood.

Rebecca Rose is called into action to partner with an unlikely hero: Nathan Trace, one of a team of four who created and programmed the thinking machines that are about to help Axel Price in his plans for domination.

Trace and his colleagues were caught up in a violent incident in the Middle East several years ago, and experienced Post-Traumatic Stress disorder. All of them were forcibly enrolled in a treatment program sponsored by Talos Corporation, code-named Mariposa—which supposedly cured their PTSD.

But now they are beginning to notice unexpected side effects. The Mariposa subjects are being liberated from nearly all human emotions and concerns—and all mental limits—to become brilliant sociopaths. They are out of control and they must die.

Publisher’s Weekly has given the book a positive review, stating that Bear “keeps everything whizzing right along to the slam-bang conclusion”, and an Amazon reviewer noted that the underlying technology in the book was “effortlessly interwoven into the fast-paced, never decelerating story line”.

The book is a follow-up to Bear’s 2005 novel Quantico. Bear’s site notes that Vanguard Press had already gone to press for a second printing of the book – before it was released – which could be an indicator of demand.

Commentary
I’ve read quite a few Greg Bear books (from The Way and The Forge of God series), and while Bear is a competent writer, I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend him as an amazing one.

He’s the kind of writer you won’t mind finding tucked away in the science fiction & fantasy corner of your local bookshop when you stop in there on holidays and need a meaty read. But he’s not the kind of writer you’ll remember for the rest of your life as someone who blew your mind.

American science fiction master Kim Stanley Robinson has slammed the US Republican Party’s attitude towards climate change, describing it as “like the Catholic Church denying the Earth went around the sun in Galileo’s time”.

57-year-old Robinson is best known for his Mars trilogy, but has also written a number of other books, including his recent Science in the Capital series, which explores the consequences of global warming.

The author’s comments came in a new interview published as part of the re-publication of Robinson’s novella Lucky Strike, being published as part of PM Press’s Outspoken Authors series. Robinson says the Republicans are going to crawl away from their climate policy “mistake” later and pretend it never happened. And it’s a dangerous moment on the world stage in general:

“What’s been set up and is playing out now is a huge world historical battle between science and capitalism. Science is insisting more emphatically every day that this is a real and present danger. Capitalism is saying it isn’t, because if it were true it would mean more government control of economies, more social justice (as a climate stabilization technique) and so on.

These are the two big players in our civilization, so I say, be aware, watch the heavyweights go at it, and back science every chance you get. I speak to all fellow leftists around the world: science is now a leftism, and thank God; but capitalism is very, very strong. So it’s a dangerous moment. People who like their history dramatic and non-utopian should be pleased.”

The full interview is available at Shareable.net. Image by AllyUnion.

Commentary
I kind of know how Kim Stanley Robinson feels – in Australia, our conservative party, a coalition of the Liberal and National parties, has similar climate change denial problems.

Australian fantasy author Karen Miller has finished The Reluctant Mage, the next book in her Fisherman’s Children series, which is the continuation of her Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series commenced with The Innocent Mage.

“Shit. I did it. I can’t believe it,” wrote Miller on her LiveJournal page this week. “Well, you know, not done done. It’s up for a rewrite next, after I’ve rewritten Siege. But it’s done, it’s a book, it’s a lot of words with more to come. It’ll end up about the same length or a smidgin longer than Prodigal Mage. But that story is told now. And I think I’m reasonably happy.”

Miller said she had written five novels this year. She noted there were times she had “seriously doubted” she could do it. And she has another two to rewrite before 2010 kicks off. “That’s not a problem. Rewriting is playtime. Rewriting is the reward for the utter agony that is the first draft,” she said.

The Reluctant Mage clocked in at 131,909 words. The book is slated to be published in 2010.

The achievement was celebrated by fans on her site. “Congratulations on reaching the end!” wrote one. “Your determination and output are utterly inspiring (and quite scary at the same time). Hope you manage to get a decent rest now before starting on those rewrites.”

Commentary
Keeping the Door handed Miller a fairly negative review of her last book, The Prodigal Mage. At the time, we wrote:

“The book is a monument to one of the most tempting traps that an author can fall into: to focus so heavily on developing their characters and their interactions that they neglect to situate those characters in an interesting and complex world and with a plot that gradually reveals its twists and turns.”

There are arguments on both sides about Miller’s work. After posting the review, we received several comments from readers that expressed how much they loved The Prodigal Mage. “I loved the Prodigal Mage and while there isn’t as much action in this book as in the others to me it is a taster of things to come,” wrote one.

Other reviewers, such as The Mad Hatter, have described the book as a “fantastic read overall”.

But I have been following Miller’s LiveJournal posts updating fans with her progress on The Reluctant Mage over the past couple of months, and I feel they have given me some insight into what one of the problems might be with Miller’s style.

That problem seems to be that she writes so goddamn fast!

It was only on November 12 (4 days ago) that Miller still had some 30,000 words to write on The Reluctant Mage. Three days later, she had finished the book.

Something about that just strikes me as wrong. 30,000 words … in three days? That’s 10,000 words a day! Even assuming that Miller had done all the planning in the world before the commencement of writing The Reluctant Mage, that is still a phenomenal amount per day.

The reason I know this, is that as a professional journalist I have often been called upon to write a lot of copy per day. But even on my most hectic, insane, 10 hour days, I couldn’t write more than about 4,000 words per day. Nobody in our office could. The fact that Miller is doing so makes me really wonder if it is truly quality writing that she is putting out, or whether she is racing through the writing process too fast, without stopping to consider it all.

Article by Renai LeMay

The Twilight series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, according to Wikipedia, and is being made into a film series, with audiences enthralled by the love story between American teen Bella and Edward Cullen, a former human who was transformed into a vampire.

In the interview Meyer said she started writing Twilight after having a vivid dream which became chapter 13 of the first book in the series. The scene is the one where Bella and Edward are in the woods and she reveals she knows he is a vampire.

“I just wanted to remember it so badly, that’s why I started writing it down,” she said — not because she initially knew it was going to become a novel.

Fantasy author George R. R. Martin has told his UK publisher he might hand over A Dance with Dragons, the long-awaited next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, “soon”.

Writing on her own site, Jane Johnson, fiction publishing director for the HarperCollins Voyager imprint in the UK, said:

“And finally, yesterday I got to spend some time with the legendary George RR Martin, over in the UK to visit the sets where HBO are filming the pilot episode of A GAME OF THRONES, which could be the finest ever tv fantasy epic.

We have his superb anthology tribute to Jack Vance out this month: the signing queues went round and round the block in Belfast, Dublin and London’s Forbidden Planet. Oddly, in that strange synchronicity which happens so frequently in my life, George flew out of London for Marrakech this morning, to see the desert and Dothraki scenes being filmed in and around Ouarzazate.

The really exciting news, other than the potential HBO series, is that we might get the long-awaited DANCE OF DRAGONS soon. I cannot wait.”

It is common for fans of the series, one of the major fantasy works currently ongoing, to complain about the length of time taken by Martin to write each new book. Although the first three in the series were published after intervals of about two years each, according to Wikipedia, the fourth book took a little longer; A Feast for Crows came out in 2005 after a five-year writing stint by Martin.

In October Martin revealed he had written more than 1,100 pages in the book. It was previously expected the book would be ready for editing by October or November this year.

Commentary
I have pretty much given up waiting for this one :) A Dance with Dragons will be ready when it is ready, and that’s about all I’m expecting.

(via Westeros.org and Tower of the Hand)

Raymond E. Feist fans are only a short time away from stepping back into the fantasy world of Midkemia, with the author’s new book At the Gates of Darkness due out in some areas in early January 2010.

The book continues the epic Riftwar Cycle, which now spans several dozen volumes. Feist has a strong track record of publishing a new book in the series almost every year, stretching back to the fan favourite Magician in 1982.

At the Gates of Darkness is the second book in the Demonwar Saga arc, after 2009′s Rides a Dread Legion. Its blurb is as follows:

“Recent events have shocked and devastated the Conclave of Shadows; the discovery of the Demon horde that is following the elven invaders of Midkemia; the rise of the mad magician Belasco, and the personal cost paid by Pug and his family.

But grieving for lost loved-ones must wait. The followers of the Demon prince have almost succeeded in bringing him through the dimensions. The Conclave must regroup and find a way to meet the approaching evil, whilst trying to stop civil war from destroying Triagia before the demon horde even arrives.”

The book was first announced in February 2008, and Amazon has it shipping in April 2010, but Feist’s official Crydee site has recently updated the UK/AU/NZ cover art for the book and listed the Australia and New Zealand dates, at least, to New Year’s Day (January 1), 2010.

Commentary
Oh god. Is Feist STILL writing this thing?

Like many fantasy fans, I hopped off the Feist train many moons ago, in fact as far back as 1998′s Shards of a Broken Crown. I can’t exactly remember what precisely was happening in the seires at that point, so I really can’t situate At the Gates of Darkness in terms of current plot or what’s happening with the characters.

It’s not that Feist is a bad writer. In fact, quite the opposite: he’s arguably one of the fantasy greats. However, I couldn’t continue to read his books, because it seemed to me that the same character archetypes and plot points kept on coming up again and again. It got boring after a while.

This seems to be a recurring problem with writers who pump out a book every year. Sure, the books might have a steady following of fans, and bring in the dollars, but are they really that good? Normally not. Normally it takes a bit longer than a year to put together a really interesting work of art in the genre. Witness how long it takes the likes of Janny Wurts or George R. R. Martin to put out their books. And they are considered amongst the grand masters.

I would be interested, however, to hear from any Feist fans out there who are still reading the Riftwar Cycle. Is it worth persevering through? Does Feist return to his form later on?