Sean Williams

Amanda is reading again for the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, which means we get to take a quick survey of what blurbs have been offering in the last two years of Australian literature.

Family secrets are perennial, of course, along with small country towns, fractious siblings and romantic blasts from the pasts. Some things will never change.

This year a newcomer to the field has leapt out at us.


Could there be something in the air, or is a thesaurus simply in order?

Here, hot off the press, is the US cover of Astropolis 3: The Grand Conjunction:



What do you think? Stephan Martinière was unavailable so Scott Grimando has stepped up to the podium. I am excited, and not just because it depicts a setting from the climax of the book.

ETA - Here's the blurb:

Six hundred thousand years after Imre Bergamasc's abdication, the galaxy is barely recognisable. Emlee Copas is the Prime Minister of the Host, and the tyrant's own son Ra MacPhedron is its President. Imre himself has disappeared, and peace reigns where once was only chaos and war.

Underneath the veneer of civilization, however, revolution is fomenting. The murder of Helwise MacPhedron will never be forgiven, and neither will the slaughter of the Forts. With the Luminous still at large and the fate of humanity still very much in the balance, Imre's return may be all it takes to light the final fuse...

Since we're talking about the end of a series, "Tail of the Snake" is today's title of note.

Here's the US blurb of Earth Ascendant:

Imre Bergamasc is the First Prime of the Returned Continuum. For many hundreds of thousands of years, he has ruled Earth and the far-flung regions of the galaxy. To ensure stability within his empire, he has embarked on a Line transmission tour of his domain, reinforcing the links between distant sectors.

But during his mission, Imre is abducted by an unknown entity demanding he return to Earth and warning him of an impending threat. After he is released, an attempt is made on his life--resulting in the deaths of a dozen innocent people.

Upon his return, Imre learns Earth is in crisis. His administration is under attack by saboteurs and dissidents. And as his empire crumbles around him, Imre can't help but wonder if his enemies are connected to his murder nearly half a millennium earlier...

And here's the link to the cover, which I still think is kinda neat.

Following up on its recent PopBitch appearance, here's the UK back-cover blurb of Saturn Returns.

It's more substantial than the US version, since there's more room on a trade paperback. I think they complement each other nicely, without giving too much away.

The UK cover should be here soon, and I'll post that as soon as it comes.

As an added bonus for fans of the Change fantasy novels, I've included the draft blurb for The Changeling, which is coming out in September.

( blurb city )

Hey, love those long publication names. We've come a long way from "Analog", "Omni" and "Eidolon" (or have we come full circle?).

Anyway, I'm still behind on posting properly and replying to comments, thanks to a couple of tight deadlines. My apologies. Excuses include: working on the final draft of Saturn Returns and making last-minute edits to The Devoured Earth. (Cover and blurb of the latter now available.) I'll catch up soon.

A couple of quick things:

There's an article on tie-ins by Carol Pinchefsky on Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. I'm quoted a couple of times. Read it here.

Also, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine published a collaborative story ("Dying for Air", with Simon Brown) and a collaborative interview (with Simon Brown and Shane Dix) in Issue 23, available for purchase as a PDF here

It's been an unhappy few weeks, but there is always a silver lining. The Changeling, the short, dark fantasy novel for kids that I wrote for my Masters, has been printed, bound and submitted for examination. With help from certain very generous members of the local community, plus my fellow students in the Creative Writing unit at Adelaide University, I think it's turned out pretty well. Grade and publication details to follow (touchwood!).

Also, the last installment of the Books of the Cataclysm, The Devoured Earth, has been rescheduled for September next year. Apologies in advance for the delay, but that gives me some much-needed space at the moment to sort a few things out. I'm not used to life getting in the way of writing; normally it's totally the other way around. :-/

Here's a short blurb for TDE that I knocked up for a HarperCollins catalogue last night:

"It's the end of the world--again. Last time, Seth and Hadrian Castillo trapped Yod in the Void Beneath and sacrificed their future to keep it there. Now Yod is stirring and an even greater sacrifice is demanded of the twins and their new companions.

"A conspiracy of seers fights to peel back the veil from the darkness ahead. Strange new beings from forgotten corners of existence converge on the tomb of the Goddess. A dragon with its own agenda takes an unlikely ally--and gives a ghost from the future the chance she needs to save the man she loves.

"Among the ruins of two worlds, with the future of every living thing at stake, a handful of lives are all that stand between success and utter failure."

Now all I have to do is write it. :-)

Cheers,
Sean