Scott Lynch

I know this has nothing to do with Cerebus, but occasionally the space between my ears is occupied with things over than the avaricious aardvark, and this is one of them. I’m a long term fantophile (probably an obsession that began when I first picked up The Wishing Chair by Enid Blyton when I was but a small child) and always on the look out for something new and interesting to excite my synapses. For fantophiles 2006 was a great year.

3 (count them! 3!) new authors burst onto the scene with stunning debuts (I've been advised by none other than Joe Abercrombie that Pat Rothfuss was actually 2007, so there were 2 stunning debuts in 2006, thanks for making me look stupid Joe. I can do that all on my own, thanks very much!), one was Joe Abercrombie with The Blade Itself (the man is a machine, 3 years later and he’s completed that trilogy, written one standalone set in the same world and already embarked on another standalone, which he believes will be published early in 2011. A machine I tell you! A machine!), Patrick Rothfuss put out The Name of the Wind (I personally wasn’t that excited by this, it was competent enough, he uses words well and I’d like to see how it all turns out, but I won’t be waiting on the doorstep of the bookstore when he finally produces the sequel: Wise Man’s Fear. The publishers don’t seem to be concerned about how long a new author is taking to do this, I guess they know what they’re doing, I hope for Rothfuss’ career they’ve read the market right) and the subject of this post; Scott Lynch published The Lies of Locke Lamora. Now we can argue long and loud, and believe me people have, about who was the best debut, but for mine it was Lies. I loved this book! It’s hard to express in words why and why it had the effect it did. Happily for everyone concerned Scott soon followed up with Red Seas Under Red Skies, it wasn’t quite as good as Lies, but then again his debut was a hard act to follow. Unfortunately that was the last we saw as personal issues affected the author and he took a break from public life, this has delayed the publication of the 3^rd of the adventures of his gentleman thief; Locke Lamora Republic of Thieves.

In about 2 years Scott updated his previously active LiveJournal twice and people began to wonder if he would ever return, then suddenly about a month ago he was back! Back with a vengeance as it turned out. Regular updates started appearing on his LiveJournal, he got a Twitter account, and then marvel of marvels the long dormant webpage was updated. There was a prologue to Republic of Thieves (in this humble blogger’s opinion Scott had lost nothing, the prologue was every bit as enchanting as anything in Lies or Red Seas) and some notes or author’s musings about writing the early chapters of Red Seas.

The 3^rd bit is what got me excited and why I’m doing this, and publishing the link here. Somewhere in his long sojourn Scott revisited an old idea he’d had about a pulp style novel or serial which he called Queen of the Iron Sands. It’s in the style of the old stories published in such esteemed journals as Amazing Stories, and in some ways it seems reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs Carter of Mars series, although the main protagonist is a woman. Scott intends to publish it all online chapter by chapter and for free. It’s good stuff, no really it is, and I am not at all biased *cough* *cough*

http://www.scottlynch.us/ironsands.html

Thanks for listening, normal transmission will soon resume.