Games

Azriim and his slaadi allies have succeeded in tapping the magical mantle of Skullport, delivering tremendous power into the hands of their lord and master, the Sojourner. They now find themselves joined by Riven, who has betrayed Erevis Cale to choose the winners' side. As the Sojourner prepares to execute the final stage of his plan, Cale and his remaining allies must gather all their remaining resources to thwart him. Midnight's Mask concludes the Erevis Cale Trilogy in fine form, tying up the trilogy's storylines and plot points in a satisfying and even surprising fashion. In the first two books the Sojourner's ultimate objective is not revealed, but in this finale Kemp executes one of the better surprise endings in the epic fantasy genre when it comes to his main villain's motivations. Before we get to that ending, the story takes in a number of clashes between Cale and Azriim and their respective bands of heroes and villains, not to mention a brief but highl...

Steven Erikson has reported that he has completed The Forge of Darkness , the first novel of the Kharkanas Trilogy . Erikson's new book is set several hundred thousand years before the events of the main Malazan sequence and expands on the Tiste Andii and events in the city of Kharkanas (which appears, in a deserted state, in the main series novels). Anomander Rake is expected to feature heavily. Erikson reports that the novel has come in at 292,000 words, noting that (ironically) this is 'short' by his standards. It falls between the length of Deadhouse Gates (272,000 words or over 900 pages in paperback) and House of Chains (306,000, or over 1,000 pages). No publication date has been set for the novel, but it is likely to appear before the end of 2012. Meanwhile, Erikson's collaborator Ian Cameron Esslemont's latest Malazan novel, Orb, Sceptre, Throne , is due for publication in January 2012.

The Wild Cards superhero anthology series - co-created by George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass in 1987 and featuring numerous talented SFF writers - has been optioned as a 'modest-budgeted' film project by SyFy Movies, the newly-established film arm of the SyFy Channel. In the Wild Cards universe, an alien virus infects Earth in 1946. 90% of humans are unaffected, 9% are turned into mutated monsters and cretins (known as Jokers) and 1% become superhumans, capable of amazing feats (Aces). The Wild Cards series - currently consisting of 22 books - charts an alternate history of the world over the course of decades, reflecting the appearance of the Jokers and Aces. The movie project will feature a contemporary setting, though whether the film will feature a modern origin story for the Wild Cards mileu or will simply slot into the pre-existing continuity is unclear. So far, only the option has been announced and the project faces many hurdles before it gets to the big scre...

HBO has stepped up to the plate and picked up the Dark Tower TV project. The extremely ambitious adaptation of Stephen King's seven-volume novel series consists of a TV series and several interlinked theatrical movies. HBO has taken on the TV leg of the project, whilst producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer have reduced the budget of the first movie by $45 million, apparently making the project viable again. Javier Bardem remains attached to the role of Roland Deschain. Good news. This project sounded insanely ambitious, perhaps even unrealistically so, but cool that it seems to be back on the drawing board. HBO also seem to be continuing their foray into the fantastical, adding The Dark Tower to a fantasy line-up now consisting of True Blood , Game of Thrones and the forthcoming American Gods .

As you may have noticed, new posts have been much less frequent recently. This is due to me getting a new job, which is great but also demanding in time. So, for the forseeable future, it's likely that my blogging frequency will be reduced compared to what it was before, though I'll try to keep up with the news and reviews as much as possible. Currently reading: Midnight's Mask by Paul S. Kemp. Currently watching: Merlin Season 4. Currently playing: Deus Ex: Human Revolution .

According to common wisdom, the plot of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is incomprehensible. Which is odd, as it actually seemed reasonably straightforward to me. Essentially it goes like this: Thousands of years ago - and apparently without anyone noticing - the Decepticons placed a device inside the Great Pyramid of Giza that can blow up the Sun and harvest it for energon, which they can use to fuel themselves and possibly restore their dying homeworld of Cybertron. The Fallen - the Decepticons' supreme commander, senior even to Megatron - wants to activate the device, but he fears setting foot on Earth due to the threat posed by Optimus Prime (apparently only 'a Prime' can kill him). Also, the device's starting key, the 'Matrix of Leadership', has been missing for millennia. The Autobots and their human allies end up getting involved in the Decepticon plan to find the key and start the machine and the whole matter is resolved in a string of unlikely plot...

The crew of the Ketty Jay , fresh from defeating an incursion of the nefarious Manes, have been hailed as heroes and have become minor celebrities across the lands of Vardia. Avoiding notoriety and seeking their next job, Captain Frey and his crew have relocated to Samarla to undertake a train heist. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a straightforward caper turns into a major crisis, with Frey's life on the line and a supernatural force hunting the crew, known as the Iron Jackal... The Iron Jackal is the third book in the Tales of the Ketty Jay series, following on from the excellent Retribution Falls and The Black Lung Captain . As before, the novel follows the crewmembers of the airship Ketty Jay as they get into various scrapes. Once again, Chris Wooding has delivered a tight narrative which mixes in humour, adventure, character development and worldbuilding in a near-perfect mix, but done it with even more flair and panache than the previous volumes. The book is built ...

Last night, Game of Thrones triumphed at the Spike TV Scream Awards . Ned Stark and Cersei Lannister meet the Eleventh Doctor. This is like the craziest - but also AWESOMEST - fanfic cross-show mash-up you can think of. The show won three awards, with Peter Dinklage picking up Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Tyrion Lannister. Emilia Clarke then picked up Breakthrough Female Performance for her role as Daenerys Targaryen. Finally, Game of Thrones itself won in the Best Television Show category, beating The Walking Dead , True Blood and Doctor Who (though, as the above image attests, Matt Smith didn't hold any grudges). Well done to the cast and crew of Game of Thrones for their victory!

Here's the cover art for Blue Remembered Earth , the first book in the Poseidon's Children sequence by Alastair Reynolds. This new sequence will comprise three novels set at different points over 11,000 years of future history. The first novel focuses on an industrialised Africa as humanity settles the rest of the Solar system. The novel is due out in the UK on 19 January 2012 and in the USA on 5 June 2012.

Erevis Cale and his allies have survived a confrontation with the slaadi servants of the enigmatic Sojourner, but now find themselves lost on the Plane of Shadow with no way home. Meanwhile, Azriim and his fellows seek to execute the next part of the Sojourner's plans and head for Skullport, one of the darkest and most dangerous cities in the Realms. The second volume of the Erevis Cale trilogy picks up immediately after the first book and once again pits Cale and his band of willing and not-so-willing 'heroes' against Azriim and his fellow slaadi. The first novel, Twilight Falling , was entertaining but also suffered from clunky writing and some bad pacing. Dawn of Night is a notable improvement, with a more notable focus on the battle of wills between Cale and his sometimes-ally Riven to prove themselves the better man. The prose is more polished (though still prone to odd lapses) and there's also a satisfying amount of weirdness invoked when Cale and his friends fi...

Richard Morgan's The Cold Commands , the excellent second volume in the Land Fit For Heroes trilogy, was published two days ago in the UK and USA. Review here .

Simon Spanton, deputy publishing editor at Gollancz, has released the following statement regarding the new Scott Lynch novel, The Republic of Thieves : "We know how eagerly many of you are waiting for the publication of Scott Lynch’s third novel, The Republic of Thieves . We know how frustrating the delays have been. We know this because we share your eagerness and your frustrations. But as you may know Scott has had a very difficult couple of years and consequently the novel has been delayed. Several times. If you knew the circumstances for these delays I’m sure you’d understand why we have had to wait for the book. We’re now waiting for final delivery of the manuscript and are hoping to publish the book in March of 2012. The moment we have final delivery we will confirm a publication date. No-one is more eager to see this book published than Scott or myself. The delays have been forced on us. The moment we can put those behind us we will let you know and then we can ...

The 3rd Edition of the mighty Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has gone live . The previous two editions of the encyclopedia were massive print books large enough to demolish buildings, but the third edition is twice the size of either and hence will only (so far) be available on the Internet. This is the so-called 'beta release', consisting of roughly 75% of the text of the full book. The remainder of the text will be released over the next year or so, with regular updates appearing afterwards. A quick look through the encyclopedia suggests this is a monumental, massive addition to the canon of SF reference works, likely to supplant its predecessor as the definitive guide to the genre and possibly likely to supplant TVTropes as the website you go to check out one article and end up spending an afternoon there :-)