Games

Via Facebook , Tad Williams has reported that he has completed Happy Hour in Hell and sent it off to his publishers. This is the second novel in his Bobby Dollar series (the first, The Dirty Streets of Heaven , was released last year to a warm reception). Williams also reports that he is starting work on the third book, Sleeping Late on Judgement Day . The novel is provisionally scheduled for release at the end of this year.

Bobby Dollar is an angel who serves as an advocate for the recently deceased. Whenever someone dies, their soul is fought over by Heaven and Hell, with advocates from both sides competing for it. Dollar's latest case is complicated when the soul in question vanishes, and even the infernal legions of Hell seem at a loss as to what's going on. As Dollar investigates, he uncovers ancient conspiracies, political infighting even amongst the ranks of the angels of Heaven and that he himself has been targeted by every supernatural gang in California. He just doesn't know why. The Dirty Streets of Heaven is the opening novel in the Bobby Dollar series by Tad Williams. Williams is best known for his shelf-destroying epic fantasies and the extremely slow pace of his novels. His recent Shadowmarch series suffered from a glacially ponderous structure that sometimes threatened to spill over into outright boredom. However, Williams's move into urban fantasy has been like a shot of ...

Some upcoming cover art, courtesy of Jussi at Westeros.org once more: First up, the American cover for Blood of Dragons , the fourth volume in The Rain Wild Chronicles by Robin Hobb. This book is due for publication in the UK and USA in April 2013: Next up is the American cover for Great North Road , Peter F. Hamilton's new massive SF epic. This book will be out in the USA in December this year (and September in the UK): The final UK cover art for Iain M. Banks's The Hydrogen Sonata , the latest excursion to The Culture . This book will be out in the UK and USA in September this year: Rounding things off is the UK artwork for The Dirty Streets of Heaven , the first in Tad Williams's new urban fantasy series. This book will be out in both the UK and USA in September as well:

Some new American cover art for forthcoming releases. First up is The Twelve , the sequel to Cronin's 2010 mega-seller, The Passage , due on 16 October: Next is The Dirty Streets of Heaven , the first in the urban fantasy Bobby Dollar trilogy from Tad Williams, due on 4 September: The other two books in the trilogy have the working titles Happy Hour in Hell and Sleeping Late on Judgement Day . DAW are making much of the fact that the books in this trilogy will be shorter than Williams's usual work.

A new trailer has been released for the MMORPG based on Tad Williams's Otherland novels. You may wish to mute it if you don't want to be subjected to a particularly poor wubstep soundtrack (which hopefully is just on the trailer, not the whole game). Looks interesting. More interesting is the fact that the game will actually be free to play, and should be available before the end of 2012.

Warner Brothers have optioned the film rights to Tad Williams' Otherland sequence of SF novels. John Scott III is writing the script (he's also adapting Isaac Asimov's Caves of Steel for 20th Century Fox). From the sound of the press release, the film producers are not planning a faithful adaptation, but will instead compress the 3,300-page story (in paperback) into a single two-hour movie. Expect about 5% of the plot from the books to end up on the screen. An odd choice, it has to be said. Given Otherland 's episodic nature, a 3-4 season TV adaptation is a much more logical way of adapting the series. Whilst the film may be entertaining, it will certainly not be a faithful adaptation of the books. In the meantime , a free-to-play Otherland MMORPG will be released later this year by DTP Entertainment.

The armies of the Qar and the Autarch of Xis have converged on Shadowmarch Castle, which now stands siege from enemies attacking by sea, land and underground. Ferras Vansen leads a desperate fight in the subterranean depths under the castle, trying to hold back the Xixians from the mysteries which the Funderlings have sworn to protect for generations. Briony Eddon is also heading home with a small Syanese army, but her resolve to help her people is challenged when she learns that her father is a captive of the Autarch... Shadowheart is the fourth and final novel in the Shadowmarch sequence, the third major series by American author Tad Williams. The series is a slow-burner, with a pace that can best be called 'relaxed'. Empires may be forged, armies may clash and ancient secrets may be unveiled, but it all happens at a leisurely, chilled-out rate. This is epic fantasy at its cosiest and most predictable. Which is not to say the series is unenjoyable. Williams has saved the bes...

The Eddon family is divided and scattered. King Olin is a prisoner of the mad autarch of Xis, whilst Prince Barrick is lost beyond the Shadowline, searching for the fabled Qar capital. Far to the south, Princess Briony is a reluctant guest of the Syannese court. The Qar continue their siege of Shadowmarch, but Hendon Tolly is more interested in unearthing the ancient secrets of the castle than in resisting the invaders. That job falls to the Funderlings, who must mount a stalwart defence of the tunnels and passages below the castle. Shadowrise is the third novel in the Shadowmarch series. Originally planned as a trilogy, the final book in the series grew too large to publish in one volume, so was split in half (though each half is almost as long as the first two books in the series by themselves). Williams has form on this, as this also happened with the paperback edition of the final volume of the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. As with the first two books in the sequence, Shadow...