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.