It’s the big day at last — The Broken Kingdoms is officially out in the US. Calling this “launch day” is kind of moot, actually, since most of the major booksellers have been shipping preorders for the past few weeks, both here and in the UK — I did a signing at the London Forbidden Planet on Saturday, so they’ve had them since last week. I figure this is a good thing, me being the impatient type, and I imagine a number of readers feel the same.
I’m understandably anxious about this one, because naturally I dread the sophomore slump. That goes double since I’m taking some chances with BrokeKing: different narrator, different story rather than a continuation of the previous, different voice (Yeine spoke like an aristocrat; Oree uses a lot more contractions), and a ten-year timeskip. As others have noted (videos of a great panel I missed at WFC this year), this breaks a lot of the expected tropes of epic fantasy — and some readers aren’t going to react well to it. That’s fine; I’m never going to be able to please everyone. My hope is simply to please the majority of the people who pick the book up. I think I successfully did this with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms; I’ll consider The Broken Kingdoms a success if I can do it again.
I’ll be resuming the Character Studies shortly, which I’d temporarily suspended because I kept inadvertently spoiling bits of books 2 and 3. (Sorry!) I’ll try not to do that this time. On the plate are Kurue, Itempas, Oree, and T’vril — but naturally I want to wait a few days on the last three, to give folks a chance to read The Broken Kingdoms. Will also be sharing more of my thoughts on the worldbuilding. And I’m going to post a poll soon that will help me decide something: whether to flip my “world of 100K kingdoms” personal wiki over to public. That wiki contains copious spoilers for all three books, and also lots of background material that won’t make it into any book. But I’m aware that some people like spoilers, so… More on that later.
Anyhow, remember the contest, and that three sample chapters of book 2 are up in the books section. And if you get a minute, let me know what you think of The Broken Kingdoms!
Received it today, whoot!
Congratulations!
The only thing I’ve read about The Broken Kingdoms so far was from someone who liked it even better than The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. (I can’t remember who.) I look forward to reading it.
Hooked after reading the 1st 3 sample chapters!! Can’t wait to get my hands on your book. Congrats to you :) And I must say I adored your “I Am the Market” post…very inspiring!!
“I’m never going to be able to please anyone”?
I hope that was a typo, because you’ve please A LOT of people. I’m getting The Broken Kingdoms on my kindle right now and I know it’ll be every bit as good as your first book! :D
Sarita,
Gah, yes, typo. I meant to say everyone. I blame the jetlag!
The Broken Kingdoms was my reward for handing in my assessment today. I’m planning on reading it slowly and leisurely . . . if I can. The momentum is already building, though, and I have a feeling that I’m soon going to tear through it in the same frantic, sleep-deprived rush that I did the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
Which is to say, yes, you’ve still got it. Oh my yes indeed. So glad that I was late jumping on the bus and only had to wait a month for this book to come out– a friend of mine’s been waiting much longer, though with an equal measure of patience (which is to say, none).
I am in favor of seeing the wiki, because I always want to know as much as I can about something I love. But I also want to be able to enjoy the third book in the fullness of its promise, so I’m not sure if I would want it to appear prior to that . . . am I strong enough to resist the temptation to look when I’m starving for want of the third book? The gods know I have a bad track record with these things . . .
Oh, seriously… no worries about the sophomore slump! I ordered it immediately when I found out Amazon was shipping a few weeks ago–I didn’t have it preordered before that only because I already knew at that point that I was going to be out of town on the release date (I am in fact writing this in my hotel room :), so I was extremely happy when I heard Amazon was shipping early and I didn’t have to wait until I got home to buy/read it.
I loved it just as much as The 100K Kingdoms. I think it’s great that they’re related without it being a direct sequel.
You just have the most awesome author’s voice… I love how you tell the story as much as I love your characters!
I did not like the second book QUITE as much as the first, but since I loved the first book, I still liked this one very much.
At the moment I think my slightly different reaction is due to two factors. One is that the details of the universe, being somewhat familiar, don’t have quite the same impact as when I was first introduced to them; we see and learn about new things in Broken, of course, but it’s not the same as being dropped into the deep end at the start of the first book. The other is that, despite the books’ being fairly independent of each other, there is a narrative arc and we are in the middle of it here. This is not a bad thing but, now that I have some idea of the overall shape of the narrative, some part of my reading mind objects to being left in the middle (at the end of the first book I did not know what the overall narrative would be like, nor even that there was one). If that makes any sense.
In any case, I enjoyed the book and am eager to read the third volume. (And I might like the second even better in retrospect, once I see how everything fits together.)
I loved the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. When I got my hands on the Broken Kingdoms I told myself that I would take it slow and savor it.
. . . didn’t happen.
30 hours later and I’ve just finished it. And I can tell you right now that you have no need to fear a sophomore slump. Because I love the Broken Kingdoms as much as I loved the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. And very possibly more.
Alas I must save my rambling for elsewhere for fear of spoiling the joys of the book for others. But thank you so much, and I’m deeply looking forward to book 3.
I’ve been saving this for when I can spend the whole day reading. I couldn’t put the first book down and got no sleep one night because of it (totally worth it!:). Veteran’s Day is coming up; might just be how I spend the holiday.