Forgot to mention this here, though I did on Twitter — famous fan James Davis Nicoll did an interview with me in Publishers Weekly earlier this week, to coincide with their review of The Kingdom of Gods. (Spoilers for the third sample chapter, which goes up next week!) Some excerpts from the interview, which is published in their print edition but also here at the Genreville blog:
JDN: One of the defining elements in the Inheritance Trilogy was obsessive and often destructive love. Another was a political structure notable for its brutality and authoritarian aspects. The two elements are linked in that one of the most obsessive romantics also was responsible for the political situation in the first; were you trying to make a more general point by featuring both so prominently and so inextricably intertwined?
NKJ: I’m guessing you’re leaving the identity of the obsessive romantic unmentioned because there are so many of them in the story! But honestly, I wasn’t trying to make a point about that. I don’t think that oppressive, authoritarian political systems have anything to do with love. Control is not a part of love.
With respect to the political structure, I wasn’t trying to make a point about that, either, or at least not consciously. I was trying to hold up a mirror to our own society, I suppose. After all, in the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms every child born grows up with a good education, good nutrition, a very slim chance of dying in war or poverty, and a very good chance of living to a venerable age. In real life we make the same rationalizations that the Arameri do, for far less benefit. So which world is truly brutal?
It’s good stuff; go check it out!
Hooray!
The magazine version and the online version are actually completely separate; subscribers get exclusive content.
Random happy note: Got the amazon.de notification that Kingdom of Gods shipped yesterday!
And I just realized that it’s not been released yet – so I’m rather confused what book I’ll be receiving…
Evamaria,
That’s… huh. Yeah, that’s not supposed to happen for another few weeks. Maybe the German publishers got their version out a little early? I’ll inquire.
You spelled my surname right! You spelled my middle name right! Yay!
(I’m often presented as James Nicholl or James David Nicholl. Amazon had me listed as James Micoll when they had me listed at all…)
Any ideas when/if the audiobook is likely to become available? As I wrote recently on my blog, Cassaundra Freeman’s performance was amazing, and brought a lot to the experience of the books (I saw an earlier entry that asked for opinions of her performance, but comments there are, of course, closed. Her performance was perfect.). I thought that making sure you know there are fans of audiobooks who love your work might help to make sure that they keep being made available.