Monthly Archives: July 2015

Presenting the Grimdark Magazine Battle-Off Competition

Thanks to the nice people at Grimdark Magazine for asking me to join the panel of judges for their Battle-Off Competition. Any author can submit a 1000 word extract from a battle scene in their self or traditionally published work. The entries will be posted on the Grimdark Magazine website and readers will vote for their favourites. The seven entries with the most votes will then proceed to the judging stage. You can read the full set of rules, more about the judging panel and the list of prizes here: http://grimdarkmagazine.com/pages/the-grimdark-magazine-battle-off-competition


Pre-order ‘Twelve Kings in Sharakhai’ by Bradley P. Beaulieu and win the Raven’s Shadow trilogy in print

Congratulations to fellow fantasist Bradley P. Beaulieu on the upcoming release of his new novel Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, out in September from Ace/Roc. Bradley tells me that US based readers who pre-order a physical copy of the book will have a chance to win print editions of the complete Raven’s Shadow trilogy and the first three books in Django Wexler’s excellent Shadow Campaigns series (check out my review of the first volume, The Thousand Names). Anyone who pre-orders Twelve Kings in Sharakhai will also receive DRM-free ebooks of Bradley’s novel Irindai and the highly acclaimed The Winds of Khalakovo. Check out Bradley’s website for full details.

 

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New Series Announcement – ‘The Draconis Memoria’

Pleased at long last to announce my new series ‘The Draconis Memoria’, the first volume of which – ‘The Waking Fire’ – will be published by Ace/Roc in the US and by Orbit in the UK in July of 2016. Many thanks to my agent Paul Lucas of Janklow & Nesbit, my editors at Ace – Jessica Wade and Susan Allison, and my UK editor James Long for all their hard work in making this happen. The Orbit press release can be viewed here. Below is the full text of the Ace press release:

ACE BOOKS TO PUBLISH AN ALL-NEW SERIES FROM

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR ANTHONY RYAN

 

New York, NY, July 22, 2015—Ace Books, an imprint of the Berkley Publishing Group, will publish The Draconis Memoria, a new fantasy series from New York Times bestselling author Anthony Ryan. Ace acquired North American and translation rights to three books from Paul Lucas at Janklow & Nesbit, and the series has been sold in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom, where Orbit will publish. Ace will release the first novel in the series, The Waking Fire, in hardcover in July 2016.

Anthony Ryan began his career as a self-publishing sensation with the release of Blood Song, the first novel in The Raven’s Shadow trilogy. Sales began to rise and caught the attention of former Berkley Vice President and Editorial Director Susan Allison, who quickly acquired the trilogy and released Blood Song in hardcover in July 2013. The subsequent novels, Tower Lord (Ace, July 2014) and the recently-released Queen of Fire (Ace, July 2015), became New York Timesbestsellers. To date, The Raven’s Shadow trilogy has been published in fifteen countries, and over 200,000 copies of the novels have been sold worldwide.

The Waking Fire is set in a vibrant new world where the blood of drakes—creatures similar to dragons—is valued beyond reckoning, and can be distilled into elixirs that grant fearsome powers to those who are “blood-blessed.” The novel follows an unregistered blood-blessed as he searches for an elusive variety of drake so potent, its capture would mean unrivalled riches; the second in command of a blood-burning ironclad ship; and a young woman in a lifelong contract to a trading syndicate, whose espionage mission places her on the front lines of a newly declared war. As empires clash and arcane mysteries reveal themselves, these characters are tested again and again and soon discover that the fate of the world rests on their shoulders.

Ace Senior Editor Jessica Wade, who will edit the series, says, “The Draconis Memoria opens up an incredible new world for readers. It’s a perfect blend of engaging, complex characters, rich, incredibly inventive detail, and the trademark gripping storytelling on a breathtakingly grand scale that has made Anthony Ryan such a success. Readers have something amazing to look forward to.”

The Draconis Memoria is a remarkable new epic fantasy series with steampunk flavor, full of the phenomenal worldbuilding and non-stop action that have gained Anthony Ryan a global fan base.


AMA on Reddit Books – Today

If anyone would like to ask me anything, I’m doing an AMA on the Reddit Books site today: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3d5is6/anthony_ryan_author_of_the_ravens_shadow_epic/

I’ll login in again at 6pm EST to start answering questions.


Queen of Fire – US Release Day

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Queen of Fire is released today in the US and Canada. Where-to-buy links are on the books page. Two new maps have also been added to the Map Room for the benefit of e-book owners.

 

Also, anyone who missed out on the signed hardcover giveaway has a second chance to win on Goodreads. NB this giveaway ends at midnight tonight, Eastern Standard Time. Apologies for the short duration but they took a few days to approve it and you can’t change the closing date once it’s gone live.

Huge thanks to everyone at Ace for their hard work in helping me bring the Raven’s Shadow trilogy to conclusion, most especially my excellent editor Susan Allison. Susan retires this month after a remarkable career which included the publication of William Gibson’s Neuromancer and the works of Guy Gavriel Kay, amongst many others. As a complete neophyte to the world of traditional publishing, I consider myself lucky to have started out by working with the best.

And so, after nearly a decade of work, three books, and over 700,000 words, the Raven’s Shadow trilogy comes to an end. I offer my heartfelt thanks to every reader who joined me on this journey. To answer an oft asked question regarding the future of the Raven’s Shadow universe: I have plans for more short works set in this world, like my novella The Lord Collector, but at this stage I don’t know when I’ll return to write a full series. Rest assured, ideas are percolating in the bubbling cauldron that is my brain, but it may well be some time before I’m ready to share the brew. In the meantime, I’m currently writing the second book in a new series about which I hope to have more to say in the near future.


Guest Article on Fantasy Book Critic – ‘We Will Make an Ending’ or ‘How I Wrote Queen of Fire’

Thanks to Fantasy Book Critic for hosting my guest article on the experience of writing Queen of Fire, read it here: http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/guest-post-we-will-make-ending-or-how-i.html


‘Queen of Fire’ Giveaway – And the winners are…

Many thanks to everyone who entered the Queen of Fire giveaway. Also thanks for the all the kind comments in the emails and apologies for not being able to respond to everyone individually. Without further ado, the randomly selected winners are:

1st place: Jared Pannell, winning a signed, lined and dated US hardcover.

2nd place: Charlie Hopkins, winning a signed, lined and dated UK hardcover.

3rd place: Brad Campbell, winning a signed, lined and dated UK large format paperback.

4th place: Mike Olsen, also winning a signed, lined and dated UK large format paperback.

Commiserations to everyone who didn’t win but if you want another chance at a signed US hardcover I’ll shortly be running another giveaway on Goodreads, so watch out for that.


Queen of Fire – UK Release Day

Queen of Fire is released today in the UK in hardback, ebook and audio formats. Where-to-buy links have been added to the books page. This edition should also now be available in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Many thanks to everyone at Orbit UK for their hard work on this book, especially my editor James Long who first took a chance on this series back in 2012. And heartfelt thanks to all my readers for allowing me to finish this story – I really couldn’t have done it without you. It’s been a long and winding road, but all roads must end.

QUEEN OF FIRE HI RES (4)


New Interview – SciFiNow

Thanks to SciFiNow Magazine for inviting me to be interviewed on their website. I talk Queen of Fire, inspirations, writing advice and remain annoyingly vague about future plans. Read it here: http://www.scifinow.co.uk/interviews/anthony-ryan-on-queen-of-fire-and-the-end-of-ravens-shadow/