And lo! it was foretold... : Shadows of the Apt

And lo! it was foretold…

For Salute the Dark being none other than book 4 of Shadows of the Apt by some hack or other, is now into pre-sales and you can see some details, as well as the frankly wonderful cover by Jon Sullivan here. My personal feeling is that this is the best cover yet, and Jon managed to nail my mental picture of Achaeos, especially his face, which is remarkable as the sketches I sent in certainly didn't (I am, in all honestly, a sub-indifferent fumbler with a pencil).

In other news, I will shortly be on my first overseas tour as Rebis, publishers of the Polish-language editions, have invited me over to Poland between the 4^th and 8^th of November this year. I don't have a precise itinerary yet but I'll be strung between Warsaw and Krakow most likely. Rebis have put together a beautiful website here which is a work of art and well worth a look.

Finally, I'm going along to the SFX Weekender in February, as a very minor light in what looks to be a remarkable constellation of Big Names from the genre. Looking down the list I feel I might end up more as fan than guest, but I shall do my best to avoid making a fool of myself too much. The details of the SFX Weekender are here.

Posted by Adrian Tchaikovsky on October 11th, 2009

Posted in Blog, Home

Tags: Rants

20 Comments

20 comments to “And lo! it was foretold…”

Pepius, October 13th, 2009 at 4:51 pm:

Congratulations on the future release!

I was planning on writing a comment as soon as I finished Dragonfly Falling (Just a couple chapters left) but I guess this is a good opportunity as any other :p

I picked out of curiosity the first book in the series a couple months ago thanks to amazon's incesant promotional barrage, and I couldn't be happier to fall in the clutches of online marketing. I bought the next two books in my next order, and for now I'm having a blast with the series. Rest asure that I'll get the fourth book as soon as it comes out.

I really like the originality of its proposal, not only for what you included in it (the Art, steampunk, etc) but also for what you left out (Evil Dark Lord, dragons, elves!), and I think it'd make a great basis for an RPG system. I don't know if you're planning somthing in that regard, but if not, it wouldn't surprise me to see find out some fanmade module released sometime in the future.

(In case you're curious about it, I'm from Spain, and I'm already rambling about the books to my friends in anticipation of a future spanish edition)
dresne, October 14th, 2009 at 11:53 am:

Wow, described as a 'top author' by SFX. There's glory. But what happened to the other news?
Grahame, October 17th, 2009 at 2:23 pm:

Other news snipped short — what a cliffhanger!

Look forward to seeing you at the SFX con!
Martin, October 18th, 2009 at 10:36 pm:

That is the nicest cover yet (and looks more expensive, too. Does this mean they're spending more on the series?). I especially like the way the art wings are done.
Robbelito, October 21st, 2009 at 1:37 pm:

I must say, i can't describe how excited i am to see what happens in the fourth book, since i just read out the third book today and i must say, Adrian Tchaikovsky is probably the best author i've seen, and his books are my favourits, i can't wait for the fourth book to come out =)

(Im from sweden, and i loooooove to read the book in english, since it's soooo much better to make it alive, which it is for me, i get like a mental movie inside my head when i read this)
I hope u never stop making these books =)
Pete Dobson, October 31st, 2009 at 11:55 pm:

Have just finished "Blood of the Mantis" having purchased all 3 about 2 weeks ago from Forbidden Planet. Am really enjoying the series so far. Any idea on when Salute the Dark will be published (can I drop hints to my other half to get me it for Xmas?) and how many books will be in the series?

great writing keep it up
Adrian Tchaikovsky, November 1st, 2009 at 10:48 pm:

Alas, February 2010 is the release, so no insecty Christmas for you. I suppose you could earmark some Amazon vouchers…

Very glad you enjoyed the first three.
Paul Goodwin, November 7th, 2009 at 10:31 am:

Hi Adrian

Pleased that there is to be a fourth in the series. I am only part way through Black and Gold at the moment but I am enjoying it thoroughly :o). I think the whole insect characteristics/traits is a cracker. So far, I'm liking Tisamon's character the most even though he's only been in it for a few of the pages that I have read.

My fiancée (Lesley) knowns me too well, saw the books and bought me your 3 books thus far for my birthday (which was a few days back). Even better she managed to buy Dragonfly and Mantis already autographed by you, but alas she was unable buy Black/Gold signed. Are you planning on doing any signings in the Portsmouth/Southampton area in the foreseeable future, or once i've finished book one, is there somewhere I can send it for you to sign and doodle insecty characters in?

Looking forward to reading the books/pages I have left and the to the release of number 4.

All the best
Paul
Paul Goodwin, November 8th, 2009 at 1:23 pm:

Hi
Me again. I also meant to ask if there are any plans for audio versions of your books as I have a friend who is blind who i know would get a huge amount of enjoyment from the books?

Thanks Again

Paul
Adrian Tchaikovsky, November 8th, 2009 at 11:50 pm:

As far as I know not yet, but that would be nice. I'm not sure how much fantasy makes it to the audiobook stage, beyond the really big names such as Rowling and Pratchett, but I'd be very happy to see (or indeed hear) audio versions of my books.
opal, November 10th, 2009 at 8:06 pm:

I am going to optimistically assume that characters who die in the first fifty pages don't make it on to the front cover. 😀
Steve Aryan, November 10th, 2009 at 10:58 pm:

Hello,

I just wanted to get in touch to let you know, Empire in Black and Gold, will be the next book club selection on a podcast I co-host. We give our listeners about 6 weeks to read a book, then discuss it with feedback from everyone. We're announcing it in ep 66 in a couple of weeks, I think it will be early Feb when we discuss. Would you be available for an interview or would you be happy to field questions from readers about Book 1? My email address is enclosed if you would like to get in touch to discuss.

Many thanks

Steve Aryan
Steve Aryan, November 10th, 2009 at 10:59 pm:

Hello,

I just wanted to get in touch to let you know, Empire in Black and Gold, will be the next book club selection on a podcast I co-host. We give our listeners about 6 weeks to read a book, then discuss it with feedback from everyone. We’re announcing it in ep 66 in a couple of weeks, I think it will be early Feb when we discuss. Would you be available for an interview or would you be happy to field questions from readers about Book 1? My email address is enclosed if you would like to get in touch to discuss.

Many thanks

Steve Aryan
stephenaryan at hotmail dot com
Maria, November 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 pm:

That's so great, so we'll soon see 4^th book in stores! I can't wait for that to happen. Though, it's curious that I had the assumption that he had longer hair — hmm I must have missed a detail somewhere and filled it with on my own image of him, but the covers looks cool anyway (I will now proceed to imagine him as he looks on the cover, a sort of bad-ass kind of guy:D)
By the way, is it the same person who illustrated the 3 first books? It looks a lot different than the others(or perhaps it's just that it's the first time we see the face of the figure on the cover wholly exposed)
Adrian Tchaikovsky, November 23rd, 2009 at 7:44 pm:

It is Jon Sullivan again, yes. Because of Achaeos' unusual appearance (his eyes and skin tone are both off the normal human range) we made a particular decision to show his face, rather than cowl up. However I think the biggest difference is probably the dark background rather than the light, which changes the feel of the book a great deal.

By the way, hop over to Amazon.com and search for Empire in Black and Gold and you'll see the cover that Jon's done for Pyr, which is also extremely good.
Robbelito, December 31st, 2009 at 12:38 am:

Hi Adrian, like Paul Goodwin said in that last part, I was wondering if there is any place i could send the books so that you could sign or doodle insects on or anything like that? i would honestly love that.
/A person in love with the "Shadows of the apt" books >.<
Adrian Tchaikovsky, December 31st, 2009 at 1:19 am:

Hmm, tricky one. My best bet at the moment would be to get hold of the Travelling Man shop in Leeds, which has a stock of books, and which I regularly frequent. They can be found at:

32 Central Road
Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS1 6DE
0113 242 7227

If you tell them you're after a signed copy (with insects, no less) they will either have something in stock already, or they can get me to do one up for you.

In the alternative I will be signing at various locations in February, to probably include: Waterstones in Reading, the aforementioned Travelling Man, Garforth Bookshop, and almost certainly something at the SFX Weekender, plus other options possible (if anyone's keen for me to go somehwere and sign things, now's probably a good time to pipe up). You can contact anywhere I end up signing, and they should be able to reserve you signed copies. The doodled insects come as standard. Alternatively, Tor themselves will have some signed stock, as will the London Forbidden Planet store in all likelihood.
Robbelito, January 11th, 2010 at 9:27 pm:

so…no place i can send it too? since it would be hard for me to do that…when i do not live in england. :s
Claire, January 14th, 2010 at 11:00 pm:

Really glad to hear that the next book is out soon; I've been following the series since the beginning after reading about it on various book blog sites. Extremely original and just getting better and better I think; very true to life in the muddle of war. I also like the fact that your characters are real people. Many thanks.
hangerhead, June 14th, 2010 at 6:19 pm:

just started 'Salute the Dark' and wondered if anybody else has got the subtle references to [I]'The battle of Rorke's Drift' [/I]on Page 18–19 (British Army Vs Kwazulu Natal)?

Shadows of the Apt