Heirs of the Blade put back to October : Shadows of the Apt

Heirs of the Blade put back to October

As I can now consider myself an established fantasy author, it's time to start delaying release of my books to annoy people.

Seriously, though, I've just been told that Heirs of the Blade will be coming out in October this year, not August. I did wonder if we were pushing the envelope release-wise, as I hadn't seen the final proofs (1) and contradictory news on the net had me wondering. Anyway — final confirmation is in that October, probably 1^st Friday of, will be the release.

(1) I had faith, but as we all know, proofs deny faith, and without faith… (2)

(2) belated nod to Towel Day.

Posted by Adrian Tchaikovsky on May 27th, 2011

Posted in Blog, Home

Tags: Rants

19 Comments

19 comments to “Heirs of the Blade put back to October”

Wallaby Junction, May 27th, 2011 at 9:57 am:

Boooo!
gaetan, May 28th, 2011 at 11:13 pm:

dear adrian,

just to let u know that I've been reading shadow of the apt and been quit taken into it, but now been waiting almost a year for the sixth one !!!! quit a while hey !

so would be nice to see it in library before october, cause now got nothing else to read as i'm also waiting for the book 14 of wheel of time.

hurry the process up please !

many thks.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, May 29th, 2011 at 10:40 am:

Well the 6^th one is out in the UK, at least, and has been since February. Not sure why you haven't had it at your local yet. As for the other, my influence on the estate of Robert Jordan is, alas, minimal. Book 14, though? Blimey, I can honesty say, as the writer of an intended decalogy, 14 books is a long series.
Claire, May 29th, 2011 at 11:48 am:

I'll let you and your publishers off as long as the next one doesn't take five years 🙂
Tristan Scott, May 31st, 2011 at 4:47 am:

Bitter — got in to the series, but it's distributor here in Canada, H.B. Fenn, just went bankrupt, so now I can't get ANY of the books up here in the Great White North! Anything anyone can do to facilitate them getting picked up by another distributor?
Adrian Tchaikovsky, May 31st, 2011 at 1:00 pm:

Reply @ Tristan Scott: Ouch, basically. That's bad news. I don't think that there's much I or the publishers in the UK can do about it, and the rights to distribute may well sit in the bankrupt estate of Fenn until it gets dismantled, which is even worse. Will drop a like to Tor UK just in case though.

In the interim, can you get hold of books from the UK or US via Amazon or similar?
Brien, May 31st, 2011 at 5:44 pm:

Dear Mr. Tchaikovsky,

I am a huge fan of your series, and I have all six of them to date! I think that you have done yeoman's work to get them all out in the amount of time you have had, and apparently while holding down a job as a lawyer. I am a lawyer myself, and I imagine that you haven't gotten a lot of sleep over the past few years. Don't worry about the delay — we will be waiting.

I do have a question about Heirs of the Blade — it seems a bit pricier on bookdepository.com and amazon.co.uk than your other books (I am American, but I started reading the series before it came out here, and I have all of the books in their UK editions; for what it is worth, I prefer the UK covers) — is Heirs coming out in another format, or will it be the same size as the others? I would prefer to have the set all looking the same, albeit with the different colors.

Thanks,
Brien.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, May 31st, 2011 at 6:16 pm:

Reply @ Brien — Yes, it's coming out in trade paperback. I think there's a regular paperback release planned as well, but that will be, I'd guess, around the same time as book 8 comes out in trade. So, yes, there will be a bit of a jump for bookshelf completists.
Ferg, May 31st, 2011 at 10:50 pm:

Shame about the delay, but good to know that it'll be out soon. Looks like a good autumn for fantasy with Heirs and the new Scott Lynch coming out.
Splicer, June 2nd, 2011 at 10:29 am:

No rush dear boy.Keep them coming bi-annually with 600+ pages and you and I shall be firm friends indeed.Toodles
Adrian Tchaikovsky, June 2nd, 2011 at 6:13 pm:

Ah well — annually from here on in I'm afraid, as they've rather caught up with me. Book 8 probably Augustish 2012.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, June 6th, 2011 at 11:52 pm:

Reply @ Tristan (and any other Canadian readers) — I'm told distribution in Canada is now being taken over by HarperCollins, so that should put everything back on track again.
Splicer, June 7th, 2011 at 7:40 am:

Hmmm,annually…I have forgiven you already.They are indeed worth waiting for.Ariva…Arreevader…goodbye.
Daniel, June 12th, 2011 at 10:42 pm:

Will the first 6 books of the series also be launched in trade paperback format in the near future?
Adrian Tchaikovsky, June 13th, 2011 at 6:08 pm:

Not sure but it's possible — there has been Talk of it, when I last met the publishers and there may even be new covers for books 1–3ish, we'll see — will give news here if I have any.
Ian H, July 5th, 2011 at 1:03 pm:

Good things come to those that wait and 2 months isn't very long at all in the grand scheme of things especially compared to GoT series where in the last 10 years we've had two books (technically 1 1/2 if you want to split dire wolf hairs) though I do think the next one might be a tad quicker as a cynical brit.
Tristan Scott, July 5th, 2011 at 3:16 pm:

Thanks for the response. Yes, the books are available through Harper Collins up in Canada — I'll try to keep you up to date!
Wallaby Junction, October 7th, 2011 at 12:47 pm:

Is something holding up the American release? I notice this book is out in ebook format in the UK but there's no available kindle edition on Amazon yet.
Adrian Tchaikovsky, October 7th, 2011 at 7:18 pm:

Pyr hasn't optioned Sea Watch or Heirs get, so there is no "American release" but, conversely, the UK ebook is available. When Pyr or another publisher pick up the rights, they'll usually get the ebook as well, at which point the UK ebook won't be available in the US. Or that's how it's worked to date.

Shadows of the Apt