Anyway:

Varmen the Sentinel, of course, has his early history played out in Ironclads and The Last Ironclad.

Dal Arche and his little coterie of brigands first meet in An Old Man in a Harsh Season and another of their adventures is told in The Price of Salt.

Lowre Cean has a relatively small role in The Sun of the Morning, but his son, Lowre Darien, who gets some mention in Heirs, has his exploits told in The Prince.

Finally, the ghost story told by Avaris the Spider, towards the end of the book, can be found in its entirety here: The Dreams of Avaris

Enjoy!

All maps are the work of Hemesh Alles.

The Lowlands, showing the Three City Alliance

The East-Empire and the Exalsee

The South and West-Empire and the Dominion of Khanaphes

The Spiderlands

And last, for now, the Commonweal, as a sneak preview from Heirs of the Blade.

Firstly, I will be at Fantasycon 2011 this year (1) and I've been asked to sit on a panel on Trends in Fantasy Fiction, 10am Saturday. I will hopefully be essaying a reading too, as the five people who came to the last one at Alt Fiction seemed to enjoy it (2). Reading, if it goes ahead, will either be the section of The Air War or a new short story.

Secondly, cheap kindling!  In that there is an Amazon offer for the Kindle version of Empire in Black and Gold that can be found here. Ideal present for someone who hasn't read it, might like it, and has a Kindle thingie.

Finally, and most momentously…

NEW COVER ART

Although mentioning the above in the header probably killed that as a surprise reveal, the earlier Shadows of the Apt volumes are getting something of a remodel. The new editions will be trade paperback format (to fit with the the upcoming release of Heirs of the Blade and feature completely new art by Alan Brooks. So far designs for Empire and Dragonfly are in the pipeline:

The new editions should be out around March 2012.

And finally finally finally, and just so I've not been blowing my own trumpet for the whole post, I have just finished reading Dan Abnett's recent novel Embedded, and good lord it is good. Go get yourself a copy if you haven't already.

(1) because being at Fantasycon 2011 any other year would be stupid.

(2) In all fairness that was about how many the room sat.

Track 1 — Overture (A Distant Sadness, from Battlestar Galactica Season 3 by Bear McCreary)

Track 2 — Che Voyaging (The Bunker (Reprise), from Shadow of the Vampire by Daniel Jones)

Track 3 — Che and Thalric (The Lonely Voyage, from Shadow of the Vampire by Daniel Jones)

Track 4 — Meet the Scorpions (The Yahoos, from Gulliver's Travels by Trevor Jones (1))

Track 5 — The Statues of Khanaphes (Cobol's Last Gleaming, from Battlestar Galactica Season 1 by Bear McCreary)

Track 6 — Amnon's Hunt (Main Title, from Walking with Beasts by Ben Bartlett)

Track 7 — Field Battle (Way of the Sword, from The Last Samurai by Hans Zimmer)

Track 8 — Teuthete's Strike (Fear is the Mind Killer, from Children of Dune by Brian Tyler)

Track 9 — Lost in the Catacombs (Main Title from Aliens by James Horner)

Track 10 — The Works of the Masters (The Mage Tower from Icewind Dale by Jeremy Soule(2))

Track 11 — The Blue Lamps / Going after Osgan (What If?, from The Time Machine by Klaus Badelt)

Track 12 — Breaking from the Nightmare (The Master, from The Time Machine by Klaus Badelt (3))

Track 13 — Meyr — (Do You Think I'm Saxon, from King Arthur by Hans Zimmer)

Track 14 — Holding the Bridge (Morlocks, from The Time Machine by Klaus Badelt)

Track 15 - Watching the Past Unfold — (This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home, from Doctor Who Season 3 by Murray Gold)

Track 16 — The River (Lamia's Doll, from Stardust by Ilan Eshkeri)

Track 17 — The Masters' Regret (Bloodshed, from Battlestar Galactica Series 1 by Bear McCreary)

For reference, previous soundtracks can be found at: Empire in Black and Gold, Dragonfly Falling, Blood of the Mantis and Salute the Dark.

(1) Not the recent film with Jack Black but the phenomenal TV movie with Ted Danson that Hallmark (I think) did years ago.

(2) Yes, the computer game, but the did put out a soundtrack.

(3) An extra ten years of purgatory to me for having these two tracks backwards.

Cities of Silver is the first outing for Doctor Ludweg Phinagler (1) who will hopefully return for a few more adventures later. He promises to be a useful vehicle to explore some corners of the kinden's world that the main plot won't have the change to seriously examine (indeed if anyone has anywhere in particular they would like the good doctor to go, by all means pipe up.)

It's also worth saying that I am obviously lying through my teeth about "short". This one ballooned into something more like a novella than a short story. The Doctor does tend to go on.

Finally, this story stands as an artifact within the kinden's world. It is a book (2) printed and sold in Collegium, and cheaply at that, in the general category of "awful books", originally stories to inspire awe, but more lately simply sensationalist unlikely stories. Hence the actual truth of anything that our narrator Fosse sets down should be treated with a pinch of mineral salts.

Nonetheless, the story can be found here. Enjoy.

(1) Anyone who has been obsessively reading this blog since Way Back™ may remember the distant genesis and inspiration here.

(2) or at least an English translation of one, I suppose.

So, it's opportune that I throw my own comedy Mi-go hat into the ring (2) and proudly announce that my first professional short story is coming out courtesy of Miskatonic River Press in a collection entitled Dead But Dreaming 2. This is not an insect-kinden story, obviously, but instead follows paranormal investigator Walther Cohen (3) as he delves into the sinister secrets of… The Dissipation Club. I'm particularly proud, as well, to say that this story was written for the Deadliners, the twice-yearly writer's group I go to, which shows that such groups are definitely worth it.

(1) Some of that Moomintroll **** is terrifying, man. The Hattifatteners will get you if you don't watch out.

(2) My friends went to Yuggoth and all they got me was this oh my god I'm a brain in a jar!

(3) I've written a few about Mr Cohen, and another such, with a less Cthulhoid feel, will hopefully appear in a new anthology edited by Andy Remic some time soon.

As well as the separate story I've written for Tor's proposed author anthology (no word on that yet), I am midway through a third which should get done before I need to start on book 9. This won't be prequel material, but instead a very definite exploration of an area I'm unlikely to go back to much in the series. Anyone who wanted a proper look into Lake Limnia, your time may yet come.

So: I leave you with The Last Ironclad.

(1) Either I get the title right from the start or it's always like a slightly ill-fitting piece of clothing, try as I might…

(2) Stenwold's flying visit in Salute the Dark notwithstanding.

Track 1 — Uctebri has the Shadow Box (The Daleks, from Dr Who series 1 by Murray Gold)

Track 2 — The Merchant Companies depart (Farewells, the Storm, from Rome by Jeff Beal)

Track 3 — The Flower of the Felyal (God Breathed, from The Virgin Queen by Martin Phipps)

Track 4 — Tisamon and Felise Reunited (Roslin and Adama, from Battlestar Galactica season 2 by Bear McCreary)

Track 5 — Salma's Charge (Best of Times, from World of Goo soundtrack by Kyle Gabler (1) )

Track 6 — Grief and Malkan (Shooting Star, from Stardust by Ilan Eshkeri)

Track 7 — Drephos' Irresistible Logic (Jelly. from World of Goo soundtrack by Kyle Gabler)

Track 8 — Totho (Threadcutter, from World of Goo soundtrack by Kyle Gabler)

Track 9 — Ritual of Moths (Justin at Mr Chin's, from Carnivale by Jeff Beal)

Track 10 — Battle for Solarno (Prelude to War, from Battlestar Galactica season 2 by Bear McCreary)

Track 11 — At Collegium's Gates (Miraz Crowned, from Prince Caspian by Harry Gregson-Williams)

Track 12 - Last Fight Before the Emperor (Departure of Boromir, from Fellowship of the Ring complete soundtrack by Howard Shore)

Track 13 — Tynisa Watches (Ascension, from Moulin Rouge soundtrack by Craig Armstrong)

Track 14 — Signing the Treaty (Madam de Pompadour, from Doctor Who series 1 by Murray Gold)

Track 15 — Trailer for The Scarab Path (A Distant Sadness, from Battlestar Galactica season 3 by Bear McCreary)

(1) I did all four of these soundtracks at around the same time, so it's not a case of having discovered Gabler's music late on, just that the trakcs seemed to fit here.  The music has very kindly been made available by the composer/game designer/all round renaissance man here but, while you're there, you could do considerably worse than paying the very modest price for the game which, franky, is fantastic.