Coming August 2008

I always eagerly await my reviews in Locus, but luckily they've been reviewing my Virga series well in advance of the books' arrival.  Pirate Sun will be published in August, but in the June, 2008 issue of Locus Russell Letson reveals all.  Though there's no easy pull-quotes from his review, it's clear that he really enjoyed the book.

Actually, reading this review made me realize just how byzantine a storyline I've crafted:

Chaison wants to get back to Slipstream, but first he has to hide out in Falcon Formation, which turns out to be threatened with invasion by the neighboring nation of Gretels and to be harboring a resistance movement against its own authoritarian government.  Elsewhere, the defeated nation of Aerie... has developed another underground... if that weren't complicated enough, Chaison is being hunted by agents of his own government... an action that has caused turmoil in Slipstream and a crisis in the rule of the Pilot.  Oh, and...

Well, it goes on.  All I can say is, it seemed pretty simple to me as I was writing it.

As Letson points out (with some glee), Pirate Sun wraps up the main plotlines introduced in Sun of Suns, but doesn't answer all questions.  As he puts it, "even three volumes seems much too short a ride for the possibilities offered by Virga"--and I agree.  I'm currently putting the finishing touches on The Sunless Countries and (bonus!) I'm writing some Virga short stories and novellas, the first of which should be finished in about a week.

Meanwhile, I should also note that the hardcover edition of Pirate Sun will be immediately followed up by an audiobooks version from MacMillan.  I don't have a link for that yet, but I'll add it here as soon as I get it, along with all the rest of the upcoming Pirate Sun material (such as an excerpt). 

 By the time the audiobook of Pirate Sun comes out, the audio versions of Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce will already have been available for over a month.  This means that you can buy all three in audio format and listen to them back to back!  If you're planning any road trips in August, you could do worse than spend the drive romping through the skies of Virga...