Yes, it's finally (almost) here: the graphic novel version of Sun of Suns! And I'll be doing the full reveal and talking extensively about the project this weekend at SFContario, at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in downtown Toronto.

Sun of Suns is set in the world of Virga, the ultimate hyper-technological-post-singularity-cannons-and-swordfights-pirate-infested steampunk playground of the imagination. There's much to say about the new project, and I'll be unveiling the artists, our writer and editor and their work on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. For now, you'll have to get by on this teaser image. 

Hope to see you there!

I received my comp copies of the Polish edition of Sun of Suns today. You never know when stuff like this is going to show up, so surprise packages are always exciting.  I love the edition, it's a nice substantial paperback with original cover art.

This edition joins the Japanese and German translations, making this my most internationally successful book yet.  (Other languages I've had books translated into? French, Spanish, Lithuanian and Russian. Not a bad haul--though I still don't have actual copies of the Russian editions, sadly.)

The Poles recently bought ebook rights to Sun of Suns as well, which should make for an extended run in that market. 

In three weeks Cities of the Air hits the stands.  In some ways it's nothing new:  Cities is Tor Books' omnibus edition of the first two Virga books.  You might wonder why we're doing this when the paperback editions of these books are already available.  But with Pirate Sun coming out in trade paperback in the fall, if you haven't familiarized yourself with Virga yet, you can do it by just picking up Cities.  Together, Cities of the Air and Pirate Sun form the full story arc for the first part of the series.  If, after reading them, you've still got a taste for the weightless world I've constructed, The Sunless Countries is out now in hardcover, and Ashes of Candesce will be coming next year.

Tor Books has been very happy with my Virga books, so much so that they've decided to release a new, omnibus edition of the first two.  Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce will appear together in one volume, entitled Virga:  Cities of the Air.  This book will hit the stores on July 6, 2010, but you can pre-order it now from Amazon.

Yes, there is in fact already an omnibus edition of these books--it's Virga 1.2, from the Science Fiction Book Club (advertised in the right-hand sidebar of this page, with cover art by Dave Seeley).  That edition is only available to book club members, though; the new omnibus will be from Tor and will be in bookstores everywhere (and, presumably, in ebook form too).  We hope to have further omnibus editions to round out the series.

Sun of Suns continues to spread around the world.  The Germans are the latest to announce an edition, and check out the cover art! It's by Ioan Dumitrescu; you can find more of his work at the CG Society.

I like the design elements on this cover, which was crafted by Nele Schütz Design; I may poach it for a re-do of my site banner, which currently uses the excellent Stephan Martiniere cover for Queen of Candesce.  In any case this is a beautiful cover and a beautiful design, and I look forward to holding this edition in my hands.

To promote the upcoming release of The Sunless Countries, we've decided to offer the Sun of Suns audiobook for free download.  There's a discussion about it going on right now at Tor.com; for the download itself, go to the Audible.com site.

Now, since I'm the author anything I say about the quality of the story itself is obviously biased; but I can say without reservation that the reader, Joyce Irvine, does an excellent job with my material.  If there's flaws in my prose she easily talks around them, and she's a great choice for the material.  (And if you like how she does this, you should try her dry and distantly amused rendition of Queen of Candesce!)

All of the Virga books are available in audiobook format; The Sunless Countries will be as well.  And don't forget that Metatropolis, currently nominated for a Hugo Award, is also available from Audible.com

I've had two books translated into Russian so far:  Ventus, and Sun of Suns.  Both are published by AST in Moscow, and are available online through the Ozon bookstore.  (For instance, here's the link to Sun of Suns, and here's where to find Ventus.)

The summary for Sun of Suns describes the book this way:

История Хайдена Гриффина - обычного мальчишки из искусственной галактике Вирга - огромного наполненного воздухом шара, в центре которого сияет Солнце Солнц, гигантский ядерный реактор - сад, где растут, как цисты, зародыши солнц поменьше.

История его родного мира, уничтоженного флотом "кочевой" планеты Слипстрим.

История его похищения и его странствий с космическими пиратами. История его опасных приключений - поисков легендарных сокровищ древнего капитана Анетина и смертельной борьбы с представителями цивилизации Искусственных сущностей, захватившей уже едва не все планеты за пределами Вирги...

And here's their description of Ventus:

...Вентус. Планета, на которой люди, веками остававшиеся рабами ИскИнов, поднимают наконец восстание против `хозяев`.

Вентус. Планета, на которой людям-повстанцам просто нечего терять!

Здесь сражаются до последнего.

До последнего вздоха. До последней пули.

Здесь цена выживания человечества проста: `Свобода - или смерть!`

I don't read Russian very well, but this seems to be a really over-the-top description--"here, they battle to the last breath!"  But hey.  If it sells books, go for it. 

But now I'm curious.  If anybody has read either or both of these translations, I'd love to know what you thought of them.  It's always really cool to find out, once the translation to a language is complete, how ideas and characters--and, well, just story--translate to other cultures.

I've created a Japanese page for Sun of Suns (太陽の日曜).  This is an experiment, so if there's anybody out there bilingual enough to interpret what I've done, please let me know if there's any howlers or flat-out insults accidentally rendered into the page.  I used WorldLingo.com's automated translation service, so I have no idea whether any of the text I've dropped in there makes sense. 

If this works, I'm going to create pages for each of the other translated languages/works. 

Here's the complete list under the Best Foreign Novel category.  As you can see, I'm in the best possible company this year; in fact, since these books are distilled from years of English-language SF rather than the Hugo's one-year pool, I'd venture to say that winning a Seiun is probably a lot harder than winning a Hugo.  Just look at this collection of titles!

• Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
• The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi
• Redemption Ark, Alastair Reynolds
• Light, M. John Harrison
• The Urth of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
• Sun of Suns, Karl Schroeder
• Seeker, Jack McDevitt

Note that the complete list of nominations doesn't seem to have been translated yet.  You can find ongoing updates on that here.

My thanks go out to Hayakawa Publishing for their excellent edition of Sun of Suns; and of course, a deep bow to Naoya Nakahara, whose translation is really what is being nominated here.

The SFBC has made the first two volumes of the Virga saga, Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce, available together in an omnibus edition (link to Canadian site; the US site is here but doesn't have a direct link to the VIRGA page).  The SFBC is a venerable and highly respected institution in science fiction and fantasy publishing; they previously made my first novel, Ventus, available.  

The price for members of this edition is $15.99, but if you join you can have it for $0.20.

By the way, one of one my favourite features of this edition is the wonderfully over-the-top cover by Dave Seeley.  Dave and I tossed many ideas back and forth, and he consulted with me at each stage of the process.  That is indeed the vitriolic Venera Fanning, riding bike-back with Hayden Griffin in the skies of Slipstream. 

Thanks to the commitment of Hayakawa Publishing and the hard work of translator Naoya Nakahara, you can now read Sun of Suns in Japanese.  I'm delighted to have this edition in my hands--and there's more announcements of foreign sales to come!

If you want to order a copy of Taiyo no Naka no Taiyo, you can do so from Amazon Japan, or direct from Hayakawa's website.

It's always been a major ambition of mine to be read in Japan.  I can't tell you how honoured I feel that it's finally happened.