dbassingthwaite.com

Not an endorsement of The Doom of Kings or anything (although that would be nice!) — no, something nice I said about a book has been used in public and attributed to me, so I would call that an endorsement. Ooo, I feel like I’ve hit the big leagues.

Seriously, this is kind of cool and the book in question is very good. You may recall my mentioning a while back that I’ve had a freelance gig writing catalogue copy for my old day job and that one of the books I’d just written copy for was REALLY amazing. Well, this is that book. As a lark, I included an endorsement from “Don Bassingthwaite, author of The Doom of Kings” and it was actually used. Go me!

Plus I can now tell you about the book: Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston. Visit the site to see my quote, but I’ll tell you here that this a really tremendous and fun book. It’s targeted for teen readers but it’s so well executed I’d tell adult readers with a taste for things Faerie to pick it up as well. Definitely look for it (in both Canada and the US) this December.

Oops — actually a few day old now, but fellow Eberron writer Jeff LaSala, author of The Darkwood Mask, has been reading The Doom of Kings and posted an early review on his blog at ashlock.org.

If you read the book and say something (hopefully good!) about it on your blog, let me know so I can post it here!

Anyone interested in thoughtful, critical reviews of fantasy novels should check out The Beezer Review — the host, BeezerMN, is both thorough and constructive.

You should also go visit his site because he’s just reviewed The Doom of Kings and given it a coveted 5 out of 5 stars! Check out the review here.

Just spotted on SFScope.com — Audible.com has added exclusive audio edition of the Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books (with introductions by Neil Gaiman). I squealed when I read it. A very butch manly squeal, of course, but still undeniably a squeal.

I’ve developed a slight addiction to audio books and I already have a deep love of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. I’ve probably read the books half a dozen times in my beloved old Ace editions and I came very close to picking up the recent Dark Horse re-issues. I’m pretty much definitely going to be swinging past Audible to pick these up.

SFScope story | Audible.com series page

“Thagomizer,” the term for the arrangement of spikes on the tails of dinosaurs like stegosaurus, was adopted from a Gary Larson “Far Side” cartoon!

Check it out.

The Doom of Kings is officially released today. Go buy it!

If you need more persuasion, remember all the fun stuff to check out on the web:

• Review from McNally Robinson Booksellers
• Interview with McNally Robinson Bookseller
• Sample chapter from Wizards of the Coast
• Goblin vocabulary lesson from Wizards of the Coast

Raat shi anaa! (”The story continues” - traditional opening to hobgoblin legends)

Just in case anyone missed it in the comments below, Wizards of the Coast now has a sample chapter from The Doom of Kings available for download here. Check it out!

Thanks to Andrew for spotting this!