For those who’ve come to this site more recently than a couple of years ago, I should probably re-iterate that I no longer reply to specific fan-mail. So if you’re one of the very large number of people who’ve mailed me with kind words over the last couple of months, many thanks and my apologies – you are not being ignored, you’re simply victims of logistics. It reached a point those couple of years back when the volume of traffic got so high that it was eating more time to answer the mails than it was to write the books, and though I briefly considered the idea of hiring a minion to take care of that end of things, I instinctively recoiled from the concept. I know other authors do it, but for me there’s something intrinsically wrong about such an impersonal response to a personal communication. This site is a touch point direct to me, and that’s the way it’s going to stay.
Anyway, to the main point: I’ve had a a huge amount of (very flattering) site mail in the last couple of months asking me when The Dark Commands is finally going to show up on shelves – for which, thank you all, and the answer is below. But first, I have to mention the mail from a guy with a terminal disease who asked me with poignant, quiet grace if I could see my way to finishing the book soon, because he didn’t know if there are any bookstores or libraries in the “unknown country.”
A bit humbling, that. And the kind of courage I can only hope I’ll be able to lay hands on when my turn in the Dark Lottery comes around.
So here’s where we are: my UK publishers, who’ve carried these delays with much good grace, have set a putative publication date of April 2011. That means that I need to deliver the manuscript by some time in early Autumn this year. As the pressures of game deadlines ebbs a bit, and as my six month sabbatical from prose whets my appetite to get back to it, this is looking reasonably do-able. I’m actually starting to inch forward in the narrative, and I have – possibly a side effect of writing a lot of game and tie-in comic-book treatments recently – a clearer overall idea of where the book will go than at any time in the last two years. It may take a while to get there, but at least I have a map. And the good news is that, looking at that map, it seems me this book is likely to be a good deal longer than The Steel Remains; so if you liked Ringil and Co’s first outing, there should be about half as much again to like this time around.
Oh, and I think I’ve found a way to call it The Cold Commands after all.
Thanks for the update, Richard – very happy now!
I thought we’d said Steeeeel loving you? :p
Thrilling news, man, very exciting. Thanks, and have a great travel in those soon-to-be charted lands.
Even if they don’t answer the e-mail, you should still have a minion.
An email like that puts certain things in perspective doesn’t it?I always think I have all the time in the world to get things done.
i agree, i think that a minion is definitely required at this stage. imagine all the time you’ll save in coffee and dry cleaning runs alone!
Plus, if you have a minion, you can tell him/her not to answer fanmail, then beat him/her for not doing it anyway. Always good for letting out some steam.
Please, Richard, come back to your roots! I really hope to see another “Black Forces” or a “Market Man”, since, as you explained so many times before, takeshi is forever stuck in the digital void due to a needlecast mishap ….
-Joseph
I’m willing to wait for the book. I’d rather wait and have something you were happy with, personally. Take your time, you’re basically guaranteed my money when it hits the shelves…
If you got a minion you would also need to get an underground lair and maybe a superweapon.
@Tim
Then he would also require an arch enemy of some description.
Who would be Richard’s enemy?
@Richard Palmer
Master Chief? Hordes of video game fan boys? The graphic designers on Arkham Asylum?
@Tim
Ahaha, yes. Though I think they’d be easy wins for him. He needs a diabolical, yet *nearly* his equal opponent.
@Richard Palmer
Hmmm, good point. I’m sure that if he acquired a minion, an underground lair and a superweapon *someone* would quickly appoint themselves his nemesis. Or at least that’s what TV and video games have lead me to believe!
Good news on the book developments. The games sound interesting (or at least your enthusiasm for it is). Are the comic tie-ins going to be online or with the game or actually published? Seems the game company is getting you involved in all the potential spin-offs from the game. Would you be involved/interested in doing scripts/novels on the games if the oppurtunity came about?
You could always keep in contact with Terminal Disease Guy, and if it ever looked like he wouldn’t have time to see The Dark Commands–Cold Commands? whichever–when it came out, you could still send him something close to a final draft. It would probably be significantly better than nothing. Same thing with the next sequel I’m guessing he’ll be equally avid to read (I’m guessing this series will once again follow the well-trodden trilogy format).
I’m thrilled to hear about possible publication date for the Cold/Dark Commands. After years of reading fantasy novels, Steel Remains spoiled me and I just can’t enjoy an average fantasy novel like I once did. I haven’t been this excited for a book since I was a kid in high school.
That said, take your time with it and make it the best book it can be. I’ll happily wait to read about Ringil, Egar and Lady Kir whenever it hits the shelves.
(and possibly a third…yeah I said it…2nd book is not even written and I want to be the first to complain I want a 3rd).
just read the final chapters of steel remains facing the jungfrau in switzerland, sitting right beneath it and was beamed into the ennishmin swamps as if the magnificient mountain was not there!
well done mr. morgan, a truly awesome book and the only fear I have is that you render ringis gayness into some sort of hereditary effect of his dwenda ancestry.
looking forward to the next installment!
Just finished “The Steel Remains” and am anxious to continue on with all involved! Unfailingly entertaining and inventive, especially within such a heavily-codified genre. Brilliantly drawn characters chock full of ambiguity and contradiction, just like real folks are. Especially fond of the way your writing acknowledges and illustrates the dichotomy between one’s perception of self and the perceptions of others. I could go on, but anyone reading this already knows what I’m likely to say. I’ll keep reading whatever you’re writing! Cheers!
Hey Richard just wanted to say, love the books, i have read all of them. Are you ever going to do another Kovacs book?
This is great news, just started The Steel Remains yesterday and already I am looking forward to a sequel. Love the way Richard brought his writing style to the fantasy genre, it needed a bit of blood and grit.
I am a new fan of your work Richard, having just read the Takeshi Kovacs books a few months ago. Followed that up with Thirteen, now I need to take a look at Market Forces.
Keep up the great work, I am sure I will enjoy all your future releases.
I’m OK with your leaving the Kovacs series – they were amazing but no doubt you wanted to move along. Market Forces was terrific, anyway.
Please get over the fantasy thing. Tolkein has a lot to answer for. Back to good Sci-fi, please. The shelves are full of fantasy stuff, but few writers are turning out great sci-fi. Please????
hey– i’m about half through The Cold Commands. has anyone thought to produce a glossary of names, place names, etc.? i confess i’m losing track of who’s who, who’s against whom, why should i care, etc. Gil is the only character i remember from Steel Remains. (i’ve cast Stephen Moyer [True Blood] in the role.)
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