So it’s official – the 2011 Cold Commands UK tour kicks off the day after publication, with the first gig in my adoptive hometown, here:
14th October 5.30pm – Talk and signing Waterstones 152 – 157 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow
swinging over to Edinburgh on Saturday:
15th October 12.30pm – Signing Waterstones (West End) 128 Princes Street
and departing thereafter for points south over the following week, thus:
17th October 6.30pm – Talk and signing Waterstones Emerson Chambers Blackett Street Newcastle
*
18th October 12.30pm – Signing Waterstones 28-29 High Ousegate York 7pm – Talk and signing Waterstones 93-97 Albion Street Leeds
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19th October 12.30pm – Signing Waterstones Liverpool One College Lane LiverpoolCANCELLED
7pm – Talk and Signing Waterstones Bridlesmith Gate Nottingham
CANCELLED
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20th October 12.30pm – Signing Waterstones High Street BirminghamCANCELLED
6.30pm – Talk and signing Waterstones Broad Street Reading
CANCELLED
*
21st October 2.30pm - Signing
Forbidden Planet Megastore
Clifton Heights
Triangle West
Bristol
7pm – Talk and signing Waterstones High Street Guildford
*
22nd October 2011 1pm – Signing Forbidden Planet Megastore Shaftesbury Avenue London
I’m also informed there may be a Bristol date squeezed in there somewhere, but that’s yet to be confirmed, so watch this space! (Stop Press – and there is indeed a Bristol date, and here it is, slotted in above)
See you on the road!
Due to being unemployed sadly I have to wait. When will it be released in the U.S.? And will the U. S. publication have the same cover as the U.K.? I’m looking forward to an exciting read.
Now that’s a tour! Hopefully see you in Glasgow! But now I’m fretting if my Amazon pre-order will arrive in time for the 14th, given its out on the 13th… Its never straight forward, is it?
Mark C
What no talk in London???? Wailllll….. have already pre-ordered on Kindle too….
wow, coming to Reading, wasnt expecting that. Might have to get my arse down to the local branch of Waterstones.
I might see you in London
Holy cow! Drink lots of water and take your vitamins.
See you in London!
I hope you can do (another?) tour in the States someday. Also, I was excited to see you’re writing the remake of Syndicate. That’ll definitely be worth checking out; the original was a classic and I’ll be interested to see a RKM take on it.
Request: I’ve just moved to Tanzania so I wont be able to make it to any of these but if anyone going to one of the talks has a cam with a decent mic on it would you mind recording it for me? Then you can just stick it on youtube and post the link here. I’d be ever so grateful.
From the little I’ve seen Mr Morgan is quite a confident and engaging speaker with plenty to say for himself but there appears to be very little video of him on the net. Can the Gollancz/Orion Books press department please sort its life out and get the man some proper interviews? Richard has a distinctive and persuasive “voice”-both in his books and in person. Why not utilize that to its full potential?
Still not sure how I’m going to actually buy the book as there are no bookshops worth a damn here and I heard from a friend that he ordered books through Amazon here and they took 2 years to arrive. Carrier pigeon?
PS. How long is it since Altered Carbon came out? 10 years? And yet after scouring the internet just now I cannot find one single proper in-depth sit-down video interview with Richard by a skilled intelligent interviewer about it or indeed any of his other works. That is scandalous. Who is the head of Orion Books Press Department? I’LL HAVE HIS HEAD ON A SPIKE!!! (my new catchphrase after Game of Thrones). There are plenty of authors out there who couldnt string a sentence together in real life to save their lives committing hours and hours of boring interviews to hard-drive for posterity. Why is there almost nothing with the infinitely more interesting Richard Morgan? Can someone please do something about this terrible injustice?
Dude needs to get himself out to New Zealand. Seriously, it’s where it’s at.
On another note, this tour is great and all. But please, start reassuring people that you are doing your very best to not f**k up Syndicate. I’m not saying you will f**k it up, it’s already screwed due to being an FPS, but please, do what you can to make it better. You’re an awesome talent. Too good to be forever attached to this, if its bad….
@David Lynch: I totally agree with you! As far as ordering the book, have you tried Book Depository? They say they deliver all over the world.
@ David Lynch, I found this recently…
http://youtu.be/gSGc47fTVK0
Mark C
Thanks Mark. That was really interesting. The interviewer wasnt doing him any favors with questions like “What are your views on consciousness?” but he still did well despite that. Not only was he supplying good answers but he was also re-framing unanswerable questions on the fly. Impressive mental gymnastics. If you can still give a good interview even when you have an interviewer who is trying to trip you up with questions like that then you’ve definitely got the gift of the gab. Which brings me back to my original point of why are there not more interviews with him out there? I’d like to see Richard interviewed by someone who is more on his wavelength so he doesnt have to fight against them as they try desperately to crash the conversation. A facilitator as opposed to a drunk-driver.
One thing there I was very pleased to hear is that it sounds like the movie version of Altered Carbon is in much more capable hands now. Whew-what a relief! That was a tantalising tidbit about the new screenwriter-”someone who has brought off some very unlikely projects”. Umm….is it Charlie Kaufman? Highly unlikely I know but that could be a fascinating movie. Adaptation 2 anyone? Meta-fiction. We could get to see Richard and Takeshi meet up for a beer and then get into a fight about politics. Takeshi is kicking the crap out of Richard but then mid-way through Richard realizes he has the power to do a re-write in his mind and he makes Tak start kicking the shit out of himself ala Fight Club. Richard can be played by Ray Winstone.
I’ve always thought it would be cool if the publishers could line up a series of v-logs where writers interview other writers… Imagine Peter F Hamilton getting 15 mins with Richard Morgan and then they swap seats? Commercially it could turn a whole bunch of fans of a given writer on to their interview buddy.
Bring the old school writers in with the new. Lots of possibilities…
Who would you like to see interview Richard?
Mark C
I actually listened to some good audio interviews with Richard recently by a guy called John C Snider who ran a site called scifidimensions.com. They along with many others were archived on the site. I was going to send you the links as a thank you for yours but when I went to look for them I got a server error message. Site discontinued? Shame.
You know Mark, now that you mention it I cant remember the last time I saw an author interviewed on a mainstream tv show. Can you? Without a doubt if you give any tv producer in the world a choice between a third-rate soap celeb and a distinguished author they will go with the celeb every time.
The beauty of the internet and youtube is it puts power back in the hands of the public to fight back against this never-ending tidal-wave of vapid publicity-whores with nothing to say for themselves and create some interesting intelligent content for a change. The best way to do that for now is for someone to be there with a camera when he’s giving a talk at signings or conventions. One thing though-whatever kind of camera you use a good external directional mic is essential for capturing a public speech. People will watch a bad image but they will not tolerate listening to bad sound.
In the meantime if his publishing press department could possibly get around to pulling its head out of its ass and putting up a decent interview with him on their youtube channel it would be much appreciated. Theres a years-old informal chat between him and Ian McDonald on there at the moment but they can do better than that.
Does anyone want to read “Annie Wilkes” review of The Cold Commands?
“A first reads win. The story in this book sounded interesting but I could not get into it at all. The primary reason was the swearing and lewd description. I’m not willing to wade through the filth to find out if there is a good story in there some where.
An example: it seemed like the f-word was used at least once on every page. I overlooked it in the first character but when all the others are using it too it was just too much”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Oh dear, this guy definitely did not get the memo. That was a review by a guy called Uriah on a site called goodreads.com. When I saw his name my Jesusland alarm bells started ringing so I checked out his reading list and sure enough this little gem came up:
“Left to tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust” about which he said:
“Sad to know that things like this have happened and could happen again. Good to know that we can rely on God, even in a situation like that”
WTF?!?!?! OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My girlfriend grew up in Rwanda and personally witnessed and experienced violence there in the lead up to the genocide. We both now reside in Arusha, Tanzania where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is situated. I really cant imagine a more compelling proof for the non-existence of God than the Rwandan genocide. I also would be hard-pressed to think of anything more offensive and tasteless than to invoke his name with reference to it. “It was all part of Gods plan”. Really? In that case am I the only one who notices the rather striking similarities between Gods plan and Hitlers?
@Mark C: Thanks for the link to Richard’s interview. Finally got thru all 4 parts, and have to say I’m now looking forward to the Sky Dwellers (Takavacs, et al)!
To Richard re fanfic: My daughter has written fanfic and I asked her the same thing you said you didn’t get: why doesn’t she make up her own characters instead of writing about TV characters? She couldn’t really explain it. But I suspect(since most fanfic writers are female) they’re just writing down the fantasies they daydream about. Maybe this is just a phase, or practice, and if they’re good they will eventally make up their own. Or perhaps it’s like being a script writer for a tv show. I will say I think doing this has improved her writing skills greatly, so it was worthwhile.
@ Linda P (shamelessly shouldering my way into the discussion)
I wrote fanfic when I was younger. It taught me a hell of a lot about maintaining internal logic and staying in-character, because there’s a whole fandom out there to call you on it if you wander off. It also taught me some of the more practical points about writing for an audience (inexplicably, I quickly built one) and what it means to blow a “deadline”. It taught me to write on a schedule.
That said, there’s a lot of crap fanfic out there. Mary Sues abound, and there’re an awful lot of pre-teen and teen boys writing some very strange porn, mostly with bad grammar. No argument there.
However, there are “real” authors who make good money writing in established fandoms. The only difference between them and the better fanfic out there is that they’re getting paid for their work. Licensed fiction is a huge market. I don’t think it’s any bad thing to know how to play in someone else’s sandbox. Heck, Richard’s writing for Black Widow, Crysis, and Syndicate are basically fanfic on commission. For me as an internet-raised kid, the line between fanfic and licensed fiction is an illusory pay-wall that’s not terribly descriptive as far as quality. There’s definitely fanfic out there that’s better than things licensing companies pay good money for.
@damaia – glad you shouldered your way into the conversation. What you said – yes. My daughter also complains about the abundant Mary Sues. I especially agree with your last sentence.
We’re really looking forward to meeting you in Guildford – tickets went on sale last week and already getting snapped up (of course!). Sounds like you’ll be needing some sleep by the time you reach us but thank you so much for fitting us into such a busy schedule.
Only 24 days to go (not that we’re counting…)
@ Mark C
Here’s the link for an audio interview with Richard (among others) about The Steel Remains if you can get it to work. I’m sure this guy had hundreds of other interviews on his site but it looks like just the most recent ones he did before shutting his site down here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/scifidimensions/id274301451
No Manchester? Suppose I can venture into Scouse for a signing but have no idea where the Waterstones is… If I was still at uni, I’d have been lurking in Emerson Chambers. I spent more time there than in labs or at home
I think i shall make the effort to come down from Cambridge to London. Thanks for taking the time out to do these events, btw.
Also, I was surprised and excited to see that you are doing the writing for the new “Syndicate” game. Seems very much in the same vein as the the Kovaks book and Market Forces. Very much looking forward to it.
In case any of you don’t visit Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist site every day, he’s just put up yet another blurb from TCC.
Apropos of nothing, I wanted to point out this music video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQS8kEAhdHc
It’s precisely what I imagine Sanction IV propaganda to be. Thought it’d be worth pointing out.
Hmm….Men in skintight PVC pants dancing with guns. That was ever so slightly camp. Reminds me of that youtube video of Israeli soldiers dancing to Kesha that was in the news a few months back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q3NcMzJNx8
They got in trouble for doing that. Apparently war and comedy dance routines do not go together.
@ David Lynch – Belated thanks for the link. Just gave it a try and its refusing to play. Will need iTunes, me thinks…
You have to go through the rigmarole of registering which includes giving your credit card details. I couldnt be bothered with all that. A shame cos there was hundreds more that used to be available at the click of a mouse when the site was still up.
Anyway the start of Richards book tour is just days away now and it doesnt look like anyone has gone for my idea of recording his talks. Damn.
Hey Richard, I assume Orion is providing you with an assistant for the events. Why not tell her to make herself useful and break out a flipcam? C’mon Richard, its time to start throwing your weight around. You are “the talent” after all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slql2NlhWHA
@David Lynch
You assume the assistant’s a woman? Why? Also, presumably ‘she’ or ‘he’ has made themselves useful by, um, setting up the tour and everything else.
Dear Jes,
It sounds like you took my comment quite personally. Are you by any chance the assistant in question? If so then on behalf of all Richards fans I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the hard work you’ve put in so far in making this book tour possible. We appreciate it.
Your question about why I assumed his assistant was a woman implied that I would look down on someone who would hold such a position. I wouldn’t. Although I can see why you might have assumed that from my jocular tone in my previous comment. Let me assure you that I hold anyone qualified enough to have won the job of being Richards assistant in the highest esteem.
As a token of my esteem I would like to make a suggestion to you that could help further your career-plus inspire the gratitude and appreciation of his fans worldwide (not to mention impress your boss at Orion with your go-the-extra-mile initiative). What if you brought along a camcorder or digital camera to the signings, recorded a few of his talks and then put them on youtube for all his fans who arent going to be lucky enough to make it to the signings in person? Personally I would be so impressed if you did I think I would have to contact Simon Spanton in person to single you out for praise for going above and beyond the call of duty in your efforts to make Richards book tour a success.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
David Lynch
Has anyone here seen the new indie movie “Drive” starring Ryan Gosling directed by Nicolas Winding Refn? I’m hearing very good things-noir, intelligent, hard-edged. Sounds like it would be right up any Morgan-fans alley.
Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAc23x2JJG0
Yaaaaargh! I’m missing the Glasgow gig after all. Hope its a good turn out and it gets things off to a flyer.
Mark C
On the UP side, my copy of TCC arrived this morning! Loving the dragon’s tooth dagger on the front (I assume that’s what it is…). And, I gotta say, I’ve not read too many rear jacket blurbs where someone gets brutally killed. Talk about setting the tone of the book!
Mark C
Just heard that the talk tonight in Nottingham has been cancelled, no reason given
What’s all that about? Will it be rearranged for another date?
Hi Pete,
Yes, my sincere apologies to you and to anyone else who hoped to see me in Liverpool or Nottingham today, or Birmingham or Reading tomorrow. Unfortunately, some very low turnouts at the front end of this tour coupled with poor ticket sales for those four gigs has meant that the publishers have had to rationalise the schedule and pull the plug on those events. I will still be appearing at Bristol, Guildford and London, but the mid-section of the tour is gone.
I’m pretty saddened about this myself, but you can see Gollancz’s point – there’s simply no way for them to justify the expense of carting me back and forth across the country, putting me in hotel after hotel, if it’s only to meet a tiny handful of – albeit hugely enthusiastic – fans.
So to you, the tiny handful – once again, my sincere apologies, and thanks; and to everyone else – guys – please buy a ticket next time!!!
Thanks for the reply Richard. Disappointing but understandable, though I’m tempted to keep the tickets rather than return then for a refund as they are now clearly exceptionally rare collector’s items!
Anyhow, you probably dodged a bullet here – my wife is a huge fan of the Takeshi Kovacs books and would only have turned into a gushing groupie; I’m sure a restraining order would have been necessary…
Nice one Gollancz. Richard puts his heart and soul into writing his new book and then you reward him by delegating the job of organizing his book tour to some couldnt-care-less shit-heel assistant who does a third-rate job of promoting it and has him turning up to empty bookstores so he can talk to himself while being gawped at by passing plebs who don’t have the first clue who he is. Not to mention humiliated in front of the few genuine fans that do turn up. Well done.
This isn’t Richard’s fault. This isn’t the fans fault. This one is all on Gollancz and whatever bimbo they put in charge of his tour who clearly put in the bare minimum effort and then rushed home to watch the next exciting installment of Coronation Street.
For my money Mr Morgan is one of the premier sci-fi/fantasy authors working today. For him to still be having to put up with that bullshit at this stage of his career is a fucking disgrace.
Note to Spanton: Can you please fire whatever idiot you put in charge of organizing Richard’s tour and give the job to someone who actually gives a flying fuck next time?
David – you need to back off right now. You don’t know anything about the people you’re dissing and your assumptions are offensive. You are out of line. I, on the other hand, know my publicity manager well, and he’s a hard-working (and overworked) guy who has done everything he can to make this tour work. It is not for you to start barking at either him or my editor as if you were on familiar terms with them both. I’d like an apology from you to both of them, or I’m going to be forced to bar you from the site – which, apart from one or two genuine clinical lunatics, would be a (very undesirable) first for me.
Your very flattering opinion of me notwithstanding, the fact of the matter is that I am a mid-list author and simply do not command the stand-in-line multitude of fans that guys like Gaiman or Banks do. There is no blame to be assigned here – these are simply the facts of who I am and what my writing is. If you really want to help me, the energy you expended here in rage would be far better applied disseminating your high opinion of my work in forums where it will increase my exposure and sales. That would be the mark of a mature and serious fan. Frankly, with this other kind of thing, you scare me – it’s a very short march from where you are now to the guys who turned their love for George R R Martin into hate and publisher conspiracy theories because they had to wait a while for a new book.
As I said – an apology is required. I will then take down your posts and mine, and we can all try to get along as if this unpleasantness had never occurred.
All apologies are inherently fake. Nobody’s ever really sorry for anything they do in this life-however fucked up or evil it is. Besides what good is it to put a gun to someone’s head and say apologize or else? Then its totally meaningless.
I understand that you’re not allowed to bark at your bosses but why can’t I? I don’t work for them so they can’t fire me.
I think its better to just be honest. Those are my true feelings about your PR department based on your overall internet presence and publicity profile. I very much doubt writing them here will change anything or hurt anyones feelings in particular so where’s the harm?
Also I think you’re putting too much blame on your own shoulders in this instance. You have created a fan-base with your books. Thats your job done. It was your PR guys job to get those fans in the door where they belonged. He didn’t do it. Looks pretty clear to me where the blame lies.
Sorry if this means I can’t post here anymore. I’ll still read your books though. All the best. Dave.
First the book was available here in the US last Saturday. Although the other Morgan books on my shelves are paperback I purchase the hard back because I could not wait.
I started the first chapter than read the last two chapters because I want to know if Ringil found Seethlaw in the Gray Place. And how that meeting would turn out. It turned out badly.
Hjel on p. 474 insistence that Ringil face that submitting to torture was not the way to heal his grief. Hjel the musician was a beautiful character.
Went back to the chapter one. Read a little everyday stretching it till Sunday. When I read the dwenda Risgillen had fangs I though are the dwendas vampires? When she unhinged her jaw and attached Ringil’s face I thought wow this is chilly. I could image Ringil’s horror was partly his realization that Seethlaw had the same ability to become a physical monster while they were together. It made me feel sad.
The Cold Commands is a good mystery. There’s a lot to pay attention too really worth the money for the hardback. The story has nice one-liners as well as gripping page turners.I had to tell myself several times, slow down, it’s Morgan story let him tell it. And I think it is well told.
I’m looking forward to doing my second and third reading by Thanksgiving or Christmas.
First the book was available here in the US last Saturday. Although the other Morgan books on my shelves are paperback I purchase The Cold Commands in hard back because I could not wait.
I start the first chapter than read the last two chapters because I want to know if Ringil found Seethlaw in the Gray Place. And how their meeting would turn out. It turned out badly.
Hjel on p.474 insist that Ringil face his submission to torture was enslavement and was not the way to heal his grief.
Went back to the chapter one. Reading the book a little everyday till I finished it Sunday. When I read the dwenda Risgillen had fangs I though are the dwendas vampires? When she unhinged her jaw and attacked Ringil’s face I thought wow this is chilly. I could image Ringil’s horror was partly his realization that Seethlaw had the same ability to become a physical monster while they were together. It made me feel sad.
The Cold Commands is a good mystery. The story has nice one-liners as well as gripping page turners.I had to tell myself several times, slow down, it’s Morgan story let him tell it. And I think it is well told.
I looking forward to reading the book again before Thanksgiving or Christmas.
@Kitty: Read p 231, then read p 311. Wow. I only caught this on the 2nd reading of the book. However, I’m not sure this is the place for spoilers. Does anyone know a forum where we can discuss spoilers without becoming a member (Westeros)? Maybe Richard could start another topic called “Discuss spoilers here!)”
@David: “All apologies are inherently fake.” If this is really what you believe, it says a lot about you and your life experiences, but not so much about those of us who take criticism to heart when we’ve made an assumption about something before taking in all the facts.
@Kitty/Linda – No more spoilers PLEASE! I’m deep into a 7-part series I really thought I’d never read in my life, but am actually quite enjoying. Once I’m done there I need to re-read TSR and THEN get into TCC… And I now already know stuff I shouldn’t!
Mark C
David (Lynch)
I as a Richard Morgan fan attended the Leeds gig with my son. It was well advertised in store in Leeds and elsewhere. It was also very well organized and despite only 7 tickets being sold Gollancz and Richard more than met their commitments and the event was an enjoyable and informative discussion
I think your views whilst heart felt are misplaced in this context . Richards comment that he is a “mid list” author may be true in terms of current sales but certainly not true in terms of well honed writing talent. As fans we should be supporting Richard and his publishers particulaly in what is a difficult economic climate especially if we want to continue reading and enjoying his stories. I introduced my friend and his son to Richards writing and they also attended and enjoyed the event. The role of the writer and the reader are symbiotic and the benefits are mutual.
JD
It never fails to amaze me (and you, I am sure) how Richard is not recognised as the best living SciFi writer (or perhaps the second, it is a close race with William Gibson).
Take http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/09/flowchart-for-navigating-nprs-top-100-sff-books/ for example. A 100 books and no Morgan in sight. There is no Alfred Bester as well, and no Sheckley, so this list is clearly way off target, still …
I am sure this will change in at most 10 years. I had the same feeling about Phillip K. Dick 30 years ago, and I think Richard is better recognised than Dick in his day. No reason this should not happen while Richard is still alive.
-Joseph