Sculpting A Galaxy
© Welcome Enterprises

Related Links

0

Star Wars Model Guide, Gotrek & Felix, Shannara, & More

You can tell Christmas is right around the corner when the publishers start busting out the new collector’s editions and staple genre series guides. This Tuesday, November 14^th brings a Voyage of Jerle Shannara and Gotrek & Felix compendiums as well as a brand-spankin’ new Star Wars Model Guide. 

S.M. Stirling, most noted for his Dies the Fire and Island in the Sea of Time series, debuts a new stand-alone novel that takes the reader to a Venus on the verge of war in the alternate history, SF thriller The Sky People on hardcover. David Farland’s long-awaited fifth installment of The Runelords series hits the shelves with the hardback release of Sons of the Oak and L.E. Modesitt, Jr. debuts Soarer’s Choice, the sixth volume in the Corean Chronicles. 

Games Workshop Publishing officially dominates the paperback releases this week with four novels set in the Warhammer universe including a collection of books featuring Black Library’s most famous duo: the human Felix and the dwarven trollslayer Gotrek. William King’s fourth, fifth, and sixth Warhammer: Gotrek & Felix novels can be purchased in Gotrek & Felix: The Second Omnibus while the newest series installment marks the first Gotrek & Felix novel not written by the Black Library British veteran. Screenwriter Nathan Long takes over the helm and we’ll have to see how he pans out in Orcslayer.   

In true holiday fashion Welcome Enterprises and Lucas Films are pulling out all the stops with the hardcover release of a new Star Wars Model Guide. Sculpting A Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop, is written by Lorne Peterson, one of the founding members of Industrial Light & Magic, and includes all the bells and whistles appropriate for a book cataloguing the methods that propelled special effects into a new era. Peterson was honored with an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for his special effects work in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but you’ll recognize him most for the exquisite model work he’s done in the entire Star Wars saga and most notably in the original trilogy. With a preface by the man George Lucas himself as well as a foreward by Rick McCallum and an afterword by Phil Tippett, Sculpting A Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop is without a doubt a Star Wars fan’s wet dream.

Other books to check out: Horizons, Fugitives of Chaos, and The Book of Dave 

New in Hardcover: 
 

Horizons

© Tor Books

Ahni Huang is hunting for her brother's killer. As a class 9 empath with advanced biogenetic augmentations, she has complete mental and physical control of her body, and can read other people's intentions before they can even think them. Ahni soon finds though, that there are deceptions behind deceptions, and in the middle of it lies the fate of her brother. Earth is in the midst of a political struggle between the World Council, which governs humankind, and the Platforms, which orbit high above Earth. On the Platform New York Up, "upsider" life is different. They have their own culture, values, and ambitions—and now they want their independence from Earth. One upsider leader, Dane Nilson, is determined to accomplish this goal, but he has a secret, one that could condemn him to death. When Ahni stumbles upon Dane during her quest for vengeance, her fate becomes inextricably linked to his. Together they must delve beyond the intrigue and manipulative schemes to get to the core of truth; a truth that will shape the future of the Platforms and shatter any preconceived notions of what defines the human race. I’m definitely intrigued with this one; it’s about time we had a new SF novel that detailed the growing pains of the planet and the orbiting cities that are bound to populate LEO in humanity’s not-too-distant future. 
 

Weatherwitch, Cecilia Dart-Thornton (Tor Books) 

Astarial is a beautiful young woman, the darling of the Weathermaster clan. Yet there is an air of sadness that surrounds this beauty, for Astarial lost her mother to an evil enchantment and her father soon after when grief engulfed him and he set off on a quest to find a way to free his love. While she has want for naught Astarial keenly feels the loss of her parents. Keener still, Astarial feels the loss of mortal life, for while she loves her father's people dearly she knows she is not one of them. Her mother was descended from the dreaded sorcerer of Strang, and in Astarial's blood lies a mighty power waiting for her to use for good or ill. In his travels her father was rendered near-immortal and this dubious gift was passed to Astarial. Now near adulthood, Astarial is at a crossroads. She can stay in the safety of all she has known, hide from the world and choose to use her powers in small ways to do small good. Or she can embark on a quest to fully realize the power that surges in her blood and perhaps undo the evil that her ancestors wreaked. Her decision will reshape the world. I wonder which path she will choose… Book three of The Crowthistle Chronicles, Weatherwitch follows October’s paperback debut of the second installment, The Well of Tears. 
 

The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara Trilogy

© Random House Publishing Group

The New York Times bestselling author of the classic Shannara epic, Terry Brooks, has proven himself one of the modern masters of fantasy, brilliantly creating breathtaking worlds of magic, adventure, and intrigue. Now, for the first time in one marvelous collector’s edition hardcover, here’s the complete trilogy of the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Ilse Witch (2000), Antrax (2001), and Morgawr (2002). In these enchanting novels, a colorful contingent of characters takes to the skies aboard a magnificent airship–the Jerle Shannara–on a quest fraught with wonder and danger. Ilse Witch: A half-drowned elf carries a map covered with cryptic symbols–and Walker Boh, the last of the Druids, has the skill to decipher them. But someone else understands the map’s significance: the ruthless Ilse Witch, who will stop at nothing to possess it and the powerful magic it leads to. Antrax: While in search of the elusive magic, Walker Boh is lured into a trap–caught in a dark maze beneath a ruined city, stalked by a hungry, unseen enemy. It is Antrax, a spirit that feeds off enchantment and traps the souls of men. Now the fate of the Four Lands hangs in the balance. Morgawr: The intrepid heroes aboard the Jerle Shannara have reached their breaking point. A centuries-old sorcerer, the Morgawr, vows to find and control the fabled ancient books of magic–and he is an adversary of awesome might with a fleet of airships and a crew of walking dead men at his command. In The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara, Terry Brooks weaves together high adventure, vividly wrought characters, and a spellbinding world into an irresistible story of heroism and sacrifice, love and honor. 
 

Sons of the Oak, David Farland (Tor Books) 

Certain works of fantasy are immediately recognizable as monuments, towering above the rest of the category. Add to that list David Farland, whose epic fantasy series continues now. The story picks up eight years after the events of Lair of Bones (2003) and begins a new chapter in The Runelords saga focusing on Gaborn's son, Fallion. Gaborn, the Earth King, has been traveling far from his home to strange and unknown places. While beyond the edge of the earth, he finally succumbs to the accelerated aging that comes from all of the endowments he has taken. His death is the signal for a revolution, an attack from the supernatural realms by immensely powerful immortal beings. These forces have discovered that Gaborn's son is the resurrection of an immortal, one whose potential power is so great that he might be able to reorder the entire universe. Fallion's enemies have decided that they must control him, and failing that, destroy him. He is only a child, but he is the heir to Gaborn's kingdom, and so must flee to the ends of the earth to avoid the destruction of all that Gaborn accomplished. Book five of The Runelords series, David Farland continues his LOTR-esque series after a three-year hiatus. Farland fans bust out the first four and get to work refreshing your memory before tackling this next installment. 
 

Sculpting A Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop, Lorne Peterson, George Lucas, Rick McCallum, & Phil Tippett (Welcome Enterprises) 

From the producers of the acclaimed Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars comes an inside look at the secrets behind the saga’s artful models and sculptures. Lorne Peterson, model and sculpture designer for the entire Star Wars saga, takes us on a journey through the intricate process of crafting and sculpting the models from sketch to screen and the artistry behind the dazzling results. Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop features more than 300 full-color photographs and illustrations from the Lucasfilm archives, models from all six films, interviews, images and text with concept sculptors, an overview of the ILM model shop from 1976 through today and numerous gatefolds of the most loved models. ILM virtually redefined visual effects and blazed a trail into the digital realm, follow behind the camera and into the rarely seen workshops and an amazing look at the creation of movie magic. Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop takes readers behind-the-scenes for the first in-depth look at these amazing models and the process behind their creation, punctuated by Lorne Peterson’s exuberance and dedication to craft. Now before you guys get too excited this behemoth of a work comes in two flavors: A regular edition retailing around $40-$50 and a Limited Edition clamshell package which retails on B&N for a hefty $316 (Amazon has this listed at $395). 

This Limited Edition features… a tipped in vellum sheet for number and signature, 5 gatefolds, 4 bound-in postcard sheets, a bound-in 12 page booklet describing the "white" model process, an accordion foldout containing all cut-outs of the ships, a bound-in Model Shop booklet detailing the model shop evolution, and a gatefold of "The Family Tree" of all the modelmakers involved in the 30-year process of creating the Star Wars legacy. Also included in the clamshell box… a “make your own” Millennium Falcon model kit that features as the front of the clamshell, DVD of model shop documentaries, a 32-page, 7.5in X 10in book showcasing all of the computer graphics surrounding the models and the special effects of the films, an 8-page booklet that will serve as a guide to all the model pieces included in the limited edition (including a certificate of authenticity), AND a 6.5in Landspeeder Model with detachable rear fin - the reproduction based on the original cast and painting by Lorne Peterson - with four seats for figures of Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The perfect gift for a true Star Wars buff… if you can afford it. 
 

Soarer's Choice of the Corean Chronicles

© Tor Books

L.E. Modesitt, Jr. returns to the world of Corus and concludes the trilogy of the intertwined stories of Dainyl, the Alector, and Mykel, the native soldier, which began in Alector's Choice (2005) and Cadmian's Choice (2006). The civilization of the Alectors, which has farmed and developed all life on Corus to produce sustaining life force for their vampiric civilization, must move wholesale from one planet to another every few thousand years as it exhausts the life force of another world. This time, two worlds have been prepared, and the time is at hand for the great move. And Corus is looking like the loser, to be abandoned by the civilizing forces of the government of Alectors and used as a dumping ground for malcontents and others who don't make the cut to move on to a richer new world. This neither bodes well for the future of human civilization, nor for the honest Alector's such as Dainyl, trying to hold everything together as all systems are failing. But the mysterious Ancients, the Soarers, are a force to be reckoned with, and they may hold a powerful and destructive trump card. Book six of the Corean Chronicles. 
 

The Sky People, S.M. Stirling (Tor Books) 

Marc Vitrac was born in Louisiana in the early 1960's, about the time the first interplanetary probes delivered the news that Mars and Venus were teeming with life—even human life. At that point, the "Space Race" became the central preoccupation of the great powers of the world. Now, in 1988, Marc has been assigned to Jamestown, the US-Commonwealth base on Venus, near the great Venusian city of Kartahown. Set in a countryside swarming with sabertooths and dinosaurs, Jamestown is home to a small band of American and allied scientist-adventurers. But there are flies in this ointment - and not only the Venusian dragonflies, with their yard-wide wings. The biologists studying Venus's life are puzzled by the way it not only resembles that on Earth, but is virtually identical to it. The EastBloc has its own base at Cosmograd, in the highlands to the south, and relations are frosty. An attractive young geologist Cynthia Whitlock seems impervious to Marc's Cajun charm. Meanwhile, at the western end of the continent, Teesa of the Cloud Mountain People leads her tribe in a conflict with the Neanderthal-like beastmen who have seized her folk's sacred caves. Then an EastBloc shuttle crashes nearby, and the beastmen acquire new knowledge… and AK47's. Jamestown sends its long-range blimp to rescue the downed EastBloc cosmonauts, little suspecting that the answer to the jungle planet's mysteries may lie there, among tribal conflicts and traces of a power that made Earth's vaunted science seem as primitive as the tribesfolk's blowguns. As if that weren't enough, there's an enemy agent on board the airship. An interesting concept to cultivate an off-Earth stage with characters ranging across varying levels of civilization… however, I am a big stickler for realism and I hope Stirling doesn’t just write off Venus’ actual climate of a sulfuric acid, greenhouse gas-infested hell hole for the sake of his story.  
 

Fugitives of Chaos

© Tor Books

Wright's new fantasy, which began with Orphans of Chaos (2005), is a tale about five orphans raised in a strict British boarding school who begin to discover that they may not be human beings. The students at the school do not age, while the world around them does. The orphans have been kidnapped from their true parents, robbed of their powers, and raised in ignorance by super-beings no more human than they are: pagan gods or fairy-queens, Cyclopes, sea-monsters, witches, or things even stranger. The five have made sinister discoveries about themselves. Amelia is apparently a fourth-dimensional being; Victor is a synthetic man who can control the molecular arrangement of matter around him; Vanity can find secret passageways through solid walls where none had previously been; Colin is a psychic; Quentin is a warlock. Each power comes from a different paradigm or view of the inexplicable universe: and they should not be able to co-exist under the same laws of nature. Why is it that they can? The children must experiment with and learn to control their strange abilities in order to escape their captors. Something very important must be at stake in their imprisonment. Often compared to J.K. Rowling’s coming-of-age fantasy, Fugitives of Chaos details the trials and tribulations of youths coming to terms with their otherworldly super powers. Is that a winged youth with an electric guitar? Oh Wright, that is so the behavior we’ve come to expect from rebellious adolescents with flying abilities. 
 

The Book of Dave, Will Self (Bloomsbury USA) 

When cabdriver Dave Rudman's wife of five years deserts him for another man, taking their only child with her, he is thrown into a tailspin of doubt and discontent. Fearing his son will never know his father, Dave pens a gripping text—part memoir, part deranged philosophical treatise, and part handbook of "the Knowledge" learned by all London cab drivers. Meant for the boy when he comes of age, the book captures the frustration and anxiety of modern life. Five hundred years later, the Book of Dave is discovered by the inhabitants on the island of Ham, where it becomes a sacred text of biblical proportion, and its author is revered as a mighty prophet. Switching between the year 2000 and 500 years into the future, British author Will Self paints a satirical portrait of a dystopian London ruled by the monarchy, priests, and a group of lawyers. Expect some cracks on Parliament, the London transit authority, and some good old-fashioned cheeky British humor. 
 

New in Paperback: 
 

Mark Of Chaos of the Warhammer Series

© Games Workshop Publishing

As the forces of Chaos sweep down from the north to threaten the civilised lands of the human Empire, a young Empire commander must prove his honour by tracking down and destroying the enemy leader. Epic fantasy set against a backdrop of war on a grand scale. Anthony Reynolds first book, we’ll see how Mark of Chaos stacks up against other Black Library epics. 
 

Orcslayer of the Warhammer - Gotrek & Felix Series

© Games Workshop Publishing

Gotrek and Felix arrive back on the southern coast of the Old World to discover that the orcs are running rampant as the Empire fights off a Chaos invasion further inland. To honour an ancient pledge, Gotrek agrees to help a dwarf prince reclaim his hold from the greenskin invaders who have seized it, but our intrepid heroes find more than they bargain for in the cold depths of the mountains. Set in the Warhammer universe, Orcslayer marks Nathan Long’s first Gotrek and Felix novel. 
 

Gotrek & Felix: The Second Omnibus, William King (Games Workshop Publishing) 

With his companion Felix, Gotrek the dwarf trollslayer roams the wild, dark places of the Warhammer world, seeking a glorious death in battle. The second omnibus edition of their adventures will complement the book collection of any fantasy fan. This volume includes the books Dragonslayer (2000), Beastslayer (2001) and Vampireslayer (2001) by Black Library veteran William King. Dragonslayer: After the daring exploits of Daemonslayer (2000), the fearless duo find themselves pursued by the insidious and ruthless skaven-lord, Grey Seer Thanquol. Dragonslayer sees the fearless Slayer and his sworn companion back aboard an arcane Dwarf airship in a search for a golden hoard and its deadly guardian. Beastslayer: Storm clouds gather around the icy city of Praag as the foul hordes of chaos lay ruinous siege to northern lands of Kislev. Only Gotrek Gurnisson, a death-seeking dwarf Slayer, and his sworn human companion, Felix Jaeger, stand between the ancient city and the forces of Darkness in this latest installment of their quest. Vampireslayer: As the bitter winter claws at the ruins of Praag, the blooded hordes of Chaos plunge southwards towards the heartland of the Empire. But the doom-seeking dwarf Gotrek and his companion Felix are shaken from their pursuit and beset by a new foe. An unholy cloud is forming over darkest Sylvania and an evil is forming that threatens to reach out and tear the heart from our intrepid heroes. 
 

Tales from the Dark Millenium, Ed. by Marc Gascoigne & Christian Dunn (Games Workshop Publishing) 

A themed collection of Warhammer 40,000 short stories, which cover the fight between humans and aliens to take control of a vitally important area of space. Stories by such renowned Black Library authors as Dan Abnett, Sandy Mitchell, Simon Spurrier, Graham McNeill, and C.S. Goto.  
 

That’ll do it for this Tuesday guys. Stop back next week for the brand new buzz on sci fi, fantasy, and horror fiction. For those of you braving the squalls of rabid fans to try and get your hands on a PS3 this Friday, be safe and good luck! Questions or comments? Hit me up at PFerrara.mania@gmail.com.