A Man of His Word by Dave Duncan

We continue to feature our multiple-award-nominated author, Dave Duncan, and this time around we're covering another one of his many series. It's A Man of His Word and it's actually a precursor to another series we've already featured, A Handful of Men. A princess and a stableboy? It sounds like the worst sort of hackneyed formula romance. Think again, for A Man of His Word may well be the most original fantasy you ever read. The magic is unique and applied in unexpected ways, some of which the late Lester del Rey admitted he had not met in fifty years as writer and editor. The world itself is unique--there are no humans in Pandemia, only imps, elves, gnomes, jotnar, and many more, all of whom you will recognize as "human".

Magic Casement (Book One of A Man of His Word)

In Magic Casement the tale begins gently, even slowly, with Inosolan enjoying an idyllic childhood in a tiny backwater kingdom, too carefree and innocent even to understand that the feelings she shares with her friend Rap are more than friendship. Mystery, menace, and the gods appear in short order, and from then on the story grows in scope and power to straddle the world, and adversity thrusts rapid maturity on Rap and Inos. Populated by unforgettable characters--Aunt Kade, Little Chicken, Doctor Sagorn, and many more--Pandemia is an incredible world of credible people and infinite surprises.

Faery Lands Forlorn (Book Two of A Man of His Word)

When Inos was abducted through the magic casement and Rap tried to follow her, they arrived in places very strange-and very far apart...

Perilous Seas (Book Three of A Man of His Word)

Hunted now by the fearsome warlock wardens who rule the world, Inos is convinced that Rap is dead. But Rap is not, and the tide may be about to turn...

She thought he was dead. Queen Inos feels Rap's presence as if he has risen from the grave to be beside her, but she knows all that is left of him is his voice, which echoed in her mind--well, so she thinks. Her duty is to serve her people, and Queen Inos doesn't know her galley slave, Rap, is alive and, with his magic wand, trying to bring happiness to his beloved Queen. But when the evil Nordland raider, Kalkor, arrives in port, Rap's plans begin to fall apart.

Emperor and Clown (Book Four of A Man of His Word)

With Inos married to the wrong man and Rap dying in a dungeon, obviously the cause is hopeless. Only Aunt Kade refuses to admit defeat...
--
Dave Duncan does fantasy like no one else and this early series shows him working at the top of his form.

The New Sony Reader and the Toshiba Flepia

When Sony finally released its updated Reader, the PRS-505 a few weeks ago (pictured at right), Peter N. Glaskowsky from CNet was one of the first happy reviewers to take a look at the new edition of this famous ebook device. He bought the new model to replace his old 1st generation Sony Reader (the PRS-500), and his write-up of the new version, which I recommend you read, shows he's pleased with the improvements. The new Reader boasts more onboard memory, a new interface button layout, and comes in one of two colors (silver or dark blue). What many people aren't aware of is that it's capable of MP3 playback (yes, both music and audiobooks!) and that you can mount it as a read/write drive by USB to either your Mac or PC, to drag folders of RTFs, PDFs, and other supported ebook formats onto the device. It also has both a Sony Memory Stick slot and a standard SD slot, giving you as much as 10GB of storage space. Sony Connect sells E-Reads titles for the Reader at just $8.99 a pop, or you can purchase our non-DRM Sony ebooks from Fictionwise. This Christmas, the Sony Reader is probably the best device deal, for under $300 at Best Buy.

Meanwhile, Toshiba has readied 2 new color ebook readers that represent an effort to break away from standard grayscale sooner rather than later. The Flepia, in either an A4 or an A5 size, is WiFi enabled and can display 4096 colors on its screen, but there are limitations... it takes about 10 seconds to redraw a screen (aka. flip a page) and bleeding edge technology doesn't come cheap. The problem stems from e-ink panel technology, which is based on creating a static image that does not refresh until you request it to do so, in order to conserve energy, and color technology in this realm is still percolating and expensive. When Toshiba showed a demo version of this technology over a year ago, it didn't blow many people away as much as it delivered a proof-of-concept device. The final versions Toshiba announced as Flepia models won't be available in North America, probably because color e-ink like this is still considered too expensive for our market. However, you can expect future ebook readers for the mass market to eventually incorporate color like the Flepia does.

- Michael

A Fleet of Destroyers

This week E-Reads added some two dozen titles to its list of Destroyer action adventure novels by Warren Murphy and Warren Sapir, bringing our current total to 50. E-Reads has about 50 more titles in inventory, so you may be sure the supply is not going to run out any time soon.

At last count there were over 140 Destroyer novels, not including the many books in other series that Warren Murphy (his co-creator passed away many years ago) has generated. For those of you who have written a novel, or who have labored over your masterpiece for five or ten years, it's almost incomprehensible that one writer can be so prolific. It calls for determination, discipline, inventiveness and nimble fingers to produce hundreds of books over a career (and Murphy is still going strong), but as remarkable as it may seem to the lay reader or weekend novelist, Murphy is by no means the world's champion. The French thriller writer Simenon boasted over 1000 books and there may be others of similar fecundity. Having written potboilers myself years ago I am not at all surprised. At 5000 words a day, I was able to complete a novel in about two weeks. Granting an author his or her sabbaths and a couple of weeks per year of vacation, that's still about 20 or 25 books a year. Over an effective career of, say, forty years, that puts us close to 1000 titles.

But -- are they any good? Well, Warren Murphy's army of fans thinks so, and so do we. For a more detailed look at prolific authors, read about the bet I made twenty-five years ago that I know authors who can write books faster than publishers can cut checks. No publisher has taken me up on the bet, and for good reason.

I'm tempted to bet that Warren can write a Destroyer faster than you can read it, but I don't think I'd win that one. Read one and you'll know why.

- Richard Curtis

The Destroyer Series by Warren Murphy and Richard Ben Sapir

Action adventure series -- they've been around for decades, hugely popular. Male readers eat them up, but they're also tremendously appealing to women as well. It's hard to say who was the first author to produce them, but certainly one of the founding writers of the modern genre, and arguably the best, is Warren Murphy and his Destroyer Series. E-Reads is proud to bring you the first fifty, and you can look for more as time goes by.

We’ve got your hero (maybe he’s even a superhero, even though he isn’t bulletproof—just nearly so). We’ve got your trusty sidekick. We’ve got a secret government agency. We’ve got specialized and mysterious training, with a hint of mystical stuff thrown in for spice. We’ve got a never-ending series of villains of all types, from the ordinary and merely venal to the megalomaniac Earth-conquerors in training. And we’ve got action. Boy have we got action. For books that start with a bang and never let up from beginning to end, there’s nothing that matches a Destroyer novel, except maybe a Richard Stark (that’s Donald Westlake under one of his many pseudonyms for those of you who care) novel about the professional thief, Parker, and his perennial misadventures with his crimes and the criminals whom he gets involved with.

We’re not talking finely-honed prose or literary masterpieces here, although each book is a small gem in its way. What we are talking is a perfect model of entertainment reading at its most entertaining. Start on page one and, more than likely, you’ll look up a few hours later, notice that a bunch of time has gone by, and reach for another volume so you can just keep going—and not worry to much about how late it is and when the alarm is going to ring in the morning. You might not be any smarter or more elegant than you were when you started reading but you will recall that your heart was racing and you couldn’t stop turning the pages to find out what happened next until it was all over.

You’re invited to check out what all the series readers know about how much fun it is to read a Warren Murphy Destroyer novel but don’t buy just one because when you finish the first, you’ll just have to get out of your chair, log on and buy some more.

Here's the first in the series and here's Warren Murphy's bio page with a list of available tiles. And there are more to come.

Enjoy!

Major Publisher Adopts New Ebook Standard

Hot news from a report in Publishers Weekly on October 25th!

Hachette Book Group USA announced that it will release all of its ebook publications in the International Digital Publishing Forum’s new file format standard for ebooks. The format, Open Publication Structure 2.0, was adopted by the IDPF in September and allows publishers to create a single digital book file instead of many files for the multiple formats currently needed to make an ebook available for all retailers and on all devices. Hachette is the first trade publisher to adopt the standard. This should cut ebook publication costs and make more titles more widely available.

The underlying message here is that Hachette is telling retailers that if they want to sell in a specific format it is their own responsibility to convert it to that format: Hachette will
not burden itself with the cost of producing multiple formats. Not only are they the first to adopt the standard but also they're using their weight to overthrow any retailer's expectations that publishers will continue to provide multiple formats in the future. For example, eReader will now have to convert Hachette's files to .PDB with DRM at eReader's own expense before they can sell a Hachette publication to their customers. This is the start of a big publisher revolution to reduce conversion costs and spend more money on making more titles available!

We hope that Hachette is the first of many publishers to adopt this standard and we encourage all others to follow their lead.

A Dave Duncan Miscellany

As we continue to focus on Dave Duncan, multiple award-nominated author, we focus on the fact that not all of his books are parts of one series or another. Herewith, five one-off novels which resemble each other not much at all except in their ability to greatly entertain.

The Cursed

The world was desperate. Since the empire had fallen a hundred years ago, Gwin and her people had nearly given up hope that the Renewer would come? Gwin had lost everything. Her husband was killed in one of the wars. Her children died of Star Sickness. Even her work at the hostel was in jeopardy because the politicians had it out for her. The cursed Gwin, therefore, had nothing to lose? When she took in the girl, a survivor of the Star Sickness, it was a dreadful crime. Gwin was at the end of her rope, and possibly the end of her life if she was found out? But the Sickness had left the girl with certain magic, certain powers which could prove very useful to them both. Was it possible that this young survivor could save their lives and the empire? Was a new life for Gwin and her world finally at hand?

The Hunters' Haunt

Omar often gets into trouble as a result of his role as the world's greatest storyteller. The wrong tale at the wrong time told to the wrong audience can prove fatal. A slighted innkeeper threatens to kill Omar by tossing him out into the vicious storm that rages just outside the door of the inn. But this time, for a change, Omar also has the chance to redeem himself by using his gift. If Omar can top the most outrageous tales invented by the inn's guests, he may get away with his neck intact. Omar not only tells a series of tales that would astonish the most gifted bard, but corrects the errors of the otherss and weaves them all together into one absolutely compelling tale of adventure.

The Reaver Road

Omar is the finest storyteller the world has ever known, captivating audiences everywhere, from the campfires of soldier camps to the plush residences of nobility. In times of turmoil, people can still appreciate a good tale that offers respite from their troubles. But as hordes of barbarian soldiers surround the unvanquished city of Zanadon after ravaging the surrounding countryside, few things are certain any longer. Omar has been guided to the city by prophetic dreams, yet finds himself in an increasingly dangerous situation as the people grow more desperate and the gift of a glib tongue turns into a curse.

A Rose-Red City

The city of Mera is a fortress hidden from the rest of humanity, a sanctuary for the diverse group of people rescued from death by the Oracle that rules the city. The Oracle has brought together the citizens of Mera from every land and every time period, protecting them from the ravages of time, death and the evil demon forces that howl outside the city at night. All that the Oracle asks in return is a willingness to aid the rest of humanity, calling the citizens to go forth on various missions of rescue to mortals in need of aid. The Oracle sends Jerry out into the wilderness, accompanied by his ancient Greek friend, Killer, a world-famous lecher and juvenile delinquent with deadly combat skills. There they must rescue a woman named Ariadne, on the run with her children and seeking shelter. But children are not allowed in Mera, and Ariadne will not leave them, while Mera's evil demon enemies move closer and closer to Jerry's and Killer's temporary place of respite.

Shadow

Sald Harl would like nothing more than to soar on the wings of his noble eagle, but his youthful rides in the sky are cut short by an appointment to guard the prince. Sald watches his dreams of flight fade with his name and independence as he takes over his bodyguard duties. During a perilous journey to the edges of the kingdom a dark secret comes to life. Now the great Prince Shadow is accused of treason, and Sald must orchestrate a desperate plan of escape or he will lose the one thing he has been ordered to defend. His only option for freedom is a dangerous flight that no one has ever survived. Once again Sald hopes to feel the freedom of soaring though the air unshackled from servitude.

There you have them: no two alike, nothing less than a winner in the bunch. Enjoy!

Agent's Pick: Morgan Howell's Queen of the Orcs

I divide authors into two categories: the ones who know exactly what they’re doing – and everyone else. When I read this opening chapter of King’s Property, the first chapter of the leadoff novel of Morgan Howell’s Queen of the Orcs trilogy, I knew I was in the very best of hands and surrendered my disbelief like a vanquished knight humbly laying down his arms before his conqueror. Reviewers confirmed my judgment, as you’ll see in the windfall of five-star amazon.com reviews hailing the arrival of Morgan Howell.

- Richard Curtis

Writing John Carpenter's Halloween Novelization

I happen to have more than a passing acquaintance with Halloween because I was commissioned by Bantam Books to write the paperback tie-in of John Carpenter's blockbuster movie Halloween under the pen-name of "Curtis Richards." It was a pretty good novel if I do say so myself. Out of curiosity I checked it out on amazon.com and was gratified to read that one reviewer described it as, "A near classic of its kind." (Near? Why just near?) If you're interested in learning how I dealt with the challenge, and the fascinating process of movie, television and game novelizations, feel free to read a free expanded chapter from my book Mastering the Business of Writing.

Excerpt from the text: "One of the great things about movies is that they move so fast, you don't have time to think about logic. Novels are a more reflective medium, however; at any time you can put a book down and think about what you've read. And it worried me, for instance, that my readers would put my book down and wonder how the hell someone who'd been institutionalized since he was five would know how to drive a car. So I had to concoct a whole chapter describing the fellow's stay in the asylum (which was okay, since I needed the five thousand words anyway) and showing that because he'd been a model inmate and trusty, he'd been taught to drive a truck and use it to run errands on the asylum grounds." (Read more here...)

Incidentally, I hold an orange belt in pumpkin carving, and above is an example. In the dark you can't see the bloodstain where my filleting knife penetrated the palm of my left hand.

While I'm on the topic of Halloween, I want to mention something my client Mindy Klasky wrote that you might also enjoy. It's a pumpkin-stuffer for trick-or-treaters who prefer a yummy read to a handful of Mars Bars. Mindy Klasky’s Sorcery and the Single Girl is the delightful sequel to her paranormal Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft. Klasky established herself as a serious fantasist with a wonderful series (The Glasswrights’ Apprentice and four sequels) published by Berkley Books, but when she said she’d like to try something in a lighter and more romantic voice, I told her to go for it. She immersed herself in chick lit, uttered some incantations, and when she came up for air she’d transformed herself into a Harlequin novelist. Check out the promo, and do pay a visit to Mindy’s website. It’s more fun than a coven of witches!

- Richard Curtis

Scary Tales For Halloween At E-Reads

To put you into an appropriately squeamish mood for Halloween, E-Reads offers a selection of horror fiction designed to traumatize you for life or at least make your night's sleep a living torment. Among our featured authors for the season are:

Sean Costello: In Eden's Eyes, The Cartoonist and Captain Quad, Costello demonstrates the full range of terror, rage, anger and madness that the horror genre can encompass. In the process, he also creates memorable characters while blending the real and the supernatural in ways uniquely his own.

Rex Miller: Miller's bestial antagonist, Chaingang, is four hundred pounds of brute rage who feasts on fresh hearts and is not too delicate about how he extracts them from his victims. Miller's genius is that he makes Chaingang sympathetic, a villain you hate to love, unless you happen to be with him in a pitch-dark room.

Ray Garton: Recently made a Grand Master by the Horror Writers of America, Garton's characters populate a Grand Guignol of depravity. Live Girls, his masterpiece, portrays ravishing pleasure girls who seduce a lovesick man into a world of irresistible fantasy and ecstasy. (The book is being developed as a movie as I write this.)

Melanie Tem: We have four strikingly original and suspenseful horror novels by one of the most masterful storytellers working in the genre, plus The Ice Downstream, a marvelous collection of stories.

Poppy Z. Brite: Are You Loathsome Tonight? Join horror master Brite as she explores the outermost regions of murder, passion, death and religion in twelve extraordinary short stories.

- Richard Curtis

Dave Duncan wins Prix Aurora

We mentioned a while back that Dave Duncan had been nominated for two awards for one of his recent novels, Children of Chaos. The Prix Aurora winners were announced this past weekend at VCON 32 in British Columbia, Canada. The nominees for Best Long-Form Work in English were:

• Regeneration: Species Imperative 3, Julie E. Czerneda (DAW Books)
• Children of Chaos, Dave Duncan (Tor Books)
• Smoke and Ashes, Tanya Huff (DAW Books)
• Sun of Suns: Book One of Virga, Karl Schroeder (Tor Books)
• Blindsight, Peter Watts (Tor Books)
• Righteous Anger: Part Two of the Okal Rel Saga, Lynda Williams (EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing)

And, of course, the winner was our hometown favorite Dave Duncan. Congratulations, Dave!

A Handful of Men by Dave Duncan

We’re celebrating one of our authors this month: Dave Duncan. While we await the announcement of winners for the two awards he has been nominated for, we’re offering a round-up of information on the many titles available from E-Reads.

Today, we’re highlighting his four book series, A Handful of Men.

The Cutting Edge (Part One of A Handful of Men)

The good folk of Krasnegar discovered that a beautiful princess could, indeed, succeed her royal father and rule in her own right, and rule very well, too. And when Queen Inos married Rap, the former stableboy, he turned out to be a very good king. He never admitted that he was a sorcerer, and everyone knew that Rap was a Man of His Word, so that was all right. The years passed. Rap and Inos raised a family, prospering in their remote little kingdom. But trouble was brewing in the great world outside. The aged Imperor grew ever more erratic, more tyrannical. His grandson Shandie, the boy Rap had befriended, was now a great soldier, struggling to suppress ever-growing upheaval in the borderlands while he waited to inherit the throne. Strange prophecies of upheaval and disaster spread. When the rumors reached even to Krasnegar, Rap scoffed at them as superstition--until one night a god appeared and confirmed that the truth was likely to be far worse. On his travels long ago, Rap himself had made a terrible blunder. Because of that, the world of Pandemia was now poised on the brink of utter disaster. The last thing Rap wanted was another adventure, and that might be the last thing he would ever get.

Upland Outlaws (Part Two of A Handful Of Men)

The old Imperor was dead at last. His popular soldier grandson, known as Shandie, had succeeded him... Hadn't he? No, he hadn't. The man who sat the opal throne was not Shandie, but an illusion created by the mad dwarf, Xinixo. Year after year he had stealthily been ensorcelling sorcerers, turning them into loyal minions. Now, wielding their combined power, he was irresistible. He ruled the Impire, so he ruled the world. He would continue to rule it for centuries. Anyone who knew the truth or opposed him in any way, he would destroy or enslave. That especially included his old enemy, King Rap of Krasnegar. And Shandie, the rightful Imperor, of course. And all their supporters, their friends, their families. All of them! First he had to catch them. With his infinite magic, that ought to be easy. Rap and Shandie had other ideas, but even they could see that their cause looked hopeless.

The Stricken Field (Part Three of A Handful Of Men)

Paranoid but almighty, the sorcerer Xinixo had seized control of the Impire. But ruling the imps and most of the world was not enough. He would never feel safe until he was universally loved, so he would smash everything and then rebuild the whole world in his own insane image. Who could resist him? King Rap of Krasnegar and Shandie, the rightful Imperor, were still at large and determined to resist the evil, however slender their chances. Their one, faint hope was to enlist the help of the remaining free sorcerers of the world, those not already spellbound by Xinixo. Their quest soon ran into disaster. Their messengers were betrayed or ensnared. A rampaging goblin army had captured Shandie and was about to torture him to death. Rap was mired in tropical jungle, hoping his wife and children were safe, back home in Krasnegar. They were not in Krasnegar and certainly not safe. As the flames of war raged across Pandemia, news of the disasters penetrated even into Thume, the Accursed Land. Outsiders believed that the pixies had been extinct for a thousand years, but they still lived there, hoarding their magic. Their ruler, the Keeper, adamantly refused to meddle in events outside her borders, but one young pixie girl was prepared to rebel against the ancient order...

The Living God (Part Four of A Handful of Men)

War had engulfed the whole world. The imposter Imperor ruling in Hub was the tool of the paranoid and almighty sorcerer Xinixo, who wielded the combined power of thousands of sorcerer slaves. And yet, despite his seeming omnipotence, the pathetic few who resisted him were still at liberty, even making a little progress. Xinixo's prime foe, Rap of Krasnegar, had rallied troll sorcerers to the cause and was about to try enlisting the incomprehensible elves. Fortunately for his sanity, he did not know that his daughter, Kadie, had been carried off by goblin invaders, or that his son, Gath, was heading for stark Nordland to deal with the fearsome jotnar. Or that his wife, Inos, was in Guwash, negotiating with gnomes. Shandie, the rightful Imperor, was with her, unaware that his wife, Impress Eshiala, believed him dead and had fled with Signifer Ylo, that notorious rake. And none of them knew about the sorcerers of Thume, especially the rebel pixie girl, Thaïle, who chafed against the secret binding of a thousand years. But the odds were still impossible and Longday was fast approaching. The sorcerers of the world foretold blood on Longday.

For an exciting story, filled with actions, magic, love, adventure and suspense, there's no more reliable writer than Dave Duncan.

Print Is Dead? Not Even Close!

There's a lot of e-book buzz about Jeff Gomez and his new book, Print Is Dead. From the introduction to Print Is Dead:

"While print is not yet dead, it is undoubtedly sickening. Newspaper readership has been in decline for years, magazines are also in trouble, and trade publishing (the selling of novels and non-fiction books to adults primarily for entertainment), has not seen any substantial growth for years. More and more people are turning away from traditional methods of reading, turning instead to their computers and the Internet for information and entertainment. Whether this comes in the form of getting news online, reading a blog, or contributing to a wiki, the general population is shifting away from print consumption, heading instead to increasingly digital lives."

I may be an e-book evangelist but I wouldn’t dream of saying print is dead. For now and the foreseeable future the handheld reader of choice is called the book. Or p-book (p for print) as opposed to e-book. Or, as some refer to it, “book-book” to distinguish it from virtual versions. For all our valiant endeavors to produce an electronic reader, nothing matches the elegant form and functionality of the printed book. E-Reads’ sales confirm it: despite the ease of downloading our titles, fifty percent of our revenue comes from the sale of print copies.

What is dead is the old way of distributing books, in mechanical vehicles to brick and mortar vendors. Bookstores, even the fabulous giant Barnes & Noble chain, are dead stores walking. The day that the print on demand press was introduced (summer of 1998), the bookstore beast took a shot to the gut. Boast though they may about sales B&N and other book chains are mortally wounded and it’s just a matter of time before they hemorrhage to death. The good news? Before you can say Rest in Peace, a new, healthier, more profitable and infinitely more efficient distribution model will take its place. I’m happy to say I prophesized it in 1992. Nobody listened then. Maybe they’ll listen now.

I’ve written at length about the foolish, fraudulent, and sickeningly wasteful way that books have been distributed and I invite you to read my series “Publishing in the Twenty-first Century Part 1, Part 2, Part 3" and “The Subscription Revolution: How Print on Demand Will Save the Publishing Industry.

- Richard Curtis

HarperCollins Helps Authors Get Online

Thanks again to Publishers Weekly for more exciting news.

HarperCollins announced a pilot launch of the Author Assistant program, designed to help authors build and maintain personal websites to promote their books. This web-based toolset will allow authors to create a website and include biographical information, blog posts, coming attractions, Q&As, photos, links to other articles and posts, browse inside widgets, and even a map of other Harper authors that fans have in common. Authors own any content they create for their pages.

The initial launch involves 40 Avon Romance authors but the program will roll out through all HarperCollins U.S. imprints by mid-2008.

The current feature set "reflects the basics of what authors need to publish content on our site," according to SVP for Global Marketing Strategy and Operations Carolyn Pittis, who says they plan to add numerous other features, driven in large part by "what authors want." One of the most likely additions is a video component, as well as feeds to provide third-party syndication. They expect to be adding more two-way features." In general, the program is intended to be a way of matching up author-generated content with marketing know-how.

Sounds like a great way to help everyone sell more books. That's another idea we like a lot.

-- John

ON KILLING by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

(Updated 10/12, adding an interview w. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, following this introduction)

Of the thousands of books I have represented, there are very few about which I can say it was an honor to be associated with them. On Killing by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is one of a handful that occupies a very privileged place in my heart. That it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize validates my contention that it is an extraordinarily significant work.

By the time Col. Grossman submitted his manuscript to me in the mid 1990s, the Viet Nam War, from which he had drawn so many poignant lessons for his research, had been ostensibly over for two decades. I say “ostensibly” because, for the traumatized veterans that he worked with as a combat psychologist, the war raged on in their tormented memories. Even as he comforted and helped heal countless men in veterans’ facilities, he was also asking questions of them that few had had the courage to ask, and formulating insights that enabled him to understand the experience of killing in ways that historians and social scientists had seldom grasped. I remember his telling me that killing was the last intimate act between humans that had not been explored scientifically. How odd, that an evil to which humankind has forever been exposed, should be a black hole in our understanding.

Out of his intensive studies, observations and interviews Grossman formulated a science he calls “Killology.” It’s a disturbing term but it pins us to his topic like a bayonet and forces us to gaze, eyes wide open, at an act that is both obscene and profane. Yet at the heart of his thesis is the contention that humans have an innate aversion to taking life. Given the sad history of our race that’s a large pill to swallow, but if you suspend skepticism and grant him this assumption your journey into the heart of darkness will be rewarded with a note of hope. Whether you are willing to extend to perpetrators a fraction of the sympathy that you extend to victims is a question only you will answer when you finish the book, but you will certainly appreciate the torment of men in war and war’s aftermath better than you do now.

What makes On Killing doubly significant is its extension of the experience of war to that of peace. Are children who are exposed to violent movies and video death-games more susceptible to murderous hostility? Are they stimulated to killing rage? Do they become more tolerant of mayhem?

Read On Killing and judge.

--Richard Curtis

Interview with Lt. Col. Dave Grossman by E-Reads

E-Reads: As you've grown older and wiser, have you modified your views about the nature of killing? About human nature?

DG: No, not really. I've expanded the model a little, and have placed that in my latest book, On Combat.

E-Reads: In your dealings with veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq, is there a material difference between the nature of their stress and the stresses suffered by Vietnam veterans?

DG: Today we are rotating units into combat (as opposed to individual replacements in Vietnam) and they are all wartime volunteers. They enlisted or reenlisted in time of war. This makes for a significant reduction in psychological trauma and incidence of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

E-Reads: You tour extensively. Who is your main audience? What are some of the most often-asked questions?

DG: Roughly 50% of my audiences are law enforcement. Another 30% are military units, and 20% educators.

The most commonly asked questions revolve around the incidence of PTSD in Iraq and Afghanistan. My best answer to that is in the 2nd edition to On Combat, which was released just this year. I've included a clip from On Combat (below) that addresses this issue.

"Sadly, it is not difficult to find people in the mental health community to support the thesis that anyone who kills, experiences combat, or witnesses violence (or any other fill-in-the-blank 'victim du jour') is doomed to lifelong PTSD and, consequently, needs lifelong mental health care. Too few mental health professionals communicate to their patients that 1) they can recover quickly from PTSD and that 2) they will become stronger from the experience. Yet that expectation must be there if there is to be hope of anything other than a lifetime of expensive counseling.

[ ... ]

PTSD is like being overweight. Many people carry around 10, 20, or 30 pounds of excess weight. Although it influences the individual every minute of every day, it might not be a big deal health wise. But for those people who are 500 pounds overweight, it will likely kill them any day now. There was a time when we could only identify people who had "500 pounds" of PTSD. Today we are better at spotting folks who carry lesser loads, 30, 40 or 50 pounds of PTSD.

I have read statistics that say 15 percent of our military is coming home with "some manifestation of psychological problems." Others claim it is 20 percent and still others report 30 percent. Well, depending on how you want to measure it, 30 percent of all college freshmen have some manifestation of psychological problems. Mostly what is being reported on today are people with low levels of PTSD (30, 40 or 50 pounds of PTSD) who in previous wars would not have been detected. We are getting damned good at identifying and treating PTSD and, when the treatment is done, most people are better for the experience.

PTSD is not like frostbite. Frostbite causes permanent damage to your body. If you get frostbite, for the rest of your life you will be more vulnerable to it. PTSD is not like that.

PTSD can be more like the flu. The flu can seriously kick your tail for a while. But once you shake it off, you probably are not going to get it again for the rest of the year. You have been inoculated. PTSD can kick your tail for a while (months and even years). But once you have dealt with it, next time it will take a lot more to knock you off your feet because you have been stress inoculated."

E-Reads: Do you feel your approach to killing has had a positive effect on our understanding of human behavior? Do you think human nature can be changed for the better?

DG: I don't think that our basic, underlying, innate nature can change much, but we can do a better job of warning and preparing people. And my books, On Killing and On Combat have proven themselves to be very valuable resources to help warn and prepare or GIs and their families.

On Killing and On Combat are both on the USMC Commandant's Required Reading list. (I think I'm the only author to have two books on the list.) Both books are also required reading at West Point and many other military and law enforcement academies. We have been at war for 6 years now, and we have learned a lot. All nonessential ideas and material have been jettisoned in the unforgiving 'acid test' of war. For these books to still be held up as required reading indicates that that they have something valuable and timeless to contribute, and it is a good feeling to be of service.

Perhaps most important of all, On Killing's final section (on media violence) has been supported with important new research. Sadly, that section has been validated by many tragic incidents of juvenile mass murders in the school.

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Lt. Col. Grossman continues the research that let to the writing of On Killing, does regular public speaking engagements on the subject and maintains a website, Killology Research Group, which constantly adds new information on the topic.

Are John Norman's Gors "Boy-Books"?

I’m proud to say that all 25 of the original novels in John Norman’s Gorean saga are together for the first time in decades, plus his 26th and penultimate novel, WITNESS OF GOR. The journey of the series from Blockbuster to Can’t Give Them Away and back to Blockbuster (they are among E-Reads’ biggest sellers) is a saga in itself and sheds some interesting sociological light on the publishing industry.

The first novel, TARNSMAN OF GOR, was released by Ballantine in 1966, and over the next fifteen years or so another 24 were published by Ballantine and then DAW. The books were enormously popular and sales were tremendous – until, one day it all ground to a halt, mysteriously, like that scene at the end of War of the Worlds where a seemingly invincible alien catches cold and drops dead. What happened? Tastes in reading habits change but usually they evolve rather than fall off a cliff as Gor did.

The answer may lie not in what readers like to read but what editors like to edit. The Gorean Saga’s epic sales were fueled by the kind of red-blooded male readers that consumed cowboy books, Executioner and Destroyer action-adventure, Spillane-type thrillers and space operas by the carton. And many of the editors who acquired them were red-blooded males themselves (with notable exceptions like Judy-Lynn Del Rey, the diminutive titan who gave her name to Random House’s science fiction line).

Then came the Feminist movement, and with it a revolution in editorial viewpoint. And Feminists had a lot to say about the morality practiced by the masters of Gor on their female slave subjects. As Feminists occupied more and more significant editorial positions at major publishers including the science fiction and fantasy divisions, hard-line Feminist thinking influenced decisions on all kinds of books, especially the kind that guys cherished. A lot of Feminist ire focused on Gor – many female editors passionately hated Norman’s world and all the decadent male chauvinism it seemed to stand for. (Not surprisingly, the author takes a very different view of all of this!) In any event, yes, by the 1990's you couldn’t give Gor away.

The books were all out of print when I started E-Reads around 2000, but I discovered something very interesting when I went online. Not only was there a huge cult revolving around Gor (some of his hard to get editions sell in the used book market for well over $100), but many of those involved in Gorean role-playing games were women who were into fantasy slavery or simply took the stories in with a large dose of good humor.

Gor is once again alive and thriving on E-Reads, I’m happy to report. And as for Feminism in the publishing industry, I’m also happy to report that it’s here to stay. But it still unnerves me when female editors refer to the literature men like to read as “Boy-books.”

Readers and fans interested in learning more about John Norman and his Gorean world can visit John Norman's Chronicles of Gor.

- Richard Curtis

Subterranean Press and Baen Books Do Ebooks Deal

Here’s a tasty ebooks tidbit recently in Publishers Weekly.

Subterranean Press, a small, independent Science Fiction publisher will release some of its titles as ebooks under a new agreement with Baen Books. The titles will be sold individually and will also be a part of Baen’s online subscription service, Webscription, which offers electronic editions of titles on a subscription basis. Many titles become available online before the print editions ship. Other publishers who sell subscriptions through Baen include Del Rey and Tor Books. William Schafer, publisher of Subterranean, said the deal with Baen will expose his titles to a wider audience.

All of Baen’s electronic products are offered without DRM protection, an approach to which Baen remains committed. Baen publisher Toni Weisskopf said “We don’t treat our customers like criminals, and they don’t act like them. We’ve found that if you treat your readers with respect, they become repeat customers.”

We like to see more publishers making the move into ebooks and DRM-free makes a lot of sense, too.

- John

E-Reads Interviews Dave Duncan

In order to celebrate his two awards nominations, announced in a previous post, E-Reads has declared October to be Dave Duncan month. We start off the celebrations with an interview.

E-Reads: Although you're clearly a genre writer in the sense that your books use elements of typical fantasy settings, magic, strange creatures and so on, my sense of your work is that you're creating from more classical models than Tolkien and everything that flows from that. If I had to guess at influences, I'd suggest Alexandre Dumas, Rudyard Kipling and Rafael Sabatini, among others. I also see indications of the real classic literature (Greek and Roman sources) in your work. Am I on the mark or way off? If the latter, who are among your influences?

Dave Duncan: My “literary” background is a little off-beat because when I was child in the UK there was a war on and a shortage of new books. So, yes, the old “classics” like Kipling, Dumas, (no Sabatini, that I recall) R. M. Ballantine, Rider Haggard, Bram Stoker, John Buchan, Dean Swift, and so on—most not being regarded as “literature” nowadays but all great storytellers. Only when I came to Canada in 1955 did I plug in to North American writers like Heinlein, Philip K Dick, and Fred Pohl. I was not a “fan” in the usual sense—I did not know that fandom existed until after I had sold a novel and was invited to a be a guest at a con.

ER: Were you an established reader of genre writing (Fantasy, Science Fiction and/or Horror) when you first started writing or did your own ideas and the work you produced lead you to discover the field?

DD: My decision to write speculative fiction was partly personal taste (write what you want to read) and partly commercial. The Canadian market is very small. My preferred reading was and still is, non-fiction history or science, and in fiction was mainly SF or murder stories. Whodunnits must be set within specific legal jurisdictions, historical novels require a lot of work, but SF has a universal appeal, so I could aim for the U.S. market. Lately, with my The Alchemist’s Apprentice and its forthcoming sequels, I am combining fantasy, history, and murder mystery in the same book.

ER: Do you read widely within the field and, if so, who are among your favorite writers and what are some of your favorite books?

DD: I spend my days driving my keyboard around in my own imaginary worlds, so I don’t read much in others’. Apart from wanting a change of scenery, I find them distracting, because I tend to read them as if I were editing my own work—the characters, the pace, the vocabulary &c &c. That’s not much of a holiday! I do have a few favorite authors, but I prefer not to name them and thus exclude all the rest.

ER: A lot of your work comes in the form of multi-volume series, which, for the current fantasy market, makes a lot of commercial sense. However, I'm inclined to perceive your individual volumes as carefully-formed episodes in a tightly-structured story arc in a way
that many other writers don't seem to work. A lot of their stories seem to be open-ended in a start-writing-and- see-where- you-end-up way, whereas you seldom seem to return to a world and a setting once you've delivered the exact number of titles that you promised from the beginning. How do you plan your books/series and how well developed are your story ideas when you start writing?

DD: When I talk to aspiring writers I tell them to begin at the end. There’s a lot of truth in the old cliche, “A good opening sells a book and a good ending sells the next one.” Besides, the way a story is written must depend on whether the lovers are going to live happily ever after or die in a tomb like Romeo and his wife.

I do not make summaries. I plan a good opening, and then lay course for whatever ending I have in mind. The ties and rails I lay down as I go, and that way I have many months to polish the plot. If I wrote out a summary I would have it all set in stone within a few weeks, so I would miss a lot of good ideas. OK, once in a while a story will swerve away from me and head to an unexpected conclusion, but not often.

A well-written series has a minor ending at the end of each volume and a big one at the end of the last episode. When I was starting out I was writing mass market originals, and Del Rey published them every 3 or 4 months, so those were true serials and I could end each book in a cliffhanger. (The worst example being Magi