REPUBLIC OF THIEVES RELEASE DATE

Finally everyone!

after 6 years since the publication of the AMAZING Red Seas Under Red Skies  and a lot of whining and whimpering on facebook and an open letter to Scott Lynch, there is a publication date ( a real one!) for The Republic of Thieves.

Check out the update on Scott's LJ 
Pre-Order on Amazon

BOOKS in the NEWS!

They're making Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town into a film starring Gordon Pinsent and Eric Peterson.  Sunshine Sketches is inspired by my hometown, Orillia, by Orillia's favourite son, Stephen Leacock. This book is very close to my heart due to its Orillia connections!

The World Fantasy Convention will be here in Toronto in 2012 and you can see Scott Lynch!  (and maybe friggin' Republic of Thieves will have been released by then; but I doubt it)

Adorable girl strives to make Horatio Lyle popular internationally on youtube 

Torontonians: 'tis fall -- and you know what that means! IFOA! 

At IFOA this Fall Rachel Recommends:

IAN RANKIN!!!!!

Ian Rankin’s first Rebus novel was published in 1987, and the Rebus series is now translated into 22 languages and are bestsellers on several continents. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards, winner of the Edgar Award for Resurrection Men and recently received the Order of the British Empire for services to literature. Rankin presents The Impossible Dead, the second novel in the Malcolm Fox series, in which a major inquiry into a neighboring police force leaves Fox and his colleagues unsure of territory, protocol or who they can trust.

...and I guess other people, like:

Will Ferguson

Published in 33 countries and 26 languages, Will Ferguson’s debut novel, Happiness, won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction. He also co-wrote the humour book How to Be a Canadian, which won the CBA Libris Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year. In Canadian Pie, Ferguson shares stories from his travels to Yukon in search of gold, gives lessons of a mini-bar ninja and discusses his misadventures working on the Vancouver Olympics Closing Ceremonies.

Charles Foran

Charles Foran is the author of eight books, including four novels and the essay collectionJoin the Revolution, Comrade. He also writes regularly for magazines and newspapers in Canada and abroad, and is a contributing reviewer for theGlobe and Mail. Foran presents his Charles Taylor Prize-winning work, Mordecai: The Life, a biography of one of Canada's most beloved and successful writers, Mordecai Richler.

Frances Itani

Frances Itani is the author of 14 books, includingDeafening, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Caribbean and Canada) and Remembering the Bones, which was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She has taught creative writing for many years and her reviews, stories and articles have been widely published. She is also a Member of the Order of Canada. Itani’s Requiem tells the story of a recently widowed man who embarks on an unforgettable journey that encompasses art and music, love and hope

Wayne Johnston

Wayne Johnston was born and raised in Newfoundland. Once a reporter for the St. John's Daily News, Johnston eventually earned an MA in Creative Writing. His bestselling novels include The Custodian of Paradise, The Navigator of New York and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. He is also the author of the bestselling memoir, Baltimore's Mansion, winner of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. Taking place in St. John’s, Princeton and North Carolina at the end of the 19th century, Johnston’s A World Elsewhere, is a sweeping tale that questions the loyalties of friends, family and the heart.

Jane Urquhart

Jane Urquhart is the internationally acclaimed author of six previous novels, a collection of short fiction, three books of poetry and a short biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery. She has received the Marian Engel Award and the Harbourfront Festival Prize, and is a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Urquhart presents Sanctuary Line, which weaves elements from 19th century Ireland and Ontario to create a gradually unfolding story of events that come to irrevocably alter the future of one family.

SCOTT LYNCH!

Since the exciting news of A Dance with Dragons was released and readers itching for the latest George R R Martin feel that their 6 years of book purgatory is over, I thought I would express my similar enthusiasm at the prospective publication date by the latest of a favourite author.

Dear Scott Lynch,

You have no idea how much your books fill my heart and head with glee. No idea.

I LOVE the Lies of Locke Lamora and I LOVE Red Seas Under Red Skies and I think you have a cuttingly winsome sense of humour and a fully-developed magical realm and characters so dimensional you need 3D glasses just to scope them in their tantalizing complexity.

Moreover, you perfectly render the blood and passion and intrigue of a land filled with the periphery of war. As sweet as your prose is, you can turn over a dark leaf and unleash a depth of terror and suspense rarely found in your genre.

I cannot stop talking about the Lies of Locke Lamora. So much so, I think some people buy it just to shut me up ( but then they read and love it ).


The problem is, Scott Lynch, that I JUST CANNOT WAIT for the Republic of Thieves. I can’t. I’ve tried. I’m like one of those mopey George RR Martin fans who, to no avail, refreshes their browser so that the unnamed release date appears Banquo-like in the background.


I cannot wait. I can’t. My fingertips are twitching.

You left us in a rather perplexing place. The fates of Jean Tannen and glorious Locke hang heavily in the air. I am so excited.


Scott Lynch, you are a magnificent wordsmith and you paint a canvas that I cannot wait to jump into again.

I want to return to your kaleidoscope-coloured world and read your gritty, visceral dialogue and have the ends of my eyelids stand on end in scintillating, book-drunk glee.


I have had it on pre-order for ages and everytime I get a note from amazon informing me that the date has changed; something within my reader’s heart shrivels and dies. I know there's not a lot you can do about this and Orion has confirmed November. I just wanted to let you know that as excited as readers are about the Martin, so this reader is excited about the return of her beloved Locke....


Cordially,
Rachel

books I love that you've probably never read:

While reading Scott Lynch this weekend, I was forced to think about all of the books that I love that a lot of people would never stumble upon or read under normal circumstances.

So, I give you a bunch of books that have probably fallen under your radar, but are worth every word:


The Blooding of Jack Absolute by CC Humphreys. You've probably heard of Sharpe by Bernard Cornwell, you probably haven't heard of Humphreys. I love this series. Especially this book. It's one of the funniest I have ever read.


The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle, The Doomsday Machine, the Obsidian Dagger by Catherine Webb. Actually, if you have stumbled upon this blog you have read about them because I seem to talk about nothing else.

Captain Alatriste ( and subsequent novels ) by Arturo Perez Reverte. You have probably read or heard of the Flanders Panel and The Club Dumas but you have probably not read Alatriste.


Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt. This is a gorgeous, dark and brooding fairytale with a chilling ending that will steal your breath.


The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies and soon The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch. Sort of George RR Martin, Sort of Robin Hood, a heist and witty repartee that would make The Sting jealous, the best of high fantasy/imagined historical fiction.


Tribes by Arthur Slade. If you're Canadian, you have probably heard of Dust and Megiddo's Shadow but you probably skipped Tribes. Shame on you. Good book.


The Spell Book of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty. This book is published by House of Anansi and has not quite risen to the status of The Year of Secret Assignments or The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie but it is brilliant and worth the read.

Deafening by Frances Itani. Set in small town Ontario during the years preceding and during the Great War, a well-spun romance between a deaf woman and a hearing stretcher-bearer who develop a language of their own. Glimpses of the homefront and the warfront are expounded upon poignantly.


Skulduggery Pleasant, Playing with Fire etc., by Derek Landy. Fire-throwing Skeleton detective pairs with whipsmart 12 year old in this funny and fresh series with the quickest dialogue since Nick and Norah Charles. Unbelievably good!


Montmorency: Thief, Liar Gentleman by Eleanor Updale. I am a champion of young adult novels with adult protagonists ( see Horatio Lyle ). A Jekyll and Hyde-esque romp through Victorian London.


Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede. Magical, luminous historical novel.


The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner. Medieval-type fantasy starring sword-wielding heroine and a plethora of moody eccentrics.