The first Ancillary Sword Goodreads giveaway is completed, and the winners’ books are in the hands of the United States Postal Service.
The next giveaway should start at midnight next Tuesday (that would be September 16) and will run for two days. I’ll link to it here the day it goes live, but you can also find it by keeping an eye on Goodreads.
In the meantime, have a couple of links to some more fabulous fanart!
Today’s sentence from Ancillary Sword:
This body that spoke to me–one of thousands–looked to be about thirteen years old.
Today’s sentence from the upcoming Ancillary Sword, sentence number two:
Anaander Mianaai, ruler (for the moment) of all the vast reaches of Radchaai space, sat in a wide chair cushioned with embroidered silk.
So, as it happens, I’m not just giving out sentences. This weekend a box of finished copies of Ancillary Sword turned up on my doorstep. And I am giving some of them away.
Giveaway ends September 12, 2014.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
If that box isn’t showing up for you, follow this link to Goodreads, where you can enter. I’m giving away two copies this week, and I’ll give away two more next week. And maybe two more the week after that!
Have I mentioned lately that Ancillary Sword is going to be out October 7? Available wherever fine books are sold!
Another review is out, this time Liz Bourke at Tor.com. Spoiler: she likes it!
So. I gather some number of folks are eager to begin reading. I figured I’d help out. Sort of.
My old friends from the Shejidan message board will recognize this game. Here it is: starting today, I will post the opening of Ancillary Sword, one sentence at a time. I’ll stop once the book is out, because, obviously.
So, without further ado, the first sentence of Ancillary Sword:
“Considering the circumstances, you could use another lieutenant.”
It’s about one month till Ancillary Sword comes out! In the meantime, have a wordle:
So, the other day a blogger posted their predictions for next year’s Hugo ballot for Best Novel. (Strikes me as a bit early in that game, but hey, de gustibus, and if that’s what they enjoy thinking about and writing about, I genuinely wish them all the enjoyment the topic can afford them.)
Flatteringly enough, they considered Ancillary Sword to be a likely candidate. Unless, of course, AS turns out to be an utter disaster. Or unless it didn’t actually come out this year–they cited the lack of a pre-order button on Amazon and the lack of marketing push to be signs that perhaps the book would be delayed.
So. Just so it’s clear. I’ve been largely silent on the Amazon business, but I’ll say explicitly here that yes, Orbit is part of Hachette, and all of that Amazon vs Hachette business is indeed affecting my books. Amazon is delaying shipment of paper copies of Ancillary Justice, and has removed the pre-order button on Ancillary Sword. It has nothing to do with the book not coming out on time.
(I am not happy with Amazon right now, and have stopped buying anything at all through them. I probably won’t go back to it if I can possibly help it. But I haven’t called for any kind of Amazon-avoidance, largely because I’m pretty sure a lot of readers are more or less locked into Kindle at this point. Personally I’d have advised against getting into that position to begin with, but cost is a factor there, with vanilla e-readers being cheaper than the tablets that let you run various bookstore apps, and besides I can’t tell you all how to run your book-buying lives. So, buy your books wherever works best for you.)
The marketing push? Well, you know, you push too early and by the time the thing comes out everyone’s either sick of it or has forgotten. Push too late and you don’t get the buildup you want in time for release. Early reviews are only just now coming out. Things are moving along as they should be.
At any rate, here are a few of those early reviews: Publishers Weekly liked it, Kirkus liked it. There’ll be a (starred, I’m told!) Library Journal review come September. There was a lovely review in RT Book Reviews, which I can’t link to because it’s in the latest issue.
So. Mark your calendars! Ancillary Sword will be out on October 7.
I’ll be doing some signings in the St Louis area in the week or two following its release, by the way, so watch this space for times and locations.
As the subject line says, I present to you the cover of Ancillary Sword.
No big surprises, really–John Harris did an awesome, wide painting that could be split into three, making one picture out of all three books. And Kirk Benshoff, who designed the Ancillary Justice cover, designed this one as well. Very pretty! I am unreasonably pleased with it.