dragons sleep. The ghastly Witchkings are no more; their evil
power destroyed by the courage of Men and the fearsome magic of
the Elves. The Dwarves have retreated to the kingdoms of the
Underdeep, the trolls hide in their mountains, and even the savage
orc tribes have learned to dread the iron discipline of Amorr’s
mighty legions. But after four hundred years of mutual suspicion,
the rivalry between two of the Houses Martial that rule the
Amorran Senate threatens to turn violent, and unrest sparks
rebellion throughout the imperial provinces. In the north, the
barbarian reavers who have long plagued the coasts of the White
Sea beg for the royal protection of the King of Savondir, as they
flee a vicious race of wolf-demons. In the east, the war drums
echo throughout the mountains as orcs and goblins gather in great
numbers, summoned by their bestial gods.
Sanctified Father is found dead in his bed, leaving the Ivory
Throne of the Apostles unclaimed, the temptation to seize the
Sacred College and wield Holy Mother Church as a weapon is more
than some fallen souls can resist.
I am very pleased to be able to say that A Throne of Bones is now available for $4.99 for Amazon Kindle and $4.99 for Barnes and Noble Nook, as well as $34.99 in hardcover from Marcher Lord Hinterlands. It is 852 pages in hardcover and it is not at all necessary to have read either Summa Elvetica or A Magic Broken first. Both SE and AMB are little more than an extended chapter in the story of a perspective character from A Throne of Bones.
The Responsible Puppet was the first individual other than the editor to read it, and he kindly took the time to review it on his blog in time for this announcement.
When I reviewed `Summa Elvetica’, Vox Day’s last fiction book, I wrote,
`My feeling here is that this book could be a “The Hobbit”-like prelude
to a much more significant fictional writing.’ This, I’m pleased to say,
is what the author has done. `Throne’ is placed in the same universe as
that book and only a few years (months?) later. And what is this
universe? Just like with Summa, imagine Rome in the fifth century,
complete with a Christian heritage. Now add in magic. And elves. And
dwarves and goblins and some kind of new immortal creature.But the geography is completely different. The Empire is Amorr. In it,
there are two very strong family houses that are growing more and more
at odds with each other. In one of these houses, two brothers are in
conflict – for good reason…It
is, in turn, humorous, shocking and exciting. There are beautiful
moments, there is clever dialogue, there is deep mystery. It took some
level of genius to write it.
And because every epic fantasy needs a map, this one arguably more than most, I was fortunate to be able to once again call upon the artistic talents of JartStar. This is the map of Selenoth and Imperial Amorr that appears in the book.
For those who have followed this process from the start and are interested in the minutiae, today marks
499 days since the two conversations with Spacebunny’s cousin and the
Original Cyberpunk about A Dance With Dragons that inspired the writing of the book. A Throne of Bones contains
297,862 words, 15,875 of them unique. This compares favorably with
George Martin (295,929 and 13,717, respectively), Joe Abercrombie
(191,393 and 11,260), and Louis L’Amour (94,297 and 7,598), but pales before
the greatest author of my generation, Neal Stephenson (409,365 and
29,239). And thanks again to those who preordered, as we exceeded our goals by nearly forty percent. The hardcovers go to press tomorrow and should arrive well in time for Christmas.
UPDATE: It is nice to see some appreciation for Kirk’s superlative work from Instapundit: “VOX DAY’S NEW NOVEL, A Throne of Bones, is now out at Amazon. Very nice cover.” By all means, judge the book by it….
UPDATE 2: Dr. Helen mentions the release on her site too.
UPDATE 3: I’ve posted an announcement at Black Gate too, with a brief summary of the connection between the book and some of my past posts there.