The Fireside

Last night, after taking a video game break, I pre-ordered the giant cross-genre anthology by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois called Rogues for my Kobo ereader.  It's coming out June 17. This their follow-up to Dangerous Women . This is what all the excitement is about: A thrilling collection of twenty-one original stories by an all-star list of contributors—including a new  A Game of Thrones  story by George R. R. Martin!   Twenty-one all-original stories, by an all-star list of contributors, will delight and astonish you in equal measure with their cunning twists and dazzling reversals. And George R. R. Martin himself offers a brand-new tale chronicling one of the biggest rogues in the entire Ice and Fire saga. Follow along with the likes of Gillian Flynn, Joe Abercrombie, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Cherie Priest, Garth Nix, and Connie Willis as well as other masters of literary sleight-of-hand in this rogues’ gallery of s...

This is a post forany parents who may be getting the wii u for their kids. And I mean 10 or under.

Today the long awaited Mario Kart 8 is finally out. And I must say, it could very well be the best Mario Kart yet for a console. I enjoyed the games on the wii, but not the console itself. So, with Mario Kart 8 , I'm using the gamepad and U Pro Controller.  The biggest difference or newest feature about the game is antigravity. You can race in all directions, as per how the track moves. Switching is easy and seamless and automatic in-game. The gliders re-appear, as do bikes. Basically, Nintendo put all the best parts from past Mario Kart games into this one. And coins! Coins are back. Another feature I quite like is fast recovery. If you get hit, getting back into it doesn't take nearly as long as in past games. There is also a defence against the dreaded Spiny Shell.... There are loads of courses and characters to unlock, a few new items and tons of replayability due to mulitpplayer, and trying to unlock each and every item.  With all the 'new...

From Pat's Fantasy Hotlist "Thanks to the cool folks at Bantam, here's an extract from  Rogues , a new anthology edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois."  I myself will be getting the ebook (should Kobo ever post it to their site for pre-order...) Here's the preview of "The Lightning Tree" by Patrick Rothfuss:

The following is an interview by Anne Groell, George R.R. Martin's editor at Bantam.The Q&A was with Suvudu Universe, and is re-transcribed here....

We all know the tales J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings many times, over many years. There is even more detailed accounts of his creation in The Silmarillion , Unfinished Tales, and Children of Hurin . He created his own world - language, culture, history, myth...everything. Unknown to the common reader who may be more (or only) familiar with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , he was also a Professor at Oxford, and gave many lectures on subjects of Old English, Anglo Saxon, and others. He also translated and gave his own accounts on various poems over during his academic career. Some of these were abandoned in favor of writing The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings , and is entirely possible that he may not have created those works in favour of more poems. For instance, The Fall of Arthur could have been fully completed if he had not been so busy at the time preparing The Hobbit for publication. Suppose Tolkien never wrote The Hobbit : instead, ...

....and now, I've finished reading the last Wheel of Time book Robert Jordan wrote (on his own, before Brandon Sanderson helped finish off the series.) 

Tolkien's version of Beowulf  will soon be released. There has been some scholary controversy over this release from those who study Anglo-Saxon literature, as well as Beowulf  scholars. The Tolkien scholars have been waiting awhile for this one for a while.  Tolkien's expertise on Beowulf and his own literary powers have made this translation a work every Tolkien fan will want to treasure. This edition includes the translation in prose and an illuminating commentary, based on a series of lectures given by J.R.R. Tolkien at Oxford in the 1930s. Through Tolkien’s clarity of vision, it is as if you entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men shaking out their mail-shirts as they beached their ship on the coast of Denmark, listening to the rising anger of Beowulf at the taunting of Unferth, or looking up in amazement at Grendel’s terrible hand set under the roof of Heorot. This edition also inclu...

This was posted on Westeros.org. Here is another sample from The World of Ice and Fire  coming out later this year...

... But not from me. Here are some by Book Depository, as well as some readers:  http://www.bookdepository.com/yourbestbooksever?utm_source=NL-Body&utm_medium=email-Newsletter&utm_term=blurb&utm_content=Your-Best-Books-Ever&utm_campaign=May-Best-Books-Ever-14 Their List:  http://www.bookdepository.com/bestbooksever Reddit, and 'Under the Radar' :  http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/05/reddit-fantasy-top-underrated-and-underread-books?utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_term=tordotcom&utm_content=-na_readblog_blogpost&utm_campaign=9780765333117 Have a look at what some other people recommend

What a great weekend. I attended my second Comic Con (I don't count the first day I was there for the very first time) here in Ottawa, and what a great time it was! This time, my group was prepared - we got deluxe passes instead of regular for the weekend, which cut down on line times (but not as much as the much-higher priced VIP). Also, I had a good idea of what I wanted to see and do. But of course, so many panels and signings, things change a bit.... Saturday kicked off with a slightly late arrival by Summer Glau. She was scheduled for last year but couldn't make it because she lost her passport. She found it this year, and head a good turnout. After which, I saw The Doc himself, Christopher Lloyd. Following his panel (and bear in mind I walked the floor between lining up for panels) was one of the big ones for me - Sean Astin, best known lately as Samwise the Brave in Lord of the Rings . Immediately after his panel (in w...

Well, the weather is for the most part much nicer. That means more reading, potentially outdoors for those who like to take books or e-readers outside. The books I recommend throughout my blogging history won't change much. I may highlight certain genres or authors or series from time to time, but this season let's spring into some fantasy. You all know how much I like George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series by now...so I won't talk about it that now. All you need to know is that the name of the first book is called A Game of Thrones. I'm going to recommend a few other fantasy titles for you to check out. I promise you'll most likely like them: THE KINGKILLER CHRONICLE (Trilogy) by Patrick Rothfuss The Name of the Wind The Wise Man's Fear Book 3 (being written) THE DAGGER AND THE COIN by Daniel Abraham The Dragon's Path The King's Blood The Tyrant...