Morlock Threebooked

Posted on March 13, 2009 by JE

I’ve been remiss in not noting what SF Scope and my brilliant agent, Michael Kabongo already have: Pyr is taking a second sequel to Blood of Ambrose. (The first sequel, This Crooked Way is due out in Fall 2009.)

Does this mean I have committed trilogy?

Well, I say no. These are standalone books in a series which, so far, has three entries. Even if the series ends there, it’s a three book series with some scattered short stories. If you pick up Blood of Ambrose you don’t need the Black Gate or Flashing Swords Morlock stories to pave the way (although, if you’re interested, remember you can find links to some of them online here); likewise, you don’t need to wade through Blood to set out on This Crooked Way. The third novel (which, candidly, I have only just begun) steps completely away from the plot material of the first two.

I’m not knocking the very long multivolume plot arc. As C.S. Lewis famously remarked, “You can’t get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” But it seems to me that there are a lot of multibook plotlines going on in imaginary-world fantasy and I really am trying to do something different with the Morlock books–a series of standalones that does show some kind of development in the characters and their world, not just a series of sterile repetitions: Morlock vs. the Evil Warlock, Morlock vs. the Savage Nudniks of Berzerkistan, Morlock Goes on a Vacation. We’ll see, I guess: at least I have three shots at it.

I should also mention: the online convention FlyCon is under way. Some good discussions have been happening; a full schedule can be found here. I snagged the primo hour of 2 AM Eastern (US) tonight for my author chat, for all you S&S night-owls out there. I’ll also be kicking around the topic of Hobbits & Barchester tomorrow at 2 PM with scbutler, and sneaking in and out of various discussions hither and yon. (Well, hither. My IRC-client doesn’t support yon.)

About JE

James Enge is the author of the World-Fantasy-Award-nominated novel Blood of Ambrose (Pyr, April 2009). His latest book is The Wide World's End. His short fiction has appeared in Black Gate, Tales from the Magician's Skull, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and elsewhere.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

23 Responses to Morlock Threebooked

  1. j_cheney says:
    March 13, 2009 at 9:37 pm

    …committed trilogy…

    ::giggles::

  3. bondo_ba says:
    March 13, 2009 at 9:53 pm

    Woohooo! You must be walking on air right now. Glad to hear it.

    • JE says:
      March 14, 2009 at 4:27 am

      Thanks! I went out for a celebratory bike ride. That burned up my exuberance right quick: I’m in even worse shape than usual these days.

  4. scbutler says:
    March 13, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    Congratulations. I do hope Savage Nudniks sees the light of day.

    • JE says:
      March 14, 2009 at 4:29 am

      Thanks!

      There’s a copy of Savage Nudniks! in a sealed vault, to be opened fifty years after my death. As far as I know.

  5. peadarog says:
    March 13, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    Congratulations! I look forward to reading them all!

  7. Anonymous says:
    March 14, 2009 at 2:02 am

    I didn’t know series of stand-alones were still allowed. Congrats!

    –Jeff Stehman

  8. bluetyson says:
    March 18, 2009 at 1:07 pm

    Well, if you can be as good as this, we’ll be happy :-

    Thraxas and the Warrior Monks
    Thraxas at the Races
    Thraxas and the Elvish Isles
    Thraxas and the Sorcerers
    Thraxas and the Dance of Death
    Thraxas at War
    Thraxas Under Siege

    🙂

Comments are closed.