Beyond Reality discussion

But with love :)

Well, grin, that's appreciated - since after all (sly wink) I DO NOT watch football..in fact, have no TV service at all.

But really, I don't need a stick - my wanting to finish is the carrot.

(additional note: anyone wondering on progress can, at any moment, visit the 'status' thread under the book's work in progress title at the Paravia website).

Janny wrote: "(additional note: anyone wondering on progress can, at any moment, visit the 'status' thread under the book's work in progress title at the Paravia website). "

Destiny's Conflict Status Updates ... at least I hope this is the right place. :)

I just pre-ordered a Kindle version of "Initiate's Trial" today. (I already have the hardcover pre-ordered.) So now I'm really feeling it's time to take a deep breath and get those last 3 books finished so I can read the new one when I get it. As I said right back when starting Mistwraith, I just keep feeling kind of scared about what I might be letting myself in for.

There's been much discussion in the "Initiate's Trial status" topic about the outocme of that. I just went to get the link to copy and dpaste here and there's info about an audio version!

http://www.paravia.com/cgi/discus/dis...

Janny knows nothing about it, however! I usually get email notices of updates in those threads and I didn't get any about this discussion at all!

Kerry wrote: "I just pre-ordered a Kindle version of "Initiate's Trial" today. (I already have the hardcover pre-ordered.) So now I'm really feeling it's time to take a deep breath and get those last 3 books fin..."

Where did you stop reading, Kerry? Don't be scared. It's really good.

Sandra,

I'm a couple of chapter sets into Peril's Gate. I know it's really good. I love the books. I just find them really intense, so I have a much deeper reaction to them than something light and fluffy I can zip through without having to think. I will get back to them and then I'm sure I'll get hooked again. All and any encouragement will be appreciated.

Well, you're right. It IS intense. No two ways about it. Not a light weight read. But you can always read you some Georgette Heyer between books, lol. And I have a deeper reaction as well. That's why I love them so.

Janny wrote: "...When a story is finished, it is finished - I think you will be surprised. I will not 'miss' writing about Arithon..."

But, I'll bet you will keep fond memories of Arithon et al. I am curious about what is marinating in your amazing imagination, post Arithon. You, Cherryh and Sammy Delany are my must buys for Speculative fiction.

I have all your books, but one, and all in HC if available. The one I have not been able to find is Sorcerer's Legacy in HC or TBP. I have trouble reading mmPB anymore. Amazon lists a HC: Meisha Merlin Publishing (31. März 2007), 978-1592221233. But I cannot find evidence that this was actually published: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...

Kernos wrote: "Janny wrote: "...When a story is finished, it is finished - I think you will be surprised. I will not 'miss' writing about Arithon..."

But, I'll bet you will keep fond memories of Arithon et al. I..."

If you attend the reading at DragonCon this coming weekend, you can have a clue what may be 'coming up' ;)

Sorcerer's Legacy was never released as anything but a mass market paperback. Meisha Merlin put up that erroneous listing - without ever CONTRACTING the book...and I can't take it down. IF you try to find this: definitely get the BANTAM edition or the London/Grafton one - the text is at least accurate. (The early US/Ace edition was heavily edited, and not in a good way - the cuts to the text made the heroine seem like a shrew....) The bits that 'softened' her sharp tongue were restored to the other editions.

And for Kerry:
I'll be there for you when you get going again. Promised...;)

Thanks Janny. I hope to be back to it in the next few days.

I've just transferred my notes for the first 4 chapter sets of "Peril's Gate" to my Kindle. I got the Kindle after I started PG before, so I had to do the transfer manually :(. It took quite a while - I get a bit carried away on notes for this series as long time readers of the list would know - but I'm ready to get started again tomorrow, which (hopefully) a fresh brain.

I love your books, Janny, but you do make me work hard.

Thank for the info Janny, esp about the ACE edition. I'll look for a UK edition.

There are now two Wars of Light and Shadow related short stories in Janny's webstore:

http://www.paravia.com/catalog/index....

These are prequels.

Sandra aka Sleo wrote: "There are now two Wars of Light and Shadow related short stories in Janny's webstore:

http://www.paravia.com/catalog/index....

These are prequels."

Bought my copy yesterday afternoon when I saw Janny's Tweet.

Jon wrote: "Sandra aka Sleo wrote: "There are now two Wars of Light and Shadow related short stories in Janny's webstore:

http://www.paravia.com/catalog/index....

These are preque..."

It's going to be nice to have them all available in one place. And in eformat.

Thank you!!! The map is a must, it should be added to the ebooks!!!!!!!!

Alissa wrote: "Thank you!!! The map is a must, it should be added to the ebooks!!!!!!!!"

I think some of them have it, but they aren't very legible. I keep my computer on when I am reading, with the map up! Athera is such a fascinating place. I'd like to live there. :-)

Eh! I've the first three ebooks and there's no map, unfortunately, but I keep the http://www.paravia.com/JannyWurts/web... page open, problem is the phone screen doesn't handle it well :(
Very fascinating indeed, so many landscapes and different cities!

Alissa wrote: "Eh! I've the first three ebooks and there's no map, unfortunately, but I keep the http://www.paravia.com/JannyWurts/web... page open, problem is the phone screen does..."

Oh no. You need a tablet or laptop or desk top.

I think I ended up printing the maps out and just tucking them into the books to keep track of them while I was reading!

Shel wrote: "I think I ended up printing the maps out and just tucking them into the books to keep track of them while I was reading!"

Good idea!

Thank you Shel! Never though about it, and it's the best solution for me. I give up onscreen maps. I've just finished The Ships of Merior and the stage has widened, I prefer to have a handy map :)

The maps in the kindle versions were a big disappointment to me, nothing till Fugitive Prince and then a little postage stamp size map. Glad to see they improved with Initiate's Trial, although I brought the kobo version instead.

But I started with the real books and early on scanned the map from one of the hard cover versions, so have a nice big one on the PC. Was playing around with attempting to map those lanes at the time.

Yes, the maps were a problem. I read on a 4.7'' screen and the ones from the kindle version were too low res to try a zooming.
I ended up creating one like this and printed it, so I kept it handy while reading the books, particularly from Fugitive Prince on, it's very useful. I have a close-up of Rathain and Tysan printed in the back of the sheet :D but indeed I miss a nice and whole big one.

Have you managed to trace some of the lanes?

Janny has a big paper one she will sell. There's also one at Paravia.com.

I saw those. And pondered. But unfortunately the shipment costs about the same as the large poster, unless I would settle for risky firs-class mail and it would be a pity to fold a poster anyway, as I would have to do to use it while reading. Instead, I'd gladly buy an e-version fit for A3 printing, or a simple A3 print that could be mailed to me folded.

Shipping costs were one of the reasons I embraced ebooks two years ago (that, and a serious lack of physical room), now buying from the US is suicide, and even purchases from the UK have become expensive. I manage with my local Amazon, but cover prices of English editions are higher, only ebooks keep the exchange ratio.

Alissa wrote: "I saw those. And pondered. But unfortunately the shipment costs about the same as the large poster, unless I would settle for risky firs-class mail and it would be a pity to fold a poster anyway, a..."

I wonder if the website version could be printed from a library or other commercially available computer.

Janny sends her large art work in tubes, so nothing is ever folded, just rolled up. Smaller ones come flat with a backing board.

If your library has any of the hard cover books you could borrow one and scan the map and print it up. I just keep mine on the PC to refer to.

It would be nice if they provided a readable map with the kindle version we could zoom in on, since the map is actually an important bit of art work we like to refer to a bit.

Some of the kindle versions are also missing the extra art Janny did for the books, as well as still missing a cover within the book. When they get around to correcting some of the typos the conversion caused, they could spruce the earlier books up a bit and make them equal to the real books, by providing everything.

Yesh, definitely, a hq-res kindle zoomable map would do the trick. I tried several routes and settled for the printed collage, but when I have the pc on, the interactive map and the wiki on paravia.com are wonderful.

@Sandra, it's too low-res to read the smaller labels :(

As for the ebooks, it's of sad consolation that most books by HarperCollins miss the cover, but for newer ones with native ebook versions. I'm sad to hear the kindle versions miss the extra art, too :( :( :(

Of course I'm hoping for a reader compendium which could include all of the above and more :D

They included everything in Initiate's Trial although the map was still not readable, it was at least bigger. The end line drawing was actually bigger than in the real book a plus for once. Stormed Fortress missed the cover and the line drawing that showed the Alestron watch towers, and had the postage stamp map although they included decent versions of the two partial maps.

Janny does a two page inked sketch (line art) for each book which usually has the title on part of the second page The icon for the chapter heads and a small line drawing at the end of the book. All are related to the book.

I also like Janny's WoLaS covers, so collected all the different cover versions. CotM to Fugitive Prince have 3 different cover versions (landscape, character and composite), Grand Conspiracy 2, Perils Gate 3, Traitor's Knot 2 and the last two books just have the more modern composite cover. Meisha Merlin's version of Traitor's Knot has extra artwork and enlarged partial maps, the hard cover version has an extra full page colour print of one of Janny's paintings as well as Alithiel on the inside dust jacket. I prefer the portrait style covers and am still hoping one day to get a full hardcover set. Janny has said she might do custom covers for Stormed Fortress and the later books. She has done at least 2 of the paintings. To solve the problem of the mini Stormed Fortress HC since Harper Collins were too miserable to do one, I have a spare HC copy of Grand Conspiracy. And if Song of the Mysteries misses out on getting a HC version, I have a spare copy of Peril's Gate. Being hopeful there maybe, but I want the series to end with a nice big book to explain all of those mysteries.

All those choices for covers and the eBooks usually get nothing. Only the kindle versions of Ships of Merior and Initiate's Trial have a proper cover pic in the actual book.

Wow Aussie! Yes, sadly, only Initiate's Trial and Merior have their beautiful covers.
And Initiate Trial the only full-fledged ebook. But as I noticed, other titles from HarperC published before 2010/11 suffer similarly. Small details of course, but a thing of beauty should have a fitting edition!

I like the covers very much, and I've written to HC customer support some time ago about the issue, they replied, apologized, but that was all. It unnerved me immensely! I wanted my covers, one of the things I first noticed when I discovered the series were the covers, so pretty, and all linked!
I like all versions, and fortunately some are on paravia.com so I was able to see them.

On the ebooks, from Fugitive Prince on, at the end of the glossary there usually is a nice B/W artwork, I guess some of those Aussie is describing from the hardcovers.

Highly anticipating the art for Destiny's Conflict :D:D:D:D

All the real paper books have the 2 page and small line art and the chapter icon, even the mass market paparbacks, it was just the Meisha Merlin HC and trade paperback that had extra pages of art within the book.

It was not a lot of extra art, but it was a surprise to see someone actually willing to go that extra bit to provide a really good looking book. Pity they went out of business and never got to do a HC version of Stormed Fortress.

You can see a preview of the Meisha Merlin HC version of Traitor's Knot on Amazon. The art included in the preview does sometimes show.
http://www.amazon.com/Traitors-Knot-W...

I brought the ebooks for the convenience of searching through them. But always prefer reading a real book.

I have the Meisha Merlin HC of To Ride Hell’s Chasm and it is a stunning edition, with extra color illustrations and b/w art, not to mention the map of Sessalie and surroundings. Jenny's paintings for that story are awesome, too. Sometimes I think about it, I mean, how common is it that a great writer is also a great painter -or the other way about-, among other things? I really love the fact I can have visuals from the hand of the author herself.

That is beautiful!!! Well actually now if I go for a real book, I choose hardcovers only. I converted to ebooks out of necessity, no room and so much money wasted on shipping fees! Anyway I have an average of 60-70 books per year, while the tally was halved with paperbacks. Also I can read virtually anywhere. But there are precious things that are lost with digitalization. Like beauty. Art. Touch.
I have grown accustomed to taking notes with my kindle, it would be hard to go back to post-its. And while I can do without, the dictionary feature is a great commodity for me :) Janny's prose for example is much more tasty with the dictionary, so I can learn the many nuances of the words she employs. Love it!
But well, a nice spring day, a lovely bench in a park and a real book, that is unsurpassed. I agree.

If you buy one real book for WoLaS, the Meisha Merlin Traitor's Knot HC would be the one to get to adorn the bookshelf.

I have my HC's lined up so I can see the front covers as I walk by the bookshelf.