The Crippled God – Latest updates

I wasn’t going to post, but there are various tidbits.

Cover: Soon we should have at least the cover for the book (The Crippled God, the very last book to come out in the 10-book series). A year ago we got the cover for book 9 as soon as someone received an early copy of the paperback edition of the previous book and this year the paperback comes out the 27 of May, meaning that someone should get the book one or two weeks before that date, and so post the new cover.

Manuscript: In February Hetan, one of Erikson’s advance reader, said Erikson planned to be done with the manuscript of the book around the end of May, early June. Pat (of Fantasy Hotlist) mailed Erikson in the last couple of days and got a direct response from Erikson: he says the target for the final manuscript is mid-June, so confirming that there haven’t been substantial delays. In the last blog update he stated he had 10 chapters left to write. The blog appeared the 10 April but evidence reveals that it was actually written almost a month before that date, so Erikson should be closer to the end.

Publication date: Amazon says the book is now planned for January but Erikson states no release has been set by the publisher. If we look at what happened a year ago, the book was done around the beginning of May and the release was even anticipated to mid-August, so this time there are good chances that the book could be ready for November. The quick release a year ago also lead to no maps being added and no appendices, so it’s not unlikely that the final volume in a long series requires extra time with polishing. It would be surely well accepted since we aren’t looking at Martin-like years of delays.

In the meantime you can read the latest blog post he wrote, where he offered us an excerpt (out of context) that was cut from the book. And it’s wonderful.

“It is said the stars are without number, and are in eternal motion,
and that the heavens forbid all comprehension. It is said that
the universe breathes as would a bellows, and that we are now
riding an exhalation of a god immeasurably vast. And when all
these things are said, I am invited to surrender to the immensity
of the unknowable.

“To this I do rail. If I am to be a mote lost in the abyss, then
that mote is my world. My universe. And all the great forces
beyond my reach invite neither despair nor ennui. In what I
am able to measure — this is the realm of my virtues, and here is
where I must find my reward.

But if you would mock my struggle, crowd not close. The
universe is without measure and the stars are without number.
And if I invite you to explore, take no offence. Be sure that I
will spare you a parting wave as you vanish into the distance,
never to be seen again.”

There’s more in there.

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