Welcome to Fantasy Fan!

Michele Avanti is a published certified planetary systems analyst, consulting metaphysician and ordained minister. Her new book, GreeHee The Journey of Five, a tale about soft-hearted dragon has won three awards for Best Juvenile Fiction & Visionary Fiction. Michele kindly agreed to write something about her book just for Fantasy Fan readers!

When I am asked to compare "GreeHee The Journey of Five - Tales of Tamoor Book One", to other fantasy books, I tell people; GreeHee falls somewhere between "The Wizard of Oz", "The Hobbit", and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull."

Marjorie M. Liu is New York Times bestselling author as well as nominee and winner of many awards for her work in the Urban Fantasy department. Her latest book, Darkness Calls, second book of the Hunter Kiss series, was released yesterday (June 30, 2009). You can read the book synopsis below and take a look at that cover, isn't it great?

Nomad born and bred, demon hunter Maxine Kiss has always relied upon herself to fight the darkness that surrounds her, the predators-human, zombie, and otherwise - who threaten the earth. But one man has penetrated her lonely life: Grant, the last of his kind. With music he is able to control any living creature…including demons. And now his life is in danger.

Haunted by the past, determined to change the future, Maxine soon understands that to save Grant, she has only one choice-to lose control, and release her own powers of darkness…

If you want to find out more about the book or read the excerpt go to authors website: MarjorieMLiu.com. You can order Darkness Calls from Amazon.

Wizards of the Coast announced a contest for "Ultimate DRAGONLANCE Fan". If you want to participate in So You Think You Can DRAGONLANCE contest you need to go to this website, download the form, fill it and send it back to Wizards. In the form you will have to put your personal information and more importantly, the reason why you are the Ultimate Dragonlance fan (in 500 words or less). And why should you bother? Because the grand prize is absolutely amazing!

One grand-prize winner will receive two (2) round-trip tickets to Gen Con Indy in August 2009, lodging for 3 nights, and two (2) four-day badges, as well as an autographed copy of the forthcoming Dragons of the Hourglass Mage by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. What’s more, the winning essay will be posted on the Wizards of the Coast website.

Wizards are accepting contest entries until July 15, 2009, so better hurry up!
You can read more about So You Think You Can DRAGONLANCE .

If you're looking for some good fiction book (fantasy and sci-fi as well) you might want to check this out! Subterranean Press has announced a grand 50% off sale on a fair number of their books. Among many great titles you will find: Alpha and Omega (Patricia Briggs), Where Everything Ends (Ray Bradbury), Nick and the Glimmung (Philip K. Dick), Songs of the Dying Earth (ed. Martin, Dozois) and many more.

To see the full list of books and read the rules of the sale (it's a 50% off sale, there are some rules) visit the Subterranean Press website.

And hurry! The sale ends on July 3rd!

It's not exactly a classic fantasy, but it's definitely something worth mentioning here. Alice in Wonderland (also known as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) by Lewis Caroll is one of the greatest fiction novels of all time. The tale plays with logic in ways that have given the story lasting popularity with adults as well as children. It is considered to be one of the most characteristic examples of the genre of literary nonsense, and its narrative course and structure has been enormously influential, mainly in the fantasy genre.

And now it's going to be a big movie. I stress the word BIG, because the book has been adapted before. This time though Hollywood is going all the way. We have big time producer (Tim Burton), big time cast (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway) and special effects that will make your eyes water (look at the images below). Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska was cast in the title role of Alice. Mia is best known for HBO's In Treatment.

The Wertzore reports that Brandon Sanderson's new four-book contract with Tor Books may be in the region of an eye-watering $2.5 million. The contract covers the first four volumes of Sanderson's Way of Kings series (which he estimates may reach ten volumes) and is apparently separate from his recent deals for the final three Wheel of Time books.

That's a clear sign that Tor strongly believes in either Sanderson's writing skills or the publicity he's getting thanks to finishing Jordan's Wheel of Time series. One way or the other, it's good to be Brandon Sanderson today! :-)

I've been looking over various covers for fantasy books I have gathered over the years and have come up with an idea to share my favorite picks with Fantasy Fan readers. The book cover is a tricky thing - it's not supposed to really matter because what's really important is inside, the actual book, yet often it's the book cover is the thing catches attention of a new reader browsing the new releases in the bookstore.

My first choice of a book cover to list here is an art for book not released yet: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (book 1 of The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin). The cover was created by Lauren Panepinto and I find it absolutely gorgeous. Read more about the cover in Lauren's blog entry on the Orbit Books website.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is going to be released on February 25, 2010 . You can pre-order it today, on Amazon.

George decided to break his unwritten rule about not talking Dance with Dragons on his Not a Blog today! He's saying that the last 6 weeks have been very productive (when Dance is concerned) and he sees glimmering that might just be a light at the end of the tunnel.

He also has some deep thoughts on writing in general, claiming it's like sausage making; you'll all be happier in the end if you just eat the final product without knowing what's gone into it.

To read his entire post click here.

The first book in the Witcher saga, "Blood of Elves", by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski received the David Gemmell Legend Award. The ceremony took place last Friday in London, England. The Witcher saga is the most popular Polish fantasy series. It has spawned a movie and the TV series as well as the hugely popular video game that conquered entire globe. If you would like to begin your adventure with witcher Geralt, you can order the Blood of Elves on Amazon.com .

You can read Fantasy Fan review of Blood of Elves here. To read blurb for the book see below:

Aidan reports on his A Dribble of Ink that Amazon has the cover and synopsis for Terry Goodkind's new book: The Law of Nines. The book will be released on August 18, 2009 and you can preorder it today, on Amazon.com.

Read the Law of Nines blurb below:
Turning twenty-seven may be terrifying for some, but for Alex, a struggling artist living in the midwestern United States, it is cataclysmic. Inheriting a huge expanse of land should have made him a rich and happy man; but something about this birthday, his name, and the beautiful woman whose life he just saved, has suddenly made him—and everyone he loves—into a target. A target for extreme and uncompromising violence... In Alex, Terry Goodkind brings to life a modern hero in a whole new kind of high-octane thriller.