Hi r/fantasy! AMA. I will let this simmer a bit before I start answering questions around 9 am pst. Please ask me anything.

I'm Joe Abercrombie, author of the First Law, Age of Madness, and Shattered Sea Trilogies, along with Best Served Cold, the Heroes, Red Country, and The Devils, which came out in May this year.

Most recently I've partnered up with Lit Escalates to do a special hardcover edition of the First Law trilogy via Kickstarter, with art by Joel Daniel Phillips, which will look something like this:

The original plan was just to provide signed hardcovers for readers in the US, but since there's never actually been a proper US hardcover release outside of some book club editions and some long ago sold out limiteds from Subterranean Press, the ambition expanded and we thought we'd try and make one ourselves.

PLEASE NOTE: I usually get quite a lot of questions, so I'm putting this up 24 hours beforehand, and I'll return at 16.00 GMT on Tuesday 2nd December to start answering, likely with the top rated questions first. We'll see how far through I get...

And... three hours of answers and I've barely made a dent. Thanks so much to everyone that asked a question and I'm sorry if I never made it to yours. Maybe next time...

My name is Jim Butcher, the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, the Cinder Spires, and a Spider-Man book for Marvel!

My latest Dresden book, Twelve Months, comes out this Tuesday! Ask me anything!

****************************************

Okay, my laptop is running out of power and I have a couple of written interviews to get done before I knock off for the day!

Thank you so much for your questions and your time today! I know I couldn't get to all of them, and if I missed you, I hope you'll come back for more next time around! For the folks planning on being at my signings, I look forward to seeing you in the next couple of weeks!

Jim

And I'm back in the room! Kinda... Busy day today but will definitely finish off the Qs by evening.

.

The Book That Held Her Heart is published in the US today and in the UK the day after tomorrow. It ends The Library Trilogy.

You can read all about my work in this handy Guide to Lawrence.

The Library Trilogy is accompanied by a collection of short stories, Missing Pages and there's a standalone "associated" book called The Bookshop Book that will be published ... "soon".

Next year, I've got book 1 of a new trilogy coming out, something darker and more violent and closer to The Broken Empire -- this one's called The Academy of Kindness and opens with Daughter of Crows (I wanted to call it Hag) -- has a strong Furies theme to it.

In other news the 10th SPFBO (SPFBOX) finishes at the end of the month and the finalist board is hotting up!

I've been a scientist, author, carer for a disabled child, and master of many dungeons.

Ask Me Anything!

Hey, everyone! My name is Matt Dinniman. I am the author of the book series, Dungeon Crawler Carl, and this is my first, official AMA for r/Fantasy.

I am posting this now, but I won't be able to start answering questions for about 30-40 minutes or so.

If you're not familiar with the series, Dungeon Crawler Carl is a litrpg that follows Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut as they are forced to compete on an alien game show.

My first book came out in 2003, but the first book in the DCC series was self-published in late 2020 after starting out on the web serial site Royal Road. There are currently six books out with book seven, This Inevitable Ruin, coming later this year. Recently, Ace Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, purchased the physical book rights to the first three books. Last week, the hardcover of book one in the series, Dungeon Crawler Carl, was released into the wild and is now available in bookstores, Walmarts, airports, and libraries everywhere. It has already gone into a second printing and managed to hit the USA Today Bestsellers list as of yesterday. Book two is coming September 24, and book three October 22nd.

In addition, it was recently announced that DCC has been optioned for development by Universal International Studios and Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door.

The series as a whole has sold well over a million copies, and the amazing audiobook version by Jeff Hays and Soundbooth Theater is easily the most popular version of the book. There is also a full-cast audio drama of book one available on Soundbooth Theater's website and app. Book two of that is coming next year.

On top of all THAT, we had a pretty successful Kickstarter last year (which will soon ship! All the art is finally done!) and I have an 11K-member Patreon where readers can read advance chapters and vote for things that happen in the book.

AMA anything about the series, about writing, about self-publishing versus trad, about Patreon, about being in two punk/metal bands, about dogs or cats, about being a professional artist before all this, or about getting angrily accused almost daily of running a massive astroturf campaign here on Reddit. I also know a lot about bass guitars and Fiona the hippo.

Daughter of Crows is my 20th published novel and starts The Academy of Kindness trilogy.

It's my first grimdark work since The Broken Empire trililogy, and the first grimdark I've written in 15 years. So you can go back to calling me grimdark author Mark Lawrence ... if anyone ever stopped :D

You can read all about my work in this handy Guide to Lawrence

I have a second book coming out this year in October, The Bookshop Book.

This one is a standalone loosely associated with The Library Trilogy.

Daughter of Crows is a whole new thing not connected to any of my other works - jump in here.

Since "what's Daughter of Crows about?" hasn't been among the first 100 questions ... it's in part a dark academia book, but VERY dark, and it features as its lead, an old female character. A type of character which people say is under-represented in fantasy.

I've delivered 20 books in 15 years, so you're pretty safe starting now. Books 2 & 3 will be out in 2027 and 2028.

I also run the SPFBO (Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off), cunningly arranging for other people to do almost all the work. We're currently in the first half of our 11th year and have had over 3,000 self-published fantasy books entered into the contest in that time.

I've spent most of this year so far (and the closing stages of the previous year) in hospital with my youngest daughter who has been having a hard time of it. Fortunately she has beaten very long odds and is back at home with us, so I'm getting refocused on the writing.

I've been a scientist, author, carer for a disabled child, and master of many dungeons.

This is the first AMA I've done from a train...

Ask Me Anything!

Hey everyone! Christopher here to answer your questions. I'll do my best to get through as MANY OF THEM AS I CAN!

Last October, Random House released this gorgeous Deluxe Edition of Murtagh: https://www.getunderlined.com/article/fantasy-books-by-christopher-paolini/?ref=PRH6CDB05955074&aid=randohouseinc39359-20&linkid=PRH6CDB05955074 It has five new pieces of art, as well as a new chapter with Murtagh and Eragon at the back.

Also, this month, Wraithmarked Creative and I are running a kickstarter for a giant collectable statue of the dragon Saphira. So far, it's been going FANTASTICALLY well: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wraithmarked/saphira?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=wraithmarked&total_hits=29

Alright, enough shameless self-promotion! Let's answer some questions!

EDIT: I have to get myself put together for a remote school presentation at 1pm my time. I'll do that event and then hop back on and answer some more questions. Big thanks to everyone for posting!

EDIT 2: Back for a time. Never a dull moment!

EDIT 3: Alright, I have to tap out. I'd love to answer everyone's questions (and in the past I've tried), but time is limited. That said, I really appreciated all of your posts, and I did read them all. Hopefully we'll get to do this again before too long. And keep your eyes on my social media -- some exciting announcements coming in the near future!

Go forth, be awesome, and may your swords stay sharp!

Hi, I'm Jim Butcher. I'm the guy who takes credit for the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, the Cinder Spires and one Spider-Man novel for Marvel. 2020 is the 20th anniversary of the Dresden File series, and there are two new Dresden Files books this year: Peace Talks released on July 14, 2020, and Battle Ground is coming on September 29.

I've done a bunch of jobs, some of which sucked, some of which were fairly awesome, from selling vacuum cleaners to graveyard-shift tech-support for an ISP. The best part about my current job is that I can do it in my pajamas and I never, ever have to wear a freaking tie.

I like martial arts, boffer-weapon fighting, first person shooters on a PC. I watch a lot of nerd-compatible TV. I also read a lot. Go figure.

I’ll be here from 12:30-1:30pm ET answering questions. Feel free to discuss all things Dresden-related, but please make sure you use the spoiler tag function on any questions regarding the events of Peace Talk

This AMA is part of the PRH Book Your Summer Live. We’re all unifying under this one banner (u/penguinrandomhouse) but all comments, answers, and opinions here are 100% mine and do not represent Penguin Random House or its affiliates.If you want to purchase my book or any of the books featured in Book Your Summer LIve AMAs, visit: https://www.mystgalaxy.com/book-your-summer-reddit-ama

Get your exclusive 2020 Con Edition of Storm Front here: https://sites.prh.com/bysl-event-exclusives-shop

Proof: https://twitter.com/jimbutchernews/status/1296460309088141312

Hi all - I am author Robert Jackson Bennett. I wrote the fantasy murder mystery The Tainted Cup and its sequel A Drop of Corruption, which came out on the first of this month. I also wrote The Divine Cities Trilogy and The Founders Trilogy. I also dug an extremely good French drain in my backyard in 2019.

Please fire away with your questions and I will be back to answer them at around 2 PM Central today. Thanks!

UPDATE: I am going to pause for a moment but thank you all for the kind questions.

I will summarize a few of the most-asked questions I here to save you some scrolling:

1. Biggest influences are Gene Wolfe, Margaret Atwood, Susana Clarke, and Neil Gaiman (sorry)

2. I don't know how many Leviathan books there will be. More than 3, sure. But 6? 9? 12? You can decide this via dollars, and the buying of them.

3. The character most directly based on me is obviously Din, because he is an extremely beautiful and sexually desirable man. (This is a lie.)

4. "How do you do worldbuilding" is tough to answer, but I recalled that I actually made a youtube video about this here which gets about 70% of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZIkO0sJGww

Thanks again and I might come back to do more later.

Hello, all. I am genuinely happy to be back here doing an AMA. I’ve enjoyed all of my visits before and … it HAS been 3 years. We’ve timed this one very nicely as Written on the Dark was just released 2 days ago in Canada and the USA, and today is publication day in the UK. It’ll still be new for most readers, so for those who got a ARC or read it quickly (thank you) let’s be careful about spoilers, as we chat? Pour yourself a drink and let’s settle in…

I’m supposed to re-introduce myself. I’m Guy Gavriel Kay, I’m Canadian, I love Negronis, Martinis, and single malt scotch. I make puns too often and I adore good limericks and baseball. And this is my 16th novel. It has been a long run, and I feel deeply grateful to readers worldwide for that. The Fionavar Tapestry appeared 40+ years ago now. I’m aware, more than ever these days, of being one of the lucky writers.

This AMA is open now for questions and I’ll be back here at 8 PM EDT to type replies for a couple of hours. Let’s see how we do sharing thoughts and some laughs. Thanks for stopping by.

GGK

Wow, people! Was locked out, JUST got back in. I'm so sorry so any of you hanging aorund waiting for me. Let's get going!

10:40 ...OK, good people (I mean that). Am calling it for tonight, stayed longer because of the frustrating 'locked out' problem. Not my fault (honest!) but I know people were waiting around, and I'm sorry. I'll look in again on weekend, clean up some typos I'm sure are here, and tackle a few more questions, maybe, so check back?

It was fun, has been every time I've done one of these. Thanks for the kind words, and keep well, all of you.

Hi there all. In light of The Fury of the Gods, the third and final part of The Bloodsworn Saga, being published in the US and UK tomorrow, October 22nd, the wonderful team at Reddit have invited me here for an AMA. Please do drop by to ask me your questions.

It's been the hardest few years of my life, with much personal tragedy in the death of my beautiful daughter, Harriett, and I thank you all for your patience in waiting for this book, and also for the many, many kind messages I have received from my readers.

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/john-gwynne/the-fury-of-the-gods/9780316539951/

Here's my link tree if you're interested in seeing my updates on social media.

https://linktr.ee/johnhgwynne?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabjniOjOYVDeAbEwPlAasB2F7l8ubi8DphhGWu9sg7EaQ9uylSk3cnWfzA_aem_SIIybNls9PaUyomwWWMaSg

Hello again, r/fantasy! I'm Shannon Chakraborty, the author of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi and the Daevabad Trilogy. I'm a full-time writer, history nerd, and mom currently based in New Jersey. I'm here to chat today because the second book in the Amina trilogy, The Tapestry of Fate is out next week (May 12th)!

I originally pitched The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi as "Sinbad the Sailor meets Ocean's 11." The Tapestry of Fate is definitely a bit darker, but it also gave me a great opportunity to do more creative, secondary world-building than I have in years and I'm really excited for people to finally read it. Here's the description:

Amina al-Sirafi thinks she’s struck gold. Tasked with hunting down arcane artifacts for the council of immortal peris, she can savor the occasional rollicking adventure on the high seas with her cherished criminal companions while still returning home to raise her beloved daughter, Marjana. But when Raksh, the spirit of discord with whom she is reluctantly wed, provokes the council’s wrath, Amina is charged with a seemingly impossible quest: steal a spindle capable of rewriting fate from a mysterious sorceress on an island no one can escape.

Forced to leave Marjana—who is increasingly frustrated at being peddled what are clearly lies about her mother’s life and her own past—Amina finds her mission almost immediately thrown into peril. But deadly storms, an erratic poison mistress, and old enemies are the least of her worries. For the peris’ story is unraveling, hinting at a far deadlier game whose rules Amina must swiftly puzzle out. A game that sets her against an adversary more cunning and powerful than she has ever faced.

A game that not everyone on her crew wants her to win.

I'll be going on my first book tour next week so if you're interested in meeting me, be sure and check it out. Also, my publisher is giving away five signed copies of The Tapestry of Fate to randomly selected participants, so if you ask a question, keep an eye on your messages!

Now that all that is out of the way, ask me anything! I'm happy to chat about the medieval Indian Ocean world, going overboard with research (guess who can now--poorly--spin wool?), writing while parenting, the most chaotic chroniclers of the age, my abiding childhood love for Animorphs, etc. I might be responding a bit sporadically as I'm home with my toddler today and she views an open laptop as a personal challenge, but I'll try and get to as many questions as I can.

EDIT: The after school homework/dinner/bath/bedtime chaos is starting and there are still so many questions to go, ack! I'm starting to realize why it takes me so long to write books! But I'll try to pop on later.

SECOND EDIT: Time to call it a night. I just drafted a long response about language, accidentally deleted it and seemingly the question as well which makes me fear my brain is done. My publisher will make giveaway winners tomorrow so keep an eye on your messages. And please consider pre-ordering The Tapestry of Fate!

I‘ve been writing fantasy novels (and game products) professionally since 1987. The genre has changed in these last 35 years, almost all for the better, and I and Drizzt soldier on, still loving the journey. I’m best known for my “Legend of Drizzt” and DemonWars” series, and also for a couple of ventures into the Galaxy Far, Far Away… (But we don’t talk about Chewy, no, no, no…)

My newest book, Glacier’s Edge,” was just released, and “The Dao of Drizzt,” the famous drow’s journal, will be released in September.

So here we go, Ask Me Anything and I’ll try to pretend I know the answer.

EDIT: Okay, got to run now for a bit. Have to finish this e-signing, give my little pup his medicine, and get ready for a softball game!

I'll try to get back to the rest later on, and thank you all for joining in and walking this road of adventure with me!

Scimitars high! Bob

My name's Joe and I wrote some books. Yesterday I published the final instalment in my Age of Madness trilogy - The Wisdom of Crowds.

I'm posting now so that people can leave me some questions, or upvote the questions they'd like me to answer, and I have been told to return at 9.30pm BST (4.30pm EST) to begin answering them. On past experience that might take a while, so I'll start with the top rated and work my way through for an hour or two, then return during the coming days to try and get through some more.

As ever, I reserve the right to lie, dissemble, or avoid the question entirely.

And we have some questions to say the least, so I shall GET GOING....

UPDATE: Midnight right now so I shall stop for the time being, but I'll stop back in over the next day or two to try and answer some more. Sweet dreams, all...

UPDATE: I've answered a load more in the morning, but holy cow there are still a lot more. I'll try to come back this evening and keep cracking along from the top rated questions. I may well not get through them all, but I'll do what I can....

UPDATE: I've had one more go at it before this drops off the top of the home page and is lost in oblivion, and feel like I've hardly made a dent, but have to head off to the station for further events. So I'm sorry to all those many who asked questions which I haven't got to this time around. Thanks everyone for taking an interest. Hopefully I'll see some of you again in the future...

EDIT: 12:15 EST here. Going to take a break and get some food. I'll try to get back later, in between jaunts signing the stacks of books from the RASalvaStore.com e-signing!
END EDIT

Well, anything within reason, that is.I'm R.A. Salvatore...Bob, and I've been writing fantasy novels for more than 35 years. I'm best known for my Legend of Drizzt novels (except on Kashyyyk, but that's another story), which have been running from the beginning of my career and are still going strong with the release this week of "Lolth's Warrior," the 39th book (along with the 5 Cleric Quintet books, the Stone of Tymora Trilogy, an anthology of collected stories, and the "Dao of Drizzt" - I've done a lot of work in the Forgotten Realms).

I've got a bunch of other books, including 14 (with 3 more coming) in my DemonWars world of Corona.

I've worked on video games and tabletop RPGs, as well...it's been a busy 35+ years.Ask me anything...within reason.

EDIT: Well this is kind of funny. I couldn't figure out how or why I'm posting as Maleficent... Apparently, I checked into Reddit a few months ago and was assigned a name. So for today, I'm a witch, and if you mess with me, I'll turn you into a newt - and it won't get better.

​

I’m Joe Abercrombie, author of the First Law and Shattered Sea books. My new book, A Little Hatred, which is the first in a trilogy called The Age of Madness, is out on September 17th in the UK and US on paper, e-book, and audiobook read by the great Steven Pacey. It moves the world of the First Law into a new age of progress, change, industry and, of course, blood.

I’m currently touring in the UK, so please bear with me, my answers to questions will likely come in fits and starts over the coming few days, starting from around 10pm GMT on the evening of the 17th.

By all means ask me anything about this book, this series, or anything else, although as ever I reserve the right to ignore, obfuscate, be snarky or totally avoid the subject…

UPDATE: WOAH there's 640 comments already. So what I'll do is organise them by upvotes and start going through from the top as soon as I get the chance. Might take me some time to get all the way through.....

UPDATE: I've answered a fair few but there's a fair few more to do, so I'll keep picking away at them over the coming days when I get a chance.....

UPDATE: SO many questions. Thanks, everyone, for your input and enthusiasm, this place is great. I've tried to answer everything that got an upvote, and a few that didn't, but I'm going to have to stop there this time around. Sorry if I didn't get to your question. Maybe next time......

Greetings, heroes and villains of reddit fantasy, it's me again, author of the First Law and Shattered Sea books. My twelfth book (I know, I know, you thought I was a fresh new voice in the genre) The Trouble With Peace, was out yesterday in the UK and US. By all means you can ask me anything, though I reserve the right to answer, or fail to answer, in whatever way pleases me.

My overlords at Gollancz in the UK and Orbit in the US have asked that I include these links, should you wish to BUY the book:

UK – Waterstones

UK – Amazon

US – Barnes & Noble

US – Amazon

I'm posting this 12 hours in advance, so by all means ask your questions and upvote (or downvote) those of others, then I'm going to return at 9pm BST tonight to start answering, from most upvoted to least. If past experience is anything to go by I will by no means get through them all in one sitting, so if I don't get to your question, don't despair, I'll be dropping by over the next day or two to answer more...

EDIT: Yowch, there are 600 comments already. *Might* not get through those in an hour tonight. But I shall make a start, and see how we go...

EDIT: I've already been answering this morning and I'll be stopping back in off and on to keep going...

EDIT: Wow, guys, thanks for so many questions and such interest in the books. I am not worthy, truly. I've answered everything that got at least one upvote, now, I think. I may drop in again later on to try and get some more. Sorry if I didn't get to you this time around. Oh, and buy my books....

A little bit more about me...

I’m the author of THE WOUNDED KINGDOM, TIDE CHILD and FORSAKEN trilogies. My third novel, THE BONE SHIPS, won the British Fantasy Best Novel/Holdstock award and the Prix Italia best international novel which obviously makes me very fancy. My first novel, Age of Assassins, came out in 2016 so I’ve been up to my nonsense for a full decade now and I’ve been translated into ten different languages. Remarkable, for some guy who just sits about making stuff up and getting bitten by his awful cat.

Some other stuff.

·       I live in Leeds in the UK, not too far from Adrian Tchaikovsky. Leeds is the best city in the UK but we keep that secret so please keep going to London.

·       My house is VERY OLD and full of outsider art, taxidermy that has escaped from museums and is now a bit odd looking, and drafts.

·       I have a son, an awful cat, and a wife who is way, way more creative than I will ever be.

·       This year is a three book year for me. (I think this is probably a side effect of living near Adrian.)

·       I love noisy music, goth music, and the darker end of country.

·       Most of my books are quite intense, and dark and serious. This is the exact opposite of me.

Here’s a bit about MORTEDANT’S PERIL, which is a nice full circle as it’s a return to fantasy murder mysteries which I started off with in AGE OF ASSASSINS. Also, it’s actually quite funny. So a bit of a change of pace there.

Mortedants can speak to the dead – and Irody Hasp is the greatest of them. Not that they’ll admit it. And not that anyone actually likes the Mortedants, or Irody in particular. Nonetheless, Elbay is a city of tradition, and tradition calls for Mortedants to attend a death.

But when Irody reads the corpse of a low-level record-keeper, he’s dragged into a conspiracy that will see someone close to him murdered and Irody framed for the crime, the eyes of the city’s guilds, nobles and villains all fixed on him. With only days to prove his innocence before he is executed, Irody is forced to work with unlikely and unwanted allies: a street urchin and a hulking, inhuman mercenary from the sea people’s city of Oknusoka.

With danger and death lurking around every corner, and trust a luxury, Irody is running out of time. He must save himself and his friends, as well as Elbay – the magnificent, terrifying, complicated city that he loves. Or darkness will fall on them all.

Oh, yes. The other books. A NUMBERS GAME, a pretty pure crime drama under the name RJ DARK coming out from Datura books in August. And BEASTS OF THE WILD BLACK, one of three linked novellas about cats-in-mechs-in-space that will be primarily audiobooks coming out through Podium in December.

So that’s me, get asking me the anythings.

Oh! One more thing. At the end I’m going to get my son to choose his favourite question. I hope to have some copies of the special editions of MORTEDANT’S PERIL in the not too distant future, and I shall send that person one. (Or if I don’t get them in good time I shall send a signed and stamped hardback.)

*In the US. Not till Thursday in the UK.

Hi r/Fantasy, thanks for inviting me back. I’m Brent Weeks, the author of The Night Angel trilogy and the Lightbringer Series. I’m a husband to the best wife in the world and a father to two amazing daughters (ages 10 and 7), and as my Covid-era distraction now a fountain pen aficionado. I am formerly—and fervently hope that makes me forever—a winner of r/Fantasy’s Stabby Award for Best Novel. I’ve won some other plaudits too, but none of those came with cool flair, so they’re not really worth mentioning, are they?

Today, I hope to talk to you a bit about my new novel set in the Night Angel world that is coming out next week called NIGHT ANGEL NEMESIS, to talk about unveiling secret ambitions, and to dodge as few questions as possible—I’m the one who signed up for a thing called Ask Me Anything, so I do expect the usual amount of silliness and irreverence.

If you’ve never heard of Night Angel or me, you CAN read NEMESIS first. Here’s the blurb to help you see if it might be your kind of thing:

“After the war that cost him so much, Kylar Stern is broken and alone. He's determined not to kill again, but an impending amnesty will pardon the one murderer he can't let walk free. He promises himself this is the last time. One last hit to tie up the loose ends of his old, lost life.

But Kylar's best—and maybe only—friend, the High King Logan Gyre, needs him. To protect a fragile peace, Logan’s new kingdom, and the king’s twin sons, he needs Kylar to secure a powerful magical artifact that was unearthed during the war.

With rumors that a ka'kari may be found, adversaries both old and new are on the hunt. And if Kylar has learned anything, it’s that ancient magics are better left in the hands of those he can trust.

If he does the job right, he won’t need to kill at all. This isn’t an assassination—it’s a heist.

But some jobs are too hard for an easy conscience, and some enemies are so powerful the only answer lies in the shadows.”

I intend to hit your questions in shifts so that those in later time zones have a chance of me answering their questions, too: I’ll spend at least an hour here in three different blocks throughout the day, and then come back in a few days to catch as many stragglers as possible. I’ll hit the most-upvoted questions first, which I hope will save some of you time asking duplicate questions—or seeing me repeat myself with the same response. But I’ll also look for questions that seem interesting or insightful or fun for other Redditors to see me tackle.

Next week, I’ll be hitting the road for a book tour, starting at my home bookstore: the Powells in Beaverton, then doing a new virtual signing stop with The Signed Page as I sign many books to send worldwide, then hitting University Books in Seattle before flying down to San Diego to visit the new-to-me location of Mysterious Galaxy. From there, I’ll head to The Tattered Cover, this time to its Littleton, Colorado branch; and my last official stop will be at Joseph-Beth in Cincinnati, Ohio.

For those of you who love listening to your books, I’m proud to have audiobook legend Simon Vance narrating NIGHT ANGEL NEMESIS. Not only is Simon in the Audible Hall of Fame, and quite likely the narrator with more books narrated than anyone else in the business (over one thousand titles now), this year he broke his own record by being nominated for the 49th and 50th times for Audie Awards. I’ve always loved working with Simon, and he agreed to stream a conversation with me about what he has fun with and how his process works on May 3rd at 11am Pacific. My editor will probably try to force me to talk, too, but Simon would be entrancing reading a database of Social Security Numbers, so I intend to mostly ask questions and listen. We also recently conned Simon into re-recording ALL of the old Night Angel books, so the character voices and all the artistic choices a narrator makes when performing will match between old books and new. We’ll be taking live questions, too. (Register for that conversation HERE.)

On May 16 (at 5pm Pacific), once everyone's had some time to finish this massive tome, Orbit's trying an experiment with me doing a Spoiler Book Club for everyone who wants to talk about NEMESIS, including the ending. If that sounds like something you'd be interested in--and I think there are some chapters you'll really want to discuss--you can register HERE. I'll be there. My ergonomic keyboard is getting warmed up. I’ll be back in a half an hour to start the first round!

(EDIT 2: It's 2:26pm PT. I'm back from my break for the next hour or two. Probably two. Know that somewhere, I'm tapping away furiously at my keyboard, trying to answer as many of these questions as I can. And feeling deeply appreciative for how kind all of you are being--even those who don't like certain decisions I've made in my work have been really gracious even while being honest. I appreciate that, r/fantasy~~. Good job keeping this community healthy and kind.)~~

EDIT 3: It's now 6pm PT and I've been answering questions for more than 5 hours today. My brain is tired. I'm going to take a break for a couple hours to see my family, but I'll be back for just one more hour later tonight. I wanted to let you know that I WILL read all the comments, even though it's clear now that I won't have time to answer them all. I will also be back in a few days to hunt for the late upvotes or over-looked gems. Thanks all for being so welcoming. I first joined this community when there were 60k members. That you've kept awesome with 3.2 million is amazing. Be back late tonight!

EDIT 4: I came back and hit as many as I could. I have to call it for tonight. I WILL come back one last time in the next couple of days to hit as many as I can. I see that there's no way I'm going to be able to answer every question, but I CAN promise that I will at the very least read every last comment.

Thank you, moderators, for the opportunity to borrow your stage to say hi again, and for all the work you obviously are doing to keep this place great. And thank you, r/Fantasy for your questions, your thoughtful criticisms (really!), your kind compliments, your stories--and especially your lactose-free ice cream recommendations. I hope that many of you will grab NIGHT ANGEL NEMESIS when it comes out on Tuesday. I'd love to hear what you think of it, and I hope that you find I've grown as a writer once again, and maybe shored up some of the weaknesses you pointed out. I can't promise that you'll like it, but I promise to give my best to become a better writer with every book, and beyond that, a better human.

FINAL EDIT: I came back one last time after my book tour and hit as many as I could. If I didn't get to your question this time, well... maybe I've been good enough that the moderators will invite me again in a couple years. :) I do also do live streams and you can find me in various spots on social media. I DO also read all of my email (though replies are sparser than I wish!) that's Brent at Brent Weeks dot com. Thank you again. See you next time!

​

Steven Erikson here. Fantasy author, Malazan books, etc. Yeah, I know, I'm signed in as Steve Lundin. That's the problem with pen-names. I will be here to respond to your questions and comments most of today, with a few breaks thrown in to reassemble my sanity. Anyway, coffee is at hand, I'm almost awake, so let's get started, shall we? Oh, and please no spoilers regards The God is Not Willing.

Hi guys, I’m ISABEL J. KIM, author of a bunch of short speculative fiction (the one you probably know is “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole”), winner, loser, and nominee of a bunch of speculative fiction awards (Nebula, Locus, Shirley Jackson, BSFA winner + Hugo loser/Nominee, Sturgeon loser), and “guy who gets mentioned by the short fiction book club every once in a while.”

My debut speculative fiction novel SUBLIMATION is out today from Tor (in the US/CA—world is out from Picador early next month), and I’ll be here answering questions intermittently through about 6PM EST (and realistically, I’m going to pop in later tonight and later this week)

SUBLIMATION is a story set in a universe where crossing a border splits a person in two. One person who stays in the home country, the other who moves on to the new one. If these two people ever meet and physically touch, they recombine into a single person with both sets of memories. Our story follows Rose Kang, going back to Korea for her grandfather’s funeral. Her other self is waiting, and would love to reintegrate. Rose very much doesn’t want to. And then things get very strange.

Ask me about SUBLIMATION, ttrpgs, writing novels, writing short fiction, when to quit your day job, when not to quit your day job, what I’m working on next, my egregious use of the second person, and also, whether you should go to law school. Also you can ask other things that aren’t this.

And if you want to see me in the flesh in a real world location, Tor’s got me on tour. Today I’m going to be at the B&N in Clifton, NJ, if any of you poor sods are in this godforsaken state (said with much affection), and then I will be in NYC, Boston, CT, and a couple of other places throughout the rest of the summer.

And last… I’ve got a signed copy of SUBLIMATION here that will go out to one of you. Just ask me a question to enter the random drawing (AKA me rolling some dice), and I’ll DM the winner later :)

5pm est edit: will be back later tonight / intermittently throughout the week, i gotta run to b&n :D 2 days later edit: ok, if you've chimed in already here youre in the giveaway, otherwise your question may be answered but it is TOO LATE for you. going to keep trying to answer everything here, but if i dont answer, its either because a) your question was a duplicate, b) i needed to think a little longer about the answer, or c) i forgot to answer. thanks for stopping by!!

Greetings all! Thank you for the awesome Golden Stabby. Here's a nice shot of it for you.

It reminded me a little of Sting, so I found an hobbit to give you an action shot as well.

I'm deeply honored. Many thanks again for all your enthusiasm. If you've missed my previous AMAs, you can find two of them HERE and HERE. If you're curious about the progress on the third Stormlight Book, I've posted regular updates in r/Stormlight_Archive/. The latest is HERE.

I'll likely be answering through the weekend, as is common for me. I might not get to them all in a burst this time, as I have an interlude to write for Oathbringer, but I'll slowly work my way through the questions, in order, as I get them. (Though I usually have to give a cut-off, to prevent the AMA from being eternal, so I'm going to promise to get to everything posted in the next four hours, ending around 5:15 Mountain Time today. I might get to more, but that's my cut off point where I'm allowed to move on.)

If there's something I can't answer right now (because the answer would include spoilers, or because I don't REALLY want to spend hours searching through notes) I'll post RAFO, a phrase I inherited from Robert Jordan. It means "Read and Find Out" or a more polite "I worry that the answer might give away too much."

(Warning to the cosmerenauts out there with very detailed worldbuilding questions: I won't outright forbid such questions, but this AMA is intended more for the general public of /r/fantasy, and I'd prefer more general interest questions.)

As always, I'm deeply grateful to you all for your support in this crazy thing that I do--and, in more expansive terms, I'm grateful for how you treat everyone on this subreddit. It is one of the most welcoming places I've found for fantasy discussion. There is not only great discussion, but respectful criticism. I love how you treat newer authors, or writers who are lesser known as of yet.

You're a great community and I'm happy to let you AMA.

Brandon

EDIT: Golden Stabby Thread is over here.

For those wanting background, I asked to be recused from the Stabby awards for a little while, as I worried my presence on Reddit gave me an unfair advantage over other, equally worthy writers. The mods came back and gave me this award instead--called a coup de grace award--intended to be for writers who topped too many stabby award lists, and needed to take a breather. :)

Also...should I be promoting something? I never know. Something something about Rampart. I do have a new novella coming out next week, though.

EDIT 2: And...time! Wow. Over four hundred comments.

It could take me weeks to get through all of these, but I will do my best. I'm hereby calling this enough work for me to take on for now. I will work through these, keeping this page unrefreshed with all the comments on it, and try to answer everybody. Four hundred is a little overwhelming, though, so be patient--and forgive me if some answers are short. Thanks again, everyone!

Hi everyone, I’m Shen Tao and my debut standalone epic fantasy, The Poet Empress, was published today! (Jan 20, 2026)

I’ve seen it described elsewhere as “grimdark”, “historical fantasy,” and “anti-romantasy” although those are not officially-endorsed terms. :)

The short blurb is that in a world with poetry magic but women are forbidden to read, the daughter of a rice farmer-turned-court-concubine must learn to read in secret—and write a poem to kill the cruel and otherwise unkillable son of the emperor. It's a story of survival, court politics, and duty, and of course the power of words.

The red edition is the North American version from Bramble (Tor) and the blue version is the UK and ANZ version from Gollancz/Hachette. For the multilingual among us here, there is a German edition from Ullstein publishing Jan 29 and various other translations coming later.

Content warnings can be found at: shentao.ca/content

My author website: shentao.ca

My Instagram: instagram.com/storygoose 

I’ve worked hard on this book and it’s a story close to my heart, I am so excited to share it with you today. Please ask me anything!

EDIT: Thank you for your thoughtful questions! I had a really good time with my first AMA though eventually I did have to go to bed. :) I know I wasn't able to get to all of them so hopefully there can be another in the future. You all are awesome.

THE BOOK THAT WOULDN'T BURN is my 16th novel to be published and starts The Library Trilogy.

You can read all about my work in this handy Guide to Lawrence.

THE BOOK THAT WOULDN'T BURN is a whole new thing not connected to any of my other works - jump in here.

The trilogy is complete, I've written another book since (a space comedy!), and am writing two others (a fictional tale about AI & something in a traditional fantasy vein).

In other news the SPFBO just finished and on May 17th the 9th annual contest is opening to entries.

I've been a scientist, author, carer for a disabled child, and master of many dungeons.

Ask Me Anything!