Category: News

It was very strange, because on Monday last, the day after the party, I sat down and, in the space of an hour, wrote over two thousand words of storyline for BURYING (as we’ll shorten it from henceforth). And If I hadn’t been working, I’d probably have started writing it there and then. Because the wall had come down. Whatever it was that stopped me from working on a fantasy novel had suddenly departed, and though I’ve a ton and a half of other things to do next year, writing the first draft of BURYING THE SMITH will definitely be one of them. And before you ask, that’s the way I work and have worked these past thirty years. I always shadow the work I’m supposed to be writing with another. That’s probably why I have so many unpublished novels – roughly twenty in all… and it makes me think that maybe their purpose wasn’t to be novels after all, but to be simply activity that allowed me to write what I should have been writing and (more to the point) was actually being paid for.

But BURYING is just so rich. Already I have the feeling that it’s real and that I’m just tapping in from this reality. Glimpsing stuff I really oughtn’t to see. And I’m pretty certain that the scenario is totally unlike any other you’ll have seen within fantasy. Oh, it’ll be a Wingrove novel, you can be sure, with nasty things happening to nice people and a high body count… I’m not going senile yet… And, if Matt at the fan site agrees, maybe we’ll run it there, in its pristine state. That might be fun.

– http://www.chung-kuo.net/?q=content/falling-walls (emphasis added)

Yes, Matt at the fan site agrees.

As of now, Son of Heaven has come from behind as it now winning the SFBooks Book of the Year poll with 18.8% of the votes. If you haven’t voted yet, go do it now and help it maintain its lead. I needn’t remind Chung Kuo fans that the more continued acclaim the series gets, the more likely we are to see more Chung Kuo content in the future (short stories, novellas, dare I say… a realization of a film/TV adaptation?). Go vote!

Vote here: http://sfbook.com/sfbook-book-of-the-year-2011.htm

Son of Heaven is up for the 2011 Book of the Year at SFBooks! It’s up against up 11 other books. Let’s show the SF world that Chung Kuo fans mean business. Vote now!

Here’s the link: http://sfbook.com/sfbook-book-of-the-year-2011.htm

Here are some reviews floating around the web for Daylight on Iron Mountain, all of them very positive. Numerical/star scores, if any, are indicated in bold. If any reviews more pop up, leave a comment with the details and I’ll add them to the list!

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From Geek Syndicate:
4/5 “…a good read, fast paced and engaging…”

From The Wertzone:
4.5/5 “rammed to overflowing with political intrigue, corporate scheming, desperate struggles for human survival and, in the final section, a mind-boggling war which is vast in scope… a compelling, page-turning SF epic which leaves the reader eager for more”

From Mark Yon, sffworld.com:
“consistent and enjoyable… the new series is starting to step up a gear and has become a must read series for me… this is a glorious development”

From Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Reviews:
5/5 “…again impressed with the sheer depth and sense of immersion that the author manages to impart on the pages, the knowledge and research that must have gone into creating this book and the series itself is quite staggering. The result is a realistic and sobering feeling of a dystopian future… Characterisation is superb, full of human strengths, weaknesses, passions and emotions… I can honestly say that I loved every minute of this book, it’s such an incredibly rich and immersive journey…”

From The Guardian:
“Wingrove pulls off a difficult feat… Excellent.”

Son of Heaven is currently #1 on the Amazon UK Bestselling list for both paperback and Kindle editions, beating out George R.R. Martin, several classics, and countless Star Wars books. See the good news for yourself here (paperback) and here (Kindle). Congrats David!

If you haven’t already, manage to get your hands on this book. Despite what some reviews say, I enjoyed Daylight on Iron Mountain more than Son of Heaven.

Congrats to David for his (almost) 100 daily blog posts on the official site leading up to today. I’ve enjoyed my daily dose of Wingrove, and I hope he’ll continue despite the 100 days having concluded. They’ve been insightful, informative, and a real joy to read.

Check back soon for a review roundup for Daylight – a compilation of book reviews from around the web – so far overwhelmingly positive!

When Son of Heaven came out, we Yanks were lucky enough to at least get the Kindle version here in the States. It appears that, for now, we’re not as lucky this time around with Daylight on Iron Mountain. But if you want to quench your Chung Kuo thirst without waiting for a US edition, Goonda reports a way to change the citizenship of your American Kindle so that you can read Daylight:

For the Kindle version, you can get it in the USA. To do this, you must transfer your Kindle account to the UK.

Here is the process:
Go to Amazon.com
Click “Your Account” in the top right corner
Log in using your email and password
Click “Manage My Kindle”, near the bottom of the page under “Let Us Help You”
Click “Country Settings” from the menu on the left
Click “Change” under actions.
Fill out the form.

I just put in “1″ under all the required fields, put in the UK under the country, and put in “N5 1BU” for the postal code (this is the code for Emirates Stadium, which I figured was fitting, considering that Wingrove follows Arsenal).

It all worked just fine.

I haven’t tried this personally, but it appears to make sense and I imagine it will, as Goonda says, work just fine for everyone. Thanks Goonda!

Daylight on Iron Mountain is almost upon us! I can say, firsthand, it’s not to be missed. Pre-order your copy today!

Get the hardcover edition from Amazon.co.uk here.

Get the Kindle edition from Amazon.co.uk here.

Looking forward to the discussion, debates, and insights soon enough!

Sorry for the delay in posting archived material — I’ve been away on a short vacation in blazingly hot Key West. That time away from reality got me thinking… if I’m to continue archiving these old blogs from the official site as they drop off, perhaps I shouldn’t label them as part of “The Vault”. I find Mr. Wingrove’s posts about China and everything miscellaneous to be highly insightful and thought-provoking, but I think it’s a good idea to segregate them from the classic pieces that were the reason I started this site.

So, from this point forward, blogs that’ve lemming’d off the main site will be categorized as “Goodies”, while the more substantial Chung Kuo-related pieces will stay in “The Vault”. I’m in the process of retroactively changing the labels on previous posts to that effect, as well.

In the meantime, while I juggle all these posts around, here’s a picture I took of a 19-year-old street performer in Key West, atop 10-foot stilts, juggling fire at sunset.

The official Chung Kuo website, it seems, is a vast cliff, and each one of Mr. Wingrove’s insightful blog updates are like lemmings: doomed to eventually follow their brethren off the edge to their deaths, never to been seen or heard from again. Actually, lemmings don’t do that – it’s a Disney-perpetuated myth – but the older entries on the official page have dropped off entirely. The staff here at the Of Gifts and Stones headquarters (ha!) feel that this valuable material shouldn’t go the way of the lemming, and like we’ve done with so much other material of Mr. Wingrove’s, we’re going preserve those entries here for posterity. Starting in the next day or two, expect to see the first of several of these classic posts. In the meantime, you’ve already got your fill of reading material at the official site with Mr. Wingrove posting a blog every day for the next 98 days – so check those out before the disappear off the edge as well!