Category: News

One Moment Of Bright Intensity

David has been (again) incredibly kind by allowing me to post another short story from the Expanded Universe on this site. This story is One Moment Of Bright Intensity, which takes place in the year 2196 at a point in The Middle Kingdom on pages 24-26 (Chapter 26, “Fire And Ice”). This is my favorite story among this, Paperhouse, and Black Stone, White (which are all excellent, of course).

Without further ado, here’s the story. Full text appears after the break. You can also download the PDF to read offline.

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One Moment Of Bright Intensity
A Chung Kuo story set in the year 2196

by David Wingrove

She stood there, among the bowing maids, waiting to be assigned. There were a thousand of them gathered there in GenSyn’s Great Hall, maybe more, though she had never thought to make such a calculation; had never considered what existed beyond the backs of those who stood in front of her; maids like herself, each dressed identically.

Life for her was a haze. It always had been, from the moment they had lifted her from the vats, the amniotic fluid dripping from her limbs. A succession of unmarked moments, leading to this place. It was not to be questioned. Why should it be? Hers was a life of functionality. Of directed purpose. There was no room in it for questions; no space allocated in her long working days for any concept of self.

And so she waited, as the men – GenSyn creations all, of a much higher mental level; creatures that could think and reason and remember – went from row to row, handing out their allocated tasks, going about their business as if this were just another day.

Only this day was different. Today they had a guest, come to see around the massive GenSyn plant. Not that she was in any fashion curious. Why should she be? How could the Great Man’s presence here affect her in any way? Not that she even began to wonder who he was and what he was doing there. No. If she had been a statue she would have showed the same disinterest. The same… nullity. After all, she was just a GenSyn maid, created in the vats, the GenSyn logo – a capital G with a smaller S inside – imprinted into the pale flesh of her neck. Continue reading One Moment Of Bright Intensity

Black Stone, White

I’m pleased to present the second exclusive Chung Kuo short story sent by David Wingrove:  Black Stone, White. The special page will stay up for a week, but will always be accessible via the Pages side menu, like Paperhouse.

Thanks very much to David for sending. I get the sense that he’s eager to get this story out and to give fans this treat between books.

Read Black Stone, White now.

The Calm Before the Storm

David’s sent along a brief piece, but there are some big updates here – all good news. Big thanks to him, as always, for keeping the fans in the loop. And watch this space for his promised short story!

 

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THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM?

The weather here has been strange. A day’s bright summer , the air filled with birdsong, is followed immediately by a cold, windy day, the hours punctuated by spells of rain. Schizophrenic weather that makes no sense. In the midst of which I’ve been working, copy-editing Book Eight THE WHITE MOUNTAIN for publication later in the year, and putting a trimmed and edited version of Book Sixteen,  DAYS OF BITTER STRENGTH onto computer, having lost the original electronic version.  Add to that the fact that I’m just about to start the editing process on ROADS TO MOSCOW (mid June sometime) and you might imagine that I’m feeling somewhat harassed. But it ain’t so. I love writing. Love the physical work involved. I’m never happier (nor more distracted).

Sue and I went out last night, to a school ‘do’ over North London, with some old friends, one of whom used to be an international superstar… Paul Young. These days Paul has a country and western band, and to warm everyone up for that, they had… line-dancing. Now dancing of any kind is alien to my geeky nature, so line-dancing… well, it’s out on the edge of things as far as I’m concerned. That said, watching the hundred or so people out on that dance floor, my mind did its usual science fictional trick and did some imagining. I’ve got this whole storyline to write (for Book 18) about the war between the Chinese and the Americans . Well, sat there watching the dance, I imagined the evening before the great battle, the American forces massed, ready for a big push against the invaders. And, dressed up in their heavy armour, what do they do? Like the Midwest boys they are at heart… they line-dance. Imagine it. The way the ground would shudder beneath their weight. And yes, I’m gonna write that scene. And you heard it here first.

Lots of things are happening right now. French editions of Books 1 and 2 are out already, and L’Atalante, my French publishers, are aiming to get three more books – 3-5 – out by the year’s end. At the same time we’re trying to get a German edition, and… wait for it… we have four different LA-based film companies interested in turning CHUNG KUO into quality TV. Six weeks ago there were none, so I’d guess there’s a reason for the sudden interest, and one of these days I’ll find out… right now it’s just great to know they’re looking to do this.

Okay.  There’s a lot of Chinese money about, despite their mini-downturn, and now that Game of Thrones has proved itself, the TV guys are looking for something as dark… but in the science fiction vein this time round. Put those three elements together and CHUNG KUO seems ideal for their needs, don’t you think? Working through the copy edit of THE WHITE MOUNTAIN last week, I think that particular chunk of the work got my undivided attention when I wrote it. It flows. And there’s lots to keep the reader (not to say the writer) happy. It’d make great TV.

Oh, and a date for your diary. June 2014. That’s the present publication date for Book One of ROADS TO MOSCOW, which will now be called THE TREE OF WORLDS. Over the next few weeks we’ll be discussing covers, and hopefully announcing a few foreign sales. Fingers crossed. Meantime, even as Barnes & Noble stock copies of CHUNG KUO, we’ll be renewing our attempts to find an American home for the sequence. I plan to fly out to New York in a month or two to meet a few people and pitch the thing. So wish me luck. Oh and one last thing before I settle down to watch the FA Cup Final on TV. I may have said that I’ve written about a dozen Chung Kuo related stories. Well, I’ll be polishing one up this week and getting it to Matt to post on the fan site. Just to keep things ticking along.

All the best, guys!

David Wingrove    Saturday 11th May 2013

Where to buy Special Edition hardcovers

For those of you who are interested in maintaining a collection of the Special Edition hardcovers, reader Antonio has sent along a handy list of direct links:

The Special Editions can be ordered direct from Corvus here:

Son of Heaven: http://atlantic-books.co.uk/content/chung-kuo-special-edition-prequel
Daylight on Iron Mountain: http://atlantic-books.co.uk/content/chung-kuo-special-edition-daylight-iron-mountain
Middle Kingdom: http://atlantic-books.co.uk/content/chung-kuo-special-edition-middle-kingdom
Ice & Fire: http://atlantic-books.co.uk/content/chung-kuo-special-edition-ice-and-fire
Art of War: http://atlantic-books.co.uk/content/chung-kuo-special-edition-art-war

As more are released you will find them on the Corvus Atlantic Chung Kuo page: http://atlantic-books.co.uk/content/welcome-world-chung-kuo

Thanks Antonio!

As you probably know the Special Edition hardcovers are printed in extremely limited quantities and are signed and numbered by David Wingrove. They come in a black slipcase with an embossed Chung Kuo logo.

Chung Kuo album by Tranceport

Breaking news! Several of you have asked about the Chung Kuo-inspired album by UK electronic outfit Tranceport, of which most traces had descended into the bowels of the internet, seemingly never to be heard from again.

Well, original Tranceport band member Peri Urban has recently uploaded all of the tracks to a Bandcamp site. All of the tunes are available to listen for free, or you can purchase a download of the album for a reasonably low price.

Head on over to the site and check it out!

The Broken Wheel cover art

Here it is, folks: the cover art for Book 7: The Broken Wheel, featuring a young Li Yuan.

Click for full size.

Soon forthcoming will be another short piece by David, regarding sad news of fellow writer Iain Banks, and possibly something about the recently departed Iron Mountain Lady.

I also came across this curious item referencing something called Chung Kuo: The Epic Begins, and will see if I can drudge up some more information, since this is new to me.

 

In Stasis

David’s kindly sent along an update with some important news, including a clarification of the upcoming publishing schedule and some info about an upcoming announcement about a new publisher for a new project – a “trilogy.” No titles here, but if you’re familiar with some of his older blog posts, you might make some assumptions like I have.

Thanks to David, as always!

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In Stasis – a blog

It’s half ten in the morning and Sue’s up in Manchester, at the regular three-weekly conference for the soap she writes for, Coronation Street; Francesca – my youngest, is in Paris with her boyfriend, Remus;  Georgia, daughter number three, is in Los Angeles with her girlfriend, Georgiette, and Jess and Amy are at work here in London. Leaving me here, in the midst of chaos, awaiting delivery of a new mobile phone (for Amy).

Chaos? Yes, absolute chaos. We’ve planned for a long while to get the builders in to strip out the kitchen and make major changes in the basement, and on Monday last (the 18th) they arrived, to help us in the final stages of moving all of our stuff out of the front half of our basement, into storage, the garden office and… the other half of the basement, wherein I now sit, laptop on my knees, surrounded by piles of “stuff”.

And whilst the builders are pushing ahead with real energy, this is just a bit like suffering advanced Alzheimers (believe me, I’ve seen it up close with my dad) with nothing in its remembered place, and every little search – for a spoon, for certain papers, for… well, ANYTHING – requiring half an hour of frustrating exploration.

It’ll all come good, I know that. Our Polish builders are great and already we can glimpse how it’s going to look (and they’ve been working on the project only two and a bit days) but the three-to-five weeks they’ve estimated for the job does feel like a bit of a prison sentence. Until it’s finished and all the stuff is back in its correct places, my life will be in a kind of stasis.

It’s three to five weeks of sleeping on sofas, of misplacing things, of putting things on hold because attempting to write anything really would result in something unpublishable. That said, the timing is good, because another project of mine, which I’ve been waiting on a publisher about, has now had an official offer, and sometime in the next week or two we’ll be making a big announcement. So it’s best if we get all of this building work out of the way now rather than have it interrupt the writing later on. Because once I get back into this, I’ll be doing nothing else (except, of course, the odd blog) for the rest of this year. By the 31st December, I aim to have this project done and dusted, the trilogy completed, all loose ends tied up neatly, ready for me to start the final four volumes of CHUNG KUO in the New Year of 2014. And boy have I some great ideas for that!!

So here I sit, listening to the builder guys hammer and saw and drill, making their own kind of chaos – the kind that, by the end of the process results in us having a wonderful living area and a great new kitchen (I’ll provide you all with photos when it’s done).

Oh, and just to say… Book Five, THE ART OF WAR, was officially put back a month, so the new publication date is the 1st of March. Apologies to those whose hopes were raised and dashed, but it will be with you soon. Book Six, AN INCH OF ASHES will follow in August, with one more volume, THE BROKEN WHEEL, Book Seven, before Christmas.

More in a few days. But for now, Tsai Chien!

David Wingrove  Wednesday 20th February 2013