Category: News

Briefly, I have good news and bad news.

Good news:

The Middle Kingdom (Chung Kuo Book 3) in hardcover is now available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk at a 30% discount. Yay! (Thanks Goonda.)

Bad news:

As several commenters have pointed out, all Kindle versions of both Chung Kuo books have been removed from the Amazon U.S. store. I don’t have an explanation. The optimist in me is hoping that this might be a sign of an impending deal with an American publisher, who would have the U.K. versions removed in favor of their own to be eventually available, but this is pure speculation – I haven’t heard anything at all from anyone to this effect. The last I heard about the search for American publisher was back in April.

If you still need Chung Kuo books on your Kindle, hope is not lost.

That’s all for now. More news as it comes in.

I’m pleased to be able to present the full covers (front, spine, and rear) from Book 3 (The Middle Kingdom) and Book 4 (Ice and Fire). The Middle Kingdom features Fei  Yen and Ice and Fire features Li Shai Tung.

Also, David reports that he’ll be making final changes to Book 5 (The Art of War) and Book 6 (An Inch of Ashes) over the next fortnight, and sending along some blogs that he’ll be writing over the bank holiday. As I’m American, I don’t know what a fortnight or a bank holiday are, but I assume this to be good news (kidding, of course).

Click for full size.

 

The sadly-neglected Chung Kuo wiki has, unfortunately, turned into a cesspool of spam – evil spammers take advantage of the open edit policy to fill the pages with Viagra ads. I’ve decided to take some action that will hopefully: a.) reduce the prevalence of spam, and b.) encourage more people to contribute content and edits. So, I’ve set up a new wiki at Wikia, a wiki community that features some of the most popular wikis for popular entertainment. I’ve transferred all the content from the old wiki housed here (minus the spam) into the new Wikia page, and the Wiki link on the menu here now redirects there.

Hope you all like, and if you get a free moment, make some contributions!

This is exciting for those of you in the London area: David will be participating in a Q&A and debate about dystopian futures, including a reading from Chung Kuo, at Waterstones Piccadilly on Thursday, June 7, 7:00pm. Tickets are £3. If anybody can grab a video, I’d be happy to feature it here.

More details can be found at the Waterstones events page here.

I’ve just received an update from David, addressing some recent concerns. Luckily, everything is going as planned. David’s message is below:

_____

I see there are a few grumbles about my long silence. Truth is, it’s (understandably) taken the new editorial team at Corvus – Sarah and Maddie – four months to read and assimilate the list and now everything is full steam ahead. I spent last weekend proof-reading not one but two manuscripts – for Books Three and Four – and it’s going to be a book every three months from here on in. I am also working flat out to try and get me a US publisher, but in the meantime the books will be available on e-book in the States.

I’m also going to start blogging more regularly, and expect to see my thoughts on the Bo Xilai affair – maybe in three or four parts – in the next week or so.

One other factor that has made all of this a lot slower was Sue getting a new job writing for the UK’s biggest soap, Coronation Street. She’s the first new writer taken on in eight years, and she’s just served her apprenticeship and joined the writer’s team (with a proper contract and all!). It’s meant big adjustments here as the job is demanding like no other and she has to go and conference every three weeks. Adapting hasn’t been tough – it’s actually been a lot of fun – but it has been exhausting. Imagine joining the team for ER or DAYS OF OUR LIVES or any of those big shows. Corrie as it’s known regularly proves to attract the biggest audiences on UK television, and has done since its inception in 1961. It has five shows a week and a writing team of twenty, with full back-up. Sue’s taken to it like a duck to water.

I’m giving myself two weeks and then I’ll be starting on a total rewrite of Book 19 – King Of Infinite Space – alongside getting a first draft down of BURYING THE SMITH, my new fantasy work. But more of that anon. Best wishes to you all!

David

Commenter Rob M sent along some very good news: Daylight for the US Kindle is now available from Amazon.com here and is selling for a song at less than $5, as of now. So, if you’re one of the few who hasn’t tinkered with the region settings on the Yankee Kindle and would like to pick up a copy of the excellent second installment to the reissued Chung Kuo franchise, there’s no better time than the present!

 

I’ve just received some bits of news; I know some of us have been a little worried about the lack of updates, but all’s well in the world of Chung Kuo:

• In June, we’ll see a paperback version of Daylight on Iron Mountain (in the UK).
• In August, we’ll have The Middle Kingdom (Book 3) in special hardback, trade paperback, and e-book editions.
• Ice and Fire (Book 4) will release before the end of the year.
• Thereafter, three books a year will be released for the next five and a half years.
• Nic Cheetham, publishing director at Corvus/Atlantic and long time Chung Kuo advocate, has completed his anticipated departure from Corvus, and the Chung Kuo program has transitioned into the “more than capable” hands of editor Sara O’Keefe.
• Efforts are still being made toward finding American distribution, possibly with another arm of Atlantic Books. Still no word for and official version of Daylight on the U.S. Kindle, but, in case you don’t know already, a workaround exists.

I also hear that David will resume blogging on the official site within the coming weeks, which is great. I, for one, miss my daily dose of Wingrove. That’s all for now! Zaijian!

Just an update for update’s sake, and to prove that I’m still here… Corvus’s website, although not prominently featured, has listed The Middle Kingdom (Book 3 in the reworked sequence) as being released on September 1 of this year in trade paperback and eBook format (no word about the hardcover… curious). No sign of it on Amazon.co.uk though.

David hasn’t posted anything in a while on the official site in a while – over two months to be exact. I’m sure he’s busy with Chung Kuo prequels or An English Boy or Roads to Moscow. Hopefully he hasn’t been carted off by the CCP or something. The Twitter feed‘s been quiet for a while too. I’m hoping no news is good news.

If any news comes up, it’ll be here the moment I hear of it. Until then, zaijian!

Maybe some of you noticed (but hopefully not), we were down for a couple days during some domain renewal nonsense. A word to the wise: avoid GoDaddy (the unfortunate registrar and host of this site) if at all possible. I’ve had nothing but terrible experiences from all angles. Bluehost (where I have all my other domains and hosting) is far and away a better service. I’d have switched this one over, but, alas, I wasn’t feeling up to backing up and restoring on a new server the WordPress, the phpBB, the wiki, etc., etc.

BUT, have no fear – this site isn’t going anywhere. As much as ever, I’m committed to keeping this site as the best resource for all things Chung Kuo and other Wingrove-related works outside of the official site. Soon (this week, hopefully), I’ll be posting a one year retrospective with a bit of a personal introspection thrown into the mix. That’s right! It’s been one year since the site’s been up and one year since Son of Heaven was released.

So until then, take care! Need something to read? Go find a copy of The Myst Reader. More on that, too, soon.

-Matt

Son of Heaven has officially won SFBook Book of the Year 2011, and by a significant margin, pulling in 23.5% of the vote. That’s right, almost one in four votes cast was for SoH. Congratulations to David, and well done for all those who voted!