A View From The Cusp

I’ve got a real treat to post today. What follows is a review of Son of Heaven by Brian Griffin, a close friend of David Wingrove’s and a Chung Kuo insider from its inception (no Family Guy jokes please…). This piece goes into much more depth than most Son of Heaven reviews abound, touching on its place in the grander scheme of sci-fi and its inplications toward the rest of the series. It’s a fine read. Although not written by Wingrove, it’s a treat to have this in The Vault.

Full text after the break…

Continue reading A View From The Cusp

The Year So Far…

Here’s a biggie, folks. The Year So Far… is some of Mr. Wingrove’s journal entries from 1993. Evidently scanned and OCR’d from handwritten notes, it’s been a long process to edit this beast (and some of it in the last half was completely indecipherable), but it’s been worth it for the most personal of DW’s writings here in The Vault. Particularly interesting, about halfway down, is his mention of a camping trip to Dorset, not far from Corfe Castle (ring a bell to anyone…?).

The real treat,  however, is the last third or so of the text, containing the amazing details of Mr. Wingrove’s first trip to China.

Enjoy the full text after the break…

Continue reading The Year So Far…

Daylight on Iron Mountain news!

The Corvus website has now listed listed entries for Daylight on Iron Mountain, Book 2 in the Chung Kuo series.

The Special Edition publication date is listed as October 1, 2011; the hardcover and ebook versions on November 1; and the paperback on June 1, 2012. Looks like it’s going to weigh in at 416 pages, short of SoH‘s 480.

Here’s the marketing text/synopsis:

CHANGE IS ON THE AIR: The generals of the Middle Kingdom await the decision of the emperor.The campaign to secure the border from China to Iraq has reached a strange impasse. Two blood enemies, Arabs and Jews, have united against their common cause. But with the lives of thousands at his whim, the exalted Tsao Ch’un, the Son of Heaven, cannot decide. Destroy the Middle East in one blinding flash? Or take another path?

BUT THE WAY IS UNCLEAR: In the court of Tsao Ch’un, men of power have become smiling lackeys, whose graces conceal their fear, or their ambition. A man that can be trusted absolutely is a rare thing. And so, with his family held hostage by the empire, General Jiang Lei finds himself appointed to a special task: the orchestration of the last great war against the West. The total dominion of America.

WAR APPROACHES: But life in the world of levels continues. No hint of war, or want, or discontent can infiltrate the oppressive, ordered society that replaces the world Jake Reed once knew. Since the first airships rolled over the horizon, nothing has been the same. His new life means new thinking, new customs, a new way of behaving, and with his every move scrutinized, Jake can only serve the bureaucracy of new China. But he is not the only citizen who feels discontent with the anodyne new order.

And here’s the teeny tiny thumbnail of the cover.

This is not a dictatorship.

…it is a fan blog, after all. And I know I’m not the only fan (as evidenced by some action on the Forums after only one day of being live). If there is anybody who has reflections, opinions, fair criticisms, breaking news, or any other relevant info about the Chung Kuo series, then I’d love to have some other contributors to this site.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do (and will continue to) receive the revenue from the Google ads at the right in an attempt to recoup the funds that pay for the domain and hosting of this site — so far I’m up to around $1.79 or so after two months, not quite enough to quit my day job yet. Also, as the administrator of the site, I’ll retain editorial control of all the content, which isn’t to say that I won’t agree to the posting of entries that I disagree with (quite the opposite!), but I do want to maintain a certain standard of content, including relevance and quality of writing. Indeed, a thorough command of the English language is an expected pre-requisite.

What I’m thinking is that I’ll post your first entry (under your name or nickname), and for any further content I’ll create a WordPress username and account for you. If anyone’s interested, hit me up at ofgiftsandstones [[at]] gmail.com and we’ll discuss how we’ll get started!

My Collection

Despite what conclusions you might draw from the picture above, I’m actually not obsessed (that is, going by the clinical definition of the word), but I do find myself compelled to buy any copies of Chung Kuo novels I see when visiting any used bookstores. That’s led to the modest collection you see here. It’s not a creepy stalker fixation — it started with just wanting the ability to lend the book freely to friends and family without worry of getting it back (no one ever returns borrowed books; that’s a universal truth) and it just sort of grew from there. All eight books of the original series are represented here, at least once. There was a time when Marriage of the Living Dark could go used for roughly $150 on the used market, but I couldn’t bring myself to part with it. MotLD runs around $45 or so on AbeBooks these days.

Happily, I now have one more book to add to the collection… the limited edition Son of Heaven, numbered and signed, imported from England, still in shrinkwrap… how it will remain for the foreseeable future.

Anyone else have a Chung Kuo shelf collection?

PS – Yes, those are the Myst books on the left side. Where else would I put those?

Son of Heaven: Out in hardcover now!

On this day, back in 1857, the Second Opium War was started when Britain and France declared war on the Qing Dynasty of China after it refused to open its ports and legalize the opium trade. The aftermath set the stage for the next century and a half of relations between China and the UK, culminating in the return of Hong Kong to Communist China in July 1997.

Coincidentally, Son of Heaven has just arrived in hardcover. Go get it. And if you’re in London, make it a point to head out for the launch party! If you’re in the states, you can import it from Amazon UK here.

Son of Heaven Launch Party!

Mr. Wingrove will be officially launching the hardcover version of Son of Heaven on Thursday, March 3, at the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Shaftesbury Ave in London at 6pm. It’s a bit of a trek for us Yanks, and I won’t be making the cross-Atlantic voyage. But, if you’re in the area, it’ll be an event not to be missed. I understand he’ll be doing some signing and talking about the series and all that good stuff.

Here’s the link on the Forbidden Planet site: http://forbiddenplanet.com/events/2011/03/03/david-wingrove-launching-son-heaven/

Although not stated on that site, I’m told that you should RSVP with Mr. Wingrove’s publicist, Becci Sharpe, via e-mail at beccisharpe [at] atlantic-books.co.uk.