All the latest news about Conor Kostick, author of the books Epic and Saga.

Friday, July 21, 2006

First blurb for Saga!

Amazon.co.uk has the first blurb for Saga by Conor Kostick.

Ghost is a fifteen-year-old anarcho-punk airboarder, with no past and no memories - only a growing realisation of her own extraordinary abilities. But who is she really? And can her world really be virtual, nothing more than a computer game? Why is she becoming embroiled in a battle with the sinister ruler of Saga - the Dark Queen?
I hope this doesn't give away too much of the plot.

Update: O'Brien Press has a page for Saga too. Their blurb is longer:

How do we know we are real and not just some character in an elaborate game? In the virtual world of Saga, Ghost is a fifteen-year-old airboarding anarcho-punk, with no past, no memories, but a growing realisation of her own strange abilities. But who is she really and why is she becoming embroiled in a battle with the warped leader of Saga -- the Dark Queen? And what happens if you dare to reach outside your world, or to question your identity? Is that simply the road to madness, death and destruction?

Again, I hope this isn't too revealing.

Translation of the animated Epic advert

Thanks to David Hughes we have a translation of the animated Epic advert

Die Welt ist ein Spiel.
Die Welt ist Epic.
Wer Gewinnt, dem liegt die welt zu Füßen.
Doch der Hohe Rat macht die Regeln.
Eric entwickele einen intelligenten Kämpfer.
Eine wunderschöne Frau Das Ziel: den Hohen Rat zu besiegen und die Menschen in eine bessere Zukunft zu führen
Eine atemberaubende Geschichte von Kampf
Mut
und Macht
Das spiel kann beginnen.
Ein phantastisch Thriller aus den Welt der Computerspiele
Jetzt lesen

The world is a game.
The world is Epic.
Whoever wins, the world is at their feet.
But the high committee makes the rules.
Eric starts a beautiful and intelligent female fighter
The goal is to defeat the high committee and lead humans into a better future
A breath-robbing history of fight courage and power
Play can begin.
Fantastically a thriller from the world of the computer games
Now read it

A review of Epic in German

An automatic translation by Google of a review of Epic in German by Holger Hennig. I have tidied this up a small amount. Update: David Hughes has cleaned up the translation some more.

With a deep red cover and a stylish three-dimensional image in the center, Epic certainly stands out on the bookshelf. It is a children's science fiction book, a twenty year old genre, but this is a little bit different. So does the content of the book live up to the pleasing cover?

Eric lives on a planet called New Earth, settled by humans in days long forgotten. All Laws on New Earth are regulated in the arena. However this arena is only a virtual, because the most important in the life on new earth is to Epic, a Fantasy play, probably "World of Warcraft" not at all so dissimilar, however by data helmet is played. Erik is a nature talent with Epic, however he has momentarily, and quite scarcely before the large qualification tournament for the university, times again his Epic life, and concomitantly his money lost. It has there an idea with a kite, which it wants to kill with superior tactics.

When he creates a female character with the fairy taleful name "Cindella", he remembers actually only to create a character which he can sacrifice cheaply for research purposes. Thus it invests everything into the beauty of Cindella, and is very soon surprised, because contrary to the usual Orkjagen the beauty is equal in a correct history in it and by a NSC is quite plentifully presented. But outside of Epic there are problems, to be transferred because its father, actually a banishing, one of those, which used force once in their life - in addition is enough however already small thrust. When its father is fetched, Erik begins the kite hunt with its friends…

An exciting book, well written and quite a little critically in relation to plays. Conor Kostick successfully laviert between the worlds, which is so apparently peaceful, and which other one, in which force is everyday, and which is more important for many humans, as the life as such. Some motives from the computer game world, from classical Science Fiction and combined from the world of the matrix are there. Thus all nothing new, but everything completely nicely joined.

However the persons remain quite woodcut-like, and therefore Epic is a book, which cannot convince fully. excitingly and well readably, but very little contentful. There simply or other motivation is missing, why who behaves as. Beautifully multicolored, nice Schmöker occasionally, but nothing that in memory remains.

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This blog is not written by Conor Kostick. It is owned and operated by Andrew Sherman. Please send comments, questions and suggestions to andrew <dot> sherman <at> gmail <dot> com