As previously discussed Epic was listed on the IBBY Honour List for 2006. Conor was able to attend the awards at the IBBY 2006 Conference in Macau, China. His trip was supported by Culture Ireland and the Irish Arts Council.
Saga's publication seems to be close, and we have a big picture of the new cover. Lady Schrapnell looked for Saga in a bookstore but couldn't find it.
Meanwhile Epic has appeared on a weird site for swapping of advance reader copies. And a review by Nicholas Whyte damns Epic with faint praise.
NDR is a public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. On 6 June 2006 they broadcast a review of Epic. From the Google translation:
Kostick [is influenced by?] political philosophers such as Machiavelli, Hobbes and Marx, and so this novel is [...] at the same time also an argument [about] different social utopias.Schmitz junior (a bookshop for children's literature) has a nice picture of the German cover:
Here are some photos of Conor Kostick doing a reading for children's book week 2005 at the Monaghan library.
O'Brien press have changed the cover of Saga on the book's page.
Here are the old and new covers:
They have also posted the first two chapters of 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.
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
