The incomparable Michael Komarck, an artist who has amazed fans with his faithful, detailed artwork inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire, illustrates the twelve images in the calendar. His renderings for the calendar are immaculately executed depictions of some of the most popular characters of the series and bring to vivid life some of the most memorable scenes in the epic that’s taken the publishing world by storm.

As the only calendar sanctioned by Martin, Dabel Brothers Publishing’s A Song of Ice and Fire 2009 Calendar is unarguably a rare treat, and will be limited to 1,000 copies, which will be distributed to the Direct Market and booksellers. Of these, 500 will feature an exclusive, Jon Snow cover and only 250 of them will be numbered, as well as personally signed by George R.R. Martin himself. These exclusives will be sold exclusively from Dabel Brothers Publishing’s on-line storefront.

“I am a long time fan of ASOIAF, says Dabel Brothers Vice President, Les Dabel, “being able to help bring it to life visually is a dream come true.”

The A Song of Ice and Fire 2009 Calendar will be available in December 2008, well in time for the holiday season.

For more information about George RR Martin and the A Song of Ice and Fire series, please visit the author’s official site at http://www.georgerrmartin.com/. For more information about the artist, Michael Komarck, please visit his site at http://www.komarckart.com/.

George RR Martin, an award-winning author, sold his first story in 1971 and has been writing professionally ever since. He has written fantasy, horror, and science fiction, and for 10 years was a writer/producer in Hollywood working on, The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and other feature films and television projects. In the mid 1990s he returned to prose ” his first love ” and began work on his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. He was lauded as “America’s Tolkien” by Time magazine following the completion of the previous novel in the series, A Feast for Crows (Random House/Spectra, 2005), which went on to become a /New York Times/ #1 bestseller. His next book, A Dance with Dragons (Random House/Spectra, 2009), is the long-awaited fifth book in that series and will be available next year. The recipient of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, Mr. Martin lives in New Mexico.

Michael Komarck, a self-taught artist, earned a great deal of attention after moving away from traditional media to digital art. The style and precision he brought to his work led to his finding early work with game publishers such as Fantasy Flight Games and AEG. Since then, he has become increasingly in demand by both game publishers and publishers in the fiction market. His list of clients now include Subterranean Press, Bantam Dell, Tor Books, Wizards of the Coast, Electronic Arts, and many more. He recently had two works nominated for the prestigious Chesley, awarded by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. He currently resides in Michigan with his wife and child.

Dabel Brothers Publishing, LLC, is a comic book studio dedicated to bringing many of the best and most popular novels in the world of fantasy to the comic book medium. Since its inception in 2001 they have produced adaptations of novels by bestselling authors including George R.R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Laurell K. Hamilton, Raymond E. Feist, Tad Williams, Richard A. Knaak, and Robert Silverberg. Currently on the schedule is a remarkable list of high-profile projects including adaptations of major novels by bestselling authors: Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, an original story set in the world of Jim Butcher’s bestselling series The Dresden Files, a Wild Cards series edited and overseen by George R. R. Martin, and a brand-new Mercy Thompson adventure by Patricia Briggs titled Mercy Thompson: Homecoming.

More information about Dabel Brothers Publishing can be found at http://www.dabelbrothers.com.

There will be more than 150 stores holding events to support the launch on 20th September, with Waterstone’s and a number of independents holding  midnight events.

Pre-orders on Amazon, where Brisinger has remained near the top of the pre-order chart for three months, have been strong. UK sales of the first two books in the Inheritance Cycle series, Eragon and Eldest, have reached more than 700,000.

While the UK print run has not been revealed, US publisher Random House has announced a first print of 2.5m copies, its largest ever for a children’s book. Worldwide sales of the first two books stand at 15m.

Christopher Paolini biography

There was an extremely strong showing for fantasy authors, with Roald Dahl, JRR Tolkien and Stephen King all making the top ten.

Philip Pullman, the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, does not appear in the top 50. Other notable omissions include Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond series, the Winnie the Pooh author A A Milne, Iris Murdoch and the Bridget Jones’s Diary author Helen Fielding. The survey of 2,000 adults was commissioned by One Poll, the internet market research company, to mark the 2008 Costa Book Awards.

The United Kingdom’s top ten authors

1. Enid Blyton
2. Roald Dahl
3. JK Rowling
4. Jane Austen
5. William Shakespeare
6. Charles Dickens
7. JRR Tolkien
8. Agatha Christie
9. Stephen King
10. Beatrix Potter

Demon bears take human shape and devils walk in the north of a world where every hill hosts a god and every river and spring a goddess. The storyteller Moth draws Ulfleif, a warrior-princess who would rather carry a lyre than a sword, into an unfinished tale, and old lays of vengeance and betrayal wake into bloody new life around her.

A slave in Bronze-Age Korthan sees his lovers suffer and die for the crime of worshipping outlawed gods and in the midst of horror at their sin, finds his own faith shaken and takes his own first steps on the road to rebellion.

In a tale built on the familiar legends of our world, Merlin’s daughter relates the story of the fall of Arthur’s Britain as you have never heard it, a tale of adultery and treachery old and well-known, yet fresh and startling in Nimiane’s telling.

The unnamed common men of England who faced a later generation of sea-raiders are given voice once more in the historical tale of the Battle of Maldon, when English fought Vikings at the Blackwater and lost.

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KV Johansen biography

Novel

• Emma Bull, Territory [Tor]
• Guy Gavriel Kay, Ysabel [Penguin Roc]
• John Marks, Fangland [Penguin]
• Will Shetterly, Gospel of the Knife [Tor]
• Michael Marshall Smith, The Servants [Earthling Publications]

Novella

• Robert Edric, The Mermaids [PS Publishing]
• Elizabeth Hand, Illyria [PS Publishing]
• Ian R. MacLeod, Master Miller’s Tale [F&SF]
• Kim Newman, Cold Snap [The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club, Monkey Brain Books]
• Lucius Shepard, Stars Seen through Stone [F&SF]

Short Story

• Daniel Abraham, The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics [Logorrhea, Bantam Spectra]
• Theodora Goss, Singing of Mount Abora [Logorrhea, Bantam Spectra]
• Kij Johnson, The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change [The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, Viking]
• Robert Shearman, Damned if you Don’t [Tiny Deaths, Comma Press]
• Simon Kurt Unsworth, The Church on the Island [At Ease With the Dead, Ash-Tree Press]

Anthology

• Gary A. Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble, Five Strokes to Midnight [Haunted Pelican Press]
• Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, Wizards: Magical Tales from Masters of Modern Fantasy [Berkeley]
• Ellen Datlow, Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural [Tor]
• Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales [Viking]
• John Klima, Logorrhea [Bantam Spectra]

Collection

• Stephen Gallagher, Plots and Misadventures [Subterranean]
• Ellen Klages, Portable Childhoods [Tachyon]
• Kim Newman, Secret Files of the Diogenes Club [Monkey Brain Books]
• Tim Pratt, Hart & Boot & Other Stories [Night Shade Books]
• Robert Shearman, Tiny Deaths [Comma Press]
• Lucius Shepard, Dagger Key and Other Stories [PS Publishing]

Artist

• Ruan Jia
• Mikko Kinnunen
• Stephan Martiniere
• Edward Miller
• John Picacio

Special Award – Pro

• Alan Beatts and Jude Feldman for Borderlands Books
• Allison Baker and Chris Roberson for Monkey Brain Books
• Peter Crowther for PS Publishing
• Gordon Van Gelder for F&SF
• Jeremy Lassen and Jason Williams for Nightshade Books
• Shawna McCarthy for Realms of Fantasy

Special Award – Non-pro

• G. S. Evans and Alice Whittenburg for Cafe Irreal
• Stephen Jones for Travellers in Darkness (The World Horror Convention Anthology)
• John Klima for Electric Velocipede
• Rosalie Parker and Raymond Russell for Tartarus-Press
• Midori Snyder, Terri Windling for Endicott Studios Website

The sixth instalment of the teenage wizard’s adventures was intended to have its Royal premiere on November the 17th. The Hollywood writers’ strike has been blamed for the delay.

David Jones, who will be nine year’s old next month, is a massive Harry Potter fan and he received the box set after his mum Kate wrote to JK Rowling to tell her about David and the Xeroderma Pigmentosum that he suffers from.

David spent an hour and a half writing a heartfelt letter to Ms Rowling before he sat down with his mother and began to work their way through the stories together.

David has already had an eye operation and work on his teeth because the lack of light he gets means the enamel on them is not as resilient as most people’s. Harry Potter is David’s hero and has helped him through these difficult times.

The signed books sent by JK Rowling will be auctioned through ebay in November to raise funds for the XP Support Group, which as well as raising awareness of XP, organises ‘Owl Patrol’ holidays in a specially converted building, St Katherine’s in Parmoor. There, the youngsters are safe and free to run around and take part in activities, such as football and bungee running.

For more on XP, and the Harry Potter box set auction, log onto: www.xpsupportgroup.org.uk.

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Read the full article here: http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/blog/the-joys-of-fantasy-commentary/

Lyle treasured this vision of completion beyond life.