This is the third and final book of the German translation of the Mirage Makers, Der Bund der Illustionisten. It is a gorgeous lush cover, worth clicking on to have a look at in big size.

The German title for Song of the Shiver Barrens is Brennender Wind, or Burning Wind.
Unfortunately, it won’t be out until July … even the second book, Trügerisches Licht (Deceptive Light) isn’t out until February. Nice to see they are both already selling well in advance on Amazon.de

SONG OF THE SHIVER BARRENS went to reprint in the UK.

Yay. Always glad when this happens, cos it means that people have been buying all three books, and that there are still sales although the trilogy has been out for a while.

This one comes from SFX online, where you can read the whole thing.

“In the end, the main questions are: is it enjoyable? Do you care about the characters? Is it well-written? The answer to all these is yes.

“In the final book in the Mirage Makers trilogy, Mirager-heir Arrant takes centre stage. Most of the action is seen from his perspective, as the scheming in Tyr becomes sidelined and the real threat that has been building throughout the trilogy emerges: the malevolent Ravage threatening to destroy the Mirage, and with it the ability of Arrant’s people to use magic.

“As in the previous novels, this is a story of emotions and politics rather than bloody war, and Larke tells it well. You struggle with Arrant as he’s humiliated and manipulated, and are genuinely uncertain as to whether he’ll endure and what his fate will be.”

Well, they did spoil it a bit by saying at the top of the review that the author was David Gunn, but never mind. I hope David doesn’t mind either…

A four and a half star review by Natalie Baker over at The Bookbag, see here for full review.

“Summary: A fast-paced, adventurous final book in the series that will keep you on tenterhooks until the very end.”

“I might as well declare that I’m a fan of Glenda Larke. I very much enjoyed the first two books in the series and I’ve been waiting with impatience to discover what she had in store for Ligea, Arrant, and all her other characters. My expectations weren’t disappointed…”

“(…) more than enough in this story to keep me by turns amused, entertained and enthralled.”

“(…) It’s a mark of a good trilogy that the end of a book can leave you both feeling complete and still wanting more, and I’m hoping there’ll be many more books to come from Glenda Larke.”

For those folk in UK about to buy Song of the Shiver Barrens – yes, it is Book 3 of the Mirage Makers, not Book Two as the title page says!

You know, no matter how many times a book is read and reread by countless people, there always seems to be some mistakes that slip by. At least it says Book 3 on the cover.

The Awards for 2007 have been announced and can be seen here. Alas, I have to remain as only a shortlisted author yet again. (How many times is one a bridesmaid before they say you’ll never be a bride? I think I have already surpassed the number!!)

Joking aside, many thanks once again to the Aurealis team – and they were mighty quick this year with getting the results posted, which I appreciate. They have even put up the judges’ comments. (If there were any comments for last year’s results, I never saw them anywhere.)

Here’s what they said about Song of the Shiver Barrens:

“Both the second and third books in this series were nominated this year, and the judges rated both highly. However, this one made the shortlist as it was a much stronger book, perhaps because it finalised the trilogy, but also because of the nature of the relationship between the characters. The plot was powerful and the fantasy stylish,and the writing was highly polished and engaging.”

Nice, eh? I am delighted. And I had good company. Here’s the overall comment on the fantasy novels:

“The quality of work nominated in 2007 was generally of a very high standard. The major publishing houses are producing quality novels in the fantasy genre. However this standard was not consistently maintained by smaller publishers, self publishers and the vanity publisher books.”…………“We could easily have had ten books on the shortlist and a further six or seven honourable mentions, and of course the debate for the winner was fierce as so many books had standout qualities.”

Once again, my thanks to all those involved in the Awards, to Orbit Books for their support of the Awards, and my congratulations to all those winners in all categories.

Australia’s spec fic is alive and well!!

Yes, it’s that time of the year when the shortlist of five is announced.

And Song of the Shiver Barrens has made it. I was so thrilled that I shot off an email to my agent and the Orbit UK team, and managed to get the name of my own book wrong. Sigh.

It means that every time I have had a book in the running I have made the shortlist, which is really encouraging…

The other four shortlisted works are:
Jennifer Fallon, The Gods of Amyrantha
Lian Hearn, Heaven’s Net is Wide
Sylvia Kelso, The Moving Water
Michael Pryor, Heart of Gold

I am delighted to see fellow Voyager author Jenny’s book up there, because I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it the best book she had written to date, and that’s saying something.

There are some other pals up there in the short story sections, and two fellow Orbit/Voyager authors in Sean Williams and Marianne de Pierres in the Science Fiction category. Congrats everyone.

My grateful thanks to the Aurealis team and Fantastic Queensland and Chimaera Publications for putting in all the hard work to keep the awards going.

The winners will be announced Jan 26th. Alas, won’t be able to attend…too far, and too expensive.
More here.

I wrote the last post late last night, and first thing this morning a whole lot of emails dropped into my box telling me I had been reviewed by aurealisXpress (the monthly ebulletin for subscribers of Aurealis magazine). Thanks, guys.

And the review is lovely.

Says Stuart Mayne, co-editor of Aurealis:
The final book in Glenda Larke’s second fantasy series is a fitting end to a superb creator of new worlds. Once again Glenda Larke has shown the fantasy fan that she is a writer of subtlety and depth.

And he ends the review thus:
The Mirage Makers has been a captivating read. Glenda Larke’s plotting is tight and complex; she loves to keep her readers guessing. Perfectly constructed to keep the reader turning the pages. I loved this series.

Hmm. Maybe “creator” in that first quote should read “creation”?

I continue to be over the moon about the reaction to Song of the Shiver Barrens. All my agonising and re-writing evidently paid off, and in the end I must have managed to produce a good book.

I think my favourite comment has to be this one from Fi the Webgoddess:

…she has a wondrous way of zigging when other authors might zag which makes for really refreshing reading. I inhaled this book — couldn’t put it down. I wish there were more…

But then there was Barb, who said: How did you manage to reduce me to tears not once, not twice but THREE times from page 328 onwards…?

And Tsana who wrote: so many moments where I thought “No! That can’t happen!” How do you do it, Glenda? It was heart-wrenchingly brilliant.

So now that I am content with one launch, what do I do? Start worrying about the next one, of course! Heart of the Mirage in the UK … two weeks … bite nails … will anyone buy it? … they’ve put the cover up on Amazon … I’ve sent off book plates to South Africa … will anyone over there buy it? … aaargh ….and if they buy it, will they like it?

I hate waiting.