Okay, Maynard1977 has asked me if I’ve got any more books coming out, so I’ll sum up where things are so far. My (available) books thus far published are: Agent Cormac Series: 1.Gridlinked, 2.The Line of Polity, 3.Brass Man, 4.Polity Agent, Stand alone: Cowl, Africa Zero, The Engineer ReConditioned, Prador Moon, Runcible Tales (chapbook of 6 short stories) On Spatterjay: 1.The Skinner, 2.The Voyage of the Sable Keech. Books of mine due to be published are: Hilldiggers – a standalone set in the Polity, Line War – number 5 in the agent Cormac series (the last one, I think), Prador Moon (British edition) and an as yet untitled collection of Polity short stories. I think that’s about it.
Dan, there's been no plan for a hardcover or mass market of The Line of Polity in the US (from Tor US). For some unfathomable reason they've hopped straight from Gridlinked to Brass Man. Maybe it's the length, LOP being 20,000 words longer than anything else of mine they've published, or maybe it's because I slag into a theocracy and mention Dawkins?
The last Cormac? Aw, man. I have really them.
Well, the last Cormac book in this series. He may reappear in something else … if he survives.
Noooooooooooooooo!
I think Cormac has had a good run and five books is a good number. But I think there's alot more stories that could be told in that universe. As I've said before I love the books from Spatterjay.
Cormac is a great character. But the one I'd really miss would be Dragon. I hope that the Dragon spheres survive the next book and pop up later on, hopefully with their own plans, not just acting as servants of the Polity.
JW
i think cormac happily retired as a new human-AI avatar thing, representing humankind's next step in evolution…
it's only fair. 8)
For some unfathomable reason they've hopped straight from Gridlinked to Brass Man. Maybe it's the length, LOP being 20,000 words longer than anything else of mine they've published, or maybe it's because I slag into a theocracy and mention Dawkins?
You have not asked them? Would really like the HC to complete my collection.
I personally think Cormac has earned a nice rest. I mean he has taken non-stop kicking for 4 books now. Everyone needs a break.
I want you to think long and hard about the concept of "cormac with time on his hands"…
lol – Cormac with time on his hands..
Hi Neal,
I'm looking forward to Polity Agent (a present coming this winterval).
I just finished Brass Man earlier this year and just finished Sable Keech. (I didn't like Brass Man as much, but don't know why.)
I can never find your short stories anywhere, but would like to read more of the polity.
I agree that Dragon has been a fabulous character.
Cowl was good, very engrossing.
Anyway – cheers.
I'm sure that after the last bad guy has been fed feet-first into the incinerator, Cormac will be content to collect his pipe and slippers. Of course, the problematic bit is that 'last bad guy'.
Sean, there's a few short stories knocking about on the Internet (Adaptogenic, Watch Crab, Sea of Death), a collection of six in the chapbook called 'Runcible Tales' and nine stories and a novella in 'The Engineer ReConditioned'.
any chance of mindgames: fool's mate ever getting a re-release somewhere? I've been looking for a copy of that for over a year with no luck.
I'm looking forward to reading Polity Agent and especially Hilldiggers, which sounds awesome & right up my street. Earlier this year I read & reviewed Africa Zero (any future Collector or sauramen stories on the far horizon, Neal?) and recently read Prador Moon, which I greatly enjoyed. Crabsticks will never taste quite the same again.
Polity Agent was my fav book to date, Line War and Hill Diggers are sure to be amazing!
I'm hoping someone will one day do a HC of Line of Polity as well.
Regarding the death of Ian Cormac…I always prefer my protaganists dead at the end of their run. It's more dramatic and darker. I like my fiction pitch black if possible 😀
Ok, my question is this.
Did you do the measurements in yards and miles in Polity Agent, Neal, or did the localiser make that decision upon brining it to America?
I can understand why they might want to change the spellings of words, or boot to trunk, but metre to yard instead of meter…
Novawasp, actually that was me. I was previously writing stuff in kilometres where my real instinct was to write miles, and I thought this time I'd go imperial. It's odd actually, having received my schooling when both were given equal importance I'm bi-measuremental? ambi-measuremental? or some such. My preference would be to use a combination of metric and imperial. I would use miles for larger distances, because I know what a mile is, but I'd use a mixture of inches, millimetres, centimetres etc where they would best apply e.g. armour and inch thick or paint a millimetre thick. Did you find the use of metric measurements intrusive?
Sorry, that was meant to be, did you find the use of imperial measurements intrusive.
I also have to add that the use of imperial is also a bit of a reaction to the almost compulsory eurofication of everything. Market traders getting fined because they sell stuff in pounds. Ridiculous.
Just wondering if "Runcible Tales" is still available to buy at a resonable price? I've seen a few used copies for other UD$200 which is a bit step for such a small book.