jimhines

The mass market paperback edition of Revisionary comes out in February. This means I have a whole new set of page proofs to review.

If you’ve read the hardcover (thank you!) and noticed any typos or other problems, now would be the perfect time to let me know so we can get those fixed for the paperback release. You can comment here or shoot me an email at jchines -at- sff.net.

In other news, I’m still working on backup machines while I wait for the new PC to arrive, which is why blogging and email and such has been a bit sparse. Hopefully that will all be resolved by the end of the week!

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

The final Magic ex Libris book is out today. Revisionary brings to a close the four-book series that began back in 2012 with Libriomancer, and it’s weird and exciting and bittersweet and overwhelming and all those other adjectives.

Summary:

When Isaac Vainio helped to reveal magic to the world, he dreamed of a utopian future, a new millennium of magical prosperity. One year later, things aren’t going quite as he’d hoped.

An organization known as Vanguard, made up of magical creatures and ex-Porters, wants open war with the mundane world. Isaac’s own government is incarcerating “potential supernatural enemies” in prisons and internment camps. And Isaac finds himself targeted by all sides.

It’s a war that will soon envelop the world, and the key to victory may lie with Isaac himself, as he struggles to incorporate everything he’s learned into a new, more powerful form of libriomancy. Surrounded by betrayal and political intrigue, Isaac and a ragtag group of allies must evade pursuit both magical and mundane, expose a conspiracy by some of the most powerful people in the world, and find a path to a better future.

But what will that future cost Isaac and the ones he loves?

People Saying Nice Things:

“[E]xplores cultural and political concerns in a thoughtful manner, leaving the reader with more food for thought than perhaps one might expect. Hines avoids the pitfalls many writers would struggle to miss in the crafting of this excellent tale.” –RT Book Reviews

“I don’t think I can recommend this series enough, it’s some of the best urban fantasy available on the market today.” –The Arched Doorway

“Deeper thematic arguments and questions of political morality aside, Revisionary is an awful lot of fun. I personally really enjoyed the fact that Isaac spends most of the novel simply surrounded by competent women—what’s remarkable is just how much this novel treats this state of affairs as unremarkable. It’s not a big thing. It’s just a thing.” –Tor.com

“If you haven’t tried this series yet, I highly highly recommend that you do. It’s fun, it’s nerdy, and it sneaks up on you with the deeper topics when you’re not looking. I can’t wait to see what Jim C. Hines does next!” –Cannonball Read 8

Purchase Links:

• HARDCOVER: Amazon | B&N | BAMM | Mysterious Galaxy | Schuler Books | Indiebound
• EBOOK: Amazon | B&N | BAMM | Kobo | iBooks
• AUDIO: Audible.com
• We’re working to make it available in UK territories as well.

Appearances:

Only one for this book. I’ll be at Schuler Books in Okemos on February 18 at 7 p.m.

Other Stuff:

• “Jim C. Hines Talks Fantasy, Fandom, and Fatherhood” at The Maine Edge.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

As you might have noticed, advance review copies of Revisionary [Amazon | B&N | Indiebound] have begun showing up in the wild!

If you’re a reviewer and haven’t yet gotten your hands on this, the fourth and final Magic ex Libris book, now is the time. Just email my publicist at DAW/Penguin Random House: anixon -at- penguinrandomhouse.com.

For everyone else, the wait is almost over. The paperback of Unbound will be out the first week in January, and then Revisionary hits the shelves on February 2, 2016.

Other links of interest:

• Read the first chapter of Revisionary (pdf | epub)
• Add it to your Goodreads library
• Book Depository listing (with free delivery worldwide)
• Cats using dogs as pillows. Just because.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

I noted on Facebook that Revisionary was the final book in the Magic ex Libris series. (Unless something drastic changes, like Hollywood paying me ridiculous money and making a movie, or the books suddenly hitting the NYT list.)

This note was met with a number of very disappointed comments, which is awesome. I mean, not awesome that people are sad or disappointed. But the fact that they loved the characters and the stories and wanted them to continue. That means an awful lot.

This will be the third series I’ve brought to a close, and it’s bittersweet each time. In each case, I have ideas or notes or little scraps tucked away on the hard drive for potential continuations. A fourth goblin book, a fifth princess book … and in this case, there’s definite spinoff possibilities with Revisionary.

So why end the series? Several reasons.

1. It gives me the chance to write something new. After all, if I’d never ended the princess series, we wouldn’t have the Libriomancer books. I know some authors can jump back and forth and juggle multiple series at once, but I have a much harder time with that.
2. The series reached a natural stopping point, one that brings closure to a lot of the things I’ve been doing throughout the books. In truth, Unbound could have been a good end point as well, but I’m happy to have been able to take that next step with Revisionary.
3. Economics. Libriomancer was my best-selling book to date, which is awesome. Thank you to everyone who bought, read, reviewed, or otherwise helped make that book so successful. Sales of subsequent books in a series almost always drop off. The question is how much they drop off, how much new books drive sales of the earlier books in the series, and so on. And while I consider this a successful series, it wasn’t successful enough to make Magic ex Libris #5 a better bet than writing something new.

I sent a pitch to my agent over the weekend, and revised it based on his feedback earlier today. I’m hopeful DAW will like the idea. I’m also working on Project Bob, an on spec manuscript (meaning it’s not under contract) that would let me branch out in a slightly new direction. There’s at least one more idea waiting in the queue as well.

My son gets very sad and upset when a show he likes comes to an end, and I understand where he’s coming from. He’s young enough he doesn’t understand the danger of a series stretching out too long and jumping the shark, or simply losing its magic. What he does know is that he likes the show and the characters and the stories, and it sucks that there won’t be any more.

I get that. And I hope that eventually, I’ll be able to come back and play more in these worlds. Maybe via self-publishing as things go out of print. Or maybe there will be a surge of renewed interest someday, and publishers will throw obscenely large bags of money at me.

But for now, Revisionary will be the final book in the series when it comes out in February of next year. As always, my thanks to everyone who’s followed along on this journey, and I hope you’ll join me for the next one.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Just spent an hour on the phone with my editor, talking about Revisionary [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. For the next two weeks, I’ll be setting Project Bob aside in order to address several pages worth of notes.

The good news is that she liked the book, and I don’t have to rip the whole thing up and start again from scratch. (I’ve never actually had to do that, but the irrational fear is always there…)

I’m feeling pretty good about our conversation. Almost all of her comments and feedback felt less like “you suck!” and more like “hey, here’s a way to make this better/more clear/more interesting,” which is how it’s supposed to work, but writer-brain sometimes gets stuck on the “you suck!” piece.

So assuming no unexpected crises, in two weeks or so I should be done with this book (with the exception of page proofs). There’s a good chance this will be the last Magic ex Libris book, at least for a while. It’s also my last book written as a full-time state employee. It’s a bit of a turning point in more ways than one.

And that raises a Very Important Question – if this does end up being the last Magic ex Libris book, how the heck am I going to bring Smudge into whatever I start working on next?

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.