My German editions of the Virga books have been spectacular, and the third in the series, Segel der Zeit, is no exception.  You can order it now from Amazon.de, since it'll be released in only a couple of weeks. These mass-market editions are gorgeous, and I can't wait to get my comp copies!

It's been a long wait, but well worth it when you look at the gorgeous cover art and design for this paperback edition of the most action-packed of the Virga books.  Pirate Sun completes the long journey home for Chaison Fanning, former admiral of the Slipstream navy, who's languished for the past year in a grim prison n Falcon Formation, Slipstream's neighbour and enemy state.  After a spectacular jailbreak (the jail literally breaks) he is guided to safety by a mysterious adventuress, Antaea Argyre, and must fight and think his way back to his Machiavellian wife, Venera, across a thousand miles of enemy airspace.

Pirate Sun doesn't answer all the questions that were raised in Sun of Suns, but it provides closure to the major story arc of the first three books. Each Virga book can stand on its own, but all are connected, and the first three make up a sort of a trilogy--but not one that demands you read the rest of the books.  The Virga novels are a new kind of interconnected series, more forgiving to the casual reader, yet forming an intricate whole.  I hope you can give it a try.

In three weeks Cities of the Air hits the stands.  In some ways it's nothing new:  Cities is Tor Books' omnibus edition of the first two Virga books.  You might wonder why we're doing this when the paperback editions of these books are already available.  But with Pirate Sun coming out in trade paperback in the fall, if you haven't familiarized yourself with Virga yet, you can do it by just picking up Cities.  Together, Cities of the Air and Pirate Sun form the full story arc for the first part of the series.  If, after reading them, you've still got a taste for the weightless world I've constructed, The Sunless Countries is out now in hardcover, and Ashes of Candesce will be coming next year.

Just for archival purposes, I'm noting the nominations breakdown for the 2009 Hugo Awards went like this:

Top 10 Novel Nominations

Little Brother Cory Doctorow 129

Anathem Neal Stephenson 93

The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman 82

Saturn’s Children Charles Stross 74

Zoe’s Tale John Scalzi 54

Matter Iain M. Banks 49

Nation Terry Pratchett 46

An Autumn War Daniel Abraham 46

Implied Spaces Walter Jon Williams 45

Pirate Sun Karl Schroeder 41

Not too bad; although I'm nowhere near the top 5, the 5-to-ten nominees are all clustered within 40 to 50 nominations each.  Let's all start a chant now:  We're number 10!  We're number 10! 

Heck, that's pretty damned good, considering the wealth of talent that's out there these days.

What's actually more encouraging is that the two short stories and one novella I wrote last year (I also published an older story in 2008) all made respectable placements on the list.  Clearly, I must write more short works...

It's February, and time to confirm once again that Locus Magazine really really likes me.  Pirate Sun is one of the twenty novels they recommend out of the hundreds published in 2008.

So, every one of my Tor novels has made this list--six in a row.  I guess this means that, as far as Locus is concerned, I'm one of the top twenty SF novelists working in English.  (I can hear the chant now:  "We're number 20!  We're number 20!)

This recommendation appears to have nothing to do with, and no influence on, sales; but I can't exactly complain, can I?  The list is chosen by a pretty heavy-hitting set of reviewers and editors, all of whom are experts in the field.  Collectively, they read pretty much everything that comes out every year.  So it's hugely flattering that they've given me this rare vote of confidence not just once, but with every book I've written.

Hmmm... maybe, then, I should write another novel.  What to call it?  Perhaps... Ashes of Candesce? ...

In the spirit of the DVD phenomenon, we've created a little easter egg for buyers of the audiobook version of Pirate Sun.  There's additional material here that provides clues to the plot and characters in The Sunless Countries, which won't hit store shelves until next August.

Extra paper costs; extra bytes don't.  There was some material at the end of Pirate Sun that wasn't absolutely necessary--"good to have" scenes that we ultimately decided slowed the ending of the paper edition.  Audiobooks have a different style of pace, though, and a little extra time costs us nothing.  It reallly is a lot like DVDs, where the "good to have" scenes not released in the theatrical version are included because, well, they can be.

A lot of people have assumed that I was writing a trilogy--and, in a sense, I have been.  Pirate Sun ends the main plotline begun in Sun of Suns, and in that sense completes the story.  There remained lots of dangling questions, though, as well as opportunities for setting and adventure that had to remain unexplored in the first three books.  Hence, The Sunless Countries.

Virga is a world of infinite possibility.  I'm currently writing a set of short stories set there, because there's just too much to say about the place.  I love to go there in my imagination, and I know a lot of other people do too.  The fun's not over yet.

So if you want a hint of what's to come, pick up the audiobook version of Pirate Sun and enjoy!