Babel Clash

Naomi and Claudia, we still have a day or so to wrap up.  Thank you for the conversation.  It’s been fun.  Before you go, please share a little bit about your latest book or project.

Also, what would you say to those readers who’ve not read your work before?  What can they expect from your stories?

Professor Moriarty

How quickly you’ve unveiled my master plan.  Little did you know that “Morgan” was a carefully crafted moniker to hide my true identity, that of Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmses’ arch-nemesis.  OK, I’ll cut the megalomaniacal laughter now.

Have you written any comic book anthologies?  I was very tempted to ask who’s the greatest of detectives, Sherlock Holmes or Batman?

So tell me more about these anthologies.  You assemble quite the rogue’s gallery for each one.  How do you pull together such a notable gang of contributors?

Welcome to John Joseph Adams.

In honor of his anthology, the Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and the new Holmes film opening Christmas Day, Babel Clash asks the hard questions.  We’ll begin with a real puzzler:  “Who’s smarter, Sherlock Holmes or Gandalf?”

World War Z - best zombie novel ever!

When zombies are so prevalent that they’ve even invaded Pride & Prejudice, you know that the Zombie Apocalypse has come.  One publisher, Permuted Press, specializes almost exclusively in zombie fiction, and I’m even hearing truly frightening rumors about zombies in the romance section.  That’s just plain creepy.  So, when picking a favorite tale of the zombie conquest, you have options.

My # 1 favorite zombie story is World War Z by Max Brooks.  With a sweeping and epic vision of a worldwide war, it focuses on the wildness and adventure of the situation without delving too deeply into the blood and gore.  Not to say that there isn’t a little blood and gore here and there.  WWZ cranks along at a rocket ship pace, and it’s one read that is pure fun.  If zombies do conquer the planet, then we can only hope that they do so with this much style.

Mike Carey's take on the X-Men

We’re talking about genre hopping, but we also have medium or format hopping.  We have authors such as Mike Carey and Dan Abnett writing comics.  Jim Butcher wrote a Dresden Files comic.  Neil Gaiman is writing screenplays.  George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones and Charlaine Harris’ True Blood are connected to HBO.

Bill Willingham, a highly regarded comics writer, recently took his stab at writing comics.  So comics writers are coming over to the traditional book format, too.

Dan, Paul and Jeff, have you ever had an itch to write comics?  If you had the chance, would you adapt your own work, work with an estished brand name or try something totally different?  If not, is there another medium in which you’d like to tell your tales?  Would you tackle a screenplay for your own books?

Bob,

Thank you for participating in Babel Clash.  Before you go, would you like to take the opportunity to tell us about The Ghost King and the Dame?  Why are these classic Salvatore must-reads?

Morgan

Gremlin

The debate this week is about movies, and it has turned to elves at the movies.  Unfortunately, we’ve had some gremlins in the machine.  Just like an old-fashioned movie reel slipping off the track, we’ve experienced some technical difficulties.

Bob Salvatore is still on schedule to post this week.  Because of some computer glitches, he’s had a hard time logging into our Babel Clash system.  That should be fixed today, and then we’ll be back to our regular geeky debate schedule.

Sorry for the interruption in posts, everyone.  Please stick with us and see more of the discussion with Bob throughout the week.  Thank you.

Bob, do envision Drizzt making it into a live-action film?  Do you have favorite scenes that you’d especially love to see on the big screen?  When envisioning scenes for your Drizzt adventures, do you consciously build scenes with cinematic scope or does that come naturally given the genre?

Brandon Sanderson was one of our first two Babel Clash guests.  In honor of his help getting Babel Clash started, I wanted to veer from our usual routine for one post to discuss the next book in a series that you may recognize, the Wheel of Time.

The Gathering Storm

Can you believe that it has been 19 years since Robert Jordan’s first Wheel of Time novel?  Robert Jordan was my favorite writer.  He wrote dramatic scenes with charismatic and dangerous characters, in a setting vivid and rich with mythology.  The series clicked along like a finely tuned machine.  This was high fantasy its most epic, grandiose and spellbinding.

Then the series lost some momentum.  The plot’s pace slowed under the weight of its many characters.  Fans were anxious for progress and resolution.  They were waiting for a book that was something special.

The Gathering Storm is that book.

The plot doesn’t just progress.  It cruises by at a breakneck speed, with frightening hairpin turns and shocking jolts.  It is the darkest book in the series.  Beloved characters make frightening choices, and prophecies unfold.  Storm concludes with two of the most memorable moments in the entire series.

Brandon Sanderson completed the book after Jordan’s passing.  Jordan left behind many notes and some portion of the text.  Brandon weaves his style and Jordan’s together seamlessly.  Expect Brandon’s own work to get extra attention based on his success here.

It’s not the end.  Two more books, Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light, will follow.  I, for one, am very grateful it’s not over yet.

Congratulations to Brandon this accomplishment!  It’s a great book.

Thank you to Bill, James and Matt.  It’s been a great conversation.

Peter & Max didn’t get its fair share of time as a featured title, so I want to take a moment to recommend it.  If you’re a fan of Fables, then you’ll love Peter & Max.  That’s a given.  If you haven’t yet read this award-winning comic series, then thankfully, the novel stands on its own merit.  Bill puts his own unique spin on the classic fairy tale of Peter Piper.  Learn the secret history of the Piper family and then enjoy a classic battle of wills and wits between Peter and his evil brother.  It’s a well told tale by a storyteller who now deserves equal admiration as both a novelist and a comic writer.

Now for our next guest.  I’m honored to welcome R. A. Salvatore to Babel Clash.  Salvatore is the author of the Drizzt Do’Urden novels, including the brand new The Ghost King.  Among his other notable series is the Saga of the First King.  The lastest volume in that series, the Dame, is also available in stores and on Borders.com now.