DUNE 7 BLOG

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Landscapes

With the DUNE novels and my "Saga of Seven Suns" series -- all of which are over 600 pages long -- it might seem strange that I also work in the short form as well. I much prefer the larger canvas of a novel-length work (or, even better, an epic as vast as a trilogy or even the 7-volume "Seven Suns" series), but sometimes an idea is really best explored in just a snapshot.

Five Star Press has just released my second collection of short stories, LANDSCAPES. The book includes a variety of my work in several genres, including 15 science fiction stories, seven fantasy and horror, and two articles about writing and mountain climbing.

LANDSCAPES has a beautiful cover painting by Alan Clark, and a great introduction by rock music legend Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist for Rush. Neil's introduction begins:

"In the late '80s, a novel called RESURRECTION, INC. arrived in my mailbox accompanied by a letter from the author, Kevin J. Anderson. He wrote that the book had been partly inspired by an album called Grace Under Pressure, which my Rush bandmates and I had released in 1984.

"It took me a year or so to get around to reading RESURRECTION, INC., but when I did I was powerfully impressed, and wrote back to Kevin to tell him so. Any inspiration from Rush's work seemed indirect, at best, but nonetheless, Kevin and I had much in common, not least a shared love since childhood for science fiction and fantasy stories.

"We began to write to each other occasionally and, during Rush's Roll the Bones tour in 1991, on a day off between concerts in California, I rode my bicycle from Sacramento to Kevin's home in Dublin, California. That was the beginning of a good friendship, many stimulating conversations (mostly by letter and e-mail, as we lived far apart), and regular packages in the mail, as we shared our latest work with each other -- the ultimate simulating conversation. In subsequent years I would send Kevin a few books of my own, numerous CDs and DVDs from my work with Rush, and there seemed to be a fat volume from Kevin arriving about every other month."

I know you'd all be rather reading HUNTERS OF DUNE, but if you're looking for something to fill the time...

--KJA