DUNE 7 BLOG

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Galley Slaves

Last week Brian and I received the typeset galleys for HUNTERS OF DUNE. The finished novel will be 524 pages long, and this is our very last chance to read it and make any final (minor) changes and catch typographical errors. We have to FedEx off the whole stack of pages no later than Tuesday, May 30.

This is at least the eleventh time Brian and I have each read the manuscript, and it's getting awfully hard to see anything new. My assistant Catherine and my father-in-law Louis are also proofreading it in parallel with Brian and me, so I hope we catch most of the glitches.

In the meantime, after working non-stop since the beginning of March, I have finished dictating all 135 chapters in the sixth volume in "The Saga of Seven Suns" -- METAL SWARM. I wrote 831 pages in the space of two months, and it felt like running a long and gruelling marathon. Catherine has transcribed all of my tapes, and now I am going through those chapters to give it my first big polish. (To me, as a writer, that is perhaps the most difficult stage of the process, because there's still so much work to do.) I'm supposed to turn in the manuscript to my editor on July 1.

And finally, while I'm in the middle of Seven Suns #6, it was nice to get a round of applause on Book 5, OF FIRE AND NIGHT. Publishers Weekly just gave the novel a starred review -- so far, four of the five volumes in the series have received starred reviews, the greatest praise PW gives to any book.

"Bestseller Anderson's fabulous fifth volume in his Seven Suns saga (after 2005's Scattered Suns) combines glitzy space-opera flash with witty, character-driven action on a cosmic scale. In retaliation for the destruction of a gas planet's hydrogue inhabitants, the surviving hydrogues join forces with human-hating Klikiss-created robots to exterminate all Terrans, including Hansa colonists, gypsy Roamers and Therons of Theroc, the forested planet that's home to sentient verdani. Vast verdani organic battleships unite with fiery, star-dwelling faeros, Earth Defense Forces and humanoid Ildirans in "elemental synergy" to fight the hydrogues. Expertly juggling a huge cast and multiple story lines, Anderson unleashes major firepower as he sets the scene for the sixth and final chapter in an SF series more entertaining than a 3-D superstar game of outerspace Twister. (July)"

-- KJA