The proof copy for The Adamantine Palace arrived a while back and I’ve finally made my way through most of it. This is a strange experience. Having left it alone for months, and in the meantime written King of the Crags and seen all the ARC reviews come out, I find I see it in a different light. Proof-reading has turned out to be a weirdly different way of reading text, too. It’s amazing how some mistakes have gotten this far (one clear search-and-replace error, for example, crops up several times. Stopping to read every single word in every single sentence it become glaringly obvious, and yet somehow if I read normally, it becomes almost invisible).

It was pointed out to me last night that I haven’t added links to some more recent reviews. There are a few more out, so here’s the current summary (obviously I pick and choose my quotes

“The book is an entertaining mix of Pern and Westeros, with the knowing characterisation of Abercrombie and the endearment of Novik.” SFFworld.

“The Adamantine Palace is a fast, furious and entertaining book that grabs hold of the reader and whisks them off like a rollercoaster. The dragons, as promised, indeed kick ass.” The Wertzone.

“…full of everything that I like about fantasy right now; strong characters, a complex plot and loads of dragons.” Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review.

“In short: dragons, intrigue, poison, mercenaries and a Big Dark History. If you like that sort of thing then this is definitely worth a look.“ Sandstorm Reviews.

If there is a general complaint, it seems to be that the book is too fast and too rapid-fire and skims on the background detail for the sake of pace (which it does, and deliberately so). King of the Crags is, I think, a little more measured. Not that I deliberately set out to be so, just the way it came. Or maybe I should leave that for the reviewers to decide…

Anyway, back to making a mess all over the proofs and then I guess it’ll be time to re-write King of the Crags again before I send it to Simon for some proper editing, and while we’re at it, I’ve made a start on The Order of the Scales. Although I don’t dare go too far with that, as there’s a certain scene I’ve promised to write for the Orion publicity manager if he managers to pull off an absurdly ridiculous request (I might just write it anyway, Jon).

The closer we get to publication date, the more I chew my nails. I shall have to write quickly, before my fingers become bloody stumps.