Chronicle of GLORY!!!

Now I'm not usually one to boast but I received a special something in the mail today and I had to share...

Behold My Prize!!!

That's right, one of the first ARCs of The Coldest War - Volume Two of The Milkweed Triptych. And signed by Ian Tregillis no less...

All it took was a few obsessive compulsive days spent puzzling over the narrative challenge that was Chronicle of Sorrows, an ARG-esque enigma built into Tregillis's website. You can get the full scoop here. While all of the prizes have already been claimed (yetiwoot!) I would really recommend you give the game a try. It's fiendishly tricky AND it provides some pretty cool context to the first chapter of the excellent Bitter Seeds.

And if you haven't read Bitter Seeds yet, shame on you. Not only was it one of the best books of 2010, it's so good GRRM put off publishing A Dance With Dragons for another year just to avoid competing with it on Best of 2010 lists. The triptychular structure of the book is so awesome, Tor can't even calm down long enough to publish them on time. Stop what you are doing now, go read the book, them return here.

[::waits patiently::]

Welcome back. How good was that? Like me, you are now eagerly anticipating the follow up volume. Unlike me, you do not have a copy. But don't feel too bad. Although you probably won't be able to get a print copy of The Coldest War until it's release date in July, you can listen to the audiobook as soon as RIGHT NOW!!! over on audible.com. For reasons not entirely clear to me, the book has been edited for a long while, just not printed by Tor. As a result, the final edited copy was published via audiobook back in January. I can't do audiobooks, but if you can, have it at.

So to recap:

1) I've got a copy of The Coldest War. Bwa-hah-hah-ha.
2) Ian Tregillis has a really cool narrative game on his website. You should try it.
3) If you haven't read Bitter Seeds yet you should. It is awesome and available now..
4) The Coldest War will be available July 17th from Tor.
5) If you can't wait that long, The Coldest War is currently available via audiobook from audible.com.

I'll be in my bunk.