We got some pretty exciting news here at Fantasy-Faction today, our friends Gollancz and Dan Abnett are teaming up to publish Dan’s latest series: a self-contained, action-packed heroic fantasy trilogy.
Dan’s output is quite incredible and his name constantly pops up when we get into ‘favourite book’ or ‘favourite paragraph’ type discussions on the forum. However, although most fantasy fans will be familiar with Dan Abnett’s name, it is likely they will all agree he doesn’t write enough of his own fantasy. We shouldn’t be too angry at him for this though… he is constantly in demand by television studios, computer game studios, comic book companies and franchises such as Warhammer, Doctor Who and Alien and the content he comes up with them for them, well… kicks ass! For those not familiar with Dan, you might be interested to know that it was his run on the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY comic that Marvel based the mega-hit movie on… yep!
His new series will be called THE WIELD.
Simon Spanton, who is responsible for signing this series up, said: “It’s been hard to miss Dan’s contribution to the genre over recent years. He has an amazing and proven knack for finding readers beyond the immediate genre markets so I am really thrilled that he’s joining Gollancz for this venture into his own world; a project where he can give his extraordinary imagination free rein.”
Dan Abnett added, “I’m more than a little pleased to be joining the Gollancz list. In my teens, I quickly learned that the sight of one of their classic yellow-covered editions on the shelf of a library or bookshop was a guarantee of an extraordinary reading experience. THE WIELD is a story I especially want to tell, and I am simply delighted that it is going to be published by the most respected SF and Fantasy imprint in the world.”
Although details are pretty thin right now, THE WIELD trilogy is being refered to as ‘highly original. It will take place in a human-populated society with a vivid dark ages culture where readers will follow an ancient and elite band of warriors. As per most of Dan Abnett’s books, THE WIELD are set to be dynamic heroic adventures packed with vivid action and bloody battles (the best kind of battles I always say). The press release reveals that: ‘the flawed but engaging characters and the enthralling premise with a clever twist, will appeal to readers of Dan Abnett’s bestselling Black Library books, and fans of [David Gemmell’s] fantasy.
Sadly we’ve got a heck of a while to wait (just goes to show how packed full Gollancz’s list is right now and how in demand Dan is too – he’s actually writing some Guardians of the Galaxy novels! :O). The first book of THE WIELD series will be published in trade paperback and eBook in 2016 with the other two books to follow in 2017 and 2018.
Jennie Ivins