Giving the Game Away | The Assassin's Blessing

Last Wednesday we talked about The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra R. Clarke. We touched on its purdy cover art, the potentially mixed blessing of its blurb, as well the summer its author spent attending Clarion West, by way of the mini-bio that I'll admit drew me to this book more than any other thing.

If you read the post in full you'll have noticed I threw another thing in the mix, in addition: a giveaway, yay! That is to say, of a single, exceedingly early ARC of The Assassin's Curse.

I suppose the question you had to answer was a bit of a tricky one, by online competition standards at least, but a good gang of you gave it a shot in any event, and amongst those of you who sent in entries, a few even hit upon the solution to the riddle reproduced here:

Which popular author will be bringing

the fight to the club at Clarion this summer?

The answer, of course, was Chuck Palahniuk, one of this year's Clarion West instructors. Because he's the guy what wrote Fight Club, right?

 

Right.

Anyway, we have a winner, and his name is... Ben Lorber. Nicely done!

I'll get you an email in a moment to double-check your details, Ben, but congrats: you'll be one of the first folks in the world to see an ARC of The Assassin's Curse, and if it turns out to be half as fun a frolic as it sounds, why that sounds like one mighty fine prize.

Last but not least, thanks again to Amanda at Strange Chemistry for arranging this whole thing. I'm sure everyone would agree that we can hardly wait to hear what else you have up your sleeves!

Cover Identity | The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra R. Clarke

I've had call to talk about Strange Chemistry on a couple of occasions already. For those of you net in the know, it's an up-and-coming imprint of Angry Robot Books with a specific focus of speculative fiction of the YA variety. So obviously, I'm interested in it.

It doesn't hurt that friend of the blog - and friend of the me - Amanda Rutter (formerly of the gone but still not forgotten Floor-to-Ceiling Books) is leading this particular charge. I'm very keen to see, finally, some of what she's got in store for us all, be we young or old.

As of an email from Amanda a couple of days ago, one contender has roundly risen above the others in my eyes. That would be The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra R. Clarke, and not - or not solely - because of Amanda's description of it as an experience alike The Arabian Nights as written by Scott Lynch or Throne of the Crescent Moon's Saladin Ahmed. Though in this case, with a new author, that sort of comparison certainly helps.

As does cover art as appealing as the image embedded above. All sorts of purdy, isn't it?

Truth be told, though, it was a couple of info-nuggets in Cassandra's bio that served to excite my interest. Firstly, foremostly, it was the mention of the author's attendance at Clarion West in the summer of 2010. In the past these star-studded workshops - instructed by writers like George R. R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Roger Zelazny and Gardner Dozois - have given an incredible array of literary talent a real leg up in the industry. Amongst the other alumni of Clarion West: Kristine Katheryn Rusch, Rachel Swirsky, Margo Lanagan and Daniel Abraham.

So Cassandra R. Clarke has a lot to live up to!

By now you must be wondering: what's the other thing, then? Well I'll be the first to admit my reasoning here is a bit silly, but Cassandra hails from Houston, Texas, and of all the places I stopped off in during my month in America, I was - entirely to my surprise - at my happiest in Houston.

Oh, for another night out in the Heights...

In any event, what's The Assassin's Curse all about? Well here's a bit of blurbage:

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. And when Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn’t really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together. To break the curse, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks — all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic, and the growing romantic tension between them.

The bad news is that The Assassin's Curse isn't due out till the other side of the summer - most of you will have to wait till October to get your grubby paws on it - but would you believe I've got good news, too? At least I do for those of you based in the UK.

Thanks to Amanda, I have a single ARC to give away in early May, which is to say soon, and all you need to do to stand a chance of winning it is riddle me this:

Which popular author will be bringing the

fight to the club at Clarion this summer?

Please send your solutions to thespeculativescotsman [at] gmail [dot] com and mark your subject headers appropriately. I'm going to give you till this time next week to get your answers in.

Good luck, everyone!