Outside of a Dog: Smith, Sherwood, and Dave Trowbridge: (01) The Phoenix in Flight

Rich

Rich wrote on September 2, 2002 at 1:05 PM:

Hmmm...

As intriguing as this review sounds the one thing that made me feel like commenting is the word "panarch." I always thought it was a sui generis creation of Robert Jordan, but I see it used here, did some quick googlization, and see that it pops up in other books (mostly the sf genre). Feeling emboldened, I tried to seek out a historical usage of the title, but alas no.

Yours in triviality
RMB

Kate

Kate wrote on September 2, 2002 at 11:47 PM:

Hmm, Jordan must have been where I'd first seen it, too, but it's not that remarkable a word to me, so I didn't remember . . .

And if these reviews (next one coming soon) sound intriguing, agitate for the books to come back in print (originally published by Tor, I don't know if they still have the rights), and in the meantime read the Mageworlds books.

Dave Trowbridge

Dave Trowbridge wrote on September 6, 2002 at 12:29 PM:

Thanks for your kind comments, Kate!

The term "panarch" was lifted from Jack Vance's The Languages of Pao; our use of it dates back to the late 70s when we began writing the series (as a TV mini-series).

We are in the process of getting the rights back from Tor and are looking for a new publisher. One in particular we have our eyes on is Baen (for obvious reasons, I think); if any reader of this hangs out in Baen's Bar, a plea for reprinting there would certainly help!

Check out the URL I've supplied; it leads to the Exordium blog, where we've posted the first chapter of our next book, Tides of Men, which is the story of Jaspar Arkad, the founder of the Panarchy.

I hope you'll also check out my personal blog at http://www.davetrowbridge.com/MT.

Kate

Kate wrote on September 6, 2002 at 2:04 PM:

I have sworn off reading parts of books until I have the whole thing in front of me. But, I suppose first chapters don't really count... oh who am I kidding, like I could resist?

*throws up hands and opens link in background*

Baen, hmm? I hate to say that my first thought was, "Oh great, even more garish covers." But in print is in print...