The most prolific writer in fantasy fiction is on the road to Ankh Morpork again this autumn with the hardback release of his 40th Discworld novel, Raising Steam, and this time around he’s on rails. For anyone that picked up on his sci-fi adventure sequel, The Long War, earlier this year you might be asking yourself how he manages to find the time to write so much entertaining fiction, but however he does it (dwarf helpers, a rickety potato driven time machine, self duplication) we’re pretty glad he does.
Discworld #40 takes us back to the golden age if the steam engine, but for Ankh Morpork and the rest of the disc, as ever, it’s the latest technology to hit their fantastical version of terre ferme and it’s got cart loads of trouble hooked up to it for good measure. As the city gets its first ever steam engine it sets alight a series a crazy events bringing a new profession to add to Moist von Lipwig’s curriculum vitae.
For anyone that missed them, Moist it the main character in previous Discworld novels, Going Postal and Making Money. Building on their storylines, Raising Steam is the latest adventure for the Überwald mystery man and former con artist extraordinaire. If his efforts as the Postmaster General and his charge of the city’s Royal Bank and Mint aren’t enough to keep him busy, it looks like Lord Vetinary has also handed him the Rail Master job too.
His ongoing relationship with Adore Belle Dearheart should also be moving on to the next level after their engagement in Making Money. If you haven’t connected the dots already on that one we’re expecting a wedding to be in and amongst the high speed and steamy storyline of Raising Steam.
Raising Steam will be released on hardback on the 7th November 2013, which will make it an ideal winter read for fantasy fiction fans out there. It was originally announced for release on the 24th October 2013 on the Terry Pratchett website, but it was recently put back a couple of weeks due to a unforeseen problem with the wizards at the university (mahah!).
For people that prefer the lighter versions of books, you’ll probably need to wait until the back end of 2014 for it to get a paperback release. However, it will be released at the same time as the hardcover edition as an eBook for Kindles, iPads etc.
The cover artwork for the novel has once again been created by Paul Kidby after he picked up on Josh Kirby’s mantle in 2011.
