Well since two or three days I check the RedBrick forum and realize that no one, yes no one talks about the newly announced novel “Liferock” which will come in October 2010. No questions, no answers from fans, author nor developers, no one. So I’ll pick up the topic to talk a little bit about the novel written by Jak Koke. I think it deserves a discussion about what is new and what the novel is about.
My last post about the novel of Jak Koke was about the “old” version of the book. So is the now announced novel really a “new version” or do we just look at a new cover with old content inside? I guess not because the guys from RedBrick might have helped Jak to adjust the book to the new rules or the new setting of the Earthdawn Third Edition.
The “old” book contained a foreword which said that it was written before Denizen of Barsaive Vol. 2 came out, so there might be some differences inside comparing the rules and the traditions of Obsidimen described in the sourcebook and the novel. As Arma stated in a forum post this was only one example of many when fans asked questions like: “In the novel XY they make the spell this way but the rules say……”. That’s why I think that the novel has been reworked, so that there won’t be any differences anymore between the sourcebooks and the novel when Obsidimen lifestyles are described.
Another sign that the book has been reworked are the number of pages; the “old” version had 313 pages whereby the new one will have 288 pages.
Have a look at the announcing page at RedBrick.com to read about the story of the book. The book will be available via Lulu.com and I guess the prices will be similar to the other novels of RedBrick. For softcover $19.95 and hardcover $29.95.
All the speculations I drop here are just speculations, all of the information above about the reworking, story and prices of the book are not confirmed yet.