Unfettered Artwork & Introduction
Posted by Meg
We’ve been talking a lot about the brand new Unfettered Anthology, but we wanted to make one more blog post in honor of its release since it’s such a special book. Not only is Unfettered a collection of some of the top names in contemporary fantasy, it is also a book for charity. Peat won’t be making any money off the book as all sales will be going to aid Shawn Speakman (see the full story below). With beautiful cover art, a table of contents that will make any fantasy fan weep with joy and a good cause to boot, buying Unfettered is a win-win-win.
On with the updates! First of all check out this beautiful artwork by Todd Lockwood that will accompany Peat’s short story, Mudboy, in the anthology. Intrigued? Me too.
And, just to whet your appetite a little more, we have Peat’s introduction to why Mudboy came into being. For those who don’t know, Mudboy is a short story set in the same world and time period as the Demon Cycle.
Unfettered Mudboy Introduction
Peter V. Brett
The following story, Mudboy, started out as a part of my Demon Cycle series from Del Rey Books. When I add a new POV character to the series, I try to take the reader back into their childhood, reintroducing the demon world through their eyes and showing the pivotal events in their life that led them to become the person they are in the central storyline.
Briar was a great addition to the series, and I had originally intended for the following story to be the introduction to my third book, The Daylight War. It would have been the first part of a three-act play on Briar’s young life, spanning the ten years or so before he encountered Leesha and Rojer on the road to the Hollow.
But I quickly saw how the character might grow unchecked. I kept having more and more ideas for Briar’s own tale, and they were largely separate from the main storyline of the series, to the point where it might become a distraction.
So I cut the section I had written, meaning to save it for a Demon Cycle novella like the others I have done for Subterranean Press. When Shawn asked me to contribute a story to Unfettered, I knew it would be a perfect fit.
I will eventually write more of Briar’s adventures, but in the meantime, please enjoy this little tale. I am thrilled to finally be able to share it, and in such prestigious company!
-Peter V Brett
April, 2013
You can buy the book from the Grim Oak Press website for $35.00 or buy the e-book for Kindle, Nook and Kobo for $9.99. We are looking into it being made available on iBooks.
Want to know more about the cause? Here is a blurb explaining why and how the book was made.
You define life or it defines you.
In Shawn Speakman’s case, it was both.
Lacking health insurance and diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2011, Shawn quickly accrued a massive medical debt that he did not have the ability to pay. That’s when New York Times best-selling author Terry Brooks offered to donate a short story that Shawn could sell tohelp alleviate those bills—and suggested he ask the same of his other writer friends.
Unfettered is the result: an anthology built in order to relieve that debt, featuring short stories by some of the best fantasy writers in the genre.
Twenty-three tales comprise this incredible collection, and as the title suggests, the writers were free to contribute whatever they wished.
Head over to Grim Oak Press for more information on Unfettered. And don’t forget to drool over this incredible table of contents:
– Foreword by Patrick Rothfuss
– Introduction: On Becoming Unfettered
– Imaginary Friends by Terry Brooks
– How Old Holly Came To Be by Patrick Rothfuss
– The Old Scale Game by Tad Williams
– Game of Chance by Carrie Vaughn
– The Martyr of the Roses by Jacqueline Carey
– Mudboy by Peter V. Brett
– The Sound of Broken Absolutes by Peter Orullian
– The Coach with Big Teeth by R.A. Salvatore
– Keeper of Memory by Todd Lockwood
– Heaven in a Wild Flower by Blake Charlton
– Dogs by Daniel Abraham
– The Chapel Perilous by Kevin Hearne
– Select Mode by Mark Lawrence
– All the Girls Love Michael Stein by David Anthony Durham
– Strange Rain by Jennifer Bosworth
– Nocturne by Robert V.S. Redick
– Unbowed by Eldon Thompson
– In Favour with Their Stars by Naomi Novik
– River of Souls by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
– The Jester by Michael J. Sullivan
– The Duel by Lev Grossman
– Walker and the Shade of Allanon by Terry Brooks
– The Unfettered Knight by Shawn Speakman
Shawn Speakman and the authors of Unfettered recently did an AMA on Reddit. While they are no longer taking questions, you can still scroll through and read the comments, which are informative as well as hilarious.
Is this going to be the only way Mudboy is released?
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