Omnitopia & other new things from DD

[Kathy Li]

So, in this weekend's chat, we had a very interesting tidbit of news from DD.

Diane Duane: Oh, and I sold another series last week. ... Books. A thing called "Omnitopia".
... About a MMORPG. And the company that runs it, and the guy that runs the company. ... I'm going to have to start working with WoW a little to make sure I know what's going on with them.

For those who need acronym translation: MMORPG = "Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game" and WoW = "World of Warcraft".

She also mentioned working on a DOCTOR WHO short story (5th Doctor), and that there's up-in-the-airness now about the release date for WoM, due to getting a new editor (or as DD put it, "power struggles"). And that she's working on The Big Meow Chapter 7.

Also a new Star Trek novel, Grand Theft Starship: "Basic idea: Since James T. Kirk is so good at stealing starships on spec-- let's send him to steal one for a change."

[Birdhead]

Oh, DD. Working with WoW "a little"? WoW is kind of like potato chips and books - you can't stop at just a little.

OTOH, looking forward to the series. :P

[Dragon Writer]

She's an author, the only thing she can't do only a little of is write...and even then, it's only writing a little PERIOD that would get to her, most likely... Oh, and doctor who rules! *looks forward to watching what i saved of todays morning marathon and hopes if she writes it, i can find it* *wonders what else to say...* um....*runs out*

[alla]

Why why why do timezones exist If only it'd been this sunday, I would have been awake anyway. *sigh*

Omnitopia sounds really interesting though. I'm looking forward to hear more about it.

And I'm soooo gonna have to get my hands on that Doctor Who story. The fifth doctor is one of my favourites .

[Aray]

Last week I missed the DD chat by mere minutes, so you can imagine how hard I was kicking myself when I saw her mention she'd be working on a Doctor Who story and I wasn't there to squee and act all geeky about it. I am a huuuuge DW fan, both of the old stuff and the new. (David Tennant is pretty. =D) Five is one of my favorites also, so I cannot WAIT to read her story. She mentioned it would be part of an anthology, as many DW short stories are, so I'm hoping I can get my hands on it when it comes out.

*bounces happily at the idea of her favorite author writing for her favorite series ever*

[Dragon Writer]

alla: time zones exist cause of travel...that, and it's kinda cool to leave at eight and arive after a three hour flight at 6:00. *grins* though i admit to their annoyances...like when i accidently skipped right over new years do to being on a plane...one minute it's eleven, the next it's two! or something like that....*wants to read the book, but iosn't sure i'll be able to get it* (is ignoring sarcasm and rehtorical questions as much as ever now)

[Nathan]

In case you haven't noticed, DD's personal websiteGrand Theft Starship isn't mentioned at all, but maybe DD just hasn't gotten around to putting it in. And the page for Omnitopia (or, as my pedantic self now wants it to be, OmnitorilThe Big MeowgenreI'll also point out that the typo of a double i in the page title makes it look very much like Latin indeed. Edit: DD fixed this.Edited to add: *looks over post* It had to happen sometime—my footnotes are longer than the body of my text, in the best academic fashion.

(Also edited to correct various typos, insert a space to keep eve from rendering something as an emoticon, remark about the other Greek capital letters that represent different sounds than their Roman counterparts, and do a little wordsmithing.)

And edited later to note that DD's fixed the problem with the extra i.

[Kathy Li]

Originally posted by Nathan:
I wonder whether DD is carving (ahem!) out a niche for herself in the culinary fantasy genre †.

Maybe there's just something in the creative aether, given Ratatouille and No Reservations coming out this year. Maybe everybody sat around in the winter before last watching FoodTV network shows. [grin]

† But is there such a thing? That is, are there enough fantasy works dealing prominently with food for it to be properly considered a genre?

Well, if there wasn't before, there's sure to be one at some time. It's not like fannish clans are unknown for foodie tendencies. I know that TNH has a burning personal ambition to make marmalade out of every possible citrus.

...And since I've broached the subject, I can't pass up the opportunity to mention a particularly egregious example of substituting Greek letters for their Roman look-alikes in words that come directly from Greek: ???? for "math," which I just saw on a t-shirt yesterday--of course, it should be ???, and I'm not sure why theta was thought to be more difficult to transliterate than mu...

Because English presupposes all dipthongs to be represented as two letters, not a single letter, I suppose. Theta and phi are unused the most egregiously. Are you sure that was a final lambda? And not an eta or something?

BTW, have I ever mentioned that one of my favorite Greek-letter-transliteration passages of all time is the one in Diana Wynne Jones's The Ogre Downstairs? When they plant the dragon's teeth, the soldiers are all speaking in Greek letters, but they're not speaking Greek--it's transliterated highly idiomatic English. My second-fave is in Somtow Sucharitkul's Aquiliad (back when alternate history comedic SF books were in vogue) where the premise is that the Romans made it to the Americas. You had characters named Taurus Sedentarius and Insanus Equus. And a scholar, taking the time to write down the native Lacota tongue, write the phrases down as ????? ????? ????? ??? (tippi tippi mukka muk). Which is actual Lakota.

[Tualha Bard]

DD on WoW?? *bursts into excited nerd/video game geek talk.* woot!! I'm gonna find out which realm she's on and like ... I dunno. lol. That's cool, though, that she's gonna be playing WoW. :P


(Vui on Demonsoul; look me up!)

[alla]

Bumpity

I was just looking at DD's website, and noticed that there was a release date for the first Omnitopia book - according to [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756406234?ie=UTF8&tag=omnitopia1-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeAS IN=0756406234"]Amazon[/ame], its coming out on the 3rd August this year. Does anyone know if there's a blurb anywhere? I had a bit of a look around, but I can't see one anywhere.

Another book to save up for this year

[96bookworms]

I also couldn't find it in the search, and had to go through DD's Other Works, thinking to start my own topic I had absolutely no idea that she was writing this Omnitopia book, But it makes me super excited, 'specially 'cuz the release date is so near! August 3rd is just around the corner!!

[Selden]

For those who hadn't noticed: Omnitopia Dawn has finally been published. One can hope that it'll be less than 3 years before the next volume....

[Caminante]

Reviews

So, has anyone read Omnitopia Dawn? Would you recommend it for someone who doesn't normally enjoy techno-thrillers?

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

So, has anyone read Omnitopia Dawn? Would you recommend it for someone who doesn't normally enjoy techno-thrillers?

Oh, definitely. I'm probably biased, though, since I used to play MUDs (never MUCKs, though, for some odd reason...)

[Lazy Leopard]

I got a copy of Omnitopia Dawn from Forbidden Planet yesterday, in a brief stop between the British Museum (much Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Assyrian, and Medieval stuff seen there) and Leicester Square (too much Hagen Daz consumed there) on a fairly frantic "do as much of London in a day" day which also took in the Tower of London (sparkly and gory, by parts) and a walk down the Mall to Buckingham Palace.