Cast in Oblivion: Publication Day & Map

January

Posted in Publication, Cast, Essalieyan, Mira.

It’s pub day for Cast in Oblivion. Print books are in stores in North America – and probably in specialty SF/F stores in the UK and Australia.

The audiobooks appear to be available everywhere.

The ebooks appear to be available everywhere but Australia/NZ. Anything that can be done from here is being done — I’m really, really sorry because I honestly love my Australian fans T_T.

To celebrate this, I have commissioned a map. If you look at the menu bar, there’s a new tab, MAPS, and the drop down has the map for the City of Elantra, done by Mati Demers.

(Where by celebrate, I mean that I realized I actually needed a bit of a visual guide after all this time, because I am terrible at mapping, and at reading maps. I am one of those adults who, if they must make sense of a map, must orient it so that the street that I’m standing on is also in the direction I’m facing, which frequently means the map is upside down to other people. This causes some confusion. My orientation, in the world, is Right-Left. I know most people prefer actual compass directions, but… they don’t translate well for me. Sadly. All of my maps of Elantra have been word maps – indicating where places are in relation to other places. In a wiki.)

ETA: Mati Demers has offered to sell print maps to people who are interested.

40 Responses to Cast in Oblivion: Publication Day & Map

Ralph Walker says:

January 29, 2019 at 1:24 am

I just received my Kindle download of the book. I was only billed $1.99, it was estimated to cost $8.99.

What gives? Are you being 🔪 in the back?
michelle says:

January 29, 2019 at 1:31 am

@Ralph: I think there was a pre-order special of 1.99 at some point (it wasn’t permanent), but my *guess* would be that anyone who pre-ordered before the 1.99 special were probably billed at 1.99, which would not punish people who ordered early (or not force them to cancel their order and re-order at the lower price).

I’m not Amazon, though — so this is just a guess.
Donna says:

January 29, 2019 at 2:43 am

I cahtted with the Amazon.com.au people and they said they would work on getting the book on kindle. They said it wasn’t up on the US site yet either. This is what they sadi: “Please let the author know that add the book on Amazon.com and I will be happy to help you in getting the book on your account.”
Joey says:

January 29, 2019 at 3:13 am

Donna: They really said, “Please let the author know …” rather than “Please let the book publisher know …”?

Michelle: Is it really up to the author? (Also: Happy 2019!)
AmelieS says:

January 29, 2019 at 3:39 am

The map is beautiful! I didn’t realise that the fiefs were so big compared to the rest of the city.
Brent says:

January 29, 2019 at 5:18 am

Love your work. Happy 2019.
Rather annoying that it’s not available in Australia yet (ebook)
I usually order the paperback & read it within the first day or two when it arrives. However changed roles at work so I can’t get away with reading a physical book anymore.
Hope it’s resolved soon.

Can’t wait for the next one. (And the dozens 🤞 after it)
Emile De Antonio says:

January 29, 2019 at 6:26 am

Happy publication day! Now I just have to wait until Amazon drags its lazy ass to the post office. [Grumble.]
A very nice map, but it’s difficult to assimilate the fact that Ravellon is in the center of town (particularly in light of Kaylin’s return journey in “Deception”). Ah well, reorienting my brain will give me something to do while I wait for the postperson.
SueM says:

January 29, 2019 at 7:45 am

I’m very happy to hear Oblivian has been published! Congratulations!

Hopefully we in Australia (and NZ) won’t have to wait too long. With luck, it will be same as usual, being about a week later. (Donna, if you find out anything more, please update??)
The Other Michelle says:

January 29, 2019 at 8:59 am

Mine is delivered today! *happySnoopydance* January 2019 has NOT started off well, so this is a bright spot I’ve been looking forward to.
Tyronne Hodgins says:

January 29, 2019 at 9:44 am

Picked mine up on the way to work this morning — YIPPEEEEEE!
Barbara Joy Ford says:

January 29, 2019 at 10:06 am

Super excited to get mine today — really wishing my mail came in the morning instead of late afternoon! The map is definitely useful — VERY different than what I’d pictured. :-)
Cathy Palmer-Lister says:

January 29, 2019 at 10:26 am

I love the map – it’s really beautiful. I’m guessing that it only shows the very most important streets and buildings? Otherwise, there are not many people living in the fiefs.I had imagined them as being almost small self-contained towns.
michelle says:

January 29, 2019 at 10:53 am

@Donna & Joey: Amazon seems to be a bit confused, yes.

When self-publishing an ebook, the work is done on Amazon.com, and availability in other countries is as simple as ticking a few boxes.

I’ve been lead to believe that it’s not quite the same for publishers — but I have no idea — at all — of what the difference is.

HOWEVER, as I understand it, HLQ in each of the various countries are somewhat independent; they make their own choices about what is, and is not, published within that territory. Because they have that independence – and I honestly think it’s a good idea – they have their own publishing paradigm internal to that country. I think the exception to this is Canada/US — it’s all North America.

So, UK, Australia, Italy, etc, etc.

It’s not as simple as telling the publisher in North America – and believe that I have done that T_T. My poor editor.
michelle says:

January 29, 2019 at 10:59 am

@AmelieS: The fiefs are larger for purposes of impression, I think. It’s not technically a street map; I chose someone who has done both large land mass maps and more “look-and-feel” maps, but wanted something that was in between the two.

@Brent & @Sue: The minute I have news, I will post here. I love my editor, but may have been a touch unhappy at her. And really, it’s not as simple as a single phone call for her, either (time differences, among other things).

@Emile: the fiefs have always been surrounded by city — that and the river are the two things I have a blobby outline of. But even those details were… paragraphs or sentences =/. So: it’s on me that this was not clear, and I apologize for that.

I can see fantasy maps and think they are lovely — but I can’t look at a map and get any sense of its relation to me and where I’m standing in it, if that makes sense?

So — I think there were 18 iterations, one of which was me drawing on the rough outline of an early map. For some reason, he professes to have enjoyed creating this.
michelle says:

January 29, 2019 at 11:06 am

And I might as well confess that my right-left orientation has some difficulties. So initially I asked Mati to put the Map name in the upper right corner. While *meaning* the upper left corner >..
michelle says:

January 29, 2019 at 11:07 am

@Cathy: it is a “highlight” map, more than a street map, yes. So the building-per-person ratio is … not accurate to scale.
Elizabeth Lickliter says:

January 29, 2019 at 12:03 pm

Amazon just told me my book is on the way! I’m so excited!!
Debbie Matsuura says:

January 29, 2019 at 1:13 pm

Yay for Book Day!!! Ebook was delivered at 9:01pm, so got to start reading then. Continued with the audiobook during the morning commute. More Yay!!!
Peter Moore says:

January 29, 2019 at 1:29 pm

First of all congratulations on the book release. Secondly Maps!!! Yea and hooray. As a trained civil engineer and forester, I love maps. I’m lucky enough that I can read them any which way but when I’m going from point a to point b I still do as you do and orient the map so the top of the map is the direction I’m facing, it just makes sense. I was surprised to find that Helen was so close to the High Halls, and also that so much of Elantra was across the river from the High Halls and the Imperial palace. Somehow I was under the impression that the only thing across the river was the fiefs and Ravellon. I’m also wondering what the “L” shaped building is that is between the Imperial Palace and the bridge to Nightshade or is it just decorative?
Emile De Antonio says:

January 29, 2019 at 2:07 pm

I was just being too rigid in my preconceptions. As they were approaching Ravellon from another dimension — or whatever — there was no reason that they should not arrive at its outskirts within the circle of the outer fiefs. But sometime over the last 14 years I had mapped the fiefs as being surrounded by the city on 3 sides and fading off into a nebulous wasteland on the 4th. Thus my surprise.
And I need to look at my hands before identifying right and left.
michelle says:

January 29, 2019 at 3:07 pm

@Emile: I lift my writing hand to determine which is which, but… sometimes I am certain I’m using the correct one. Wrongly T_T
Wendy says:

January 29, 2019 at 3:10 pm

Just got my hard copy of the book today. Hooray!
Tchula says:

January 29, 2019 at 3:13 pm

Yay, my hard copy arrived today! I always get the Kindle version, too, but I prefer to read the actual physical book the first time through, in case there’s something wonky with the Kindle formatting.

I LOVE the map! I admit, I have a hard time figuring out the relations between areas, and this really helps. I wish I had a color printer, because I would totally print this out and keep it with my books. I didn’t really understand that Helen was in between the Imperial Palace and the High Halls, so it’s great to have the visuals.
Anna Wick says:

January 29, 2019 at 4:52 pm

Thank you so much for the map. Alright color printed, will go in the sleeve of my kindle to help orient me when I’m in the story.
MaryW says:

January 29, 2019 at 10:37 pm

My e‑book was available about 12:30 am. The paper copy was here around noon. Amazon did charge $1.99 for the e‑book and it was ordered as soon as there was a release date. I am enjoying the read but I think it is time for a series re-read. My memory needs a refresh.
Anna says:

January 30, 2019 at 8:10 am

Such a cool map! Cant wait to read the book :D
Joyce Ronquillo says:

January 30, 2019 at 11:31 am

I looked at the posts and answers that appear here but may have missed some from previous days so I apologize in advance if I missed something.

Okay, so I finished re-reading Deception and looking at the map I find myself totally confused. How did they get to the Ravellon border of Tiamaris without crossing into Candallar or Nightshade? I assumed the fires are on the Ravellon border? I accept that the city and river were not on the same level as they were (since you refer to the paths as having levels) but all of the towers were in their view.

The first time I read it I was curious but just let it be in wibbly-wobbly hand-wavy territory; but, now there is a map and I am confused. If there is an explanation then I want it, please? However, I will accept it if you just tell me to stop looking behind the curtain because I still love the books and won’t object.
michelle says:

January 30, 2019 at 11:49 am

They got through to Tiamaris from the outlands; it’s a different plane of existence in which the city itself doesn’t intrude. The city is irrelevant to the only structure they can see from where they are — Ravellon.

It would be a structure seen in any plane.

So: the portal paths, the outlands, are a different layer of existence through which they can travel, but not safely. They could only find Tiamaris from within the outlands because of the border fires, which are magical fires developed by the Norannir to serve as alarms against Shadow approach. The Towers exist, but the Towers themselves would deny them entry into the domains over which they stand guard, because the path they’re using is not traveled by people. For the most part. Terrano doesn’t count.

But while the Towers are there, the Towers are multi-planar — or they wouldn’t be able to do what they were created to do. The rest of the city and its inhabitants are not, with one or two exceptions multi-planar in the same way. Neither is the water.

So: Shadows that approach the city from different planes of existence are stopped by the Towers. Bellusdeo feels they can safely approach Tiamaris because of Tara and Tara’s relationship with Kaylin. Tara will know who Kaylin is.
Hilary says:

January 31, 2019 at 1:21 pm

Last week Amazon uk emailed me to say my preorder would not be available until late February. Anyway contrary to what they said it dropped through my letterbox yesterday and as we have had thick snow here and I couldn’t go out l had the time to read it from beginning to end and loved it. I had spent the rest of January re reading the previous books. It’s such a complex enjoyable series I can’t wait for the next book. Thank you Michelle
AmelieS says:

February 1, 2019 at 3:03 am

I don’t see the Arcanum or the Merchant’s Guild on the map. Have you decided on a location for them?

I finished Cast in Oblivion yesterday and it was great! I love all the Barrani politics.
laura says:

February 1, 2019 at 4:15 pm

love the map! thank you! i too was surprised to realize helen was so close to the high halls and imperial palace.
Julianne Single says:

February 1, 2019 at 6:14 pm

Enjoyed oblivion immensely took off work publication day so I could stay up most of the night reading and wasn’t disappointed. This book made me feel that Kaylin is sort of being forced to grow up more than previous novels which made me me a little sad. I do love young irrepressible Kaylin but on the other hand we must all grow up sometime. I did love that despite being forced to think about her actions and decisions though she still came through as Kaylin in little moments like when she chose to wear her boots with the dress the consort sent or how she enjoyed annoying ynpharion among other things. Also enjoyed the map I have long wanted to see what Elantra looked like and it almost seems smaller than I imagined also never realized where exactly Helen was in relation exactly to the other places in Kaylin’s life. Also surprised how close the farms are to the city since it seems Kaylin has never been there (now that would be fun, Kaylin on a farm haha) I guess I was thinking more of Elantra as a large urban area like a big city with appropriate suburban sprawl before you get to forest or farms. I’m assuming then from Kaylin’s trip to the west March that the area outside of the city is more or less uninhabitable causing people then to compress together? As there is a tab that says “maps” plural does that mean there might possibly be more maps in the future of other areas or more detailed ones?
David Youngs says:

February 2, 2019 at 4:31 pm

Disaster!
I was happily reading when there was a discontinuity. 32 pages following page 224 are missing and the following 32 duplicated.
And the only other copy at the store has the same problem.
They’ve taken it back with a promise to get more in, hoping they’re from elsewhere in the production run.
Bee says:

February 2, 2019 at 10:20 pm

Just finished my copy — forced myself to take a few days to read it so I’d actually absorb more of what happened. Loved loved loved it. I’m always pleasantly surprised by how well your books move along, even with large amounts of dialog happening in a short period of time. Not many authors can make dialog and debate feel like action as opposed to filler in a lazy attempt to world build without actual effort.

I really enjoyed the return of Nightshade, and look forward to hopefully more of him in the future. I also laughed at the rather amusing INCIDENT with Ynpharion. I’m hoping for some additional response from Nightshade in regards to that. I’ll leave out details so I don’t spoil anything for anyone who has not completed the books.

I will say I’m enjoying the growing up Kaylin is doing. This book felt less like someone dragging her by her ear toward being an adult, and more like her actually grudgingly acknowledging that maybe it was time to make some efforts in that direction.

I’m looking forward (somewhat) patiently to the future of this series. I’m going to have to go back to book one and read my way through again (again) while I wait for next year. :)
Mk says:

February 4, 2019 at 1:07 am

It was an awesome awesome book, thank you!!!! I just love how Kaylin’s story in each book is big and small at the same time, if that makes sense. And now I have Feb 19 to look forward to as well! Just one question — do you as an author have a choice about which book excerpt is included at the back? They picked a fairly incendiary book and I was wondering how you felt about it.
Carol Duffy says:

February 4, 2019 at 10:47 pm

Loved Cast in Oblivion; thank you! Read it straight through. It has been a pleasure seeing how story arcs begun in the first book are playing out across the series, and how Kaylin has grown with them. Plus I, too, really enjoy Barrani politics in general and Nightshade in particular. Nice to see him back. Should you so desire, and the story you want to tell takes us in that direction, I at least would enjoy a return to his castle and, perhaps, a hint as to who the light haired Barrani in the pictures on his walls might have been. In all events, thank you so much for the wonderful stories! I have so enjoyed them all and look forward to whatever comes next.
michelle says:

February 5, 2019 at 12:34 am

@mk:

Just one question — do you as an author have a choice about which book excerpt is included at the back? They picked a fairly incendiary book and I was wondering how you felt about it.

I was working at the store today, and this one requires a bit of care, so I am answering it now, at home, after dinner.

Did I choose the excerpt? No.

Was I given a choice about whether or not it would be included? Yes.

I was asked about my feelings on the matter, and my editor said that if I felt strongly that it would cause difficulty for me, she would go to bat to have it completely removed.

I am not on the Internet often, and most of my interactions involve talking to my readers. So I did not see most of the incendiary involved with the book when it was unfolding.

I asked her to give me a day or two to consider things — because, again, I had heard very little about the book itself. And then I … went to the Internet and google.

I saw the essays and blog posts that occurred around — and after — and as I have not read the book I could not judge the book itself. But the gist — again, this is my take — of the angriest of criticisms were: main character was racist. But it did not seem to me — from reviews and essays — that this was ever portrayed as good or desirable.

Second: there was some anger at the story — yet another privileged person gets ‘woke’. Raised with certain views, the main character goes to the secondary fantasy world equivalent of university, and begins to realize that her beliefs — unquestioned until now — are… wrong.

Kaylin came from worse than slums. But… she had an extreme prejudice against the Tha’alani, for two and a half books. It’s not subtle. She hates them. She fears them. And in Cast in Secret, she learns things that absolutely change that fear and hatred.

Which means… I’ve told that kind of story myself. Part of Secret is about someone who has deeply held prejudices who … learns that she is not seeing the whole picture. It changes the way she feels.

I can’t in good conscience judge someone else for doing something I’ve done.

Which is why, in the end, I accepted it.
Jennifer says:

February 22, 2019 at 7:44 am

I’m in the middle of this book and its great. I was wondering if you have a list of the characters somewhere? I’ve forgotten who Ypharion is exactly. To many books floating around in my head.
michelle says:

February 22, 2019 at 10:59 am

Ynpharion is one of the Barrani Kaylin encountered in PERIL. She forcibly took his name, or knowledge of his name, from him in order not to die, and he’s been a constant, critical presence since then.
michelle says:

February 22, 2019 at 11:00 am

Ummm, and no, there’s no list >.>