Into the Narrowdark: Book Three of The Last King of Osten Ard

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A fan subreddit for the stories and fantasy worlds imagined and written by Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow and Thorn & Last King of Osten Ard trilogies, Otherland, Shadowmarch, Bobby Dollar, War of the Flowers, Tailchaser's Song etc.. Inspired me to write my own seven-book trilogy…. It’s one of my favorite fantasy series.”—George R. R. Martin, New York Times-bestselling author of A Song of Ice and Fire Anyway, at that point, I split the final volume into two parts, Into The Narrowdark(I’ll call it IND; it’s out now!) and The Navigator’s Children(called NVCfrom now on). I put aside the half of the story which would become NVC(and finalized INDwhile also writing Brothers of the Wind( BotW). This whole process took about a year, during which time I made many changes to various plots in INDwhile leaving NVC‘s first draft still unfinished, a sort of time-capsule of What I Had Planned, though many, many necessary changes/new ideas/improvements had come to me during the preparation of INDand BotWfor publication, and they changed what NVCwould be in many ways. Somewhere during this time, I also realized that I had stumbled into another Four Book Trilogy, much to my chagrin. Go ahead and make fun of me: I deserve it. But I honestly thought I could do it this time. . . ! Anyway, I just wanted to share some of my process stuff with you, my friends and readers, since Narrowdarkhas just hit the shelves. As I said, I’m moving forward finishing Navigator’s Children, and I think I’ve got the hardest of the problems dealt with. Now I can just concentrate on writing the ending to the whole TLKOOAstory, finally, for the first time.

The Last King of Osten Ard Series by Tad Williams - Goodreads The Last King of Osten Ard Series by Tad Williams - Goodreads

Wow, I really enjoyed hearing about your process and the complexity of events that you faced as you over came the obstacles. Keep up your excellent work, it shows. Love your work. This is a weird and complicated newsletter, because I’m going to try to explain what’s been going on with the current books. If you don’t want to read it all, “weird and complicated” is actually a good summation, and you can skip to the end. The books also look like they might come out sooner than expected, with the publishers considering a spring 2022 release for the first volume and a late summer 2022 release for the second, just a few months later. Previously the publishers had been considering 22 October 2022 for the first volume and an early-to-mid-2023 release date for the second, so it appears they've shuffled things up, which is good news.First up, the books will be given their own titles. The first volume - now Book III of The Last King of Osten Ard - will be called Into the Narrowdark. The second - now Book IV of the untrilogy - will retain the original title of The Navigator's Children. And acting as an effective salve to any sense of plot familiarity is Williams’ always wonderfully rich depiction of the non-humans in this world. His Norn don’t feel like more graceful, athletic, and eloquent humans but feel truly different. As well, he introduces a host of different forms for the non-humans beyond the usual elves and dwarves (or whatever they’re called in a particular work).

Into the Narrowdark By Tad Williams | New | 9781399706636

With this book, The Last King of Osten Ard has achieved the greatest possible feat for a sequel: that is, I can no longer imagine the originals without it' TOR.COMIt’s been . . . fun, in a strange, painful way, because it’s really hard work, and I love a challenge. But it’s also hard work and a challenge, so it’s slower than if I was just writing a final volume from scratch. And sometimes it makes my head really hurt. But, like I said, challenge. By the way, I believe that The Last King of Osten Ardhas now passed Memory, Sorrow, and Thornfor the longest time I’ve spent on one project. I’m not 100% positive, but I’ve always remembered writing that first multi-volume story as taking about seven years—starting Dragonbone Chairto finishing To Green Angel Tower. I believe I started TLKOOAin 2014, so we’ve slipped past that old record.

Into the Narrowdark by Tad Williams | Waterstones

Tad and his wife Deborah Beale are also working on the third ORDINARY FARM novel, currently titled The Heirs of Ordinary Farm. There is no publication date for this book yet. However, this is his next project now LAST KING is finished. Tad Williams is a California-based fantasy superstar. His genre-creating (and genre-busting) books have sold tens of millions worldwide, in twenty-five languages. His considerable output of epic fantasy and science fiction book-series, stories of all kinds, urban fantasy novels, comics, scripts, etc., have strongly influenced a generation of writers: the Otherland epic now plays as an MMO on steam.com. He, his family and his animals live in the Santa Cruz mountains in a suitably strange and beautiful house. Even the Sithi, fairy-kin to the Norns, are helpless to stop Utuk'ku's triumph as her armies simultaneously march on the Hayholt and force their way into the forbidden, ogre-guarded valley of Tanakiru - the Narrowdark - where a secret waits that might bring Simon's people and their Sithi allies salvation - or doom. Meanwhile, a deadly army of Norns led by the ageless, vengeful Queen Utuk'ku, has swept into Erkynland and thrown down the fortress of Naglimund, slaughtering the inhabitants and digging up the ancient grave of Ruyan the Navigator. Utuk'ku plans to use the Navigator's fabled armor to call up the spirit of Hakatri, the evil Storm King's brother.

If you’re reading this book, then you’ve read the earlier ones (I assume) and quite possibly others in Williams’ collection of work. In which case you probably began Into the Narrowdark with eyes wide open in terms of pacing. Williams, probably more than any other author I know, take his time in unspinning his story and shading in his characters. His books tend to be long, his plots tend to be drawn out, and his scenes do not always feel like they drive the plot forward (that isn’t to say they have no purpose, just plot movement isn’t necessarily it), and that holds true here as well. Meanwhile, a deadly army of Norns led by the ageless, vengeful Queen Utuk’ku, has swept into Erkynland and thrown down the fortress of Naglimund, slaughtering the inhabitants and digging up the ancient grave of Ruyan the Navigator. Utuk’ku plans to use the Navigator’s fabled armor to call up the spirit of Hakatri, the evil Storm King’s brother. The discussions are in 10 chapter increments since there are 40 chapters. I felt it would be best for people to pop in to these individual threads since I'm sure we will be reading at different paces. Just remember, these threads will have spoilers for the full 10 chapters and so on as indicated in the title! Given this is the third book in the series, and all of them are tome-length, and the comment above on the complicated plotting, it goes without saying this is not a book to be read on its own. For those still reading, there will be some inevitable spoilers for the first two books, The Witchwood Crown and Empire of Grass (not to mention the original decades-old series that began this story). I’m also assuming you’re going to recognize the following names and plot points. Tad Williams is a master storyteller, and the Osten Ard books are his masterpiece. Williams’ return to Osten Ard is every bitas compelling, deep, and fully-rendered as the first trilogy, and he continues to write with the experience and polish of an author at the top of his game.”—Brandon Sanderson, New York Times-bestselling author of Mistborn