About twelve years ago, Daniel Keys Moran published a book for the first time in about twenty years. I spent hundreds of dollars to read it–I bought my first ereader to do so–and it was WORTH IT.
Last month, Dan published a novel for the first time in about, well, twelve years. This time I didn’t have to pay hundreds to read it because I already had an ereader, and also I subscribe to his Patreon (you can find him @FatSam) where he’d been giving us a chapter at a time over…IDK, a while, but actually most awesomely in the interim I’d gotten to be friends with him and got an advanced reader’s copy so I could read it all at one go in case I wanted to say nice things about it.
I did. :)
This is what I actually said, like, for quotage stuff:
I’ve waited twelve years for this book, and it was worth it. Daniel Keys Moran hasn’t lost his touch: The Great Gods is a homecoming for fans of the Continuing Time, and an engaging introduction to one of science fiction’s most fascinating literary universes for new readers. Not to be trite, but I laughed, I cried, and I’m going to read it again immediately to find the things I missed the first time.
Moran could write all 33 promised books of the Continuing Time and I’d still be left wanting more, but folks, this is a pretty goddamn satisfactory return to form!
—C.E. Murphy, author of “Urban Shaman”
All of that is entirely, wholly, absolutely true. I make no attempts at suggesting I’m a dispassionate observer; I *love* Dan’s books. They’re desert island books for me. Every few years I’ll look for something to read and I’ll start one of them because it’s a comfort read and then I have to read all of them (o woe is me!) and it’s lovely every time.
I cannot promise that everyone will like them as much as I do. And I’m coming with thirty years of history here, which means in my SOUL I want to tell you to start AT THE BEGINNING, or at least with THE LONG RUN, which is one of the best science fiction novels I’ve ever read.
If you liked it, I’d say read either THE LAST DANCER (which comes after THE LONG RUN) or EMERALD EYES (which comes before it). Emerald Eyes is…it’s worldbuilding, and it’s good information to have, but it’s not the most polished or cohesive of the Continuing Time stories. I haven’t read it in a while, and the last time I did, I seem to remember thinking it’s basically two different stories put together to be one novel. I’ll be re-reading soon and will come back to that thought if anybody wants me to, but anyway, the real point is that THE GREAT GODS is full of answers (or the beginnings of answers) to questions raised in the earlier books, so I think it’s worth reading in closer to publication order.
That said, I’m 100% sure it works the other way, too: if you read THE GREAT GODS first, when you read the others, they’ll fill in backstory for things mentioned in TGG.
Anyway this is all a very long way of saying I’M SO HAPPY THIS BOOK IS OUT AND YOU MIGHT LIKE TO READ IT TOO!!!! :)
THE GREAT GODS is currently available at Amazon. (I think it’ll turn up on B&N eventually and I’m trying to get him to put his stuff up on Kobo, so fingers crossed.)