RedT Reads Randomly

and why is s/he making me care so much?

A Crown For Cold Silver is the epic fantasy debut novel by Alex Marshall.  But Alex Marshall is the pseudonym for some renowned author who is doing a very good job of keeping his identity quiet.  Who is she, or he?  Orbit the publisher has refused to disclose so much as the gender of the author.  It is a very big secret. . . 

making for wild speculation all over the Internet.  There are votes for George R . R. Martin and Joe Abercrombie, Brent Weeks or Daniel Abraham, Charles Stross or Alistair Reynolds.  Maybe even K. J. Parker (because he doesn't have enough aliases already?)

not one woman in any of those guesses.  I'm pulling for Elizabeth Bear.

since I can't say for sure whether it's a he or she, I'm just going to go with the word "they" when I'm speaking of the author from now on.

so I've tried to glean some clues.  First of all.  They said "drank" instead of "drunk!"  Can I get a YaY on that?  But then I was saddened when they used sunk instead of sank.  How screwed up is that?  Not much of a clue there.  But here's one;  they use whinging instead of whining.  Sounds British or Australian, right?  But they threw me off when they spelled leaped instead of leapt.  Very tricky, this one.

Anyway, enough speculation.  All I know is, they can write and I like it.  I'd read 180 pages over the weekend, and this morning, I read them again.  Because I couldn't help myself.  

I'm on page 226 of 626, and according to rumors, there are two books to come.  I'm already waiting.