l’Homme Rune
Awesome news out of Paris this week. The Warded Man, AKA The Painted Man, AKA Malowany Czloweik, AKA Das Lied der Dunkelheit, AKA El Hombre Marcado, has a new brother: l’Homme Rune, book 1 of le Cycle des Demons!
L’Homme Rune, the French translation, will be released in France and Belgium (and I think part of Switzerland) on October 2, 2009 from Milady, the newest imprint from Bragelonne publishing. Some of you may recall my visit to the Bragelonne offices during my all-too-brief trip to Paris last year. If you read French, you can check out Bragelonne’s recap of my visit. I assume it’s kind, but my French has really degraded to “Je m’appelle Peat” and “Je ne parle pas Francais”. Still, I’m going to make a real effort to read l’Homme Rune, in hopes that my familiarity with the source material will help revive something from the the 5 years of French classes I took almost 20 years ago. There’s also the interview I did for Bragelonne, available in both English and French.
I had an amazing time seeing Paris with publisher Stephane Marsan, and meeting his incredible staff. It was heartwarming to see a group of people who love their work so, and who act more like family than coworkers. I felt like I was in very good hands. Once, many years ago, I worked in an office like that, and I know what a rare and precious thing it is. I’ve spent years trying to find it again, but I think it really was a once in a lifetime experience.
But I digress. Interesting fact about the French edition: It will include the original Prologue to the novel, which was excised from the English language edition, and does not appear in any of the other translations. Stephane loved that prologue, and did not agree with the decision to remove it. I for one, am delighted to have an edition where it is added back in.
But wait! There’s more!
Yes, we have a cover. And not just any cover, a FRIGGIN’ AWESOME cover by stellar French artist Miguel Coimbra! Like the first Japanese volume, it depicts a scene from the book (my favorite cover style, no matter what the Western publishers say), showing young Arlen facing down the immense rock demon One Arm.
Of course, the artist took some license, as the world didn’t explode during One Arm’s assault, but hey. You can’t argue with awesome results.
Click for a bigger view:
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