Every Friday, we here @ Del Rey Spectra will place a 50 page excerpt of a selected title on Suvudu. Whether it is science fiction, epic fantasy, alternate history, horror, urban fantasy, paranormal, the possibilities are endless. Luck in the Shadows is the first novel in Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner Series. It was the recipient of a 1997 Locus Award for Best First Novel, and stars two complex and intriguing characters. Editor Anne Groell tells us more about this exciting classic series and working the author. "They do say you never forget your first—nor do you! Okay, so Lynn wasn’t my first buy ever—I had two previous buys as an editorial assistant at my first house—but LUCK IN THE SHADOWS was the first book I picked up for Bantam, back in 1995. And I instantly knew it was something special. It had an epic story, great characters you just loved hanging out with, great drama, and a rich leavening of humor. (I often claim I knew this book had to be mine right after Seregil told Alec how he had once turned himself into a brick, and it is probably true; I still laugh aloud at that moment.) There was genuine magic in those pages, which is probably why it is still in print lo these many years later (sixteen, to be precise, but who is counting?), and why the Nightrunner series still has a strong and devoted following. Lynn and I have been working together now for all of those sixteen years. We have worked on nine books together, and it has always been a joy. It’s not often that you get to have that long of a relationship with someone whose work you truly respect and adore. And Lynn additionally has the distinction of being one of the few authors to ever catch me up so thoroughly in a book that I forgot I was editing it. I vividly recall the crushing moment of disappointment when a scene I’d been waiting quite a long while for finally arrived, and then didn’t quite work as it should. Followed, after a beat, by the elated realization that, as the editor, I could fix it. Hooray! I don’t know how many books I have edited since I first set pencil to LUCK IN THE SHADOWS—hundreds, certainly—but LUCK still remains near and dear to my heart, and firmly at the top of my short list for really great books to recommend to people looking for an awesome new world explore. So if you have not read it yet, please do yourself a favor and dip in. And maybe you, too, will see why this book and this world so thoroughly captured my heart all those years ago. And why receiving Lynn’s newest book is always like a present, allowing me to once more immerse myself in a world I have truly grown to cherish." As always, feel free to give us feedback in the comments. Or let us know on Twitter via a direct message to our Twitter maven, Sarah Peed: www.twitter.com/delreyspectra. Or write on the wall of our Facebook page: Like us at www.facebook.com/delreyspectra Please enjoy this excerpt of LUCK IN THE SHADOWS, available wherever books are sold. LUCK IN THE SHADOWS by Lynn Flewelling, Excerpt
