Welcome to Ethshar!

I assume that if you've found this page you probably already know something about Ethshar, but just in case you don't: ''Ethshar'' is the name of an imaginary land that's the setting for an open-ended series of fantasy stories by Lawrence Watt-Evans.

Which is to say, me.

This is one portion of the Misenchanted Page, my somewhat tangled and over-ambitious personal and business website. Like many websites, it's perpetually under construction and mostly out of date; I have grandiose plans, but not the time to carry them out.

I do have An Introduction to Ethshar, which gives a quick overview of the setting, and pages about all the Ethshar novels, both published and planned. (They may not be entirely up to date, though...)

There is now an Ethshar Wiki. Serious Ethshar fans should give it a look and maybe contribute. No, I didn't start it or write any of it, though I've made some corrections.

Cosmos paperbacks
Tor paperbacks
Wildside trade paperbacks

News: The Final Calling is under way!

The eleventh Ethshar novel, and the third to be written as an online serial, is The Final Calling, and it's now in progress. Check it out. Send money.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the previously-announced mass-market paperback edition of The Vondish Ambassador was cancelled and will never appear.

This is nothing to do with Ethshar; the entire Cosmos line was cancelled, with no new titles appearing after April, 2009. The five Ethshar titles that were published are still available. (See covers to right -- including the cover for the never-published paperback of The Vondish Ambassador.)

What's What with Ethshar Today:

The first six Ethshar novels, all long out of print in their original Del Rey paperback editions, are available again, some of them in multiple editions.

Very few brick-and-mortar bookstores stocked the trade paperbacks, since they're small-press reissues, but most of the online booksellers carry them, and they can be special-ordered through Ingram's. The Cosmos paperbacks should be easier to find.

E-book editions of several Ethshar novels are available through Fictionwise. These are readable on the Kindle, even if they're not available from Amazon.

The trade paperback editions of the first six novels include bonus short stories; the mass market editions do not, and the later novels do not, only the first six.

Yes, there have been eight short stories so far, and only six novels include reprints. Chapbooks of the other two stories, "Sirinita's Dragon" and "The God in Red," were sent to donors who supported the online serials of The Spriggan Mirror and The Vondish Ambassador, respectively. I've put both "Sirinita's Dragon" and "The God in Red" online in their entirety now.

The chapbooks included illustrations by Kiri Evans; the online versions do not have these.

When I complete the third serial I expect to provide some sort of exclusive extra like these again, but I have no idea yet as to its exact nature. I don't have any more short stories lying around at the moment, but I could write one...

I'm also considering the possibility of someday doing either a short-story collection, or a sort of catch-all that would include all the short stories and a lot of background material about Ethshar -- maps, histories, etc. So far there aren't enough shorts to fill an entire book, and I haven't had time or energy to put together anything else.

What Dreams May Come: The Future of Ethshar

Yes, it has a future. I don't expect The Final Calling to be the end of the series; I hope to continue doing serials as time and energy permit. I'm leaning toward the next one being The Sorcerer's Widow, but it's still far too soon to be definite.

It's also possible that the series will return to normal publishing eventually, but as a YA ("young adult") series aimed at teenagers; this is still just a vague idea, but it's one my agent likes. If it happens, the next three would most likely be A Feather from Her Wing, Azraya of Ethshar, and Dumery of the Dragon, and I'd hope to see four or five of the existing novels reissued as YA.