Caleb Carr News

Paperback release of The Legend of Broken

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The Legend of BrokenI’m taking a brief break from the current blog series because the trade paperback of Caleb Carr’s latest novel, The Legend of Broken, has been released today. The US paperback has the same cover design as the hardcover, while the international paperback has a new cover design (shown to the right) that is extremely similar to the e-book released last year. The paperback also contains a new cast of main characters list with pronunciation guide that wasn’t included in the hardcover. Very handy!

If you haven’t already given The Legend of Broken a go, I highly recommend it. For more information about the novel, you can view my thoughts in my original blog post from earlier in the year, and I have included a few comments below from The Washington Post’s review of the novel that I think provides a reasonably good overview of the work. You can also listen to an interview Caleb Carr gave about the novel at the WAMC Radio Book Show website, or watch a talk and Q&A that he gave at a book signing for the novel last year.

The Legend of Broken has also been released in audiobook format by Simon & Schuster Audio, read by George Guidall and Tim Gerard Reynolds. You can read a comprehensive review of the audiobook at Dab of Darkness.

The Washington Post:

Set circa 745 A.D., during Europe’s Dark Ages, “The Legend of Broken” straddles the line between epic fantasy and alternate history … an excellent and old-fashioned entertainment that evolves into a clever discourse on the history and development of modern warfare. Best known for novels like “The Alienist” and “The Angel of Darkness,” Carr is also a noted military historian. “The Legend of Broken” has none of the fin-de-siecle trappings that distinguished his earlier novels, but his gift for integrating historical detail with lurid spectacle rivals those on display in the much-missed BBC/HBO series “Rome.” … Carr’s depiction of 8th-century Europe as a gallimaufry of religions, superstitions, science and cultural tradition is marvelous: His Dark Ages contain incandescent flashes of insight into an era that itself is often resigned to a mere footnote … At its best, “The Legend of Broken” seamlessly blends epic adventure with serious research and asks questions that men and women grappled with in the Dark Ages and still do today.

The Legend of Broken

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For those who may be interested, a recording from WAMC Northeast Public Radio’s “The Book Show” featuring Caleb Carr talking about his new novel, The Legend of Broken, is available to listen to on the radio station’s website. In addition, for those who did not see the comments on a previous entry, a recording taken of a talk Mr. Carr gave at a book signing late last year has also been made available and can be viewed below.

Finally, I have recently finished reading The Legend of Broken and although I don’t normally write book reviews, I have come away feeling that Broken deserves wider recognition, especially among Caleb Carr’s regular readership, so I have included my thoughts below for anybody who has not read the book but would be interested to know more about it. | Continue reading →

Third Book News!

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I hope you all enjoyed the live discussion yesterday at the Big City Book Club with Caleb Carr as a special guest. Most excitingly for regular visitors to 17th Street and long-time readers of the Alienist books, Mr. Carr has confirmed that a third book is indeed planned! In addition, another crime novel with “historical overtones” is also in the pipeline. The full question with Mr. Carr’s response is below.

Question: Do you have any plans to write a third book?

Caleb Carr: Well, not exactly the time to ask this: I have just finished a massive new work, “The Legend of Broken,” which is very different, and yet, at its core, not so different at all. An experiment in the theory that most of the questions we’ve been discussing are philosophically eternal, like nobility, greed, and stupidity; and I hope everyone will give it a chance, even if it is not set in New York.

And so I can’t set RIGHT off to do another long Alienist book. I have another crime novel in mind, with many historical overtones, and if all goes well, I will tackle the last in the Alienist trilogy thereafter.

And yes, it will unravel the mystery of Sara Howard…

You can read the rest of the questions submitted to Mr. Carr and his answers at the Big City Book Club or on the message board. There was some really interesting discussion about the characters, the social issues at the heart of The Alienist, the question of whether the book will ever make it to the screen (or the stage?), and the history of New York City itself. Enjoy!

Online Discussion

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Although it’s been a long time between updates, I am very pleased to say that there is substantial news to report. Starting with news that will be of most interest to fans of the Alienist books, The New York Times is reporting that there will be an online discussion about the books this week on January 15 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. EST with Caleb Carr as a special guest!

The Big City Book Club will convene online for our live discussion of “The Alienist” on Jan. 15, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., with two special guests taking part: Caleb Carr, the book’s author, and Ric Burns, the filmmaker behind the public television mini-series “New York: A Documentary Film.”

Set in 1896, just as Theodore Roosevelt comes to take over the Police Department in a city where vice reigns, Mr. Carr’s 1994 literary thriller revolves around a murder investigation conducted by a reporter for The New York Times and his psychologist friend. At the book’s center is the mutilated body of a young male prostitute discovered on the Williamsburg Bridge, along with the nascent world of criminal profiling.

Join us for the discussion of the book and of the world of 19th-century New York.

In addition, readers may be interested to learn that Caleb Carr released a new novel, The Legend of Broken, late last year. Described as “…[a]n excellent and old-fashioned entertainment that evolves into a clever discourse on the history and development of modern warfare,” in a review by The Washington Post, Random House released the following description of the novel:

Legend meets history in this mesmerizing novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Caleb Carr. Demonstrating the rich storytelling, skillful plotting, and depth of research he showcased in The Alienist, Carr has written a wildly imaginative, genre-bending saga that redefines the boundaries of literature.

Some years ago, a remarkable manuscript long rumored to exist was discovered: The Legend of Broken. It tells of a prosperous fortress city where order reigns at the point of a sword—even as scheming factions secretly vie for control of the surrounding kingdom. Meanwhile, outside the city’s granite walls, an industrious tribe of exiles known as the Bane forages for sustenance in the wilds of Davon Wood.

At every turn, the lives of Broken’s defenders and its would-be destroyers intertwine: Sixt Arnem, the widely respected and honorable head of the kingdom’s powerful army, grapples with his conscience and newfound responsibilities amid rumors of impending war. Lord Baster-kin, master of the Merchants’ Council, struggles to maintain the magnificence of his kingdom even as he pursues vainglorious dreams of power. And Keera, a gifted female tracker of the Bane tribe, embarks on a perilous journey to save her people, enlisting the aid of the notorious and brilliant philosopher Caliphestros. Together, they hope to exact a ruinous revenge on Broken, ushering in a day of reckoning when the mighty walls will be breached forever in a triumph of science over superstition.

Breathtakingly profound and compulsively readable, Caleb Carr’s long-awaited new book is an action-packed, multicharacter epic of a medieval clash of cultures—in which new gods collide with old, science defies all expectation, and virtue comes in many guises. Brimming with adventure and narrative invention, The Legend of Broken is an exhilarating and enthralling masterwork.

Let us know what you think of the new book or the New York Times chat at the message board! As an aside, if you tried to make a message board account at any stage last year, you may have found that your account was not validated in a timely manner (my apologies, I was bogged down last year with work and study commitments) so you may need to create a new account in order to post. Rest assured that any new message board accounts will be validated in a timely manner from this point onwards, so please get involved and enjoy a discussion with other readers.