Today is the official publication date for The Cloud Roads
Moon’s world is populated by many different intelligent species (none of them human), and he has never known which one he belongs to. Orphaned at a young age, he’s wandered from tribe to tribe, hiding a dangerous secret. Like the universally hated Fell, whose only aims are slaughter and conquest, Moon can fly–which leads to predictably violent cases of mistaken identity. When he does find his own people, the Raksura, life doesn’t get any easier, since their internal politics are vicious, and they too are in imminent danger from the Fell. Cue hairsbreadth escapes and feats of derring-do, as Moon helps his new family evacuate their doomed colony and then rescues a group of kidnapped children. Wells (The Gate of Gods) merrily ignores genre conventions as she spins an exciting adventure around an alien hero who anyone can identify with. –Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
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From Martha’s post about the journey to see this novel published:
In 2006, even though I had two novels coming out (the paperback edition of The Gate of Gods, and my first Stargate: Atlantis novel Reliquary), three short stories, a non-fiction article, and a reprint I did myself of my first novel which had gone out of print, I was told that my career was pretty much over except for the death throes.
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In honor of this book, and of an author who kept the faith, I am giving away two copies. Two chances to win!
#1 Post a comment here on this entry about rediscovering a writer, or about a writer’s work that’s always been a comfort read.
#2 Tweet a link to this blog entry. Must include @arcaedia for me to see. (Example: Happy release day @marthawells1 The Cloud Roads. RT to win a copy from agent @arcaedia. Details: http://bit.ly/dF3W2G)
Winners will chosen at 5pm Thursday 3/17. One entry per person per method.
Et in arcaedia, ego. 
Jenn will not be surprised to hear that Zelazny has always, always been a comfort read for me. Not just Amber, but also a lot of his short fiction (I have a complete set of the six books NESFA did)
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are my comfort reads and I’m reading “I Dare” for the millionth time right now, even though I’ve got 5 other interesting books from the library looking at me.
Jane Austen is my comfort author – especially Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion.
Lately, also Harry Potter series, especially the later books in the series.
Every few years I loop back around to Mark Twain, and then wonder why I’ve been gone so long.
The first book I thought of for “comfort read” was Gail Carson Levine’s “Ella Enchanted.” It’s been a while since I last read it, but I always enjoyed that book and the story. It was the first book I ever read twice.
Lois McMaster Bujold has been established for a few decades. I had never heard of her until three years ago. I was in a Borders looking for a new book to read. My friend grabbed CORDELIA’S HONOR off the shelf and told me I would love it. I bought it, but didn’t read it for months.
Three months after finally opening that book, I owned every omnibus of the Miles series, had read everything available to that point, and had started on her fantasy works. So 22 years after SHARDS OF HONOR was first published, I bought and read CORDELIA’S HONOR (an omnibus of SHARDS and BARRAYAR). I’ve reread it every year since.
I have two books I run to at least once a year if not more – Robin McKinley’s “The Blue Sword” and Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” – depending what kind of comfort I need. I wore out one paper back copy of “The Blue Sword”.
My main comfort read is probably Moorcock’s Elric books. That, Zelazny’s Amber books, Dune, and LotR are the quartet that built my brain, really.
Bujold Vor books and Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword are my comfort reads.
And… Martha’s Ile-Rien trilogy. What I adore is the relationship between the three main characters. They had absolute trust and deep understanding of each other. I always mean to reread just a good part, and then get sucked into reading them all over again. Wish so much they were out in audio.
Comfort read? Tolkien, The Hobbit specifically. Author re-discovered? Charles Portis, I had no idea True Grit was a book, let alone a great book, until the 2nd movie version came out.
Comfort read: When all else fails, I return to Discworld, my home away from home. Rediscovery: David Edding’s The Redemption of Althaulus. So epic, so much fun. I really love his wry voice–you can tell how much fund he’s having writing the book.
A comfort read? I definitely have some of those!
During my childhood I always turned to Laura Ingalls Wilder! I loved reading the Little House books. As a teenager and now as a young adult, I read and reread Tamora Pierce’s books over and over. I own almost every one of her books, from both the Tortall Universe and the Circle of Magic universe. As with any good novel, she does a great job with giving the reader a strong heroine or hero (mostly heroines – one of her motives as a writer is to give young girls strong female role models) and it is always comforting to read about someone going against the grain and beating the odds. 🙂
I’ve also read Martha Wells’ Death of the Necromancer a couple times and that’s always a good time. It’s not “comforting” though, it’s so suspenseful and exciting!
When I look for writings that bring me back to who I am and I like to open books such as Dune, The Sword of Truth novels or The Last Templar. These books surprise me every time I read am as I pick something new up.
My comfort reads are all YA works that I read when I was, well, a YA. Heinlein’s juveniles, C.S. Lewis, John Christopher, Alexander Key — all of these are good stories well told. I may snort now at some of the attitudes that appear in them, but when I’m feeling low I can reach for my old friends and be swept away without a lot of mental parsing required.
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As a child, I grew up reading Jack London’s novels and find them to be very comforting reads. Maybe that’s why I love the cold even though I grew up in Phoenix?
As funny as it sounds, two very different writers that I can always count on for a “comfort read” are Stephen King and Terry Pratchett. They are, of course, masters of two different genres but the one thing that they have in common is voice. When I sit and read their writing, it is almost like I can hear them reading the words in my head. With King, I am also captivated with the stories he tells; with Pratchett, I enjoy the blending of fantasy and real world allegory (along with the LOL humor, too).
Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon. Although last I was rereading Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake novels over Christmas break.
So many comfort reads, but I’ll settle for the complete collection of Fredric Brown short stories released by NESFA press, nice to dip into from time to time.
Neil Gaiman is quickly becoming my go-to comfort author.
Cloud Roads looks really interesting (most of your clients’ books do, I’ve noticed!). I also tweeted.
When I’m looking for comfort especially with all the chaos in the world I reach into my personal pensieve, a bookcase I crafted from scratch. From the scattered mess of books there is nothing more comforting for me than Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It is so relaxing to fold into an easy chair, discard my teabag in the trash while I listen to Best of Queen. It makes me look forward to 2012.
Douglas Adams, especially Life, the Universe and Everything. Has just enough sweet bits, but also melancholy, to match my mood when I’m in need of comfort, but not make it darker.