Neal Stephenson Stars in Book Trailer Which Pokes Fun at Book Trailers

Posted on April 26, 2012

Amazon Publishing's 47 North imprint just put out a hilarious -- and clever -- book trailer for the new book, The Mongoliad: Book One. The medieval adventure saga is written by a group of authors, headlined by Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear. The trailer opens with Neal sitting in a chair in front of a giant map. He is supposed to talk about swordfighting as fighters demonstrate the various moves: The Peasant's Strike, The Passing Pommel The Pivoting Sword Strip and The Crown Parry and Half Sword Strip.

The director is extremely unhappy with Neal's line delivery, which he thinks is not strong enough. When Neal dutifully intones, "Ah, the longsword, the raw power," the director just isn't feeling it. Also, Neal keeps missing his dramatic pauses.

The trailer ends with the line: "Some books are so good, a trailer just seems Medieval." It's funny and it makes us want to read the book.

Here is the actual book description from the publisher:

"The Foreworld medieval adventure saga was actually born out of swordfighting. Stephenson and the other authors are avid practitioners of Western martial arts and they are part of an enthusiastic study group in Seattle. Stephenson realized that the descriptions of swordfighting in his novels would have been much better with contributions from people with fighting expertise. Thus the idea for a saga about the complex, bloody history of Western martial arts was born, co-written by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, E.D. deBirmingham, Joseph Brassey, Erik Bear, and Cooper Moo."