Showing posts with label ml wang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ml wang. Show all posts
Last year I wasn’t able to post my top
reads but I was reminded that there are a few readers who are keeping their eye
out for it (thanks Pradeep). So this year I wanted to be sure to not be lazy. 2024
was a varied reading year with a wide variety of epic fantasy. Infact my top 7
are indicative of how rich the stories were
and it wasn’t easy ranking them.
1) The Storm beneath The World by Michael R. Fletcher – This was an incredibly unique story about an anthromorphic insect civilization & easily the best story that has sprouted form the mad Canadian’s mind. Can’t wait to read the sequel and see how Fletcher ends it all.
2) The Doors Of Midnight by RR Virdi – The sequel to The First Binding was in everyway a sequel that outshone its predecessor. The brilliance of the author’s prose & plotting skills were already visible in the preceding title but in this one, he took things to a new level. The 3rd volume in the Tales Of Tremaine is easily one of my most anticipated reads whenever it releases.
3) Herald by Rob J. Hayes – The beginning of a new epic fantasy from one of my favourites is always a cause to celebrate. With the Godeater saga, Rob plans to go the GRRM route and has written a story that is simultaneously unfolding across three millennia.
4) The Last Shield by Cameron Johnston – Cameron Johnston is a huge fan of David Gemmell and in this book, he was able to give us a heroic fantasy story & a stoic female MC who absolutely would have done the big man proud.
5) Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang – This book was a fantasy title that originally was released in 2023 but I got to it in 2024. M.L. Wang’s BOBH was a fascinating tapestry about academia, racism and xenophobia while giving us a fascinating world. An incredibly different follow up to Kaigen but retaining all of the author’s signature style.
6) The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence – This was another 2023 title which I was only able to read a year later after its release. The Library trilogy book 1 is possibly the most meta story that Mark Lawrence has written & another feather in his already shining cap.
7) Fool’s Promise by Angela Boord – Angela Boord’s 2nd volume of the Eterean saga showcased exactly why we loved Fortune’s Fool. With more worldbuilding & complex characters, accompanied by stellar prose, this sequel proved why AB needs to be celebrated by more readers.
8) How To Become The Dark Lord And Die Trying by Django Wexler – This was a funny story that exceeded my wildest expectations as the author really went all in with its zany premise. Filled with snark, humour & a lot of fun, this is one series that I couldn’t get more of.
9) Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. Gibson – Adrian M. Gibson’s debut was a sleek hybrid mixing fantasy, SF, & Noir with a complex world scenario. It was also very polished & hence was the FBC finalist for SPFBOX. If you haven’t read this one yet, you need to jump on it.
10) The Hunter’s Gambit by Ciel Pierlot – I was made aware of this book thanks to my blogmate Caitlin, and her review precisely encapsulates what this book is about. Evil vampires, bloody action, a morally grey protagonist made this standalone a quick and fast read. Ciel Pierlot absolutely nailed this dark fantasy tale & I hope we get more stories within this milieu.
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Wednesday, September 18, 2024
The Sword of Kaigen & Where Loyalties Lie - Special Editions Interview with Bryce O'Connor (interviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)
SPFBO has a special place in our hearts. Mark Lawrence's creation has cast a special spotlight on indie fantasy and self-published authors. Since its inception from 2015, we have had nine titles that have been declared SPFBO Champions.
Thanks to Bryce O'Connor & the Wraithmarked Creative team, we are getting two special HC editions for M. L. Wang's SWORD OF KAIGEN (SPFBO 2019 Champion) & Rob J. Hayes' WHERE LOYALTIES LIE (SPFBO 2017 Champion).
The campaign was launched on September 3rd 2024, and it was fully funded in 6 mins. As of right now, its sitting at over $335k (3350% success rate). So today, we are happy to have the head of Wraithmarked, Bryce O'Connor, to talk a little bit about the project and whet your appetites.
I love best-of lists and reading wrap-ups. As 2023 comes to a close, it's time to sit, think, and write such a post. I always do it with pleasure.
It was a rather good year. I've read a lot and discovered some excellent reads. Contrary to previous years, my 2023 wrap-up is dominated by fun, pulpy, and entertaining, with just a few "serious" works thrown in the mix.
I guess it's because the year has been intense and I simply gravitated toward easier, more accessible books. I've rediscovered my love for thrillers and mysteries but I won't list them because it's a fantasy website, after all. That said, some of my most thrilling reads this year were all thrillers. I'll mention a few standouts here, in case someone here is interested: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, False Witness by Karin Slaughter, The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson, and The Traitor by Ava Glass.
I hope some of you will find inspiration here and maybe discover something worth attention :)
Official Author Website
Read FBC's Review of The Sword of Kaigen
M. L. Wang was born in Wisconsin
in 1992, decided she wanted to be an author at the age of nine, and never grew
up. She currently splits her time between writing fantasy books and working at
a martial arts school in her home city of Madison.
When she isn’t building worlds on the page, she
builds them in her aquarium full of small, smart fish that love to explore
castles and don’t make noise during writing time.
[Q] Hello M.L.!
Welcome to Fantasy Book Critic and thank you so much for taking some time to
chat with us. Your book is making quite a splash in this year's SPFBO, and
you certainly have made some fans within this blog. Could you tell us a bit
about yourself? What do you do when you aren't writing fantasy books?
[ML] Thank
you so much for having me! The Sword of Kaigen is the first adult
fantasy book I’ve ever written, so it’s been kind of a shock how people have
taken to it. A good kind of shock. Happy shockwaves.
In
high school, when people asked about my hobbies, I would always say writing and
martial arts. In the intervening years, both of those turned into jobs, so now
I just sound like a loser with no hobbies. Maybe that’s not completely true. Other
than writing stuff and kicking stuff, I enjoy walking along bodies of water,
getting too into TV shows, and doing amateur art projects that are too bad to
be shared online.
[Q] Why do you write
fantasy books? Or if that phrasing is too pointed, why do you write? Do you
have any formal training?
[ML] Writing has always
been my way of processing the world. That
might sound like a recipe for contemporary or non-fiction, but I only ever
write speculative fiction (of my own will, anyway; obviously, in my youth,
there was the odd school assignment). For me, a lot of the
fun of fictionalizing the human experience is in the grandiosity, which in my
published books takes the form of emotionally charged superpowers. You don’t
have to take a microscope to an emotion if you can blow it up to the size of a
dragon.
I have little formal
training mainly because every creative writing class that’s ever been available
to me has centered on writing short stories, a medium I despise. Not short
stories by other people, I love those. They’re perfect for my slippery
attention span. But as a writer, I prefer working on the kind of expansive
worlds, serial adventures, and slow-burn character arcs that don’t fit in a few
thousand words.
[Q] What made you
decide to enter the SPFBO? Had you entered previously? To add to that, why have
you taken the self-publishing route over traditional?
[ML] This
is my first SPFBO entry. Petrik Leo, who was one of the first people to review The
Sword of Kaigen over at Novel Notions, recommended that I enter. Prior to
that, I had only heard about the competition through Kitty G’s SPFBO 4 videos
and hadn’t thought of entering myself. Petrik and JC Kang both (separately)
made sure that I marked the competition on my calendar and knew when to enter,
so big thanks to them!
[Q] The Sword of
Kaigen is such a melting pot of cultures, what would you say your primary
cultural fonts are? Does your own background integrate into these inspirations?
[ML] Ninety
percent of my world-building research has been devoted to the Mande of West
Africa. This is because the Mande are the primary inspiration for the dominant
people on Planet Duna, called the Yammankalu (those dark-skinned fire
elementals who show up very briefly in The Sword of Kaigen). Theonite
explores that larger African-dominated world, while The Sword of Kaigen focuses
on a little corner of it that is loosely based on Japan. Even in backwater
Kaigen, you’ll find the West African influence in their occupational caste
system, facets of their religion, and some of their terms of address.
As the name Wang might
suggest, I am neither West African nor Japanese. My mom is American and my dad
is from Jiangsu, China. For those unfamiliar with Eastern World War II history,
Jiangsu is the province where the Nanjing Massacre happened. Growing up, I had
a weird relationship with Japan—basically trying to reconcile my fondness for
modern Japanese culture and people with the genocide that affected the previous
generation of my family and left a scar on the collective Chinese psyche.
Earlier in the year, I
wrote this
long meditation on how my experience
of being a biracial kid trying to communicate
across cultural lines drove me to create an ‘upside down’ version of our world.
I won’t dump all that baggage here, but the underlying premise of Planet Duna is
that it takes the racial hierarchies of our own
history and flips them, giving the reader a chance to walk a mile in someone
else’s shoes. In Theonite, ‘Europeans’ (Hadeans) have been colonized by
‘West Africans’ (Yammankalu). In The Sword of Kaigen, the ‘Chinese’
(Ranganese) do some genocide in a ‘Japan’ (Shirojima, Kaigen) ruled by an
Imperial ‘Korea’ (Jungsan, Kaigen). You get the idea. Like I said above,
fiction is the way I process reality. This was all a coping mechanism of my
teenage brain.
[Q]
Your decision to set The Sword of Kaigen in a modern setting is an interesting
one. Had you considered setting it in a historical setting, or was modern-with-ancient
techniques always the goal?
[ML] I
never thought of the modern setting as an interesting decision—though maybe
that’s because it wasn’t really a decision at all. The central conflict of The
Sword of Kaigen was cemented into the larger Theonite timeline long
before I ever thought to write a spin-off novel about it, so it wasn’t like
changing the era was on the table. I suppose, if I had really wanted to tell a
traditional fantasy story, I could have gone back to Shirojima, Kaigen’s age of
founding heroes, but that would have robbed Planet Duna of its underlying
function, which is to explore contemporary realities.
All
Theonite stories are really about modern people in the modern world. And
to me, one of the most interesting things about the modern world is the interplay
between traditional lifestyles and new technology. Some of the Japanese
officers who shot at my relatives during World War II carried katanas. I’ve
been to mountain villages in central Africa where men headed out to hunt with
spears in their hands and iPhones in their back pockets. The mutual exclusivity
some people imagine between swords and cell phone towers is a product of genre,
not reality. And that bums me out. Genre fiction is supposed to expand the imagination,
not narrow it. This answer got away from me a bit. Sorry.
[Q] Tangents are always appreciated, and I happen to agree with you. There’s a lot
of what you could term narrow fantasy out there that’s basically comfort food –
sometimes necessary but not always useful.
[ML] Most of my favorite
sci-fi and fantasy mixes genres in weird ways—and I include the pioneers like
Tolkien and Shelley in that; they were so weird people had to invent genres
around them.
 |
| Misaki by Coralie Jubénot (Merwild) |
[Q] We don't often
get to see middle-aged mothers as our hero protagonists in fantasy fiction,
much to the harm of the genre. Was there ever any fear that this would not land
with readers? Spoilers - it lands.
[ML] I actually just published
a
guest post on how Misaki was never intended to be a
protagonist and the series of accidents that led to her becoming one. To sum up
that post here, Misaki originally features as a mentor figure in the Theonite
books and was constructed accordingly. When I started writing The Sword of
Kaigen, I thought a) that the whole story would be about half its current
length and b) that Misaki would be a secondary point-of-view character to her
more active, protagonist-y son, Mamoru. She wasn’t initially designed to be a main
character, hence her protagonist-atypical characteristics, like her age and
marital status.
It was as I ran into
the unexpected complexities of her rage, grief and regret that she became a
main character—at which point I wasn’t thinking ‘can readers handle this?’ as
much as I was thinking ‘can I handle this?’ Misaki’s arc was one of the
most challenging I’ve ever written, which makes it so meaningful to me that
readers have managed to connect with her.
[Q] Your prior books
are labeled as young adult, but The Sword of Kaigen is not. These are connected
books, but how do they relate to one another in a series sense? Do you consider
them vital to one another? Do they share any characters?
[ML] The Theonite
books take place thirteen years after The Sword of Kaigen and follow a
set of younger kids, including some of the tiny babies from The Sword of
Kaigen (most prominently Robin’s son, Daniel, and Misaki’s youngest, Izumo)
through their teenage years.
I wrote Theonite
and The Sword of Kaigen to function as complete stories, independent of
one other. Aside from my personal preference that a given story stand on its
own, this approach was my only option from a marketing standpoint. A lot of
parents don’t want their ten-year-olds who enjoy Theonite reading The
Sword of Kaigen and a lot of readers who enjoy The Sword of Kaigen aren’t
into YA, so I really did need the option to sell them separately.
[Q] Without
spoiling things, The Sword of Kaigen seems ripe for a sequel, while at the same
time telling such a complete story that it could easily stand on its own. Is
that your plan? Is this a trilogy or series? How far have you planned?
[ML]The Sword of Kaigen will never have a direct sequel for a few reasons. First, I was
very depressed when I wrote it and I’m glad the experience is behind me. Second,
the book represents a tiny cross-section of a planet-wide story I’ve been
plotting since I was a teenager, meaning that major events are set on an
inflexible timeline. Holding to that timeline, there aren’t any novel-worthy
developments on Mount Takayubi between The Sword of Kaigen and Theonite.
This isn’t to say that the Matsuda family’s story is over—far from it—but their
ongoing adventures will be tied up in the plot of the main series.
I have just
started work on a newsletter serial called Rage and Whisper, which takes
place nine years after The Sword of Kaigen. It isn’t a sequel per se but
does feature some of the same characters. The Sword of Kaigen itself
started out as a newsletter serial, so if people enjoy this project, I may end
up publishing it as a book or novella down the road.
[Q] Follow up question that is somewhat
repetitive, but will your further books also stick to YA, or do your
characters, in essence, “grow up” in to adult fiction?
[ML] Theonite was originally modeled after Harry Potter, a series in
which the tone and content age substantially with the protagonists, so yes,
that is the plan.
[Q]
Your book manages to create in-depth, authentic characters, an engrossing plot
full of unknowns, and some of the best action scenes that I've ever read in any
book. How do you balance this? Do you have literary priorities?
[ML] First
of all, it’s deeply flattering to hear that you liked the action scenes so
much, since action certainly hasn’t always been my strong suit.
I’m
a character-oriented writer before anything else. In my opinion, an otherwise
beautiful story without strong character development is like a sexy car without
an engine; cool, but what’s the point? This is why Shakespeare inventing
ridiculous plot contrivances in order to push his characters to their emotional
limits will always be stronger storytelling to me than a logical sequence of
events that doesn’t challenge its characters.
When
I write, everything—the plot, the magic, the religion, the martial arts—are
negotiable based on the arcs of the main characters. I know that the action
scenes in The Sword of Kaigen were satisfying to write because
they served as expressions of the characters’ emotions, relationships, and
personal growth. I think (at least, I hope) they’re satisfying to read for the
same reason.
 |
| The Duel by Arielle Werthaim (arielle_the_merms) |
[Q] Not a question, but
that specific spouse duel later in the novel illustrates that point perfectly.
I’m not sure I’ve ever read an action scene that was so necessarily narrative.
Speaking of fight scenes, what influences are you drawing from to plan them
out? They have the feel of professionally choreographed sequences. Are there
any particular martial arts movies you're drawn to, or does it all stem from
your own experience (you know, fighting with ice swords)?
[ML] The influence of Avatar:
The Last Airbender on my universe should be obvious, alongside kung-fu
movies and lots of anime. Going into the project, I did take some sword courses
in order to get a better feel for armed combat (my forte is traditional taekwondo,
which is closer to the bad guys’ fighting style than the main characters’).
Sadly, there were no swords made of ice.
[Q] And speaking of
influences, do you have any fantasy or literary influences that particularly
stand out? And tangentially to that, how would you say the experience of being
an Asian-American fantasy author is in a world where Asian culture is only
lately being properly represented in fantasy?
[ML] Okay. Here’s the part
where I have to admit that I don’t read much fantasy, or indeed much at all. I
know that everyone and their mom insists that you need to read in your genre
constantly in order to be a good writer, but that had better not be true
because reading has never been part of my writing process. I very occasionally
listen to fantasy audiobooks (my hands-down favorite in recent memory was
Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings) but when I read with my eyeballs,
it’s almost always history books.
The
world is full of fantasy based on other fantasy, meanwhile, there are whole
real-world cultures that go unexplored in modern SFF. I have a tragically
limited attention span for reading—just ask any of my grade school teachers, I
was the worst—so when I am able to read, I prefer to put that energy into the
neglected histories of our own world. If these count as literature, I would
cite the Kojiki, the Nihon Shoki, and The Tale of the Heike
as influences for The Sword of Kaigen.
As for being an
Asian-American author… all I can say is that I got lucky with my timing. I wish
I could claim that I’m a sales genius who planned to release an Asian-inspired
fantasy at exactly the time that books like The Poppy War were taking
off in the traditional market, but I’m rarely that tuned in to the trends. JC
Kang and Petrik were the ones who initially compared The Sword of Kaigen
to The Poppy War and pointed me in the direction of that market, which I
think played a role in getting the book off the ground.
In
the long run, I hope I’m not known as Asian author of Asian fantasy, since that
isn’t my focus and I don’t plan on releasing any more Asian-centric stories.
Asian cultures, martial arts, and characters will always be an important part
of my work; you’re just unlikely to see anything as bluntly, homogenously Asian
as The Sword of Kaigen from me again. Samurai have been done. They’re
done all the time by writers more capable and better informed on the subject
than myself. I’m going to try to devote the rest of my writing career to things
you haven’t seen before.
[Q] What would you
do if you won the SPFBO?
I’m not sure. Run in
circles like a toddler? Probably tell my parents, who will say “That’s great,
honey,” and then move on with their lives. It’s not something I’ve planned for,
though it would amazing. Another happy shockwave.
Official Author Website
Order The Sword of Kaigen over HERE (USA) & HERE (UK)
Order The Sword of Kaigen over HERE (USA) & HERE (UK)
OFFICIAL AUTHOR INFORMATION: M. L. Wang was born in Wisconsin in 1992, decided she wanted to be an author at the age of nine, and never grew up. She currently splits her time between writing fantasy books and working at a martial arts school in her home city of Madison.
When she isn’t building worlds on the page, she builds them in her aquarium full of small, smart fish that love to explore castles and don’t make noise during writing time.
FORMAT/INFO: The Sword of Kaigen is 651 pages long divided over 31 numbered chapters and is a standalone novel based in ML Wang's Thoenite world. The author self-published it in February 2019. The cover art and design are by the author herself.
OVERVIEW: Boring and predictable.
Not the book, though, but my review. I join The Sword of Kaigen fan club and I plan to force anyone listening to try it. I won’t lie, I hoped I would identify its unforgivable flaws and enumerate them to show how insightful I am. I did find some, but they didn’t stop me from loving the book.
The Sword of Kaigen introduces memorable and relatable characters and throws them into disastrous conflict with a powerful enemy. Kusanagi Peninsula, renowned for its unstoppable warriors who bend elements to their will, stands between the Empire and invaders. Fourteen-year-old Mamoru represents the Matsuda clan proudly and with full conviction. A new student, Kwang Chul-hee, who transfers from outside of the province challenges his beliefs. What if everything their academy teaches is just propaganda? And what if the Empire treats legendary Kaiganese warriors as cannon fodder?
Mamoru’s mother, Misaki, doesn’t deny the accusations. Once an accomplished warrior, she’s sacrificed everything to marry into the Matsuda family and provide it with sons. Her past haunts her and when she receives a letter warning her that the entire Kusanagi Peninsula is in danger, she acts. But will her husband, cold, distanced and powerful warrior, approve of a woman fighting for her own?
The Sword of Kaigen focuses on a mother and son. Their histories and arcs are inseparable and strongly connected. Misaki gives Mamoru the strength to challenge his beliefs about the world and his place in it. Mamoru’s conflict with his father gives Misaki the strength to challenge social norms and rediscover her inner warrior. As we watch them grow closer to each other, it’s hard not to admire Wang’s knack for characterization and conveying strong and believable emotions. It works against the reader - when the enemy strikes and mayhem begins no one is safe. The story takes wild and dark turns.
At 651 pages, the book rarely feels too long (once you get past a somewhat tepid beginning). It contains so much. The complexity of the Kaiganese traditions and genealogy. Martial arts, elemental magic, and epic battles. Small graceful details and moments of silence and reflection between powerful climaxes. The protagonists of The Sword of Kaigen are masters of theonite power known as jiya, the ability to control water and ice. They’ve honed their skills and mastered complex techniques that allow senior Matsuda clan’s members (Takeshi and Takeru) to display godlike powers. The epic battle that happens halfway through the book contains so much pure awesomeness (but also tragedy) that the book is worth reading for it alone.
As I mentioned I found some flaws. The beginning is slow and filled with heavy info-dumping. It requires patience and trust from the reader. Heavy use of honorifics and fictitious therms can feel confusing. The redemption arc of the character you loathe (unless you’re a misogynistic boor) felt rushed and unconvincing. I liked the result but not the path that has led to a sudden change in his relationship dynamics with his partner and others. The last chapters weren’t necessary for this story to work but I understand they had to be included to tie TSoK to Wang’s Theonite series. I’m ok with it.
On the other hand, Wang plays with tropes and makes a middle-aged mother a compelling and memorable character you root for. The other character starts as a young prodigy and just when you think you know what will happen, Wang will crush your expectations. Important characters die. Some deaths are brutal and gruesome, some tragic. One of them will tear you apart and is, for me, one of the most beautiful death scenes in all fantasy.
So, while the pacing could be tighter, the characters and action-scenes are fantastic. Wang's writing conveys raw emotions well and some twists will crush you. And that is a sign of greatness.
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