We have all done it. Stolen into a bookstore’s hoard of stories then scampered off with a freshly purchased fantasy, the treasure held close, to be savored in blissful solitude or amid the buzz of bus rides or as a ward against wasting time in waiting rooms. Yet why do we choose fantasy? Why do we feel that burst of expectation, of hope, when our download completes for our eReader and we can glimpse that first line, that first step into a new fantasy story. If we could chose but one word to describe why we love the fantasy genre, what would it be?

After asking over two hundred people just that question, I swirled the answers in a Wordle caldron, added some eye of newt, mumbled the magic words of my New Year’s resolution, and created a pictorial art. Before viewing it, feel free to pick your own word describing why you love the fantasy genre. You may even add it to the word trove.

#4: Our bubbling anticipation turns into a flash of joy when a fantasy story takes us where we never expected to go, shows us that epic visual that steals our breath. Fantasy is the spoonful of Wonder that helps the reality go down.

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AUTHOR INFORMATION: Kirsten Miller has previously held a variety of jobs like dental assistant, publishing copywriter, advertising strategist, etc. before turning into a wordsmith. She was inspired to become a writer from a young age and had read almost all of Stephen King’s by the time she turned twelve. Her favorite Children’s authors are Phillip Pullman, Stephen King, Jonathan Stroud, and Lemony Snicket who have in turn inspired to her to twist her stories towards the darker and weirder side of fiction. She has two previously published series called The Eternal Ones and The Kiki Strikes series.

OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: A meth dealer. A prostitute. A serial killer.

Anywhere else, they’d be vermin. At the Mandel Academy, they’re called prodigies. The most exclusive school in New York City has been training young criminals for over a century. Only the most ruthless students are allowed to graduate. The rest disappear.

Flick, a teenage pickpocket, has risen to the top of his class. But then Mandel recruits a fierce new competitor who also happens to be Flick’s old flame. They’ve been told only one of them will make it out of the Mandel Academy. Will they find a way to save each other—or will the school destroy them both?

FORMAT/INFO: How To Lead A Life Of Crime is 358 pages long, divided over thirty-four numbered and titled chapters and an epilogue. Narration is in the first-person via Flick who is the sole narrative voice. This book is a standalone story and is unconnected to the author’s previous works.

February 21, 2013 marked the US Hardback and e-book publication of How To Lead A Life Of Crime via Razorbill books.

ANALYSIS: If you read the blurb to this book by Kirsten Miller, it becomes very hard not to be interested in it. The book beckoned me with oh-so-intriguing premise and so I got my hands on a copy and started reading immediately.

The story begins with a sly and street-smart teenager who is slumming in the seedier parts of New York City trying to toughen himself for a Herculean task that he has to accomplish. He goes by the moniker of Flick and is desperate to emulate his father to turn in to a hardened diamond. He hangs out with a girl named Joi who is a Mary Poppins figure and helps the meek among the runaways. He however leaves her when he gets an opportunity to join the Mandel academy for the gifted; this school is like the Hogwarts for people with nefarious talents with a major Hunger Games-like enforcement. He tries to gauge what the school principal’s angle is, in allowing him to join the academy and why he should strive to graduate. Flick is also wary as his brother Jude who appears to him as Peter Pan doesn’t want him to join but Flick decides to follow the path of moral ambivalence. This step thus allows him to do whatever is necessary to become crude and violent enough to do what he plans.

The next step amidst his plan is to find out the truth about Mandel academy, its alumnae and the path that leads to his final reckoning with his patriarch. Flick however doesn’t know the many pitfalls in passing out of Mandel academy and the many sacrifices he will have to give to steel his resolve. There are many surprises in store for the protagonist and the reader and is the final culmination of the tale that resolves all the mysteries that sprout within.

The best part of the story for me was the plot setting and the blurb, as the reader is introduced to this exciting and dark [YA level] story that showcases a world wherein the nefarious are being trained for the next level. As a reader, this is a tremendously cool setup and full points to the author for coming up with it. The next plus point for the story is its fast pace that constantly sweeps the plot threads in a forward manner and make it exciting all the way to the final twists of the tale. Lastly the author has to be lauded for making this into a standalone story and not dragging it out over several volumes. Amid the era of series, this standalone story makes it a good investment of time for any new or old readers.

Now these were the points that I liked about the story unfortunately my overall experience wasn’t an entirely fun one because of the following factors that depreciated the read. One of the main reasons that I didn’t like about this story was the uneven characterization. Beginning with our main protagonist Flick who is shown to be struggling in the first third then suddenly becomes this uber-cool fantastic student that crushes everyone and is great at everything and then in last third again does a turn-around to become a semi-confused persona. Then there’s Joi who surprisingly turns out to be the best at everything and is the Mary Sue for this story. Following on with this trend there are the antagonists Gwendolyn who’s supposed to be this ultimate badass but comes across as unhinged and weak. The main villain is also a mastermind who gets fooled ridiculously at crucial turns. This was especially disappointing as the villains became caricature-ish and thus the predictability of the story become apparent to the most novice readers.

This is one of the aspects of the YA storyline that I don’t understand exactly. The cool concept which isn’t properly explored perhaps considering the YA nature of the book This was the most frustrating part about this story that while it seemed that the author had this fantastic idea/plot but the execution faltered majorly for the story to fall into the category of “could have been awesome but…” stories. Perhaps I’m not so familiar with YA stories and how they are executed but in this book I was more than waiting to be surprised. However the ending came and my expectations took a downward turn. The climax while not so surprising becomes a bit comical in regards to the solution about the Mandel Academy?

The author does try her best to come up with a twist of sorts in regards to Flick’s revenge plotline and however the overall predictability of the climax makes it a moot point of sorts. In this regard, my opinion of the book is a subjective one and it will be up to the readers to see how they find the story. I think this could have been a fantastic piece but ultimately went sideways for me. Lastly one good thing about the story is that it ends on a poignant note of sorts and perhaps the author can also explore the characters in a future book for those who did enjoy this story and want to know more about the characters and world.

CONCLUSION: A fantastic idea that intrigued me however the book didn’t hold up to the impressive happenings as promised in the blurb. How to Lead A Life Of Crime is a book that will finds its fans and detractors, sadly I find myself leaning towards the latter camp and couldn’t really enjoy the story as it was written.

I characterize my writing as historical fantasy. At first, that might seem paradoxical. How can history and fantasy coexist? Even more paradoxical, at least to me, is how someone who has three graduate degrees in history can be writing fantasy! But then, I do teach two courses in the Boston University Writing Program that deal with writing and with paradox: “Paradox of the Hero/Heroine in East Asian Cinema and Fiction” and “Paradox of the Strange in East Asian Cinema and Fiction.” And these academic writing courses grew out of my fiction writing. Perhaps I should start at the beginning – which for me is a long way back.

The only things I was ever good at in high school were history and fast cars. I chose history to be my path through college and took my fast car with me. However, once I chose Chinese history as my graduate field of study, the car was sold – couldn’t fly it to Honolulu – and I settled down at the University of Hawaii to study Chinese history. History at the graduate level meant learning the language of your field of study - off to Taiwan for four years of language school. I had decided that it was medieval China that most fascinated me – that meant classical Chinese study, an ancient language much more terse and complicated then modern vernacular Chinese. To make things more complicated, I had developed an interest in Chinese Buddhist history, which meant I had to study Buddhist, classical Chinese and eventually Japanese, since at the time they were the best scholars in that esoteric field.

I received my masters in Chinese history and decided to move back to Taiwan. Life, however, had other plans and I did another masters degree, this time under my University of Hawaii’s professor at Yale in East Asian Studies. One thing led to another and I ended up capping my academic study with a doctorate in Chinese history at the University of Hawaii. At that point, I needed some fresh air from almost two decades in those historical archives. I was working in the field of medieval Chinese Buddhist intellectual history and had read so many fascinating stories in those ancient texts that I wanted to tell them in English. The stories couldn’t be told in an academic context because there was neither an audience nor tolerance for such tales. So I decided to write fiction.

The obvious genre would be historical fiction, but my stories involved many fantastic adventures. So I adopted historical fantasy. Yet, and here is another paradox, as a historian I had learned that “fantasy” is a relative term. If a culture believed something to be real, it will act on those beliefs regardless if another cultural viewpoint claims those beliefs to be irrational, unscientific, or otherwise. I realized that by attempting to portray a medieval Chinese viewpoint and worldview, I was actually opening a door to a “real world.” Thus in the “Author’s Statement” to my novels (Dream of the Dragon Pool and Listening to Rain) I write:

 "The adventure you are about to embark on is based upon a 7th/8th century Chinese understanding of reality. While many of the characters, incidents, and locations in the story appear in Chinese historical records, some are yet to be discovered, and others may never be. It is up to you to decide if any of this matters."

These words were carefully chosen to express my fiction writing approach. My stories are based on “Chinese historical records.” Yet some of the claims in those records, “have yet to be discovered and others may never be.” In the end, it is up to the reader to decide the success of the story – some might clamor for more historical accuracy, while others might deem there be too much and more “fantastic” elements should have been added. In the end, the story should stand on its own without explanations from authors or reviewers – the reader either connects or not with the writer.

The issue of “what is fantasy” is another aspect of my work. I am a genre writer and like most, my genre is a sub-genre nestled within a number of ever-broader genre categories: fiction/historical/fantasy/heroic. But since my space and time zones are medieval China, that heroic genre is known as wuxia – a Chinese term that literally means “martial hero.” It is commonly translated as “martial arts fiction.” However, I translate it as “heroic fiction,” more specifically, “Chinese heroic fiction.” And within that Chinese genre, my more specific genre is wuxia shenguai. The additional term here, shenguai, literarily means “mystical/uncanny”. Some translate it as “supernatural” others as simply “fantasy.” For some, numerous fantastical scenes in Ang Lee’s popular movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, are expressions of wuxia shenguai, while a classic Bruce Lee movie would have no shenguai aspect to it.

Yet, my writing is grounded in the history of 7th and 8th century China, where such amazing capabilities were taken as a reality achievable by humans with “special” or “esoteric” training regimes. Daoists believe in the ability of humans to attain immortality and Buddhists preach of mystical powers attainable through various cultivation practices. In my own experience of several decades in the Chinese martial arts community, I’ve heard numerous tales of such feats. Fantasy?

In my Boston University writing courses we consider several interesting viewpoints regarding the nature of fantasy. While many of the sources I use refer to the commonly acknowledge “escapism” aspect of the genre, they also consider a deeper perspective. For example, Susan Napier, a Tuffs University professor of Japanese literature and a foremost expert in Japanese Anime film, points out that the film critic Robin Wood, “in discussing fantasy film has stated that fantasy ‘can be used in two ways, as a means of escaping from contemporary reality or as a means of illuminating it.’” Further, her study of contemporary Japanese literature, The fantastic in modern Japanese literature, is subtitled: The subversion of modernity. When we consider fantasy in my classes, we are looking at its power to “illuminate” the culture that produces it, not as a literature of “escape.”

In a more Western take on fantasy we also read a penetrating analysis of the genre by the SF/Fantasy critic and scholar, Gary K. Wolfe. In Evaporating Genres, he argues that to view fantasy through the criterion of the impossible is to miss its most profound aspect – that, “fantasy not only sustains our interest in the impossible, but finally wins our belief and reveals that the impossible is, after all, the real.” Sounds like an academic’s “slight of hand,” but you’ll have to read his chapter, “The Encounter with Fantasy” to judge for yourself.

These views of fantasy inform my writing in the genre, as I hope to illuminate not only a distant culture’s understanding of life, but also to discover the “reality” of their human experience - an experience that I believe has much to say about our humanity. There is much more about all of this on my website, which has materials relating to my novels – like maps and location diagrams for Listening to Rain, more detail about my background, and articles about the historical and literary traditions that I write about in my fiction. I look forward to your visit to the Dragon Gate Inn.

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Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of Listening To Rain 

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Albert A. Dalia was born and brought in New York state. Growing up the author loved fast cars and coincidentally discovered Chinese culture. The author graduated from State University of New York majoring in History and Political Science and later studied Classical Chinese and Classical Buddhist Chinese literary languages at the National Taiwan Normal University, Mandarin Training Center in Taipei. Since then he's gotten two Masters and a PhD as well. He has also held a variety of jobs like broadcast journalist, assignment editor; copywriter for an ad agency, editor-in-chief, Associate Professor, Editorial director, etc. He currently lives nearby Boston with his family.

NOTE: Author picture courtesy of the author himself. Wuxia picture courtesy of The Daily Zombies. To find out more about Albert Dalia and his Wuxia fantasy series "The Adventures of the Shaolin Blade Tanzong", read the sequel to Albert's guest post in the next couple of weeks.

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Read chapter one HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Roger Hobbs graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 2011, where he majored in English and also studied film noir, literary theory, and ancient languages. He wrote his debut book GHOSTMAN in between his junior and senior years at Reed. He polished his manuscript in the final year and sent it off on the day of his graduation. His book created a huge buzz and was eventually sold in fifteen countries.

He has previously worked as a rifle range instructor, a note taker, a radio host and a security guard. He often plays Dungeons and Dragons to relax when he’s not busy writing or completing a project. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon with his girlfriend. 

OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: When a casino robbery in Atlantic City goes horribly awry, the man who orchestrated it is obliged to call in a favor from someone who’s occasionally called Jack. While it’s doubtful that anyone knows his actual name or anything at all about his true identity, or even if he’s still alive, he’s in his mid-thirties and lives completely off the grid, a criminal’s criminal who does entirely as he pleases and is almost impossible to get in touch with.

But within hours a private jet is flying this exceptionally experienced fixer and cleaner-upper from Seattle to New Jersey and right into a spectacular mess: one heister dead in the parking lot, another winged but on the run, the shooter a complete mystery, the $1.2 million in freshly printed bills god knows where and the FBI already waiting for Jack at the airport, to be joined shortly by other extremely interested and elusive parties. He has only forty-eight hours until the twice-stolen cash literally explodes, taking with it the wider, byzantine ambitions behind the theft.

To contend with all this will require every gram of his skill, ingenuity and self-protective instincts, especially when offense and defense soon become meaningless terms. And as he maneuvers these exceedingly slippery slopes, he relives the botched bank robbery in Kuala Lumpur five years earlier that has now landed him this unwanted new assignment. 

CLASSIFICATION: A thriller debut to rival those by Lee Child, Barry Eisler and Taylor Stevens. Roger Hobbs has created another terrific anti-hero that readers can root for and possibly signals the start of another exciting series.

FORMAT/INFO: Ghostman is 321 pages long, divided over sixty numbered chapters and a prologue. Narration is in the first-person via Jack the Ghostman as the sole narrative voice and third-person omniscient view by Jerome Ribbons in the prologue. The author is currently working on the sequel which will feature characters from this book.

February 12, 2013 marked the US Hardback and e-book publication of Ghostman via Alfred A. Knopf books. The UK Hardback and e-book editions were released on February 14, 2013 by Doubleday books.

ANALYSIS: I first found out about this book via twitter when Patsy Irwin had tweeted about it. Intrigued by its blurb, I requested a review copy and soon got one, which I began reading immediately. The book really drew me in and I think I have found another author to follow for the future.

The story begins with a detailed heist in Atlantic City that goes all right until the very end when someone jumps the would-be robbers and leaves a death trail to confound everyone. The story then skips to our protagonist who calls himself Jack and receives an email asking for his help with the events of the heist in Atlantic City. Marcus Hayes is the mastermind behind the heist and is asking for Jack’s help because of his past association with him in another heist that perhaps could have gone down better. Marcus wants Jack to help him locate the stolen money and there’s a time limit (48 hours) because of reasons revealed in the story. Jack agrees because of his past obligation and he feels its necessary. What he doesn’t realize is that the Atlantic City heist is a can of worms that should have never been opened. Interspersed with Jack’s recent investigations are the events of the past namely the heist that went sideways five years ago and the main reason why Jack feels he owes Marcus.

That’s the basic plot of the story and it has dual storylines running throughout, as the reader will be racing to read what happens in both plot threads and how it all ties into the recent events. With such an enticing plot, the author provides us with a story that is a near perfect thriller and basically screams to be translated on the silver screen. Here’s why I thought this was such a great debut. Since this is a first person narrative, the character voice has to be very charismatic and the author absolutely nails this part down. Our main character Jack is a chameleon who “becomes” a different person as per the situational necessity, the reader will be completely enthralled as he explains how he does his jobs and a few events of his past that have shaped him into the person he is currently. The author manages to create enough intrigue about Jack, never quite tipping his hand at the reliability of the main protagonist. We as readers are given hints and told about the past and then are left to draw our own conclusions about Jack, this is what I liked as each reader will form a different perception/opinion about him and each of them might be correct. The author also never clearly reveals the character’s features thereby truly making him a ghost o sorts in the reader’s minds.

Then there’s the time frame of the storyline, all the events happens in less than 48 hours and this is a very characteristic feature of all Jeffrey Deaver’s books. I liked the fact that Roger Hobbs has also set his debut in the same mold and this makes the reader that much more invested in the story, as there’s the constant reminder of the deadline that spurs the characters ever onwards. The author’s tight plotting skills help as there are numerous twists inserted in the story that make it a tad unpredictable and the past plot thread also has some significant revelations that will come into play in the sequel books. Then there’s the side character cast and with this, the author gives our protagonist not one but two deadly antagonists to deal with. Jack is never absolutely certain as to who is the deadlier of the two and that causes him to be even more careful in his investigation. The author also peppers the storyline with enough background info about the nitty-gritty of Jack's profession and thus makes the story that much more believable. In this regards it reminded me a lot of The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton and this was a plus point for me and should of interest to those who liked/loved that book.

Overall this debut has a very strong plot that is also aided by pace through out the book with both timelines given the proper due. The author makes it a very intriguing thriller that’s hard to put down and as far as thrillers go, this is a great example of it. Now on to some points that take some of the sheen of this title. One of the points described by the narrator by the protagonist is how he changes his appearance by simply relaxing his muscles, which I felt was a bit far-fetched but this was a pet peeve of mine. The author also gives some past threads that are left hanging at the end of this story and that might cause some consternation to some readers, but I think the author was laying the groundwork for the future sequels. Lastly one of the antagonists’ real name [Harrihar] is spelt in a different way than it should be [Harihar] and I don’t know if this was a simple mistake that never got corrected or the correction was never implemented. Either ways it’s a simple thing that shouldn't have occurred [Clarification: The author spoke about this point on Twitter and has said the spelling is purposefully done as it is, to pay homage to a real life persona who used it so].

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Read Fantasy Book Critic's interview with David Dalglish

David Dalglish is an Indie author who has had tremendous success with his books (fourteen titles as of last count). He’s been a prolific writer releasing nearly 4-5 books per year since he published his debut back in 2010. When I first read his Shadowdance trilogy, I realized what a fantastic talent he is and it’s to my great joy that Orbit Books announced yesterday that they have picked his Shadowdance trilogy and the Watcher’s Blade trilogy.

The first book in the Shadowdance trilogy was self-published by the author back in late 2010 and the remaining books were published in 2011. Interested readers can read the  FBC reviews below:
1] Dance Of Cloaks 

2] Dance Of Blades 

3] Dance Of Death

The Watcher’s Blade trilogy has had its first book published last year and the remaining two books will now be most likely be published in 2014 or early 2015:
1] Blood Of The Underworld

2] Blood Of the Father

3] Blood Of The Innocents (tentative title)

Orbit has acquired all six books (four published and two unpublished so far) and will be releasing the first three in October, November & December of 2013 and the latter three in increments of 4-6 months in 2014 (or even 2015). As a reader I’m very excited that readers worldwide will be able to sample David’s dark, character-driven tale of assassins, thieves and treachery in the grim and gritty world of Dezrel.

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Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of Shadow's Son

Jon Sprunk also announced his new series a couple of days ago on his newly updated website. The new series is with his previous publisher PYR books and will be a four book epic fantasy series. It is titled “The Book Of The Black Earth” and the first book Blood And Iron will be released in 2014. Cindy and me are huge fans of Jon and his previous trilogy and so we were very excited to learn more about this upcoming series. Jon was extremely kind to give us a quick blurb of the first book and here’s the exclusive reveal:

The Akeshian Empire has long been ruled by God-Kings and -Queens with the power of life and death over their subjects. When ship carpenter Horace is shipwrecked on its shores, he is taken captive and soon discovers that he possesses latent magical power of his own. 

Elevated to the court of the enemy queen, Horace finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between the empire’s traditional wizard-rulers and a rising religious sect that wants to subjugate all magic-wielders and seize control.

I’ll be waiting to read Blood And Iron when it releases next year, as I can’t wait to see Jon’s take on epic fantasy. I’m sure many of you will feel the same as me and so keep an eye out on Jon’s website for further announcements for this exciting series.

Official Author Website
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of The Winds Of Khalakovo
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of Strata
Read Bradley Beaulieu's Chat with Rob Ziegler
Read joint Fantasy Book Critic interview with four NightShade authors

Lastly Bradley Beaulieu revealed that he’s joining DAW books with his new trilogy titled “The Song of the Shattered Sands” and the first book is tentatively titled “Twelve Kings in Sharakhai”. Here’s what Brad revealed over on his blog:

It’s a story set in a powerful desert city that controls the flow of trade and spice through otherwise impassable terrain. There are echoes of both A Thousand and One Nights and Thieves’ World. It’s a story about Çeda, a woman who fights in the pits to scrape a living from the cruel but beautiful city she calls home. As the story opens, she discovers that the book her mother left her before she died holds the clues to unraveling the power of the Twelve Kings of Sharakhai, men who have ruled the desert with an iron fist for nearly two hundred years.

As Çeda begins to unlock the secrets hidden within the poems in the book—as well as what her mother was trying to do before she died—the Kings learn of her, and they will stop at nothing to keep those secrets buried in the desert where they belong. And so the chase is on. Çeda must unlock the hidden riddles of her mother’s book before the Kings find her. She had better hope she does, for she is the last hope for the people of the desert.

The story is partly based on Brad’s short story “From the Spices of Sanandira” which was published in two parts in issues seventy and seventy-one of Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Lastly be sure to read Brad’s interview on Mad Hatter’s blog to know a bit more about this new series and his thoughts on what to expect next from him.

NOTE: David Dalglish's and Jon Sprunk's pictures courtesy of the authors themselves. Bradley Beaulieu's picture courtesy of Brenda Cooper.