Official Author Website
Order Last Song Before Night HERE
Ilana C. Myer burst onto the speculative fiction scene last year with her fantasy debut Last Song Before Night. It was a spectacular debut IMHO and I enjoyed it so much that it was #3 in top 10 debuts for 2015. I very much enjoyed Ilana's writing style and her subversion of fantasy tropes. Since then I've gotten to know her a little more thanks to Twitter. She was very kind to accept my request for an interview and so read ahead to know more about Ilana, her writing credentials, & her thoughts on her book, the fantasy genre and much more...
Q] Welcome to Fantasy Book Critic. For starters, could you please introduce yourself, tell us what inspired you to write in the first place, and describe your journey to becoming a published author.
ICM: Thank you, it’s such a pleasure be here! Last Song Before Night is my debut novel from Tor Books, with two follow-up novels on the way. I have also done quite a bit of writing about books for publications such as the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Globe and Mail, the Huffington Post, and Salon.
My journey to becoming an author began in my teens, when I wrote my first novel—an epic fantasy. I was new to Israel and didn’t understand a word in school, so I wrote a novel instead. My teachers knew what my notebooks were, and were exasperated, but I think they didn’t know what to do with me.
For me, becoming a published author meant working around the other demands of life—school, work, making rent—toward a dream that seemed as likely as winning the lottery.
Q] Please elaborate how the genesis of the Last Song Before Night occurred. How long have you been working on it? Has it evolved from its original idea (if any)?
ICM: Writing Last Song Before Night took seven years. During that time I was a college student, administrative assistant, journalist in Jerusalem, and book critic.
The seed of the novel was planted in college, in a course on Celtic Myth and Literature. I loved the idea of the Celtic Poets, whose words could shape the fate of a kingdom. The concept of art as power. That was the starting point. I went on to incorporate the troubadours into my research, because I love them too. Later on, Greek mythology went into the mix. The first book—as opposed to the one I’m working on now—is laser-focused on touchstones of Western culture.
Q] For someone who hasn't read any of your novels, how would you describe the type of stories that you write? What would be your elevator pitch for your work?
ICM: My work is at the point where psychological complexity and mythmaking intersect.
Q] Your debut novel while being a standalone can also be considered an opening salvo into your world. Could you give us a progress report on the next book, offer any details about the sequel (hints or title), and outline your plans for the series (if it can be considered as such) as a whole?
ICM: While Last Song Before Night was meant to be a standalone, I soon realized that there was still so much to explore—in the world and the (surviving) characters. The second novel is called Fire Dance, and explores the consequences of the events in Last Song on a larger geographical and political stage—incorporating Middle Eastern myth, cosmology, and history along with the Western mythos already in place.
The third and final novel will complete the series.
Order Last Song Before Night HERE
Ilana C. Myer burst onto the speculative fiction scene last year with her fantasy debut Last Song Before Night. It was a spectacular debut IMHO and I enjoyed it so much that it was #3 in top 10 debuts for 2015. I very much enjoyed Ilana's writing style and her subversion of fantasy tropes. Since then I've gotten to know her a little more thanks to Twitter. She was very kind to accept my request for an interview and so read ahead to know more about Ilana, her writing credentials, & her thoughts on her book, the fantasy genre and much more...
Q] Welcome to Fantasy Book Critic. For starters, could you please introduce yourself, tell us what inspired you to write in the first place, and describe your journey to becoming a published author.
ICM: Thank you, it’s such a pleasure be here! Last Song Before Night is my debut novel from Tor Books, with two follow-up novels on the way. I have also done quite a bit of writing about books for publications such as the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Globe and Mail, the Huffington Post, and Salon.
My journey to becoming an author began in my teens, when I wrote my first novel—an epic fantasy. I was new to Israel and didn’t understand a word in school, so I wrote a novel instead. My teachers knew what my notebooks were, and were exasperated, but I think they didn’t know what to do with me.
For me, becoming a published author meant working around the other demands of life—school, work, making rent—toward a dream that seemed as likely as winning the lottery.
Q] Please elaborate how the genesis of the Last Song Before Night occurred. How long have you been working on it? Has it evolved from its original idea (if any)?
ICM: Writing Last Song Before Night took seven years. During that time I was a college student, administrative assistant, journalist in Jerusalem, and book critic.
The seed of the novel was planted in college, in a course on Celtic Myth and Literature. I loved the idea of the Celtic Poets, whose words could shape the fate of a kingdom. The concept of art as power. That was the starting point. I went on to incorporate the troubadours into my research, because I love them too. Later on, Greek mythology went into the mix. The first book—as opposed to the one I’m working on now—is laser-focused on touchstones of Western culture.
Q] For someone who hasn't read any of your novels, how would you describe the type of stories that you write? What would be your elevator pitch for your work?
ICM: My work is at the point where psychological complexity and mythmaking intersect.
Q] Your debut novel while being a standalone can also be considered an opening salvo into your world. Could you give us a progress report on the next book, offer any details about the sequel (hints or title), and outline your plans for the series (if it can be considered as such) as a whole?
ICM: While Last Song Before Night was meant to be a standalone, I soon realized that there was still so much to explore—in the world and the (surviving) characters. The second novel is called Fire Dance, and explores the consequences of the events in Last Song on a larger geographical and political stage—incorporating Middle Eastern myth, cosmology, and history along with the Western mythos already in place.
The third and final novel will complete the series.
Q] Within your debut, you write about many characters some heroic and some vile. However all of them were three dimensional and had their own agendas and reasons for their behavior. What’s your secret for writing such believable and vivid characters?
ICM: I think empathy is the secret to writing three-dimensional, believable characters. The ability to put ourselves in the position of people who are nothing like us, and to understand their motivations even if we’ve never felt that way ourselves. There’s another component to this, too—being aware of our own motivations, being really honest with ourselves about who we are, can be an asset in exploring the depths of a character. Being unafraid to look at the most uncomfortable truths and acknowledge them can make us better writers.
Q] In your book, besides the actual characters, music plays quite an important role. Especially since the main plot is focused on a poem and the main protagonist is a musician. What drove you to focus such a vital part of the story on it?
ICM: This evolved naturally from choosing to focus on Celtic Poets and troubadours, both of whom worked with music and verse together. I came to the idea as a writer, and then had to do some research about music. It didn’t hurt that music has always been an important part of my life and creative process.
Q] Could you talk about the research you undertook before attempting to write this book. What were the things you focused upon? Were there any fascinating things that you unearthed amidst your research?
ICM: This is hard to answer as my research process began in…2004? But I can tell you that I steeped myself in Celtic myth, from the Mabinogi to more obscure texts to Seamus Heaney’s magnificent (and actually life-changing) Sweeney Astray. I explored the history and verse of the troubadours of medieval France, and this was crucial. While a lot of Last Song was influenced by Celtic myth, the interrogation of idealized romance and love came from the troubadours.
I also read a lot about Irish and Welsh harps, and was able to visit Dublin and see one. In the course of my research I was surprised to learn that the strings of these early harps were made of metal, and that poets actually plucked the strings with their fingernails, which they grew long. A sign of prestige was if you could afford a harp with strings of gold.
ICM: I think empathy is the secret to writing three-dimensional, believable characters. The ability to put ourselves in the position of people who are nothing like us, and to understand their motivations even if we’ve never felt that way ourselves. There’s another component to this, too—being aware of our own motivations, being really honest with ourselves about who we are, can be an asset in exploring the depths of a character. Being unafraid to look at the most uncomfortable truths and acknowledge them can make us better writers.
Q] In your book, besides the actual characters, music plays quite an important role. Especially since the main plot is focused on a poem and the main protagonist is a musician. What drove you to focus such a vital part of the story on it?
ICM: This evolved naturally from choosing to focus on Celtic Poets and troubadours, both of whom worked with music and verse together. I came to the idea as a writer, and then had to do some research about music. It didn’t hurt that music has always been an important part of my life and creative process.
Q] Could you talk about the research you undertook before attempting to write this book. What were the things you focused upon? Were there any fascinating things that you unearthed amidst your research?
ICM: This is hard to answer as my research process began in…2004? But I can tell you that I steeped myself in Celtic myth, from the Mabinogi to more obscure texts to Seamus Heaney’s magnificent (and actually life-changing) Sweeney Astray. I explored the history and verse of the troubadours of medieval France, and this was crucial. While a lot of Last Song was influenced by Celtic myth, the interrogation of idealized romance and love came from the troubadours.
I also read a lot about Irish and Welsh harps, and was able to visit Dublin and see one. In the course of my research I was surprised to learn that the strings of these early harps were made of metal, and that poets actually plucked the strings with their fingernails, which they grew long. A sign of prestige was if you could afford a harp with strings of gold.
Q] You also talk about the difficulties of self-promotion & how new writers are unprepared for book signings. What would be one thing that you can tell newbie writers with regards to book tours that they might not know?
ICM: You will need to develop social skills. That’s a process I began as a journalist, but was definitely compelled to up my game when it came time to promote my book. I still don’t know how to pitch my book in a sentence and I am not sure how much I really value that as a skill.
Q] You have previously worked as a freelancer and worked with several prestigious publications such as Huffington Post, Globe and Mail, Salon, Los Angeles Review of Books, Jerusalem Post, Strange Horizons, etc. How have your experiences been? And are there any particular experiences that have helped you in your writing?
ICM: Writing about books is something I’ve always done. Fiction is my great love, and I always have an opinion. The opportunity to share my thoughts about fiction has been irresistible and has led to more attention than I anticipated. I certainly never envisioned writing a piece about Tyrion Lannister that would go viral and make a lot of people angry. (But on the other hand, I wrote a piece in defense of HBO’s Game of Thrones when it was maligned by the New York Times!)
Being a journalist in Jerusalem was a different sort of thing altogether. Long ago, I read some advice from Tad Williams—maybe it was in an interview—that urged aspiring writers to learn as much as possible about everything, even things that seemed irrelevant to their writing. That’s something journalism did for me. I researched topics ranging from cleantech to earthquakes to social issues in Jerusalem and the plight of African refugees in Tel Aviv—and I always, always, learned something new. Even better—something that came as a surprise to me. I learned that it’s human nature to make assumptions, and that our assumptions are often wrong. I learned to value open-minded inquiry and respect for people who spend their lives carving out expertise in a field of study.
Q] You have lived in Israel and often talk about it on twitter. What do you think of the complexities of life in the Middle East? Plus what do you think of the general narrative that is propagated by both the left & right?
ICM: I hesitated to answer this question because I’m not sure there is a topic that is more toxic than that of Israel, especially on the left where I most often identify politically. What I think is the greatest problem with the current narrative is that it does not allow for complexity. When a left-wing intellectual like Moshe Halbertal is boycotted from speaking on an American college campus, conversation becomes impossible. And that’s a loss for everyone.
Q] Your essay about strong female characters generated a lot of debate and still provokes heated discussions on social media. If you had to provide an update or revise it in any way, what would you add? Conversely is there something in it that you would like to change?
ICM: I had no idea the piece had led to heated debate! That’s great.
There’s only one way to make an opinion piece acceptable to everyone. It’s to write something anodyne.
Q] In Last Song Before Night, you expound about history and how surreptitious events in the past often cause giant problems in the future. I found this to be a very fascinating thing and it reminded me of a book I had read quite a while ago (Song Spinners by Sarah Ash) and coincidentally both you and her share similar traits such as being Jewish and having a familial legacy of writers. I was wondering how much emphasis of history helped fuel the story for you?
ICM: Nothing happens in a vacuum…not in our world and not in an invented world. Everything that happens is in context of what has come before. I think this is very important.
In Last Song there is a question of whether events were history or legend, if enchantments are real, and in that sense it’s about how the stories that drive us are often the ones we choose or create for ourselves.
ICM: You will need to develop social skills. That’s a process I began as a journalist, but was definitely compelled to up my game when it came time to promote my book. I still don’t know how to pitch my book in a sentence and I am not sure how much I really value that as a skill.
Q] You have previously worked as a freelancer and worked with several prestigious publications such as Huffington Post, Globe and Mail, Salon, Los Angeles Review of Books, Jerusalem Post, Strange Horizons, etc. How have your experiences been? And are there any particular experiences that have helped you in your writing?
ICM: Writing about books is something I’ve always done. Fiction is my great love, and I always have an opinion. The opportunity to share my thoughts about fiction has been irresistible and has led to more attention than I anticipated. I certainly never envisioned writing a piece about Tyrion Lannister that would go viral and make a lot of people angry. (But on the other hand, I wrote a piece in defense of HBO’s Game of Thrones when it was maligned by the New York Times!)
Being a journalist in Jerusalem was a different sort of thing altogether. Long ago, I read some advice from Tad Williams—maybe it was in an interview—that urged aspiring writers to learn as much as possible about everything, even things that seemed irrelevant to their writing. That’s something journalism did for me. I researched topics ranging from cleantech to earthquakes to social issues in Jerusalem and the plight of African refugees in Tel Aviv—and I always, always, learned something new. Even better—something that came as a surprise to me. I learned that it’s human nature to make assumptions, and that our assumptions are often wrong. I learned to value open-minded inquiry and respect for people who spend their lives carving out expertise in a field of study.
Q] You have lived in Israel and often talk about it on twitter. What do you think of the complexities of life in the Middle East? Plus what do you think of the general narrative that is propagated by both the left & right?
ICM: I hesitated to answer this question because I’m not sure there is a topic that is more toxic than that of Israel, especially on the left where I most often identify politically. What I think is the greatest problem with the current narrative is that it does not allow for complexity. When a left-wing intellectual like Moshe Halbertal is boycotted from speaking on an American college campus, conversation becomes impossible. And that’s a loss for everyone.
Q] Your essay about strong female characters generated a lot of debate and still provokes heated discussions on social media. If you had to provide an update or revise it in any way, what would you add? Conversely is there something in it that you would like to change?
ICM: I had no idea the piece had led to heated debate! That’s great.
There’s only one way to make an opinion piece acceptable to everyone. It’s to write something anodyne.
Q] In Last Song Before Night, you expound about history and how surreptitious events in the past often cause giant problems in the future. I found this to be a very fascinating thing and it reminded me of a book I had read quite a while ago (Song Spinners by Sarah Ash) and coincidentally both you and her share similar traits such as being Jewish and having a familial legacy of writers. I was wondering how much emphasis of history helped fuel the story for you?
ICM: Nothing happens in a vacuum…not in our world and not in an invented world. Everything that happens is in context of what has come before. I think this is very important.
In Last Song there is a question of whether events were history or legend, if enchantments are real, and in that sense it’s about how the stories that drive us are often the ones we choose or create for ourselves.
Q] World-building is one of the key ingredients of epic fantasy; your series is very strong on this factor. What is it about world-building that you love, and what are the keys to successfully crafting such a believable, yet fantastical world like that seen in debut?
ICM: When I think about world-building I always come back to Ursula LeGuin’s marvelous essay, “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie,” where she makes a case for language as the basis for worldbuilding in fantasy. I do exhaustive research, certainly, and if you ask me which details I think are most integral to an invented world, I’d say—probably—history and religion. But as LeGuin writes of fantasy world-building, “There is only a construct built in a void, with every joint and seam and nail exposed.” That construct is made of words. LeGuin’s Earthsea novels are very slim—they don’t go on for pages about worldbuilding. Yet despite that, Earthsea is the one of the most real fantasy worlds we possess, because the words take us away.
Q] Please tell us about the books and authors who have captured your imagination and inspired you to become a wordsmith in your own right. Similarly, are there any current authors you would like to give a shout out to?
ICM: When I was growing up, “books with magic in them” were my favorites. There was no other way to describe them—we didn’t have the publishing term fantasy, not yet. I devoured the works of E. Nesbit, Lloyd Alexander, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Frances Hodgson Burnett, T.H. White. I also loved beyond reason Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, which is not fantasy at all.
In my teens I discovered contemporary fantasy and the works of Robin Hobb, Tad Williams, Guy Gavriel Kay, Ursula LeGuin, and Robin McKinley were formative.
NOTE: Both author photos courtesy of the author.
ICM: When I think about world-building I always come back to Ursula LeGuin’s marvelous essay, “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie,” where she makes a case for language as the basis for worldbuilding in fantasy. I do exhaustive research, certainly, and if you ask me which details I think are most integral to an invented world, I’d say—probably—history and religion. But as LeGuin writes of fantasy world-building, “There is only a construct built in a void, with every joint and seam and nail exposed.” That construct is made of words. LeGuin’s Earthsea novels are very slim—they don’t go on for pages about worldbuilding. Yet despite that, Earthsea is the one of the most real fantasy worlds we possess, because the words take us away.
Q] Please tell us about the books and authors who have captured your imagination and inspired you to become a wordsmith in your own right. Similarly, are there any current authors you would like to give a shout out to?
ICM: When I was growing up, “books with magic in them” were my favorites. There was no other way to describe them—we didn’t have the publishing term fantasy, not yet. I devoured the works of E. Nesbit, Lloyd Alexander, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Frances Hodgson Burnett, T.H. White. I also loved beyond reason Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, which is not fantasy at all.
In my teens I discovered contemporary fantasy and the works of Robin Hobb, Tad Williams, Guy Gavriel Kay, Ursula LeGuin, and Robin McKinley were formative.
NOTE: Both author photos courtesy of the author.
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Posted by
The Reader |
Official Author Website
Order the book HERE
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Lisa Gardner is a NYT bestselling author with over 19 books and several short stories and novellas in publication. She was born and brought up in Oregon before moving to the east coast for her degree. Lisa graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania and sold her first novel when she was just 20 years of age. Four of her books have previously graced the small screen in TV movie format. She currently lives in New Hampshire with her family.
OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: Flora Dane is a victim.
Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora learned just how much one person can endure.
Flora Dane is a survivor.
Miraculously alive after her ordeal, Flora has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the rhythms of normal life, working with her FBI victim advocate, Samuel Keynes. She has a mother who’s never stopped loving her, a brother who is scared of the person she’s become, and a bedroom wall covered with photos of other girls who’ve never made it home.
Flora Dane is reckless.
. . . or is she? When Boston detective D. D. Warren is called to the scene of a crime—a dead man and the bound, naked woman who killed him—she learns that Flora has tangled with three other suspects since her return to society. Is Flora a victim or a vigilante? And with her firsthand knowledge of criminal behavior, could she hold the key to rescuing a missing college student whose abduction has rocked Boston? When Flora herself disappears, D.D. realizes a far more sinister predator is out there. One who’s determined that this time, Flora Dane will never escape. And now it is all up to D. D. Warren to find her.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: I’m a newcomer to Lisa Gardner’s books but I’ve heard of how thrilling they can be. When I was approached for a review for Lisa’s most recent book, I wanted to jump in and see how they held up to the reputation that I had heard about. I knew before hand that this book was the 8th in the D.D. Warren series but each book is supposed to be a standalone entry as well.
The story is divided into three separate point-of-view sections, the first one focuses on Flora Dane nearly six years ago when she was abducted and physically, mentally tortured. The second time when we see Flora, she has been “changed” by her ordeal however she’s now actively looking out & helping other women like her. Lastly the perspective we see is from our protagonist D. D. Warren. While D.D. is the main protagonist, Flora on the other hand is a solid counter protagonist who the readers will be conflicted about.
The story will have the reader trying to piece the events happening in Flora’s life as well as the aftermath which is investigated by D.D. Both of them are strong characters and tough women, plus both have led complex lives due to actions of others. The author has to be lauded for writing a complex plot wherein the readers will be rooting for both of them even though their actions might run contrary to each other. The plot is very twisted and with the dual timeline structure, we get to see events unfold in the past (with Flora) and in the present (with Flora & D.D.). Kudos to the author for making both very sympathetic as well as introducing a good side character cast.
What really got me invested in the story (besides characterization) was the plot pace, the story is unrelenting in its scope and the readers are constantly shown different angles and the plot twists will literally shake your orientation. This book explores the psychology of victims and people who don’t wish to identify as victims anymore. The story then further peels back the curtain on certain characters and this story truly works on a psychologically creepy level. The author makes use of certain facts that would surprise the hell out of you (I know I was shocked), this is especially seen with Flora and the things she learnt during and after her captivity.
Overall this story ends in such a terrific way that I want to learn more about D.D. and the other characters that we met. I will definitely be reading the previous books in the D.D. Warren series and will be looking more into Lisa Gardner’s writing as she’s proven herself to a be a master thriller writer.
Order the book HERE
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Lisa Gardner is a NYT bestselling author with over 19 books and several short stories and novellas in publication. She was born and brought up in Oregon before moving to the east coast for her degree. Lisa graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania and sold her first novel when she was just 20 years of age. Four of her books have previously graced the small screen in TV movie format. She currently lives in New Hampshire with her family.
OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: Flora Dane is a victim.
Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora learned just how much one person can endure.
Flora Dane is a survivor.
Miraculously alive after her ordeal, Flora has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the rhythms of normal life, working with her FBI victim advocate, Samuel Keynes. She has a mother who’s never stopped loving her, a brother who is scared of the person she’s become, and a bedroom wall covered with photos of other girls who’ve never made it home.
Flora Dane is reckless.
. . . or is she? When Boston detective D. D. Warren is called to the scene of a crime—a dead man and the bound, naked woman who killed him—she learns that Flora has tangled with three other suspects since her return to society. Is Flora a victim or a vigilante? And with her firsthand knowledge of criminal behavior, could she hold the key to rescuing a missing college student whose abduction has rocked Boston? When Flora herself disappears, D.D. realizes a far more sinister predator is out there. One who’s determined that this time, Flora Dane will never escape. And now it is all up to D. D. Warren to find her.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: I’m a newcomer to Lisa Gardner’s books but I’ve heard of how thrilling they can be. When I was approached for a review for Lisa’s most recent book, I wanted to jump in and see how they held up to the reputation that I had heard about. I knew before hand that this book was the 8th in the D.D. Warren series but each book is supposed to be a standalone entry as well.
The story is divided into three separate point-of-view sections, the first one focuses on Flora Dane nearly six years ago when she was abducted and physically, mentally tortured. The second time when we see Flora, she has been “changed” by her ordeal however she’s now actively looking out & helping other women like her. Lastly the perspective we see is from our protagonist D. D. Warren. While D.D. is the main protagonist, Flora on the other hand is a solid counter protagonist who the readers will be conflicted about.
The story will have the reader trying to piece the events happening in Flora’s life as well as the aftermath which is investigated by D.D. Both of them are strong characters and tough women, plus both have led complex lives due to actions of others. The author has to be lauded for writing a complex plot wherein the readers will be rooting for both of them even though their actions might run contrary to each other. The plot is very twisted and with the dual timeline structure, we get to see events unfold in the past (with Flora) and in the present (with Flora & D.D.). Kudos to the author for making both very sympathetic as well as introducing a good side character cast.
What really got me invested in the story (besides characterization) was the plot pace, the story is unrelenting in its scope and the readers are constantly shown different angles and the plot twists will literally shake your orientation. This book explores the psychology of victims and people who don’t wish to identify as victims anymore. The story then further peels back the curtain on certain characters and this story truly works on a psychologically creepy level. The author makes use of certain facts that would surprise the hell out of you (I know I was shocked), this is especially seen with Flora and the things she learnt during and after her captivity.
Overall this story ends in such a terrific way that I want to learn more about D.D. and the other characters that we met. I will definitely be reading the previous books in the D.D. Warren series and will be looking more into Lisa Gardner’s writing as she’s proven herself to a be a master thriller writer.
Friday, November 4, 2016
The Wall Of Storms by Ken Liu (Reviewed by Achala Upendran & Mihir Wanchoo)
Order The Wall Of Storms HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of The Grace Of Kings
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Ken Liu is a Chinese-American science-fiction writer, poet, lawyer and computer programmer. His short stories have appeared in F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and other magazines, as well as several anthologies, including the Year's Best SF. He is also a translator of science fiction and literary stories from Chinese into English. He is a winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards for his short story "The Paper Menagerie". The Grace Of Kings is his debut fantasy novel. He currently lives near Boston with his family.
OFFICIAL BLURB: In the much anticipated sequel to The Grace of Kings which NPR called “A magnificent fantasy epic.” returns with Kuni Garu, now known as Emperor Ragin, running the archipelago kingdoms of Dara and struggling to maintain progress while serving the demands of the people.
But when an unexpected invasion force from the far distant east known as the Lyucu Empire comes to shores of Dara, chaos erupts from fear. Emperor Ragin cannot go and lead Dara against the threat himself as he has a recently healed empire fraying at its weakest seams, as conflict within rival faction, even with the Emperor’s own family threaten the raw peace that he has established.
Amidst traitorous rebellion and false accusations the emperor’s grown children rise to face the invaders, some with armies, and one with the guile and savvy intuition to empower the unlikely genius that surrounds her, his eldest daughter Théra.
The Wall of Storms is a breathtaking sequel that builds with a towering diversity of action and tragedy that embodies the best of epic fantasy.
FORMAT INFORMATION: The Wall of Storms is 880 pages long divided over sixty-two chapters that are spread over four titled sections. The book features multiple third-person POV characters and also has a glossary, a pronunciation note and a list of characters. The Wall of Storms is the second volume of The Dandelion Dynasty chronicles.
October 4, 2016 marked the hardcover and e-book publication of The Wall of Storms via Saga Press.
ANALYSIS (Achala): When I finished Ken Liu’s The Grace of Kings, I felt as though I’d been on a long, satisfying journey. It had begun with that most reliable of fantasy openers: a seemingly invincible ‘evil’ empire, a heroic prince thirsting for vengeance, a cunning and street-smart nobody who knows better than most lords and ladies how to play a political game. But the reliability didn’t last for long, and through the course of its long and episodic length, Liu tweaked and pulled at expectations and conventions, landing up with a conclusion that was as spectacular as it had been, for me, unforeseen. I couldn’t imagine what he might follow this first serving with, and it’s a good thing I didn’t try, because The Wall of Storms will take almost every ‘settled’ notion or attitude you might hold, and shatter it as effectively as the ‘wall of storms’ in the book breaks apart the ships of those who dare to push beyond the boundaries of Dara.
The second book in the Dandelion Dynasty begins shortly after the first leaves off, and in an almost comically similar manner. The royal children, Timu, Thera, Phyro and four-year-old Fara have sneaked out of the palace in Pan, and are enjoying a day of truancy in a tavern, listening to a storyteller spin tales of days past. Only, these are days we know about, if we’ve read Grace of Kings. The storyteller speaks of the dead Hegemon, Mata Zyndu, perhaps the greatest figure from the uprising against Emperor Mapidere. Phyro, the more military-minded of Kuni’s sons, is quite the fanboy of the Hegemon, and the children are having a good time, until someone thinks to stir up trouble by proclaiming the storyteller is being treasonous by invoking the dead Zyndu in such an admiring spirit. After all, the Hegemon did try, multiple times, to kill Kuni Garu, the man who now rules Dara. A new character, a young woman looking to sit the Imperial Examinations, enters the fray, and her life and those of the royal children are never the same again.
It’s impossible to fully communicate the sheer range of events that take place within the covers of Liu’s book. There’s the slow, boiling politics of discontent that were hinted at towards the close of Grace, with the court splitting between the more militaristic mindset of Gin Mazoti, Marshal of Dara, and the bureaucratic organisation watched over by Empress Jia, a conflict that finds new pawns in the persons of bookish Timu and adventurous Phyro, both of whom are sent off to test their skills in governing their father’s empire. There’s the inevitable fallouts and rebellions that take place between old allies, a result of misunderstandings and the all too human failings of pride and ambition. There’s the meddling of the gods, the same unpredictable figures we met in Grace, each of whom has a stake in the events that unfold, and a pawn to help make their ends come to pass—though some of these gods have a more obvious and kinder agenda than others.
But the event that really rocks the crumbling empire arrives only about a third of the way through the book: a force from outside the islands, intent on crushing the world Kuni and his peers, his allies and enemies, and all his subjects, live in. The Lyucu, a strange and ‘barbaric’ people, have done what none in living memory have managed to do: pass through the ‘wall of storms’ that barricades the seas of Dara from the rest of the world, and they certainly don’t come in peace.
The Wall of Storms is a huge book, and I mean that not just in terms of volume. The sheer amount of action and events packed into its pages is stunning, and it amazes me time and again how Liu, with just a few strokes of a pen, conjures into being worlds and characters, has them move through events that would, in the hands of a less deft writer, take chapters, if not whole novels, to recount. In the space of a few paragraphs, Liu paints the complete portrait of a character, giving you a reason to love them, root for them, fear for them as they move through inhuman trials and come face to face with the gods themselves. I will always envy this talent, and admire him for it. He proves that to be a truly ‘epic’ writer, you need not lose yourself in long-drawn out descriptions and conversations; a few well placed words, some quick exchanges and pointed comparisons, and your readers can gain as good an understanding of your world and the people who dwell in it as any companion encyclopaedia might give you.
But what makes The Wall of Storms great is the manner in which Liu handles his themes. In Grace, Liu allowed his comic spirit to roam free, and while kingdoms and an empire rose and fell, there was never an overwhelming sense of darkness or dismay. Sure, readers felt sadness when Mata Zyndu died, but it was a bittersweet feeling; we knew he had no place in the world that Kuni had built, and he went out in a matter worthy of his mythic status: falling in combat, and being whisked away by the gods. The world was a more stable place for his absence, and that was a price Liu makes you think worth paying.
But there is no such palliative here. Storms has much more brutal themes running through it, most obviously (and perhaps importantly) the question of who has a ‘right’ to a land, who can claim a territory as their ‘own’. The Lyucu come in force, and they strike hard, forcing the inhabitants of Dasu (the site of their landing) into servitude, slaughtering thousands, and unleashing their garinafins—dragon-like creatures—upon peaceful towns. Honestly, the chapters detailing their arrival, and all that precedes it (for Liu, brilliant storyteller that he is, makes sure you know about their background, and refuses to paint the Lyucu as purely evil) are quite difficult to read, but it is precisely his delicate handling of such thorny issues that cemented, for me, Liu as a master novelist.
He writes without ever becoming preachy, without clumping you over the head with morals and easy dismissals of characters and their goals; like Martin, he makes you appreciate each and every person in his universe, god or mortal, Lyucu or Daran, as a being capable of both ‘good’ and ‘evil’. ‘The individual is the intersection of multiple spheres of identity,’ he once commented to me in an interview; he bears that out in the stories in Paper Menagerie, and even in the fantasy world of Dara, he ensures that it holds true.
ANALYSIS (Mihir): Ken Liu's epic fantasy debut The Grace Of Kings was a book that fascinated me and won over my friend Achala entirely. It was a book that managed to mix Chinese mythology along with epic fantasy tropes however the author's prose and characterization made this a standout story. The book focussed on Kuni, Zyndu, Jia and many others and ended on such a terrific climax that it seemed almost hard to imagine how the sequel could top its predecessor.
The Wall Of Storms opens up Kuni who is now Emperor Ragin and his various children who are different as can be expected. The story in the first half also introduces a new character by the name of Zomi Kidosu, she's a strange one and her path to importance will be difficult and fantastic. The story then runs on two parallel tracks as we see things happening in the royal court as well as the lands of Dara. The story focusses less on action and more on characters, setting them up and letting us know what their motivations, thoughts and personas might be. The second half then focusses on an invasion as well as internal rumblings that threaten the peace and integrity of the empire. That's when the story goes into action overdrive but the author also manages to make the characters shine. The children and newer characters introduced are as good if not better than the ones in The Grace Of Kings.
Ken Liu is an absolute genius with his prose and characterization and he doesn't make it a black-white situation. There are flashes of good and evil on both sides and he makes sure that the readers see that. I loved this aspect of the storyline and in the end the story ends on such a terrific note that I can't wait to see where the author takes the story next. This book though is a solid sequel and is the Godfather II to its predecessor. I loved it and the many characters within. For sure, this volume will be featuring in my year-end lists and Ken Liu makes himself known as a talent that will only brighten in future.
CONCLUSION: I cannot stress it enough: read The Wall of Storms. All the old favourites are back, Kuni, Jia, Luan (my personal favourite), Gin. Then there is the new, younger batch, coming into their own: Phyro and Timu, the clever Princess Thera and the ambitious, idealistic Zomi Kidosu. There are fun capers, incredibly detailed worldbuilding, surfacing crubens and swooping garinafins, supernatural encounters and ‘silkpunk’ science fiction devices that (sometimes) save the day. There’s an ending that makes you realise that sometimes, the old world has no choice but to be swept away completely to make way for a new, exciting one. Sometimes, change is a risk worth taking; just ask Luan Zya, or his divine mentor, Lutho, God of Wisdom.
Or better yet, don’t ask; just read Liu’s saga, and see for yourself.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
GUEST BLOG: Some Thoughts on Overpowering & Balancing Characters in Fantasy by Blake Charlton
Blake Charlton is a favorite author of mine. His fantasy
novels are detailed, unique and a pure joy to read. In honor of his recently
released novel, Spellbreaker, which came out in August, he has decided to stop
by and talk with Fantasy Book Critic about writing within the fantasy genre.
To learn more about Spellbreaker and even read the first
chapter, visit our blog post from August. Click here to go to the blog post.
Without further ado, I give you Blake Charlton. Enjoy!
***********************************************************
Some Thoughts on Overpowering & Balancing
Characters in Fantasy
Recently, I’ve formed a hypothesis about overpowering
characters in fiction. I doubt it’s an original observation or even a very
profound one, but it’s helped me develop as a writer, and for some reason it
took writing three books for me to form it, so I thought I share it. Here’s the
hypothesis: The caveats regarding overpowering characters extend to morality,
characterization, and voice.
First let me define my terms. Usually “overpowering,” as I
understand it, happens when an author--perhaps too much enjoying the personal
wish-fulfillment aspect of writing--gives one or more character abilities so
powerful that they weaken the story. Epic fantasy and space opera can be
especially vulnerable to overpowering: technology that confers invisibility,
magical powers that confer omnipotence. It’s hard to develop meaningful
conflict and tension when a character is so power that they don’t have to
change to achieve their goal. The quick fix is to power up the antagonist,
while this sometimes works, it often lead to uninteresting polarizing
escalation. While many starting out writing science fiction and fantasy
initially overpower their technology or magic, most quickly learn to limit the
speculative elements or impose a cost on the use of the magic or technology. My
personal favorite, of course, is to create a character with a disability, which
interacts in some meaningful way with the speculative element.
What I hadn’t until recently realized, and perhaps what
others might find useful to contemplate, is that the phenomenon of overpowering
extends to basic aspects of fiction. One easily demonstrated example might be
morality. If you “overpower” morality in your story, you may end up with a
protagonist who is an angel and an antagonist who is a demon. A few
years back, there was much made of the GRRM’s minimal use of magic in A
Song of Ice and Fire. There was a parallel conversation about the “gritty”
or even “grimdark” characterizations in fantasy, where no one character was
wholly good and wholly evil--though most were wholly unsavory. I find it
interesting now to look back at those two discussions and see them as
interconnected. Epic fantasy had had too many “overpowered” magic systems in
the past, and, if you will, it also had too many “overpowered” moral
systems. The movement then was one of balancing both magical and
moral power.
Hopefully this is useful to you in more than just an
exercise in semantics. What I’m driving at is that, maybe, in fiction the
balance of power is important across many different qualities. As I
think of it now, characters can be overpowered not only in terms of magic or
technology or moral standing, but also in terms of voice and characterizations.
If only one character has a unique and lively voice, they will drown out the
other voices. If you have a massive number of characters described in great
depth and given great detail, it may be too much for the reader to
track--perhaps you have “overpowered” the deep characters and you need to make
some of them more “flat” for contrast.
I don’t mean to imply that balance is always better. Balance
or lack thereof is subject to trends. We certainly seem to be going through a
trend of complete moral balance, almost moral equivocation; in almost every
medium there are now successful franchises about sympathetic villains,
anti-heroes, or morally ambiguous protagonists. I found thinking about balance
useful when writing my last novel and find it useful even today as I think
about what it might mean about our current global society and political
atmosphere that we are so fascinated by moral balance in our stories.
If you’re the type of person who is curious, I wrote the
lead character of my latest book Spellbreaker as a way to
explore this interest in moral balance and “overpowering” a character in
morality. My goal was to make her anti-heroic, but rather than being neither
wholly good or bad I wanted her to demonstrate great capacity for both. The
book starts out with her acquiring a prophetic spell that allows her to know
that in one day’s time she will have to choose between murdering someone she
loves or dying herself. She readily accepts that she will soon
become a murderer and sets off on a sort of “inverse murder mystery.” That is
to say, rather than an investigator trying to figure out who killed the victim
and why they did it, we have a murderer trying to figure out who her victim
will be and why she will do it. I also gave her the ability to misspell any
magical text she touched but at the price of exacerbating a chronic
autoimmune-like disease she has had since childhood and, she has always known,
will condemn her to die while still young. I like to think it provided for some
interesting character development. If you should pick up the book, I’d be
curious to hear if you agree.
So, anyway, overpowering and balancing, that’s it. Fairly
simple thoughts. I hope they’re useful or at least interesting. I’m always
curious to hear what others think about such things.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: It’s hard out there for a wolf. We’ve come a long way from the classic
What did you want be? As children, we all have dreams of ourselves as adults. I started out, a West Bronx local in a very concrete world, wanting to be a forest ranger, later an astronaut, later still, an aeronautical engineer, with the usual adolescent rock star fantasy tossed in. I imagine most of us had dreams well within the range of reasonable human experience and fantasy, whether or not we ever saw them through to fruition. The narrator of Mongrels, being raised by his aunt Libby, uncle Darren and his grandfather, dreams of growing up to be like them. I guess many of us want to be like the adults who raise us. Libby, Darren and Grandpa, however, are werewolves.
"werewolves, they’ve always been where it’s at for me. I remember being twelve, living way out in the country, and creeping up from my bed after lights out and pressing my forehead to the cold glass, so I could watch the darkness for werewolves. I had no doubt at all that they were running in these fast clockwise circles around our house. And that if I quit watching even for a blink, then they were coming in for us. So I’ve been thinking on the werewolf for a long time, now. I’ve been watching for them. What always interested me most about them, though, after the teeth and claws and transformations, it was the day to day difficulties of being a different, maligned species. How to explain why your pants keep being ripped up? Why does your friend’s dog run yelping away when you walk up? I spent a lot of my twelfth year trying to become a werewolf—maybe because I knew I could never beat them, so I might as well get out there and run with them. But nothing ever took. So, Mongrels, it’s as close as I can get, I suppose" - from Muzzlepress interview
Mongrels is a magnificent imagining of what it might look like if werewolves were really padding around in the 21st century American South. No effete vampires here. This is very much a working class wolf world, bloody, desperate, fearful, primitive.
What did you want be? As children, we all have dreams of ourselves as adults. I started out, a West Bronx local in a very concrete world, wanting to be a forest ranger, later an astronaut, later still, an aeronautical engineer, with the usual adolescent rock star fantasy tossed in. I imagine most of us had dreams well within the range of reasonable human experience and fantasy, whether or not we ever saw them through to fruition. The narrator of Mongrels, being raised by his aunt Libby, uncle Darren and his grandfather, dreams of growing up to be like them. I guess many of us want to be like the adults who raise us. Libby, Darren and Grandpa, however, are werewolves.
"werewolves, they’ve always been where it’s at for me. I remember being twelve, living way out in the country, and creeping up from my bed after lights out and pressing my forehead to the cold glass, so I could watch the darkness for werewolves. I had no doubt at all that they were running in these fast clockwise circles around our house. And that if I quit watching even for a blink, then they were coming in for us. So I’ve been thinking on the werewolf for a long time, now. I’ve been watching for them. What always interested me most about them, though, after the teeth and claws and transformations, it was the day to day difficulties of being a different, maligned species. How to explain why your pants keep being ripped up? Why does your friend’s dog run yelping away when you walk up? I spent a lot of my twelfth year trying to become a werewolf—maybe because I knew I could never beat them, so I might as well get out there and run with them. But nothing ever took. So, Mongrels, it’s as close as I can get, I suppose" - from Muzzlepress interview
Mongrels is a magnificent imagining of what it might look like if werewolves were really padding around in the 21st century American South. No effete vampires here. This is very much a working class wolf world, bloody, desperate, fearful, primitive.
Jones tells his story in eighteen chapters that wander in time and location. The narrator is a never-named boy (well, a teacher addresses him by a name, but we assume it to be a temporary, not a true one) we watch through his growth from age eight to sixteen, (although not in chronological order) the age by which those whose DNA is of the tooth and claw variety usually manifest their nature. He yearns for the change, even though there is no guarantee that it will happen for him.
Jones indulges in a bit of cuteness by referring to his narrator as the vampire in one chapter, the reporter in another, the biologist in a third, and so on. It’s pretty adorable, and works in a way to counterpoint delight and bloodiness. I was reminded of Joe Hill’s The Fireman, which employs a similar technique.
Jones indulges in a bit of cuteness by referring to his narrator as the vampire in one chapter, the reporter in another, the biologist in a third, and so on. It’s pretty adorable, and works in a way to counterpoint delight and bloodiness. I was reminded of Joe Hill’s The Fireman, which employs a similar technique.
(An American Werewolf in London raised the bar for cinematic ch-ch-changes)
This is a peripatetic pack, more itinerant than territorial, always trying to keep one step ahead of suspicious neighbors and inquisitive law enforcement. They are very tough on the vehicles they somehow keep acquiring. And if you had the misfortune of renting a residence to them you will be making full use of the security deposit for cleanup after they leave.
Much of the fun in the book lies in the many specifics of werewolf existence. For example, Werewolves are paranoid about having dog breath, are always brushing their teeth and chewing mints. Some of the details are fascinating. Proper change attire is of great and surprising importance. Mating with a human does not bode well for a non-lycan woman who does not hew to the safety first mantra. Silver is considered. Education is primarily through TV game shows and family tales that may or may not have germs of truth. One thing it is not is at all glamorous. They encounter various sorts in their travels, WW wannabees, a stalker, an exploitative businessman who sees economic opportunity in milking a captive lycan to enhance his profit margins. While there may be no pentagrams, an angry mob with actual torches and pitchforks puts in an appearance that is part alarming, and part comedic.
Famous characters from American history are brought into the moonlight for a new look, and are guaranteed to make you bare your teeth, in a good way. The family banter gets hilarious on occasion (well, I thought it was pretty funny, anyway):
"Just when I thought I’d figured out what made a girlfriend happy, what would make one stay, I would do something wrong again and that would be that."
“Something wrong, like, I don’t know, like eating their pet goat?” Libby said, without looking over from the game show glowing all our faces light blue. "
The initiative for writing this book came from an unusual source:
"Back in 2008 or so, I last-minute got asked to teach an open-topic Genre course. Like, the week before the semester. So I said sure—if I could teach zombies. Which I did for two or three or four years. Loved it. But then I wanted something different, so I proposed my heart’s true love, the werewolf. And it got approved, and I got some funds to buy up werewolf books and movies. So, cue the avalanche of texts here. It hit early in December of 2013, and I read about a werewolf book every two days, I imagine, and was watching movies deep into every night. My deadline was December 31st, too, so I shut down the course prep then. But my mind, it wouldn’t stop spinning with all this. So, on January 1st, my fingers twitching like they were going to pop claws, I sat down at the keyboard, started Mongrels, and had a solid draft of it down by the time the semester started." - from the Muzzlepress interview
If you have issues with violence, or with creatures small and not so small coming to bloody ends, Mongrels is definitely not the right kibble for you. There is a considerable body count, people and critters. If you are expecting a straight-up fright-fest, I suppose there are things in here that might make the fur hair on the back of your hands neck stand up. I lost no sleep after reading this, but I tend not to keep my head under the covers after reading a horror book most of the time anyway, so that doesn’t really say much. I have felt a lot more fear about the well-armed masses of the paranoid and twitchy who are locked and loaded across our great nation, and of blustering authoritarian wannabes than I ever will be of shape-shifting migrant workers driving crappy cars and watching too much tube. But therein lies the great value of Mongrels.
If you look past the tooth and claw you will pick up the scent of underlying content. As with the folks under the scope here, there are two levels. The wolfy thing, and then the irresistible portrayal of people, any people, on the fringes of society. I was reminded of Willy Vlautin, who also writes of working class people struggling to survive in a challenging world. There is even a Steinbeckian fragrance your enhanced olfactory sense will probably pick up. I am sure you have your own favorite authors who hunt in those woods.
How can you ever get ahead if you are always on the move? How can you get an education if you have to leave every school because the cops are starting to close in? How can you stay in one place, even without doing the changing thing, if it is only a matter of time before your true nature is revealed, and you are shunned or worse by polite society? Whether that shunning is because you are devouring the local livestock or because you are just, however proper your behavior, not considered the right sort of people. You can bet someone would love to build a wall to keep those people out.
The turf Jones writes of here is familiar, as he has personally traveled it a fair bit:
”We farmed, but we didn’t make our living off of farming,” he explains. “My mom ran daycare, or she would work at a tanning salon. Just all kinds of jobs. My different stepdads would work construction or in the oil fields. We always would come back to the same farming community in Greenwood, but that was just the place we’d bounce off of before going somewhere else. We always had a horse trailer that we’d pack bags and boxes in and go.” - from the Westword interview
CONCLUSION: So, bottom line is that we likee the lycans. Yeah, Mongrels may not be all that scary, but it is very smart, particularly in the imagining of WW-life details. It has something to say about class and society, and it is a lot of fun. It may not force you to shift your shape, even if you read it during a full moon, but Mongrels is delightful enough to warrant more than a few joyful howls, and if you get the urge to dine on a neighbor’s livestock after reading it, or even your neighbor, for that matter, at least you will know that you are probably not alone. Mongrels is a real treat.
NOTE: The review appeared first on Will's GR page.
Much of the fun in the book lies in the many specifics of werewolf existence. For example, Werewolves are paranoid about having dog breath, are always brushing their teeth and chewing mints. Some of the details are fascinating. Proper change attire is of great and surprising importance. Mating with a human does not bode well for a non-lycan woman who does not hew to the safety first mantra. Silver is considered. Education is primarily through TV game shows and family tales that may or may not have germs of truth. One thing it is not is at all glamorous. They encounter various sorts in their travels, WW wannabees, a stalker, an exploitative businessman who sees economic opportunity in milking a captive lycan to enhance his profit margins. While there may be no pentagrams, an angry mob with actual torches and pitchforks puts in an appearance that is part alarming, and part comedic.
Famous characters from American history are brought into the moonlight for a new look, and are guaranteed to make you bare your teeth, in a good way. The family banter gets hilarious on occasion (well, I thought it was pretty funny, anyway):
"Just when I thought I’d figured out what made a girlfriend happy, what would make one stay, I would do something wrong again and that would be that."
“Something wrong, like, I don’t know, like eating their pet goat?” Libby said, without looking over from the game show glowing all our faces light blue. "
The initiative for writing this book came from an unusual source:
"Back in 2008 or so, I last-minute got asked to teach an open-topic Genre course. Like, the week before the semester. So I said sure—if I could teach zombies. Which I did for two or three or four years. Loved it. But then I wanted something different, so I proposed my heart’s true love, the werewolf. And it got approved, and I got some funds to buy up werewolf books and movies. So, cue the avalanche of texts here. It hit early in December of 2013, and I read about a werewolf book every two days, I imagine, and was watching movies deep into every night. My deadline was December 31st, too, so I shut down the course prep then. But my mind, it wouldn’t stop spinning with all this. So, on January 1st, my fingers twitching like they were going to pop claws, I sat down at the keyboard, started Mongrels, and had a solid draft of it down by the time the semester started." - from the Muzzlepress interview
If you have issues with violence, or with creatures small and not so small coming to bloody ends, Mongrels is definitely not the right kibble for you. There is a considerable body count, people and critters. If you are expecting a straight-up fright-fest, I suppose there are things in here that might make the fur hair on the back of your hands neck stand up. I lost no sleep after reading this, but I tend not to keep my head under the covers after reading a horror book most of the time anyway, so that doesn’t really say much. I have felt a lot more fear about the well-armed masses of the paranoid and twitchy who are locked and loaded across our great nation, and of blustering authoritarian wannabes than I ever will be of shape-shifting migrant workers driving crappy cars and watching too much tube. But therein lies the great value of Mongrels.
If you look past the tooth and claw you will pick up the scent of underlying content. As with the folks under the scope here, there are two levels. The wolfy thing, and then the irresistible portrayal of people, any people, on the fringes of society. I was reminded of Willy Vlautin, who also writes of working class people struggling to survive in a challenging world. There is even a Steinbeckian fragrance your enhanced olfactory sense will probably pick up. I am sure you have your own favorite authors who hunt in those woods.
How can you ever get ahead if you are always on the move? How can you get an education if you have to leave every school because the cops are starting to close in? How can you stay in one place, even without doing the changing thing, if it is only a matter of time before your true nature is revealed, and you are shunned or worse by polite society? Whether that shunning is because you are devouring the local livestock or because you are just, however proper your behavior, not considered the right sort of people. You can bet someone would love to build a wall to keep those people out.
The turf Jones writes of here is familiar, as he has personally traveled it a fair bit:
”We farmed, but we didn’t make our living off of farming,” he explains. “My mom ran daycare, or she would work at a tanning salon. Just all kinds of jobs. My different stepdads would work construction or in the oil fields. We always would come back to the same farming community in Greenwood, but that was just the place we’d bounce off of before going somewhere else. We always had a horse trailer that we’d pack bags and boxes in and go.” - from the Westword interview
CONCLUSION: So, bottom line is that we likee the lycans. Yeah, Mongrels may not be all that scary, but it is very smart, particularly in the imagining of WW-life details. It has something to say about class and society, and it is a lot of fun. It may not force you to shift your shape, even if you read it during a full moon, but Mongrels is delightful enough to warrant more than a few joyful howls, and if you get the urge to dine on a neighbor’s livestock after reading it, or even your neighbor, for that matter, at least you will know that you are probably not alone. Mongrels is a real treat.
NOTE: The review appeared first on Will's GR page.
Collections weird me out. Whenever I hear about someone who has the ‘world’s biggest collection of’ fill-in-the-blank, I get a little cold chill down my spine, because dedicated collectors are obsessive, and coming from my viewpoint as a fantasy author, obsession is the root of madness.
Maybe I’m unduly influenced by my father, who was a collector and a hoarder (that’s really a spectrum of the same set of actions, defined by how high your collections are piled and the eye of the beholder). When he died, dealing with his collections took months, and ended up inspiring my Deadly Curiosities urban fantasy series about cursed and haunted objects. Most of the objects mentioned in Deadly Curiosities and Vendetta (as well as the tie-in short stories and novellas in the Deadly Curiosities Adventures) are pieces dad owned which I had to deal with, and some definitely did come with seriously bad vibes. My short story, Collector, even features one of those objects on the cover.
Some of my wariness about collections also stems from the ones I’ve seen donated to museums. The Mutter Museum, the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museums and the Warren Occult Museum are some of the creepiest collections of anatomical oddities, strange phenomena and potentially evil objects. But go through any major museum and you’ll see groupings of ancient objects like Roman curse tablets, Victorian post-mortem photography and memorial hair jewelry, odds and ends purchased as mementos on the Grand Tours of the Gilded Era back when anything could be bought for a price. I don’t claim any psychic ability, but I’ve more than one stood in front of the display case and shuddered, wondering “who thought it was a good idea to bring this stuff home with them?”
That touch of obsession that fuels hard-core collectors is the inspiration for a lot of fictional bad guys, from The Collector in Simon R. Green’s Nightside series to Vincent Price’s character in House of Wax, to characters like Bela Talbot and Cuthbert Sinclair in TV’s Supernatural. True obsession breeds ruthlessness and maybe a few glimmers of sociopathic behavior, the willingness to do anything to complete a collection or obtain a coveted object.
I come back to the concept of obsession and collecting in some of my other series aside from Deadly Curiosities. The Iron & Blood steampunk series, co-authored with my husband Larry N. Martin, features main characters Jake Desmet and Rick Brand whose import company acquires the hard-to-obtain (and sometimes ill-gotten) objects of desire for the Robber Baron captains of industry in 1898 Pittsburgh, along with some of the city’s powerful supernatural denizens. The Storm and Fury Adventures short stories and novellas that extend the series often deal with the ramifications of dangerous and paranormally tainted collections and the madmen behind them. And collecting several high-powered arcane items is an important element of my Ascendant Kingdoms epic fantasy series. Collections of real-life objects may be a way to preserve history or recreate an emotional reaction with old memories, and most are certainly harmless. But it’s those outliers that give me the willies, and definitely reinforce the warning, ‘look but don’t touch.’
Check out my collections of a whole different sort! Trifles and Folly is a collection of the first nine Deadly Curiosities Adventures short stories, available for the first time on Kindle, Kobo and Nook! The Shadowed Path is a collection of eleven Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures short stories and serves as a prequel to my Chronicles of the Necromancer series—available in ebook and print. And King’s Convicts is a collection of three Blaine McFadden Adventures novellas that fill in a gap of time in Ice Forged from my Ascendant Kingdoms Saga—also available in ebook.
My Days of the Dead blog tour ran through October 31 with brand new excerpts from upcoming books and recent short stories, interviews, guest blog posts, giveaways and more! Plus, I’ll be including extra excerpt links for my stories and for books by author friends of mine. You’ve got to visit the participating sites to get the goodies, just like Trick or Treat! Get all the details about my Days of the Dead blog tour here.
Let me give a shout-out for #HoldOnToTheLight--100+ Sci-Fi/Fantasy authors blogging about their personal struggles with depression, PTSD, anxiety, suicide and self-harm, candid posts by some of your favorite authors on how mental health issues have impacted their lives and books. Read the stories, share the stories, change a life. Find out more at www.HoldOnToTheLight.com
Book swag is the new Trick-or-Treat! All of my guest blog posts have links to free excerpts—grab them all!
1) Creepy! Free excerpt from our Steampunk Storm and Fury Adventures short story Resurrection Day
2) An excerpt from Collector, the Deadly Curiosities short story I mentioned above
3) Trick Or Treat w excerpt from my Jonmarc Vahanian Adventure short story Raider’s Curse from The Shadowed Path
4) Hot stuff! Look at my video for Ice Forged and Reign Of Ash
5) Use your free Audible trial to get my books! The Summoner
Read free excerpts from all of Falstaff Books’ new releases!
Treat! DoubleDragonSampler#4
Book swag is the new Trick-or-Treat! All of my guest blog posts have links to free excerpts—grab them all!
1) Creepy! Free excerpt from our Steampunk Storm and Fury Adventures short story Resurrection Day
2) An excerpt from Collector, the Deadly Curiosities short story I mentioned above
3) Trick Or Treat w excerpt from my Jonmarc Vahanian Adventure short story Raider’s Curse from The Shadowed Path
4) Hot stuff! Look at my video for Ice Forged and Reign Of Ash
5) Use your free Audible trial to get my books! The Summoner
Read free excerpts from all of Falstaff Books’ new releases!
Treat! DoubleDragonSampler#4
GUEST AUTHOR INFORMATION: Gail Z. Martin is the author of Vendetta: A Deadly Curiosities Novel in her urban fantasy series set in Charleston, SC (Solaris Books); Shadow and Flame the fourth and final book in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books); The Shadowed Path (Solaris Books) and Iron and Blood a new Steampunk series (Solaris Books) co-authored with Larry N. Martin. A brand new epic fantasy series debuts from Solaris Books in 2017.
Find her at her official website, on Twitter @GailZMartin, on Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms, at Disquieting Visions blog and GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com, on Goodreads and free excerpts on Wattpad .
Find her at her official website, on Twitter @GailZMartin, on Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms, at Disquieting Visions blog and GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com, on Goodreads and free excerpts on Wattpad .
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