Just Arrived: “Miserere, An Autumn Tale” by Teresa Frohock
As I’ve said on several occasions now, one of the great things about the internet is that it getting to know fellow authors in the same field—even those on the far side of the world—something I particularly enjoy. Someone I have gotten to know recently via Twitter, SF Signal, FantasyReddit and Abhinav Jain’s “Names: A New Perspective” guest author series, is Teresa Frohock.
Having enjoyed what Teresa has to say in all these fora, naturally I was keen to read her debut novel, Miserere, An Autumn Tale (Nightshade Books, 2011.) So I was delighted when she agreed to a similar author exchange as with Courtney Schafer and Elspeth Cooper. And I am equally keen to read it, especially as it sounds a wee bit different to your bog-standard Fantasy fare.
As usual, the back cover text is immediately below, but if you would like to check out Teresa’s post in the “Names: A New Perspective Series”, it’s here: “A Game of Names.”
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From the Back Cover:
“Exiled exorcist Lucian Negru deserted his lover in Hell in exchange for saving his sister Catarina’s soul, but Catarina doesn’t want salvation. She wants Lucian to help her fulfill her dark covenant with the Fallen Angels by using his power to open the Hell Gates. Catarina intends to lead the Fallen’s hordes out of Hell and into the parallel dimension of Woerld, Heaven’s frontline of defense between Earth and Hell.
When Lucian refuses to help his sister, she imprisons and cripples him, but Lucian learns that Rachael, the lover he betrayed and abandoned in Hell, is dying from a demonic possession. Determined to rescue Rachael from the demon he unleashed on her soul, Lucian flees his sister, but Catarina’s wrath isn’t so easy to escape.
In the end, she will force him to once more choose between losing Rachael or opening the Hell Gates so the Fallen’s hordes may overrun Earth, their last obstacle before reaching Heaven’s Gates.”
This book pushed so many right buttons for me. I loved it. I can’t wait to read the sequel, Dolorosa. Gonna have to wait a while for it though, since IIRC Teresa hasn’t yet started writing it 😛
I had a sneak preview and thought it looked really good, and given HEIR resonated with you, I suspect there may be some overlap between our ‘likes.’ 😉
There is definitely overlap, although the kind of fantasy in Teresa’s work and the Heir of Night series are not congruent in terms of subject matter.
Interesting! I guess I would need to know what defines ‘subject matter’ for you, but from my limited look at Miserere so far, I detect elements of dark vs light, inner struggle and redemption, alarums and expeditions, plots and politics, which do not seem entirely incongruent with the WALL series?
Pardon me, I’ve been awfully remiss in responding all over the interwebz this last week.
I think Paul’s comment might have more to do with the fact that Miserere shifted away from standard fantasy expectations and leaned more toward horror in a couple of scenes. The good vs. evil paradigm is evident in both Helen’s work and my own, and though I’m only a short way into The Heir of Night right now, I’m seeing that we both set a very dark tone for our novels from the beginning. Something that I enjoy very much. 😉
Forgiven, Teresa: how not?! 🙂
I would never have thought of Miserere as capital H-Horror, although even a read of the back cover made me think of Constantine, in the broadest sense, and I’ve never been sure whether that ranks as Horror or Dark Fantasy, or even Supernatural Fantasy… Maybe in the end it just comes down to good tales well told, or should do. 🙂 Although I also go by the author’s intention, so for example with Heir and the Wall series my primary intention is to tell an epic-heroic tale, but there is indeed a dark tone to the world and also possible elements of dark fantasy/horror, but only in places and very much as subsidiary to the main epic intent. So what was your intention with Miserere, Teresa? Or do you prefer not to tag?