Introducing “The Wall of Night” Series To Potential Readers
Book blogger, Stefan Fergus, aka Civilian Reader, asked me this question when Daughter of Blood was published last year: “How would you introduce the series to a potential reader?”
Here’s what I came up with:
“The Twitter-length synopsis for the series is that it’s a story about a people who believe themselves to be champions of good but are divided by prejudice, suspicion, and fear. (Not to mention xenophobic, socially rigid, and prone to fratricidal blood feuds.) They are also alien to the world they inhabit (Haarth), so there’s an SF-nal element there.
The Wall of Night series is a single story told in four distinct parts, but it centres on a young woman, Malian of Night (think ‘princess’, not ‘farm girl’), who must attempt to reunite her fractured people (the Derai) and restore their abandoned magic, as well as building alliances with the other cultures of Haarth, in order to prevent the world being destroyed by (another) alien invader.
At face value, therefore, The Wall of Night is classic epic fantasy, with not just a world but possibly a universe to be saved, two central protagonists—Malian and her sidekick, Kalan—with destinies, and the full array of quests, weapons of power, prophecies and portents to satisfy any epic fantasy lover. Magic—of the chaotic, dreamlike kind—is a potent force throughout, but I would also call the Wall series “adventurous fantasy” because flights, rooftop pursuits, single combats and melees, tournaments, battles and sieges play a large part in the story.
At it’s heart, though, The Wall of Night is about people, not just what they do but who they are—and how what they do affects them as the story progresses. So if I were to apply a NZ Maori whakatauki (proverb) to the question: “ ‘what is the most important thing in the world’ (He aha te mea nui o te ao) of this story?” the reply would be:
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata: it is people, it is people, it is people.”
To read the interview in full, click on: