UK/AUS/NZ

Today, Thursday 21, is the UK mass market release date for The Gathering of the Lost — w00t!

I am not doing a big celebration because right now I feel my energy is better focused on completing Daughter of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three and getting it out there to all of you I now are waiting. 🙂

But nonetheless I am very excited about it, and to celebrate, have done a guest post for Orbit–who are of course my UK publisher, so it’s absolutely fitting!

The post is titled Use of Weapons: The Armoury of Epic Fantasy—and to read it just click on the title below:

Use of Weapons: The Armoury of Epic Fantasy

Have fun with the read—I’ll look out over there for your comments. 😉

UK/AUS/NZ

As posted yesterday, the mass market edition of The Gathering Of The Lost will be released in the UK later today—Thursday 21 February, but UK time. That means my celebratory post on the Orbit blog (the site of my UK publisher), won’t be up until much later today.

So in the meantime, I shall re-post another of the guest posts from the”‘grand blog tour” I did for the US and UK trade release last year—all as a way of celebrating The Gathering Of The Lost right here on “…Anything, Really.” 😉

Today’s re-post celebrates my love of epic fantasy, and in particular the style of epic I’ve written in The Gathering Of The Lost. The post first appeared on Hugo Award-winning, genre site, SF Signal, last year.

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“Celebrating Epic Fantasy—& The Gathering Of The Lost

The reason I want to celebrate epic fantasy is fairly straightforward: I love the genre. But although I have talked about this enthusiasm before, I haven’t specifically discussed the style of epic I enjoy reading, which (again, surprise!) is also the kind of story I best like writing.

I love big, sweeping, adventurous stories where there’s a lot at stake and what’s at stake matters. I love stories of heroism, and friendships that endure in the face of darkness and despair — but sometimes fail, too. I love sword fights, and glorious charges, and forlorn hopes, and “bands of brothers” holding together through the “thick and thin.” I love magic, too, and if comes with a thread of darkness, danger, and the surreal, then all the better.

World building is also really important to me, and not just landscapes but cultures as well: I want the world and the societies to be real for me when I’m reading and that’s what I strive for in my own writing. And I like a bit of romance — not big R romance which has it’s own genre, but what I call “little r” romance, which is integral to all our lives and definitely has its place in big book epic. The Gathering of the Lost may be about magic and danger, roof top pursuits and forced marches by night, tourneys and battles, bands of brothers — and sisters — but it’s also about love.

So what else do I want in my epic fantasy? If we equate books with films, then I would have to say that although I enjoy a good special effect as much as the next moviegoer, special effects on their own leave me pretty cold. For me, a good film or a good book is always about the emotional power in the storytelling, and the depth and subtlety of the characters. Do they feel real and believable, do I lose myself in what is happening in their lives — because those are the characters I want to meet in my reading and bring to life through my writing.

Again for me, much as I love heroism, it’s about writing human characters — like Druss (Legend), who may be a legend, but is definitely feeling his age, or Mara of the Acoma (Daughter of the Empire)who survives, not just because she is smart and more than a little ruthless, but also because she is capable of compassion.

So there you have it: epic and adventure and magic, battles and flights, world building and emotional power, friendship and love. If you enjoy any or all of these things in your reading, then you may just find something in The Gathering of the Lost that you will also like.”

UK/AUS/NZ

The mass market edition of The Gathering Of The Lost will be released in the UK tomorrow, Thursday 21 February (UK time.) To celebrate, I will be doing a couple of guest posts on the Orbit blog (the site of my UK publisher), and I shall be cross posting to those as they appear.

In the meantime, as discussed last week, I shall also be re-posting some of the guest posts I did for the US and UK trade release last year, as a way of celebrating The Gathering Of The Lost right here on “…Anything, Really.”

Today’s re-post is on the importance of friendship in The Gathering of the Lost, taken from a “Big Idea” post that first appeared on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog.

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“The Gathering of The Lost: A Story About Friendship

Usually when I begin to write, I do so with a very clear notion of the “big idea”—what a story’s really all about. At other times it is only when I read through the finished manuscript that I realize there is an idea present that’s been percolating in the story all along, even if I didn’t set out to consciously write about it.

This latter situation is what happened for me with The Gathering of the Lost, Book Two of The Wall of Night series.

When I wrote my Big Idea post for the initial book in the series, The Heir of Night, I discussed my love for classic epic fantasy, but also  my desire to explore how conflicts between good and evil really play out, both within individuals and at a wider societal level—especially when one of those societies perceives itself as defending good and yet has a darkly chequered history.

“And that,” I thought then, “is very much the whole ‘big idea’ done and dusted, as obviously the second book, The Gathering of the Lost, will simply expand on the original theme.”

In fact that is a large part of what this book does. But when I finally read through the completed manuscript, I realized that the new story also has its own, distinct “big idea.”

The Gathering of the Lost is a book about friendship.

The Heir of Night raised questions about ties of honor and loyalty within a rigidly monocultural society. The Gathering of the Lost forces the central protagonists, in particular Malian and Kalan, to ask and answer questions of loyalty and responsibility to each other, but also to examine their obligations to those who stand outside their own culture’s narrow bounds. Other central characters, such as the heralds, Tarathan and Jehane Mor, and the minstrel, Haimyr, who have been brought together by events, also find old ties tested by changing circumstances and the reassertion of prior allegiances and duties.

Ultimately, The Gathering of the Lost is a story about responsibility, in terms of which I can do no better than to use the words of my lead editor, Kate Nintzel: “… to each other, to the world in which we live, to our families, whether of blood or friendship.”

What fascinates me in all this is how a big idea can work itself into a story so invisibly—but then, no matter how fantastic the world, I always strive to keep the characters emotionally real. And this is big epic as well, a story dealing with the sweep of large events—and there is nowhere, history would suggest, that such events bite more keenly than on the personal relationships between people, especially when those relationships are tested by religious, cultural and political difference. So perhaps it is not so surprising that The Gathering of the Lost should have become a story where the big idea is all about friendship, most particularly what happens when it comes under pressure.

Now don’t get me wrong—as well as the sweep of epic fantasy, I love stories that are adventurous and swashbuckling and magical, so The Gathering of the Lost is still very much a magical, swashbuckling and adventurous tale. But running beneath that torrent of danger and power, very much like a secret river, is a story about friendship: its tenacity but also its fragility, as well as its potential—sometimes, if the fates are kind—to transcend the divides of creed, ambition and self-interest.”

A Good Kiwi Girl

A good Kiwi girl wears black
travels light
can rip her gear off quick
if she’s interested   .keen for action

She’ll arrive in a foreign town
friendless      homeless
find a flat a job      mates
faster than a postcard home

will nanny for the rich
work behind a bar
waitress      pick fruit

cheap flight weekends
Paris Prague Rome
has slept in airports
her back-pack a pillow
hitchhikes through Greece

A good Kiwi girl
in four-inch heels
if she’s pissed
will arm-wrestle you in a pub
If she’s really pissed
she’ll let you win

A good Kiwi girl wants
a double-shot flat white
her own back yard
with a feijoa hedge
and a lemon tree

© Alexandra Fraser

A Good Kiwi Girl first appeared in the NZ Poetry Society publication a fine line.

The poem is reproduced here with permission.

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About the Poem:

A Good Kiwi Girl caught my eye as soon as I saw it featured in  a fine line last year—in part because of the title, but also when I read it because I felt it captured something quintessential about so many good Kiwi girls whom I know, as well as the great New Zealand “OE” (“overseas experience”—usually a working holiday.)  It has something of an ‘epic’ feel to it, too, that appeals. We go out into the world like lionesses—but always, like Euripides with “the apple tree, the singing, and the gold” there’s the return to the home (part) acre, the feijoa and the lemon tree.  A great poem to have as part of my current “Kiwi” and “summer” (respectively) Tuesday Poem focus, and I am grateful to Alexandra for letting me feature it.

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Alexandra Fraser

About the Poet:

Alexandra Fraser has been published mostly in NZ journals and anthologies, most recently in InterLitQ 17. Sometimes she lives in Grey Lynn, otherwise resident by a northern beach. She writes poetry when it rains.

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub—and link to other Tuesday Poets posting around NZ and the world—either click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

I read Hannu Rajaniemi’s  The Quantum Thief late last year, and loved it. At the time I was not aware that the book was the first part of trilogy. There was clearly scope for a sequel, but I felt the book worked well as a standalone novel. It wasn’t until I got to the last few pages that it was clear to me that there was a plan for more to come.

That first part of the “more to come” turned up on Christmas day in the form of The Fractal Prince – a gift I was very happy to receive. The book picks up the on-going story of the infamous Jean De Flambuer and his Oortian co-conspirator Mieli: pretty much straight from the point we left them at the end of The Quantum Thief.

Much of the action of the story takes place on Earth, or at least in the city at the heart of the place that Earth has become. Almost nothing about this Earth is recognisable to the reader. The environment, (physical, cultural, and conceptual) is altered in just about any way you care to name.

As with The Quantum Thief, this is a story with layers, as well as plenty of smoke-and-mirrors. Yet having experienced the first book, I felt confident that despite my initially fragile grasp of just how the world I was experiencing in The Fractal Prince worked, the story would reach a satisfying conclusion.

So did it? Well I was satisfied, as I enjoyed this book very much. But I am less clear that a conclusion was reached. To me, The Fractal Prince is much more of a set up for Book Three in the series, than The Quantum Thief was for Book Two. This is a weakness often associated with the second book in SFF series, and did detract from my enjoyment of The Fractal Prince — but not too much.

Having said that, this book does expand our knowledge of the personalities at the heart of the Sorbornost (the social construct that dominates the inner system), their conflict with the competing Zoku guilds, and with each other. You also learn more of Jean De Flambeur’s origins and motivations — if still being a little unclear about his ultimate goals. These are the major plot elements that emerge throughout the book, but clearly with more to come in Book Three.

Yet for me, the central themes of this book are the transformative effects of technology and information: how we use these to alter the world, alter ourselves and be altered in return, and the unintended places this can take us. Even more so, there is the matter of scale and control, and the way that this impacts technology and the world as information.

These themes are interesting to me as a reader, and are clearly valid extrapolations of some of the technologies we already see emerging in the real world today, such as nanotechnology and the ever-increasing scope of information technologies.

Apologies if the above appears a little obscure as an illumination of the story being reviewed — but read the book and then let me know how you think I have done! Needless to say, readers who prefer their storytelling linear, with all plot elements clearly signalled, may not find The Fractal Prince to their taste.

I have been fortunate recently to read (or in some cases re-read) a number of books that touch on similar themes, if in a variety of different ways. These are:

Bloom – Will McCarthy (Del Ray 1998)

2312 – Kim Stranley Robinson (Orbit 2012)

The Cassini Division  – Ken Macleod (Orbit 1998)

I love all of these books, and highly recommend them. If you have also enjoyed them, then you will most likely enjoy The Fractal Prince as well.

Publisher: Gollancz, 2012; 300 pp

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About the Reviewer:

Andrew Robins is a long time reader – and sometime reviewer – of science fiction, fantasy and history. People pay him to test stuff, mainly radios, which most of the time is more fun than it has any right to be. Any and all views expressed in this review are entirely his own.

To read more reviews by Andrew, see “Book Reviews for ‘on Anything, Really’“in the right hand side bar.

“Fame is for the future to decide.  All that the present can offer is celebrity.”

~ J.M. Coetzee

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I think this just about says it all really… And remarkably succinctly, too. 😉

UK/AU/NZ Cover

Well, besides the mass market release of The Gathering of the Lost in the UK on Thursday 21, that is—as first canvassed on Monday. 😉

But seriously, expect a few more of those feature re-posts from the Great Gathering Blog Tour 2012 over the next week or so, to celebrate the mass market launch… (The first, The Power of Environment, posted Thursday.)

But also coming up, we have a review of The Fractal Prince—by Finnish author, Hannu Rajaniemi—due for Monday. I loved his debut novel, The Quantum Thief, last year, so am looking forward to seeing what reviewer, Andrew Robins, has to say.

There is also a new post series in the wings, but more on that later…

The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick

Still with the letter “A”, Aeris is the second entry in my A Geography of Haarth series, featuring locales and places from The Wall of Night.

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“Aeris: a city kingdom in the lands beyond the River, in the Southern Realms of Haarth.”

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” “The Lost are another reason behind my journey here,” she told Kalan. “At the end of last summer, the Band received a report of strange doings in Aeris. Lightning and thunder out of a clear sky one day; on the next a stone barn caught fire and couldn’t be put out. I investigated and the Lost weren’t there—but they had been.” She watched his eyes widen.

“The Little Pass from Aeris to Emer,” he said. “They must be using that. It’s hardly more than a goat track, but passable in summer. And once in the wilds of Northern Emer they could go anywhere if they had the right guides.” “

~ from The Gathering of the Lost: The Wall of Night Book Two; Chapter 27 — Rumor and Doubt

UK/AU/NZ Cover

On Monday I posted about the forthcoming mass market release of The Gathering Of The Lost in the UK—fun stuff indeed!

And  thought, why not re-post some of the guest posts I did for the US and UK trade release last year as a way of celebrating that — after all they are all good posts and very apt. So I thought—particularly with the next instalment of A Geography of Haarth coming up tomorrow—that I’d start with this guest post that I did for Orbit Australia: enjoy!

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“Celebrating The Gathering of the Lost And The Power of Environment

One of the strongest influences on my writing has always been environment – my appreciation of the natural, technological and cultural elements of the surrounding world, with a flow-on to the creation of milieus within my works. This is particularly true of The Gathering of the Lost, where readers will encounter new lands within THE WALL OF NIGHT world, such as the River, Emer, and Aralorn.

Imagination certainly counts in fantastic world building, but when writing a great river, for example, it helps to have experienced big river systems, whether the Waikato and Clutha, in my own New Zealand, the Murray in Australia, or the Mississippi in the US. The River in The Gathering of the Lost is not any of those waterways, but I suspect that growing up with the Waikato and the Clutha has helped give it authenticity.

I lived close to the Waikato for a considerable period, but did not get to know the Clutha until I was an adult. Yet by then it was already entrenched in the landscape of my imagination—because of family stories and its place in New Zealand’s colonial history of gold mining, as well as its prevalence in photographic and painting art. My own view is that it is not possible to live with a landscape that resonates so powerfully in culture and history and not be influenced by it. After all, even a conscious decision to fight against its sway is still an influence.

But the “elephant in the room” when discussing the environment of this book has to be that The Gathering of the Lost was completed during the period of major earthquakes that devastated my home city of Christchurch between September 4, 2010 and December 23, 2011. The February 22nd 2011 event in particular resulted in both loss of life and widespread destruction. The Gathering of the Lost is dedicated to those who died, and to the police and emergency services that played so vital a role on February 22nd and during its aftermath. Working to complete this book during that time, with the June 13 earthquake coming just as I was on final deadline, was something of a challenge.

I now live in a city where “the broken”—from fissured roads, to slumped river banks, to compromised houses—as well as large scale demolition, is everyday reality. While I cannot know how these events will finally work themselves through, I suspect that it is not possible to experience such sustained trauma in the physical environment without it influencing my cultural imagination, and through that my writing, to some extent.

But that is for the future. Because despite what happened in the recent past I did finish The Gathering of the Lost—and hope you will find it a story where the influence of both natural and cultural environments come through in the world building. “

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Just for the record, one year on, the jury’s still out on that “influence on the cultural imagination” question, by the way. 😉

As promised, here is the giveaway result for the UK trade paperback edition set of Elspeth Cooper’s Songs of the Earth and Trinity Rising, Books 1 and 2 of The Wild Hunt series.

The draw for the books has been made from amongst those who left comments on my interview with Elspeth Cooper last week.

Both Elspeth and I were very pleased to see the level of interest in both the interview and the books. 🙂

But for now, down to business—the giveaway draw!

[Cue: Drum Roll!]

The winner of “The Wild Hunt” book set comprising Songs of the Earth and Trinity Rising is:

Peter

Congratulations, Peter!

Peter, if you email me via my website on contact[at]helenlowe[dot]info with your postal address, I will pass it on to Elspeth so she can then forward you the books.

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Notes re the Giveaway:

• The giveaway was full international

• The draw was made using Random.Org Integer Generator

• If the winner has not contacted me by 12 midnight on Saturday, 16 February (NZ time), I will re-draw on Sunday 17 (again, NZ time.)

Thank you again, from both Elspeth and myself, to everyone who has participated!