The book giveaway result is now out, please check here.

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I have a few books to give away, including two proof copies (where it says ‘proof’ after the title below!) I’ve also noted the broad genre context for each book as well.

If you’re interested in any of them, just post a  comment below letting me know which book you want. (And if there’s a lot of interest in a particular book I’ll do a draw next weekend—look out for the result to be posted Sunday 4.)

So here’s what we’ve got (in alphabetical order by title):

Echo City by Tim Lebbon  (Dark Fantasy)

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Julian Comstock–A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (Future dystopia SF)

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Land of Hope & Glory by Geoffrey Wilson (Proof) (Alternate History)

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Seven Princes by John R Fultz (Proof) (Epic fantasy)

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The Scarab Path (Shadows of the Apt series) by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Epic fantasy)

Last weekend I tweeted that:

“In my world today: the sun is shining, agapanthas flowering, cicadas chorusing–feel like I’ve woken up reincarnated as Pollyanna.” 😉

It’s not quite so warm this morning after a night of rain, but it is clear and promises to fine up even more later — & I thought what better for the blog today than a photo of those agapanthas. I have blue ones as well but I always think these white ones are extra special.

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And then I thought–why not go all the way? Here’s some blue hydrangeas as well! 🙂

The newest book in my “just arrived” box—from which it will promptly move to the TBR table—is “The Prince of Soul And the Lighthouse” by Swedish-New Zealand author, Fredrik Brounéous. It’s published by Steam Press, a New Zealand speculative fiction publisher.

Now I think this is “probably” a YA book—but here’s the back cover blurb, so you can read and decide what you think for yourself on that score:

“What happens when we die?

This has been the third question on mankind’s faq list since the dawn of time (numbers one and two being: Is this edible? and Excuse me, would you care to breed? ).

I know what happens. Believe me,  I’d rather not. But I do.

There is a lighthouse, and it guides our souls along the narrow path to being reborn as humans.  It’s the light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, as my undead granddad and the Tibetan special-mission monk in my kitchen have kindly told me, there’s a problem with the lighthouse. And if the world is to be saved, someone needs to fix it.

Which is where I come in: George Larson, eighteen years old. Who could possibly be better suited to save the world? 

Well, almost anyone. Especially as being a teenage guy is nothing at all about question three but all about questions one and two.

And really, that’s complicated enough as it is.”

Sounds a lot of fun, doesn’t it? And some authors whose work I respect clearly think so, as it comes with some great cover quotes:

“A terrific story: funny, original and surprising” ~ Fleur Beale

.“Quirky, funny and wise” ~ Mandy Hager

“This road trip with reincarnation is full of teenage hormones, forbidden — well, inadvisable — love, signs, portents and coffee-addicted zombies. If the Dalai Lama and Terry Pratchett collaborated on a novel, it might read something like this.” ~ Tim Jones

.And the Sunday Star Times thinks it just might be the great NZ novel:

“Brounéus comes perilously close to having written the great New Zealand visionary fiction novel… a rollicking adventure – humorous and as exciting as an Indiana Jones escapade”

With praise like this flowing in I think I might just have to put it high on the TBR pile … 😉

For more information you can go to the Steam Press website here

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Note: the cover art is by Tony Tarasiewicz

It’s fun all the way on SF Signal’s current Mind Meld, with a list of authors being asked to name their favourite villains in Fantasy & Science Fiction.

The authors featured include Scott Lynch, Michael Burstein, Shaun Duke, Jen Zink, LB Gale, Helen Lowe (that’s, er, me–yippee! ;-)), Paula Stiles, Howard Andrew Jones, Mark Chadbourn, Ian Sales, Gabrielle Gantz, MD Lachlan, Myke Cole, Jennifer Pelland and Michael Sullivan

Some of these names you’ll recognise instantly, others you may have to investigate a bit further, but I can assure that the collective take on favourite villains and villainy is diverse and interesting—definitely worth checking out as are the authors themselves.

OK, let’s go then—check that Mind Meldout, right HERE!

Have a favourite villain of your own you want to talk about? Then you can post about it here, or better still, on the Mind Meld itself—am sure the SF Signal team and other contributing authors would love to hear from you!

What’s that? Oh, you want to know where the covers fit in—well, all these books get a mention in my contribution to the Mind Meld. But you’ll have to go have a read to learn the whys and wherefores!:)

Today is the first anniversary of the February 22nd earthquake that resulted in the deaths of 185 people here in Christchurch, as well as a great many physical injuries, a significant number of which were severe, and major infrastructure damage across the city.

I know there is a huge amount about it in the media right now as well as official memorial services being held—and I also know that I am finding the intense focus on ‘reliving’ that time harrowing, a feeling of being retraumatised.  Because of that, I didn’t think I would have anything much to say when I began drafting this post—but I find that I do.

So here, for what is worth, are my personal thoughts on and response to today’s commemoration.

Firstly, it isn’t over. Although the aftershocks following each major event appear to be decreasing in number and severity, there is still a very real possibility of another major quake.

And in terms of the devastation caused by the February 22nd and June 13th earthquakes in particular, we are still living in a majorly damaged city. For many people, the day to day is still incredibly tough. So we are still very much “in it” and cannot say for sure whether the worst is behind us or not. And that knowledge is always there, in the back of all our minds.

Nonetheless, 185 people died a year ago today, many more were seriously injured, and a whole heap more than that lost homes, businesses and jobs. So not to commemorate today’s anniversary could be construed as saying all that doesn’t matter. When it does: a lot.

Much of the rest of what I have to say is probably pretty obvious stuff. Like acknowledging the fact that it’s been an incredibly tough year and lots of people out there are still doing the hard yards. One thing about the intense media focus around this anniversary is that it does remind us of this.

Here’s the thing, though. Yes things are still bad, very bad even for many people. And yes, EQC, CERA, the Council—they can all be frustrating to deal with over different things, very frustrating even, and I’m quite sure they’re making mistakes.

But I think if we look at the big picture, if we really reflect on the tremendous, absolutely devastating  level of damage that occurred last year, I think it’s not surprising that the authorities are struggling to cope and respond. In fact, overall I think they have done and are continuing to do amazingly well under the circumstances. And looking back to February 22nd last year, when pretty much half or more of the city was completely taken out, what I remember in terms of my personal experience here in the Richmond area of the—yes—East Side, is this:

• within two days, our power came back on
• within four days, Council contractors were on our road clearing liquefacted material, and
• we had the first door knock from someone from Civil Defence checking on our welfare and wellbeing
• within a week we had tap water again–we still had to boil it for months for health reasons, but we did have water coming out of the tap
• and within 10 days we had a preliminary damage check from a building inspector, accompanied by a second ‘welfare’ person

And what I think, to be perfectly honest, is that is absolutely amazing. A-maz-ing.  And throughout this year, I have seen so much going on ‘out there’–water supply stations for those early weeks, portaloos, chemical toilet waste tanks, teams working on water infrastructure, sewerage infrastructure, roads … Plus I know people who are working on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the earthquake (the human processes, building failures etc, not the actual earthquakes!) and others who are working on plans to rebuild the city—so many people doing so much to try and put our broken world to rights again.

We still have a very long way to go, too: we all know it. I’m quite sure—know, in fact!—there is considerable room for improvement in how things are being done. There’s stuff I’m frustrated and angry about as well—but today is not the day to air those concerns. Because when you think of where we were a year ago today, I think we’ve come a heck of a long way already, and actually that’s an outstanding achievement—something that everyone involved can take pride in, and that I wish to acknowledge and thank them for.

So for me, I think today is about two things:

• a time to remember everything we’ve lost and to mourn, both for individual people and our community;
• a time to really appreciate all the effort that has gone in so far  to support the community and set things to rights—and to really thank everyone who has made that happen.

And maybe, to reflect on the sentiment recently expressed by Christine Murray, a survivor of the collapsed PGC building:

“Time is short, it’s time to let go of the hurt and the pain and move on, however we can. Although none of us will forget, we all have to do what we can to find the positive things in life … now and in the future.” (in the Christchurch Press, Saturday 18 January)

Kia kaha, Christchurch: Arohanui.

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In terms of my personal experience being on the ‘suburban rear lines’ of the past year, I have recorded something of that under “Earthquake Reports”, here, and Earthquake Poems, here.

This Will Be Us

This will be us, one day —
faded photographs
for archivists and future
generations to pore over,
speculating on how
we must have felt, what
it must have been like …
… being lowered
from a high building
on ropes, or having one foot
amputated in situ
by a policeman to free
the rest of the body
from the rubble
of a collapsed building.
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Or perhaps these historians
yet to come may stare
at footage of suburbs flooded
by silt and sewerage
after groundwater was forced
up by the shock waves
and mains burst
everywhere; all the bridges
between Cathedral Square
and the sea closed,
bar one, and holes
opening in roads —
large enough
to swallow SUVs.
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Or will those to come
pause instead over photos
of the student volunteers,
shovels in hand
as they move en masse
to dig out half a city,
dust whipping up
into a grit storm
around them …  And yet,
how could that future
observer feel more
than a passing wonder,
a flash of empathy …
.
… any more than we do now
when looking at old records
of past disasters:
the great pandemic, say,
that followed World War 1,
or the Wahine storm —
and only fleetingly imagine
the reality that these people —
flickers on a newsreel,
stills in a frame —
experienced, lived through,
endured.

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© Helen Lowe, 2011
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This poem is dedicated to the police and rescue services, and to the Student Volunteer Army, the Farm-y Army, and all the other volunteers who picked up whatever they had and “did for others”* after each of the major earthquakes of September 4, 2010, February 22, June 13, and December 23, 2011 in Christchurch.

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* from Forever Young, by Bob Dylan

” … may you always do for others
and let others do for you …”

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

Introduction:

As regular blog readers will know, I am not only an epic fantasy author myself, but also a genre reader of longstanding—and also occasionally post on epic fantasy topics, both here and on other sites such as SF-Signal. I first met John R Fultz through his comments on those posts and noticed immediately that he both shared my enthusiasm for epic fantasy and was clearly a widely read and knowledgable commentator. I was delighted to learn that he was a fellow Orbit author as well, with his own epic fantasy series, Books of the Shaper scheduled for release this January. I immediately asked if I could do an interview and was delighted when John said yes—and am equally delighted to be bringing you the interview today.

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The Interview:

HL: Seven Princes is the first in a new series, titled “Books of the Shaper“—can you give readers an idea of what it’s about?

JRF: Seven Princes is about blood–both literally and metaphorically. It’s about the sons (and daughter) of a mad Giant-King, but it’s also about several other princes such as D’zan, whose throne was stolen by an undying sorcerer. It’s about war and the terrible cost of vengeance. It’s equal parts dark, heroic, and epic fantasy. Most of all, it’s about sorcery.

HL: Seven Princes is also your first book published—how’s that feeling so far?

JRF: It feels amazing. Quite surreal at times. It’s really cool that this story I labored over for so many years has finally gotten out there. I used to walk into bookstores of all sizes and think: “Man, it would be so nice to have a book on these shelves where anybody could discover it.” The publication of Seven Princes represents—quite literally—a dream come true. And it’s a dream I get to share with all my readers, which is totally cool.

HL: I think it would be fair to describe Seven Princes as a big book in every sense of the word—a number of the central characters are giants, it traverses realms, big magic and bigger battles, over a satisfyingly epic number of pages. So why did you choose to write a ‘big’ epic? And not just one such book, but the first of a series? What do you feel that the big epic read offers readers that a more Twiggy-esque standalone might not?

JRF: Why a “big epic”? I suppose because the epic tale is so very seminal to the fantasy genre. For years I talked about writing my “Big Fantasy Novel”—so I finally did it. I find it far more rewarding than writing a short story here and there. As for the trilogy, I set out to write a book that would stand on its own (which Seven Princes does), but one that would also leave me room to return to its invented world. When agents become involved in a fantasy writer’s quest for a publisher, they usually will ask for a series proposal because the fantasy series has become a staple of the genre. Fantasy readers have a special relationship with the series (whether it be a trilogy or what-have-you) because when they love an invented world and/or set of characters, they want to return to that wonderful place again and again. The market demands it, so that’s what publishers want to see: series. Which gave me the perfect opportunity to pitch a trilogy—I had the Seven Princes manuscript completed and rough outlines for the second and third “Books of the Shaper“. The other great thing about doing a trilogy is that you have three “big releases” and it gives the reading public three separate chances to access your work. The idea, obviously, is to build a core following that grows with each book. The epic itself is one of the oldest and most mythic of storytelling forms—making it perfect for these “big fantasy” tales. People used to write them as poems—today we write novels instead.

HL: Building on the previous question, what do you look for when you pick up an epic fantasy? And how have you brought those ideas and passions into your own work?

JRF: The first thing I look for when I pick up ANY book is an engaging opening. When it comes to fantasy I look for a style that is timeless, lyrical, somewhat poetic, yet smooth and engaging. I suppose the next thing would be interesting characters…if they don’t grab you in the first three chapters or so, they’re probably not going to grab you at all. Something else a great epic fantasy has to have—for me anyway—is an original take on the whole fantasy genre. There’s no way to define what this might be: it could be a unique take on character, world-building, narration, imagery, or any number of other mixed elements. I do think a very key element of my favourite fantasy is strong fantastic imagery—a sense of wonder that is created by the unveiling of the author’s invented reality. Imagery is key to good fantasy…and that’s why I keep coming back to the whole lyrical/poetic thing, because the heart of much poetry is imagery. I think the second part of your question—how I bring these elements to my own work—is by following my muse. I write the fantasy tale that I most want to read. I’m a harsh critic, so when I please myself I know I’ve done it right. I try to incorporate all those elements I mention above, but in a way that is perfectly natural. I never want it to feel forced (“Oh, he’s trying to be poetic here…”). As to whether I succeed or not, that’s up to each individual reader to decide.

HL: I was interested to see that you drew on Japanese folk tradition in Seven Princes, with the sorceress, Alua, shapechanging between fox and human form. What do you see as the major mythological and/or legendary influences on the story—and what drew you to them?

JRF: Well, I didn’t consciously draw on Japanese folklore—but I am familiar with the “fox-woman” myth to which you’re referring.  That came not from me picking and choosing consciously from real-world myths and legends, but from my own sense of wonder and the connection to the mystery of nature that I wanted to instill in the Vireon character (who chases after the fox-woman). I take this same approach to all my fantasy world-building: I don’t consciously mix cultures, but I put everything I know about ancient culture (which is quite a lot) into the fertile soil of my mind-garden, and I let it grow organically to serve the story. The story and its world grow together—feeding off one another and often filling in the gaps for one another as well. I don’t like to analyze my process in too great a detail, but I can tell you that any knowledge I have from real history, real cultures, existing myths, and documented legends is all grist for my imagination’s mill. In other words, I use everything and anything I can to create a world that is as beautiful and exotic as it is primal and dangerous. So I couldn’t really cite any specific mythological/legendary influences on the story—but I’m sure they are there, filtered through the weird lens of my subconscious mind (and sometimes my conscious mind). I don’t want my fantasy worlds feeling too much like any ONE period of history or any single earthly culture. I want there to be parallels, echoes, and whispers of these things—but I want my invented world to be its own creature with its own secrets, mysteries, and wonders. I suppose you might make a comparison between the kingdoms of Seven Princes and the classic Greek city-states…but only insofar as they are walled cities. There are definitely Roman, Norse, Arabian, Asian, and other flavors, but they are all just ingredients in the funky stew I’m cooking. The whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.

HL: So do you have a favourite character in Seven Princes? And can you tell me why?

JRF: When it comes to Seven Princes, I suppose Vireon is a favourite—although it could easily be his sister Sharadza. However, in Seven Kings (the “Second Book of the Shaper”) I’ve found that Lyrilan of Uurz has grown to be my favourite—he has a terrific character arc in that book (no spoilers!). It’s quite like trying to pick your favourite kid—you can do it, but not comfortably. I’m attracted to Vireon because he is my version of the archetypal hero: my Gilgamesh, my Beowulf, my Siegfried, my Hercules. He has the blood of Giants flowing in his veins, and the strength of Giants in his limbs…he’s at one with nature, which makes him a “pure” kind of hero. He’s honest and forthright, if a bit temperamental, and often brooding; he may be a lot like me in these respects. However, Sharadza is also a great character to me because she enters the mysteries of sorcery head-on, and the reader gets to accompany her on a transcendental journey into the secrets of reality itself. She represents the raised consciousness of expanded awareness, the seeker in search of immortal wisdom. She’s also the “conscience” of the cast—the only one who sees the absolute horror of war and who will do anything to try and stop it. She is the pacifist, the humanist, the progressive, in a world of primordial violence. She is endlessly fascinating to me for these reasons, and many more. Definitely not your typical princess.

HL: Action, world building, characters: do you have a favourite part of the storytelling process?

JRF: This might sound strange, but my favourite part of the storytelling process is the process of discovery. When I write, I’m constantly discovering the story as it unfolds. It’s a bit like walking through fog, seeing a series of streetlamps up ahead, but not being able to see the street in between them. I know I’m going to walk to each light and pass it, but I can’t see too far ahead of me—just a few feet at a time—so I keep going. I discover what’s going on in the story as I move from streetlight to streetlight (or tentpole to tentpole, if you will). I know where I’m going, but not how I will get there. I do big, rough outlines, but I keep it loose so I can let the story grow organically from the characters. As Fitzgerald said, “Plot is character, character is plot.” I set up my fictional universe and then turn my characters loose in it—like dropping mice into a maze. Then I sit back and watch them run…and I write it all down. Don’t get me wrong: I do a LOT of mental work before I sit down to actually write—I call it “gestating.” So I guess you could say a lot of the story is already forming in my subconscious—perhaps the WHOLE story—and all I’m doing when I write is “harvesting” it, bringing it to the page. Reporting the convoluted expressions of my imagination; inscribing the movements of my creative tempests; letting my creation live and breathe and speak to me. When I listen closely, it always tells me what I need to know…

HL: Seven Princes is also part of a series—and as a reader I definitely got a sense of continuance at the end of the book. But will each book still be relatively complete, or is it more a case of one ongoing story told in several instalments?

JRF: “Book One of the Shaper“, Seven Princes, is definitely a stand-alone read. So is Book Two (Seven Kings). However, with Seven Kings there will a more urgent drive to see what happens next. It’s not exactly a “cliffhanger” ending, but it’s an ending that closes one movement of the overall story only to open up a brand-new movement. It is the “Act II” of the trilogy, so to speak.

JRF: Yes! Seven Kings will hit bookstores one year after Seven Princes did—January 2013. And in the meantime, as well as working on Book 3: Seven Sorcerers, I’ve also got the Primordia graphic novel coming out from Archaia–look for it in comic shops in March. Amazing high-fantasy artwork by the great Roel Wielinga. Finally, I have a really cool short story called “The Gnomes of Carrick County” appearing in SPACE & TIME #116, which goes on sale this month (Feb). It’s the first “historical weird fantasy” that I’ve written, and I’m pretty excited about the results. (There’s even a cameo from ol’ Kentucky hero Daniel Boone.)

HL: I am sure that everyone who has loved Seven Princes will be marking January 2013 in their diaries right now–and in the meantime those interested in “The Gnomes of Carrick County” only have to keep their eye on the Space and Time website, here.

John, its been a great pleasure having you here on the blog today. It’s always fun to introduce new authors and I have especially enjoyed hearing you “speak” to your book in such an enthusiastic and expansive way. I’m looking forward to staying in touch, to checking out “The Gnomes of Carrick County”, and to seeing Seven Kings in the book shops next January. (I’ve already seen Seven Princes “out there” right now! 🙂 )

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About the Author:

John R Fultz

John R. Fultz lives in the Bay Area, California, but is originally from Kentucky. His fiction has appeared in Black Gate, Weird Tales, Space & Time, Lightspeed, Way of the Wizard, and Cthulhu’s Reign. His comic book work includes Primordia, Zombie Tales, and Cthulhu Tales. John’s literary heroes include Tanith Lee, Thomas Ligotti, Clark Ashton Smith, Lord Dunsany, William Gibson, Robert Silverberg, and Darrell Schweitzer, not to mention Howard, Poe, and Shakespeare. When not writing novels, stories, or comics, John teaches English Literature at the high school level and plays a mean guitar.

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About the Interviewer:

Helen Lowe is a New Zealand-based novelist, poet, and interviewer. Her latest novel, The Heir of Night, the first of The Wall of Night quartet, is published in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and The Netherlands; forthcoming in France and Germany in 2012. Helen has twice won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Excellence in SciFi-Fantasy, for Thornspell (Knopf) in 2009 and The Heir of Night in 2011. Helen posts every day on her Helen Lowe on Anything, Really blog, on the first of every month on the Supernatural Underground,  and appears occasionally on SF-Signal.

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Other Recent Interviews:

To read, click on the links immediately below:

• Daniel Abraham & The Dragon’s Path
• Mary Victoria & Oracle’s Fire
• Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris, Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel
• An Interview with Brandon Sanderson
• A Magical Mystery Tour through “Men Briefly Explained” with Poet, Tim Jones

US cover

UK cover

Today it really came home to me that there are just on 6 weeks to go until The Gathering of the Lost is published! That is, just under 6 weeks in the USA & Canada, and just very slightly over in the UK/AUS/NZ.

I “knew it” intellectually, but for some reason it hasn’t seemed quite real—possibly because there have been  so many other things happening in the “here and now.”  But seeing an advance post on the wonderful Beatties Bookblog the other day stsrted the process of ‘making it real’—if interested you can read that post here.

So now I’m thinking that I probably need to do something to get into that countdown mode. For The Heir of Night I had some ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) to give away, but that’s not the case this time around, so I shall have to put my thinking cap on …

But I can confirm that I will be doing a Big Idea post on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog on 29 March—and yes, there is actually a big idea for The Gathering of the Lost that is different from that for The Heir of Night, although I didn’t realise it myself until I’d finished writing the book. So it’s a kind of underground big idea—but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until 29 March to find out more! 😉

Meanwhile, if you want to read the Big Idea post for The Heir of Night again, it’s still here.

I recently discovered this quote from Alan Moore—and loved it so much I ‘just had’ to share it here:

“Life isn’t divided into genres. It’s a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction, cowboy, detective novel.”

Oh yeah! (Air punches!)

Enjoy your Saturday, gentle readers! 🙂

Somewhat guiltily, I have to confess that this “just arrived’ some time ago now—but I have only “just unwrapped” the packaging so does that count? I think it does and so moving right along …

Blue Remembered Earth (Gollancz) is straightout Science Fiction from UK author Alastair Reynolds And yup, it’s Book One of a series, Poseidon’s Children.

Here’s the tagline: One Secret, Two People, An Infinity of Futures

And here’s what the back cover says:

“The Mechanism knows everything. It knows where you are. It knows what you are thinking, what you are feeling. There is no crime. You are safe.

But in a utopia like this keeping a secret can be a deadly business.

Geoffrey and Sunday Akinya want no part of their family and its wealth. The Akinyas have ridden Africa’s economic boom into orbit and beyond. Wherever humankind has gone in the Solar system, the Akinyas have profited.

…

But when their grandmother dies she leaves behind a secret that throws Geoffrey and Sunday into a desperate race against their family. A race run beneath the unblinking eye of The Mechanism.”

And there is even a trailer, here:

Blue Remembered Earth

It does sound interesting … and once I’ve read it I also hope to bring you an interview with Alastair Reynolds. So as the saying goes “watch this space.”  (I just realised that was probably a pun—but don’t mind me! ;-))