Yep, we’re up to No. 7 — I’ve now posted seven installments in my #YOR #RIFF Year of Romance in Fantasy Fiction series on Supernatural Underground.

The series featured is Julian May’s Saga of the Exiles quartet, which begins with The Many-Colored Land. Although there are many characters and romances in the series, I’ve chosen to feature the author’s particular take on “Beauty & the Beast” with the love story of Katlinel and Sugoll.

So if you’re enjoying the series already or would like to know more, then rock on over to the SU and check out:

A “Beauty & the Beast” Riff In Julian May’s Saga Of The Exiles

The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist's Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood simultaneously — in alphabetical order, of course!

(The quotes, together with the covers, indicate the books in which the character appears.)

Arguably, Hylcarian is not a minor character in terms of significance, but fits the category re page and point-of-view time .

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Hylcarian: the Golden Fire of the Keep of Winds, on the Wall of Night
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“Malian,” Yorindesarinen’s mindvoice was both patient and stern, “…There is no time and no other option. You must do your duty.  The Fire,” she added, “is called Hylcarian.  He is Night’s oldest ally, bound to your House from the beginning.”

~ from © The Heir Of Night: The Wall of Night Book One, Chapter 14 — The Black Spear
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The portal tore open almost directly in front of the elm branch where Malian lay. She recognized the power that surged through from the grounds of Tenneward Lodge—and that what she had encountered then was only the shadow of the entity that was arriving now. For a split second it reminded her of Hylcarian—but the flames that ignited around the edges of the portal were black, and the force behind them was greater than anything she had ever felt before, even in the heart of the Old Keep.

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 38 — Hide and Seek
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“Are you still there?” Malian cast the mindwhisper toward her last memory of Hylcarian, a slender bridge across the leagues of darkness between Aeris and the Derai Wall. Yet the only answer was the night breeze, speaking of emptiness and distance as it had throughout her exile.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 17 — Faces of the Moon

‘Every story is like a sky rocket we haven’t seen before – flaring and sparkling in unexpected ways.’ ~ Lloyd Jones

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Recently, I shared my reading enthusiasm for Frankie McMillan’s My Mother and the Hungarians (Canterbury University Press, 2016.)

So I’m thrilled to learn that Frankie’s latest work, The Father of Octopus Wrestling, is due for release very soon, on Saturday 31 August. I shall definitely be heading along. 🙂

This will also be a collection of connected flash fiction, similar to My Mother and the Hungarians, and is again being published by Canterbury University Press, under the Ilam Press imprint.

If you’re a Christchurch resident or happen to be visiting that weekend, details of the launch are as follows:

Date: Saturday 31 August 2019

Time: 4 pm for a 4.30 pm start

Venue: Scorpio Bookshop, BNZ Centre, 120 Hereford Street, Christchurch

The book will be launched by Tracy Farr.

Isn’t the quote from Lloyd Jones, above, wonderful? Here’s a little more from the CUP website:

“Darkly comic, surreal and full of perceptiveness about human vulnerability and eccentricity, Frankie McMillan’s small fictions often duck and dive away from the reader’s expectations.

With a poet’s sense of how single words or phrases ripple out with alternate meanings, and a dramatist’s feeling for how apparently small gestures reveal character, and how sudden, cataclysmic change can wrench us out of comfort, routine and unthinking assumptions, the author leaves us ransacking the language for finer genre definitions.

This collection teems with both the animal world and a vivid circus of quirky human individuals. The pieces globe-trot all over the planet: from Russia to America to New Zealand; and yet often their piquant wisdom comes from how they bear down into ‘micro-geography’ of intimate relationships: the troughs, peaks, cliff-sides, the warm, still pools of recognition.

Frankie McMillan is like a quietly outrageous Zen master, showing us human folly and idiocy, steering us carefully over the dark river of vulnerability that swells under it all.”

I’ll see those of you who can make it on the 31st! Otherwise, support literature: buy the book or read it through your nearest library — get them to order it if need be. 🙂

The Wall of Night Series map; artist Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth post series is traversing the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Each locale is accompanied by a quote from the relevant books where the place occurs.

From January 25, 2013 to November 25, 2014, the series explored locations encountered in The Heir Of Night and The Gathering Of The Lost. Now the series has resumed to ensure the geography of Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three) is included in our “grand tour”, epic fantasy style. 😀

The new series comprises updates of previous entries as well as the new listings. Today, we’ve departed the realm of “T” for “W” — and you know what that means…

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Wall of Night:  the vast mountain range that protects the world of Haarth from the Swarm of Dark. Garrisoned by the Derai Alliance, the Wall is said to have been created by the House of Night and is also called the Shield-wall of Night.
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“The Derai are warlike and fierce,” one storyteller had said solemnly, while another recounted an even older story that claimed the Derai were not from Haarth at all, but had come from the stars long ago. They had, the teller said in hushed tones, built their great strongholds in a night and a day while the world still reeled from their coming. The plains had been riven with earthquake and fire, every river and lake had boiled—and when the cataclysm was over the vast and terrible Wall of Night marched along the northern boundary of the world.

~ from © The Heir Of Night, The Wall of Night Book One: Chapter 16 — Woman of Winter
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“The Darkswarm warrior, Jehane Mor reflected as they crept toward the skylight, had to be a danger given the powers she had seen his kind use on the Wall of Night, five years before. No obvious aura surrounded the one in the courtyard, but the ability to detect others’ powers often depended on familiarity with their weaves. And that could work either for or against her now, depending on how much the Swarm knew about Haarth magic.”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 5 — The Guild House
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“Myr stared out over league on league of cloud wrack and bitter peaks to the dark smudge that was the furthest limit of the Wall of Night. When the sky was more overcast she sometimes caught the flicker of lightning through the smudge and would shiver, thinking about all those who garrisoned the outlying towers and redoubts built to keep watch over that dark boundary. Today though, the sky was as close to clear as it ever got on the Wall of Night.”

~ from © Daughter Of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three: Chapter 1 — Lady Mouse

Last week, author Kate Forsyth and I were having a little tweet exchange on the magic that is the winter-flowering hellebore, so I thought I’d share some of the photos, together with a little more information, here as well.

A mix of red and deep pink colours…

I always refer to all hellebores as “winter roses”, but in fact that’s not correct. There are two main types: “Helleborus niger” (black hellebore), the actual ‘winter rose’ (aka ‘Christmas rose’), and “Helleborus orientalis”, which is traditionally called the ‘Lenten Rose.’

The green flower is Kate Forsyth’s favourite 🙂

As you’ve probably guessed, one flowers earlier than the other, but they’re both associated with winter and late winter/early spring.

These wonderful, almost-purple flowers look “niger” but are probably “orientalis.”

To be honest, I’m not quite sure what varieties I have now, since they were planted many years ago and the tags have been lost, but I suspect a mix judging by the range of colours and time of flowering. Mine started six weeks back, so definitely mid winter, but are going all out now, which is feeling like early spring.

This one *may* be Helleborus niger, but canna be certain…

Apparently the “niger” in “Helleborus niger” refers to the roots, which are black, rather than the flowers, which grade between white and blush pink.

“Helleborus orientalis” is actually the one with the deep pink to purple flowers.

Getting the view from below again, which shows the colours more vividly.

It’s also worth noting that they’re not a rose at all, but part of the Ranunculaceae family.

This one’s shy…

And don’t eat ’em: the hellebore’s leaves, stems and roots are poisonous to humans if consumed.

They are, however, totally gorgeous imho and add great winter interest to the garden, especially since are long flowering.

It’s not all hellebores though: this winter flowering japonica is also cool. 🙂

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The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist's Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood simultaneously — in alphabetical order, of course!

(The quotes, together with the covers, indicate the books in which the character appears.)

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Hirn: of Hillholt, an Emerian Hill chieftain

The chieftain called Hirn took the cup and drank, before passing it to the woman. Both chieftains placed their lips on the same place where Falk had drunk, and after Hawk, the cup was passed around to each of their followers in turn. “We seek Normarch’s aid, Lord Castellan.” Hirn waited until the cup was handed back to Lord Falk before speaking again. “We call on the bond sworn between Oak and Hill, when your foster brother, the Duke, first came into his power.”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 17 — Oak and Hill

A few weeks back, I started a series of posts on books I acquired in a recent “book browse and buy binge” (BB&BB), which also incorporated that other stalwart of book acquisition, the Airport Read (AR). 😉

First off the blocks was Frankie McMillan’s My Mother And The Hungarians (A NZ Book Award longlisted work), followed by last year’s Booker prize winner, Milkman by Anna Burns.

Julie Czerneda’s The Gossamer Mage was not part of either the BB&BB or the AR, but nonetheless fits within this mini-post series, which is all about reading books and sharing what I think with you—which leads me straight to this week’s installment, which is Book of Colours by Robyn Cadwallader.

Dear readers, this is a beautiful book and I really enjoyed reading it. Book of Colours is historical fiction, set in early 14th-century England, during the reign of Edward II.  It was a time of political unrest, chiefly between the barons and the King (rather than the wider turmoil of the Peasants’ Revolt, later the same century.) It was also the era of the Great Famine of 1315 – 1322, which is estimated to have killed approximately 25% of the population across Europe.

The central focus of the Book of Colours is a commission for an illuminated Book of Hours, with the story shifting between Mathilda, who commissions the work, and the illuminators, or limners — Gemma, Will, John, Benedict, and Nick — who undertake the work. Both the famine and political unrest affect the central characters in the book, but it is the manuscript and its making that ties the whole together, and I really like the way the author achieves this effect.

I also really like the sound historical basis to the novel, which comes through clearly without weighing the storytelling down. I also really liked all the characters and the way they — and my understanding of them, as a reader — develop through the story. Most of all I like the way the art of illumination is almost a character in itself, and how the intersection between the art and the individuals informs the book.

Overall, the Book of Colours is a very rewarding read, one you may well like if you’ve also enjoyed novels such as Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, The Lords of Vaumartin by Cecilia Holland, Hild by Nicola Griffith, or Vision Of Light by Judith Merkle Riley.

I purchased my copy of this book, which is a paperback edition, 387 pp, published by Fourth Estate (HarperCollins) in 2018.

The Wall of Night Series map; artist Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth post series is traversing the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Each locale is accompanied by a quote from the relevant books where the place occurs.

From January 25, 2013 to November 25, 2014, the series explored locations encountered in The Heir Of Night and The Gathering Of The Lost. Now the series has resumed to ensure the geography of Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three) is included in our “grand tour”, epic fantasy style. 😀

The new series comprises updates of previous entries as well as the new listings. At present, our traverse of the realm of “T” continues. 😉

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Towers of Morning: principal stronghold of the Derai Alliance’s House of Morning, on the Wall of Night

Garan thought that what the Towers of Morning priests called guest quarters was more like an entire wing of their great keep, in which he and the rest of his eight-guard rattled around like pebbles. They had been occupying it for a week now, having seen Sirit, the old Lady of Morning, and her companions safely home from the Keep of Bells. The time spent sheltering from Wall storms, together with Sirit’s age, and the need to skirt wide around Adamant territory on their return, had made it a very slow journey. So despite Morning being one of the priestly Houses, and the Towers echoing and half-empty, the eight-guard had accepted the opportunity to rest their horses, and themselves, before setting out for the Keep of Winds.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three: Chapter 13 — Watch and Ward

Over on Supernatural Underground, I clicked over into August with another Year of Romance (#YoR) in Fantasy Fiction (#RIFF) post—this month featuring Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys quartet.

(Although strictly speaking, the post focuses chiefly on Book #1, the titular The Raven Boys, and #2 The Dream Thieves.)

The theme of the post, and a major aspect of the books, is “friends and lovers”, i.e. when love and pairing off occurs within a group of friends.

Keen to find out more? Then head on over to read by clicking on:

Romance in Fantasy Fiction: Friends and Lovers, Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys-style

I’ve also begun listing the accumulated posts in the #YoR #RIFF series. You’ll find the links at the end of the current post. 😀

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The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist's Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood simultaneously — in alphabetical order, of course!

(The quotes, together with the covers, indicate the books in which the character appears.)

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Hirluin Sondargent: the Duke of Emer’s heir

Ilaise sighed. “It seemed such a pretty gesture, like Lady Bonamark said. And I saw Lord Hirluin once, before I went to Normarch. He’s young, still, and handsome. Good-natured, too, my mother said.” Ilaise sighed again. “Like Audin. Not that it would matter if he wasn’t. Even if he had a bad temper or a mouth full of rotten teeth, still Ghiselaine must make this marriage and smile for the world.”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 31 — Tenneward Lodge