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Last year, I resumed my “About the Characters” post series that focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, 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 whether the character appears in both or only one of the books — and we’re back to a single entry today. 😉 )

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Falath: hound belonging to Rowan Birchmoon, of the Winter People

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The landscape surrounding the road was drear, with a thin, unhappy wind whistling across a stony plain and prying at Malian’s clothes. The cairn she had seen through the mist stood directly in front of her now, with the same hound lying before it. The beast lifted its head as she drew near—as though it, too, is in the dream, Malian thought, or can see me through it.

“Falath,” she said, and the hound whined, deep in his throat. “You must be an old hound now.” In the dream, she rubbed his head as she had when they were both younger and dwelt in the Keep of Winds. Falath thumped his feathery tail.

~ from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 32 — Cockcrow

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They halted in another dip, several hundred yards out from the rockpile, before he and Nerys took their bows and proceeded on foot, circling wide to find a vantage point that overlooked both cairn and rockpile. The hound, Falath, was a pale glimmer beside the tomb, with no sign of anyone else present. But the fugitive could easily lie concealed among the rocks, even if Falath would not allow entry into the cairn.
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~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 39 — Traitor

Hill Tower, Jaransor; art by Peter Fitzpatrick

Not too many, though! 😉

And if you’re not too keen on the idea of more posts yourself, blame Robert, Mandy, Kahu, Chris and Mohindar who all emailed me to say that they would love to read posts about the “sidekick” and the “lovable rogue”, either singly or together.

All because I was foolish enough—in what I optimistically believed to be my wrap-up post of  September 17 for the Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes series—to admit that these often linked characters were a trope I had not yet addressed…

So yes indeed, now I shall. 😀

However, by way of either reward or punishment (depending on the reader’s perspective), I feel that if I’m going to do sidekicks and lovable rogues, I had better do the “mentor” as well.

Alec Guinness as Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars (IV: A New Hope) by Lucas Films

And yes, just as Han Solo is the sidekick-cum-lovable rogue writ large, Obi Wan Kenobi (as he appeared in the original Star Wars movie) is an archetypal mentor figure.

As I mentioned in the September 17 post, the “ ‘lovable rogue’ and the ‘sidekick’…are sometimes one and the same person.” Or even often one and the same person. So like “The Sweep Of Time & Its Twin, War Without End” they may have to be addressed in the one post, rather than two separate entries.

I have yet to make a final decision on this point, but either way, I hope the additional posts will prove something to look forward to. 🙂

“The Heir Of Night” map: artist, Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth post series traverses the full range of locales and places from The Wall Of Night world of Haarth.

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 it’s returned to gazette the geography of Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three.)  The new series comprises updates of previous entries as well as new listings.

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Port Farewell:  a major Southern Realms trading port and the capital of Aralorn
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Kalan paused, glancing toward the upstairs voices. “If I leave tonight I should catch up with the heralds. I can ride with them to Port Farewell and take ship for Grayharbor, then find another there to reach the Sea Keep. But I need to say good-bye to the others first, and see Jarn.” He took the gauntlets from his belt, but did not put them on. “I will meet you back here afterward and we can settle any other plans before I leave.”

~ from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 51 — Reports From The Wall
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The nearest shipping office was little different from the one in Port Farewell, a small room just inside the wide double doors of a ship chandler’s warehouse. The names of ships were chalked onto a blackboard beside the office door, but the clerk pursed his lips, assessing Kalan much as the Halcyon’s bosun had done. He looked like he might have been a sailor himself once, with a silver ring in one ear and callused hands that reached for a leather-bound ledger. “You’ll be wanting a Derai ship, then? I take it you’re going north?”

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 5 — Blood Warrior

Genre: Science Fiction

Story Type: Novella

First Published:  2017 by  TOR.com

Awards: Nebula Award 2017 for Best Novella; Hugo Award 2018 for Best Novella

Science Fiction covers a broad spectrum and Martha Wells’ novella, All Systems Red, lies at the “Space Opera” end, with an overlap to Military SciFi.

Just so you know what I mean by “space opera”, to me it means adventurous (or even swashbuckling) stories set in futuristic or “alternative universe” space settings, where the emphasis is more on the adventure, fun science, and character interactions, rather than the more rigorous scientific realism of “Hard SciFi.” Devices such as faster than light (FTL) travel and wormholes/space gates are important devices that help make space opera work.

I believe All Systems Red ticks all the space opera boxes, in that it’s adventurous, set in “far space” within a space-based, future human culture, and the central character is definitely fun—but I’ll come to that in a minute. In addition to having overlaps to military SciFi (also to be explained shortly) it’s also what I would call “Corporate Culture” SciFi, i.e. in this version of the space future an awful lot of stuff is run by corporations.

So-o, what’s it about? Firstly, All Systems Red is a novella, which means that the story is single-focus—which works well with a First Person Singular (FPS) narrator—and relatively straightforward. The FPS narrator, aka “I”, is a self-aware security (“SecUnit”) robot of combined biological and mechanical construction, which refers to itself as Murderbot. The alleged overlap to Military SciFi (in my mind) is because Murderbot is a security specialist and gets to fight things and fire big weapons when the chips are down.

And of course the chips are down within the course of the story, because did I not say that space opera is all about adventure?! (I did say so: yes, indeed!) The basic story goes like this: Murderbot is the SecUnit assigned to a scientific mission surveying an uninhabited planet. Early in the story the mission gets attacked by endemic fauna and Murderbot and the team discover gaps in their maps and information. Shortly after that, they realize that someone or something (beyond the endemic fauna) is trying to kill them: cue the adventure, complete with alarms, excursions, and Murderbot action.

In this sense, the story is (as I said earlier) very straightforward space opera. The aspect that makes the story so enjoyable is the character of Murderbot, whose really not that murderous and likes to watch TV serials (soap opera style) during any available downtime.  An important part of Murderbot’s story arc is his developing realtionship with the human characters, particularly the mission leader, Dr Mensah.

I’m not going to say any more about the plot, because being only novella length it would be easy to spoil the story for you. Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed it: All Systems Red is a fun, light read with a genuinely engaging main character and interesting supporting cast.

If you’ve enjoyed novels such as CJ Cherryh’s The Pride of Chanur, John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, Ann Leckie’s  Ancillary Justice, or Peter F Hamilton’s Fallen Dragon, I’m “pretty sure” you’ll enjoy All Systems Red.

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Disclosure: I purchased my reading copy of All Systems Red from a local independent book shop, Scorpio Books. And yes, it “is” a keeper. 🙂

Yes, it is! Albeit at the end of the month, but hey—best to be prepared right?! (Correct answer: Correct! 😉 )

At any rate, I’m already in the swing of things over on the Supernatural Underground, talking up the origins of Halloween (Samhain anyone? Not to mention All Souls’ Day…)

I’m also lingering a little over jack o’ lanterns and one or too spooky, eerie, or downright supernatural reads I haz known, aka Books That Go Bump In The Night… (Yes, there are a few reading suggestions: who’d’ve guessed?)

And if books that go bump in the night is your Thing, then you can’t go past our very own Supernatural Undergound authors in the right-hand side bar of the SU blog.

To check out the goodness and start getting into the Halloween mode, not to mention mood, rock on over to:

Halloween Is Coming!

Yes, the phrasing is deliberately like A Game Of Thrones—only with more jack o lanterns and trick-or-treating, and less Iron Throne. I mean, we are talking Halloween, after all.

If you have a favourite Halloween-ish read, I’d love the recommendation, so do let me know, either in the comments here, or o’er thar.

The spectre of SU giveaways past… 😉

The first orange cake

Lateish in 2015, I embarked on Quest For the Holy Grail—of orange cakes! “Which,” I pondered, “was the Best and Greatest?” The only way, I thought, was to make/bake the recipes and find out…

Orange cake, the second…

So in my mind, I had done a whole sequence of posts on this topic before being distracted by Other Life Matters, including the imminent release of Daughter Of Blood, as I recall. In the end, therefore, there were only ever two posts:

The Quest For The Holy Grail; and

The Quest For The Holy Grail Continues

However, the quest has remained ongoing, lurking somewhere in the background of both life and mind, and recently I made not one but two different orange cakes. (Although I kind of forgot the photo ritual with the second…)

Orange & Rosemary Syrup cake

The common ingredient in both cakes—beside the orange of course 😉 —is rosemary. The first is Orange and Rosemary Syrup Cake, the recipe gleaned from an Australian Gourmet Traveller of October 2001. Definitely going back aways but the recipe is very good. It’s from a sequence called HeavenScent by Leanne Kitchen. You can see some more of her food under her profile on Delicious.

Anyway, as mentioned, this cake is Really Very Good, in fact the Taste Team believe it may be the best, although they’re undecided because the first-made Orange and Almond Cake is also Very Popular…

I should also note that the original recipe was for cakes plural, with the recipe being divided into large muffin tins. But I made it as a single cake and adjusted the cooking time accordingly.

Just as good on the inside…

The second cake is a far more recent recipe, a Rhubarb, (Orange) Marmalade & Rosemary Cake from the Cuisine of July 2018 (No. 189.) The recipe was part of a preview feature for a book titled How To Eat A Peach by Diana Henry.

It qualifies as an orange cake imho because the marmalade used was sweet orange and the recipe includes orange zest. Plus it tastes orange-y. (I rest my case.) The recipe is very rich, but I do not say that like it is a bad thing: no, indeed! 😀

Rhubarb, Orange Marmalade & Rosemary cake — or what’s left of it!

At any rate, by the time I had remembered “Photos!” the Taste Team had demolished most of it. I believe you may draw your own conclusions from that fact; also that one of them was still talking about it a week later. 🙂

I hope the quest may continue with more orange cakes to come. To which end, I believe there may be an Orange Poppyseed Cake in the latest NZ House & Garden…

UK/AU/NZ

Last year, I resumed my “About the Characters” post series that focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, 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 whether the character appears in both or only one of the books — and we’re back to a single entry today. 😉 )

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Erron:  the horsemaster at Normarch, on Emer’s wild northern border
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“Ser Bartrand and the others,” he said. “Did they return safely?’

“Ay,” Hamar nodded. “The wolfpack tried to slip away but there was no chance of that with Erron on their trail. Outlaws never stand and fight against numbers,” he added, “not if they can avoid it.”

“A true wolfpack, then,” Carick said, “going after the straggler.”

~ from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 14 — Maister Gervon

Recently, while doing the electronic equivalent of rummaging through my bookish attic I came to the shelf where the covers for The Gathering Of The Lost are stored neatly in their row and was ‘struck all of a heap’ — because, dear readers, I realized that the published version of the UK/AU/NZ cover is not the original version.

I have always liked the The Gathering Of The Lost‘s UK/AU/NZ cover, but when I saw the original version I not only realized that it is different from the published version, but I also remembered how much I loved it when I first saw it. Before I say any more though, here it is, in all its glory:

Now, it’s still very similar to the published cover, which is this:

The main difference is that the “surround” of the final cover has been “blacked out” and the pale blue and the light-burst surrounding Malian seem muted by contrast—although I acknowledge that Malian herself is highlighted more, too, which is probably an improvement on the original. And overall, it’s still a great cover. Nonetheless, I really love the brighter, almost lapis-lazuli blue of the original concept and the contrasting brilliance of the light-burst around Malian. The title lettering seems more silver in effect as well, which I also heart.

Obviously more artistic decisions were made between the initial cover concept and the final look, and probably for very good reasons, such as highlighting the figure of Malian. All the same, having rediscovered the original in the book e-attic, sekretly, I love its overall look just a teensy bit more.

“The Heir Of Night” map: artist, Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth post series traverses the full range of locales and places from The Wall Of Night world of Haarth.

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 it’s returned to gazette the geography of Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three.)  The new series comprises updates of previous entries as well as new listings.

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Old Keep:  the original Keep of Winds (stronghold of the House of Night), now abandoned.
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“Loose tiles rattled and slid, bouncing off tall towers into the black depths below, and the wind whistled through the Old Keep, finding every crack and chink in its shutters and blowing the dust of years along the floors.  It whispered in the tattered hangings that had once graced the High Hall, back in those far-off days when the hall had blazed with light and laughter, gleaming with jewel and sword.  Now the cool, dry fingers of wind teased their frayed edges and banged a whole succession of doors that long neglect had loosened on their hinges.  Stone and mortar were still strong, even here, and the shutters held against the elements, but everything else was given over to the slow corrosion of time.”

~ from © The Heir Of Night, The Wall of Night Book One: Chapter 1 — The Keep Of Winds
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“Think what you would of Haimyr the Golden, Jehane Mor reflected, listening, but he could tell a good tale. He made their arrival at the Keep of Winds, in the middle of a formal Derai feast, sound full of portent, an opening hung about with the frayed darkness of ancient story—then let that darkness deepen into the blood and horror of the Darkswarm’s surprise attack and the disappearance of the Heir of Night. The request for the heralds’ assistance with the subsequent search became a flourish out of legend, and every step into the shadows of the Old Keep more fraught, sweeping the listeners through the Darkswarm attacks and into the final, deadly encounter with the Raptor of Darkness.”

~ from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 10 — A Pebble Falls
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An opener of ways: the epithet…became a weight as Garan remembered that Malian of Night’s power was believed to have come from her mother, Lady Nerion. And someone had known how to get into the Old Keep and bring down the New Keep’s defensive wards . . . Garan gritted his teeth, remembering Night’s tally of dead and injured from the Swarm attack and its aftermath. He wondered, too, if the reason Nhairin was keeping her face so resolutely averted was because one must never meet a demon’s gaze— or the eyes of one who had fallen beneath a demon’s sway.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 39 — Traitor

Where the fun started, back in 2011…

Way back on April 30, I said that I might write a few posts on Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes, building on a mini-series of three that were featured on SF Signal in December of 2011.

(Close on seven years now —gulp!—but seven: the alchemy of numbers would suggest there’s something significant in that! 😉 )

I can tell you now that I had no idea that it would turn into a marathon ten posts, spanning over a third of the year. As I said at the beginning, though, the tropes are “part of what I love about these kind of stories” so I had quite a bit of fun along the way, not least of which was calling up cherished memories of “all the books I’ve loved before.” (With apologies to Willie Nelson.)

Han Solo, the quintessential “lovable rogue”

My muster of tropes in Posts 1 to 10 is not exhaustive: I’m aware there’s still a reasonable number of others out there, as yet unexplored (at least by me), such as “the lovable rogue” and “the sidekick”, which are sometimes one and the same person (Han Solo, anyone?)  I may return to them later, but for the moment I feel that ten posts is a nice round number and a reasonable place to hang up my hat.

Also, all exploration of tropes need not be on my blog alone. Aside from those initial three posts on SF Signal, I also post on the Supernatural Underground (on the first day of every month.) My current post there is checking out Fantastic Creatures and Companion Animals. The latter, at least (or so I strongly suspect), qualify as another trope.

Fantastic creatures

As I said last week, we’re not quite done yet, because I want to take a look at a few examples of when the tropes have been deliberately inverted or undermined.  And then there’s that final post, also promised last week, which harks back to one of my opening remarks:

“I would argue, of course, that it’s not the presence or absence of these classic elements…[aka tropes]…that define the story, but what you do with them…But that is another story!”

A story we will come to yet, all going well.

In the meantime, here is the Compleat List of the Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes posts #1 – 10 (including the introductory post):

Introduction: Having Fun With Epic Fantasy—Meet the Tropes

Instalment 1: Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes: A Farm Boy/Gal Goes On A Journey…

Instalment  2: A Prince/Princess Finds A Destiny

Instalment 3: Dreams and Portents, Prophecy and Destiny

Instalment 4: “Apocalypse Now”

Instalment 5: Meet The Big Bad

Instalment 6: The Sweep Of Time & Its Twin, War Without End

Instalment 7: Fortunately There was A Portal

Instalment 8: We’re All Going On A MacGuffin Hunt

Instalment 9: Artefacts of Power—And Doom—And Where To Find Them

Instalment 10: The Alchemy Of Numbers
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On SF Signal: The “Having Fun With Epic Fantasy” Series

1. “Making the Grand Tour” (aka the Road Journey);

2. “The “Band of Brothers”; and the

3. “Soul-Sucking Sword.”

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All © Helen Lowe