The Justice of Kings(Orbit, 2022) opens with our young narrator, Helena, traveling from town to town as clerk to the King’s Justice, a learned and idealistic man called Vonvalt. The first few chapters build towards a pivotal incident, the razing of the village of Rill and the immolation of its inhabitants. Vonvalt, who has leeway on how he applies common law, has discovered the village still worshipped the old gods, and imposed a fine as punishment, privately cautioning the local Lord to worship more discreetly. However, Patria Claver, the priest who traveled with Helena’s party, had his own ideas about how to handle pagans and returned with a party of crusading soldiers to mete out death to the inhabitants. This sets up the central conflict between Vonvalt, a rational man who prides himself on a measured and appropriate response, and the nobles who back Claver, amassing a private and punitive army of crusaders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy
Today I talked toCassandra Rose Clarke about her bookThe Beholden(Erewhon Books, 2022). Two impoverished sisters, one with magical gifts and one with ladylike manners and pretty dresses, brave the wilds of the jungle to find the River Goddess and compel her to grant them a boon. They’re accompanied by a former pirate, Ico, who is hired to protect them. But wishes are never granted for free. Years later, Celestia’s wish has come true. She’s happily married to a renowned former adventurer, Lindon, who had the money to save her family’s planation, and the know-how to make it thrive. Celestia is content with the resumption of her privileged life, and her long-desired pregnancy. Her sister Izara is studying magic at the secret Academy, now that her duty to her sister and the plantation is done. As for Ico, he’s cavorting with a beautiful and lusty Goddess in her ice palace. Life just can’t stay so good. The River Goddess has not forgotten, and now she has a perilous quest she demands of the three. A dark Mage, long presumed gone from this world, is making his presence known. There are disturbing rumors from the far north of corpses that cannot rest but continue to walk as if alive. The alarming news causes the Emperor to command Celestia’s husband, the former adventurer, to join a party to hunt down the Mage and destroy him. The River Goddess has other plans. She wants the Mage brought to her safely. Celestia and her husband Lindon now find themselves on opposite sides, each a pawn of a greater force. Can their marriage survive the struggle? Can Celestia and Izara, two very different people, work together as a team with the unwilling former pirate, Ico? Only the end of the journey will reveal those answers. Cassandra Rose Clarke's novels have been finalists for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, and YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults. Her poetry has placed second in the Rhysling Awards, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and appeared in Strange Horizons, Star*Line, and elsewhere. Fun fact: Cassandra Rose does ballet to unwind. You can follow Gabrielle on Twitter to get updates about new podcasts and more @GabrielleAuthor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy
Augusta is a meek museum curator trapped in a dead-end job and relationship, when an employment offer to become the collections manager at Harlowe House changes her life. With new friends and new responsibilities, as well as a new handsome coworker, Augusta is drawn to investigate the life of Margaret Harlowe. Margaret’s portrait at Harlowe House radiates vivaciousness and warmth, but the historic records barely mention her. Soon, Augusta is obsessed by the secret life story of the mysterious young woman she feels connected to. Was Margaret just a woman unjustly ostracized by Victorian society for her wild nature and her love of herbs, or is she a more dangerous presence? For although Margaret died more than a hundred years ago, her spirit is still very present, and her voice active. A ghost story with a strong romantic element,A Lullaby for Witches(Graydon House Books, 2022) features a tender love story as well as some thrills and chills. Bio: Hester Fox is a full-time writer and mother, with a background in museum work and historical archaeology. She is the author ofThe Witch of Willow HallandThe Widow of Pale Harbor, as well asLullaby for Witches. You can follow Gabrielle on Twitter to get updates about new podcasts and more @GabrielleAuthor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy
Elizabeth and John talk about fantasy's power of world-making with Edinburgh professorAnna Vaninskaya, author ofWilliam Morris and the Idea of Community: Romance, History and Propaganda, 1880-1914( 2010) andFantasies of Time and Death: Dunsany, Eddison, Tolkien( 2020). Anna uncovers the melancholy sense of displacement and loss running through Tolkien, and links his notion of "subcreation" to an often concealed theological vision. Not allegory but "application" is praised as a way of reading fantasy. John asks about hopeful visions of the radical politics of fantasy (Le Guin, but alsoGraeber and Wengrow's recent work); Elizabeth stresses that fantasy's appeal is at once childish and childlike. E. Nesbit surfaces, as she tends to in RtB conversations. The question of film TV and other visual modes comes up: is textual fantasy on the way out? Mentioned in the Episode: David Graeber and David Wengrow,The Dawn of Everything. In "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" Ursula Le Guin perhaps surprisingly praises the otherworldly prose style of Anna's beloved E. R. Eddison, best known forThe Worm Ouroboros(1922) J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy Stories" E. NesbitThe Phoenix and the Carpet Lord Dunsany,King of Elfland's Daughter Ursula Le GuinThe Books of Earthsea Recallable Books: Sylvia Townsend Warner,Kingdoms of Elfin(and read this lovely Ivan Kreilkamp article on her earlier strange greatLolly Willowes) Lloyd AlexanderChronicles of Prydain N. K. Jemisin,The Fifth Season Read transcript here Elizabeth Ferryis Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University. Email:ferry@brandeis.edu.John Plotzis Barbara Mandel Professor of the Humanities at Brandeis University and co-founder of theBrandeis Educational Justice Initiative. Email:plotz@brandeis.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy
Get ready for a cruel dark world of abnegation and revenge, featuring a woman who struggles to achieve psychic integration after a succession of betrayals. Like a Westworld written by Edgar Allen Poe,Bone Orchard(Tor Books, 2022) comes with its own charming brothel owner, whose name actually is Charm. Charm’s free will is limited by an implant, and her memory damaged. Her dying lover/captor, the old Emperor, assigns her two final tasks which she must complete to win her freedom. She must punish his poisoner and find a worthy person—not one of his sons—to serve as the next emperor. Charm’s girls at the brothel are also her helpmates. They were grown in vats from assemblages of bones. That doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings, though. Like Charm, they are named after emotions. Pride mostly stands behind the reservation desk, looking cool and composed, while Shame is damaged early on in the game by one of the Emperor’s sons, the cruel Prince Phelan. And Pain—well, she has an especially hard time of it. Her role is to accept the pain of others, leaving them relieved of discomfort. Behind all those linked girls lurks the spirit of a mysterious and gentle woman, the architect of their lives, referred to as the Lady, who shares Charm’s body with her. The Lady must be shielded from the terrible things that happen, but occasionally she comes out of the shadowy recesses of their shared consciousness to mend her creations. This is just the opening set up of this complex and original novel, that continues to introduce flawed conniving characters to create a chessboard of moves and countermoves. A seamstress and horsewoman,Sara A. Muellerwrites speculative fiction in the green and rainy Pacific Northwest, where she lives with her family, numerous recipe books, and a forest of fountain pens.In a nomadic youth, she trod the earth of every state but Alaska and lived in six of them.Fun fact: Her family once moved out of a house on the same day they’d moved into it, exactly one year later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy
Today I talked to G. R. Macallister abouther bookScorpica(Gallery / Saga Press, 2022). A centuries-long peace is shattered in a matriarchal society when a decade passes without a single girl being born in this sweeping epic fantasy that's perfect for fans of Robin Hobb andCirce. Five hundred years of peace between queendoms shatters when girls inexplicably stop being born. As the Drought of Girls stretches across a generation, it sets off a cascade of political and personal consequences across all five queendoms of the known world, throwing long-standing alliances into disarray as each queendom begins to turn on each other--and new threats to each nation rise from within. Uniting the stories of women from across the queendoms, this propulsive, gripping epic fantasy follows a warrior queen who must rise from childbirth bed to fight for her life and her throne, a healer in hiding desperate to protect the secret of her daughter's explosive power, a queen whose desperation to retain con...
Nell Young, a dedicated cartographer, once had it all—a dream job in the New York Public Library, a stylish boyfriend, Felix, who understood her obsession with maps, and a good salary as a researcher. Then she and her father, Dr. Young, the top scholar at NYPL had a fight about the importance of find she discovered in the basement, and her dreams came crashing down. She lost Felix when her father fired him, along with her. Seven years later, Nell is frumpy and depressed, working well below her aptitude, when news arrives of her father’s unexpected death at the Library. While in his office, she comes across his secret hiding place for treasured items and is amazed to find one of the maps included in the box that provoked the fight. It’s not one of the rare expensive maps, but rather a cheap common map from the thirties. It’s not until she enters her find into the database that she realizes she may have the only surviving map of this edition. The others have all mysteriously disappeared. Soon she begins to wonder if her father might have been murdered over this cheap map? Much as Nell would like to solve this all by herself, she’s forced to reach out for help. Could her parent’s former friends and her estranged boyfriend, Felix, help her solve the mystery? Or will her questions draw the killer nearer and put her new comrades in danger? The Cartographers(William Morrow, 2021) will acquaint you with the real-world concept of a phantom settlement and make you see the New York Public Library in a new light. Peng Sheperd was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where she rode horses and trained in classical ballet. She’s lived in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, London, Los Angeles, Washington DC and New York. Up next is Mexico City. Her first novel, The Book of M, won the 2019 Neukom Institute for Literary Arts Award for Debit Speculative Fiction, as well as many other accolades. Fun fact: Peng has never been stung by a bee. You can follow Gabrielle on Twitter to get updates about new podcasts and more @GabrielleAuthor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/fantasy
Did you ever hear the one about the elf, druid, and warlock that walk into—no, not a bar—but a trailer? Trailer Park Trickster(Blackstone, 2021), David Slayton’s follow up toWhite Trash Warlock, offers urban fantasy alternating with backwoods spookiness. If you’ve thought of warlocks as tall elegant fellows with a British accent and a swirling velvet cloak, think again. Adam Binder is a newly made warlock from Guthrie, Oklahoma, who grew up in a trailer park with a violent father and a chain-smoking mother. After his father’s disappearance and a stint in a mental hospital for seeing visions, Adam took refuge with his kindly Aunt Sue, Guthrie’s local fortune teller. While Adam, in the first book, deals with an evil spirit in Denver, a dark force is gathering in Guthrie. Trailer Park Trickster opens as he dispatches his first victim—Adam’s beloved Aunt Sue. Adam rushes back to Guthrie for her funeral, and finds his dysfunctional Goth cousin and estranged aunt cooking up meth i...
Today I talked toSue Lynn Tan about her new bookDaughter of the Moon Goddess(Harper Voyager, 2022). The immortal Xinyin lives a quiet life on the moon with her mother the Moon Goddess, and a devoted servant. When an innocent Xinyin ignores her mother’s warning, her actions raise the suspicion of the Empress of the Celestial Kingdom, who swoops in for an unannounced visit. Xinyin has never questioned her isolation, but now her mother reveals that her existence is a secret which would lead to punishment for them both, if it were known. Xinyin is forced to flee her home before the Empress returns, but her travels are interrupted by a storm. She ends up in the last place where she would want to be—the court of the Celestial Kingdom itself. No one suspects her true identity. Xinyin must keep her secret safe, even as she becomes closer and closer to the Empress’ own son, Prince Liwei, who is as compassionate as his mother is cruel. When their growing love for each other threaten the pa...
Rin Chupeco'sWicked As You Wish(Sourcebooks Fire, 2020)begins with our Filipina narrator, Tala, and her best friend, Alexei, who both attend high school in the small Arizona town of Invierno. Alexei has a few secrets. For one, he’s gay, but not out, and for another, he’s the exiled Prince of Avalon, hiding from the evil Snow Queen and her minions, which include the ICE, the US Immigrations Department. One can’t hide from the Snow Queen forever, though. Soon there are scary ice maidens roaming the halls of the local high school, hunting Alexei. Tala’s family, the Makilings, along with her Tias and Titos fight to protect Alexei but have a hard time against enemies that also include ogres and the undead. Luckily, reinforcements arrive when the Bandersnatchers, a group of teen magicians dedicated to Avalon, show up armed with various cool weapons and quips. And the adventure is just beginning. This mash-up offers a mix of everyone’s favourite fairytales. You can follow Gabrielle on...