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Latest reviews: Ambassador’s Mission, Curse of Chalion, Night Watch and more

Here is a round-up of the latest books to be read and reviewed on Fantasy Book Review, with links to the full review itself.

Coming soon: The Radleys by Matt Haig, Fire in the East by Harry Sidebottom, The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell and Revise the World by Brenda Clough.

The Ambassador’s Mission by Trudi Canavan
Sonea, former street urchin, now a Black Magician of Kyralia, is horrified when her son, Lorkin, volunteers to assist Dannyl in his new role as Guild Ambassador to Sachaka, a land still ruled by cruel black magicians. When word comes that Lorkin has gone missing Sonea is desperate to find him, but if she leaves the city she will be exiled forever, and besides, her old friend Cery needs her help. Most of his family has been murdered – the latest in a long line of assassinations to plague the leading Thieves. There has always been rivalry, but lately it seems the Thieves have been waging a deadly underworld war, and now it appears they have been doing so with magical assistance …

Read the Fantasy Book Review of Trudi Canavan’s The Ambassador’s Mission

Myla by Moonlight by Inez Kelley
Magic bites… Created at Prince Taric’s birth, Myla is a spell, an enchantment designed to appear and protect him when he needs it most. She has always been content to do her duty… until one night of forbidden passion leaves her longing to experience life – and love – as a mortal woman. Yet the risk is too great. Even if her blood runs as red as his, she can never give him the one thing he needs: a child. Taric’s blessing – and his curse – is knowing the kingdom’s future depends on his producing an heir to continue the bloodline. His bond with Myla has always been that of protector and protected. When it suddenly becomes something much more, he unwittingly sentences his people to certain death. An old enemy is plotting to destroy all he holds dear: his lands, his people, his father, and his lover. And this time, even if they fight tooth and blade, their shared magic may not be enough to save them…

Read the Fantasy Book Review of Inez Kelley’s Myla by Moonlight

Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn
The fire mystic Senneth crosses the country of Gillengaria on a mission for the king, trying to discover if noble marlords from the Twelve Houses are planning an uprising. She is accompanied by the soldiers Justin and Tayse, two King’s Riders who are unswervingly loyal to the crown. Also on the journey are the shape-changers Kirra and Donnal, and a young mystic named Cammon who can practically read minds. It’s soon clear that not only are marlords planning a rebellion, but that they are being aided by Daughters of the Pale Mother, a fanatical religious sect that hates mystics. While Senneth can clearly take care of herself, Tayse finds himself unable to stop watching her—determined both to protect her and to uncover her secrets.

Read the Fantasy Book Review of Sharon Shinn’s Mystic and Rider

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Betrayed by an unknown enemy into slavery, former soldier and courtier Lupe dy Cazaril escapes his bondage and returns to the royal household he once served. Entrusted with the teaching of the sister to the heir to the throne of Chalion, Cazaril finds himself drawn into a tangled web of politics and dark magic as he battles a curse that threatens the lives and souls of a family he has come to love. 

Read the Fantasy Book Review of Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion

The Night Watch by Sergey Lukyanenko
Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are the Others. Possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy parallel world existing in parallel to our own, each Other owes allegiance either to the Dark or the Light. The "Night Watch", first book in the "Night Watch" trilogy, follows Anton, a young Other owing allegiance to the Light. As a Night Watch agent he must patrol the streets and metro of the city, protecting ordinary people from the vampires and magicians of the Dark. When he comes across Svetlana, a young woman under a powerful curse, and saves an unfledged Other, Egor, from vampires, he becomes involved in events that threaten the uneasy truce, and the whole city…

Read the Fantasy Book Review of Sergey Lukyanenko’s The Night Watch

Posted: July 8th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Fantasy Book Review, Trudi Canavan

The Use of Language in Fantasy Novels

I sat down last night and picked up ‘The Blood Knight’, the third in Greg Keyes’ The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series. I finished the second book, ‘The Charnel Prince’ maybe a month or two ago and promptly found myself without the third (and fourth) to continue on with. The order from a certain online store had yet to arrive and was already about three months late.

Months passed, other books were read, a few weeks went by without me reading any fantasy at all (though I did start in on Dewey: The Small Town Cat Who Touched The World, which I’m loving as I pick it up every now and again).

Finally the third and fourth books in Keyes’ series arrived and went onto the shelf next to book one and two. I was looking forward to it, but I had a few other books that had arrived as well, including three books by Joe Abercrombie and Trudi Canavan’s next book. So I didn’t really know when I was going to get to read Keyes, as I suspected the others – new books from publishers rather than purchased and old – would get preferential treatment.

I was wrong, and I’m probably about halfway through The Blood Knight.

And I’m loving it!

I really love Greg Keyes work. From a simple story point of view, it’s great. The general concept is unlike anything I’ve ever read, as it isn’t just a “usurper stole the crown” story or a “there are monsters in the land” story. In fact there are about five different “stories” in here that all intertwine and rely upon one another. The characters are fully realized and fleshed out, tangible and very ‘able: which is to say either likeable or hateable.

I’ll say more about the story in reviews, that’s for certain, but I wanted to touch on something that Keyes does, I think, remarkably well.

Many fantasy authors – myself included – spend a lot of time working out different languages and sources for their languages. You don’t want a book that all of a sudden has a Julius walking into the scene or someone entering a Coliseum; it’s too close to home, too close to reality. Fantasy books are supposed to be just that, fantasy, and that means that they need to take you away from the reality you’re in. One of the methods used to do this is to use different words for commonplace things and peoples names.

Some people succeed, others fail. I’ll get into who else does either at some later date.

For now, let’s just look at how well Keyes does it.

And he does do it well. Very well I think.

Within the novel Keyes’ characters travel through and encounter a variety of different cultures. Some live right next door to each other, and some are across seas. Some are related to one another and others are not. But in every instance, with every new culture introduced, there is a modification or variation on the language. Some of them bear striking resemblance to the “common” tongue (ie, the written word on paper for our reading eyes) while others are substantially removed. Oftentimes the older the reference made the farther removed from the “common” tongue it is, though there are several instances where the native tongue of someone our protagonists come across is indecipherable, saved only by context and/or explanation.

I have just finished reading a scene tonight where Anne Dare meets a native of a particular area whose language is similar, but just a little off from hers. Words like “welcome” are closely written but maybe off by a letter or two, and the way in which the sentences are structured are clumsy by common standards.

But this only makes it more impressive because behind the clumsiness is a certain grace that you can see exists within the natives language but that is lost in translation. Keyes somehow manages to imprint the lilting music of another language without us even hearing it, let alone understanding it.

More than the simple usage of different words (that are either italicized or not) to separate different cultures from our protagonists cultures, but the lead characters have different phrases for commonalities in our world. For example a nightmare is known as a Black Mary, and is frequently used as such with no hesitation. It is not a once off thing but just the way that the people speak. ‘They wake up from a bad dream and they want to cast off the lingering touch of the Black Mary,’ or something like that.

And these changes – both language wise and phrase wise – are beautifully interwoven into a story that is as much dependant on these changes as the changes are dependant on the story.

The differences between the common tongue and other tongues and historical tongues are integral to unravelling what is going to happen, revealing mysteries to the reader at the right time and creating moments of “ah ha” for the characters. One character is important almost solely for his ability to understand multiple languages both past and present. That takes a lot of guts to create a character like that, who is essentially a scholar without any of the Indiana Jones-esque abilities.

So I’d suggest that if you are at all interested in languages (or well written fantasy) than these books are for you.

Posted: May 15th, 2010
Author: JoshSHill
Categories: Joe Abercrombie, Trudi Canavan

Check Out Trudi Canavan’s New Website

A favourite author of mine and multiple award winner Trudi Canavan has a new website that you must check out. In addition to advice for writers, information on past, current and future books, and a “report a typo” section where readers can report grammatical errors in Trudi’s books, you can also read an excerpt from her newest title, The Ambassador’s Mission.

We’ll have a review up for The Ambassador’s Mission in the next few weeks, but in the mean time head along to her website or head straight on over to find the excerpt.

Posted: April 16th, 2010
Author: JoshSHill
Categories: Trudi Canavan

Charlotte Naylor joins John Jarrold Literary Agency

John Jarrold’s latest client is British fantasy writer Charlotte Naylor, who is planning a fantasy series that will appeal to readers of Trudi Canavan, Kristin Cashore and Maria V Snyder, opening with The Lady of Eslaya.

‘When I read the opening chapters, I was entranced by the immediacy and fluency of Charlotte’s prose and her young protagonist, Lily,’ said John Jarrold. ‘It reminded me of my reaction to Maggie Furey’s debut Aurian, which I acquired for Random House in the 1990s. I wanted to cheer her and shout at her at one and the same time (and occasionally give her a clip round the ear). She’s bolshy, intelligent and hugely loyal to her friends. And her story is wonderful! It’s great to see another young writer in this genre.’

Jarrold will be working editorially with the author before submitting her work to major publishers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Charlotte Naylor is twenty four years old. She has always been a keen reader of fantasy and started writing her own novels when she was thirteen. Over the years both the world and the stories have grown and developed. When she was eighteen, and back to writing the umpteenth new incarnation of The Lady of Eslaya, it suddenly started to fall into place.

Throughout her pre-university writing career Charlotte was part of an online writing group, working on what started out as a role playing game but turned into a giant, ongoing story. Members of the group took it in turns to write sections, exploring different ideas, writing styles and influences.

She did a BA hons degree in English at the University of Lincoln, where her creative writing dissertation won the Nigel Winn memorial award for ‘Best Piece of Creative Writing by a Student Studying English’. She went on to do a Masters degree in Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University tutored by novelists Graham Joyce (who suggested she contact John Jarrold as a literary agent) and David Belbin, for which she was awarded a distinction.

After graduating from Trent she and others from the course formed a writers group which still meets up regularly to critique their work. She lives in Nottingham with her partner and two pet ferrets.

In another announcement, JJLA horror novelist Adam Nevill has a brand, spanking new website that can be seen be visiting http://www.adamlgnevill.com/newsite/. Nevill’s novel Apartment 16, published by Pan, is due out in the UK in May 2010.

Posted: February 5th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: John Jarrold, Trudi Canavan

Trudi Canavan wins Aurealis Award

Trudi Canavan has been awarded the 2009 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel for her 2009 novel The Magician’s Apprentice. Released in 2009 it was a prequel to her Black Magician Trilogy, a trilogy that also saw her nominated for Best Fantasy Novel in 2002 for the second novel, The Novice.

The Aurealis Award is an annual literary award, established in 1995 by the publishers of the Aurealis Magazine (for which Trudi used to work, as an art and cover editor, reading manuscripts and more). The award is divded into multiple categories across Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, as well as including sections for Young Adult and Children’s.

In 1999 Trudi won the Best Fantasy Short Story for her work Whispers of the Mist Children. She has also been nominated in the Ditmar Awards (another Australian award created in 1969) four times, and won once.

The Magician’s Apprentice takes place hundreds of years before the events in Canavan’s bestselling The Black Magician trilogy. Check out the review for it, as well as reviews for all three books from the original trilogy. Additionally, if you just can’t get enough Trudi Canavan, check out my interview with her published in August of 2009.

From all of us at Fantasy Book Review, we’d like to congratulate Trudi Canavan on her win!

For a full list of the winners of the 2009 winners visit the website here.

Posted: January 24th, 2010
Author: JoshSHill
Categories: Trudi Canavan

Trudi Canavan interview (August 2009)

By Joshua S Hill

It has become quite apparent to me that Australia is producing more and more of fantasy’s best writers. Thankfully for me, they are also some of the nicest people around, and one of the best, Trudi Canavan, was happy enough to sit down with me a few weeks ago.

Funnily enough, it turned out that we lived pretty close to each other, and so we met at my local shopping centre for coffee and lunch, and what followed was two and a half hours of great conversation with one of the better Australian writers’ I’ve come across.

Life for Trudi, however, is simple, and focuses very much on her writing. From dawn till dusk the computer is on and she is writing. But when dinnertime comes, her husband Paul and Trudi taking it in turns to cook, the computer goes off.

Some nights the pair can be found at a group of people interested about writing, bitching about one book or reliving the joys of another. Other nights might see them at the Melbourne Science Fiction club, or simply resting at home together with their 14 year old ginger cat.

Born and raised in Victoria, Australia, Trudi Canavan has always had a passion for stories. When in primary school Trudi’s librarian started to read a story that she had already read herself, she complained. In fairness, Trudi had read the vast majority of the library, so this was probably a little unfair on the librarian. Nevertheless, seemingly unfazed, the librarian asked Trudi if she would like to tell the students a story.

She agreed.

What followed was a lesson in storytelling that could very easily have turned Trudi off writing altogether. She reversed the original Little Mermaid story so it was the human male falling in love with the mermaid. For those who know the original story, you’ll know that the mermaid actually ends up dying, kinda. Trudi found that, despite hating the ending to the original story, she couldn’t change the ending in her own story. She had to kill off the human man who had fallen for the mermaid. Trudi noted that “the other kids didn’t like it very much. And that was my first introduction to how fans will react when you kill off their favourite character.”

Personally, I think we’re lucky to have any stories from Trudi Canavan.

Maybe we can owe our thanks for Trudi’s perseverance to the 80’s radio production of Lord of the Rings, which inspired her to not only read the book but to want to create something as epic. Or maybe we can thank the teacher that, after Trudi mentioned she wanted to make something like the Empire Strikes Back.

Trudi tells of what life was like after the second Star Wars movie was released. Between hooning around the playground with the boys pretending to be tie-fighters, Trudi went to a teacher and said that she wanted to make movies when she grew up. The teacher told Trudi that the movie industry was hard to get into, so maybe she should start writing her ideas down.

“I actually have a little book somewhere that I made by hand, the story of the Dollmouse, and I would have done that when I was 8; my first written book.”

Not surprisingly then, Trudi has a large collection of notes that date back to 12 years of age. Trudi’s most recent trilogy, the Age of the Five Trilogy, actually dates back to one of those original ideas.

“The Age of the Five actually saw me go back to a story I was writing at age 14. So I took out the really embarrassing elements, like the telepathic miniature winged horses, and the villain who wore leather so he creaked all the time. “

But it was in her mid twenties, when Trudi attended classes on writing and grammar that her writing began in earnest. And, following in the steps of her love for research, Trudi found herself investigating other Australian authors, looking for signs of tertiary education. What she found is truly fascinating.

“I did a lot of research before I was published, and I looked at all the authors that had been published and whether they had a degree and what the degree was in. And I found that only about half the authors had a degree, and only half of those had anything to do with writing. The other ones had degrees in other subjects like geology and biology and things like that. So I think you always need to have a great enthusiasm for other things as well. “

“I’ve got a great curiosity about the world,” Trudi continued. “I love reading non-fiction books, I love watching documentaries. I love going out and trying something. I’ve learnt weaving recently, and I know how difficult weaving is. I’ve done woodcarving, I’ve done pottery, and I’ve done fencing for awhile.”

Trudi is probably best known for her Black Magician’s trilogy, first released in 2001 (but originally written well before Harry Potter). She spent a long time waiting for one publishing company to get back to her, and dealing with a troublesome commissioning editor before Trudi moved on. “Eventually I got a real commissioning editor who took me on and then got me the publishing deal at HarperCollins. So I didn’t get any rejection slips. I always wanted them to give me a rejection slip so I could pass it on to someone else. So I wrote another book in the meantime, because you don’t just sit around and wait.”

Following on from the success of the Black Magician trilogy, came the prequel, the Magician’s Apprentice. And naturally, Trudi will be continuing that series with the Traitor Spy trilogy, set to be released early 2010, and to be set about 20 years on from the end of the trilogy.

According to Trudi, the titles to the books are a huge hint as to the content (The Ambassador’s Mission, The Rogue and The Traitor Queen). And for those who have read the previous books, the titles will probably tell you we will be seeing more of Savara and her people, who are also (probably) the women who disappeared out of Sachaka into the mountains at the end of Magician’s Apprentice.

One of the questions I love to ask authors is whether anyone in their books mirrors people in their real life. And though Trudi wouldn’t tell me who the character was, she does explain why she doesn’t like doing it.

“I always said I’d base characters on character types, not on people. But a few years ago I was scratching around to name a character, and I didn’t know anything about her, I just needed to replace a character. And so I stole a friend’s name, and altered it a bit, and I thought, what the hell, I’ll make it like this friend, because the friend had lots of personality. And then, this particular character decided to grit her teeth and become a totally different character, and she became evil. And I had this friend who knew I had based a character on her, but the character had turned evil, and I thought ‘I’m not doing this again’.”

There was a lot more to our interview, a lot that I’ll keep to myself. But for a lot more information on the author, make sure to check out Trudi’s website at www.trudicanavan.com.

Inspirations

• Star Wars
• The Lord of the Rings
• Ursula Le Guin

 

Favourites

• The Belgariad (David Eddings)
• Magician (Raymond E. Feist)
• Tanith Lee
• Glenda Larke
• The Southern Vampire Mysteries (Charlaine Harris)

Posted: August 12th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Interviews, Trudi Canavan

Fantasy Book Review: The High Lord by Trudi Canavan

Review by Joshua S Hill

In reading an increasing amount of fantasy books over the past few years, I have found myself continually looking for “that” book that makes me feel something. The first time it happened was with Lord of the Rings, followed a year or so later by Robin Hobb’s trilogy of trilogies. Looking for books in which “that” has happened beyond those two series is a challenge. Not saying it hasn’t happened, but they don’t jump out at me.

The stories heroine is left bereft and unfinished as the story ends, which made for a wonderful change. It is not a result of poor storytelling, but rather the exact opposite. Canavan has made me care so deeply for Sonea that not seeing her placed back into the perfectly sculpted world that I deem she deserves after all she has gone through.

Without a doubt, Trudi Canavan, with her Black Magician’s Trilogy and its prequel, The Magician’s Apprentice, has managed to craft a book that is both easy to read and magnificently crafted. I would recommend this to anyone who likes reading, of any age.

Read the full Fantasy Book Review of Trudi Canavan’s The High Lord

Trudi Canavan was born on the 23rd October 1969 in Melbourne, Australia. She won the Aurealis Award for her fantasy short story Whispers of the Mist Children in 1999 and has never looked back. In 2001 she further established herself as a fantasy writer of rare talent with The Magician’s Guild, the first book in a trilogy which included The Novice and The High Lord.

Posted: July 15th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Trudi Canavan

Fantasy Book Review: The Novice by Trudi Canavan

Review by Joshua S Hill

The second book in Trudi Canavan’s The Black Magician trilogy continues on from the first flawlessly, almost as if there should not have been a break. Sonea has decided that staying at the Guild is in the best interests of all she cares about, and is not entirely as distrustful of magic as she had been starting out in book one.

As such, she begins her studies as a novice in the Guild University. Subsequently, Sonea’s storyline is very much a similar story to that of Harry Potter. The magician from a lowly station, with great power, suffers the ill attentions of the class king, despite her best attempts to remain anonymous.

While sometimes a story that mirrors another can be a detriment to the second, in this case it is not so. Trudi Canavan has a better grasp of storytelling and writing ability than Rowling does, and makes Sonea’s journey through her classes all the more interesting. She does not fall for creating a character that is flawless in every regard, but simply allows the well established upper class distaste for “dwells” carry the antagonism.

Read the full Fantasy Book Review of The Novice

Trudi Canavan was born on the 23rd October 1969 in Melbourne, Australia. She won the Aurealis Award for her fantasy short story Whispers of the Mist Children in 1999 and has never looked back. In 2001 she further established herself as a fantasy writer of rare talent with The Magician’s Guild, the first book in a trilogy which included The Novice and The High Lord.

Posted: July 14th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Fantasy Book Review, Trudi Canavan

Fantasy Book Review: The Magician’s Apprentice by Trudi Canavan

Review by Joshua S Hill

I find myself more and more encountering books to review that are invariably part of a series. Whether it be a trilogy or a Feist-ian epic, it varies. The point remains, I find myself suckered into reading all the books…

… From the end of the first third of the book, right up until writing this review, I am eagerly awaiting entering the original trilogy to see where the information I have acquired matches up. The Magician’s Apprentice is a novel for anyone looking for a beautifully written fantasy story.

Read Josh’s full review of Trudi Canavan’s The Magician’s Apprentice

Trudi Canavan was born on the 23rd October 1969 in Melbourne, Australia. She won the Aurealis Award for her fantasy short story Whispers of the Mist Children in 1999 and has never looked back. In 2001 she further established herself as a fantasy writer of rare talent with The Magician’s Guild, the first book in a trilogy which included The Novice and The High Lord.

Posted: April 29th, 2009
Author: Floresiensis
Categories: Trudi Canavan

The Magician’s Apprentice coming in February 2009

Trudi Canavan’s world of fantasy has become an international phenomenon, with close to one million readers worldwide. In February, Orbit will release The Magician’s Apprentice, the prequel to her wildly popular Black Magician Trilogy, and a gateway to an even wider readership within the U.S.

In The Magician’s Apprentice (Feb. 23, 2009; Orbit Books; $24.99), set six hundred years before the events of the Black Magician Trilogy, Canavan paints a stark world of warring empires. Kyralia, a former territory of the powerful Sachakan kingdom, is in danger of losing its tenuous grasp on peaceful independence—there are some in the former mother country are convinced that it ought to be reclaimed. On the borderlands between the two countries, a humane Kyralian magician, Lord Dakon, takes a healer’s daughter named Tessia as a new apprentice when she shows a surprising natural talent. Before Tessia can begin to get used to this range of new opportunities—and obligations—the political tensions rise to a dangerous pitch, and with the ruling classes of both kingdoms equivocating about open war, a rogue band of powerful Sachakan magicians vows to take matters into their own hands. Just as Tessia finds herself drawn to the center of the action, the Sachakans launch an attack so brutal that it will affect her world for centuries to come.

A boldly imaginative, action-packed story of war, loyalty and finding one’s place in the world, The Magician’s Apprentice will appeal to both Black Magician fans and new fantasy readers. Canavan’s vivid, feisty characters resonate with readers, and her sense of balance, emotion and detail make her stories, laced through with magic and the impossible, very real indeed.

Canavan’s U.S. readership already numbers over 100,000, and judging by the loyalty of her fans, that number will only keep growing.

Posted: November 21st, 2008
Author: Lee
Categories: Trudi Canavan