Rebel Genius by Mike DiMartino – Review

03/03/201703/03/2017 joelcornah authors, avatar, avatar the last airbender, book review, books, fantasy, fantasy books, michael dante dimartino, mike dimartino, rebel genius, review

Rebel Genius by Mike DiMartino – Review

I am a great fan of Mike DiMartino’s work on Avatar the Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra. His book, Rebel Genius, is a solo effort and I approached it with great expectations. Will it live up to those standards? Can Rebel Genius mark the beginning of a new, great young adult series?

The Background

It is difficult to approach this book without making reference to DiMartino’s creative history. His background writing for Avatar and Legend of Korra went hand in hand with his working relationship with Bryan Konietzko.

Between the two of them they developed an incredible world, deep and complex characters, and some unbelievable visuals.

I had often wondered what each member of team ‘Bryke’ brought to the table in Avatar, so this solo effort appealed to me as the chance to see just that.

I will try to treat this book on its own merits rather than making continuous references back to Avatar. But that is difficult for one so familiar with them, and so I will limit my commentary on that. After all, DiMartino has seemingly gone out of his way to distance Rebel Genius from Avatar in a few instances.

Where Avatar was based mostly on near and far eastern culture, history and mythology, Rebel Genius is much more of a Renaissance-inspired world. Moreover, the magical system is less based on martial arts and more on artistic talent and imagination.

That being said, there are still some similarities. There is an evil overlord, much like Fire Lord Ozai; there is a suppression of certain magical abilities, and there is a ‘villain’ who may or may not turn good in the end.

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A M Dellamonica Interview

26/09/2016 joelcornah a m dellamonica, alyx dellamonica, author, author interview, authors, books, child of a hidden sea, fantasy, fantasy books, feminism, hidden sea tales, interviews, lgbt, writers of fantasy

This week in our Writers of Fantasy series is our interview with A. M. Dellamonica, author of Child of a Hidden Sea, A Daughter of No Nation, and over thirty short stories.

She writes science fiction, fantasy, and alternate history.

We talked about how she has changed in her craft over the years, what it takes to build characters and worlds, her theatre background, and the importance of representation and diversity.

KEY QUOTES;

“It was an inspiration story in the sense that the concept kind of hit like a bolt of lightning. That’s always really pleasant. I think that’s something that happens more when you’re new because you haven’t built up the infrastructure in your mind for simply generating good stories weather inspiration strikes or not.”

“When I came to write The Hidden Sea Tales, I wanted to write about someone who was markedly different from me. So I looked at the people in my life who from my more button down point of view are – sort of – over sharing all the time. So I started there.”

ON DIVERSITY AND REPRESENTATION:

“There’s been a long, ongoing effort by a lot of writers to broaden the palette. Those of us who are gay in some variation have always included those characters, but I think we also tended to make more compromises to make more characters that a more general audience would grasp onto.

So the gay characters might be tucked in at the side or the people of colour would be secondary. They wouldn’t necessarily be as integral to the story. And that’s a sad thing, but it just seems to be slowly becoming the case that you can pick characters from the full range of options available and it doesn’t necessarily tank your chances of selling a novel.”

“I’m still honestly surprised when I see things that reflect my life on TV.”

ON CREATING HIDDEN SEA TALES

“I just started making this enormously long list of everything that I think is cool or fun and delightful.”

“I included court proceedings, because I’m a huge nerd. (Like all science fiction writers).”

[Listen here]

JOEL CORNAH – THE SKY SLAYER | Small but Mighty SFF World

22/09/2016 joelcornah author, author events, author interview, authors, book launch, book review, books, diyngard, fantasy, fantasy books, feminism, independent publisher, joel cornah, lgbt, sky slayer, small press, small publisher

I was featured on SFF World’s ‘Small but Mighty’ series about my new book, The Sky Slayer! Check it out HERE. And here’s a little excerpt to take up some space on this blog posts and maybe get you to click on to their website and give them a sense that yes, some people do read my books.

SMALL BUT MIGHTY – JOEL CORNAH’S ‘THE SKY SLAYER‘

This week’s Small but Mighty attention turns to Kristell Ink whose publications are finding their way to award shortlists. The Sky Slayer is Joel Cornah’s fourth publication to be released by Kristell Ink and is the sequel to The Sea-Stone Sword.

Welcome to SFFWorld Joel! Can you tell us a little about The Sky Slayer without quoting the publisher’s blurb?

Where The Sea-Stone Sword was influenced by Jason and the Argonauts, The Sky Slayer has much more of a Blake’s 7 feel. The cast of seven fugitives fleeing an empire on a ship unlike any other, a hero who is more curse than cure, and a dry, sardonic second-in-command who has all the best lines. But I wanted to tackle some drastically different themes than Terry Nation’s classic series, and eventually subvert expectations in the process.

There is a boy who could have been a hero. To some, he is a hero. He killed the great and malicious Air King. But Rob Sardan was cursed with nightmares that will haunt him forever. He can break the curse by finding a Sky Slayer’s pendant. The only problem is he’s been locked in a prison of ice and crystal at the South Pole. A prison run by pengs (sort of human-penguin hybrids).

The story revolves around Rob and his gang of rebels as they escape to the high seas. There is Alya, the strategist with a sharp tongue and boundless wits, Gorm the chef with her deep wisdom and superior strength, Vann the thief with his ridiculous puns, and Ilma the doctor with her world-weary but shrewd observations.

They flee across the grinding ice and head to the Tomb of the Dead God, perused by the chaotic pirate Skagra, who seeks the ending of the world.

It’s action, adventure, philosophy, and puns all rolled into one amazing story!

Tell us a little about Rob Sardan, your protagonist?

Rob Sardan has all the makings of your average brooding anti-hero with a dark past. Pain, loss, and isolation – not to mention a supernatural curse – plague him and in so many fantasy novels we would see such a figure become bitter, full of pessimism and bleak of humour. I didn’t want that. I wanted Rob to defy the universe, to defy fate, and the gods themselves by being… optimistic.

His mother was a hero, a famous pirate who did incredible and terrible things. He wants to make his own legacy, to forge his own legend in the world.

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Kameron Hurley Interview

16/09/2016 joelcornah author, author interview, fantasy, fantasy books, feminism, interviews, kameron hurley, lgbt, sci-fi, writers of fantasy

The latest interview in our Writers of Fantasy series is with Kameron Hurley, author of the Gods War series, The Mirror Empire, and her new book of essays, The Geek Feminist Revolution (which is pretty amazing).

We talked about how she develops her cultures in writing, explores gender and sexuality, as well as building characters around stories. She has a lot of experience and is well worth listening to!

Your books expand and explore numerous cultures in depth; what has been the most interesting aspect of developing them?

I wanted to come up with cultures that I really hadn’t seen explored in other fantasy and science fiction novels. I see so many novels that will take exactly one “big idea” and have that be the only thing that changes in the entire world of the novels, and it feels astonishingly lazy to me. So they’ll throw in faster than light travel, but military and social hierarchies remain the same, people talk the same, live the same, the social mores are the same. And that’s just boring to me.

I read science fiction and fantasy because I want to go places that are really different. If all you’re doing is picking up a piece of tech and throwing it into a status quo version of the world we see on TV every day, I’m just not interested.

What I love most about creating cultures is seeing how each aspect affects every other aspect. So if you have a polyamorous matriarchy, say, there are very different conversations that go on about property inheritance/distribution, and while there’s still plenty of social drama, it’s very different drama, as it’s no longer “I can only choose one man!” it’s “We can all choose each other but now we need to figure out how to get along.”

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THE SKY SLAYER | OFFICIAL RELEASE

10/09/201608/09/2016 joelcornah author, authors, book launch, books, diyngard, fantasy books, feminism, independent publisher, joel cornah, launch party, lgbt, sky slayer, small press, small publisher

At last, my second novel, The Sky Slayer, has been released into the world!

My first novel, The Sea-Stone Sword, feels like something I did a hundred years ago, and a lot of the mistakes I made in it still haunt me. The Sky Slayer is a better book, in my honest opinion. Building off all the good things I think I did in Sea-Stone, making the characters more interesting, making the plot more devious, and ultimately making the whole reading experience better.

Pterosaurs, penguins, dinosaurs, and moral dilemmas. The Sky Slayer is a book that explores what happens after someone has become a legend through questionable means. After the hero has sailed off into the sunset and has to live with what they have done, with all of the terrible consequences, the trauma, and the political fallout.

Pirates roam the sea under the banner of an immortal self-styled villain. The Pengish Empire spreads into the Eastern continent. Refugees from the fall of the Air King flee to other lands, seeking help. And all the while, Rob Sardan sits in prison, haunted by the terrible things he did in the name of becoming a hero.

The Sky Slayer is out now!

Get a signed copy direct from the author

OR click HERE to buy from:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository (FREE worldwide shipping!)
Waterstones

Karen Miller Interview

03/09/201603/09/2016 joelcornah author, author interview, authors, falcon throne, fantasy, fantasy books, innocent mage, interviews, karen miller, Rogue Agent, star wars, stargate, writers of fantasy

Our Writers of Fantasy series continues with an exclusive interview with Karen Miller, best known for her epic fantasy novels such as the Innocent Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series) as well as her new book, The Falcon Throne.

She has also written Star Wars and Stargate novels and under the pen-name K.E. Mills writes the Rogue Agent series, about a wizard with special skills who works for his government under unusual circumstances.

SFFN: When you look back on your first books, such as The Innocent Mage, and compare them to something more recent, like The Falcon Throne, how do you feel you’ve changed as a writer? Has your process or method changed?

KM: Innocent Mage was a fairly uncomplicated, straightforward book. It doesn’t have a really big cast, or a challenging narrative structure, and the landscape is restrained. It was enough of a challenge for me to just to finish it, and polish it to the best of my ability, and then sell it, without burdening myself more!

But the first two books in that series (Innocent and Awakened) gave me the courage and confidence I needed to challenge myself a bit more, and so that’s what I’ve been trying to do with every book since.

The end result of that process is the Tarnished Crown series, The Falcon Throne being the first one, where the narrative structure, the landscape and the scope of the story are by far the most vast, complicated and challenging I’ve aimed for. This story is making me sweat! But that’s a good thing, even when I’m banging my head against the keyboard. *g*

The other shift, I’d say, is that the characters I’m working with are becoming progressively more layered, more convoluted, less easy to pigeon hole. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Asher and the rest of the Mage books cast, but they are all fairly uncomplicated, in terms of their motives and personalities. The Tarnished Crown cast still has good guys and bad guys, but the waters are muddier. Balfre, for example, is not a good man – but I think some of his actions are at least understandable, if not forgivable, because life has not been kind to him. I think he could have been a good man, if his circumstances were different.

Likewise Liam is a complicated person, someone whose basic nature has been distorted by events beyond his control.  Benedikt is a far sunnier, simpler man – but even he has his moments.  LIkewise Catrain. She’s a hero, but she has her flaws. And Izusa, who willingly embraces evil, and does terrible things, she’s actually motivated by love. I think that’s because to be human is to be complicated and multi-faceted. Even very good people have their very bad moments. And bad people are capable of selfless, loving acts. That can get confusing, and even confronting, but it’s also human. It certainly keeps me on my toes, as a writer.

I wish I could say, after some 19 books under my belt, that the process of writing a novel has become easier, but no. It’s not. Maybe if I didn’t keep asking more and more of myself it would be! But I still struggle with the doubts and the demons. I suspect most writers do. At the end of the day, it’s about you and the empty page (or screen) and the only cure is to sit your arse in the chair and apply your fingers to the keyboard and wrestle that story out of your head, then polish it until it shines.

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10 Days until The Sky Slayer

01/09/201601/09/2016 joelcornah author, author events, authors, books, diyngard, fantasy, fantasy books, feminism, joel cornah, launch party, lgbt, sky slayer

Sky Slayer thumb — The Sky Slayer [Paperback] £9.99

It’s only 10 days until the official launch of my new book, The Sky Slayer! It’s been a really odd process compared to the first book. Now I have a canon to stick to, a continuity to keep in mind and I can’t change it, even if I think an ida would work better.

I made a lot of mistakes in the first book, followed some tropes that were unhelpful, unkind, and even hurtful. So, with The Sky Slayer, I took a very different approach. While The Sea-Stone Sword certainly has its shocks, its plot twists and devastating moments, The Sky Slayer tries to earn them properly. I wanted to build the characters more, explore them in depth and give them space to breathe. I wanted to really delve into the consequences of the hero’s quest and pull it apart.

If you do something monumental that changes the world, how does it change you?

If you were a hero, how could you live with it?

If you’d done some terrible things, could you be trusted by others, and could you trust yourself again?

It’s a story about finding hope again, but it’s also a deconstruction of the hero narrative. It’s the story of a boy who lost the boy he loved, and chooses to love the rest of the world instead. He finds new friends, a new crew, and a new quest.

The quest is not the quarry.

The quest is the quest.

THE SKY SLAYER IS COMING.

Click HERE to Pre-Order from:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Waterstones

The Heir to the North – Audiobook Review

24/08/201624/08/2016 joelcornah audiobook, audiobook review, author, book review, books, fantasy books, heir to the north, independent publisher, small press, small publisher, steven poore

For my first review on this here blog I’ve decided to cover The Heir to the North by Steven Poore, which I finished listening to on audiobook the other day. I had read the paperback about a year ago, but still the story felt fresh and bursting with life. The performance is top notch, with each character’s voice distinct and clear as well as full of life. The story is packed with intrigue, mystery, action and more.

Don’t be fooled by the seemingly standard epic fantasy you might think this is. Heir to the North is a surprising and beautifully crafted book that will no doubt stand apart from the crowd if enough people give it the chance it deserves.

The narrator, Diana Croft, has so much talent! This is a brilliant performance. Stunning, emotional, and dripping with depth.

I’d have liked there to be more female characters. For a story that contains so much emphasis on the lead character being a woman and overcoming social prejudices, there really aren’t a lot of female roles and role models. The general absence of female voices made me feel Cassia’s isolation, so maybe that was the point?

There’s much to be said about this book. A story about stories. There’s a lot being done with the idea of how powerful a story can be, with how they can affect one’s outlook on the world, and with how they can twist the choices people make. There’s subtlety, depth, and areal sense that the author has spent long and hard crafting each and every tale into this larger tale.

If you fancy a rip roaring fantasy of depth and intrigue, give it a go! Audible has it on sale at the moment for almost half price!

Sky Slayer Launch Party

23/08/2016 joelcornah author, author events, book launch, books, diyngard, events, fantasy, fantasy books, joel cornah, launch party, sky slayer

Gather round, people, the official launch party for The Sky Slayer will be in the Oxford University Parks (the corner of W walk and N walk, probably) on 11th September 2016. We will have a picnic, music, food, reading, signing, and all sorts of fun!

Here’s the Facebook Event Page

Should it rain or be too windy or something, we will be relocating to St Anthony’s College bar instead. The bar itself won’t be open, but we’ll use the tables and chairs for a nice sit down and general merry making.

If you can’t make it, you can always pre-order it from Waterstones. If you ask to pick it up from your local store they’re more likely to stock it, just saying. 😉

‘Glory is like a circle in the water which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, till, by broad spreading, it disperse to naught’.

All who kill a pterosaur are cursed. But Rob Sardan went a step further – he killed their King.

To break the curse he must escape a prison of ice and crystal, south of south, beyond all hope. With a ragtag team of former pirates, a failed thief and a strategist who cannot be trusted, they seek a ship that can sail on a sea of fire.
They must cross the grinding ice, challenge an empire, and face the dread pirate Skagra before she unleashes the Crown of Black Glass. But above all, Rob must face the ghosts of what he has become…
King Killer. Sword-breaker. Sky Slayer.

Click HERE to buy from:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Smashwords (Coming soon)
Barnes and Noble (Coming soon)
Book Depository (FREE worldwide shipping!) (Coming soon)
Waterstones (Pre-Order Paperback)