I think I’ll try to do about one of these a week until A Star Shall Fall releases: if you head on over to Goodreads, you can enter the drawing for a giveaway of another ARC.
(I’ll also do at least one more giveaway here on LJ, so you won’t have to be a member of Goodreads to try and snag a copy.)
Booklist‘s opinion on A Star Shall Fall:
Brennan’s historical research is as impeccable as ever, and the twining of the two worlds is the best yet. Fans of the Onyx court novels, and anyone who enjoys historical fantasy, should like A Star Shall Fall.
And also bookblather:
A Star Shall Fall starts fast and goes faster, despite its apparent length. The climax is brilliant. I honestly did not want to put the book down or close it for any reason, and I was sniffly for a good while afterwards. This is one spectacular book; Brennan is firing on all authorial cylinders. I finished it and wanted to start it all over again, just to have some more time with the characters.
Forty days until the book comes out, and that means it’s time for another excerpt! You’ve already met Irrith and Galen St. Clair; now it’s time for them to meet each other. Or, if you missed the earlier excerpts, you can start at the beginning.
Also, don’t forget the contests for the launch party. Even if you aren’t attending Sirens, you can still enter a drink recipe and win a bound copy of Deeds of Men. You have until August 15th!
Now THIS is how to start your Monday morning: with news of a starred review in PW:
As in 2009’s brilliant Midnight Never Come, anthropologist Brennan strikes a resonant balance between history and fantasy in this new tale of the faerie domain beneath 1750s London. Halley’s Comet, which houses the exiled Dragon Spirit of Fire who nearly consumed the city in the Great Fire of 1666, is on its way back to Earth. Human lord Galen is in love with faerie queen Lune, bedding the charming sprite Irrith, and engaged to bluestocking Delphia Northwood; as he attempts to untangle these entanglements, he must also enlist members of the new Royal Society, England’s illustrious scientists, and all the multifarious faery talent he can find to fight the Dragon with humanity’s reason, magical faery instinct, and the power of sacrifice and devotion. Enchanting, fearsome faerie vistas and pinpoint character delineations make Galen’s absorbing quest one to savor and remember.
The “pinpoint character delineations” bit makes me exceptionally happy, because character is one of the things I specifically focused on in writing Star. Based on the reactions so far, it looks like it worked. Eeee! <bouncebouncebounceSTARREDREVIEWbounce>
In review news from this weekend past, Jim Hines also enjoyed the book:
This is my favorite of the series so far. The plotting is sharper, the characters are great, and Brennan continues to blend history and magic so smoothly it’s hard to tell where one ends and the next begins.
(He also says later that “Authors are, at their best, simultaneously cruel and beautiful.” Hee.)
My Monday: pretty fabulous, so far. How’s yours been?
I’ve gotten a number of reviews of both Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie that say some variant on, “this takes a while to get going, but once it does, it’s pretty awesome.” (Or sometimes, “this takes forever to get going, and I gave up.”) I fully expect that as more reviews come in for A Star Shall Fall, I’ll get a few that say the same thing.
And I’ve finally figured out how to characterize it in my head: these books are arrangements of dominoes.
That is to say, the opening stages of each book are about lining up the stones, creating patterns that will — once set in motion — crash into each other in (hopefully) interesting ways. And the important part of this epiphany is, I’m not sure I could write these books any other way. Not so long as they are both (1) historical and (2) full of intrigue. I have to set the scene (in terms of both time and place), and I have to set up the political board (to steal from the metaphor I had Walsingham use in the first book). If I skip either of those steps, the dominoes will not fall as they should, because the reader will have no idea who these people are and why they’re doing what I just said they did.
So I don’t feel like this is a flaw, per se. Just a “mileage may vary” kind of thing. There are better and worse ways of doing the setup, and my success with it has probably been uneven; I’ll certainly be looking at the opening parts of this fourth book with an eye toward making the setup as engaging as it can be. But my feeling that the current scenes for both Dead Rick and Eliza kick them into a higher degree of motion than they were before? That’s just how these books go. The dominoes have begun to fall, and pretty soon the various lines I’ve laid out will begin to collide with one another, revealing the pattern of the whole. It’s like Lune’s Act III conversation with Tiresias in Midnight, or Vidar’s appearance at the end of Part II in Ashes, or [redacted on account of spoilers for Star].
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go knock down some more dominoes.
Okay, so they actually began with Stephanie Burgis’ ARC giveaway last month. (Her verdict: “I loved Book One in Brennan’s Onyx Court series (Midnight Never Come, which was really fun), and I admired Book Two (In Ashes Lie) for how ambitious it was, but A Star Shall Fall is my favorite of Marie Brennan’s novels so far.”) Now we can add to that a review from David Forbes:
A Star Shall Fall is a a marvelous, magical novel that evocatively brings to life 18th Century London through interesting and believable characters and a wealth of historical details. The magic is interesting and surprising (the Clock Room is a great concept), as are the details about the dangers Faeries face when in the mortal world. Highly recommended.
So, we’re off to a good start!
On August 31st, A Star Shall Fall comes out.
On October 7-10, I will be at the Sirens Conference in Vail.
I have therefore decided to have my first (slightly belated) proper launch party for a book, at the conference. It will take place on Saturday the ninth, in the hour leading up to the costume ball. There will probably be giveaways of the book at that party, but there are also two chances to win special prizes.
WHETHER YOU ARE ATTENDING THE CON OR NOT — we’re holding a contest to design a faerie-themed (non-alcoholic) drink to serve at the party, with the winner to be announced that night. If you aren’t present, I will ship your prize to you when I get home, which is a signed copy of Deeds of Men, the Onyx Court novella.
IF YOU ARE ATTENDING THE CON — since the party will take place before the costume ball, I’ll also be awarding a prize for whoever shows up at the party in the best Onyx Court faerie costume. You don’t have to present as a specific character; something in the general style is fine. The winner gets signed hardcover copies of Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie.
Full details for both contests are here. If you have any questions, just let me know. (And yes, I will be showing up in costume to my own launch party. Assuming everything works out the way I’m currently trying to arrange for it to do.)
Coming home with a cold yesterday made me forget to post the new tidbit for the countdown to A Star Shall Fall.
So here it is, a day late: pictures! These are from my research trip to London last year. It’s only a small subset of the whole (I’ve got a bunch of blurry photos from inside museums I’m not inflicting on you), but I hope it will help with envisioning the places and things that appear in the book.
It’s now sixty days until A Star Shall Fall reaches shelves, so you know what that means: more excerpt! This time we introduce the book’s faerie protagonist, Irrith, first seen in Ashes. Or, if you’ve missed the excerpts so far, you can start at the beginning.
In honor of that — and of the fact that the Science Fiction Book Club will be printing Star as a featured selection, which is the news that greeted me when I woke up this morning — and of the fact that I’ve joined Goodreads — I’m doing another ARC giveaway, this time over on their site. You have until the twelfth to toss your name into the hat for a copy.
Edited to add: Sorry, the Goodreads giveaway is US and Canada only. If you live elsewhere, stay tuned in this space for other opportunities.
This is the extra bit I alluded to yesterday, when I posted my research book list: I finally have a version of the cover that I’m allowed to post. (There may be minor tweaks before it hits the shelves, but they’re along the lines of fiddling with the text, rather than image changes.)
In honor of that, I’ve started putting the page for the book into proper order. Enjoy!
Also: since my image-manipulation skills end at being able to crop and shrink pictures. I will be grateful to anyone who can make a nifty icon out of this, so future book posts can use that rather than the comet image I’ve been employing.
Very brief update, as I’m on the road and need to get moving: the history geeks among you may appreciate my research bibliography for A Star Shall Fall.
I may have another thing to add to that later today or tomorrow, but for now, I must run.
I posted a new excerpt from A Star Shall Fall (beginning of the whole is here).
And while I’m tidying up my browser, I might as well make this a linkdump post and add in two other things:
Cat Valente on the power of the suit — which I note mostly because, as I was saying to a friend recently, I have essentially no fashion registers between “jeans and t-shirt” and “formal wear.” I’ve sort of acquired a degree of business casual, left over from the year when I was teaching my own (non-archaeology-related*) classes, which you can see in action at ICFA and other warm-weather cons, but most of the time I default to a higher degree of slobbiness. But I really enjoy dressing up, i.e. actual fancy wear. It’s just the middle registers I don’t have much use for.
The Pleasures of Imagination — what struck me in this was a bit near the end, where the author said,
I have argued that our emotions are partially insensitive to the contrast between real versus imaginary, but it is not as if we don’t care—real events are typically more moving than their fictional counterparts. This is in part because real events can affect us in the real world, and in part because we tend to ruminate about the implications of real-world acts. When the movie is finished or the show is canceled, the characters are over and done with. It would be odd to worry about how Hamlet’s friends are coping with his death because these friends don’t exist; to think about them would involve creating a novel fiction.
And I immediately thought, “hello, fanfiction.” Because the aftermath of trauma is one of several fertile areas out of which derivative works can sprout.
This has been your not-at-all-regularly-scheduled schizophrenic link post.
*My theory was that when you’re assistant-teaching intro to archaeology, you’ll actually get more cred by showing up in jeans and a flannel shirt than a skirt and heels.
The other writing-related bit of news I promised is another excerpt from A Star Shall Fall. This one introduces Mr. Galen St. Clair, first of the novel’s two protagonists — with a bonus cameo appearance by a Famous Historical Figure. (Who, like Newton, and indeed most of the FHFs that show up in this book, is not so good with the social graces. I guess that’s what happens when your book concerns itself with scientific history.)
If you missed the earlier excerpts, the beginning is here. Enjoy!
Proof I have gotten way too pale: I managed to pick up a bit of a tan in freaking London.
Anyway, onto actual news, of the writing-related sort. Various bits and pieces accumulated while I was gone, so in no particular order . . .
1) I’ve sold an audio reprint of “Kingspeaker” to Podcastle.
2) Go here for another chance to win an ARC of A Star Shall Fall (scroll down for details). Author Stephanie Burgis is, with permission, re-gifting the copy I sent her.
3) Clockwork Phoenix 3 has gotten a starred review from Publishers Weekly, with this to say about my own contribution: “Marie Brennan sets the bar high with ‘The Gospel of Nachash,’ a fine reinterpretation of the Adam and Eve legend from a fresh perspective.” Also, finalized cover art.
4) An interesting post about “Remembering Light” and Driftwood more generally. I remain faintly boggled by how strongly people react to the setting — boggled, and flattered. I really do need to get more Driftwood stories written.
5) My remaining bit of news will get its own post in a bit, so instead I’ll use this spot to mention that I’m still seeking a title for the Victorian book. For those not aware or in need of a refresher, my requirements are here and here; you can leave suggestions on one of those posts, in the comments to this post, or send them to my e-mail (marie dot brennan at gmail dot com).
Congrats, landofnowhere; you’re the winner of an ARC of A Star Shall Fall!
(No, it isn’t Harvard bias. I rolled a d30. Yes, I am enough of a gamer geek that I own a d30.)
E-mail me at marie[dot]brennan[at]gmail[dot]com with your address, and I’ll send the books along! Everybody else, stay tuned; I still have a stupid number of ARCs, and will be finding a variety of creative ways to get rid of them.
Ahem. What I meant to say was, I have ARCs of A Star Shall Fall, and I am doing my very best not to hug them and squeeze them and call them George, but it’s hard, because you put in months and months and months of work, and this is the first point at which it really starts to seem like that thing you poured your brain into is actually going to be a book.
In honor of that, I’ll jump the gun by three days and give you what I planned to post one hundred days before the street date: the prologue. More excerpts will come later, and other goodies too; and if you leave a comment to this post, I’ll put your name into the hat for a drawing, the winner to receive a signed ARC of A Star Shall Fall. (With bonus copy of In Ashes Lie, if the winner doesn’t already own it; I’ve ended up with an absurd number of those, and need to send them to good homes.)
So. Enjoy the prologue, comment here if you want an ARC, and while you’re at it, think about bidding on a piece of Onyx Court history.
Edit: this particular giveaway is now closed. But stay tuned; there will be others.
I never wrote up a report on the first book I read out of this series, Georgian and Regency Houses Explained, but this can stand for both; they’re pretty similar works. Skinny little books with a lot of pictures, seemingly intended for a market consisting of people who occupy or otherwise have an interest in the houses of different periods: there’s a timeline at the back, showing when different features came into and went out of fashion, so you can try to ID your house (or renovations thereof) by time period.
But in the course of serving this need, Yorke does two very useful things: first, he gives an overview of how styles changed over time (between the Georgian and Regency periods, or throughout the loooooong Victorian period), and second, he breaks the houses down by class of room, giving sample floorplans, and talking about how those rooms would be decorated. He’s much more interested in fixtures than furniture — with this book in hand, I could probably date a coal grate to within about twenty years — but where the actual structure is concerned, his books are a minor goldmine. (The Victorian book of this series lacks the stultifyingly boring section showing different kinds of drainpipes and door styles that the G&R book had; I tried to pay attention to that bit last time, but really, unless you’re trying to date the house you live in by the depth of the window-box, its use is limited.)
He’s done a whole series of these things — “England’s Living History” — not just for houses but also bridges, churches, even narrowboats. They’re all fairly small, but based on the data sample I have so far, clear and useful for the topics they cover.
Yes, it’s odd that I usually get this first from Amazon — but it looks like the publication date for A Star Shall Fall will be August 31st. (The day before my birthday!) For those who have been champing at the bit to get this one, at least now you know when to expect it.
I was about ready to head off to bed at 3 a.m. last night (my usual time, for those not aware).
By the time I actually got there, it was nearly 5.
The reason? I was working on revising “And Blow Them at the Moon” last night, which requires at least two pieces of heavy lifting, completely replacing a pair of scenes. The first one was like pulling teeth, and I’m not sure what percentage of that was the difficulty of the scene, what percentage was me just not committing my brain to the task. But I finished it. And then, of all things, a Facebook application handed me some motivation: I was very close to regenerating enough stamina in this little monster-killing thing to go kill monsters one more time before going to bed, so I told myself that while I waited for that to be ready, I would poke at the second scene.
Then it was nearly 5 a.m. and I’d replaced both scenes.
And I think, more than anything, this is what I love about being a full-time writer. They say, and it’s true, that you can’t wait for the muse to strike if you want to have a career (full-time or otherwise) — but sometimes it does strike. When it does, having the freedom to say, “eh, I can just sleep in tomorrow” is a glorious thing. There was a point at which I knew I could kill monsters and go to bed, but I didn’t want to; I wanted to keep writing Magrat doing something very brave and rather stupid, and so I did. (Whoever knew Facebook could be good for productivity?)
Of course, that meant I slept until 1 p.m. today — which is still only eight hours, but some of them are at a time even I don’t consider to be reasonable for sleeping. So now I go eat something (god, I haven’t had food since about 9:30 last night), and trundle through the requisite 50 pages of my page proofs for Star, and then probably read more about the Underground.
And hope I can go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight.
Copy-edited manuscript is on its way back to Tor.
Ima go fall over now. (Where by “fall over” I mean “play Dragon Age.”)
I am debating a small point of spelling in my copy-edits, brought about by the change in English spelling standards over the centuries*. In this particular case, it is the variation between faerie and fairy (and also faery and fairie, but those are less common and I haven’t messed with them). The possibility on the table is that, as belief in the aforementioned creatures declines, I’ll use the “fairy” spelling when the speaker is talking about them as superstition, and “faerie” when talking about the real thing. But I can’t make up my mind whether I want to do that or not, and so you get a poll.
This will also have relevance for the Victorian book, by which point “fairy” had far surpassed “faerie” as the most commonly-used spelling for the word (and belief had also sharply declined, at least in urban areas).
*This has been an unexpected problem for me, in the Onyx Court books. For example, the general pattern is to spell the surname of the Queen of Scots as Stewart, but the surname of her grandson Charles as Stuart. Etc. And nobody, so far as I’m aware, formally changed the name of Candlewick Street to Cannon Street; it just kind of cruised along being one but occasionally the other until eventually it was the other all the time. Which are issues I didn’t consider when I wrote what I thought was going to be a standalone Elizabethan book.
Edit: So I’m leaning toward deferring the problem. The poll results so far have “pleased” winning by a noticeable margin, but a lot of “confused” votes as well, with a good discussion down in the comments of how this could be resolved by drawing attention to the difference up front. Unfortunately, there’s no graceful way to do that in my narrative as it stands — I’d have to a) horribly interrupt the first relevant scene or b) stick an out-of-narrative note at the front of the book. Neither of which sits well with me. But it doesn’t become a real issue until the Victorian period, when their rampant fairy obsession makes the use of a decidedly non-Victorian form distracting, and so I think for now I’ll stick with my usual spelling. Then, once I start drafting the next book, I’ll see if I can’t build in something that addresses the difference properly.
Edit 2: To give you an idea of why this issue sticks in my brain like a burr — the Onyx Court books are edited to American spelling, except in cases where I’m referencing something British. So ships are in the harbor but Henry Ware got murdered in Coldharbour, and the characters are looking at colors when talking about Newton’s essay “Of Colours.” Despite the fact that the entire thing is in Britain, with British characters. This annoys the snot out of me, but short of strong-arming my publisher into giving me a UK copy-edit (my preference), I can’t do much about it.
