Official Book Review: The Sapphire Heart by the Three Scribes, Book One of their The Erynvor Cycle

I have finished The Sapphire Heart by the Three Scribes – Sandra Mead Miller, Abigail Bender, & Victoria Hungria – Book One of their The Erynvor Cycle and, as the authors requested, now give it an Official Book Review.

Probably the most well-known literary adage is "do not judge a book by its cover," which is at once smart and foolish because everyone does. The cover literally being the point of first contact between book and prospective reader, giving that all-important first impression, which is why authors and publishers go to great lengths to make their covers as splendid and accurate as possible. In the The Sapphire Heart's case, one look at the cover gives an impression as a vast, Epic Fantasy world where every plant and animal has a distinctive name, a gloriously intricate and imaginative realm where an epic quest will unfurl to save it. A quest undertaken by a disparate yet destined band.

You know what? That would be an accurate first impression. So what makes Elorah's, the eleventh Erynvor, quest to restore Eolemar different from that of other Epic Fantasies of the classic tradition? The world-building and the fact that Elorah and crew are not facing down a Dark Lord but rather trying to resurrect the great Founding Dragons (did the cover give that away?) so as to restore their dying land. Swords are useful at times, but tis difficult to force better harvests with them and they help even less when your prime foes stalks the dream-realm of Oru Fen. The Wycche and Venge will suck the restful right out of your sleep and the vitality from your life without compassion or compunction – for she serves the Self rather than the All.

I will not lie: this book is heavy both physically and mentally. But those who, like me, enjoy inhaling a thousand names (not literally) and many characters will find themselves right at home.

The Red String of Fate: A Valentine's Day toast to Romantasy

"I have lived on the borders, my real face unseen, 

but where I go now has no boundary but dreams. 

Walk with me, walk with me out of this night, 

for you are my love, and you are my light." 

– Victoria Hanley's Dreamwen song

I have never been much of a Valentine's Day person (the last and only time I marked in on Stars Uncounted was six years ago), but it recently occurred to me that no better day exists to pay special tribute to the new and hyper-popular Romantasy genre. Or rather, the term "Romantasy" and its hyper-popularity is new; not the genre itself as Romantic Fantasy has been around forever. As I recently wrote in my Where Fantasy literature stands: the Rise of Romantasy and Asian-inspired Fantasy post:

"Seemingly overnight between 2022 to now, the Grimdark has been overthrown by the almost simultaneous rise of Romantasy and Asian-inspired Fantasy. What is Romantasy? A new word that, in brief summation, is the fusion of Romance and Fantasy which gives each equal importance. Yes, yes, yes, all the best Fantasies usually have a strong romantic subplot, yet in Romantasy there is nothing sub about the romance. These are tales where slow-burn love stories unfold alongside a sweeping Epic Fantasy adventure, each no less critical than and in fact complimenting the other. A harmonious wedding of high-stakes fantasy world-building with compelling romance plotlines. A subgenre that is as likely to have LGBTQIA+ protagonists as otherwise, which is called Queer Romantasy.

Then there is Asian-inspired Fantasy. Back in 2017 I said that "the lore of Eastern cultures remains a largely untapped goldmine within the Fantasy genre. A goldmine that, when used, tends to immense popularity." No longer is that mine untapped. Oh no. From Tasha Suri's Burning Kingdoms trilogy to the Song of the Last Kingdom by Amélie Wen Zhao, to Axie Oh's The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea to Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan, to Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, to Elizabeth Lim's Spin the Dawn and Six Crimson Cranes and truly countless others, Asian-inspired Fantasy has uncoiled like the Azure Dragon of the East – wrapping Fantasy literature in its shinning and unique scales.

"Yin and yang. Good and evil. Great and terrible. Two sides of the same coin, Lián'ér, and somewhere in the center of it all lies power. The solution is to find the balance between them." - Dé’zì, grandmaster of School of the White Pines.

And then there is when the two meet in Asian-inspired Romantasy, which in some ways seems to be more prevalent than either of the other two. Indeed, now when I go to bookstores the shelves are packed with Romantasy and Asian-inspired Fantasy, thus making these two the unquestionable current co-monarchs of the Fantasy genre. Is Grimdark gone? Hardly. But its stranglehold is broken and I like to think that the Rise of Romantasy and Asian-inspired Fantasy was and remains a direct reaction against its dark cynicism and naked brutality. For in an unsettled world, they offers readers a powerful form of escapism to alternate universes where magic exists and love can conquer all. 

Of course, like I said, Romantic Fantasy has been around forever and some publishers used to – and maybe some still do for all I know – distinguish between Romantic Fantasy where the fantasy elements is most important and Fantasy Romance where the romance are most important, while others said that the line between the two has essentially ceased to exist or, if it remained, is in constant flux. Obviously the Rise of Romantasy has made these terms somewhat outdated is not obsolete.

Still, now that the history and terminology is out of the way, I thought Valentine's Day would be a perfect time to list all the Romantasy I have ever read, keeping in mind that many of these were published decades before the Rise of Romantasy and exist somewhere between the old Romantic Fantasy and Fantasy Romance definitions, and some might not even have been classified as either at the time but which I judge fit the bill (i.e. have enough romance to be mentioned) here.

• Graceling Realms by Kristin Cashore
• The Twelve Houses series by Sharon Shinn
• Healer and Seer series by Victoria Hanley
• The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip
• These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling 
• The Novels of Tiger and Del by Jennifer Roberson
• The Novels of the Nine Kingdoms by Lynn Kurland 
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
• Song of the Last Kingdom by Amélie Wen Zhao

“And the Old Matchmaker of the Moon said to the lovers, 'This red thread I bestow upon you. It may stretch and it may tangle, but it will never break. Across cycles and worlds and lifetimes, your souls are now destined.” – Amélie Wen Zhao

On that note, and despite the above quote, I am particularly grateful to The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea as it was the book that taught me the awesome (in the old sense of the word) story potential of the Red String/Thread of Fate. What is it? An ancient East Asian belief rooted in Chinese and Japanese folklore that an invisible red cord connects those destined to meet and become soulmates. Not that they are destined to have a happy ending, but I fell in love with the concept as a new way to incorporate prophesy and destiny into Fantasy. Fans of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time are surely thinking of Birgitte Silverbow and Gaidal Cain, linked souls reborn across countless Ages who are born with different names yet always follow the same pattern: hate at first sight, comrades in arms, falling in love, killed before they can settle down (usually) but living on as heroes of a hundred and more legends. A perfect example, for the Wheel weaves as it wills, its threads connecting the Pattern across the Tapestry of Ages.

"Love supplies a kind of strength that can withstand even death." – Terry Brooks 

Beyond that, well, I could wax poetic about the role of love in Fantasy literature endless, a fact my LGBTQIA+ in Fantasy and Final Lesson pages prove, I think. So I will end it there. Happy Valentine's Day!

"Being deeply loved gives you strength; loving deeply gives you courage." – Lao Tzu  

Eragon Disney+ Adaptation moves forward

I rarely post direct quotes from other articles, but in this case the news is straightforward enough to warrant such:

"Eragon, Disney+‘s live-action adaptation of Christopher Paolini‘s popular YA book series The Inheritance Cycle, has taken a major step in the development process, firming up its creative team and opening a writers room. High Potential showrunner Todd Harthan has been tapped to co-create the series with Paolini, with Harthan and Todd Helbing (Superman & Lois) set as co-showrunners. Also boarding the project is Marc Webb (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), who has signed on as an executive producer. A writers room for Eragon opened late last year and is currently ongoing. Disney+ sibling — and High Potential producer — 20th Television, where Harthan is under an overall deal, is the studio. The series has been in the works since 2022 when 20th TV and studio-based producer Bert Salke (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), via his Co-Lab 21 banner, optioned the rights to the entire The Inheritance Cycle book series."

Fortunately for them it would take real effort to do worse than the original travesty of an Eragon movie. I have spoken of this before, back in 2022, and so will leave it there and hope for the best.

Song of Tarma shena Tale'sedrin

On my Heroine Archetypes page I speak of Tarma shena Tale'sedrin of the Shin'a'in people from Mercedes Lackey's Vows and Honor duology. Tarma is sole survivor of Clan Tale'sedrin who, after being gang-raped and strangled by the murdering bandits, is left for dead. Fleeing to the neighboring Clan Liha'irden, she clings to life and sanity by harboring her desire for revenge. However by the traditions of the Clans she can only seek revenge by offering her service to the Star-Eyed, fourfold Goddess of the Shin'a'in, becoming Kal'enedral – a celibate Swordsworn priestess. Yet to become Kal'enedral Tarma, still recovering from her grief and rape, sang the following song to the Star-Eyed (who is easily my all time favorite Fantasy deity).

 

 

Knowing Tarma's backstory, even so briefly as I have laid out, makes the song measurably better. A beacon of strength and reminder that we can rise after losing literally everything to find hope and joy, love and purpose in the world again.

A new coat of paint, and all the characters

While there are a many drawbacks to being an indie author, driving sales none the least of them, one absolute benefit is having total and flexible creative control over your covers; hence the ability to improve/change them at will. Which is exactly what I did with my The Dragonkin Legacy; behold the new and improved covers of The Last War and Dragon Guardians!

 

Also, as a bonus, here is an image of all the principle characters. What can I say other than all authors LOVE seeing their characters come to visual life.

My father and I just finished rereading A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones

My father and I just finished rereading A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones.

Time travel was hardly a new concept in Fantasy/Sci-Fi even back when Jones wrote this in the 1980s, but never through my vast reading have I ever encountered any author who does it better or more often than Diana Wynne Jones. Yet A Tale of Time City showcases her sheer imaginative genius and utter mastery of time-travel science and timeline synchronicity in staggering fullness. She misses nothing as Vivian (a British WWII evacuee) and Time City natives Jonathan and Sam crisscross History's Fixed and Unstable Eras, from World War II to the Mind Wars to an overgrown London while chowing down on – or getting revenge with – Forty Two Century Butter-pie. All in an unforgettable mission to protect a city outside the flow of History from a dark force moving through and sabotaging History; after all, the Second World War is messed up enough without adding trains with radio-active fuel and nuclear bunkers into the mix.

Beyond that, tis standard Jones: a plot bristling with invisible tripwires as she builds up to a climax bursting with surprise after surprise. Do not let her simple language fool you. I rank Diana Wynne Jones next to Tolkien himself, and all who know me knows that is not a comparison made lightly.

Quote of the month

"Forgiveness is hard, but so very worth it." - Kai'Sa