The Art of Arrow Cutting by Stephen Dedman (or six degrees of separation from awesome writers!)

They say everyone in the world is connected to everyone else by six degrees of separation. I discovered how true this was when my mum casually mentioned she'd gone to primary school with a writer, Stephen Dedman.

So I got curious and went hunting on the internet, where I found he'd written quite a bit. I only bought one, The Art of Arrow Cutting, but it was a good read. Well done, mum's school friend. Well done.

The premise is that the main character 'Mage' (yeah, not joking) screws himself over by performing a good deed. He buys a bus ticket for a girl in need and she, in true fairy tale fashion, returns the favor with the gift of a magic key. Not that she tells him it's magic, but he figures it out once people start trying to kill him for it. (Thus the screwing over part.  You'd think a gift card would probably have sufficed.) He sets out to find her and hopefully figure out what the hell is going on.

I was puzzled a bit by it being set in America, as it was the kind of story that could really be set anywhere. Probably trying to expand the target audience. But the contrived coincidence of fantasy that usually annoys me - the right people showing up at the right moment with the right abilities - doesn't apply here. Yes, Mage conveniently gets exactly what he needs at any given time, but it's justified in a way that ties it into the larger plot.

Mage himself is a chivalrous pervert with an extremely slashy vibe with his stuntman friend Takumo, who is the most competent, badass sidekick anyone could ever ask for. Batman would kick Robin to the curb if he saw this guy's moves. Their ally, the down-to-earth lawyer Kelly, is a perfect example of how to include female characters in a male-dominated narrative. She didn't get involved because she couldn't resist Mage's magic dick (although technically, I suppose his dick could be magic) but because of spoilery reasons I won't get into. Basically she had a motivation and a useful role that wasn't love interest. Other writers take note.

The narrative is fast-paced, the action clear and to the point. Lets say I never got bored with this story. Occasionally the characters would blurt out a lot of exposition about mythology that even I couldn't spit out at a moment's notice (and I spent a lot of my childhood in libraries memorising mythology books) but it was always relevant to the plot, with later pay-off. I particularly liked that Mage thought outside the box to come up with surprising but logical ways to utilise his new powers.

I'd recommend this to urban-fantasy readers who want a supernatural mystery. If you like Harry Dresden, you'll enjoy this as well. There is violence and sex, but nothing too gory, so I think it would be appropriate for older teenagers and above. It can be found on Amazon in paperback and the Australian Amazon in electronic form.

And just to be different this week, I'll finish with a great and wise quote from the book:

"Most of us aren't equipped to handle miracles, man. I'm not sure that I am, not without being seriously stoned." - Takumo

Top Five Kick-Ass Heroes of Australian High Fantasy

Not long ago I did a top five list of Kick-Ass Heroines of Australian Fantasy. So in the interests of fairness, here is another list, this time for all the awesome guys of Australian fantasy.

**Please note that there will be SPOILERS.**

--

5. Jasper of The Last Stormlord

Some men rule by the sword.
Jasper doesn't need no sword. 

Jasper was a child born into abject poverty but whose stunning powers made him the only possible successor to the all-powerful Stormlord. Kidnapped to be used as a puppet ruler, Jasper escaped through a scheme that combined both simplicity and common sense.

He went along with the plan, waited until he was Stormlord, then kicked said kidnapper to the curb.

This is a guy of ruthless political efficiency who could have been a player in Game of Thrones. He may not have a formal education but god help him if you try to manipulate him. He's also a fair and reasonable ruler who believes in religious freedom, education and civil rights. Sure he had to kill a few thousand people to get there, but in a civilization constantly teetering on the brink of disaster, bleeding hearts end up dead.

Also, he has super powers to make the Last Airbender look like a pussy and can suck the water out of you. No, not that way. With his super powers. Jeez, dirty mind much.

--

4. Prince Gar from The Innocent Mage

The badass bookworm who proved you don't need
magic to save the world. Though it might have
helped with that whole 'survival' thing.
Fanart by GoldenLionofRa

Now I know what you're thinking; Gar isn't the main character. Clearly you weren't paying attention. It's obvious that Gar is the real hero of this series and Asher was just the opportunist who talked himself onto a throne at the end.

Gar was the prince born without magic, the guy perfectly equipped to rule who would have been an amazing king, but because of a little magical deficiency was passed over in favor of his younger sister. Evil overlords have been born out of less!

But no, Gar willingly stepped aside, and only made a play for the throne when it looked in danger of falling to that bigoted bastard of a royal adviser. Everything he did was for the good of the people, and when an eldritch abomination appeared, who sacrificed himself to finish it off? Not Asher, that irritating prophesied I'm-so-innocent-I-can-get-away-with-anything douche.

Nope. It was Gar, who gets a cool-looking grave while Asher lives and gets a throne. Goddamnit, leadership is a thankless job.

--

Some evil overlords would let this power
go to their heads. Losara is thinking about
taking his girlfriend out to lunch. 

3. Losara from Prophecy's Ruin

Losara had a rough start to life. He came into existence when a prophesied child was mystically ripped in two, producing an impulsive being called Bel and the more cerebral Losara. Raised by opposite sides, they were pitted against each other in a war of light and darkness.

Losara however didn't let that weigh him down. Not having much in the way of pesky emotions like anger or arrogance, he turned out to be a powerful, calculating sorcerer who always knew exactly what he was doing. You wouldn't catch him pausing to cackle at inopportune moments or allowing his enemies just enough time to escape. He matter-of-factly overthrew the psychopath who raised him, calmly and collectedly led his people to devastating victory, and reasonably talked his violent twin into rolling over and giving up.

Yes, he's a tyrant and a dark lord, but a benevolent genre-savvy one who's clearly read the Evil Overlord List.

--

If you see a hitchiker that
looks like this, for the love
of god, keep driving!

2. Axis of the Wayfarer Redemption

So Axis is a jerk. There's no two ways about it. This is not a guy you'd want to fight against. Or with. Or pass in the street.

But I'll say this for him; he gets results. He went from being the shunned illegitimate son of a duchess to sorcerer supreme to leader of an invading army to God of Tencendor. When this guy goes for a promotion, he doesn't muck around. He doesn't let little things like decency and the laws of life and death stop him either. He once cut out his half-brother's heart to raise his cousin from the dead, then let his other brother kill his ex-girlfriend just so he'd get the chance to kill the guy.

Sure he completely screwed up his kids, inadvertently bringing about the destruction of an entire continent and the horrific death of everyone he ever loved...but who hasn't made a mistake?

He's the guy who in any other book would be the antagonist, but through some mis-filing of paperwork in the karmic system is apparently the hero. So lets not piss him off by leaving him off this list.

--

The only guy on this list who avoided
war and thousands of  pointless deaths.
Make of that what you will. 
Fanart by celladore

1. Wyl of The Quickening

How do I explain Wyl? He's like the Ensemble Darkhorse who happens to be the hero already. He's the guy who gets killed off in the movie but is so popular he gets brought back and given his own tv show, except that during production they realised how awesome he was and ditched the movie, going straight to the show. That is Wyl.

He's the loyal second-in-command type. He's a strategic genius and a great fighter, but is very humble and really would be perfectly happy just to serve a good ruler. And because the antagonist is an f-ing moron, he has Wyl killed for this terrible crime of absolute loyalty.

Fortunately, Wyl is so awesome you can't kill him. Or you can, but it doesn't last. He just comes straight back and starts hitting on your girlfriend, subverting your underlings, forming alliances with your enemies... Don't screw with Wyl, that's all.

He'll be terribly honorable about it, but you will end up just as dead as if you'd set fire to Lostara's house while knocking up Axis' daughter and talking smack about Jasper's girlfriend. (I'd include Gar in this gag, but he's already dead, so not a lot he can do there.)

--

So to recap; Jasper is the Avatar, Gar is Boromir, Losara is Xanatos, Axis is half a step away from Tywin Lanister and Wyl is Phil Coulson.

Is everyone clear on who not to ask for help?

--

Song of the Summer King by Jess E. Owen

Xenofiction can be misleading, can't it? To look at the covers of The Dorset Squirrels or Duncton Wood, you'd think they were about fluffy cute rodents and their gosh-darn adorable troubles.

(To give you a hint; not fluffy, not cute, and not adorable by any stretch of the imagination).

However, I'm happy to report that I've found a book about sentient animals you can give to your kid and not worry about those years of therapy. I picked up Song of the Summer King at Supanova, and while dealing with some serious themes, it can be safely enjoyed by young teenagers.

Oh yeah, and it has griffins! Who doesn't love griffins?

The premise is a young griffin named Shard coming of age in his pride. The pride is composed of two elements; the Vanir griffins native to the area and the larger Aesir griffins who took the territory by force a generation earlier. Shard is the only surviving male of pure Vanir blood, making him a figure of interest to pretty much everyone. He has to choose between the ways of the invaders and the ways of his forebears.

Art by Jennifer Miller

This could easily have been a very black-and-white story, but I think Owens has managed some real nuance in how she explores cultural imperialism. While the Aesir did some awful things she takes care to show they are not an inherently evil race. They're just people... or griffins... with the usual mix of good and bad. And Shard has known them his whole life, so his struggle to choose a side feels real and heartfelt. The standout character for me was Shard's nest-father, whose gruff relationship with his mate and adoptive son was surprisingly sweet. In fact, the entire book was respectful of both blood and adoptive families, dismissing neither and giving due weight to both. This is how you handle adoption, peoples.

Outside of Shard's nest-father, however, the characters are kind of two-dimensional. It's not a fatal flaw in a young teenage novel, but this book is definitely not Sabriel, which can be enjoyed by young and old alike. It's like I could see what kind of characters were being portrayed, but their motivations didn't always make sense. They were just doing what they were doing because the plot demanded it.

For example, Shard didn't have any real reason to learn the old ways. He'd already got what he wanted; he'd succeeded at the hunt, was granted the right to stay in the pride, and was best bros with the Crown Prince. No one risks all that to 'make the pride stronger' unless they're already at risk of losing it all anyway.

Art by Jennifer Miller

What might have worked better was if the order of events was switched around. If the hunt had taken place in the middle of the novel instead of the beginning, that would have given Shard a concrete goal to strive for and a damn good reason to break the rules. It's outright stated that he's the skinny runt of his generation so the old ways would be his way of compensating. Ie. 'If I get caught learning the old ways I'll be exiled, but if I fail the hunt, I'll be exiled anyway, so I might as well take the risk'.  

Other than that, I have no complaints. It's clearly meant for young adults, so me and my nitpicking are not the target audience. I'd recommend it to teenagers in the 12-14 range. There's some violence, but it's not explicit, and sex is only vaguely referred to. The animalistic body-language was nice and I'd have liked to see even more of the descriptive language of the landscape. I'm also hoping for a cross-species romance between Shard and the young wolf Catori in the sequels, but that might just be my weirdness talking, not any real possibility of it.

Song of the Summer King can be ordered in paperback from Booktopia or Book Depository, or in electronic form from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

And if you love the cover art, like I do, check out the artist on her website or Deviant Art. All the art I've used in this post is hers, simply because she does such gorgeous work.

Update on Jupiter: Illusions of Faith

I've just realised (nearly three weeks later - my bad!) that I never mentioned what came of my review on Jupiter:Illusions of Faith by Kynan Waterford. Hold onto your seat, because it's totally exciting.

Everyone holding on? Brace yourselves...

Kynan Waterford contacted me!

(crickets chirping)

Shut up, it's totally exciting. He explained one of the aspects of the novel that bugged me. If you've read the review, you'll know that I had a teeny-tiny baby bitchfest about Garen and Leisa's relationship. Mostly about how the love-at-first-sight thing was not an adequate explanation for Garen's sudden outburst of human emotion, etc, etc. (Yes, I have a thing against romance; you know this about me already) Kynan explained the sudden change in Garen.

If you haven't read the novel, please note there are *SPOILERS* below. Read ahead at your peril.  

Apparently the reason for Garen's sudden attraction to Leisa was less about her and more about the fact he was no longer accompanied by his heavangel Kari, who was the one responsible for blocking his emotions all this time. No Kari = Garen acting like an actual person. Seeing as Garen had been whining about Kari's absence during the entire novel, and Kari had a good old-fashioned 'I have you now my pretty' speech at the end, I was somewhat mortified to have this pointed out to me. Usually I'm the person who sees things coming three plot points away!

Here is the passage from what Kynan told me:

"Until he is captured, Garen is almost always in the presence of his heavangel mentor, Kari, who has been 'saving' Garen from his emotions (or stealing them, depending on your viewpoint). This allows him to do the nasty things he does and keeps him from being distracted from his mission. However, when he inserts Kari into the Golgotha's communication network (before he is captured), he is separated from his heavangel mentor for the first time in a long time. This means Kari is not around to prevent Garen from feeling emotion, and hence, why an otherwise fairly tame encounter with Leisa, someone he becomes interested in, has such a profound effect on him."

So there it is. Definitive proof that even someone as awesome as me can get things wrong. It's hard to believe, I know, but there it is.

(And many thanks to my lovely housemate Ian who was nice enough to proof-read this post for me and caught several embarrassing spelling mistakes.)

Australian Urban Fantasy You Should Be Reading

In light of my recent foray into Urban Fantasy, I decided to combine two of my favourite things: lists and fantasy authors!

Here are three Urban Fantasy authors from Australia that are worth reading. I'm sure there are others, but these are ones I've read previously. No doubt more will be added to this blog over time :-)

1. Narrelle M. Harris

I picked up one of Narrelle Harris' books up at Supanova a few years ago, which was actually the start of my interest in indie authors. She's a Melbourne author that does several  genres, one of which is Urban Fantasy.

I started with her Opposite of Life series (the second book actually) which had the most depressing and yet realistic take on vampires I've read in a long time. In this world, vampires are trapped as they were at the moment they died. They have extreme difficulty learning anything past what they already knew when they were alive and so have to watch the world change around them, growing increasingly isolated and out of place.

It sounds tragic and horrible, and it is, but the characters' genuine affection for each other made it all worthwhile. Similar to the British tv show Being Human, Harris' work explores the isolating affect of the supernatural while showing that the support of friends and family can ease the burden.

2. Keri Arthur

Keri Arthur (also from Melbourne!) has written a number of paranormal books, including the Circle of Fire which I have previously reviewed. I'll be honest, I wasn't that impressed by her. However, I have been told by a friend whose judgement I trust that the series steadily improves, so I'm not going  to write her off just yet.

She is more on the Paranormal Romance side of the fence than Narelle Harris, who is more skewed toward Urban Fantasy. To elaborate, Paranormal Romance is very similar to Urban Fantasy except with a more heavy focus on romance. I definitely prefer Urban Fantasy myself, which is probably part of the reason I didn't really enjoy Keri Arthur's work, but that's just my own preference so don't let that scare you off. She's fairly well-known, so clearly she's doing something right.

3. Daniel O'Malley

Some would argue that Daniel O'Malley does not write Urban Fantasy. I'd tell them to take a long walk off a short pier.

He has supernatural creatures existing behind the scenes of an unsuspecting world, working to keep the masquerade going. There's a no-nonsense female protagonist who's solving a mystery and finding depths she didn't know existed. There are lives in danger and a world in need of saving. If that's not pure Urban Fantasy, it's definitely heavily involved.

If you ignore every other author on this list, check out this guy! You won't regret it. The Rook is his first novel, while the sequel is coming out this year. Go to his website (see above link) to read the first four chapters. I guarantee you'll be hooked by the end of the first.