Windrider is full of delicious conflict

Windrider
by S. A. Bolich
Sky Warrior Books (2012)

Windrider is the second volume in the Masters of the Elements series by S. A. Bolich, an entertaining and refreshing brand of fantasy. The novel takes the reader back to the land of Metrenna, where the powers of fire, wind, water and earth both threaten and sustain the land through their separate aspects. In the first book, Firedancer, we were introduced to Jetta ak'Kal and her struggle to keep the Ancient, the malevolent face of Old Man Fire, from destroying her newfound home in the mountainous territory of Annam Vale. In the second book, our narrator changes to Sheshan ak'Kal, windrider of the third rank, and pledged lifemate of Jetta.

All is peaceful in Annam Vale until a Messenger arrives. Driven by urgency, he fails to yield and causes an accident on the road. The Ancient takes this opportunity to strike, and Jetta, her Firedancer partner Settak and the other inhabitants of Annam Vale work to squelch the flames. The Messenger lays grievously wounded but will only speak his message to Wyth, head of the windrider clan. Wyth refuses to hear the message, and the Messenger dies unheard.

Soon enough, Wyth reveals that he has already received one message from the Storm Council and that the Messenger had likely been sent to demand his answer. The Ancient and the Hag, Metrenna's dangerous personified Fire and Wind have become unpredictable and unresponsive to the usual containment methods. Word has spread of how the firedancers and windriders of Annam Vale worked together to thwart the fires of the Ancient. Wyth decides that Clan Heshth cannot remain isolated in Annam Vale, and his clan, as well as Jetta and Settak, set out to speak with the Storm Council in distant Oppanum.

Sheshan is reluctant to face the outside world. The tempest that destroyed most of his clan and his first lifemate left him scarred in many ways. In the events of the first book, he learned to find purpose again in the defense of Annam Vale's gentle inhabitants, and love again with Jetta. But he is still unable to interact with the Wind through song, wrestling it with his will alone. Before leaving Annam Vale with the rest of his clan, he challenges the Hag, shrieking at the cruel sister to Wind. Anger drives this rash act, and the voice of the Hag stays with him, taunting him as he travels through the lowlands with Clan Heshth.

As the windriders and their companions travel, they discover that much of the world has suffered from the depredations of the untamed elements. Sheshan must fight against his own doubts, the Hag, and the prejudices of others, as well as strife in his relationship with Jetta. All these conflicts come together in an outstanding climax that makes an excellent conclusion to a middle volume while leaving enough questions remaining that readers will be eagerly awaiting the last book in the trilogy.

Those readers familiar with the first book will be swept into this second volume, and even newcomers should be able to quickly get their bearings with the series. The strongest aspects are the brilliant characters and the fascinating cultures of Metrenna. It was nice to see the characters travel out of Annam Vale so that we had a view of the rest of the land and its people. The only criticism that I will raise is that I felt like the focus of the plot drifted in the middle of the book. This was not enough of a problem to bother me much, as the characters and their problems kept my interest.

The third book, Seaborn, has no release date at this time.

Editor's note: 
This review is very timely because I wanted to write to tell you about my friend Sue (S. A. Bolich) and why you should read her work. I've known her for probably five years now and have read a lot of her short stories when I was in the online critique group, Other Worlds Writers Workshop, that she co-founded in 1998. Her rough drafts look like my finals. And her descriptions are more vivid than any I've read. She doesn't waste words and chooses them with care.

Now she needs care. The cancer she had been told was defeated ten years ago has returned, going into her lungs and bones now. Nobody writes because they think they will get rich or even live comfortably doing so. We write because we must. It's our passion. Unless we hit the bestseller lists time and time again, we will struggle financially. Sue has health insurance, but it's a high-deductible plan that are the only ones, as self-employed writers, most of us can afford. Some don't even have that.

I encourage you to buy this series of books. You'll be doing yourself a favor, while also helping a struggling writer -- at least with the bills. Cancer isn't the automatic death sentence it once was, but the treatments don't come cheap and are mostly unpleasant. And often far away - made worse by the price of gas and the taxing trip home.

Please read the Clare's review of Firedancer and my interview with Sue herein.

This holiday season, consider purchasing a gift that will keep on giving. And make one struggling writer's life a little easier. Buy S. A. Bolich's books here. There's even a facebook page dedicated to the cause.

The Daemon Prism - an excellent series' touching, satisfying end

The Daemon Prism: a novel of the Collegia Magica
Carol Berg
Ace Roc 2012

Reviewed by guest reviewer, fantasy/sf author, S. A. Bolich

The Collegia Magica series, of which The Daemon Prism is the third and final book, is one of the best fantasies I have encountered in years. The first book was also my initial exposure to Carol Berg’s work, after I got the chance to hear her read from it at a science fiction convention a couple of years ago. Intrigued by the characters in the snippet she read, I bought the book and discovered a gem of an author, a grand master of characterization. Berg takes chances with her characters in ways that have, frankly, inspired me as a writer, and that leave them imprinted indelibly on your memory and your heart.

The Collegia Magica, set in a Renaissance world with vaguely French and Latin underpinnings, is about a struggle to unravel the deadly mystery surrounding an attempt on the king’s life, and then to stop the unscrupulous sorcerers who want to turn the world—and the afterlife—literally inside out. To stop them, each character must also unravel the mystery of themselves, for each is not really who he or she believes.

The narrator of The Spirit Lens, Portier, is a young, physically unprepossessing librarian with an extraordinary knack for surviving what would kill anyone else. His fellow agentes confide, the fop Ilario and the intemperate, bitter mage Dante, have precious little use for each other and harbor explosive secrets. Anne de Vernase, narrator of The Soul Mirror, is heir to a stunning heritage of magic and loathes all of it. The series traces their struggle to understand how they fit into both the problem and the solution as they race to save both their world and the souls of their beloved dead from feeding unspeakable magic.

Accepting what they find is an obstacle for each of them, from the leap of faith surrounding Portier to the realities of Anne’s dangerous heritage to the real explanation for Dante’s unusual magical abilities and uncontrollable temper. These struggles are, in a way, even more fun than the larger mystery, and all enlivened by Ilario, whose humor is matched by his loyalty. Since I refuse to give spoilers in reviews, I will say no more except that each of these four characters is so well drawn you will wish this series carried on and on instead of stopping at three books.

The Daemon Prism picks up the story two years after the titanic magical struggle that concluded The Soul Mirror. Our heroes are widely scattered, recovering from those events, and a fair bit of the action involves characters traveling to the one place they can stop the plot, a city so old that even its rightful name is nearly forgotten.

Once again we have a new perspective on the action. Berg always writes in the first person, and unlike many series, she changes the point of view character from book to book. The first two books maintain a single POV; The Daemon Prism switches several times, a necessity considering that the action is far-flung and the characters scattered. This is fine, but it does contribute to a couple of noticeable structural weaknesses. It was fairly obvious in the middle section that the author needed to stretch out the time frame in order for all the players to unravel the mystery and come together. It also contributed to one wishful instance for me, in that I would rather the climactic scene had been written from Portier’s POV instead of Anne’s.

The Daemon Prism is both more and less satisfying than the first two books. Less, because the characters are geographically separated for much of the book and therefore the interaction we love to see among them is largely missing. More, because the climax is both so poignant and so inevitable that you won’t soon forget it. Each previous book was complete and satisfying in itself.

As with all great fantasy, there is sacrifice and loss and the realization that even heroes don’t always get what they want or deserve.

This book was wonderful, but there were a few things that caught my attention: the somewhat saggy middle stretch, the slightly one-sided villains, the abrupt disappearance of Dante as narrator, and the fact that I would far rather have had Portier as the POV character for the climax. He was the endearing narrator of the first book, and we got to spend far too little time with him in this one. He is also the catalyst for the conclusion, which felt a little rushed, and it would have been nice to see his reaction to it all from the inside.

Dante’s absence is both necessary and predictable due to the way Berg constructed his choices for battling his enemies, but it would have been nice to dip into his head at least once in the final section of the book to see his struggle from the inside. I also felt one major plot thread ended somewhat serendipitously with the fearsome tetrarch who has pursued Dante with grim zealotry throughout the book defanged rather conveniently toward the end. I know from talking to Berg that her publisher was concerned with word count and she was forced to shave scenes that might have mitigated this feeling of sudden endings. Sometimes the author doesn’t get to present the book he or she would like to.

The Collegia Magica is for readers who want more than a recycled version of the current hot trend in the genre. Berg is a gifted writer who builds believable worlds and truly memorable characters; an author I am so glad to have discovered. I highly recommend the Collegia Magica, and The Daemon Prism does not disappoint as a touching and satisfying conclusion to an excellent series.

Firedancer - and SA Bolich on weaving a rich tale

Firedancer
by S.A. Bolich
Sky Warrior Books (2011)

Review by Clare Deming

In Firedancer, S.A. Bolich introduces us to a fascinating world in which Clans have power over the elements of fire, wind, earth, and water. This is more than elemental magic though, and the way in which Bolich weaves her world together creates an organic tapestry of cultures that is completely convincing. At the heart of this first volume is Jetta Ak'Kal, a Firedancer of the third rank.

The story opens when a fire erupts in Jetta's home village of Firehome Vale, and we instantly see that this fire is not a simple thing. The opening line gives the perfect description:

This fire was malicious.

A delicate balance exists between the Ancient - the deepest fire that smolders beneath the earth - and the Clans that remain vigilant against it. Trapped underground, the Ancient perpetually searches for a way to reach the abundant fuel on the surface. Jetta has fought against this fire all her life, like all Firedancers, using a learned Dance, the moves and forms passed down from master to student. In her previous assignment in the village of Setham, Jetta's Dance failed, and she lost her lifemate, her reputation, and her confidence.

Healed in body, but not in spirit, Jetta is given a new assignment in Annam Vale, a mountain village where the Delvers mine the containment stone used throughout the land to build fireproof structures. Yet rumors tell that Windriders also inhabit the distant village, and when fire is fed by the wind, catastrophe could result.

On arrival in Annam Vale, Jetta meets both encouragement and resistance from the Delvers. Yet it is the abrasive and secretive Windriders that provide her with unique challenges as she works to unravel the mysteries of the Vale. For Old Man Fire has started to resist the Dance. The forms and patterns that Jetta has always known no longer work as they should, and she must use all her resources to discover a solution before fire escapes from the mines beneath the town.

This book was nearly impossible to put down, with compelling characters and such an original concept that I was driven to discover more about this world. Bolich has infused so many details into the cultures - whether it's a Firedancer's braided hair and dance leathers, or the carvings made by a Delver - that I found myself completely enraptured.

The threat of the Ancient lurked beneath all of the other plot threads, creating an ever-present tension. As the story progressed, multiple subplots emerged that added complications of politics, love and jealousy, mistrust, and tragedy. And it all flowed naturally from very real characters. Firedancer is the first book in a planned trilogy that is off to a great start.


Interview with SA Bolich, conducted by Ann Wilkes.


AW: When did you first start writing fantasy?

SAB: When I was 14 my best friend lent me her copy of The Lord of the Rings, doling out each book one at a time. I flew through them in three successive days. And then I immediately sat down and began to write my own Tolkien-inspired epic. The first two are still in my drawer. I never finished the third, but it taught me a lot and I still use elements of it in some of my stories.

AW: Who were your major influences, both authors and those who encouraged you in your craft?

SAB: I read in a lot of genres. My favorite authors when I was a teen were Andre Norton’s YA SF and fantasy stories and Rosemary Sutcliff, who wrote awesome historical fiction. I very much enjoyed Anne McCaffrey’s dragons and Heinlein’s SF and pretty much everything else I could get my hands on. I won my first writing contest in the 6th grade; my 9th grade English teacher wanted me to try and publish some of my stories. In high school my teachers encouraged my writing in every way they could, and I’m grateful to them, because they somehow stuck it in my brain that I should nurture the writing spark that has never quite gone out no matter how much life has gotten in the way.

AW: Where did you get the idea of the dancers who control elements?

SAB: Heh. Good question. I distinctly remember the first line of Firedancer landing in my brain. Like all of my stories, the thing built itself. When my fingers start on the keys, I truly am never sure what is going to fall out. Things appear that have zero meaning until a few sentences farther on, and then I think “aha!” But after Jetta first began to dance on page two, the whole story took off and all at once the correlation between fire and the Dancers who fight it fell into place.

AW: Your prose is so rich, your characters so well-drawn. Where did you learn to write so descriptively? Do all the descriptions come in the first draft or do you go back and flesh out the scenes and characters later?

SAB: Description has always come easily to me. I’m fortunate, I guess, in having lived in many interesting places and grown up on a farm, forever outside running around in the dirt and the wind and the rain atop a horse. It has embedded a great deal of sensory memory into my bones, I think. I remember when I was still in junior high I started writing a historical novel about a girl from the hills of Tennessee who came west. I handed my mother two versions of the first page and asked her which she liked better. She handed me back one and said “This one. I feel like I’m there.” Sometimes I let the scenery get too rich, which interrupts the pacing, and have to cut it back. In fact, my editor made me put in a lot of sensory detail I had left out of Firedancer because I was afraid of stretching the word count and slowing the story too much. Now I’m hearing all kinds of good things about the richness of the writing in Firedancer and how it really puts people into the story. So…I guess I will follow my instincts and continue to wrap words around what I visualize in my head. Not everyone will like it, but my personal taste leans toward really rounded descriptions of the worlds I visit. I just like the big fat doorstop books, I guess.

I often do flesh out the bare bones of a scene in the revision, but more often I find myself cutting rather than adding.

AW: I know you're a co-founder of Other World's Writers' Workshop. Would you like to tell my readers more about that?

SAB: I am always happy to pitch www.otherworlds.net. It’s one of the oldest genre workshops on the Web, founded in 1998 and hosted at Yahoo Groups (OWWW) since 1999. It is an all-levels workshop, from beginners to pros. The critiques are detailed and intense, because we warn people up front we are geared toward publication. We’re not a reading group and we thin out the lurkers every month to keep people focused on actually writing and submitting and improving their work. We have some wonderful writers who have progressed from pretty raw beginners to published authors.

AW: When can readers get a hold of the next volume?

SAB: Windrider comes out in April 2012.

AW: Do you have shorter works readers can find online or in e-book format?

SAB: I have many stories out at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, On Spec, Damnation Books, Science Fiction Trails, and several other magazines and ezines. I also have stories in the Wolfsongs 2 and Defending the Future IV: No Man’s Land anthologies. My short ebook Who Mourns for the Hangman? is available along with Firedancer pretty much everywhere ebooks are sold.

AW: What are you working on now?

SAB: I am in the final revision stage with Windrider and then I will start on the next book, tentatively titled Seaborn, that will come out in 2013.