Taste of Treason, by April Taylor, Reviewed.

Taste of Treason is the second book in the Tudor Enigma series. The books are a mix of alternative history and fantasy, but that description fails to do them justice.

Well written and comprehensively researched, the stories take the reader back to the days following the death of Henry VIII. Except that in these stories, Henry has a male heir, Henry IX is on the throne, and Anne Boleyn is alive and well.

In Taste of Treason, Luke, an apothecary working not far from Hampton Court Palace, has been engaged as an Inquirer by Anne. He is an Elemancer; a man with certain magical powers. He is also a man with a conscience who gives his time and cures generously to the poor of the area. Young and handsome, he has yet to understand the joys and benefits to be had from female company, though he has admirers.

I won’t give a synopsis here, except to let you know that Royal lives are in danger and the future stability of the Realm is dependent on Luke’s success in discovering the nature, identity and purpose of the Sunderer bent on causing as much trouble as possible. He must fight this powerful evil whilst maintaining a low profile, defending his friends from an ambitious and unscrupulous witch finder, and dealing with the unreasonable demands of the Royals for whom he works.

As always with April Taylor’s writing, the characters are real and flawed. It is easy to empathise with the main protagonists, and the lesser characters are drawn with equal facility. The story moves at a good pace from the beginning and drives toward a stunning and increasingly intense denouement. Although I was initially obliged to read the story over a number of short sessions, I was unwilling to put the book down once I’d started on this last portion.

The author uses language that is both accessible and appropriate to the time of the story. She has developed a style that perfectly fits the story and its time. Her descriptions of the various potions concocted by the apothecary are full of detail, making the whole believable. Dog lovers will appreciate Luke’s loyal companion. And history buffs will enjoy the details that describe the society and way of life of the times. The romantics will love the developing relationships.

So, if you like a splash of romance and magic blended with some history you’ll love this book. I’ve read and enjoyed the first book, and now the second. I look forward to the next in the series.

Related articles

• Never In Her Proper Place: The Feminism of Anne Boleyn
• Book Review - The Wives of Henry VIII as told by Antonia Fraser (1992)
• This Day in History: October 30th- A King, His Wife, and The Act of Supremacy

#BookADayUK; A Reader Event For October. Day 27

Coraline (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The theme for today is actually quite straightforward. It's 'Favourite epigraph', which, as the Books Are My Bag.com promotion relates to books, I assume to mean a literary epigraph. So, I've chosen the following, though I haven't yet read the book:

'Fairy Tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.'  G.K. Chesterton
Quoted by Neil Gaiman in Coraline.

Of course, as a writer of fiction, and especially of speculative fiction, I am always in favour of any sensible quote that elevates the status of stories. But the quote is accurate. That's what stories do for us; they tell us what is possible.

Don't forget to use the #tag, #bookadayUK if you decide to join this promotion. But, more importantly, don't forget to visit your local independent bookshop (if you're lucky enough to have one in your vicinity) and BUY a book there. It's the only way we'll keep these vital outlets going and a wonderful way to erode the growing power and control of the online retail giants.

#BookADayUK; A Reader Event For October. Day 2

Today's 'event' is to name your favourite fictional dog. I can't recall a fictional dog in any recent
reading, to be honest. So, for this particular 'event' I'll have to nominate my own fictional pooch: Shaulah, who appears in my fantasy trilogy, A Seared Sky, in all 3 books, Joinings, Parting, and  the yet to be published, Convergence. She's a working dog, acting as Okkyntalah's aid as he goes about hunting for food.

If you'd like to get involved, please visit Books Are My Bag by clicking this link.

And don't forget to use the hashtag, #bookadayuk when you tweet.

Readers and writers unite to save the high street bookshop!

Related articles

• #BookADayUK; A Reader Event For October.
• A Seared Sky: Partings. Launch of Book 2 of the Trilogy

Unexpected Journeys, edited by Juliet E McKenna, Reviewed.

If you enjoy fantasy, in any or all of its many various forms, and you aren’t a member of the British Fantasy Society, you’ll miss out on this pearl. The collection is given to members as a part of their membership and isn’t otherwise generally available.

The anthology includes different styles of fantasy amongst its eight stories, none of them what I suspect many people think of as ‘fantasy’ when they consider the genre. As Juliet says in her introduction, ‘Fiction began with fantasy fiction. Go back to Gilgamesh and you’ll find tales of heroes, magic and monsters.’ She goes on to list the works of other noted authors of the genre, including Homer, the Norse sagas, and the Arthurian Cycle. She isn’t as cynical as me, leaving out the best selling work of fantasy fiction ever: the Bible.

The stories included vary greatly and each is a small masterpiece of its particular style. We have modified folk tales, a version of a popular theme in fantasy – the thief in the city – but with important idiosyncrasies, stories that meld the horror genre with fantasy and others that defy classification; a quality I much admire in fiction.

All are well written and intriguing in their different ways. This is a book for those who love the worlds created by gifted writers. I enjoyed it and recommend it to all who can get hold of a copy.

Related articles

• The genre debate: Science fiction travels farther than literary fiction
• Science Fiction and Fantasy 101: Thinking Academically About Genre

Cave & Julia, by M. John Harrison, Reviewed.

A book that is small in page numbers, but larger by far in content, Cave & Julia is set in Autotelia and London. I’ve not come across the author’s work before and was intrigued enough by the story to do some research. Autotelia is the name given to an imaginary place in which other stories are set. The word itself struck me as real rather than imagined, so I looked further. I found a Portuguese dictionary that told me it means: the doctrine that a work of art, especially a work of literature, is an end in itself or provides its own justification. I found no other entries in English dictionaries.

Enough. The story, if that’s what it can be called, is about relationships and, possibly, dreams. But, oddly, that doesn’t seem to matter. It’s a work that recalled to mind D.H. Lawrence’s The Trespasser in tone. It’s a piece of narrative without the usual hooks on which to hang a story. We are introduced to the narrative character, Cave, a journalist, and to Julia, much married and partially destroyed by an unclear event in her childhood. Some attempt is made by Cave to investigate the event, but it is left a question, with insufficient detail to determine what really happened.

The language is fine and always appropriate. An air of mystery and uncertainty pervades the whole tale. Nothing is as it seems, or, perhaps it is. This is a piece of writing that leaves the reader full of questions; impressed but uncertain why that should be.

It’s one of the Amazon Kindle Singles, and is tagged as a fantasy short. At 15 pages it is short, and, existing, as it does, in a space difficult to identify or even in some senses understand, it is fantasy, but fantasy of a literary sort.

I found myself intrigued, curious, disturbed and entertained. But be aware, this is not a story for those looking for a beginning, middle and end, with a denouement or indeed any formal structure. This is more an evocation, an illustration, an account. I enjoyed it, as, I suspect, will those who like things that are not spelled out for them.

Mageborn, by Michael DeAngelo, Reviewed.

Michael DeAngelo’s Mageborn is a slim volume from his Tellest series. The fantasy tale introduces readers to new characters and gives a taste of the invented world in which they live. Gaston, the aged wizard, and Adelia, his new pupil, are well drawn and it’s refreshing to see a young woman as a lead character. Her pairing with the ancient and slightly eccentric male lead adds a good deal of charm to the story.

Whilst I question some word choices, I found the overall style of writing in tune with the tale. The vaguely ancient and sometimes obtuse language fits well with an arcane world, lending veracity to the fantasy elements. The world itself will be familiar to readers of the earlier books in the series, but it was slowly and subtly revealed as the story progressed, adding layers of mystery designed to enhance the reading experience.

I enjoy reading about people I can empathise with, and had no difficulty seeing through the eyes of both main characters. The switch of viewpoints was a little confusing on occasion, but this seems a fairly common feature of contemporary writing and I’ve no doubt many readers would be undisturbed by it.

There is adventure and tension mingled with the charm of this introductory tale. The descriptive passages paint pictures that bring the world alive and some of the incidents, cleverly crafted for surprise, do cause the reader to gasp. The story slowly builds and the denouement flows naturally from events, leading to an ending that is satisfying and promises more to come from this unlikely but well-matched pair of protagonists.

Readers of the genre will find this a delightful read and it serves well as an introduction to the world of Tellest for those unfamiliar with it. A good read.