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Book Review: The Middle Ages Unlocked: A Guide to Life in Medieval England, 1050-1300, by Gillian Polack and Katrin Kania

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“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there” — L.P. Hartley The conceptions and misconceptions of what medieval life was really like influence our perceptions of who we are as people, and the fiction and worlds that we create. There is a real struggle within certain sectors of the SFF genresphere about the fiction based on the world within what I call the “Great Wall of Europe”, fantasy with the viewpoint and a setting firmly grounded in conceptions of what Medieval Europe was like. Be it George R.R. Martin’s Westeros, or Kate Elliott’s Wendar and Varre, or a hundred others, Medieval Europe is, for a lot of writers and readers, THE setting to base their fantasy upon. However, many other writers get basic facts about Medieval Europe unintentionally wrong, further accentuating and perpetuating stereotypes and misconceptions about the Medieval world and mindset when they plug those misconceptions into their fiction, and those misconception are reinforced as misinformation about the real Medieval Europe.

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 On Fury and Fairies and the Remnants of Gods by Gillian Polack

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The other day, someone said to me that Tolkien’s elves were the real thing, because he was a Medievalist and so he knew. I’m a Medievalist and I know, too, and what the real thing is depends so very much on where one is and what one is writing. I’m not at all certain that Tolkien would have liked to be told that the closest thing to his elves in Old French tales are the blonde fairies (with hair that is red-gold, like fine wire, and the palest of skins and the prettiest of rose colouring on their cheeks) in the Arthurian romances. They are not the stuff of folkdom. They’re not even terribly legendary. They’re the object of quests by knights who don’t quite fit at court. They have the best tents and the most beautiful horses and an unlimited number of handmaidens more beautiful than anyone else in sight apart from the fairy herself. They’re not that real. When I stop and think about Tolkien’s elves, they’re not quite as perfect, but they come close at times. They’re not perfect because they’re annoyingly “I know so much and don’t see why I should tell you.” Neither of them have wings. These fairies are not the hidden folk of any of the various regions in Western Europe. They’re a literary construct. In fact they appear in the Marvel and DC of their time. I shall refer to the lead fairy (the one who the knight wins) as the Nick Fury of the magic realms from now on when I need to, on panels.

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Video Game Review: Pillars of Eternity

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An unwanted power and curse on your protagonist. A realm suffering from a loss of souls, with you the key to solving the mystery. A mysterious antagonist from across time and space, struggling toward mastery. A return to old school isometric Baldur’s Gate style gameplay. Obsidian Entertainment ran a successful kickstarter in 2012 for Pillars of Eternity, a computer roleplaying game (CRPG). Obsidian billed and packaged the game  as a return to old school style RPGs in the tradition of the legendary Baldur’s Gate franchise, in tone, and appearance, although set in a new and unique world. The kickstarter now over, the game is widely available to everyone. Angry Robot author Carrie Patel was a narrative designer on Pillars of Eternity, responsible for some of the character dialogue, story and interaction.

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Guest Post: CliFi, et al. by Marianne de Pierres

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Marianne de Pierres is the author of the popular PARRISH PLESSIS trilogy and the award-winning SENTIENTS OF ORION and PEACEMAKER series. The PARRISH PLESSIS series has been translated into many languages and adapted into a role-playing game, while the PEACEMAKER series is being adapted into a novel adventure game. The sequel to PEACEMAKER, MYTHMAKER was just released by Angry Robot Books. Fictional dystopias born from climate change are increasingly prevalent in fiction. Not that it’s a new concept … JG Ballard wrote The Wind from Nowhere, The Drowned World and The Burning World back in the ’60s, and they weren’t the first CliFi novels by any means. Jules Verne, I believe, wrote one in 1889. Recently though, the sub-genre has gained momentum as particularly seen in the success of Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake trilogy.

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Interview with Jaime Lee Moyer

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Jaime Lee Moyer is the author of the Delia trilogy (Delia’s Shadow, A Barricade in Hell, and Against a Brightening Sky). Jaime answered some questions about her work and her new novel. PW: For those readers unfamiliar with you, who is Jaime Lee Moyer? JLM: I’m a writer, a poet, and a dreamer. A huge part of my childhood, from 7 to 14, was spent living in a housing project in South Central Los Angeles, which by definition was an interesting place for a shy Irish girl to grow up.  Books and reading saved me as a kid, and allowed me to escape the unpleasant — okay, rotten — reality that was day to day life. Living there is what taught me to dream and made me a writer. Chasing dreams got me to the place I am today, with a third book coming out. Getting here wasn’t easy, nor painless, but I wouldn’t have missed any of it. I have far too many interests and creative hobbies. I love to travel. Most of the time I’d rather listen to others than talk myself.

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Mining the Genre Asteroid: Tea with the Black Dragon, R.A. MacAvoy

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Martha MacMamara has had a strained relationship with her computer programmer of a daughter, Elizabeth. When Elizabeth sends her a plane ticket and a reservation to a hotel in San Francisco, however, Martha is drawn west to find out what is going on in Elizabeth’s life. Martha’s arrival coincides, however, with Elizabeth’s outright disappearance. With Martha unable to find her daughter, the help and aid of a mysterious Chinese gentleman may prove to be a most fortunate and propitious meeting. For, you, see, Mayland Long is far more, and far older, than he appears, and the perspicacious Martha recognizes this right off. And so one of the most interesting and powerful relationships in the history of SFF novels is born. Tea with the Black Dragon is R.A. MacAvoy’s 1983 Nebula and Hugo nominated novel. On the strength of the novel, MacAvoy won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1983. The novel won the Locus Award for best first novel in 1984. It’s a short novel, most especially by modern standards, and aside from the richness of the writing to slow you down, it goes down as a very fast read (or re-read).

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