What defines military fantasy as a subgenre? Is it, as the post title suggests, a wizard wielding a fireball in one hand and a shotgun in the other, drawling “Do you feel lucky, punk?” Well…maybe in some versions of the world. In others, it may be more an army marching in rank, overseen by magician-generals, with dragons as air corps and elves in the cavalry (and most likely archery ranks).

Many fantasies–especially epic fantasies–have enormous battles as part of the over-arching story, often as a backdrop to the hero or band of heroes and the main quest. However, for some, the battle takes center stage and the military tactics are just as important, if not more so, than the clever ways in which the plucky band will outwit the Dark Lord. Let’s form ranks, then, and march through several novels where the military maneuvers are on the front lines of the plot and your ability to lead a trained squad may be just as crucial as your ability to understand esoteric prophecies and wield magical talismans.
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In episode 149 of the SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester sits down to chat with Ari Marmell, author of the Corvis Rebaine Novels from Spectra, the Widdershins Novels from PYR and several role playing game tie-in novels including Darksiders: The Abomination Vault and Agents of Artifice.

Edit: All frontlist PYR eBooks are available in the Kindke store the same day as the OFFICIAL release date. This has been the case for some time. They are working their way through a huge backlist but there are now 105+ PYR eBooks in the Kindle and Nook store.

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SYNOPSIS:
Widdershins next adventure has the rags to riches to rags thief face off against a strange supernatural foe that threatens an already stressed and threatened city of Davillon

MY RATING:
MY REVIEW
PROS: Widdershins remains an interesting and engaging heroine. Good use of consequences of first novel in developing events in this one.
CONS: The writing isn’t quite as crisp and bright as the first novel.
VERDICT: A solid followup to Thief’s Covenant and second YA novel from Marmell.

In Thief’s Covenant (My SF Signal Review here) we were introduced to Adrienne Satti, aka Widdershins. Thief. Last worshiper of the small God Olgun. Rags to Riches to Rags story. The first novel was very much an origin story, as the jumping timelines gave us a sense of who she was, and how she obtained her unusual background and abilities.

Now, in False Covenant, Ari Marmell moves forward with Widdershins.  Six months have passed since the events of the first novel. Davillon has not been doing well, and neither has our heroine. In a case of kick-them-when-they’re-down, a new threat looms over Davillon, and given her abilities and connection to Olgun, Widdershins may be the only person able to combat it. But even as this occurs, Widdershins has her own personal struggles to deal with as well. Widdershins is finding out that growing up is NOT easy.

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SYNOPSIS: She’s a thief/former aristocrat. He’s a Small God. Together,they fight crime!(sort of).Thief Adrienne Satti, aka Widdershins, navigates intrigue and adventure from aristocratic balls to the underside of a city as the enemies who ruined her rags to riches story return, and with even bigger game in mind than the last worshiper of a little god.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW
PROS: Strong notes of humor, appealing empowered female protagonist, and a good relationship between Widdershins and her unlikely sidekick.
CONS: Novel takes a bit too long to really get rolling, especially for YA readers. Rags to Riches portion of the story feels a bit unlikely.
VERDICT: Marmell convincingly brings his talents for secondary world fantasy to a YA audience.

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In episode 112 of the SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester and Jaym Gates (continuing the discussion from Part 1 and Part 2) sit down with a mega panel of authors to discuss modern Sword and Sorcery with the authors who are currently writing it.

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Ari Marmell is the author of several works of horror and fantasy tie-in fiction – including Agents of Artifice, a Magic: the Gathering novel-as well as roughly ten-billion-and-one role-playing game supplements for Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire: the Masquerade, and others. The Conqueror’s Shadow, available from Random House’s Spectra imprint, is his first published non-tie-in novel. You can find Ari online at www.mouseferatu.com.

With the possible exceptions of horror and superhero comic books (which, though predating the field of “contemporary fantasy,” are arguably as much a subset thereof as they are a subset of sci-fi), the fantasy genre seems to contain a greater proportion of antiheroes than any other. From Elric of Melniboné to Vlad Taltos, Thomas Covenant to Xena, Locke Lamora to the Black Company, Jack Sparrow to-if I dare hope to place him in such infamous company-my own Corvis Rebaine, fantasy is absolutely replete with protagonists who are either former villains trying to make good, or who still would be villains if their tales were told from only a slightly altered perspective.

It almost goes without saying that for such a character to work, they must be given redeeming traits to make up for, or at least explain, their more villainous aspects. Vlad Taltos limits his “evil” to (more or less) those who have earned it. Jack Sparrow occasionally tries to do the right thing, and he’s just a whole lot of fun. I gave Corvis Rebaine strong motivations for his attempted conquest, and a family he loves and wants to protect once he’s “retired” from his martial life. I could write an entire (very lengthy) essay on all the various ways to make an antihero sympathetic, but A) that’s a little broader than I wanted to get, and B) I think most of you would lynch me if I tried to make you read that much on a computer screen.

So, let’s put that aside for just a moment and talk about something that’s going to seem unrelated, but bear with me. My mind’s tricksy that way, Precious.

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Ari Marmell, author of the upcoming fantasy novel The Conqueror’s Shadow, is offering his gothic horror/fantasy Black Crusade available as a free PDF download. Ari says:

Black Crusade was originally written to be one of the first of the Ravenloft: Dominion line of novels from Wizards of the Coast. “Ravenloft” is the name of a gothic horror/fantasy setting. Although Ravenloft was created for the Dungeons and Dragons game, the Dominion line was meant to give it a new flavor-specifically, rather than drawing characters and domains from various D&D worlds, it would draw them from various periods of real-world history. In the case of , that period was the First Crusade.

The line of books was canceled before Black Crusade could be published, though it was released serially online. Now you can download the complete novel as a PDF file.

[via Grasping for the Wind]

Note: Tune in later today for a guest-post by Ari Marmell about The Conqueror’s Shadow!