thebookishowl.com

Official Author Website

Official Drifting Isle Chronicles Website

Order Black Mercury HERE

Order The Kaiser Affair HERE

Order The Machine God HERE

Read FBC’s Review of Lovers And Beloveds

Read The Drifting Isle Chronicles – A new way to tell new stories ( A guest post by Joseph R. Lewis)

Read When Collaborating, Say Yes! (A guest post by Meilin Miranda)
Read On Machines And Talking Birds (A guest post by Charlotte E. English)
Read The Kaiser Affair – A fantasy thriller and travelogue to The Drifting Isle Chronicles (A guest post by Joseph R. Lewis)

AUTHOR INFORMATION: MeiLin Miranda came back from the dead to write books. In 2006, she suffered a cardiac arrest and realized it was high time to get on with writing fiction after 30-plus years of professional nonfiction writing. Her main series is the fantasy epic saga An Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom, and she is a co-creator of the shared steampunk fantasy series The Drifting Isle Chronicles. Her influences include Ursula K. LeGuin, Anthony Trollope, Jane Austen, Patrick O’Brian, Georgette Heyer, MFK Fisher and Neil Gaiman.

She can’t seem to get away from writing stories set in the 19th century (or something like it) no matter what she does. MeiLin lives in Portland, OR with a husband, two kids, two cats, a floppy dog and far, far too much yarn.

OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: One thing makes life in Eisenstadt bearable for exiled Professor Oladel Adewole: the island floating a mile above the city. He’s an expert in world mythology about the island, but no one’s ever been there or knows how it got there.

When a brilliant engineer makes it to the island in her new invention, the government sends Adewole up with its first survey team. The expedition finds civilization, and Adewole finds a powerful, forbidden fusion of magic and metal: the Machine God.

The government wants it. So does a sociopath bent on ruling Eisenstadt. But when Adewole discovers who the mechanical creature is–and what it can do–he risks his heart and his life to protect the Machine God from the world, and the world from the Machine God.

FORMAT/INFO: The Machine God is seventeen chapters long with a singular third person narrative voice via Professor Oladel Adewole. This is a standalone story and is a part of the Drifting Isle Chronicles of which there will be a total of four books released this year. The e-book edition was self published on April 4, 2013 by the author with the paperback edition to follow. The cover art is by Elsa Kroese.

ANALYSIS: In regards to the Drifting Isle Chronicles, I first heard about it last year and was lucky enough to talk to Joseph R. Lewis who was the main person instigating the project. He spoke about it a bit in his interview and since then I’ve been tracking it. In the last few weeks Joe contacted me and said that they were going to release three novels currently with one more to come later this year. There have been a series of guest post wherein an overview was given about the world as well as each author spoke about their own book and their favorite aspect about the shared world. Here are the guest posts:

 1] The Drifting Isle Chronicles – A new way to tell new stories by Joseph R. Lewis

 2] When Collaborating, Say Yes! by Meilin Miranda

 3] On Machines And Talking Birds by Charlotte E. English

4] The Kaiser Affair – A fantasy thriller and travelogue to The Drifting Isle Chronicles by Robert Joseph Lewis

A couple of years ago, a few blogger friends and I had done a multi-story review. I decided to ask those fine folks again for their help and Qwill and Melissa graciously volunteered their time. So for the three DIC novels it was decided that Qwill would review Black Mercury, Melissa would take a look at The Kaiser Affair and I would focus on The Machine God. So today here’s my TMG review and Melissa will be posting her thoughts later today about The Kaiser Affair on her blog followed by Qwill’s Black Mercury review on Thursday (18th April) on the Qwillery.

With The Machine God, Meilin had mentioned in her guest post as to how she got selected for writing about it. This book deals with a very crucial aspect of the storyline as it focuses upon Inselmond, the Drifting Isle that is located above the city of Eisenstadt. This story occurs a bit after the events of Black Mercury as the Island has already been discovered. Thus certain events lead to the inclusion of Professor Oladel Adewole, who is a Jero native and connoisseur of old, lost languages. He is also a polyglot and lover of coffee and perhaps the odd man out in academia. He looks often to his friend Karl Deviatka for support against the university chancellor who seems to dislike Adewole on sight and tries to prolong his official position. He however gets chosen because of his aptitude and soon finds out that the people of the drifting isle have a secret. A secret, which in the wrong hands might lead to an apocalypse, and that secret is what is the Machine God?

Meilin Miranda lovingly crafts this story about an outsider who is lost on personal and professional levels but strives to do the right thing always. With this story we get a third person perspective on the events of the story however it doesn’t rob us of the intimateness as often experienced via the first person narrative storylines. The main protagonist is an endearing person and the author’s characterizations marks him out splendidly. This tale while being a story about discovery of a new island is also about personal discovery in regards to several characters and that includes a wise owl that makes appearances throughout. The story slowly unveils all the issues at hand and though takes its time; the prose and world presented keep the reader fascinated for the entire time. Lastly the story unveils a rather dark turn of the world’s history and I’m hoping the founding chroniclers decide to explore it in the future as well.

Drawbacks to this tale are that it features a slower paced storyline as compared to The Kaiser Affair or Black Mercury however those story lines demand such a fast pace. With this story, it will depend on the readers to decide whether the pace matters in the enjoyment of this tale or not. Lastly some characters are mentioned and make an appearance and leave the stage very quickly, this is due to the fact that they are making cameos. Such appearances might confound certain readers and it will be good if they read this overview post by Joseph Robert Lewis to get a better sense of the story and world presented within.

CONCLUSION: Meilin Miranda writes a fascinating story about a person’s search for the greater good. The Machine God is a story that I enjoyed thoroughly. I would recommend this story heartily for those wanting a well-nuanced storyline. The Machine God is a good way to start the Drifting Isle Chronicles and I’ll be sure to check the other titles ASAP.

Note: To read Melissa’s review of The Kaiser Affair by Joseph R. Lewis, click HERE. Qwill will be reviewing Black Mercury by Charlotte English on Thursday.

Fantasy Book Critic

When I joined the Drifting Isle collaboration, I gave myself one rule: Say yes, unless you absolutely must say no. This led me in writerly directions I did not want to go–and ultimately led to one of my most enjoyable writing experiences ever.

Joseph Robert Lewis put the project together and came up with how we were going to make decisions. He’d pick a topic–say, what genre we were going to write, since we started with the blankest of slates–give two or three suggestions of his own and ask us for ours. We’d vote on our top two, whittle the list down from that, and then vote again.

The genre vote ended with steampunk fantasy. On the surface, steampunk would seem to be right up my alley. My favorite books and authors either write about the 19th century or wrote during the 19th century: Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, Patrick O’Brian, Georgette Heyer, Charles Dickens, and so on. My own work is set in the 19th century or in a world very much like it. I’m fond of saying I can’t escape the 19th century no matter what I do. At heart I am a Victorian. Well, a Victorian who cherishes her voting rights. And her right to own property. And her right to–you get the idea.

But I’ve never written steampunk, and I’ve never wanted to. I like reading some of it; I’ve really enjoyed Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century series, for example. But it’s not my favorite thing to read and, thus, not my favorite thing to write. Nevertheless, I sighed and said yes.

Next we voted on magical elements. We came up with talking birds (really?), a floating island (better), music magic (eh, okay), lightcrystals…and a machine god. The latter was Joe‘s idea. What the heck is a machine god? I dunno, said Joe, but I like the sound of it! I didn’t. At all. But I sighed at the keyboard again, said, oh all right, and went on. We batted around ideas for the various elements and the stories began to take shape, but we still didn’t know what the machine god was or where it fit in. Finally someone said, well, who here writes about religion, anyone? Like a dope I said, me!

My main series “An Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom” has a very detailed religious system, complete with casual prayers, holidays, myths both formal and folkloric, agnostics and atheists. Religion is a major component.

Great! everyone said. You can figure out the machine god! Aargh, said I. But I bit my lip, squared my shoulders and said yes.

The more I worked on what the machine god was, how it came to be, and how it fit into the world of the Drifting Isle, the more I was drawn to it. I began to enjoy myself, even.

Who from our steampunk city would be likely to deal with such an unexpected being, for we’d decided the machine god belonged on the island. An academic, obviously. Who was my academic? An outsider. Let’s bring him to the city from far away, and let’s make him sad and bitter about something. Two of my friends had just had political skirmishes in the hallowed halls of academia, and I drew on their experiences. So was born Professor Oladel Adewole, polyglot, coffee lover and discoverer of the Machine God.

What–or who–is the Machine God itself? You’re going to have to read to find out, but Joe was right; it’s pretty cool. And I would never have written anything remotely like this without the Drifting Isle collaborators, and the determination to say yes.

Official Author Website

Official Drifting Isle Chronicles Website

Order Black Mercury HERE

Order The Kaiser Affair HERE

Order The Machine God HERE

Read FBC’s Review of Lovers And Beloveds

Read The Drifting Isle Chronicles – A new way to tell new stories ( A guest post by Joseph R. Lewis)

AUTHOR INFORMATION: MeiLin Miranda came back from the dead to write books. In 2006, she suffered a cardiac arrest and realized it was high time to get on with writing fiction after 30-plus years of professional nonfiction writing. Her main series is the fantasy epic saga An Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom, and she is a co-creator of the shared steampunk fantasy series The Drifting Isle Chronicles. Her influences include Ursula K. LeGuin, Anthony Trollope, Jane Austen, Patrick O’Brian, Georgette Heyer, MFK Fisher and Neil Gaiman.

She can’t seem to get away from writing stories set in the 19th century (or something like it) no matter what she does. MeiLin lives in Portland, OR with a husband, two kids, two cats, a floppy dog and far, far too much yarn.

Fantasy Book Critic

NEW LITERARY SATIRE

This is a first: A shoplifting contest between two renowned lit-hipster writers. Has American literature (or American satire) reached a new low? Read about it only at the crazy new blog THE LITERARY CIRCUS:

http://literarycircus.blogspot.com/2013/02/miranda-vs-tao-shoplifting-contest.html

AttackingtheDemi-Puppets

Official MeiLin Miranda Website
Order “Lovers and Beloveds” HERE or HERE(Kindle) or HERE(Smashwords)
Read 50% from “Lovers and Beloveds” HERE (either online or download various formats)

INTRODUCTION: “The Tremont family has conquered kingdom after kingdom, and rules its continent. Now, Tremont stands on the cusp of an industrial revolution; trains and steam engines are new, and the Scholar Priests of Eddin’s Temple make exciting discoveries daily. Magic is long forgotten, but the Gods are not. Prince Temmin must now leave his childhood home to live with his father–Harsin the Fourth, by the Grace of Pagg, King of the Greater Kingdom of Tremont and Litta, Emperor of Inchar. Harsin expects his son to become the kind of ruthless, pragmatic man he is. But his immortal advisor Teacher has other plans, involving the seductive human avatars of the Gods called the Lovers. Teacher intends to bind Temmin to the Lovers’ Temple, bring him closer to his people, and set him on a path that will lead to ultimate glory for Tremont–or its end.”

“Lovers and Beloveds” is an indie title I have discovery from a review inquiry. The Jacqueline Carey comparison the author used attracted my attention, while the excerpt linked above convinced me to read the book and I am really glad I did. I would note that indeed Lovers and Beloveds has “Kushiel vibes”; while it is more explicit though in the same tasteful vein as there, it posits a world where the Gods’ embodiments – including the erotic one in dual male/female manifestation – play an important role in society.

FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION:“Lovers and Beloveds” stands at about 400 pages divided into 17 chapters with an Appendix about Tremontine Calendar and Measurements and one about Pronunciations.

The main POV of the novel, Temmin is the only son of King Harsin and for reasons we discover as the novel goes on, he has been raised far away from the capital in his mother’s stronghold, very sheltered and with limited possibilities of female companionship. To the scorn of the capital’s young bloods, he is still virgin when the king summons him to assume his responsibilities as heir. That factoid is very important since it is provable in a conclusive way in a special magic ritual which is fatal otherwise. But that magic ritual involves subtle issues about the power distribution in the Kingdom, so having the heir undergo it is not in the King’s interest and the novel’s main motive driver follows from here.

The mysterious Teacher who seems to be a long-lived magician advising the King and who is both in the King’s power to command but who can also try subtly to influence things starts training Temmin as well as dropping hints about important events from his family’s past that somehow never made it into the official histories. One such event is the subject of the secondary thread of the novel which starts interspersing with the main narrative after a while.

“Lovers and Beloveds” is secondary world fantasy in the Legacy of Kushiel vein with quite a lot of explicitness which is integrated well into the main story. The first volume in a series, “Lovers and Beloveds” stops at a good “to be continued” point and offers a complete and satisfying reading experience. I am very interested in the sequel which is tentatively expected in the second part of 2011.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The novel starts slow and a bit on the raw side but it picks up considerably after a while; I liked the writing and was intrigued by the premise so I persevered beyond the clumsy descriptions in the first several pages, where things seem just out of kilt somehow, not quite making sense in the “pseudo-medieval” setting we are introduced to.

The later events and world building will make sense of that part, but here we encounter one of the common problems in secondary fantasies that contain “unhistorical elements”, whether in social mores or in how political power distributes, namely that the author knows much more than us, but fails to convey the reasons for the ‘way things are’ against our empirical knowledge of the human nature.

“Lovers and Beloveds” ultimately depends on the character of Temmin and while he becomes quite interesting by the end of the novel, readers have to put up with a lot of silliness and even dullness before; not a bad prince as they go, but still spoiled and naive which makes for the worst combination sometimes.

The emotional distance of 3rd person narration works against the book to some extent – one big reason the Kushiel books are so good is the immediacy of first person narration – and since we essentially follow Temmin’s path with few outside events recounted, I think that a first person narration would have made the book better.

The secondary story that Temmin sees in the magic book of the subtitle (Intimate Story of the Greater Kingdom) is somewhat cliched and predictable, so a bit overlong as a subthread but it works as a morality tale/history lesson and I guess it may play a role in later world building expansion.

The huge strength of the novel is the writing style which is excellent and helps smooth some of the issues mentioned above, while keeping one turning the pages and accepting at least temporarily what the author “sells”; once getting going, the world building is pretty good, still a little bit sketchy to the end but not with great flaws and I expect continuing volumes to expand it. The characters develop and show a lot of nuance after a while, so I urge everyone to give this book a little time to develop as story and hero go.

All in all the series has extremely great promise so I am very interested in the sequel, while Lovers and Beloveds (A+) is one of the best indies – more or less a debut since the book has been expanded a lot from its first edition – I’ve read this year. If you are a fan of Jacqueline Carey I would definitely urge you to try this one and as mentioned give it a bit to settle down and of course I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in beautifully written fantasy of intrigue and eroticism and who is not afraid of some explicitness.

Fantasy Book Critic