The Ale Boy's Feast: CSFF blog tour

The Ale Boy's Feast is the fourth and final book of the Auralia Thread series by Jeffrey Overstreet. It is a high fantasy series--- that is, a fantasy set in a world other than our own.

The Auralia Thread series is somewhat like the Lord of the Rings series in that the story continues from one book to the next. The Ale Boy's Feast is the conclusion. I would recommend starting with the first book in the series, Auralia's Colors, and reading the series in order. I haven't read the middle two books in the series and as I read The Ale Boy's Feast I felt I ought to have read the others first (which I why I'm not writing a review--- please turn to the other tour participants for reviews).

The fantasy world of The Auralia Thread is a unique vision rather than an imitation of an established fantasy world. It's a world I was glad to visit, and I hope to hear more from author Jeffrey Overstreet in the future.




*Book link - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9781400074686
Author’s web site - http://lookingcloser.org/fiction/
*Participants’ links


Gillian Adams
Red Bissell
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Shane Deal
Chris Deane
Cynthia Dyer
Andrea Graham
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Dawn King
Inae Kyo
Shannon McDermott
Shannon McNear
Karen McSpadden
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
Sarah Sawyer
Kathleen Smith
Donna Swanson
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler

Some genres, when crossed, explode

Genre is important in fiction. If you want your work to sell, book publishers and book readers have an easier time if you can hang ONE label on it: mystery, fantasy, mainstream fiction, literary fiction, thriller, romance, Christian fiction, Gay/Lesbian fiction, and so on.

But sometimes the writing urge comes on us to combine genres: Christian fantasy, fantasy-romance (girl meets vampire), Gay/Lesbian mystery. This also can work, some of the time.

But some genre-crossings don't work so well. Christian science fiction? Mainstream sci-fi fans may think: Christians--- aren't they those bad people who don't like science? And the Christian publishers/readers may think: science fiction--- isn't that the bad stuff that seeks to destroy our faith in Christ and in God's word? But there are some brave souls out there writing Christian science fiction, and some has even been published.

But Wildmage is the ultimate bad genre mixup: high fantasy that is Christian fiction (like Narnia or Lord of the Rings) and that is also Gay/Lesbian fiction (like Mercedes Lackey's Last Herald Mage series, or J. F. Rivkin's Silverglass), but doesn't promote the ideology of the Gay activist movement. Yes, wow, I can hear the heads exploding now. Mostly it seems like a great way to get blacklisted everywhere.... which I guess is why I'm a pen name and not a real girl after all.....

But in today's crazy publishing world where print-on-demand self-publishing companies like Lulu.com can make all sorts of cross-genre explosives happen, if it's what I want to write, I can do it. If I write well, and do some internet networking, maybe it will even build a following.

After all, years ago who could have predicted that every other book in the sci-fi/fantasy aisle would be about sparkly vampires?

The Female Conan the Barbarian: Silverglass by J. F. Rivkin

'It's fun to see a tall, handsome, hard-fighting, hard-drinking barbarian hero--- who is female. --- Piers Anthony

Corson brenn Torisk is not only everything Piers Anthony said above, she also chases girls--- sometimes. Corson's your classic barbarian hero in female form. In the beginning of Silverglass, she's giddy-happy because two of the warring factions of the city of Rhostshyl have paid her to kill the same person--- the sorceress Nyctasia ar'n Edonaris.

But when Corson finally meets her target, Nyctasia is in a low tavern pretending to be a student-minstrel, and she offers to pay Corson handsomely to serve as her bodyguard. And Corson evidently feels that Nyc has a body worth guarding as the two women get quite *friendly* along the way (offstage, non-graphic *friendliness*).

Corson must save Nyctasia's life more than once before they escape the city and Nyc's enemies (many of whom are members of Nyc's family.) En route to meet Nyc's friend 'Ben, they pass through the haunted forest, where they must stay on the road or risk a horrible fate (and of course Nyc leaves the road, much to Corson's disgust.)

Overcoming evil magic, assassins, poison and seasickness, in the end Nyc is away from her enemies and as safe as someone like her will ever be. And the two women have forged bonds of friendship (and *friendship*) which will last.

Silverglass and the other three books in the series were at one time sold through lesbian mail-order bookstores and currently are present on many lists of lesbian fantasy fiction. But reading the story it's clear that both Corson and Nyc have men as their primary love interests, and their *friendliness* with one another is a casual thing.

Silverglass is fun and sometimes funny fantasy for those who like strong female characters. It lacks the angst and tragedy, as well as the driving moral issues, of Mercedes Lackey's Last Herald Mage trilogy (which features the Gay mage, Vanyel). I haven't thought of the series for years, but when I recently found two of the Silverglass books when sorting out my bookshelves, I found they were very much worth a second read.

Silverglass and the other J. F. Rivkin books are currently out of print but can be found on Amazon.com and eBay.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II blog tour

Because science fiction is just a form of fantasy where a wizard's broomstick is called a spaceship....

Here are the blogs where the blog tour is happening and the dates ISIG 2 stuff is due to appear:

Fabianspace
11-Apr

Susanne Drazic
11-Apr

Grace Bridges
12-Apr

John Konecsni
11,12-Apr

Lisa Hendey
13-Apr

Confessions of a Cooperator
13-Apr

Teri Harmon
13-Apr

Penny Ehrenkranz
14-Apr

Beverly Mcclure
15-Apr

The Baptized Imagination
16-Apr

Chelle Cordero
17-Apr

Katie Hines
17-Apr

Fabianspace
18-Apr

Rebecca Russell
19-Apr

Julie Davis
19-Apr

Naomi Clark
20-Apr

Homeschool Blogger
20-Apr

Character Education Criteria Reviews
21-Apr

Chelle Cordero
22-Apr

First Wild Card Tours
22-Apr

So What Do We Think
22-Apr

Laura O'Neill
22-Apr

Victor Gentile
22-Apr

Summit Book Reviews
22-Apr

You Gotta Read Book Reviews
http://yougottareadreviews.blogspot.com
22-Apr

Marian Allen
23-Apr

Frank Creed
23-Apr

Fabianspace
25-Apr

High Fantasy

What is high fantasy? It's a subgenre of fantasy which is set in invented or parallel worlds. The fantasy's world differs from the real world in various ways.

There are three types of high fantasy:

1. The fantasy world may have no connection to our world, as in the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey.

2. There may be a portal from the fantasy world to our world, as in the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis.

3. Or the fantasy world may be a world-within-a-world within the real world--- as in the Harry Potter series, where the wizarding world is within our own, real world.

In addition, there is a science-fictional subtype of type 2, where the 'portal' between worlds is in the form of spaceships and other technological means. This is how I would classify the Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I also see the Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card, while it is seen as a science fiction series, as being somewhat like Darkover, a variant type 2 fantasy.

These distinctions are only important so far as it helps readers discover more books-I-like, and writers to find an audience.

My Wildmage series is High Fantasy type 2 (though I'm not sure the portals will play much of a part in the current book, it is how the planet was settled by humans.)