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

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.)