Guesting on Konn Lavery’s Blog!
Here’s a link to my latest guest blog interview.
Konn Lavery is an author and a graphic designer/web developer, fascinated by transmedia storytelling.
Enjoy!
Water Sight by Marie Powell
An evocative epic laced with myth and fact, Water Sight completes the Last of the Gifted Series. In the first book, Spirit Sight, we find Cymru (Wales) hovering on the eve of destruction as the English king, Edward 1, better known as Longshanks, sends his armies railing against the native Celts. Fans of Braveheart, note that Longshanks practiced his brutal conquest techniques on the Welsh before turning his eye northward to Scotland and tangling with William Wallace.
There are several things I particularly appreciate about this book.
The interweaving dual storylines are fluidly crafted. As in Book One, the story is narrated by two protagonists: Hyw (16) and Catrin (14)—a brother and sister with extraordinary gifts. As the war with the English builds, so do their gifts and their need to use them. Hyw is a shapeshifter; Cat a spiritual healer able to lead captive spirits home to their eternal rest in Garth Celyn, a mystical place as legendary as faerie.
Cat shines in this story. Her quest is to reclaim the three relics that once belonged to the murdered Llywelyn—The Crown of Arthur, the Coronet of Wales, and Y Groes Naid (the Cross of Neith)—and give them to his younger brother, Prince Dafydd to rally the people. Though she is in love and betrothed to Rhys, for the most part Cat’s on her own as Rhys is working to protect Dafydd.
Powell’s lyrical writing has a formal tone flecked with Medieval and Old Welsh Gaelic phrases in such a way that they’re contextually definable. The language reflects the culture and reminds us that what was once taken by the English is now alive again. Powerful phrasing, sensory descriptions, and mythical references abound.
There are time-ticking constraints. It’s May 1283 when the story begins and they must rally the people by Autumn Equinox, and win by Nos Galan Gaeaf (Halloween.) When the veils are lowest between the worlds, Llywelyn must leave Hyw’s body, where his spirit has been housed since his murder, and join his Princess Eleanor and the ancestors in Garth Celyn. To be defeated means the soul of the legendary Prince of Wales will be lost forever.
Though the atmosphere is violent, vicious, and grave, Powell finds ways to add comic relief through Hyw’s hijinks as he shapeshifts into various animals: a hawk, a horse, a jackdaw, a mouse, a sparrow, an eagle. His transformations become more rapid as the stakes rise and his responses are comical.
The romance is true and transcends time. Cat and Rhys are destined; while Hyw’s love for James, a boy he grew up with, is sweet, sensitive, and accepted by the culture. “We are meant to be together, Hyw. If you will stay a hawk, then I will become a falconer. But if you would be a man, then come back to me.” Indeed, as they walk through the crowds holding hands, we can only hope for them.
This is a series for young adults and I recommend it to teachers and librarians. The characters face contemporary struggles in a historic setting. The mingling of myth, magic, and adventure will appeal to middle grade and high school students, but also their parents. The Last of the Gifted is a classic.
As reviewed in the Ottawa Review of Books, April 2021
Launching Spring Equinox in Port Moody
I’m a long time Port Moody resident who’s recently moved out to the Fraser Valley, but I’m coming back to launch my latest book, To Kill a King.
The easiest way to get to the launch is to park at the Port Moody Rec Centre. Walk past the rinks and down toward the sports field at the back. Before you get to the sports field, there’s a small bridge and a path. Walk down there and you will soon come to the Noon’s Creek Salmon Hatchery. Of course, if you’re in the mood for a beautiful walk you can come the other direction from the Inlet Trail.
This is an outside, socially distanced event, but please wear your mask and be safe.
I hope to see you there!
Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson
In 2007, poet-author Gil Adamson (Gillian) published her award-winning debut novel, The Outlander. Thirteen years later, we are reading the sequel. It’s almost in real time.
The Outlander tells the story of nineteen-year-old Mary Boulton who kills her husband and flees into the Canadian Rockies pursued by her two brothers-in-law. There she meets several eccentric characters in an Alberta mining town, one of whom she falls in love with—William Moreland, the Ridgerunner. Adamson wondered what would happen if this couple had a child. They did, and thirteen years later we’re reading about the boy’s internal struggles in this touching coming-of-age story.
Jack Boulton is a twelve-year-old boy. His mother, Mary, died the previous fall. Jack got sick, and his father left him with a local nun so he could go back to his previous life of crime. Blowing up mines and robbing banks is ridgerunner senior’s forte. But William’s motives are heartfelt. He’s trying to make a slew of money so he and his boy can live somewhere peacefully. Plus, he’s trying to cope with his wife’s unexpected death. The only (well, maybe not the only) problem is, the nun, one Emelia Cload has decided that the boy is hers.
Jack is not enamored with this decision, and early in the story, he escapes his regimented captivity and heads home. The nun (which is what she is called most often) wants him back and puts up a wanted poster with a $2000 reward for his return. If that seems like odd behaviour for a nun, brace yourself. That’s only the beginning. The nun is an unexpected antagonist.
The boy learns to shoot, live alone, take a beating, fend for himself and, in short order, becomes a man. In fact, Jack becomes the Ridgerunner himself. The parallels between father and son are a theme of this story. They are both outlaws, on the run, and trying to survive in hostile terrain.
This is a rollicking literary adventure told in three parts. The horses, guns, and wild animals give it a western feel. At one point, Moreland spends three days treed by an old grizzly. It’s character-driven but there’s plenty of action, tension, suspense, and dropped bombs (which I won’t reveal.) It also has an historical Can Lit feel as it’s set in and around Banff and Lake Louise, formerly the town of Laggan. Since it’s 1917 when the story begins, there are references to The Great War—the working men of a prison camp feature in the plot.
Adamson’s lyrical prose and poetic descriptions immerse us in this rugged Western Canadian landscape. She is mad with details and rich with language. “Hair in horripilating waves.” Now, there’s a word. There are bits of Nakoda, a strange language spoken by Sampson Beaver the second, and interjections of folksy wisdom. “If you’re afraid of doing something son, you’re more or less obligated to do it.” Adamson comments that allusions to Huckleberry Finn, Treasure Island, and True Grit, among others pepper the book and are among her influences, along with “Western and noir movies, songs, and fairy tales.” I heard shades of Lonesome Dove and The Tenderness of Wolves myself. The haunting landscape of the wild places, of pioneers, of bygone days lends itself to lyrical prose.
Gil Adamson *image from theglobeandmail.com
As reviewed in the Ottawa Review of Books, March 2021
A Brand New Series — March 16
Live Book Launch
