Mini-reviews of new books by Friends- of- Q- Blog, with apologies for now- constant tardiness.
Moro Rogers first published book is a graphic novel, City in the Desert . Moro may be trained as an animator, but she has a subtle mind and a deadly sense of humor, and, as one reviewer notes, there is a lot going on here beyond the tale of a human monster hunter and his (human?) female partner, who has a tail, in a decaying desert civilization. Her graphic style is loose and breezy and to my mind more kinetic (and amusing) than many I have seen, and is enhanced by her life- long studies of animals of every kind. Her storytelling instincts are a novelist’s. Beware only in that this is the first of three volumes, and stops rather abruptly.
Karen Myers’ King of the May is the latest in her VERY original take on– call it Elfland, but with some twists, volume three in The Hounds of Annwn (not a typo). Karen has blended the traditional English lore of a spooky adult- style elfland– think Tam Lin, the Wild Hunt, perhaps a bit of the solemn Elves of Tolkien– with Virginia Hunt country and hound lore and a bit of alternate Universe theory (no Pleistocene extinction on this line, though this is subtle). Good adventure and intrigue in a beautifully detailed, well- constructed world, starting (in To Carry the Horn ) when her protagonist George Traherne, a master of hounds, passes from his own Blue Ridge hunt into the midst of a different one…
Once again, here I am at the public library, and you have listed a writer who is not in their catalog. 🙁
But I remembered how once I was visiting M's brother, who lives in the "hunt country" outside Charlottesville, Va.
I was outdoors with his wife, and she said, "Listen, they're hunting." Now it was December, and I had heard occasional gunshots, but there had been none just then.
But off in the distance, "toot-TOOO." First time I had heard hunting horns blown outside of movies, etc.
I felt a little out of place.
You can get them directly from Karen,as a book or ebook I think (I don't do much on anything but paper) or David Zincavage could tell you. I have her email but don't like to put email in Comments.
I used to call the sighthounds with a horn– should start again as it cuts through the wind.
Hehe…Yeah, sorry about the abrupt ending. Vol. 2 should be out next year sometime. (I'm hoping that eventually there can be an omnibus edition, that's kind of how I intended it to be read from the beginning.)
Thanks, Steve!
Hi, Chas. Believe me, if I could get into the library feeders, I would (working on it).
My books are out in both paper and ebook. Please feel free to contact me: KarenMyers@PerkunasPress.com .
Charlottesvills is well-ensconced in Virginia Hunt Country.