A literary detective story...or possibly a literary wild goose chase
As some of you may already know, one of my favorite fantasy series ever is Mark Anthony's The Last Rune. He finished the last book in the series several years ago, and there hadn't been a peep from him until this summer, when he finally updated it by saying that he was working on a new fantasy trilogy, under a pseudonym, which would be released "later in 2008" but which he would reveal as his own when the time was right. He said it was "quite a bit different" from TLR, but "very true to who [he is] as a writer."
I think I may have figured out what his new pseudonym and series is, completely by accident.
The other day, while at Barnes and Noble, I picked up a book which looked interesting: a hardcover debut novel (which is itself unusual) entitled The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, by "Galen Beckett." It's the first in a nineteenth-century fantasy series a la Susanna Clarke or Naomi Novik, except where those authors' novels are often compared to Jane Austen and really have very little resemblance to her novels (resembling more novels by, say, George Eliot or Patrick O'Brien), this series very definitely takes its cue from Austen and Charlotte Bronte (to the point where, if you're an Austen or Bronte fan, you can sort of pick out where the inspiration for various bits come from, and there are even lines and phrasing which seem to be taken directly from Caroline Bingley or Lady Catherine de Bourgh or Mr Rochester).
The heroine is the eldest of three sisters in an impoverished gentry family, who engages in a brief flirtation with a young lord who is attracted by her vivacity, but whose wealthy relations (most notably his wealthy aristocratic aunt) disapprove of their developing relationship; then she ends up as a governess in a forbidding older man's household where there is a locked room into which she is never to go, having to do with his first wife; etc. The key, of course, is that magic and secret societies and the very uprising of the land are all tied in with these very typically nineteenth-century trappings.
I read it - it's quite long (~500 pages) but, like Clarke's novel, is an engaging read that doesn't seem like it's as long as it is - and I loved it. At the same time, I felt there was something familiar about the style, but I just assumed that was because of the many nods to Austen and Bronte; working on my Ph.D. in English lit, and having just taught Pride and Prejudice, and having generally been in a very Regency and nineteenth-century mood lately (I watched the Samantha Morton Jane Eyre film last week), it would be unsurprising that I'd feel a certain familiarity in the prose style.
Then I encountered the "about the author" section, and had an "aha!" moment. First, it begins not by saying anything about the author, but by giving his/her/their reason to write it: "What if there were a fantastical cause underlying the social constraints and limited choices confronting a heroine in a novel by Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte?" Similarly, Anthony's bio contains a bit about how TLR was written to explore the idea "that reason and wonder need not exist in conflict." Then Galen Beckett - who is carefully not identified as male, female, or coauthors - is described as living in Colorado and working on the next book in the series (The House on Durrow Street). Anthony similarly lives in Colorado. And finally, both are published by Bantam Spectra (Bantam's sf/fantasy imprint).
Then thinking about the subject matter, I found myself noting similarities. You have both the "male" magical system and the "female" magical system, one of which focuses on esoteric lore and the other of which focuses on the forces of nature; you have various bits of gay subtext running through (which later became text in TLR, but here seem to be undercurrents still, mostly involving Eldyn Garritt); you have a sinister secret society of fanatics whose symbol is an eye; etc.
Now, I could be totally wrong; but the more I think about it, the more I think I'm right. Either way, I definitely think this book is worth checking out, especially if you like fantasy and you like Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte (I imagine this description will encompass a large portion of my flist, especially those with two X chromosomes); give it a try!
Edit: OH DUH, and "Galen Beckett"...the heroine of TLR is Grace Beckett, who is a physician (Galen being a famous ancient physician).
Edit 2: EVEN MORE DUH, I am officially a moron; I COULD have always just looked at the copyright page, which confirms that it IS Mark Anthony. *facedesk* Still, whee!
I think I may have figured out what his new pseudonym and series is, completely by accident.
The other day, while at Barnes and Noble, I picked up a book which looked interesting: a hardcover debut novel (which is itself unusual) entitled The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, by "Galen Beckett." It's the first in a nineteenth-century fantasy series a la Susanna Clarke or Naomi Novik, except where those authors' novels are often compared to Jane Austen and really have very little resemblance to her novels (resembling more novels by, say, George Eliot or Patrick O'Brien), this series very definitely takes its cue from Austen and Charlotte Bronte (to the point where, if you're an Austen or Bronte fan, you can sort of pick out where the inspiration for various bits come from, and there are even lines and phrasing which seem to be taken directly from Caroline Bingley or Lady Catherine de Bourgh or Mr Rochester).
The heroine is the eldest of three sisters in an impoverished gentry family, who engages in a brief flirtation with a young lord who is attracted by her vivacity, but whose wealthy relations (most notably his wealthy aristocratic aunt) disapprove of their developing relationship; then she ends up as a governess in a forbidding older man's household where there is a locked room into which she is never to go, having to do with his first wife; etc. The key, of course, is that magic and secret societies and the very uprising of the land are all tied in with these very typically nineteenth-century trappings.
I read it - it's quite long (~500 pages) but, like Clarke's novel, is an engaging read that doesn't seem like it's as long as it is - and I loved it. At the same time, I felt there was something familiar about the style, but I just assumed that was because of the many nods to Austen and Bronte; working on my Ph.D. in English lit, and having just taught Pride and Prejudice, and having generally been in a very Regency and nineteenth-century mood lately (I watched the Samantha Morton Jane Eyre film last week), it would be unsurprising that I'd feel a certain familiarity in the prose style.
Then I encountered the "about the author" section, and had an "aha!" moment. First, it begins not by saying anything about the author, but by giving his/her/their reason to write it: "What if there were a fantastical cause underlying the social constraints and limited choices confronting a heroine in a novel by Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte?" Similarly, Anthony's bio contains a bit about how TLR was written to explore the idea "that reason and wonder need not exist in conflict." Then Galen Beckett - who is carefully not identified as male, female, or coauthors - is described as living in Colorado and working on the next book in the series (The House on Durrow Street). Anthony similarly lives in Colorado. And finally, both are published by Bantam Spectra (Bantam's sf/fantasy imprint).
Then thinking about the subject matter, I found myself noting similarities. You have both the "male" magical system and the "female" magical system, one of which focuses on esoteric lore and the other of which focuses on the forces of nature; you have various bits of gay subtext running through (which later became text in TLR, but here seem to be undercurrents still, mostly involving Eldyn Garritt); you have a sinister secret society of fanatics whose symbol is an eye; etc.
Now, I could be totally wrong; but the more I think about it, the more I think I'm right. Either way, I definitely think this book is worth checking out, especially if you like fantasy and you like Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte (I imagine this description will encompass a large portion of my flist, especially those with two X chromosomes); give it a try!
Edit: OH DUH, and "Galen Beckett"...the heroine of TLR is Grace Beckett, who is a physician (Galen being a famous ancient physician).
Edit 2: EVEN MORE DUH, I am officially a moron; I COULD have always just looked at the copyright page, which confirms that it IS Mark Anthony. *facedesk* Still, whee!