Ink and Steel by Elizabeth Bear

[meganbmoore]

Though the first two Promethean Age books are set in modern times, the third moves back in time to the early days of the Prometheus Club during the later years of Elizabeth Tudor’s reign.  Kit Marley (later Christopher Marlowe) was a spy in the service of Elizabeth and the Prometheus Club, and wove magic into his works that helped strengthen

Comments

[annwyd]

Except that Kit did not die, but was saved by Morgan le Fae and taken into faerie, where he is healed and becomes involved in a private war between rival factions of the Fae court

...awwwwkward, considering that for years now I've had a fairly detailed idea involving Marlowe becoming a spy for Faerie after his death.

Ah well. Nothing new under the sun.

ETA that I think I have a short story by...Connie Willis? or was it Neil Gaiman? I think Connie Willis in this case...from the POV of Anne that portrays her very positively. I'll try to dig up the name of it.

[meganbmoore]

ROFL!

Yeah.

Well...I think that overall bit (not necessarily Marlowe-specific) has become something of a theme in fantasy lately. Not a huge one, but a bit of one. It's also a theme in Midnight Never Come (if only I could have stopped my subconscious from comparing this to three of my favorite books this year...) in Elizabethan terms. It's not really a fad, but...

Re: ETA: That would be cool! It's not really a pressing thing, but...noticable, you know?

[annwyd]

I'd tentatively say that ever since War for the Oaks, there's been a greater tendency to cross themes of Faerie with urban fantasy--not just by authors for whom it's their bread-and-butter, like Charles de Lint, but for a lot of authors. I've only read a few of the relevant books, though, so I can't really say. Not surprising that more authors would start hitting on the idea of historical figures as spies for/getting involved with Faerie.

And I'm pretty sure the story I'm thinking of is "Winter's Tale," from the collection Impossible Things, which is, yes, by Connie Willis.

[meganbmoore]

Is that the Tad Williams book? Because I...was going to read that in between Bear books. (Mainlining 800+ pages of Elizabeth Bear would not be good for the brain, no matter how good her books are.)

I think it's showing up in Elizabethan set books because...well, for one thing, it's pertinent to the fiction of the era, but also because the Elizabethan period is popular right now.