Royal Destiny is the conclusion to Morgan Howell’s Queen of the Orcs Trilogy. This novel was interesting in that it was told from multiple points of view, including Dar’s enemies. Previous books were told almost exclusively from Dar’s POV, with short asides told by other characters. I thought it was a little unusual to know the thoughts and plans of characters on both sides of the conflict, but it didn’t effect how I understood or enjoyed the story. I also liked seeing a little more of the human half of this world, including Sevren, who I really liked, which we really only had a taste of in the first two books. Dar was faced with some difficult decisions and situations in this book. She had to rely on the help of her adopted sister and other orcs she could trust. It was good to see a strong woman accepting help and making informed decisions, even if she did sometimes decide with her “chest,” or heart, instead of her head.

The ending of this book, and the entire trilogy, was very sad. I surprised myself by being emotionally invested enough in this series to almost be moved to tears at the end. I can see why Morgan Howell chose to end the trilogy the way she did, but it was still depressing. I don’t want to give away any more than that, just be prepared! Despite the sad ending, I still recommend this series to those who like fantasy novels and strong leading female characters.

Happy reading,

-Branwen

King’s Property follows the story of Dar, a young woman who lives in the mountains. She is betrayed by her family and essentially sold to the king’s army, where she is branded on her forehead and forced to work as a slave in an orc regiment. Rather than cower or jump into a soldier’s bed like the rest of the women, Dar befriends an orc, and it is this friendship that helps her survive the trials she faces, as well as learn more about herself.

I don’t know much about art and most of the time I’m not very sure if I know what I like, but the work of English artist Morgan Howell is sure as hell right up my lapsed-obsessive-record-collector street. Howell specialises in painstakingly accurate reproductions of 7 inch singles from the 60s and 70s, by which I don’t mean picture sleeves but the classic flimsy paper housed artefacts that required one to examine the label showing through the central circular hole in the cover if you wanted to identify them. These are three dimensional objects, not paintings, and Howell’s attention to detail is fastidious, down to the authentically distressed and creased canvas that stands in for the paper sleeves and the tiny imperfections round the edges of the labels on the foam board records – the one tiny thing that might tip you off that his artworks aren’t the real thing is their size: 27 inches square, with smaller reproductions available at 16 inches by 16. A very pleasing detail on some of the latter is the inclusion of a rendering of the shiny rounded record spindle you get on some players, which is painted to show the reflection of the room beyond.

I went to an exhibition of Howell’s work at the Williams Art Gallery in Cambridge where the walls were covered in these enormous singles and found it tremendously evocative. Apart from anything else, Howell is to be commended for his taste in subject matter: the reproductions included “Heatwave” by Martha and the Vandellas, Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, The Who’s “I Can’t Explain”, “Gangsters” by The Specials and rather excitingly for me “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais” by The Clash, which I’ve previously rambled on about at some length. Buying works of art is a ridiculous bourgeois indulgence but I couldn’t resist splashing out on one of the cheaper reproductions of this one. If you love old singles and you get the chance you should definitely go and see Howell’s work. He even takes commissions!

Now and again I’ll see a blip on Twitter or a link on Facebook and click it. Sometimes I get lucky, other times I definitely do not. This time is one where I got lucky, and was really happy that I took the time to check this out. I love everything vinyl here at FMF. Whether it be the records, the advertisements that went with them, the culture, t-shirts, whatever I can get my hands on. I am especially excited when people use records in their art or design, and Super Size Art has really gone to great lengths to do so, down to every last detail.

The artist Morgan Howell

Morgan Howell hails from St. Albans in the UK. He lives with his partner Jacquie, and their two boys Isaac and Aidan. By day, Howell runs an advertising agency called the Teds Agency. When not doing running the agency, he is an artist. A damn good artist at that. Howell produces his own Super Size Art. Giant paintings on canvas made to look like 3D 7″ singles. The Supersize are a 27″ square, while the Oversize are slightly smaller at 16.5″. You can choose from artists like Marvin Gaye, The Stones, The Who, The Four Topps, Black Sabbath, The Shadows, Special AKA, and more. These look completely real, from the record label to the actual record sleeve. Spot on, a great look for any vinyl or music enthusiast. Folds, creases and the like are all present as on any record sleeve that’s been handled, as well as the original sleeve artwork that is incredible. His catalog is growing each week, and I’d like to put in a request to have him do “The Champ” by the Mohawks because that sleeve is dynamite. I’m sure a lot of Beat Heads would drool over that one! For more information, check out the Super Size Art Site, maybe you’ll find that elusive 7″ (ok a huge version to hang on your wall) you’ve been digging through flea markets, boot sales, and garages for all this time.

Legendary Producer Don Letts with his Clash 7″. Letts took Joe Strummer to the show that inspired the record.

For more information, photos, and Super Size Art Social Media, check the links below.

Super Size Art Facebook page.

Follow Super Sizer Art on Twitter.

Keep Diggin’!

I just finished reading all three books in this series.  I read them as ebooks on my iPad, natch.  The three books by Morgan Howell are King’s Property, Clan Daughter, and Royal Destiny.  Howell creates a relatively simple but interesting alternate fantasy setting where orcs aren’t the dirty brutes we’ve come to expect.  The story was somewhat dirivitive– that’s not necessarily a criticism.  If you enjoyed Clan of the Cave Bear, you’ll like this one.  The story was predictable but engaging, and though there were few deviations from what I expected to happen, the characters were very interesting and well-written.  The fantasy setting, including history and language, was well worked out.  There was relatively little magic for a fantasy story– also not necessarily a criticism, and I found the magic the least interesting part of the story anyway.  If you enjoy fantasy– particularly romantic fantasy, read this series.

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I’m currently reading the final book of Morgan Howell’s Queen of the Orcs trilogy. I’ll probably post a review when I’m finished.

Queen of the Orcs: Royal Destiny

hmm.

well this book just went and took what i found annoying in the last book and magnified it. males are apparently completely submissive, which is, again, annoying. females are apparently all bitchy and sneaky and manipulative. kovok-mah's infatuated with her, but that doesn't mean anything when his MOTHER doesn't want him to see her. a society of mama's boys? oh yeah. so you know, i guess that's how much she means to him, in the end.

dar is still whiny. and oblivious. and helpless. this book portrays the males as a submissive species almost to make her look semi-able, but i feel that that wasn't accomplished. i felt extremely sorry for sevren, because he most definitely sacrifices almost everything for her, and gets nowhere. kovok-mah, on the other hand, is bound indefinitely to his mother's word, no matter what that is. it makes absolutely no sense to me.

the ending leaves you confused too. but i guess that was the intention of the ambiguous nature, which also annoyed me. what's the point of building this all up just to be like nope, she's not queen and hey, who knows if they get together? the bad guy still lives. what's the point of her vision telling her who her enemy is, and then she doesn't defeat it in the end? again, i don't get it. i can either assume by her children calling her muthuri that she either got with sevren and stuck to her orc lingo, or she finally managed to get with kovok-mah, somehow. but then why the dramatic exit from kovok-mah? makes no sense.

it tries to build an epic end by the time the battles meet, i know. i just don't know if i felt very excited about it. actually wait, yeah, no; i wasn't very excited by the "epic"-ness. i'm going to have to say this one was a pass for me : unfortunately. i really wanted dar to redeem herself somehow, but most of this and the last book was spent on developing orc culture rather than developing character. i wanted dar to grow as a character, but instead she sort of went backwards, from an admirable heroine to a pathetic one. she still pines for kovok-mah nonstop in this. annoying. i personally think there's a way to pine without being so teenage girl about it. once kovok-mah enters her thoughts she seemingly thinks in all exclamation marks, and forgets all else. we ARE reading about an adult, right?

then again, i remember that this character apparently had daddy issues. which we never had kovok-mah confront her about, if i remember correctly. so their "loving" relationship ultimately just isn't very convincing at all to me.

sigh.

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Queen of the Orcs: Clan Daughter

this one was okay, compared to the first book. her character changes so abruptly from one second to the next that it annoyed me to no end. she was always indecisive, and she whines nonstop to kovok-mah. i'm not sure how he was ever portrayed as being attractive, since that wasn't how he was written in the first book. i never saw that transition, is all i'm saying. it was random and incompletely built.

she makes a 360 herself that annoyed me, because whereas she was strong and firm in the first book, and knew what she wanted… in this book she was constantly manipulated and never in control of her situation. not to mention ALWAYS pining after kovok-mah, which was annoying almost to the point of being funny. wth happened to her character? she went from assertive, self-assured, and confidant to a complete loser within a couple of chapters. hated it.

the finale was decent though, but again, happened very quickly where one second they're all having tea or whatever and the next i'm left stranded and a little bit lost. treaty? okay, works out. the buildup wasn't very good, i feel, but the conclusion wasn't bad for what little amount of build-up.

next.

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Queen of the Orcs: King’s Property

decided to try my luck with his other works, and was pleasantly surprised despite preset expectations. the heroine is strong, witty, and tough, which is just the way i like them. i wasn't sure whether there was any romantic involvement either way though, but that's fine with me, since i'm more pleased usually by the hint of romance rather than actual romance. what can i say? i like being teased.

anyway, the encampments presented in this story, of cavalry and war, is very realistic to me. i'm not even sure why, because obviously i've never been involved in a war. it's just that there is a certain kind of darkness to the way it's portrayed, and it's not a straight-shot chess board game like it usually is in literature. i liked the amount of detail devoted to it, i guess, because i wasn't expecting it at all.

anyway, i keep trying to find characters in here that will recur in the shadows of the path trilogy he's now writing, and at first i thought it was going to be othur, but evidently not. we'll just have to see, i guess.

by the end of this i was looking forward to the next volume. here we go.

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A Woman Worth Ten Coppers

well, what is there to say? i really wasn't expecting it to be good, and that it exceeded my initial expectation isn't surprising then. but it was pretty refreshing to read something good again, and actually, i liked it rather so well i don't know if there is much to type about it.

the characters don't particularly stand out, but they certainly make a nice contrast to each other. the world-building was what interested me; the name yim initially turned me off, because it sounds like "salt" in chinese and it's close to "yam" in english. the names in this world are vaguely latin, and the magic system isn't anything new really.. so what is it about this that was so refreshing? that's what i can't get figured out :T

maybe i was just in the right mood for this type of fantasy, but i sincerely believe there was something really exceptional about this book. i just can't pinpoint what. the relationship between yim and honus is realistic, but then again, yim acts somewhat out of character near the end of the book; i guess it could be just the author trying to tie things up as neatly as possible. all in all, this book acts only as a good setup for a continuing storyline, but nonetheless it does so in a way that keeps me excited about what's to come. the scenes of yim using her powers are somewhat few and far between, but when they come the author makes her seem quite genuinely powerful, and so despite the lack of action it went for good badass…ness. that said, it wasn't entirely without action, and honus seems badass in his own right. i was only confused about HOW exactly he'd fallen in love with yim? that was the single thing that felt rather abrupt and underdeveloped, because so much of it was devoted to world-building.

now it makes me want to go and read morgan howell's orc queen series. it does sound like it would be quite good, but maybe i read them out of sequence? from what i read on the author's site, this series takes place two hundred years after the orc queen series.. but i'll end up reading them anyway, so i'll try to dig those out of the pile and check them out.

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So, I’m back from Calgary, and this year’s World Fantasy Convention was outstanding! Five days in Heaven — wonderful people, fascinating panels, great readings, a wagonload of books to bring home, and free-range buffalo sausage for breakfast. And gravy on the fries, because it was Canada, eh?

Highlights (not a complete list, by any means):

1. Flying over the Canadian Rockies. Awesome, dramatic peaks glistening in the sun, the perfect threshold to cross on the way to a fantasy convention! And then they just end right before you get to Calgary. One minute, you might be over the Himalayas, where all the world is vertical; the next, you might be over the U.S. Midwest, with flat fields stretching to the horizon — though the mountain wall is still visible behind you; you didn’t dream it.

2. The blessed Chinook winds that warmed Calgary for the week of the con. Calgarians told me they often have snow at this time of year. But the whole time I was there, the skies were a dazzling blue and the air was almost balmy. I was perfectly comfortable in my tweed or corduroy jackets, even at night. “Chinook,” according to the dictionary, is a native American term meaning “Snow-Eater,” because these winds (a phenomenon created by the fantasy-map wall of the Rockies) can melt a foot of snow in a matter of hours, and dry out the ground where the snow lay!

3. My enormous hotel room, which I kid you not was bigger than my whole apartment in Japan. Unlike last year’s con, at which I got 2 to 3 hours of sleep a night — and unlike the con two years ago, when I had the 24-hour flu — at this con, I sank into a peaceful and uninterrupted sleep every night, up on the 29th floor of the International Hotel.

4. Meeting Christina R. and Julia K. on the shuttle from the airport — a talented writer and a talented artist, respectively — the friend-making began before I even reached the convention!

5. Dinner at the James Joyce Irish Pub. Excellent fare!

6. The meet-and-greet on the first evening, with a concert by The Plaid-Tongued Devils. I reconnected with some old friends and met some new ones, including Michelle M. and “Skippy,” two more kindred spirits with whom I spent a lot of delightful time!

7. Attending a reading by Tad Williams.

8. Hearing a workshop given by David Morrell, author of First Blood — creator of Rambo — excellent and inspiring speaker.

9. Hanging out with Ella B., a fine writer who knows about enchantment and the ways of sea monsters; having lunch with her in the park, laughing, and discussing the writing life.

10. Reconnecting with Darrell S., “Dealer in Bargain-Rate Antiquities.”

11. Getting together with a group of Tolkien fans to discuss the finer points of characters from The Lord of the Rings, to swap stories about how we discovered Tolkien’s world and our early impressions of it; reciting the poem in Elvish that begins “A Elbereth Gilthoniel….”; hearing selections from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets The Lord of the Rings musical “Once More, with Hobbits.”

12. Getting to meet my agent face-to-face for the first time and doing lunch. (Okay, okay, I was dying to write that. I feel so much better now!)

13. Having Gordon Van Gelder flag me down in the hallway to introduce me to Shawna McCarthy, editor of Realms of Fantasy.

14. Attending Will Hubbell’s reading from his latest book (as Morgan Howell), A Woman Worth Ten Coppers. Read it, everybody!

15. Doing my OWN reading from my story “Seawall”! With an audience and everything! (Thanks, guys!)

16. Being taken out to dinner by the agency that represents me and getting to meet some of my fellow representees.

17. Having an unexpected supper on the last night with my friend Evonne T., Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and two other nice people whose names I really didn’t catch because the restaurant was so noisy and we were all so tired — but they were nice!

18. Hearing all the panel discussions I could cram in. It’s always fascinating to hear what working writers and editors say at such things. (George R. R. Martin said he disagrees with some of Tolkien’s choices — says he thinks Gandalf should have stayed dead!)

19. Having Ellen Datlow tell me two or three times that “The Bone Man” was a good story! (Allow me to add a few more exclamation marks: !!!!!)

20. Okay, here’s a good final story: I was leaving Calgary on Monday, the convention all over. I had a little time to kill, so I was looking through the airport bookstore, and I came across Guy Gavriel Kay’s book Ysabel. Now, even at last year’s World Fantasy they were raving about what a good book this is, and I’d been curious about it ever since. At this year’s con, the book won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. So I debated with myself — I have a ton of books waiting to be read. I was lugging home a ton of books from the convention. (You get a whole tote bag of them free, just for attending!) I had no business buying another book. But wouldn’t it be cool, I thought, to be able to say I’d bought my copy of Ysabel when I was in Calgary for the WFC? So, after putting it down three or four times, I finally picked it up again and bought it. So then I went to my gate, A-11, and waited for my flight. We boarded. Then we UN-boarded. The pilot told us to get off the plane, because the on-board computer needed fixing. So, as I was waiting at the gate to see what would happen, who should come walking down the terminal but — Guy Gavriel Kay?! He sat down outside A-12 to wait for his flight to Toronto. I hurried over with my copy of Ysabel and my pen, and he very graciously signed my book. It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t bought the book on a whim, or if my flight had left like it was supposed to.

Strange and serendipitous things do happen. The paths we walk in life cross at the oddest — at the rightest — times. I think that’s probably why I’m drawn to the fantasy genre: why I read it, and why I write it. Life is an experience of wonder.

In my next posting, I’m going to open up my notebook to you: I’m going to tell you about the things I heard at the WFC that seemed significant to me. So come back soon!