A forbidden love. A daring escape. A gathering storm.
Forty years have passed since the Empire was restored.
Emperor Kiva the Golden, his wife Jala Parishid, and his brother Marshal
Quintillian have together overseen decades of peace and prosperity, a time when
the horrors of the civil war could begin to fade from memory.
But nothing can last forever. A forbidden love drives
Quintillian from the capital far into the eastern deserts, where he discovers
an unprecedented threat to the Empire’s very survival. And when Jala is
kidnapped by a sinister and ruthless group of warriors, it will take all of
Kiva’s strength to defend her, his people, and their destiny…
Insurgency is the fourth novel in S.J.A. Turney’s Tales
of the Empire series, set in a world inspired by Roman history. A sweeping tale
of deception, cunning, and military valour, this will appeal to readers of
Matthew Harffy, Simon Scarrow, and K.M. Ashman. (Amazon)
The blurring of history and fantasy by S.J.A. Turney
If you look along the shelves of a bookshop, or even browse
the categories of an online store looking for your next read, you will find a
number of handy, well-defined categories. Some readers will be drawn to crime,
or to romance, or horror. Some will find themselves searching for the history
section, or the fantasy section. Most genres have a certain amount of blur, for
instance Ellis Peters and Ruth Downie are both Historical Crime writers. One
might call Thomas Harris’
Hannibal
books Crime/Horror. There are many combinations in this manner, of course, but
one of those least recognised and yet most common is h
istorical
fantasy.
The thing is that half of what we understand to be history
is in reality pure legend, myth, and hearsay – basically fantasy. So where do
we draw the line between the mythical and the practical? I recently read the
first book of Glyn Iliffe’s Adventures of Odysseus. Anyone who knows anything
of Ancient Greece or the Trojan war might already wonder where the lines of
true history can be drawn, for the tales of Homer are largely accepted to have
at least a basis in truth and yet are filled with Gods whisking people from
battlefields, serpents sent to slay men, mystic visions, invulnerable heroes,
magic armour, and so on. Do these things have a place in history? The answer
can only be: perhaps. That depends entirely on the reader’s perspective. I find
Iliffe’s work to be no less valid on the Trojan War than the collaboration in
which I took part (A Song of War), which is released in October. In our
retelling all magic, visions, gods and the like are explained away as far as
possible with pragmatic detail. That does not mean we were right and Iliffe
wrong. It means we chose to look at the history a different way, removing an
inherent fantastic element.
In numerous historical novels, gods and mysticism play a
part, and even monsters sometimes, largely because humans who lived in the
times we write about believed in such their selves. These things were accepted
as a part of life and therefore can equally be accepted in retellings of
those lives. Ben Kane, Manda Scott, Gordon Doherty – myself too – have all bent
the practical into the unexplained at times to add authenticity and atmosphere
to our tales.
And then there’s the flip side of the coin. Some authors
have set out writing fantasy that is so realistic that it feels more like
history than many historical novels. A recent very popular example is George R
R Martin’s Game of Thrones, which, while it contains both monsters and magic,
is no more a stretch to the imagination than many Ancient Greek, Viking or
Medieval tales. But to move even closer, there is a whole genre centred around
fantasy based solidly on historical facts. Guy Gavriel Kay has written many
standalone novels that are clearly works of fantasy with odd common threads
running through them, which take their flavour and often the bones of the plot
and even some detail from a real historical event. The Lions of Al Rassan was a
fantasy retelling of the Spanish Reconquista. The Sarantine Mosaic was based
around the life and reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and so on. There
are other such writers, of course, but I cite Kay as the master of the art.
I myself have tried to blur the lines in my Tales of the
Empire. They are heavily flavoured with Late Rome, many of the locations
re-envisioned from real places and some of the characters even faint
re-imaginings of true historical personages. Such ‘historical fantasy’ or
‘alternate history’ (something more based on the ‘what if…’ principle, such as
Guy Saville’s novels) have value for writer and reader that exists outside both
the fantasy and historical genres on their own.
For example, I took part in a retelling of Boudicca’s revolt
against Rome in 60AD (A Year of Ravens) and while we were able to take a fresh
angle and create something I loved, no reader with a basic knowledge of the era
is going to wonder how the tale will end. Similar problems hit most historical
periods. If I write a book about Caesar (yes I have) no reader is going to
wonder if Caesar will pull through at the end. If I write about the second
world war, no one is going to wonder whether D-Day will flop and the Germans
will cross the channel. See what I mean? History has rules we have to stick to,
and that means that many historical novels based on real events or people hold
little true surprise for the reader.
Fantasy, on the other hand, can often be too far removed
from reality to sync with the reader’s subconscious comfort levels. It is hard
to become too concerned with the fate of Zorvax the Ogre Mage’s fate when he
fights the nine armed toilet brush of doom. An strained example perhaps, but
you get the point. Yet when the hero is a man dressed in a realistic historical
manner standing with a sword, up to his knees in snow and bellowing slogans of
resistance against an oppressive king… well, it’s so damned realistic it could happen.
So it becomes a comfortable read.
Historical fantasy hits the sweet spot for both genres. It
creates something unpredictable, exciting and unexpected, yet in such a
familiar way that it feels like a part of our heritage. In my opinion, this
small but important sub-genre has grown a great deal in recent years and is
rising to become of great value in the literary marketplace. Bravo Mr Martin
for popularising this concept, though I shall continue to trumpet my own
contribution too. I write Roman historical novels and Ottoman ones, but my
Tales of the Empire are historical fantasy, flavoured with late Rome and yet pure
imagination. The latest in the series – Insurgency – was released on the 15th of
August and incorporates a fictionalised invasion of very Hun/Mongol-type horse
clans of a late-Roman/early Medieval empire.
So hooray for historical fantasy and the blurring of genres.
Pick up a book you’d never have expected to read. Who knows where it might take
you…
Insurgency is published by Canelo price £3.99 as an
ebook.
