As well as co-creating Golden Dragon, Blood Sword and Dragon Warriors, Oliver Johnson has written a number of excellent fantasy novels. There's the Lightbringer trilogy and also a very fine opening volume in a new series, The Knight of the Fields. Unfortunately you'll look for that last one in vain. Publishers raved that it was the best fantasy they'd seen all year -- and then decided it was "too 1990s" (I wonder what they think A Game of Thrones is?) and wanted rewrites to give it a more conventionally heroic ending.
Fantasy publishers are idiots, but luckily Oliver has turned his talents to a field where the gatekeepers are more discerning: the conspiracy thriller. Caller Unknown, out next week, entangles its protagonist in a world of cults, terrorists and corrupt politics. Take a look at Michael Jecks' review in Shots magazine to see the kind of rave reception it's getting. If you enjoy the Winter Soldier/Three Days of the Condor kind of paranoia vibe delivered with the immediacy of a murky modern thriller, don't miss it.
Has Mr Johnson considered self-publishing "The Knight of the Fields", Mr Morris?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I would do, Stan, but Oliver is an established, award-winning fantasy author with his Lightbringer trilogy so I think he's still hoping to get a traditional publishing deal.
DeleteHi Dave, I'm intrigued by the 'teaser trailer' you've released in the form of that cover-art for Oliver's "Knight of the Fields". Mont-St-Michel is such an iconic location, and often haunts my own writing dreams. A mountain serene that can become a storm- wracked island by a single turn of the clock's hands. What dramas might there unfold!
ReplyDeleteThe novel has a remarkable setting, John -- a city devastated by a magically summoned tidal wave, now half-flooded and with nine-tenths of the population wiped out. Most of the action centres around the thuggish "government" that has set itself up in the central keep.
DeleteI've never been to Mont-St-Michel but did once get marooned by the tide on St Michael's Mount (as related in Not Quite Lost ) and I was struck by the library with its writing desk looking out to sea. What a marvellous place to be working with a storm lashing the rocks outside!
That sounds like a great premise! I look forward to reading it one day.
DeleteYou should definitely visit M-St-M, it is like the Cornish version (there must be some magical connection there, something to do with the lost lands of Lyonesse I'm sure) only 'even more so'. Its name, before the angel landed, was "Mont Tombe" which is also a moniker to conjure with.
Time for Roz to write the sequel to your travels, perhaps ?
"Not Quite Lost in France"
Aha, you've explained an old scenario of Oliver's with a location called Mount Tombe. He's obviously struck with the place. Roz's mother lives in Jersey, so maybe next time we're over to visit her we'll find time to pop over to M-St-M.
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