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Brian Ruckley - Books, Reviews and Interview |
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Click to go directly to Brians web site
Brian's debut novel, Winterbirth - part one of the Godless World trilogy - is an epic fantasy set in a land where ancient enemies are about to renew their generations-old conflict in the name of honour, justice, and revenge.
Synopsis:
It is a world of ice. It is a world of blood. It is a godless world.
An uneasy truce exists between the Thanes of the True Bloods.
Now, as another winter approaches, the armies of the Black Road march south, from their exile beyond the Vale of Stones. For some, war will bring a swift and violent death. Others will not hear the clash of swords or see the corpses strewn over the fields. They instead will see an opportunity to advance their own ambitions. But all, soon, will fall under the shadow that is descending.
For, while the storm of battle rages, one man is following a path that will awaken a terrible power in him – and his legacy will be written in blood.
Interview
Brian Kindly agreed to answer some questions on his work, and himself as an author:
1) As with all new authors there can be the belief by readers that you just appeared with an idea and got published can you give us some idea as to the long or short winding road that led you to Winter birth?
Definitely a long process, but enjoyable too. I’d written one or two short stories in the 90s, but not made any serious attempt at a novel, even though some of the ideas that ended up in Winterbirth had been kicking around in my head for a while. Like most aspiring authors, once I finally decided it was time to give the writing thing a proper go, I had to produce the first version of the book over quite an extended period while holding down a full time job: lots of late nights and weekends spent in front of the PC.
I tinkered with the manuscript for quite a while, but eventually realised I didn’t know any more whether what I was changing was improving things or not – that’s a pretty clear sign that it’s time to either put the thing aside or send it out into the world. I actually got an agent pretty easily, but there was another long delay while publishers considered it, and then I did some rewrites. All in all, I think more than four years passed between me having a first draft and the book actually turning up in bookshops. The time lags in this business are longer than I realised!
2) Which authors have inspired you?
Too many to list, really. Tolkien and Donaldson hooked me on fantasy when I was young, and it’s what you read and love back then that stays with you, in many ways. Guy Gavriel Kay and Robert Holdstock reinvigorated my interest in the genre later in life, after I’d drifted away from it a bit. Some other influences are maybe not quite as obvious: John Julius Norwich got me into narrative history, with his huge history of Byzantium, and that genre as a whole I think made me incline towards the realistic, gritty end of the fantasy spectrum when I started writing Winterbirth.
3) What are you reading at the moment?
I tend to switch back and forth between reading history and sf/f, with bits of mainstream and crime fiction thrown in for good measure. I also tend to have more than one book on the go at once, which isn’t really a good idea but I can’t help myself. At the moment I’m about halfway through River of Gods by Ian MacDonald – great near-future SF set in India – and nearly finished After the Ice by Steve Mithen, which calls itself a ‘Global Human History 20,000 – 5,000 BC’, and pretty much lives up to that billing.
4) Did you always want to write fantasy?
Well I always wanted to write something, and fantasy’s been pretty near the top of the list ever since I read Tolkien etc when I was young. The very first (dreadful, of course) book I wrote, when I was about 11, was science fiction. I think the second, a few years later, was fantasy (and only a little better). After that, I didn’t do much writing for a long time, and what I did do was limited to short stories, the majority of which were sf or fantasy. When I finally decided the time had come to stop daydreaming about being a writer and give it a shot, fantasy was just what seemed to come naturally.
5) To me there seems a blend of Scottish, Anglo Saxon and Viking influence in the books is that deliberate?( am i wrong) and where in particular did you draw your inspiration from?
All those influences are in there to a greater or lesser extent, yes. The overall human culture in the book (the bits that the reader gets to see, anyway) is essentially northern European. It’s a mixture of all sorts of things, and therefore ends up being not exactly like any of them: early medieval, high medieval, Vikings, post-Roman Scotland, etc. There’s even a tiny bit of Venice in there, though it’s well off-stage, in the shape of the island of Tal Dyre. The Kyrinin (again, those that we get to see) have a bit more of a Native American or even prehistorical influence.
The other form of real world inspiration that shapes the book is in terms of the environment: landscape, wildlife, weather. Almost all that stuff is derived ultimately from Scotland. The mountains in Winterbirth are higher, the rivers are bigger and the climate’s a bit more extreme, but it’s really just an exaggerated version of Scotland, with some of the original wildlife, like bears, added back in.
6) Most of us read to relax what do you do?
Reading, definitely, though one downside to working from home is that you lose the reading time commuting to and from an office provides. Aside from that: TV, films, PC games, surfing the web. I’m a big fan of the natural world, so walking (nothing too drastically strenuous) and wildlife-watching are often on the agenda when weather permits.
7) Have you settled into the life of fame or is it still strange being interviewed?
Whatever it is, I don’t think I’d call it ‘fame’! It is all a bit strange, though: stating the obvious, you become in a small way public property when you’ve got a book out. People you’ve never met, and never will, talk about you, or even to you, via print or the internet. I’m still anonymous – nobody’s going to be asking for my autograph on the street or in the pub! – but at the same time, not quite as totally anonymous as I was a few months ago. I find doing interviews quite enjoyable, perhaps because it’s still a newish experience. Definitely slightly surreal, though: it remains a bit difficult to convince myself that anyone is interested in anything I have to say.
8) The names of people and the places are very complicated, did you have to come up with a naming convention / language or are they inspired by a particular race or combination of races from history?
To be honest, I think they might be a bit too complicated. With hindsight, I really shouldn’t have let any apostrophes sneak in, for example. Still, we live and learn. I’ve not gone to the Tolkienesque length of inventing any languages or anything like that. Basically any names or words to do with the Kyrinin are pure invention, whereas a lot of the stuff relating to humans is at least influenced by real world cultures. Quite a few of the human characters have names that have a Celtic or Scandinavian/Viking influence, and that was a conscious decision to try and make them sound as if they formed part of a coherent society.
9) Was the subject of religious intolerance and racism a deliberate look at modern society or just coincidental?
Well it’s not totally coincidental, but there honestly weren’t intended to be any strong, specific parallels between the book and real life. What got me started on thinking about Winterbirth, years and years ago, was the observation that so many conflicts in our own world stemmed from very old, even ancient, disagreements that had never been resolved. I just thought I’d write about a fantasy world where the past was shaping the present in comparable, unfortunate, ways. So in that general sense, there is something deliberate going on, yes. But in terms of specifics, racism and religion introduced themselves into the story, and its setting, almost without me consciously thinking it through. I suppose they provide such fertile ground for conflict, in imagined worlds just as much as the real one, that they just sort of ‘volunteer’ themselves as story elements.
10) How did you feel when you saw your work compared to David Gemmell's
I’m afraid I still haven’t read any of his work, so it’s not really a comparison I can judge or endorse. I was aware of him, of course, and of the huge respect and affection his readers had for him. Then, very soon after I first heard someone compare my stuff to his, he died at what is nowadays a tragically young age, which was a grim surprise.
If I’m lucky enough to achieve a fraction of what he did, I’ll be happy, but he went out at the top of the Premier League, and I’m just an enthusiastic newcomer. None of which is to say I don’t appreciate the sentiment of such comparisons, of course! If people see a hint in my stuff of the kind of appeal his writing had for so many people, I could only be pleased at that.
11) A lot of writers tend to stick to the norm when creating other races eg elves goblins etc, so as not to confuse the reader, what were your influences for your 5 races?
I’ve not got anything in particular against the ‘traditional’ races, I just didn’t feel particularly inspired to play around with them. Undeniably, though, the Kyrinin are rather ‘elf-like’, with faint undertones of real world cultures.
The three other non-human races in the trilogy are all influenced by European myth or folklore: the extinct Whreinin are a distant cousin of werewolves (which I’ve always liked, and never thought there were quite enough of in epic fantasy), the Saolin are similarly rather distant cousins of kelpies or any of the other aquatic shapechangers you find in European folklore, and the Anain are ultimately derived from the ‘green men’ and other forest spirits you also find all over the world (with perhaps just a hint of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, for any comics fans out there).
12) Will the godless world end as a trilogy or is it the first trilogy based on this world with others to follow (ala Robin Hobb and George R Martin and Raymond feist?)
The story begun in Winterbirth is definitely self-contained, with a beginning, a middle and an end. I’d be surprised if there’s ever a direct sequel to it. I’ve got ideas for one or two other, unrelated, stories set in the same world, but they’re in a very rudimentary state and I’m really not sure whether they’ll ever see the light of day, or what form they’d take if they do.
I’ve also got a whole other world that’s beginning to take shape in the back of my head, and a story I could tell in that new setting. So all in all, who knows?
Review
I have to say I picked this book up originally with a lot of skepticism, Brian was a new author and there had already been comparisons to the late great David Gemmell.
The advertising material that came with the book stated: "combines the epic scope of David Gemmell with the political human drama of George RR Martin";
This novel had a lot to live up to. Not only that but it was promoted with additional material stating that it would be enjoyed by fans of Robert Jordan, Bernard Cornwell and Steven Pressfield.
I started to think this was going to be typical publisher hype and after a few hours reading would leave me cheated?
And after getting a few chapters into the book, I was thinking "this is not in the league of the authors named with the advertising blurb, it’s another lame duck..."
But then the book came to life, it dragged me into the world, made me want to understand the differing societies, and who these people were! I personally saw a lot of parallels with the modern world of ancient intolerance and hatred that still pervades society today....and I was hooked, I want to see where the story goes, I want to see who the heroes are and how this will al play out.
I'd have to say this is more George r Martin or James Barclay than Gemmell. But it is good and was one of my favorite books of 2006.
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