Today I saw that someone else has also written a book which mixes fantasy and history with the founding of the United States. I'm guessing it would fit in the flintlock fantasy category. The author is John B. Hood John Hood and the book is called Mountain Folk. I believe it may be part of a series. He seems to have taken a radically different approach than I have, and I'll have to read it, but not until I've finished my own Tomahawks and Dragon Fire series. If you follow this blog, you know that I've complete the first four books in the series and have written some of book five. The plan is for book five to go through 1776, and book six will get through the Saratoga campaign -- of course, plans can always change.

Fun Fact:

I also discovered an interesting historical figure, Timothy Murphy. Mr. Murphy was an expert marksman with his flintlock rifle. He could hit a seven inch target at 250 yards. He is credited with the shooting of General Simon Fraser and Sir Francis Clerke at the Second Battle of Saratoga in October 1777.  Murphy was part of Daniel Morgan's Riflemen at the time. Benedict Arnold pointed out General Fraser to Morgan with some words about his importance to the British. Morgan called on Murphy to take out the troublesome British general. Murphy climbed a tree and made a 300 yard shot (after 2 misses) that unhorsed Fraser and which proved fatal to the general. Murphy's fourth shot killed Burgoyne's aide-de-camp, Sir Francis Clerke.

That's the "official" story. However, according to some sources it may contain more myth than truth. The Journal of the American Revolution article indicates that Murphy was there and may have been one of several riflemen assigned to target Fraser, but sources at the time do not name the rifleman. Well, someone shot Fraser, and as Max Scott the reporter said in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." So I may have to include Sureshot Tim Murphy in my series. Perhaps he can interact with my own character and expert marksman Lee. Maybe Lee will share a quote from the Iliad with Murphy.

On a related subject, who was General Simon Fraser? Like most of those British officers, he had a career before he came to America. He came to the New World during the French and Indian Wars. He was a captain with General Wolfe at the Battle of Quebec, He replied to a French sentry through the fog in the crossing of the St. Lawrence. The British got ashore and climbed to the plains outside Quebec where Montcalm came out to meet them and do battle upon the Plain of Abraham. It would be the final battle for both generals. If you've read my Tomahawks and Dragon Fire series so far, you may remember that in my story, that particular battle and the death of Wolfe are part of the villain's back story. But I digress. Back to General Fraser - Wikipedia says that this Simon Fraser is not the one pictured in the painting The Death of General Wolfe.

In 1776, back in America after more service in Europe, Fraser was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. He commanded the vanguard in the taking of Fort Ticonderoga. In September during the Saratoga campaign, he led a successful attack against Morgan's rifleman at Freeman's Farm, but his troops took heavy casualties. On October 7, 1777, he was tasked with taking Bemis Heights as the key to the battlefield which would defeat the rebels. He fell to a rifleman's bullet at the age of 48. Fraser was buried that evening in a nearby hill.

My immediate project, the near future dystopian thriller, The Shrinking Zone, is at 47K words and moving forward. 

Best Flintlock Fantasy

What makes a book a flintlock fantasy? How is it different from gunpowder fantasy?

Flintlock fantasy, as I understand it, designates a genre defined by a certain level of technological advancement in the mundane weaponry, as opposed to ancient or medieval weapons as seen in classic, or high fantasy. The flintlock saw roughly two centuries of use, from the early to mid 17th century to the early to mid 19th century. The flintlock replaced the matchlock and wheel lock firearms. A flintlock fantasy novel would typically employ technology, including flintlock muskets, from this two-hundred year time span. Specifics may vary among authors. As for gunpowder fantasy, I believe it could span a greater technological period to coincide with the first wide use of gunpowder weapons, making flintlock fantasy a sub-genre of gunpowder fantasy. Flintlock fantasy may cover alternate history of the relevant time period, or complete fantasy worlds at the flintlock technology level.

The two centuries dominated historically by flintlock weapons were characterized by conquest, colonization, empire, and revolution. How much of that was the result of the technology and industrial revolution, and how much sprang from ideology would make for an interesting debate.

I think the most well-known flintlock fantasy would be Brian McClellan's Powder Mage Trilogy. It takes place in a fantasy world, similar to France and Europe at the time of the French revolution. There are various magic systems in the novels, with two especially at odds with one another. I reviewed the first book in the trilogy, here.

Django Wexler has also written the Shadow Campaigns series. I've read the first book, which takes place in a fantasy world which made me envision Europe and North Africa. I suppose it has a Napoleon-in-Egypt flavor to it. I particularly liked the small unit action descriptions. My review of The Thousand Names is here.

David Drake's Old Nathan was set in early America--Tennessee, maybe--but the flintlock technology was not crucial to the tale. I enjoyed the book and posted my review of it here.

William King's Tetrarch Chronicles don't get mentioned much, but they definitely qualify as flintlock fantasy. King writes well and creates an interesting world where the magic seems to come from conquerors from space. My review of Death's Angels is here.

Will Wright's The Elder Empire series is set in a flintlock fantasy world with sailing ships and Cthulhu Mythos. The early chapters of the first book, Of Sea and Shadow piqued my interest, and there were elements that I quite enjoyed. My review of Of Sea and Shadow is posted here.

Most people may not think of Eric Flint and his 1632 and sequels as flintlock fantasy, but I think they qualify in the alternate history category. A West Virgina mining town (from the 1980s?) is whisked away into Thuringia in 1632. It's a good read. I've posted a review here
.

Michael Bolan's Devil's Bible Series is at least a gunpowder fantasy, if not a flintlock fantasy. I can't remember the exact weapons used in The Sons of Brabant which I read but didn't post enough of a review to bother giving a link.

Christina Ochs also writes gunpowder fantasy -- my interview with her, and pictures of some of her books are posted here.


I don't think I've reviewed Manly Wade Wellman's The Curse of Fearful Rock, and it's probably not technically a flintlock fantasy as those involved are from the American Civil War and used percussion firearms, if I remember correctly. The book is also more of a horror or ghost story than a fantasy.

Adrian Tchaikovsky, Brent Weeks, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, and Naomi Novik have also written flintlock fantasy novel's or series, but I have not read any of them in the genre. I think DJ Butler's Witchy Eye series may fit into the flintlock fantasy genre; I haven't read it yet, but I plan to do so. I'm also currently reading Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides, which is a pirate themed flintlock fantasy. I may post a review next week.

Each of the books I've listed had qualities that I liked. For me, it's important that a flintlock fantasy emphasize the flintlock and other period weapons in small unit actions. Large battles are a bonus that I enjoy, but I haven't seen that aspect of it well done. Wexler's The Thousand Names came close, but stumbled when it came to the important main battle, practically skipping over it entirely. In my own flintlock fantasy series, Bunker Hill has been the only large battle, the rest of the conflicts are mere skirmishes and personal battles--but some of them involve dragons or other interesting creatures. Of course, my Tomahawks and Dragon Fire series is my personal favorite - but I've found something to like in every flintlock fantasy that I've read. I advocate reading the genre in its entirety.

Know of a flintlock fantasy I missed? -- Suggest it in the comments.

A Flintlock Fantasy Book Review

And an Unexpected Gift

Rather than begin with the gift I received from a higher-up on Monday (I'll discuss that gift below), let me open with a review of Brian McClellan's Promise of Blood which I finished reading this week.

I've wanted to read this book ever since I first heard about it. However, I refused to pay ten dollars or more for an ebook in the fiction category. Fortunately for me, I got it for only $1.49 plus the $1.50 credit I had earned for choosing slow shipping on some other orders. Seeing that the price of the book had dropped to $2.99 for a short time--a day, a week, I don't know how long--I snapped it up immediately. Which reminds me: My flintlock fantasy novels and my western novels are available for only $0.99 for a limited time -- see the left side of this page and click on one of the books.

Let me be clear about one thing: I really enjoyed reading Promise of Blood. While the book fell short of my expectations in some respects--which I will discuss--I did enjoy the book and my complaints should be taken in that context.

In a nutshell, the story concerns the aftermath of a coup by a field marshal which topples the king. The marshal is a powder mage. These mages use gunpowder to enhance their natural abilities, and they have the ability to detect, detonate, and direct the blast of gunpowder. They can also direct, or redirect musket balls in flight.There are other magics involved that are crucial to the story and to the conflict between the powder mages and the old order. The main story involves Tamas, the field marshal who led the coup, and his efforts to stamp out the old order and to find the traitors still in positions of power before a neighboring nation with conquest on its mind invades and destroys everything. There's also the story of Adamat, a retired detective, employed by Tamas to learn the meaning of the cryptic message uttered by the dying sorcerers of the old order. The book doesn't wrap  up everything at the end, and the apparent resolutions may only be preludes to greater complications.

The story moves along at a nice pace. In my opinion it never drags or becomes bogged down in trivial detail or description. At least one reviewer has complained that the story depends too much on telling rather than showing as the author often tells the reader what the characters are thinking as opposed to letting the reader infer the character's thoughts by what they say and do. While the author does tell me what some of the main characters are thinking, I found that it helped move the story at a pleasant pace. I would complain that some authors frequently waste time and words in an effort to show (or pad the word count) when the showing isn't all that interesting, and telling would keep the story focused and progressing.

The author builds interesting characters. There are many characters of various figurative hues and professions. Most of them have virtues and flaws. Although I can't say that I really like any of them--in the unconditional way that one might like Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, and others in the fellowship--some of them have redeeming characteristics and/or difficulties that make them sympathetic. Adamat the detective, and Taniel, Tamas' son, fall into this category. I suspect that Adamat may be one of the characters who survives to the end of the series--but I could be wrong.

The world building never becomes a slog. There are no info-dumps that bury the reader in strange names and bizarre histories. Strange names and bizarre histories do roam like fat cattle upon the fertile plain, but the author doesn't attempt to drive them down the reader's throat by the herd. Even after completing the book, I recognize that I don't understand much of the lore and history. I think some of the characters in the story don't understand it all either. I don't mind the background and larger setting being dribbled out over time. It's like savoring the flavor a new spice that had not previously been manifest in the dish.

Overall, Promise of Blood is a great book. Readers of fantasy, and the flintlock fantasy sub genre, should enjoy the book.

My complaints: The story has been billed by some as something like "The French Revolution with Wizards" but I didn't find that to be an accurate representation. I would have liked more flavor of the French Revolution and/or Napoleonic period than the book delivered. The guillotine figured into the story, and there were some public executions. However, the story never conveyed the terror of a changing tide and tenor, or the confusion and upheaval associated with the regime change. I also would have liked to have seen some large armies maneuvering for battle with generals taking the measure of opposing forces and throwing formations of men at one another in search of the weak link in order to render the enemy position untenable--perhaps those are in later volumes in the series. I would have enjoyed some small unit skirmishes described in detail. Most of the fighting described was rather disorganized and more dependent upon the magic users than the small unit tactics. What the author did was great; I came to the story with certain hopes which were left unrealized. Finally, there are actual gods involved (probably) in the story, and that's a heavy gun that would I prefer to see left in the artillery park. Still, if the next book in the series comes up cheap, say $2.99 or so, I would probably get it. As long as it remains at twelve bucks, I won't be getting it. If I could get a cross of the best parts of Django Wexler's Thousand Names and Brian McClellan's Promise of Blood, with a little more French Revolution and Napoleonic flavor, I would probably still complain because a picture is worth a pound of cure; you can lead a horse to water but you can't change his spots; a stitch in time gathers no moss; curses like chickens are in the eye of the beholder; don't blow your trumpet before swine; don't count your chickens in one basket; never look the early bird in the mouth; every cloud has his day; Rome wasn't built on the other side of the fence; too many cooks get the grease; when the going gets tough, skin a cat; where there's smoke there's a way; while the cat's away another door opens; you can catch more flies without breaking eggs; you can't teach an old dog and eat it too; birds of a feather shouldn't throw stones; familiarity breeds spilt milk; the pen is mightier than the better part of valor; an apple a day killed the cat; a journey of a thousand miles is worth two in the bush; and a bad workman blames the bridge when he comes to it.

I have to apologize for that digression above, but once I got started down that road paved with twisted proverbs, my good intentions all went to... well, you know.

***

As for the gift from a higher-up this week, it came on Monday. I was enjoying an afternoon constitutional, before resuming my efforts at creating a power point presentation on Fourth Amendment issues, when something flashed before my eye. I looked around, unsure of what I had seen. I couldn't see anything, near or far. When I sat back down at the desk to resume my project, I noticed a peculiar smell. The aroma bore a certain familiarity, but I could not place it. I checked my garbage can, as well as the soles of my shoes. I couldn't find the source. Every time I leaned forward to examine my presentation material, the unpleasant odor wafted its way to my senses. Eventually, the smell went away, or I got used to it. I thought no more about it. A couple hours later, someone came into to ask me a couple questions and left with answers, but made no remarks about any observances. It wasn't until I went into the restroom that I discovered the gift. The higher-up, a bird sitting upon a wire, had delivered an unwanted present as I had walked beneath its perch. On the chest of my lovely, sky-blue shirt, right next to the pocket, was a big smear of what looked like it could have been Oreo ice-cream--but it wasn't. By that time the material had become dried and crusted. I brushed it away with a dry paper towel. I can't figure out why my visitor never asked about my decoration.

***

I'll have to save my review of Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Red Hawk until next time. As for my own work in progress, Clamourous Harbingers, Book Three of the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire series, and end of that first trilogy, I'll need another couple weeks to complete the story. I'm at the cusp of 100,000 words. I expect to finish before I hit 120,000.

Removed the vent covers around the house today. Last week was the first lawn mowing of the year, as I didn't say any more about the mowing, you may assume it went smoothly--which is mostly true.

The Stewart Kings as Tolkien's Stewards of Gondor? And A Flintlock Fantasy Review

Fun Fact: James I of Scotland, was captured by pirates in 1406 (James was 11 years old). The pirates turned him over to Henry IV (played by Jeremy Irons in The Hollow Crown Series). (He was the first Plantagenet to speak English as his first language). James' father, Robert III, died and the uncrowned king of Scotland remained in captivity for 18 years. He fought with Henry V (played by Tom Hiddleston in The Hollow Crown Series) in France (see last week's post), and married Joan Beaufort just before his release in 1424. His re-entry into Scottish affairs was anything but smooth. He began by attacking his closest rival kinsmen to secure his position. He was eventually assassinated in February 1437. Joan was wounded but escaped to their son, James II, at Edinburgh Castle. James II was six years old. As for the assassination details, James and Joan were at Blackfriars monastery at Perth, and were at least temporarily separated from their servants. When the conspirators (about 30) entered the building, James learned of the conspirators' presence and attempted to escape through the sewer drain, but the drain, which passed beneath the tennis court, had been blocked off to prevent the loss of tennis balls (apparently on James' own orders a few days earlier). Double fault for James--Advantage murderers; I believe this was the first tennis related fatality, and it raised quite a stink.

James II was actually the younger of twin brothers. The older twin, Alexander, had died before his first birthday. James II was crowned in 1437. In 1449 the nineteen year-old married Mary of Guelders, the daughter of the Duke of Gelderland (Check this out for a dance of Gelderland). James II was nicknamed Fiery Face because of a vermilion birthmark upon his face. This is the same James that, as I mentioned I don't know how long ago, stabbed William Douglas 26 times and threw him out of a window. James II was a proponent of artillery and was killed in 1460 while besieging Roxburgh Castle when a cannon near which he was standing exploded. His son, James III was killed in 1488 either during or after the battle of Sauchieburn. James IV, son of James III was --- actually, he deserves his own fun fact post.

The above led me to consider whether the Stewart kings might be good candidates as real-life models for Tolkien's Stewards of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings. Previously I had speculated about the Kings of Numenor as the Plantagenets. Not only did I suggest that there was probably no merit to that idea at the time. I've since been reminded that Tolkien was not a big fan of the French and eschewed French terms in his writing. The true kings to represent Aragorn and his predecessors could not be the Plantagenets. As to the Stewarts for Stewards, probably the only similarity is in the similar spelling of Steward, and the Stewart spelling of Stuart.

If there's no similarity, why do I even bring it up? Well, there might be more good reasons that I haven't taken the time to consider. This all started with a fun fact about another royal person being captured by pirates and I arrived to this point by chance. I should have thought more about it before I posed the question. So I may come back to this another time. In the meantime, the lesson is that history is certainly as interesting as fiction, and fiction with some basis in history may make for the most interesting reading.

Such a statement naturally leads me to an update on the progress of my alternate history flintlock fantasy Clamorous Harbingers, book 3 in the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series. Here's another piece of the cover.

I have passed the 85,500 word mark. It looks like about 100K words at the finish. I had thought about writing the ending and working to it, but did not do that. I'm glad I didn't choose that option because some new ideas have emerged about exactly how the book (and the series) will end. I like the new ideas. The end will be an ever bigger spectacle than I had originally planned--and it will set up the successor series, tentatively called Wings of Rebellion.

Last time I offered some constructive criticism for authors doing readings of their books. Here's me reading the first chapter of Threading the Rude Eye -- and it's obvious to me that I learned almost nothing from my own instructions.

And here's the last third of the chapter, as I didn't realize that I wasn't pausing the video, but actually terminating it. I had to create second video to finish.

***

Finally, last time I did a short review of a book so distasteful to me that I didn't name either the book or the author. I continued my search for more flintlock fantasy, and I am pleased to praise a book today. Old Nathan by David Drake.

The book is a series of sequential short stories about Old Nathan, the cunning man. (I had to wonder if it was a source of inspiration for DJ Butler's and Aaron Michael Ritchey's The Cunning Man). The dialog is written to reflect the Tennessee back woods manner of speech at the time (I guess). It was a little off-putting, but not difficult to follow, and I got used to it fairly quickly. Old Nathan has some interesting abilities which include speaking with animals and creating various spells for given situations. Each story reveals more about Nathan and his history, as well as his neighbors and their problems. Nathan and his bull Spanish King have similar story arcs, which helps prepare the reader for the rather foreseeable conclusion, but the desire to see how it happens presses one to finish the tales.

The book came up in my flintlock fantasy search, but the flintlock rifle doesn't play much of a role. Nevertheless, I wasn't disappointed. I noticed several 1, 2, and 3 star reviews on Amazon. Interestingly enough, one of the 1 star reviews called it "very good" and gave it other compliments. Perhaps that reader doesn't understand the rating system. Most of the complaints were about the dialect, so it may bother some more than others. I rate it four out of five powder horns. It's still available for FREE on Amazon.