Marjorie M. Liu

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Guest Blog: Margaret Ronald and THE SPIRAL HUNT…

You all know that I don’t often give out quotes, usually because I rarely have time to read. Several months ago, though—during a truly busy time—a novel came my way that I planned to set aside for some weekend break. Instead, the day I received it, I happened to glance at the first page—and got totally hooked. I devoured that book from cover to cover, and it was fantastic, one of a kind.

The book is called THE SPIRAL HUNT, and the author is Margaret Ronald. It’s difficult for me to describe the novel—except to say that it may be one of the best new urban fantasy series out there, right now.

Here’s the official description:

Some people have the Sight. Genevieve Scelan has the Scent. They call her “Hound,” and with her unique supernatural sense Evie can track nearly anything—lost keys, vanished family heirlooms . . . even missing people. And though she knows to stay out of the magical undercurrent that runs beneath Boston’s historic streets, a midnight phone call from a long-vanished lover will destroy the careful boundaries she has drawn. Now, to pay a years-old debt, Evie must venture into the shadowy world that lies between myth and reality, where she will find betrayal, conspiracies, and revelations that will shatter all she believes about herself and the city she claims as home.

When the Hunt is on, the Hound must run . . .

Margaret has been kind enough to be my guest at the blog, and she’s also giving away a signed copy of her book. Just post in the comments to be entered (check out her cool question at the end of the post). We’ll hold the drawing on Thursday.

When I first came to Boston, I got lost all the time. Some of this springs from my total lack of directional sense, but more of it was the change in environment: I grew up in a small town, where most of the streets were laid out on a grid following the compass points. Boston’s not like that. The standard joke is that the city’s streets are based on the cowpaths that were crossed the place in colonial times, and thus they don’t have any more sense than a wandering bovine. There’s not much truth behind the story, but it persists because, after half an hour driving through a warren of one-way streets trying to find parking, it feels right.

The thing is, there are a few places in Boston where the streets run along a grid, where I could usually find my way without getting too lost. Both the Back Bay and South Boston are laid out with streets that are either numbered or alphabetically named (Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon...). Streets that made sense, to my city-stunned mind. The reason they’re like that is that both parts of the city are built on fill: neither one was actual land when the colonists came over. (The Back Bay was apparently one big tidal muckpool with its own interesting aroma on hot days.) Both neighborhoods were planned out and filled in, their streets laid down by fiat rather than consensus.

I remember learning this for the first time and, because my imagination was latching on to weird stuff at the time, wondering what else could have been put down there, under the streets . . .

Maybe that was the trigger for the setting of Spiral Hunt. Or maybe it was the result of getting lost so many times. I found myself trying to piece together some fantastical underpinnings for Boston. I’ve always had a weak spot for stories about magic under the surface of a city, whether that’s literally underneath, as in the London of Neverwhere or Un Lun Dun, or metaphorically, as in the Las Vegas of Last Call or the Moscow of Night Watch or the Seattle of our host’s The Iron Hunt. Somehow the idea of great events taking place beneath one’s feet—or just around the corner, gone when we next look—really catches my imagination. Spiral Hunt plays a little with that; I named the magical side of Boston the “undercurrent” for a reason.

There’s a hint of that in the term “urban fantasy.” Even though the definition of it shifts depending on who’s talking (our world? another world? hidden magic? integral magic?), the presence of the city itself seems to be taken for granted. I’m still not sure why that is, or if I’m just missing out on the suburban or rural fantasies. (Most small-town fantasy that I’ve read tends to be closer to the horror side of things, often along the lines of the small-town-implodes pattern from Stephen King.) And then there are the imagined cities from outside the urban fantasy genre: Lankhmar, New Crobuzon, and that inestimable pearl (or other variety of mollusk secretion) of cities, Ankh-Morpork.

What makes cities so much fun to write or read about? What are some of your favorite cities in fantasy? What cities haven’t yet been touched—and which would you like to see with a fantastic underside?

posted by Marjorie Liu permalink ShareThis

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Welcome Margaret! Your book sounds very intriguing and I look forward to reading it! I am definitely interested in the “whys” of the current popularity of urban fantasy books. Maybe part of the genre’s attraction is because cities are made of concrete, steel and glass and we who live in cities can become walled off from nature. And the fantasy of uncontrollable forces hidden beneath the concrete veneers could represent the power of the “natural” world (i.e. one not made by or controlled by humanity) rising up. And then there could be a second layer of unconscious, repressed urges and feelings rising up as well. Add to that a kick-ass heroine who is not afraid to do what it takes to accomplish her mission (the rising up of the feminine over the patriarchy), and we got ourselves a story! Much luck with your book!

Posted by on 02/03 at 10:53 PM

Its interesting opening a book and reading an author’s take on a city that I know about from hearing about it. I like to know what authors’ takes of a romanc story or urban fantasy story will be like on Hartford, Connecticut. I have yet to open a book with those themes that has the main character’s world involved with the state capital or the state itself. I can’t wait for that. I think it’s going to be very interesting reading books with the locations I mentioned in it.

Posted by on 02/04 at 08:10 AM

I love novels with a setting in a “underground” world. I just read Neverwhere. Thanks for telling about the other books! The location that keep coming to my mind is the deep south.

Posted by Annie on 02/04 at 09:39 AM

Your books sounds like it will be a great read.

I would personally like to see Dublin or Western European cities (i.e. Krakow, Budapest) as they have such a history of lore in those countries.

Posted by on 02/04 at 12:33 PM

I like Patricia Briggs Tri-Cities in Eastern Washington. They’re total population is less then 200,000 which is actually pretty small. But she’s still an urban fantasy. I like that combo of rural and urban.

I look forward to reading your book.

Posted by Erin on 02/04 at 03:27 PM

Love that grammar. “Their” and maybe “than”

And I just read the preview of your book on Amazon. I have a strong feeling I’ll be buying your book if I don’t win it here. Please only count me once for the drawing or whatever…

Posted by Erin on 02/04 at 04:00 PM

The books soounds great. A grab you and suck you in. I only read what you have up but it is already stuck in my head, I would love to have a copy, Please add me in.

Posted by on 02/04 at 04:05 PM

Sorry for the delay in responding—I was unexpectedly away from the computer for most of the day.

Jann, I think you’ve really got something there. The dual nature of the underground/aboveground - conscious/subconscious reflected in cities is a pretty powerful concept. I have the sense that I’ve read something that really played with this idea, but the title and all identifying details have flown out of my head. Maybe I’ll remember come morning.

Stonehawk, hmm. I don’t know much about Hartford, but you’ve piqued my curiosity. What in particular catches your attention about the city?

Annie, have you seen the BBC series for Neverwhere? For me there were some bits that didn’t work so well and some that just lodged into my head. (Now I’ll have to go reread or rewatch it...)

Ruth, that’s one of the things that makes me wish I could read more languages. I’m sure there are stories about Krakow or Budapest, but they just haven’t been translated yet. And all of this is now

Erin, thank you for the recommendation! I’m far behind on my reading, but Patricia Briggs is now going onto the list.

Tiarra, thank you! I’m glad it’s caught your attention.

And thanks to all of you for commenting, and again to Marjorie for hosting!

Posted by Margaret on 02/04 at 10:02 PM

Hi, Margret

Will definitely be on the look out for your book- sounds very intriguing. Since I am a native of Boston, I always enjoy books set in the area as I can picture actual areas as I’m reading.
Is this going to be a series?

Posted by on 02/05 at 01:32 PM

My fascination with what lies beneath/behind/around cities began with the tv series Beauty and the Beast starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Pearlman. Seeing an entire subculture exist and thrive underneath the very feet of a city so well known sparked my imagination. Reading about such a place that I happen to know inside and out....well that would challenge and intrigue my world view while broadening my very way of being. With that in mind I’d love to see Jackson Ms, Lake Charles, La., Houston, Tx. or some city in between become the focus of an urban fantasy series.

The Spiral Hunt has been in my cart on Fictionwise since Monday. Reading the description beguiled me:)

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