It occurs to me that there are very many interviews with fantasy authors to be found on the Internet - this very site conducts many of them, and I've enjoyed every one! However, few people bother to talk to the long-suffering partners behind those who create the books we know and love. It is fun for us to dip into the fantasy worlds created by these authors -- but how must it feel to the people who dwell in them full-time? With this in mind, I decided to create a feature called Living With The Writer, where we talk to those significant others.

First up is Michaela Deas, wife of Stephen Deas who wrote The Adamantine Palace, one of the  great debuts in 2009 (John's and Robert T.'s review of this book can be found here). Let me know how... Read More

The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas

The Adamantine Palace is classic fantasy with all the major ingredients: magic, dragons, knights, castles and all the trimmings. There is, however, one missing element: the hero. Stephen Deas writes a really interesting, very complex first novel, kicking off the Memory of Flames series, but I can't figure out who the hero is.

The point of view in The Adamantine Palace switches among five major characters. At times Deas takes us behind the eyes of a few other characters, but there are five major players, three of whom are really central. Between Prince Jehal (a truly Machiavellian villain), Queen Shezira, and Speaker Hyram, these are as sordid and despicable a crew of power hungry nobility as any in Read More