CSFF blog tour, Day 3: Merlin's Shadow

The sun had long ago sunk below the granite-boned horizon, and Merlin crept up the mound hoping to catch the stranger asleep. Halfway to the top he drew his sword--- gashing his arm on a blackthorn bush. He bit his tongue and continued to climb through the shadowed grass, once again thankful he could now see, and see clearly.

Unfortunately, the miracle that had restored his sight had not made him the perfect scout. Whoever this man was who had camped so close to them, Merlin and Garth had to find out. Hopefully Garth would quietly scale the other side of the hill and not disturb the man's horse they had heard. If the stranger was alerted to their presence, and if he was one of Vortigern's men, Merlin might need to capture--- or kill him.

And now, we get to the meat of the blog tour--- the book itself. The quote above is the beginning of the first chapter of the book. Here are some of my immediate reactions to it:

1. Before the beginning... Before chapter 1 we have a summary of the first book--- this is book 2 of a trilogy. And also a prologue. According to some of the wise voices out there, prologues are soon to go the way of great-grannie's corsets. In my opinion, all that will mean is that the content of prologues will be shifted to a slightly later place in the book.

2. First sentence. 'Granite-boned horizon'. Memorable. And then we have Merlin creeping around trying to catch some stranger asleep. From that first section we've got interesting stuff starting to happen. The first sentence may not have quite reached the level of Gregor Samsa turning into a bug, but then, what does?

3. First paragraph. We learn that Merlin, until recently, could not see. Next paragraph we see that this is due to a miracle. That catches my interest right there. Miracles aren't much used in fiction precisely because they are hard to handle well. But we quickly see that a mere miracle hasn't solved all of Merlin's problems.

4. First Glimpse of Bad Guy. Vortigern. Just the name tells you he's trouble. I mean, when you read that name 'Vortigern', did you assume maybe he was Merlin's hair stylist or something? No, the name has this bad-guy vibe to it. Kind of like Lord Voldemort, only I'd guess anyone named Vortigern has worse table manners.

My reaction: I think this beginning can do the job story-beginnings have to do--- make the reader curious, and interested enough to want to read on. If YOU feel that way, you can actually read on. Right now, if you have a Kindle or some such. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Merlins-Shadow-Merlin-Spiral-Treskillard/dp/0310735084/

If, like me, your pockets are currently full of empty, you can download a free sample of Merlin's Shadow and at least get a taste of what the book is about.

You can also visit some of the other links on the blog tour, and see some other viewpoints on Merlin's Shadow.

Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Beckie Burnham Jeff Chapman Pauline Creeden April Erwin Victor Gentile Ryan Heart Timothy Hicks Jason Joyner Carol Keen Jennette Mbewe Amber McCallister Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Joan Nienhuis Nissa Jalynn Patterson Writer Rani Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Jacque Stengl Jojo Sutis Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler Deborah Wilson

What do you think of Arthurian fiction?
My first taste of the Arthur thing came in a set of storybooks my mother bought for me when I was just a baby, called My Book House. The twelve volumes kept me entertained with fairy tales, myths and legends, not to mention a glimpse or two of good literature. And in it I read my first stories about King Arthur and his associates. (Gosh, I made them sound like mob guys just there. I wonder, who was the enforcer?)

My next big Arthurian kick was when I read Marion Zimmer Bradley's pagan feminist reimagining of the tale, Mists of Avalon. I loved it at the time, but although I continue to re-read Bradley's Darkover books from time to time, I haven't wanted to touch Mists of Avalon in years.

A Christian-fiction version of the Arthurian legend is certainly as worthy a concept as Bradley's pagan version, though alas it probably won't sell quite as well. Is Merlin's Shadow just what the fiction world needs right now, or is it a story that's been done too many times. I don't know myself. I just know that every time I feel like I want to put the whole Arthurian thing aside as something that's been done to death and beyond, I find something that reminds me how deep-rooted that story is in my culture and in my own experience. Like the Merlin Spiral trilogy.
 
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