Archive for the ‘Julie Czerneda’ Category
This post is part of The Gossamer Blog Tour! and it wouldn’t be a blog tour without a giveaway, now would it? In the almost ten years that I have been blogging, I have NEVER seen a give away like this before! Click for details! (Are you outside the US? Gotcha covered!)
Earlier today I posted a guest post from Julie Czerneda, where she takes us inside her worldbuilding process, and talks about maps and distances and that sometimes the map is the territory.
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The Gossamer Mage by Julie Czerneda
Available August 6 2019
Where I got it: Received ARC (thanks DAW!)
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Where I got it: received for review (thanks DAW!)
Go ahead, judge a book by its cover. Especially this book. The golden ink on that cover, you would swear that it moves when you look away. What happens to the words that are written with such ink, with the intentions that come with those words? What indeed.
Julie Czerneda’s newest fantasy novel, The Gossamer Mage, takes us to the beautiful land of Tananen. In the port city, in the rolling hills, in the villages, in the mage school up in the mountains, magic flows through Tananen. Mages and Priestesses commit their lives to the Deathless Goddess, and through Her, through writing Her intentions, amazing magic happens. While the townspeople and villagers love the magical medicines, technologies, machines, and trinkets, those intimately involved with Her magic know the terrible cost of what they do. Travelers and traders have learned the hard way that magic only exists within the boundaries of Tananen, and that the Deathless Goddess is not welcoming to strangers. She protects Her secrets.
The Gossamer Mage is a quietly compelling, character driven, smartly written fantasy. If you crave characters that leap off the page, if you prefer knowledge over swords, if you liked Fullmetal Alchemist (really! There’s a connection!), this is the book for you.
The first thing that hit me while reading The Gossamer Mage was how much I loved the way Czerneda did the world building. I feel like if I took a drive, Tananen could be over the next hilltop and I’d know exactly where I was. Czerneda’s writing is incredibly immersive, but it never feels like she is burying the reader in exposition or infodumps. As characters travel around Tananen, she takes the opportunity to show their experiences and observations as they explore their new locations, everything feels immersive and natural.
Magic in Tananen isn’t cheap. Getting a magical trinket, or a made-horse from a mage won’t cost you very much. . . but it costs the mage dearly. Magic is done by writing the Goddess’s Intentions, and each successfully written intention costs the mage at least a year off their lifespan. The more bells sewn into a mage’s hair, the more intentions they have written, the less years they have left to live. A 30 year old mage easily appears to be 85 years of age, or older. It is an honor for your child to show the talent that will take them to the mage school. Mothers weep at the news, knowing they will outlive their child.
Happy Friday! My friends, I regret to tell you that I do not have a Five for Friday post today. Allow me to make it up with not one but TWO blog posts AND a give away!
I am so excited for Julie Czerneda’s forthcoming fantasy novel The Gossamer Mage to come into the world. This booooooook!!!!!!!!!! the characters! the magic! the everything!!! More on all that later today, stop by the blog after 2pm Eastern Time to read the review. In the mean, I have an amazing guest post from Julie Czerneda, where she talks about how, when it comes to storytelling, the map is the territory.
You like maps? me too! you’re gonna love this post!
This is an image heavy post, so please be patient if the images take a moment to load. While you’re waiting, head over to the giveaway page (outside the US? Click here for the International giveaway!)and get yourself entered for, are you ready for this? A set of the Julie Czerneda Library: more than a dozen of her books, all signed. I’ve been blogging nearly ten years and I have never seen a giveaway that comes close to this!
About Julie Czerneda:
What is magic? As imagined by Julie E. Czerneda, it’s wild and free, a force of nature and source of wonder. She first explored this theme in her Night’s Edge series, starting with the award-winning Turn of Light. In The Gossamer Mage, Julie goes further, envisioning magic not only as integral to landscape and history, but well aware what we’re doing with it. That tie between us and other, the profound changes we make by connecting, have always informed her work, be it fantasy or science fiction.
Mage is Julie’s twentieth novel published by DAW Books, and she couldn’t be more proud to belong to this esteemed publishing family. For more about Julie and her work, please visit czerneda.com.
photography credit: Roger Czerneda Photography
(Andrea’s note: Since she neglected to mention it, I will: Both Turn of Light and A Play of Shadow won the Aurora Award, and that’s only half of the Aurora Awards she has won! Also, I LOVE those glasses frames!)
About The Gossamer Mage (Available Aug 6th 2019 from DAW books)
From an Aurora Award-winning author comes a new fantasy epic in which one mage must stand against a Deathless Goddess who controls all magic.
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Only in Tananen do people worship a single deity: the Deathless Goddess. Only in this small, forbidden realm are there those haunted by words of no language known to woman or man. The words are Her Gift, and they summon magic.
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Mage scribes learn to write Her words as intentions: spells to make beasts or plants, designed to any purpose. If an intention is flawed, what the mage creates is a gossamer: a magical creature as wild and free as it is costly for the mage.
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For Her Gift comes at a steep price. Each successful intention ages a mage until they dare no more. But her magic demands to be used; the Deathless Goddess will take her fee, and mages will die.
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To end this terrible toll, the greatest mage in Tananen vows to find and destroy Her. He has yet to learn She is all that protects Tananen from what waits outside. And all that keeps magic alive.
Is that not the most gorgeous cover art you’ve ever seen?
Y’all ready for some discussion about maps, worldbuilding, storytelling, and discovery? ME TOO. Everything from here on is all Julie!
The Fantasy Maps of Tananen
by Julie E. Czerneda
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I’m going to start with a confession. I don’t look at the maps in fantasy novels, being too interested in the words and the inner pictures they give me. After I’ve read the story, if I’ve loved it, I’ll take a peek because then the maps are an extra bit of happy. Oh, and midway through I’ll take a peek if I can’t get my inner picture of the geography, but in all honesty? In books like that, I’ve found the maps rarely help.
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I do, however, make maps for myself.
Hello! Have I got a treat for you today! I have the honor of showing you the gorgeous cover art for Julie Czerneda’s forthcoming fantasy novel The Gossamer Mage! (Oh, you’ve read her Esen books? And her Species Imperative trilogy? And the Clan Chronicles? Best surprise ever: She writes fantasy too!)
Today is a trifecta of awesome: A guest post from Julie about The Gossamer Mage‘s journey, and an excerpt from the novel, and of course, the cover reveal! and seriously, this is some freakin’ gorgeous cover art! (Click here for pre-order info)
about the book:
Only in Tananen do people worship a single deity: the Deathless Goddess. Only in this small, forbidden realm are there those haunted by words of no language known to woman or man. The words are Her Gift, and they summon magic.
Mage scribes learn to write Her words as intentions: spells to make beasts or plants, designed to any purpose. If an intention is flawed, what the mage creates is a gossamer: a magical creature as wild and free as it is costly for the mage.
For Her Gift comes at a steep price. Each successful intention ages a mage until they dare no more. But her magic demands to be used; the Deathless Goddess will take her fee, and mages will die.
To end this terrible toll, the greatest mage in Tananen vows to find and destroy Her. He has yet to learn She is all that protects Tananen from what waits outside. And all that keeps magic alive.
photo credit: Roger Czerneda Photography
About the author:
For over twenty years, Canadian author/ former biologist Julie E. Czerneda has shared her curiosity about living things through her science fiction, published by DAW Books, NY. Julie’s written fantasy too, the first installments of her Night’s Edge series (DAW) A Turn of Light and A Play of Shadow, winning consecutive Aurora Awards (Canada’s Hugo) for Best English Novel. Completing her Clan Chronicles series with To Guard Against the Dark, Julie’s latest SF novel is Search Image, Book #1 of The Web Shifter’s Library, featuring her beloved character Esen the Dear Little Blob. Julie’s edited/co-edited numerous anthologies, including SFWA’s 2017 Nebula Award Showcase, but nothing prepared her for the sheer joy of opening her Clan Chronicles to fans of the series to produce Tales from Plexis, out this December. In 2019, Julie will be GOH at ConStellation, Lincoln, Nebraska. Meanwhile, Julie is hard at work on fantasy standalone The Gossamer Mage, out August 2019. Visit www.czerneda.com for more.
Magic? Forgotten languages? The high cost for doing magic correctly, and the higher costs for doing it wrong? Shut up and take my money! Good thing I’ve got an excerpt to share with you! (excerpt is images, may take a moment to load)
Hello friends! Yesterday the “Esen the Web Shifter” party began with Who and What Esen Is, the Big Idea behind her, how much fun Julie Czerneda had with writing the Web Shifter trilogy (and oh yeah, a big huge give away for the entire trilogy!), and more!
Today, I can finally talk about the gorgeous new cover art for Julie Czerneda’s newest Esen e-novella The Only Thing to Fear, and her forthcoming hardback Web Shifter novel that begins a new series, Search Image! I’m too excited to talk straight, so I’m just going to let Julie Czerneda take over and talk about the most Esen cover art ever, Phil the bust, nervous diplomats, and most exciting of all, a brand new Esen novel that starts a brand new series! oh, there’s another give away too!!
Esen’s Here!
By Julie Czerneda
Cover Art by Matthew Stawicki, novella release date: Sept 4th
Esen has been featured on every cover, but until now, not as herself. Behold Esen-alit-Quar the Web-being in all her blue blobness, courtesy the talents of Matthew Stawicki!
My information for Matt was, to be honest, sparse. A blue teardrop. Not anthropomorphic. No cheerful chubby belly. No arms, face, toes, nose . . . he did it! Esen’s perfect. I love this cover. I love how she’s there, taking it all in — in this form, her senses aren’t ours. They are potent. You’ll see.
What’s inside The Only Thing to Fear? A special e-novella from DAW Books that resumes Esen’s adventures shortly after the end of Hidden in Sight. (You really should read that one, if you want to get the whole OOMPH, plus meet Busfish—and Changing Vision, because there are Ganthor in an art gallery. I can’t help myself, I love them all and want you to as well.)
In this e-novella, you meet a new character, Evan Gooseberry, diplomat-in-training. Evan’s working through his fear of almost everything, determined to make the universe a better place, but why do aliens have to have SPIDERLEGS? Poor Evan faces a crisis in his first posting and only Esen-alit-Quar can help save the day. During street theatre and glittersweat.
But wait . . . there’s more!
I’m delighted to share with you the spectacular cover for Esen’s new novel, new series, and first hardcover! Toss the Glitter!
photo credit Roger Czerneda Photography
My friends, it is my honor to be hosting Julie Czerneda today (and tomorrow!). Julie’s science fiction starts with biology, asks a wild biology “what if” question, and fills the answer with science, more science, humor, aliens, and fantastic characters. Way back when, she wrote a science fiction trilogy featuring the shape shifter Esen. Esen discovers humans, and well, erm, to tell you anymore would spoil the best parts! This trilogy was recently lovingly reprinted in trade paperback, and there’s a new novella coming out this autumn, and OH YEAH a whole new Esen novel, also out this autumn!
Today and tomorrow feature Give aways! Cover reveals! Behind the scenes! Inside jokes! but before we get to all that goodness:
Julie on Amazon
Julie’s fan page on Facebook
About the author:
For over twenty years, Canadian author/ former biologist Julie E. Czerneda has shared her curiosity about living things through her science fiction, published by DAW Books, NY. Julie’s written fantasy too, the first installments of her Night’s Edge series (DAW) A Turn of Light and A Play of Shadow, winning consecutive Aurora Awards (Canada’s Hugo) for Best English Novel. Julie’s edited/co-edited numerous award-winning anthologies of SF/F, most recently SFWA’s 2017 Nebula Award Showcase. Out this fall is an all-original anthology written by fans of her Clan Chronicles series: Tales from Plexis. Her finale to that series, To Guard Against the Dark, was released in 2017. This fall will also see the return of her most beloved character, Esen the webshifter, in Search Image.
Esen’s Back!
by Julie Czerneda
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Fans of her Blobness! New-to-her Readers!
It gives me the biggest of grins to mark the return and perhaps introduce to you my favourite character of all, Esen-alit-Quar. Esen for short, Es in a hurry or between friends.
In honour of the occasion, we’re throwing a two day cover release party! Thanks, Andrea! Thanks DAW Books!
Today, I’ll tell you a bit about Esen and why she’s so beloved. And fun. And remarkable.
Tomorrow, you’ll see, for the very first time, not one, but TWO NEW COVERS! Really, it’s almost too much fun. Nah. There’s never too much fun.
Here’s a sneak peek.
But wait, there’s more! GIVEAWAYS! Details below, but my thanks to DAW Books for not only keeping Esen’s stories in print, but in doing these gorgeous Trade Editions, released just last year! In stores all over.
Cover art by Luis Royo
So Who Is Esen? Or What?
Short answer? A blob of blue, shaped like a teardrop. Who happens to be a semi-immortal shapeshifter. Who has really good intentions…but is working on her life skills.
Writing Esen’s attempts to protect life in the universe–or at least keep it civil–makes me happy and always has. As it turned out, Esen made you happy too, dear readers. I’ve received more feedback and love from you for the Dear Little Blob than for all my other work combined.
This review is part of the #GuardAgainstTheDark blog tour! To learn more (and enter a give away!), click here.
Cover art by Matt Stawicki http://www.mattstawicki.com
To Guard Against the Dark (Reunification #3) by Julie Czerneda
publishes Oct 10th 2017
where I got it: received ARC from the publisher (Thanks DAW books!)
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Thesaurus.com has been no help whatsover. What’s that word for when a long series that you are emotionally invested in has come to a close, and while you’re sad it has ended, you’re happy because you can just pull the books off the shelf and visit the characters anytime you want? I feel certain German, or perhaps Norwegian has a word for this.
To Guard Against the Dark has been 20 years in the making. It was 1997 when Julie Czerneda published A Thousand Words for Stranger, the book that started it all. The year I graduated high school was the year her novel A Thousand Words for Stranger came out, the year the world met a species that was in danger of breeding itself out of existence. Their lives a secret, their homeworld unknown, the Clan hid in plain sight, amassing fortunes and enemies. Three trilogies and twenty years later, here we are.
Does that mean You need to read all eight books that came before this one to enjoy To Guard Against the Dark? Certainly not. This is, however, book three in this particular trilogy, so you will want to read the two preceding books. You’ll be in good company, as I came to this series myself by starting at This Gulf of Time and Stars, which is the 1st book in this trilogy. If right here, right now, is the first you have ever heard of this series, you are going to feel a little lost reading this review. It won’t help you newbies very much that there are a ton of intertwining plotlines in this climactic last novel and I am trying my hardest to avoid major spoilers. But minor spoilers? Sorry, unavoidable. Continue at your own risk.
Cover art by Matthew Stawicki www.mattstawicki.com
Why, hello fellow bloggers and book reviewers! Please raise your hand if you’ve ever participated in a blog tour. Keep your hand up if you’ve received an e-mail from me about a blog tour I’m putting together (last week, maybe?), or a scifi-month project, or some other “I came up with this great idea at 4am!” project I have in mind that I’m asking/begging you to be a part of. A couple of hands still in the air? Some of you have even planned your own projects, inherited them, or played around with blogging community projects until you found the one that works best for you.
If you raised your hand, thought about raising your hand, or want to raise your hand sometime in the future, this amazing #allthefeels guest post from Julie Czerneda is for you.
#ImNotCryingYouAre
Also? This is just the beginning! Follow #GuardAgainstTheDark on twitter for all the blog tour goodness, while I sit back and relax. 😉
photo credit: Roger Czerneda www.photography.czerneda.com
Thanks For That!
This post is going up during my third official Tour d’Internet, aka that thing authors now do before a book comes out called a “Blog Tour.”
It’s work. A post, be it a short essay like this or an interview, takes time to write (and edit, and let sit for a day or more to be sure it’s good enough, and possibly be shared with a trusted few first to be SURE it’s good enough…etc.). It’s work—and time—for the blogger hosting it as well. There’s formatting, scheduling, emails to anxious authors (is it good enough?), not to mention what comes afterwards. Oh yes. It’s not just about the post. As Michelle Sagara informed me, with some urgency, shortly after my first few blog posts went up, “It’s all about the comments, you know. You need to be there and answer them.”
I did?
I did. And do. However, the presence of comments? Is because the bloggers take more of their time to invite people to come and see the post. They moderate. (I envision the horrors kept from the public commentary section.) Since this is a tour, they even share the blog posts of OTHER BLOGGERS.
Thanks for that, by the way.
It’s the part that makes me feel most at home. That sharing. That joy to be part of a wider event. It reminds me of conventions and fandom. It reminds me of the great community that exists in science fiction, fantasy, and I’m sure horror, though those people are Very Scary. (Not really, some of my dearest friends write horror and don’t at all expect me to read it. Thanks for that too.)
I hadn’t thought, during what becomes a wild and hilarious stint of odd, rarely sequential tasks to promote my new book—most often, by pure chance, at the worst time to be doing anything but writing the NEXT one, especially digressing on the internet—to find blog tours such a joy-filled, inspiring process. Yet it is, because of you. Those who read these things. Who comment. Yes, hopefully you’ll win something, but you’re reading this because you’re willing to give me some of your precious time and attention.
The Gate to Futures Past (Reunification #2) by Julie Czerneda
published in Sept 2016
where I got it: rec’d review copy from the publisher (Thanks DAW!)
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The Gate to Futures Past is a tricky book to review, because not only is this the middle book of the Reunification trilogy, it is the penultimate book in Czerneda’s long running Clan Chronicles series. I actually read this book last summer when it came out, but I didn’t have time to review it. What better time for a review, than when the next book is about to come out? I also have the benefit of having already read the final book in the series, so I am cheating more than a little bit. With the final book in this series releasing in just a few months, readers new to this series will have an opportunity no one else has ever had – you’ll be able to read all three Reunification books, This Gulf of Time and Stars, The Gate to Futures Past, and To Guard Against the Dark, one right after the other. That’s to your advantage, as these last three books do read as one long novel. Click here to read my spoilery review of This Gulf of Time and Stars. And by the way, both This Gulf of Time and Stars and The Gate to Futures Past are now available in mass market paperback.
Did you cringe when you read that phrase “long running series”? I know some of you did! Yes, the Clan Chronicles is a space opera epic that spans three trilogies. If you’ve read any of Robin Hobb’s interconnected trilogies, you know you can jump in at any Book 1, and do just fine. I’m sure there are readers and fans who will disagree with me, but I believe the same is true for Czerneda’s Clan Chronicles series – so long as you jump in at any Book 1, you’ll be ok, with the added bonus that if you enjoy what you read, you can then start again at any other book 1! It’s neat, because if you and your friend each start at a different point, you’ll have a different timeline and a different perspective of the entire story.
I preamble with all of that so you’ll be understanding that this review will involve references to events that occurred outside this novel, that there will be unavoidable minor spoilers. It’s all to the greater good though – if you enjoy space opera with healthy dose of romance, family drama, cosmic mystery, humor, and aliens that work, anything Julie Czerneda writes is for you!
“Aliens that work”, that’s a weird phrase. You ever read a book with aliens and think to yourself these are just humans with blue skin, or elephants that talk and think just like a human? A biologist by trade, Czerneda’s aliens act differently than humans because they have biological evolutionary histories completely different from anything that evolved on Earth. They have different physiologies, different brain patterns, different reasons for doing what they do and how they do it. If you want to write aliens that aren’t humans in disguise, quit watching Star Trek and start reading Czerneda. (Actually, keep watching Star Trek. I keep hoping Huido will show up in an episode of DS9 or Voyager)
So, we’ve got a big party going on today! I’m part of the blog tour for the release of Julie Czerneda’s The Gate to Futures Past (book #2 in the Reunification series! Part of the huge finale for the Clan Chronicles!), I’ve got some epic guest posts below, and there’s an even more epic US / Canada give away from DAW books!
About the The Gate To Futures Past:
Betrayed and attacked, the Clan fled the Trade Pact for Cersi, believing that world their long-lost home. With them went a lone alien, the Human named Jason Morgan, Chosen of their leader, Sira di Sarc. Tragically, their arrival upset the Balance between Cersi’s three sentient species. And so the Clan, with their newfound kin, must flee again.
Their starship, powered by the M’hir, follows a course set long ago, for Clan abilities came from an experiment their ancestors—the Hoveny—conducted on themselves. But it’s a perilous journey. The Clan must endure more than cramped conditions and inner turmoil.
Their dead are Calling.
Sira must keep her people from answering, for if they do, they die. Morgan searches the ship for answers, afraid the Hoveny’s tech is beyond his grasp. Their only hope? To reach their destination.
If you’re just joining us, check out my review of The Gulf of Time and Stars (eek! spoilers!), and Julie’s chat with cover artist Matt Stawicki about the beautiful cover art.
I’ve talked plenty about how much I enjoy Julie’s work. So to celebrate this newest Clan Chronicles book, I got a bunch of friends together, and asked them to talk about how much they enjoy Julie’s work. Why do a blog tour post when you can have a big Julie Czerneda Appreciation Party instead, right? RIGHT. So let’s party!
The next book in Julie Czerneda’s Reunification trilogy, The Gate to Future’s Past, is coming out in September, and I’m super excited to reveal the cover art and talk more about the series all day today. What’s the gist of the Clan Chronicles, and the newest trilogy in this career spanning series? I’m glad you asked!
The Clan Chronicles is set in a far future with interstellar travel where the Trade Pact encourages peaceful commerce among a multitude of alien and Human worlds. The alien Clan, humanoid in appearance, have been living in secrecy and wealth on Human worlds, relying on their innate ability to move through the M’hir and bypass normal space. The Clan bred to increase that power, only to learn its terrible price: females who can’t help but kill prospective mates. Sira di Sarc is the first female of her kind facing that reality. With the help of a Human starship captain, Jason Morgan, himself a talented telepath, Sira must find a morally acceptable solution before it’s too late. But with the Clan exposed, her time is running out. The Stratification trilogy follows Sira’s ancestor, Aryl Sarc, and shows how their power first came to be as well as how the Clan came to live in the Trade Pact. The Trade Pact trilogy is the story of Sira and Morgan, and the trouble facing the Clan. Reunification will conclude the series and answer, at last, #WhoAreTheClan.
And what will be the fate of all.
With stunning cover art by Matt Stawicki, the artwork brings together an epic story told over the course of nearly twenty years.
Julie chatted with Matt Stawicki about incorporating earlier artwork, capturing Sira’s emotions, and more. Let’s see what they said!
Ta da! Here it is. The wonderful work of Matthew Stawicki, revealed at last. I’ve been waiting to share this cover with you for the better part of a year, for it was complete well before the book.
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Pardon? you say. How can that be?
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Remember the bricks? This image was one of them, firmly in my mind since I started writing This Gulf of Time and Stars.
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Book #2, Sira, meeting her destiny. Triumphant!
Or is she?
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That’s the magic of an image like this. Knowledge morphs impact, grants new meaning and alters perspective. What you think you see now, before reading The Gate to Futures Past, will change once you have.
the Little Red Reviewer 
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