From the Backlist - The Magic & Wonder of Trees

Fantasy Trees from Artstation

 
It's that time again as we explore the plethora of insights, tips and entertainment that is the Supernatural Underground Backlist. This one features a post from Helen Lowe, written back in November 2017! Join us as we dive into a veritable sub-genre of arboreal fantasy, but remember, enter only if you dare...

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The Magic & Wonder of Trees in Fantasy

by Helen Lowe

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"Enter these enchanted woods, you who dare..." 
- George Meredith, 1828-1909

Today I'm taking a look at the part trees play in Fantasy literature and whether authors in the genre have taken the Victorian poet's advice to heart. :)

Overall, it appears we have.

Ents, of course, are probably the most famous “trees”, or in their case, treelike beings, in Fantasy literature. They feature in the second and third books of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and played a major part in The Two Towers film, with the attack on, and destruction of Isengard:

“Pippin looked behind. The number of Ents had grown — or what was happening? Where the dim bare slopes that they had crossed should lie, he thought he saw groves of trees. But they were moving! Could it be that the trees of Fangorn were awake, and the forest was rising, marching over the hills to war? He rubbed his eyes wondering if sleep and shadow had deceived him; but the great grey shapes moved steadily onward.”

Sentient trees also feature in CS Lewis’s Narnia series and I’ve always loved the scene in Prince Caspian where Aslan reawakens the trees that have slept as a result of the Telmarine invasion:

“What Lucy and Susan saw was a dark something coming to them from almost every direction across the hills. It looked first like a black mist creeping on the ground, then like the stormy waves of a black sea rising higher and higher as it came on, and then, at last, like what it was — woods on the move. All the trees of the world appeared to be rushing towards Aslan.”

Sometimes, however, it is not a forest but a single tree that features — like the world tree in Mary Victoria’s Chronicles of the Tree series, which is first encountered in Tymon’s Flight:

“To starboard of the vessel…stretched a vast and furrowed mountain of bark, so wide that it’s curvature was almost invisible and so high that both its summit and its base were lost to view. The immensity of the wall was broken by a profusion of spoke-like limbs, the largest many miles in length. Several hundred feet above the dirigible the trunk culminated in the gently rising plateau of branches and twigs that made up the Central Canopy’s crown.”

Read the full article HERE...

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Helen Lowe is a novelist, poet, interviewer and blogger whose first novel, Thornspell (Knopf), was published to critical praise in 2008. Her second, The Heir of Night (The Wall Of Night Series, Book One) won the Gemmell Morningstar Award 2012. The sequel, The Gathering Of The Lost, was shortlisted for the Gemmell Legend Award in 2013. 

 Daughter Of Blood, (The Wall Of Night, Book Three) is her most recent book and she is currently working on the fourth and final novel in The Wall Of Night series. Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog and is also on Twitter: @helenl0we

Choose Your Weapon - Invisibility

 

"Timely, relevant, and genuinely terrifying, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man recontextualizes a classic Universal monster into a modern examination of abuse, toxicity, and gaslighting." - Jeffrey Zhang

What is Invisibility?

Today we are looking at another weapon used in the Fantasy genre: invisibility. Simply stated, it is the state in which you are not seen.

Types of Invisibility

There are myriad ways of being invisible in Speculative Fiction.

Consider Magical rings, cloaks, potions and spells. Or magic conferred by a mythical creature, sorcerer, witch, or perhaps an ancient curse. 

And then there is Psychological, as in mind control, glamours ... your basic smoke and mirrors.

Also, we think of technology, which is seen mostly in SF via things like stealth tech, futuristic camouflage, DNA manipulation and advanced refraction of light.

Now, let's look at how these types of invisibility play out in our history of storytelling.

Early Fiction

Invisibility as a Weapon appears in very early fiction. Think of Hades (the god, not the destination) and his magic-imbibed helm of invisibility. Homer (circa late 8th or early 7th century BC) tells us he wore it when emerging from the underworld. In the light of day, Hades sees us but we don't see him.

Things are complicated with this helm when Perseus borrows it from Athena and uses it to assassinate the sleeping Medusa...

Later, in 1897, HG Wells gave us The Invisible Man, a SF novella about a scientist who turns himself invisible through technology. He uses his chemical inventions to lower the refractive index of a substance to that of air. This makes the substances, ie. his body, invisible to light. Although he intends to use his invention for self-indulgence, he ends up overwhelmed by isolation and falls into a mental spiral of madness and terror.

More Recent Fiction

Along the lines of The Invisible Man, Translucent, an original character from the Amazon series The Boys (not known in the comics series but replacing the alien Jack From Jupiter). Translucent can become invisible and repel bullets with his carbon metamaterial skin. It's pure technology, not magic. Like many, he is known to misuse his superpowers on unsuspecting innocents. He also gets depressed.

Forget-me-nots

Some writers give characters the ability to become so obscure they are forgotten or never noticed. Terry

Pratchett does this in Discworld, a comedic fantasy book where Granny Weatherwax and Tiffany Aching remain visible, but are extremely difficult to notice. The Grey Men in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time have this skill as well.

This technique appears in the Arcane Ascension, a series by Andrew Rowe. We also see magical objects with similar abilities.   

Oh, and for a more contemporary/mystery/thriller/fantasy, The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North is riveting: "... the tale of a girl no one remembers, yet her story will stay with you forever."

Magical Items

Night Angel by Brent Weeks has a character who is given a magic device that makes him the perfect assassin. Is it a call back to JRR Tolkien's LOTR? Of course, I must mention this cursed/magic ring forged in the Cracks of Doom.

The Crimson Shadow trilogy by RA Salvatore is also an example. Here, the MC has a cloak that grants him invisibility, but when he uses it, it leaves behind a crimson shadow burnt into the ground.

Deals with Devils

In David Eddings' Elenium series, two of the knights, Tynian and Ulath, make a deal with the Troll Gods whereby they can exist in the smallest fraction of every moment, meaning no one can see or hear them yet they can perceive everyone else. The narrator acknowledges this as faulty logic, the explanation being it works because the Troll Gods are so neurologically divergent they think it will work.  So it does.

More recently penned, though set in the 1800s, we meet a young woman who makes a Faustian bargain to live forever but is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. I'm talking about The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab. Poor Addie can interact with others, but after a while, they forget she ever existed. The psychological repercussions are, at times, devastating. 

Mind Control

In the Books of Raksura by Martha Wells, one of the Queens has the ability to turn off people's awareness of her presence, and she becomes invisible in social and/or action sequences. Of course, we all remember this technique from Star Wars when Obi-Wan uses the Force to 'erase' himself when convenient.

Fun, Fear and Folly

The ability of invisibility can help our beloved characters get through a tough spot, but in most cases, they suffer consequences as a result. From Frodo's stolen ring to Rosette in the Quantum Enchantment series who uses a glamour to hide herself from danger, the actions come with a price. They hear something they shouldn't. They see an unforgettable horror. Or they are exposed unexpectedly, at the worst possible moment.

Invisibility is undeniably a powerful weapon, but would it be your first choice?

Let us know in the comments!

xx Kim

Choose Your Weapon Series 2024

Poison

The Perfect Storm

The Sword

Firearms

Ranged

Spells

Unarmed

Curses

Time Travel

Invisibility

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About Kim Falconer

Kim Falconer, writing also as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2025.

Kim can be found on AKWilder Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and KimFalconer.com. 

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site See you there!

'the delicious threesome' by Cindy Pon -- More 'From the Backlist' Goodness!

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Our own Supernatural Underground backlist that is -- and today's fabulous reprise is from the wonderful Cindy Pon. 

Needless to say, we think it's a lot of fun. So much so that we just had to highlight it for you again today.

the delicious threesome...or is three a crowd?

by Cindy Pon

as a tween, one of my favorite series
of books was the single title historicals
(like "jacqueline" or "caroline") and it
always showed the teen heroine on the front
cover flanked by two boys. two boys that she
must choose between. i loved those books,
formulaic as the love triangle may have been.
the new period in history always made it fresh
enough for me to read almost every title in the
series. of late, there's been some discussion
on the love triangle within the young adult genre.

The Twilight effect...

is it overused? tired and worn out? o

the threesome configuration one of the best

ones to read for increased sexual and romantic

tension? like so many things in the young adult genre

that i attribute to "the twilight effect", the series really

put the love triangle at the forefront of YA reader minds. ...

*when two men love a woman.

...

so what about you? how do you feel about
love triangles? do they work for you?
what threesome novels are some of your favorites?

To read Cindy's original post in full, including all about two other trio-a-licious teen Fantasy series that she loved, plus the 27 fun and sometimes impassioned comments on the subject of love triangles in books, click here.

And to find out more about Cindy Pon, her books, and what she's working on now, go here. 

Villainy Among Friends: Three Authors Talk Writing Villains

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In dubbing 2024 the Year of the Villain, we've traversed quite a few examples of villainy in fantasy together, from Tolkien's pantheon of big bads, through Le Guin's more interior focus, to others such as formless evil, wrongdoers that manipulate from the shadows, and most recently, heroes that fall.

I don't believe any discussion of villains and villainy would be complete, however, without hearing from authors about the antagonists in their own work. So today I'm delighted to have fellow Supernatural Underground authors, Kim Falconer and Amanda Arista, here to talk exactly that.

Kim Falconer: Anti-Heroes, & Shadow, Betrayer, & Super Villains

Amassia series

I’m so excited to contribute to this group post on villainy. After all, what kind of story would there be without the evil doers?

But have you noticed over the decades that evil is changing? Becoming more three dimensional?

Once upon a time, villains did bad things for bad reasons and that was it. But this is no longer always the case.

Take, for example, the red-robe Tann in my Amassia series. As twisted as he gets, he isn’t 100% bad. He has reasons! He also has all the ingredients that make a good hero. He’s on a journey with strong motivations. Much is at stake, and he risks everything to succeed.

Sounds heroic, right?

That’s because Tann is a Shadow Villain. When we learn his history, later in the series, we see that he represents the ‘dark side’ of our heroes. And while he’s at it, he elucidates the history and nature of the crown of bones. In the end, it is the shadow villain who leads us through the darkness to the light, though unintentionally...

But Tann isn’t the only bad guy in the Amassia series. There is also a Betrayer Villain – the fallen one, as it were. Helen has written about this in detail in her post Once Were Heroes. In my series, this role is taken by High Savant Brogal. Notice how, while he is busy betraying, he shows the reader ‘another side’ of the story. It makes us question…

Then there is the Anti-Hero, like Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in Perfume. The anti-hero is a serious villain, but their story is told from their POV. They do ‘bad’ things (terrible things) but for ‘good’ reasons, according to them. Like in the Amassia series…oops I better not say that! It’s a massive spoiler! You’ll just have to find out in the pages.

Finally, there is the Super Villain. Like the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars, or the Machine Mind in the Matrix, the super villain appears faceless yet all powerful. It is an impersonal force of nature. There is a super villain in the Amassia series. Can you guess what form it takes?

 

I’d love to know, who is a favourite villain on your bookshelf right now? In film?

Mine would have to be Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb, the Penguin. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15435876/

Happy reading, and viewing!

~*~

Amanda Arista: Faces To Punch in the "Urban Panther" Universe

Though there are lots of faces that Violet gets to punch in The Diaries of an Urban Panther series, the Haverty duo are the two really pulling all the strings: one as an old-fashioned bad guy coming after Violet with a vengeance and one as a dark mirror to her own story. 

Reade Haverty was always a villain, from the moment he took over the Dallas Pride, tearing apart a family of werelions to do so. Proud and power hungry, he stepped on everyone in his path to control all the shifters in Dallas. Including his son Spencer Haverty, playboy and panther whose bite activated Violet's own destiny. 

Haverty’s villainy was external and visceral and Violet was a pawn he wanted out of play. When Daddy Haverty met his end thanks to a well-placed knife to the heart, Spencer's villainy twisted into another antagonist force Violet had to stop, but this one was more difficult to defeat. 

Pulling on their connection as her maker, Spencer became the dark reflection of Violet. When she got power, he got power. When she took control, he took control. He invaded her dreams, twisted her friendships, and even killed her mentor. Thanks to his daddy issues, he never made the heroic choices that Violet did, even when she gave him the chance. 

Defeating both types of villains grew Violet into the hero she needed to be to lead the Dallas Pride. 

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Helen Lowe: "The Wall Of Night" Pantheon

Like Kim's Amassia series, The Wall of Night is fantasy in the epic mode -- think Lord of the Rings meets the political machinations of House of the Dragon. It's also alternate (aka 'secondary') world fantasy, whereas Amanda's Urban Panther 'verse is set in a very recognizable Dallas, Texas. :-) 

As the series develops, opening with The Heir of Night (Heir) and progressing through The Gathering of the Lost (Gathering) to Daughter of Blood (Daughter), with the story finale currently in completion, the reader's understanding of its pantheon of villains evolves in the same way as the cast of heroes. 

The latter are chiefly drawn from a people known as the Derai, who have been fighting an age-old war for the fate of the universe and all life. Yep, the stakes are high -- and in Heir, the evil the main characters face is a correspondingly monolithic, but also formless force (i.e. Kim's "super villain"), which manifests through various demonic entities. The main characters, Malian and Kalan, know there are people, called the Darksworn, among the demon ranks, but they're mostly an off-stage, if not completely off-page, presence.  

In Gathering, the reader meets Darksworn in their own right for the first time, as opposed to solely through the heroes' eyes. The sorcerers Nirn and Arcolin, and their adept and warrior henchmen, are working to destabilize the world of Haarth, utilizing the magic and strength of beast-men known as werehunters. So the demonic elements remain, but the villains, and the evil they practice, wear a more human face. Their motivation also becomes more central to the plot.

Daughter reinforces these elements while introducing more, and more powerful, Darksworn villains, including a prince, giant in stature, with serpent hair.  Again, the demonic aspect overlays the villainy, but with the narrative returning to the Derai, who believe themselves champions of good, their actions receive closer scrutiny. Many prove comparable with those of their Darksworn enemies -- broadening the scope of what constitutes evil in the Wall of Night story, and expanding the ranks of its villains. 

I can definitely promise you further broadening, and more indepth scrutiny, in the book to come...

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About the Authors

About Kim Falconer:

Kim Falconer, currently writing as A K Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2025.

Kim can be found on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Or pop over to throw the bones or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site

~*~

About Amanda Arista:

Amanda was born in Illinois, raised in Corpus Christi, and lives in Dallas, but her heart lies in London. Good thing she loves to travel!

Amanda is the author of the Diaries of an Urban Panther series and The Merci Lanard Files. A graduate of the SMU Creative Writing Program, she now teaches other aspiring authors and loves discussing craft, character, and structure.

You can usually find Amanda curled up on her couch with a tiny human or a dog, writing away, or otherwise on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pantherista/ Find out what she's currently doing on Instagram: @pantherista

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About Helen Lowe:

Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet, and lover of story. With four books published to date, she is currently completing the final instalment in The Wall Of Night series.

Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.

~*~

Previous “Year of the Villain” Posts:

January:      Ushering in 2024 -- & the Year of the Villain

February:    The Year of the Villain #1: The Lord of The Rings Pantheon

March: The Year of the Villain #2: Ursula Le Guin & “Earthsea”

April: The Year of the Villain #3: Tigana and Brandin of Ygrath

May: The Year of the Villain #4: Elidor and Formless Evil 

June: The Year of the Villain #5: When the Hero Is Really A Villain

July:  The Year of the Villain #6: When the Author Messes With Your Mind

August:  The Year of the Villain #7: The Evilest Of Them All

September: The Year of the Villain #8: Secret Villains

October: The Year of the Villain #9: Once Were Heroes