Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Court of Broken Knives
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 11-Jan
WEBSITE:
CITY: London
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, England; married; husband a psychologist and lecturer; children: two.
EDUCATION:Received B.A., M.A. and Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Novelist and poet. Also worked as English teacher, in bureaucracy, and as a model.
AWARDS:Morningstar Award nomination and Ravenheart Award nomination, both for The Court of Broken Knives.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals and websites, including Fortean Times.
SIDELIGHTS
Anna Smith Spark is the author of the dark fantasy series “Empires of Dust,” which consists of the volumes The Court of Broken Knives and The Tower of Living and Dying. The series, Spark has said, falls into a fantasy sub-genre known as grimdark, and the author uses her extensive knowledge of ancient cultures and literature to describe a world in which characters are motivated more by their darker impulses than by their purer ideas. Spark grew up in the small English town of Bishop’s Stortford in Herefordshire, and still remembers the folk culture of her native region. “The May Games, held each year in the Monastery Gardens,” she recalled in an interview in the Bishop’s Stanford Independent. “Traditional mummers plays about Robin Hood involving much cross-dressing, shouting, fighting and slapping of thighs. Storytelling, maypole dancing, races, archery, tug-of-war, folk songs, sausages, beer. A wonderful quasi-medieval killing and rebirth of the Green Man ritual to finish up. Like the Wicker Man, only everyone goes home in one piece”.
The Court of Broken Knives pits a would-be assassin against the power of a still mighty empire in decline. “As the once-mighty Sekemleth Empire crumbles,” explained a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “Lord Orhan Emmereth decides a change of governance is necessary and organizes a conspiracy to murder the emperor and all his … advisers.” Lord Orhan is aided in his quest by Marith, who may be a demigod descended from the god of death. “The corruption in the former Yellow Empire is evident in the worship of its goddess,” stated Corrina Lawson in a Barnes & Noble review, “who requires human sacrifice performed by a chosen orphan, who is then trained for a decade to become the embodiment of the goddess. Thalia, the latest High Priestess, has never left the environs of her Temple, nor known any other life, putting aside qualms about performing human sacrifices because they are what the goddess requires. In her time, she has killed men, women, and children in worship the goddess, since the day of the ceremony that confirmed her.” Thalia and Marith are drawn together and in their train come more deaths and more suffering. “All I had at first was a scene of men in a desert, and the bleached desert light, the yellow sand, the sun setting and the stars coming out,” Spark told her Civilian Reader interviewer. “Rain in the desert. And swords. And death. Then the characters came bursting out fully formed. They’ve been in my head a lot longer than the book. The plot, the themes, came much later. I really didn’t know where I was going until I’d finished book one.”
Spark carefully crafted the world in which Orhan, Marith, and Thalia move. The Court of Broken Knives is “grimdark epic fantasy, high fantasy tropes (Dragons! Magic swords! Language systems!) with a very dark, cynical edge,” Spark explained in an interview in Civilian Reader. “The setting is Dark Age/Bronze Age mythic, there’s reference to the Iliad, the Eddas, the Mabinogion – but there are also lots of cheap jokes and flippancies and (intentionally) bad puns. We open in traditional fashion with a troop of mercenaries slogging through the desert, heading for the ramped up to eleven high fantasy city, and one of them is A Man of Destiny(TM). Then we start to dig away at that, interrogate what’s really going on with these people’s lives.” “The world is broken down in many respects. The nation and world are posited as in decline, decadent, and seemingly rotting at the core,” assessed a SFFWorld.com reviewer. “When an adulterating high-class citizen and the leader of a group of mercenaries and assassins come across as two of the more redeeming character, then the author has gone to some reasonable lengths to make the majority of the characters unlikeable and dishonorable.” “Broken Knives has been described as lyrical, even poetic,” Spark said to Mike Everest in an interview on the website Michael W. Everest, adding, “there’s certainly a strong poetic element to what I write. I’ve referenced a lot of classical and dark age history and literature (the Iliad, Beowulf, the Eddas) and folk tradition. But there’s also a lot of dark humour, I’m a huge fan of Terry Pratchett and Blackadder and the cynical, irreverent view of history and myth they share. And some filthy jokes! I once joked I wanted to be reviewed as ‘Joe Abercrombie meets Leonard Cohen in a particularly filthy public toilet.’ I think that probably sums it up.”
Critics in general enjoyed Spark’s debut. “This review is thin … in terms of detail on the plot or the characters – but you can get that from the blurb,” asserted Michael E. Everest in Fantasy Book Critic. “This review is here to tell you what the blurb won’t. That this book really is different. It will make you think differently. It will challenge you. Recommended for fans of Mark Lawrence and R. Scott Bakker, I can understand why, but by the time you’ve finished, you’ll realise there isn’t another author quite like Anna Smith Spark. Not just a new voice. But a different voice.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Bishop’s Stortford Independent, March 10, 2018, “My Stortford: Author Anna Smith Spark’s Home-town Favourites.”
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2017, review of The Court of Broken Knives.
ONLINE
Barnes and Noble, https://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (August 31, 2017), Corrina Lawson, “The Court of Broken Knives Is a Fantasy Debut Grimmer Than Grimdark.”
Civilian Reader, https://civilianreader.com/ (July 4, 2017), “Interview with Anna Smith Spark.”
Court of Broken Knives Website, http://courtofbrokenknives.org (May 9, 2018), author profile.
Fantasy Book Critic, http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/ (June 28, 2017), Michael E. Everest, review of The Court of Broken Knives.
Michael W. Everest, https://michael-everest.com/ (March 4, 2017), Mike Everest, “The Production of a Fantasy Debut: Interview with Anna Smith Spark.”
SFFWorld.com, https://www.sffworld.com/ (August 1, 2017), Rob H. Bedford, review of The Court of Broken Knives.
Series
Empires of Dust
1. The Court of Broken Knives (2017)
2. The Tower of Living and Dying (2018)
Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org.uk. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.
Anna's favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.
www.courtofbrokenknives.org
Interview with ANNA SMITH SPARK
July 4, 2017 Civilian Reader InterviewAnna Smith Spark, Court of Broken Knives, Empires of Dust Trilogy, Fantasy, Grimdark, Most Anticipated 2017, Orbit, Voyager
anna-smith-spark-author-photo-1Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Anna Smith Spark?
I tweet as QueenofGrimdark, I’m an ex-fetish model, and I have a PhD in Victorian occultism.
No, honestly.
I’m a fantasy novelist from London, UK. I have a background in history and literature: I studied Classical History for my BA, Cultural History for my MA and English Literature for my PhD. Which really was about Victorian occultism, looking at the way it intersected with the physical sciences and with politics. My only real interests in life are history, mythology and literature. I spent several years as an obsessive D&D player, but sadly no longer play. I’m obsessed with Warhammer miniatures as well (Chaos Warriors … oh. Oh oh oh), but don’t actually play Warhammer either.
I’m quasi-famous at UK cons for wearing extremely stupid shoes.
I have Asperger’s Syndrome, dyslexia and dyspraxia. This isn’t really significant to anything writerly, but it’s important to me to be out about it, especially the Asperger’s.
SparkAS-EoD1-CourtOfBrokenKnivesUK
Your debut novel, The Court of Broken Knives, will be published in August by Voyager (UK) and Orbit (US). It looks quite interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?
Argghhhh. I hate this bit. The Court of Broken Knives is the first volume in the Empires of Dust trilogy. It’s grimdark epic fantasy, high fantasy tropes (Dragons! Magic swords! Language systems!) with a very dark, cynical edge. The setting is Dark Age/Bronze Age mythic, there’s reference to the Iliad, the Eddas, the Mabinogion – but there are also lots of cheap jokes and flippancies and (intentionally) bad puns. We open in traditional fashion with a troop of mercenaries slogging through the desert, heading for the ramped up to eleven high fantasy city, and one of them is A Man of Destiny(TM). Then we start to dig away at that, interrogate what’s really going on with these people’s lives, what the great mythic storyline actually means. It’s bleak, I suppose. There’s pain in it, and grief, and, yes, some pretty hardcore violence. But there’s also hope, and love, and humour, and bad dick jokes.
At its heart, The Court of Broken Knives is about power and desire. Why do we choose to hurt others? Why do we fight and kill? Why do we risk our own lives in war? When we could be sitting safe at home making bad dick jokes?
SparkAS-EoD01-CourtOfBrokenKnivesUS
What inspired you to write the novel and series? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?
I don’t know where the inspiration for the novel as a thing came from… after a long time not writing, feeling very depressed about not writing, I sat down and started and this book just came pouring out. All I had at first was a scene of men in a desert, and the bleached desert light, the yellow sand, the sun setting and the stars coming out. Rain in the desert. And swords. And death. Then the characters came bursting out fully formed. They’ve been in my head a lot longer than the book. The plot, the themes, came much later. I really didn’t know where I was going until I’d finished book one.
MantelH-WolfHallI’m hugely influenced by myth and history. As you may already possibly have guessed. My favourite fantasy authors, and the biggest influences on me, are probably R. Scott Bakker, Ursula K. Le Guin and M. John Harrison. Bakker for the complexity of his world, the depth of it; Le Guin and Harrison for the utter utter perfection of their prose. I’m also hugely influenced by sort-of historical fiction, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault, the way they take legendary vast heroic characters, Merlin, Arthur, Alexander, and make them so real, so completely believably human, in a completely plausibly imagined world. I love historical fiction, the way it takes you backstage into the intimate, human reality of historical events. Hilary Mantel is another influence. Wolf Hall is a staggering achievement I dream of emulating. I just stick in a lot more guts and swords.
PratchettT-GuardsGuardsUKAnd now I sound horribly serious! I’m also very influenced by Blackadder, Asterix, Terry Pratchett – that totally irreverent, anarchic, disruptive view of myth and history, that absolute refusal to hero-worship. And the word play! The revelling in language! The goddaweful puns! I love that. I really enjoy just mucking about with language like that.
How were you introduced to genre fiction?
I’ve never not read and loved genre fiction. My father is a great fantasy fan, admits to having spent his teenage years making up fantasy language systems; I grew up with him reading me The Chronicles of Narnia, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Tolkien, stories of King Arthur, stories from Greek and Norse myth. Then later he introduced me to the works of Gene Wolfe, M. John Harrison, Jeff Vandermeer…
How do you like being a writer and working within the publishing industry
I love it. I’ve never not wanted to be a writer, it’s been the whole goal of my life since I was a tiny child. It’s an amazing privilege. When I was in my teens, I spent every summer being a gofer at a big literature festival in Devon, England. Carrying authors’ bags, feeling lucky just to be near them. And this year I’m going to be the first SFF genre writer speaking at that festival. It’s special beyond belief.
Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?
From what I’ve gathered, I write quite slowly compared to a lot of people, I really can’t manage more than fifteen hundred words a day unless I’m really pushing myself or really caught up in it. And then after three days even of that I’m shattered mentally.
I used to do a lot of the classic ‘writing in coffee shops’. In fact, I wrote so much of Broken Knives in one particular coffee shop, I ended up putting it in the novel. I’m trying to make myself work at home more now.
I have a terrible habit of chain eating chocolate while I write.
I read a lot of history, especially military history, while I’m writing to keep my mind focussed and keep ideas flowing. One thing that saddens me is that I find it very hard to read good fantasy novels while I’m writing as I tend to start pastiching the author’s style. So I have to treat myself, binge read fantasy when I’m taking a bit of a break.
When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?
I’ve always wanted to be a writer. My father is a poet, I grew up with poets, playwrights, novelists, artists. Writing is pretty central to who I am. I did the classic thing of writing ‘novels’ as a child, stapling sheets of paper together to make a book. Always fantasy or horror. And, thinking back, usually pretty grim. Some of the things I wrote then, way back as a child in primary school, they’re here, now, in my books. Some of the characters, the places, the images … things that have haunted my imagination my whole life.
I stopped writing fiction when I was in my early twenties, for nasty personal reasons I won’t go into here, and only started again when I wrote Broken Knives. But I did a PhD, so I was certainly writing. I was cover article of The Fortean Times arguing that Erich Von Daniken is more of a scientific rationalist than Richard Dawkins. I’m very fond of that.
What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?
Oh gods. Oh gods. Noooo …
Okay. So. I’m very much a part of a community of grimdark writers. We hang out a lot on-line. Being dark and grim. We joke about torturing kittens. We perve over edged weapons. We swap pictures of unicorns.
Grimdark. Yeah. I know the term is controversial, that some people have attacked it claiming it was originally a criticism/a joke. But I embrace it. Yes, some of the criticism is justified, some ‘grimdark’ novels can be mindless violence without meaning, just dumb look-at-me-aren’t-I-shocking? slaughter-fests. Lots of violence doesn’t necessarily make a book good, and in fact often makes it bad. And politically offensive. (Although also sometimes extremely fun).
But, at the same time, the most exciting fantasy novelists are working in what might be termed grimdark. I worship R. Scott Bakker, the man is a genius. Steve Erikson also. They’re both interrogating what heroic fantasy is, what it’s about, looking at it politically, creating such astonishing, nuanced, intelligent, self-aware worlds.
FletcherMR-BeyondRedemptionI mean, let’s look at a grimdark author I’m good friends with and admire, Michael R. Fletcher, whose Beyond Redemption is something of a cult grimdark puke-fest. His novels are so powerfully political beneath the massive amounts of entirely consciously gratuitous hilarious splatter gore. In his world, sanity is a delusion and we shape our own reality through our self-hate. About right, yeah? It cuts to the heart of everything in this fucked-up world. The certainly that there is no hope, it’s just pain and filth and pointless death. But his characters try to love. His characters try to be better than they are. They try to go on. They’re not ‘good’ or ‘bad’. They’re just people. Dumb and ignorant and self-deluded and desperate to love and be loved.
I love the old heroic tales. And there’s a place for heroes, maybe now more than ever. But what I love about grimdark is that it shows the faultlines. The pain, the reality, that there is no hope and no glory and no god. But that we go on, and we try to make a world, and we try to hope despite everything. Not some fantasy of a Manichean world where there are clear-cut goodies and baddies. But people trying to live, loving each other, wanting things, and the terrible consequences of that. That’s grimdark. That’s where I belong.
Do you have any other projects in the pipeline, and what are you working on at the moment?
I’m currently working on book three in the Empires of Dust series. Then that’s the end of the trilogy… gods, already. It goes so quick. But luckily I have at least book four planned, assuming the gods of publishing keep smiling on me. And I have a short story set in the Empires of Dust world in July’s Grimdark Magazine.
Outside of my own world, I’m part of a very exciting new Kickstarter fantasy fiction project that Grimdark Magazine and Dirge Magazine are setting up. I can’t say much about it at the moment, the Kickstarter will be launched soon and it’s under wraps till then. I can say that it’s epic fantasy with a 16th/17th century New England feel to it, something a little different, maybe a little gothic in parts. The three main authors involved are me, Mike Fletcher and Jesse Bullington/Alex Marshall, and I think it will be great fun. I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in.
What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?
None fiction: Peter Wilson’s The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy. This is a pretty definitive English-language history of the period. It’s massive, incredibly thorough, well-written, clear, balanced, humane – and I still have no idea what the Thirty Years War was about, because absolutely no one does. It’s a horrifying, inexplicable period in Europe’s history. Before that, Grahame Greene’s monograph on/biography of Lord Rochester.
SparkAS-ReadingNonFiction
Fiction: my TBR pile is threatening to collapse on my bed and kill me… I recently finished Graham Austin King’s Faithless. This is a fantasy novel set in a vast mine and forge complex, the arts of mining and metal working are very powerfully evoked. I really enjoyed it, it’s dark and claustrophobic, raises some interesting moral questions too. I’m now thinking of taking a break from fantasy (horrors!) to reread Edna O’Brian’s The Country Girls novels. Her prose is sublimely beautiful, and has had a great influence in me.
SparkAS-ReadingFiction
If you could recommend only one novel to someone, what would it be?
Uhh… Uhhh…
Fantasy: M. John Harrison’s Viriconium. Or Ursula Le Guin’s The Farthest Shore. Or T. H. White’s The Candle in the Wind.
SparkAS-Recommendations01
All other genres: Eliot’s Middlemarch. The greatest achievement of English language long-form prose. The greatest novel of the nineteenth century, which is saying something.
Or possibly James Ellroy’s White Jazz.
Or W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz.
Or Tove Jansson’s Finn Family Moomintroll.
I think I hate you.
SparkAS-Recommendations2
What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?
Um… That I’m a very nice person deep down?
What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?
The Court of Broken Knives is published this summer. Take a wild guess.
*
Anna Smith Spark‘s The Court of Broken Knives is published in the UK by Voyager (out now), and in North America by Orbit (August 15th).
The production of a fantasy debut: Interview with Anna Smith-Spark
MARCH 4, 2017 ~ MIKE82EVEREST
Following on from my interview with Nicholas Eames yesterday, I’ve invited Anna Smith-Spark to talk about the ‘production’ behind her fantasy debut ‘The Court of Broken Knives’, book one of ‘The Empires of Dust’ series. Anna’s already making a name for herself amongst the fantasy community, and her novel, pitched as a favourite for fans of Mark Lawrence and R Scott Bakker, promises to be an explosion of grimdark epic-ness. Back this up with the fact she’s represented by Ian Drury, Lawrence’s agent, and the twitter tag of @queenofgrimdark twitter handle sounds like a challenge to all would be contenders. Heck, if the crown fits, wear it. Or as Jorg Ancrath proves – take it!
So, without further adieu, I introduce, to you ladies and gentlemen, the Queen of Grimdark herself, Anna Smith-Spark.anna-smith-spark-author-photo
ME: Hi Anna! Before we begin, let’s start with some introductions – who are you, what do you do, and what’s special about you as a writer?
AS-S: Hello Mike. Who am I? Argh…. My name is Anna Smith Spark, I write grimdark epic fantasy in the Joe Abercrombie, R. Scott Bakker kind of vein. I’ve got a BA in classics and classical history, an MA in social history and a PhD in English Literature, all of which have contributed to my writing somewhere. I have Asperger’s syndrome, dyslexia and dyspraxia – I mention this not because it’s particularly relevant to anything, but because all three are very hidden disabilities and it’s important people see that it’s possible to have one or all of them and still, you, know, manage to have a life and success and that.
What’s special about me as a writer? Double argh … um … I’m heavily influenced by both Philippa Gregory and Conan the Barbarian? I write (dirty) poetry in multiple invented languages? I swear more than anyone else I’ve ever read? Ummm ….
Same sketch as the previous question, this time about your debut novel ‘The Court of Broken Knives’ – what’s it about, who’s it about, what’s special about it?
‘The Court of Broken Knives’ is the first volume in the ‘Empires of Dust’ trilogy. We open very traditionally, with a group of sword bros in a desert, in their midst is a strange, troubled young man with a Past … then we sort of start really looking at that. The novel is very much about the complex relationship society has always had with violence – if you read the Greek myths, or the Arthur stories, the glory of war and the horror of war are inexplicably bound up together, people relish and glorify violence even as they condemn it, and the novel is trying to explore that. I’m also very influenced by writers such as Mary Stewart and Mary Renault, who look at the human psychology behind the great myths and heroes. I suppose the central question is about power and desire – why do people happily follow someone into battle, even knowing what they will have to do and what it might cost?
Broken Knives has been described as lyrical, even poetic: my father is a poet and I grew up with poetry (I’ve even had a few poems published, at www.greatworks.org.uk); there’s certainly a strong poetic element to what I write. I’ve referenced a lot of classical and dark age history and literature (the Iliad, Beowulf, the Eddas) and folk tradition. But there’s also a lot of dark humour, I’m a huge fan of Terry Pratchett and Blackadder and the cynical, irreverent view of history and myth they share. And some filthy jokes!
I once joked I wanted to be reviewed as ‘Joe Abercrombie meets Leonard Cohen in a particularly filthy public toilet’. I think that probably sums it up.
So, let’s start from the beginning. Cast your mind back to when you finished your first draft of your manuscript. It’s a completed story – what did you do next?
I submitted my novel to agents virtually as soon as I’d finished it. In fact, I submitted it far too early – it wasn’t until I’d done some redrafting following an editor’s critique that I really understood what I was trying to write and who the characters were. People will probably hate me for saying this, but, yes, I got a top flight agent with the first draft of the first book I ever wrote.
Things got harder after that, though…
What was the biggest change you made to the story before it reached an agent/editor/publisher?
My agent suggested some very minor changes. My editor then wanted it bigger and more epic – and I was very happy to oblige!
At what stage did you feel ready to approach an agent?
As I said, I approached an agent virtually as soon as I’d finished the last sentence. This was too early, really. But I just had a mad confidence in the book.
Honestly, I’d not recommend this approach to people looking to get an agent. I was very gung-ho ‘oh I’ve written this great book I need an agent’. But getting an agent is I think harder than then getting a publishing deal – and you only get one shot at it. If an agent thinks you have something but the book then doesn’t get bought by a publisher, the agent might tell you to rewrite your book ten times, resubmit it to publishers, tell you to write something else. If an agent rejects you, they don’t want you coming back to them.
How did you go about approaching an agent? Did you pick them, or did they pick you?
I approached the agent I did for personal reasons – he also represents Mark Lawrence, whom I knew vaguely online and whose books had a huge impact on my life. I was suffering from profound depression, I’d given up even reading fantasy, then I saw the cover to Prince of Thorns and, um, fell in love a bit. The Broken Empire trilogy brought me back to reading and then writing fantasy, to be represented by the same agent (and publisher) is an honour I don’t think I’ll ever stop marvelling at.
But you don’t really chose an agent (unless you’re very, very lucky and very, very, very good). Usually you apply to several, most ignore you totally, maybe one rejects you nicely, one sees something the others didn’t and takes you on. The important thing is to only apply to agents who you think will ‘get’ your work. And to apply EXACTLY as they tell you to on their website / in the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook. Agents get a lot of people sending them stuff. If your cover letter isn’t right, they won’t read further. This isn’t because they’re evil. This is because someone who can’t be bothered to write a cover letter in the style they want probably isn’t a great bet.
Did your agent make you change anything? Why?
My agent wanted very few changes. There are always lots of suggestions and improvements at every stage, obviously, but I didn’t have anything major. The biggest thing was to make one of the characters more sympathetic. I had a long conversation about this with my agent while I was at work. I was sitting at my desk in an open-plan office discussing morality with the guy who discovered Jorg! It was certainly a bizarre moment in my life.
Next up, the publishers. What was the processing for applying to a publishing house like? Is it similar to applying for a job? Did you have to jump through circus hoops, recite scripture, any ritualised hazing? Seriously, to an outsider this is one of the areas that is something of an unknown.
The author has no involvement in submitting to publishers. None. That’s what your agent does. It’s agonising – there are no deadlines you’ll hear back by, there’s nothing you can do. You just have to sit and try to pretend it’s not happening and you’re completely fine about everything and you never really wanted a massive three book deal anyway, publishing be damned, while checking your inbox every ten minutes for months. Then one day you get an email out of the blue saying it’s on.
Or, if you’re me, you get an email to your work email address ten minutes after you’ve left for a long Christmas holiday, you have a nightmare Christmas with family sickness, give up completely on even thinking about being published, come this close to vowing you’ll burn every word you’ve ever written and never write again as long as your child survives the night, then get back to work and discover it’s on ON YOUR BIRTHDAY!!!!!
Chronologically speaking, how did the wordcount change from first draft, to following beta/alpha readers, editor/agent (which came first – did you have an editor before your agent?), publisher?
I didn’t have a beta reader, though my dad and a couple of friends read the draft before I submitted it to an agent. I don’t use beta readers and never will.
The word count did change quite a lot. The original manuscript my agent took on was quite short (c.100,000 words), my editor wanted it longer and more epic. So I basically combined book one and the first half of book two. The book was then very long (c 180,000). With editing, this then came down to c.150,000 words.
Were the changes plot driven, the desire for a particular word count by the agent/publishers/editors or something else?
The drop from 180,000 to 150,000 seems like a big change, but actually a lot of it’s just stripping out what I think of as the authorial ‘workings’. I think with all authors, there’s lots of stuff we write that’s completely necessary to be written, to help the author themselves really understand what’s happening and why, but that the reader doesn’t want or need, that just gets in the way. It’s not ‘fat’ or ‘bloat’, necessarily. But it ultimately ends up needing to come out. Like all twiddly the bits that help the author keep the timeline working – they’re absolutely necessary at the time as the writing happens, but then your editor points out you don’t need them and they just go. Same with minor characters’ backstories – you need to really understand them. The reader probably doesn’t.
And there is that vanity thing, the big epic twenty minute guitar solo that’s so so so so so much fun to write, the ‘and now I’m going to really let rip’, and then your editor just steps in politely and unplugs your amp. But that’s why I write big epic fantasy novels. And that’s why I have an editor.
Also, how in the world did you tackle cutting/adding word count? Does the editor help with this?
I wasn’t told ‘make it X thousand words longer/shorter’. The editing report just says ‘get to the action here, we don’t need a four page description of what they have for breakfast first’. You look at the report. You look at your epic four page guitar solo it’s not a description of breakfast, it’s a complex metaphor for why Donald Trump won the election, and those five paragraphs describing a slice of fried bread are just sublime. You look at the report again. You cut the entire four pages and rewrite ‘they had quick breakfast and then started out’. That’s 2 k down just like that.
Occasionally, the report might ask you to expand something, usually for clarity. Typically, this is something like ‘we last met this character two hundred pages ago hanging from a mountain ledge by one finger. It might perhaps be worth reminding us who they are and explaining what’s happened to them since. Especially as they seem to have mysteriously changed their hair colour and lost the final ‘e’ from their name’. You briefly contemplate just pasting your five paragraphs about fried bread in here as it’s so much easier than having to go back and write something new.
Let’s talk book. How much has your agent, editor and publisher shaped book two (and three, and four etc.).
Honestly? Not at all. I wrote the ending to the whole trilogy before I got the book deal (at work, actually, but we’ll draw a veil over that … ). But it is one big story, not separate stories in the same world, and I submitted a synopsis for the trilogy as a whole. Presumably, if they’d hated the way the story progresses, they wouldn’t have bought it.
And it’s a good storyline!
I’ve got a lot better as a writer since I’ve had an agent and an editor, I’ve learned a huge amount about how to shape a story. So in that sense they’ve shaped books two and three a great deal. But in terms of plot, not at all.
You’ve recently been able to showcase your cover art to the world, and it certainly fits the grimdark-epic bill! How much of a hand did you have in designing it?
Thank you! I adore the cover, it’s absolutely beautiful. But I had absolutely no part in designing it. Or in writing the cover blurb (apart from the actual line quoted from the book, obviously – but I didn’t chose that as the special quote for the back either). My editor asked me for my thoughts, and for a list of covers I really liked. I told her I wanted a big sword on the front and I gave her a list of covers I particularly like – all of which have swords on the front. That’s it.
Oddly enough, Peter at BookNest.Eu put together a mocked-up fan cover for Broken Knives to go on his ‘most anticipated of 2017’ list, based purely on the title and the back cover blurb. It was a picture of a sword on a dark red background. Obviously there’s just something in the title that demands this …
Is there anything about the traditional publishing experience that you didn’t know before, but have now discovered?
I was fairly familiar with the publishing process, it’s all laid out in the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook. And I’ve been involved in publishing in a very different context in my day job (I’ve drafted documents and leaflets that have been published for an external audience), so I basically knew the drill.
Since you first began writing the book, up until now, what’s the biggest change in ‘The Court of Broken Knives’? (Without giving any spoilers away!)
The biggest change? Hmmm… Actually, there was one scene where one of the POV characters does something a bit out of character. It made relationships between people unnecessarily complex later on. I really struggled with this, trying to account for it, lots of agonizing by people, speeches in their defense. And then my editor just suggested I cut that scene.
And since you first began writing the book, up until now, what’s the biggest change in YOU as a writer?
I’ve got better at writing novels.
That sounds very flippant, but there’s a huge difference between pouring out a story that’s burning inside you, and writing a novel for others to read. It’s not that I care any less, or that it’s not as enjoyable or as personal or as much about my soul and my thoughts and dreams. But I’m better at pacing, at constructing a plot, at engaging with the reader, at thinking about what others might think and how I can then respond to that. It actually makes it more interesting to write.
Finally, if there’s one thing about the modern-day traditional publishing process for a fantasy novel, that you could share with wannabe writers, what would it be? Or better yet, what’s that one golden nugget that you would share with the yet-to-be-published you?
There is no conspiracy.
A lot of people see the world of agents and publishers as a closed shop, assume people get book deals because they know people or have some special magic trick. But agents and editors make money by publishing books that sell well. Finding exciting new talent is basically their job. They’re not actually sadists deliberately cutting down talented wannabe writers. They wouldn’t make any money if they did that. If they reject you – honestly, truthfully, there’s probably a reason for that.
The special magic trick is to play by the rules. The rules are all set out in the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook, and on agents’ and publishers’ websites. It’s all very simple, and comes down to only submit in the format the agent or publisher requests, with no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. If you see a job advert that says ‘send your CV by this date’ and you send in a letter without a CV a week later, it doesn’t matter that your letter clearly shows that’s the job you were born to do, because you look like you don’t care.
It’s the same thing with agents and publishers. I was too scared to even open the WAYB for years, thinking it was some secret terrible thing written in hieroglyphics that basically pissed itself laughing at you. It’s not. It says ‘write a cover letter, write a synopsis, spellcheck before you send, here are the addresses’. Scary, huh?
But there are also a lot of people wanting to get published. And agents and publishers are human beings with human concentration spans and too much work and messy personal lives and all the rest of it. They have to filter, reject stuff without much more than a glance, make decision about what they’re going to focus on, like we all do at work every day. It’s possible if my agent had had a stonking head cold or a bad journey to work the day he’d opened my sub he’d have glanced over it, binned it and I’d never have had even a polite rejection from him. Joe Abercrombie’s agent wasn’t interested in me simply because he wasn’t looking for any more fantasy writers at that point. Of course there’s luck involved. That’s life. There’s always some element of luck involved. So if you do get a rejection, don’t give up and never write again. Maybe write something totally different. Or self-publish. Or write short stories for open subs magazines. But don’t give up.
And let’s be completely frank here. Writing should be fun. A good book … you can tell the author was genuinely just enjoying writing it, just relishing the pleasure of words strung together and a story told. If it becomes purely about getting published, you’re probably not writing well anyway.
So: enjoy it, be realistic, obey the rules, have confidence, never give up.
Which is the least grimdark thing I’ve written for months, damn it. Just imagine I’m now swearing copiously and writing a massacre scene.
Cover
Anna Smith-Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website http://www.greatworks.org. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.
Anna’s favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.
Her debut The Court of Broken Knives is available to pre-order now, and is scheduled to be released on June 29th 2017 by Harper Voyager.
Share this:
My Stortford: Author Anna Smith Spark’s home-town favourites
PUBLISHED: 13:10 10 March 2018 | UPDATED: 13:10 10 March 2018 Anna Smith Spark
Anna Smith Spark is the author of critically acclaimed fantasy novel The Court of Broken Knives, the first in the grimdark trilogy Empires of Dust. She was born in Bishop’s Stortford and went to Herts and Essex High School. She moved to London to study at UCL and Birkbeck, but was inexorably drawn back to the town. She is 39 and married to psychologist and lecturer Jamie. Her two children are at Windhill21 Primary School.
What’s your favourite building in Stortford, and why?
There are two houses on Hadham Road, almost opposite each other: a huge Victorian pile built to look like a Gothic castle and a white 1930s modernist box. I love the way they sit opposite each other, neither exactly what you’d call practical, both aesthetically delightful in totally different ways, built not that far apart in time but so far apart in aesthetic sense.
Or one of the glorious villas on Windhill, which always make me think (I’m sure entirely inaccurately) of Lydgate and Rosemond’s house in Middlemarch.
And now various homeowners in Stortford are blushing. Or realising who that mad woman who’s always staring at their house is.
Which building would you most like to tear down, and why?
Hmm… the cinema complex, like everyone says. It’s the most incredibly ugly, crude, cheap-looking thing. The area in front of it is filthy. It was built as an entertainment venue and then the council was astonished that teenagers might go there to hang around entertaining themselves. Also, the fact that the car park entrance next to it isn’t one way takes me by surprise every single time.
Could you let us in on your best-kept secret about Stortford?
The May Games, held each year in the Monastery Gardens. Traditional mummers plays about Robin Hood involving much cross-dressing, shouting, fighting and slapping of thighs. Storytelling, maypole dancing, races, archery, tug-of-war, folk songs, sausages, beer. A wonderful quasi-medieval killing and rebirth of the Green Man ritual to finish up. Like The Wicker Man, only everyone goes home in one piece.
Which is your favourite open space in Stortford, and why?
The cricket fields and the walk up to Dane O’Coys. There’s a wonderful avenue of trees there, huge tall trees like a cathedral nave, and then fields and woods. I used to walk up there a lot when I was a child, we’d gather holly and ivy to decorate the house at Christmas; on the rare occasions it snowed heavily, the hillside was perfect for sledging.
We went blackberrying there from my kindergarten on Thornfield Road and our teacher was once chased by a bullock. I also have a very clear memory of being taken for a walk around there by a family friend who told me the most terrifying ghost story set in a large house on Dane O’Coys.
Of course, it’s being swallowed by the Stortford North development now. But the fields and trees are still there just around the cricket fields.
What, for you, is the most interesting shop?
Mosaic, in Florence Walk. It’s a little art and craft shop, selling prints, jewellery, ornaments, gifts, random beautiful things. The owner has a wonderful eye for prints and paintings, in particular: I bought a print of a Hugh Brandon-Cox painting there, “Winter Morning, Norfolk”, very melancholy, desolate yet calming, capturing a similar feel to some of the landscape descriptions in my books.
Which is your favourite restaurant and pub or bar?
Coffee Corner. I love it, I go there so often I’m friends with all the staff. Hi, Janush! Hi, Noshi! I wrote most of The Court of Broken Knives sitting in the back by the counter – in fact, I ended up putting the place in the book.
Order the protein pancakes with fresh berries, peanut butter and cinnamon, or the superfood salad with avocado and crayfish, then indulge with a massive chocolate brownie so sticky it almost runs off the plate.
Where would you take someone visiting from out of town?
The Gibberd Gardens in Harlow (does this count? It’s nearby. Yeah? ‘Tis but a short drive away. Just in another county and that).
Frederick Gibberd was a leading post-war British architect. He created the garden as both a private family garden and an art gallery and piece of art. The garden is filled with sculptures, trees, pools, vistas – and a toy fort area with real moat. It’s a place of dreams, stories, secrets, private meanings.
Then dinner at Cibo, which does the best pizza north of the Alps. A drink in The Star on Bridge Street (also mentioned in my book). As they’re from out of town, a quick game of ‘Spot the one thing Bridge Street hasn’t got’.
How would you spend your ideal day off in Stortford?
Brunch at Coffee Corner, pancakes or French toast with maple syrup and a cup of Janush’s coffee, followed by a long walk. Pop into Waterstones to browse for books (they stock mine, of course, we had a fantastic launch party there and my dad made a cake decorated with AN ICING SWORD) and possibly have another coffee and a cake at Café W – I write there a lot, too. Or, as a special indulgence, a haircut at Zoo hairdressers on Hockerill Street or a Renu facial at Amelia Rose Beauticians on London Road. It’s one of the best facials I’ve ever had, much better than many London salons at half the price.
What’s your favourite Stortford landmark and why is it special to you?
St Michael’s Church. I love seeing the spire standing out over the town, hearing the bells ring on a sunny morning. There’s been a church on the site since Saxon times and a local historian has a theory that Harold Godwinson is buried in the crypt. The wood carving in the choir is particularly beautiful; there’s (allegedly) a very worn sheela-na-gig (medieval fertility carving) in the north porch.
I’m also very attached to the flour mill in the town centre. It’s gloriously brutal, sticking up in the centre of town like a cigarette lighter; if you listen carefully on a still summer night you can hear the grain shifting around in the silos, a hissing sound almost like hydraulic brakes or the sea. I remember lying in bed on summer nights when I was a rather unhappy teenager, and the sound they made was somehow very comforting.
What, in your opinion, would make Stortford even better/how could Stortford be improved?
THE TRAFFIC. THE TRAFFIC. Pedestrianise South Street and Potter Street; put up cameras to stop people jumping the lights at Hockerill before there’s a major accident; do something, anything, about the bizarre log-jams in the Jackson Square car park, where cars queuing to get in block cars trying to get out and it gets all mobius-like and my head hurts. And sort out the insanity that is the saga of the station car park. The station car park insanity is the definition of grimdark.
Anna Smith Spark
The Court of Broken Knives has been nominated for two Gemmell Awards, the Morningstar Award for best debut and Ravenheart Award for best cover. You can vote here: The Gemmell Awards
anna smith-spark author photo
Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.
Anna’s favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.
Anna is represented by Ian Drury at Sheil Land.
Twitter: @queenofgrimdark
Facebook: Anna Smith Spark
Smith Spark, Anna: THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES
Kirkus Reviews. (Aug. 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Smith Spark, Anna THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES Orbit/Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $15.99 8, 15 ISBN: 978-0-316-51142-1
Fantasy debut and first of a series from an author whose Twitter handle is @queenofgrimdark; it first appeared earlier this year in the U.K.For those unacquainted, "grimdark" is a subgenre sometimes characterized as anti-Tolkien or nihilistic, though more generally referring to grunge fantasy featuring unremitting gory violence, characters with few or no redeeming virtues, and an atmosphere of gloom and doom. As the once-mighty Sekemleth Empire crumbles, Lord Orhan Emmereth decides a change of governance is necessary and organizes a conspiracy to murder the emperor and all his chief advisers. He hires a company of mercenaries--who more resemble Shakespearean rude mechanicals than professional killers--to infiltrate the impregnable city of Sorlost and do the deed. Led by the thoughtful Tobias and featuring a mysteriously well-educated, nervous young drug addict named Marith--who manages to kill a dragon along the way--the company reaches the city. Expect betrayal inside deception wrapped in double-dealing, a gory slaughterfest, and the revelation of Marith's true identity. Taking advantage of the ensuing chaos, Thalia, the powerful high priestess of the official religion, which features child sacrifice, whose fate is to be killed by her successor, escapes the temple only to fall in with Tobias, Marith, and company, where she becomes utterly entranced by Marith's physical beauty. Those impressed by frequent, graphic, almost Monty Python-ish bloody violence and characters with no claim to righteousness will find much to admire here. Others will marvel at a yarn of 450-plus pages whose plot contains so little of real substance and whose main character is a homicidal psychopath with no intriguing or sympathetic qualities whatsoever. Should appeal to grimdark fans looking for the extreme edge; others may well find it nasty, brutish, and not short enough.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Smith Spark, Anna: THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A499572808/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ebd86ec6. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A499572808
Wednesday, June 28, 2017 The Court Of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark (Reviewed by Michael E. Everest) Official Author Website Order the book HERE (USA) & HERE (UK) Read Michael's Interview with Anna Smith Spark Read "On Writing Violence In A Violent World" by Anna Smith Spark (guest post) OFFICIAL AUTHOR INFORMATION: Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model. Anna’s favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: They’ve finally looked at the graveyard of our Empire with open eyes. They’re fools and madmen and like the art of war. And their children go hungry while we piss gold and jewels into the dust. In the richest empire the world has ever known, the city of Sorlost has always stood, eternal and unconquered. But in a city of dreams governed by an imposturous Emperor, decadence has become the true ruler, and has blinded its inhabitants to their vulnerability. The empire is on the verge of invasion – and only one man can see it. Haunted by dreams of the empire’s demise, Orhan Emmereth has decided to act. On his orders, a company of soldiers cross the desert to reach the city. Once they enter the Palace, they have one mission: kill the Emperor, then all those who remain. Only from ashes can a new empire be built. The company is a group of good, ordinary soldiers, for whom this is a mission like any other. But the strange boy Marith who walks among them is no ordinary soldier. Marching on Sorlost, Marith thinks he is running away from the past which haunts him. But in the Golden City, his destiny awaits him – beautiful, bloody, and more terrible than anyone could have foreseen. OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: ‘The Court of Broken Knives’ is the stunning debut to Anna Smith Spark’s ‘The Empires of Dust’ series. One of two Anna’s to be released in June 2017 (UK), by Harper Voyager, the story of ‘The Court of Broken Knives’ is outmatched only by the unique voice that tells it. Bold, beautiful, brutal, Smith-Spark lives up to her twitter handle @QueenofGrimdark whilst pushing the boundaries of storytelling amongst recent releases. THE GOOD: The voice is strong in this one! Right from the start, as the reader, you’re drawn into a world by the power of the words used to describe it to you – but it’s not so much description, more a depth that brings it all to life. Both beautifully inventive as it is brutally evocative, the characters are morbidly mortal, dragged into a doomed destiny of a plot. THE BAD: The voice is strong in this one! I know, I’ve already said that, but it’s true. You will either love this voice, or never quite grasp the sumptuous simplicity of what it’s saying. If you’ve looking for an a-to-b quest fantasy with paint by numbers characters and complexities, this book is not for you. THE UGLY TRUTH: The voice is strong in this one? I know, I know, I know! I’m labouring a point, but it’s only fair that I give this book the credit that it’s due. Anna Smith Spark’s voice is equal parts mesmerising as it is magical. It’s more than epic – it’s operatic! But at the same time it has the distortion and drop tuning of a metal band in full force. The Court Of Broken Knives is cranked all the way to 11, and you’ll either be a fan for life, or not quite sure what’s going on. What sounds like a relatively simple plot line (mercenary hand hired to assassinate an Emperor) turns into one of the most stunning imaginings of fantasy in recent times. Naturally, and not in the least because of the author’s twitter handle, this has earned the label of Grimdark (because who doesn’t love a label), but The Court Of Broken Knives is so much more than that. If I had to throw tags together in an effort to label this, it’d be Grand-Dire, for the sheer opulence of the story telling and the world itself, versus the stakes and the events set in motion. The world Smith-Spark has woven – and I say woven, because building inspires thoughts of blocks, and The Court Of Broken Knives is a rich tapestry not levels of lego – is breath taking. Soul destroying at times, too. Yet, somehow, it comes crashing back to earth right when you need it to. I will have to admit that this took me a moment or two to get used to. Actually, not a moment or two – a chapter of two, in fact. I fell in love with the first chapter – the opening page in particular. You’ll know what I mean when you read it, but the language, the choice of wording, even the tempo…there’s something about it. A je ne sais quoi that will breed diehards by the thousands, but naysayers, too. But as I reached the second chapter, I began to notice that I wasn’t grasping everything that the voice was trying to tell me. A sentence here, there, there and there. I was almost reading the words rather than reading what was going on. Now, let me be clear, this isn’t because the voice is speaking in a language that I didn’t understand, the words I knew, but as a reader who takes joy in simple pleasures and straight forward prose (e.g. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames, and RJ Barker’s Age of Assassins, as examples from 2017, and of course my love of David Gemmell) I wasn’t fully appreciating what Anna was saying in the telling of this story. So, I restarted. Not once. Twice. And then I got it. Oh boy, I got it. And it wasn’t just speaking to me. It was singing! I must’ve only been 10 or so pages in when I restarted (note: I checked, it was page 11) but I’m glad I did. Once I had tuned myself in to the voice, I went from enjoying it, to being wrapped up in it. And why was this? Without overdoing it any more, it’s the voice! The sentence structure and wording will be new – dare I say unique – to many readers, and the shifts between first and third person will be staggering until you’re used to it. Speaking of perspectives, the story is told through that of a quartet of diverse characters. A priestess, a politician, a veteran mercenary, and a seemingly-simple-yet-forever-suffering ranking soldier. The contrast between the two pairings allows for interplay and a comparison of human nature, that is both provocative as it is a pleasure to read and explore. For me, my favourite as is the norm, was the veteran, who I connected with. The priestess in particular allows for an eye-opening account of the perversities and providence in divinity, whilst the politician delves into the sheer determination of mortal will and the downfalls that come with it. The Court Of Broken Knives is not for the faint hearted – both in terms of themes and the style of delivery. It’s a hard book to put down and come back to, potentially another reason why I had to restart, as I was so caught up with work at time of beginning reading. But, I felt that’s because it’s meant to be devoured. Not a page turner, but a page burner. Once you get into the flow of things, you’ve dragged along, sucked down into the depths, and when you come back up you’ll be gasping for air. CONCLUSION: I realise that this review is thin on the ground in terms of detail on the plot or the characters – but you can get that from the blurb. This review is here to tell you what the blurb won’t. That this book really is different. It will make you think differently. It will challenge you. Recommended for fans of Mark Lawrence and R. Scott Bakker, I can understand why, but by the time you’ve finished, you’ll realise there isn’t another author quite like Anna Smith Spark. Not just a new voice. But a different voice.
THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES by Anna Smith Spark
Rob B August 1, 2017 1 Comment
A court ruled by an Emperor-in-Name only, a murderous intrigue plotting to topple the Emperor, led by Lord Orhan Emmereth, an exiled murdering youth named Marith, and a priestess, Thalia, of a murderous religion are at the dark heart of Anna Smith Spark’s debut novel, The Court of Broken Knives. The novel launches a Grimdark saga, The Empires of Dust and if there was any question about the grimdark nature of the writer and her work, look no further than her twitter handle, “@QueenofGrimdark.”
Cover Design by Lauren Panepinto, Illustration by Gene Mollica.
In this dark and gripping debut fantasy that Miles Cameron called “gritty and glorious!” the exiled son of the king must fight to reclaim his throne no matter the cost.
It is the richest empire the world has ever known, and it is also doomed. Governed by an imposturous Emperor, decadence has blinded its inhabitants to their vulnerability. The Yellow Empire is on the verge of invasion–and only one man can see it.
Haunted by prophetic dreams, Orhan has hired a company of soldiers to cross the desert to reach the capital city. Once they enter the Palace, they have one mission: kill the Emperor, then all those who remain. Only from the ashes can a new empire be built.
The company is a group of good, ordinary soldiers, for whom this is a mission like any other. But the strange boy Marith who walks among them is no ordinary soldier. Young, ambitious, and impossibly charming, something dark hides in Marith’s past–and in his blood.
Dark and brilliant, dive into this new fantasy series for readers looking for epic battle scenes, gritty heroes, and blood-soaked revenge.
Spark immediately sets the stage for the novel with a vicious, harried, and bloody battlefield. Tobias leads the band of mercenaries known as “The Free Company of the Swords” hired by Orhan to murder the emperor in the city of Sorlost. These mercenaries are not unlike mercenaries many fantasy novels feature, except these mercenaries come across as a bit more dark and somewhat more decadent, especially the foppish, striking, drug addict Marith who latched onto the crew. He soon proves that he can more than hold his weight when he kills a dragon. Through the point of view of Thalia, Spark also focuses a great deal of the plot and action on a dark religion (Great Tanis, the Lord of Living and Dying) that is the epitome of grimdark, in order for the religion to prosper, children must be sacrificed. Further, the “current” high priestess is always murdered by her successor. Fun stuff, right?
Once Tobias and his crew arrive in the city where the Emperor resides and the murder games chaotically commence, Thalia takes the opportunity to leave her church. Young love soon takes up residence as the murder-prince and murder-priestess see stars in each other’s eyes and fall for each other. Spark also adds a well-realized romantic triangle involving Orhan, his wife, and his male lover. The relationship between the men is shown to be a problem not as much because it was between two men, but because of the implications it would have for this councilor’s social status and ability to sire an heir.
The world is broken down in many respects. The nation and world are posited as in decline, decadent, and seemingly rotting at the core. When an adulterating high-class citizen and the leader of a group of mercenaries and assassins come across as two of the more redeeming character, then the author has gone to some reasonable lengths to make the majority of the characters unlikeable and dishonorable.
As more was revealed about Marith, I found him to be very similar to Jorg, the protagonist of Mark Lawrence’s epic Broken Empire trilogy, a series many consider a grimdark masterpiece. There’s a similar disaffected nature to the two protagonists, as well as their youth and casual entrenchment in extremely violent acts. That said, Marith has his own depth, as do many of the characters in the novel. Spark invested enough time and novel-space to these characters that they fell fairly genuine. The world itself walked a fine line between a familiar medieval-esque decadent kingdom with some bits here and there to set it apart. In other words, Spark does some things really well with this novel.
Despite the well-realized characters, I felt very disconnected to the story. The prose was disjointed, switching from first person point of view to more of a third person point of view as chapters ended and new chapters began and as characters took center stage. It was initially quite jarring and made more so by some of the stilted, abrupt dialogue and descriptive passages that felt inconsistent in terms of how complete they were. Not all the character’s motivations are always clear which perhaps contributed to my disaffected feelings. Overall, there’s an emptiness that I can’t quite pinpoint that prevented me from enjoying it completely. That may be the point of the novel and Grimdark as a whole, but perhaps I’m wearying of Grimdark, or at least stories where the bloody, decadent and depraved Grimdark elements are pervasive and weigh down the story.
That said, Grimdark is a popular subset of fantasy and this book hits a lot of the notes that exemplify Grimdark quite precisely. Spark does many things well in her debut, but others left me frustrated (that stilted and hiccupy prose). The Court of Broken Knives will likely find an audience and will appeal to readers who enjoy Mark Lawrence and Michael R. Fletcher. In other words, I recognize the quality of the novel even if it doesn’t completely align with my (current) reading sensibilities.
© 2017 Rob H. Bedford
Orbit, August 2017
Trade Paperback, 512 Pages
Empires of Dust #1
http://courtofbrokenknives.org/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Orbit Books
The Court of Broken Knives Is a Fantasy Debut Grimmer Than Grimdark
by Corrina Lawson/ August 31, 2017 at 11:00 am Share
Court of Broken Knives cover detailAnna Smith Spark’s debut The Court of Broken Knives is a fevered dream of a fantasy, set in a world where the saviors also seem to be the destroyers.
The book is set into motion by Orhan, a noble of the fading Yellow Empire in Sorlost, the “Golden City” where noble factions vie for power. Their plots and counterplots remind me of that quote about in-fighting in academia being so fierce because the stakes are so small, so little is left of the Empire. Orhan wants to do the right thing, though he seems unsure of what it could be, and is driven by a force he can’t name to believe the status quo cannot persist. Only he seems to realize there is a threat looming outside the realm, one others seem to refuse to see.
The Court of Broken Knives
NOOK Book $4.99
Add to Bag
See All Formats & Editions ›
The corruption in the former Yellow Empire is evident in the worship of its goddess, who requires human sacrifice performed by a chosen orphan, who is then trained for a decade to become the embodiment of the goddess. Thalia, the latest High Priestess, has never left the environs of her Temple, nor known any other life, putting aside qualms about performing human sacrifices because they are what the goddess requires. In her time, she has killed men, women, and children in worship the goddess, since the day of the ceremony that confirmed her, at just 5 years old.
I bowed my head and said the words after her. My voice was very loud. I had been afraid that it would stick in my throat. Bitter in my mouth when I drank, salt water mixed with the tang of blood. The face stared at me, a multitude of the faces black and brown and white, bright eyes and golden jewelry. I rose and stood tall before the altar, in my robes and my crown, and I was the High Priestess, the Chosen of God, the Beloved of Great Tanis and the Lord of LIving and Dying, she who gives light and darkness and life and death and mercy and pain.
Into this mess walks Marith, the newest member of a mercenary company traveling to Sorlost, an adventure that at first seems unconnected to Orhan’s plotting—much as Marith seems to be an unimportant member of the company, just one of many (he isn’t even the point of view character in the company; that would be Tobias, one of the squad leaders). Only slowly does Marith’s importance come to light, though his confrontation with a dragon at the start of the novel is a clue that makes Tobias ponder.
Marith, on the other hand….Yes, Well. The boy had a charisma of some kind. More than just his obvious high breeding, though that was part of it. But it went deeper, something in him that you couldn’t put into words. … He’d sat quiet last night, hardly speaking. Nose down in his drink and those big sad eyes. The barmaid had pawed over him, not surprising, really, since the boy was considerably prettier than she was, and he’d ignored her completely. Not because he was shy of her, or not interested in her, he’d given the girl a through looking over at first … but as though she had stopped meaning anything to him. As though nothing meant anything to him.
This is a book in which the gods are real, and not benevolent. Marith is the proof of that: a man descended from a warmongering god who inspired worship of death. It’s implied the reason Marith fell on the hard times—resulting in his placement in a low-level mercenary company—is that he feels the death god within him, and is trying to resist its siren call. But those who struggle against gods don’t fare well. Even Tobias, the ordinary mercenary, senses that, and is afraid.
This is not an escapist fantasy.
In her epilogue, Sparks says she loves reading grimdark fantasy (her twitter handle is @queenofgrimdark, after all), and she’s certainly written a good representation of the genre. Indeed, she could probably give George R.R. Martin lessons in how to kill people in distressinf ways. Her book requires patience in the beginning, as it takes time for the plot to unfold, especially amid interludes to Amrath, the God of Death, and because there are multiple points of view.
Without spoiling too much, I’ll say that in any other book, the big climax would be the culmination of Orhan’s plans to assassinate his king. Here, that happens at the halfway point. By the final chapter, it’s clear chaos and death are coming, or have already arrived, and that life in this world is only going to get worse for everyone. It’s an ending that fulfills the promise of the end of the first chapter:
The shining figure turns. Looks at the men watching. Looks at him. Screams. Things shriek back that make the world tremble. The silver sword rises and falls. Five men. Ten. Twenty. A pile of corpses. He stares mesmerized at the dying. The beauty of it. The most beautiful thing in the world. Killing and killing and such perfect joy. His heart overflowing. His heart singing. This, oh, indeed, oh, for this, all men are born. He scream in answer, dying, throws himself against his god’s enemies with knife and sword and nails and teeth.
Why we march and why we die
And what life means…it’s all a lie
Death! Death! Death!
This book may not make you worship death like its characters do, but it weaves a spell that will consume you all the same.
The Court of Broken Knives is available now.