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WORK TITLE: A Fistful of Elven Gold
WORK NOTES:
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BIRTHDATE: 7/25/1958
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NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES: N/A
PERSONAL
Born July 25, 1958 in Southend-on-Sea, England.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer of short stories, novels, screenplays, comic scripts, reviews, and criticism. Worked formerly as a staff writer on “Bugs,” a BBC technothriller series.
WRITINGS
Contributor to numerous periodicals, including Interzone.
SIDELIGHTS
Alex Stewart is a writer of short stories, novels, screenplays, comic scripts, reviews, criticism and RPG scenarios. Born and raised in Southend-on-Sea, Britain, Stewart developed in interest in writing and books at a young age. His interest in science fiction was in part due to an influence from his grandmother, who had a passion for Thunderbirds and Godzilla movies.
Stewart’s first works were published in British SF magazine Interzone. He writes under his own name as well as under the pseudonym, Sandy Mitchell.
Shooting the Rift
Shooting the Rift takes place in the far future, after humans have colonized space in a region known as the Human Sphere. Women reign in this day, holding the roles of warriors and leaders, and all of the privilege that comes with these positions, while men raise the children and tend to the home.
Two states in this region, the Rimward Commonwealth and the League of Democracies, are at the threshold of war. The narrator and protagonist of the story, Simon Forrester, is a member of the Commonwealth, and his family is well-regarded in the nation. His mother is a warship Captain and his sister recently joined the marines, carrying on the family legacy of Naval prominence. Simon was kicked out of the Commonwealth Naval Academy for selling exam answers and term papers, which he acquired using his above-average hacking skills. His family is horrified and his mother disowns him. The only one willing to give him a second chance is his paternal aunt, Jenny, a secret intelligence officer for the Commonwealth. Jenny recognizes Simon’s hacker potential, and recruits him as an undercover agent on the Stacked Deck, a Guild trader ship.
Simon sets out, eager to succeed as a spy and redeem himself. However, soon after the Deck enters into enemy territory, the ship is attacked and all of the crew members are taken prisoner. Simon must carefully work to both keep his identity secret as well as escape the prison, if he hopes to save the mission, or his life.
Mel Jacob in SF Review website described the book as “a fun Young Adult read with a likable hero,” while Paul Di Filippo in Locus wrote that Shooting the Rift is “a genial, clever, colorful, rousing space opera.”
A Fistful of Elven Gold
Drago Appleroot is a gnome bounty hunter who is proud of his reputation of bringing back targets alive. He lives in the cosmopolitan city of Fairhaven, under the rule of Elf King Stargleam of the Sylvan Marches. When Drago is called upon by the King to take an out-of-town job, one that may require him to take another’s life, he can hardly say no. Drago is tasked with pretending to be an assassin in order to find Gorash Grover, the leader of a rebel group of goblins and the accused murdered of Queen Ariella. All of the assassins King Stargleam have assigned to take care of Gorash have disappeared, seemingly dead.
Drago agrees and sets off into goblin territory, which was recently annexed by the elvish kingdom so they could access the goblin’s gold mines. As Drago learns more about the kingdom of the Sylvan Marches, he comes to see that the Elf King’s motives may arise out of racist bias rather than a desire for justice, and Drago must decide who he can trust before an innocent life is taken.
Alan Keep in Booklist described the book as an “energetic narrative full of action and occasional moments of wry humor,” adding, “recommended to not only Stewart’s existing fans but anyone looking for a fast-paced, fun, and engaging fantasy read.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly wrote: “Stewart develops his intricate plot with stimulating efficiency while building the tapestry of his setting.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 15, 2012, Ian Chipman, review of Dragonwood, p. 53; March 15, 2018, Alan Keep, review of A Fistful of Elven Gold, p. 28.
Publishers Weekly, February 26, 2018, review of A Fistful of Elven Gold, p. 72.
ONLINE
Locus, https://locusmag.com/ (April 20, 2016), Paul Di Filippo, review of Shooting the Rift.
SF Revu, http://www.sfrevu.com/ (April 5, 2016), Mel Jacob, review of Shooting the Rift.
About the Author
Born in Southend-on-Sea, a fading costal resort at the mouth of the Thames Estuary, Alex Stewart has been writing stories since he could first hold a pen. Introduced to science fiction at an early age by his grandmother’s enthusiasm for Thunderbirds, Godzilla movies, and weekly gift of comic books, he rapidly exhausted the local library’s stock of juvenile SF, and resorted to raiding the adult shelves with his mother’s ticket.
Since his debut in British SF magazine Interzone, Stewart has has written short stories, novels, screenplays, comic scripts, reviews, criticism and RPG scenarios, both under his own name and the pseudonym Sandy Mitchell. As Sandy Mitchell, he’s best known for the popular Commissar Cain series of Warhammer 40,000 tie-ins, described by David Drake as “First rate military SF.” In the late Nineties, he was also a staff writer on the BBC prime-time technothriller series Bugs.
Print Marked Items
A Fistful of Elven Gold
Alan Keep
Booklist.
114.14 (Mar. 15, 2018): p28.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
A Fistful of Elven Gold.
By Alex Stewart.
Apr. 2018. 320p. Baen, paper, $16 (9781481483155).
Stewart's latest (after Shooting the Rift, 2017) follows the gnome Drago Appleroot, a bounty hunter in the cosmopolitan city of Fairhaven, who
always tries to bring in his targets alive--and most of the time succeeds. After many of Dragos more lethal colleagues are found dead, having all
seemingly taken the same out-of-town job offer, the Fairhaven city watch call on Drago to pretend to be a deadly assassin in order to find out who
or what is targeting the city's bounty hunters. This sends Drago straight into a nest of political intrigue as he attempts to navigate the Sylvan
Marches, an insular elvish kingdom whose annexation of nearby goblin territory to acquire a new gold mine causes constant unrest. Stewart, most
famous for his Warhammer 40K novels under the pseudonym Sandy Mitchell, has written a brisk and energetic narrative full of action and
occasional moments of wry humor. A Fistful of Elvish Gold is recommended to not only Stewart's existing fans but anyone looking for a fastpaced,
fun, and engaging fantasy read.--Alan Keep
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Keep, Alan. "A Fistful of Elven Gold." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2018, p. 28. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A533094469/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cd2991a6. Accessed 19 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A533094469
A Fistful of Elven Gold
Publishers Weekly.
265.9 (Feb. 26, 2018): p72.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
A Fistful of Elven Gold
Alex Stewart. Baen, $16 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-4814-8315-5
This immersive standalone fantasy mystery from Stewart (The Greater Good) features a sarcastic, offbeat main character and a meticulously
constructed fantasy world. Elf King Stargleam of the Sylvan Marches hires gnome Drago Appleroot to kill Gorash Grover, the leader of a rebel
group of goblins who are thought responsible for the disappearance and alleged assassination of Queen Ariella. When Drago realizes the extent of
the elves' bias against other races, he begins to wonder whether Gorash Grover's story is more complex than he's been led to believe. Stewart
develops his intricate plot with stimulating efficiency while building the tapestry of his setting. Drago is a confident and skilled protagonist, and
his complexity of character encourages the reader to both celebrate his successes and mourn his setbacks. The resolution comes a bit too quickly,
but otherwise it's a very enjoyable adventure. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"A Fistful of Elven Gold." Publishers Weekly, 26 Feb. 2018, p. 72. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530637445/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=da0ee463. Accessed 19 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530637445
Dragonwood
Ian Chipman
Booklist.
108.12 (Feb. 15, 2012): p53.
COPYRIGHT 2012 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Dragonwood.
By Alex Stewart.
2012. 64p. IPG/Evans, paper, $7.99 (9780237541354). Gr. 6-9.
Designed for reluctant readers, this slim entry in the Shades series (imported from Britain) presents a fantasy story that dispenses with the
massive casting and large chunks of world building that usually swell such novels to intimidating lengths. The straightforward episode follows a
halfling bounty hunter, Pip, who has been paid by an eleven prince to track down and return the head of an orcish outlaw, who is rumored to have
slain the prince's sister. He soon enough finds reason to doubt his employer's word, but Pip is sworn to carry out his mission one way or another.
Playing off of the implied fantasy standards of the Tolkien tradition (orcs bad, elves good, halflings sneaky), Stewart packs in two or three solid
twists in what essentially becomes a conflicted-private-eye story in a fantasy setting. A solid choice for readers who want to leave their world for
a bit but don't have the time or the skill to stay away for too long.--Ian Chipman
Chipman, Ian
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Chipman, Ian. "Dragonwood." Booklist, 15 Feb. 2012, p. 53. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A282214710/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=565aa40a. Accessed 19 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A282214710
Paul Di Filippo reviews Alex Stewart
April 20, 2016 Paul Di Filippo
Shooting the Rift, by Alex Stewart (Baen 978-1-4767-8118-1, $16, trade paperback) April 2016
Unless I am radically misinterpreting his bibliography, Alex Stewart has written upwards of a score of novels, all of them in the Warhammer franchise and under the penname of Sandy Mitchell. Shooting the Rift appears to be his first “independent” production under his own name. Except that he also began publishing short fiction as Alex Stewart as far back as 1982. And so he emerges into the arena of “creator-owned” SF novels (to port over a term from comics) as a seasoned, dual-track professional with what we must assume is a tale compelling enough to make him break his old patterns of work. And in my judgment, he is fully justified in singling out this tale for special exhibition, for he has come up with a genial, clever, colorful, rousing space opera that resonates with the classic work of Poul Anderson, James Schmitz and A. Bertram Chandler—not coincidentally, all of them past masters with Baen editions!
We inhabit the indefinite future so beloved and essential for this subgenre—however unrealistic a scenario such spoilsports as Charles Stross and Kim Stanley Robinson might deem it—wherein humans have spread out to colonize a fair portion of the galaxy—the Human Sphere, to be precise. Within this cubic tract are many polities, two of which are at our focus: the Rimward Commonwealth and the League of Democracies. Our narrator and hero, Simon Forrester (his surname being a nod, one assumes, to author C. S. Forester of Hornblower fame), is a member of the Commonwealth. His family is a well-regarded one that has contributed Naval officers for generations. In fact, Simon’s mother is a warship Captain, and his sister, Tinkie, might have become one also, had she not joined the Marines instead. When we meet Simon, he has just been booted out of his university for selling test answers and term papers, obtained thanks to his superior hacking skills. (The average citizen of this era is fully rigged out with neuroware, mentally linked to the immense dataverse and able to communicate more or less telepathically with anyone else so equipped.) Could Simon perhaps redeem himself by entering the Naval Academy and following in the family tradition? Unlikely, since he is after all a male!
Here is the first and most charming fillip of the novel. The Commonwealth is, if not a pure matriarchy, a society in which female privilege is the reality. By flipping the gender roles of Western society in the twenty-first century, Stewart gets a nice boost of cognitive estrangement so essential to good SF. And he never overplays his hand or engages in crude, reductionist satire. This is just the way such a setup would work, for all practical reasons.
In any case, denied a Naval career, Simon is left at loose ends and so is ripe for recruitment by his Aunt Jenny, a secret Intelligence officer, who has been impressed by his hacking skills and general brashness. She manages to get him enrolled onboard a Guild trader ship, the Stacked Deck, as cover story, and sends him out into the harsh and merciless universe to further the cause of the Commonwealth against the League. Captain Remington proves a fine mentor, and crewmember Clio Rennau an intriguing pal and potential if prickly love-interest. Meanwhile, Simon, who has never been absent from his home planet before, starts his galactic education by fire.
All of this occupies about the first hundred pages of the novel, and is delivered in such a smooth, engaging and even touching voice, leavened with wry humor, that the reader is pulled into the tale as if into a recitation by some old raconteur friend. Simon being an antihero and a bit of a rogue (maybe Harry Harrison’s Slippery Jim DiGriz and Keith Laumer’s Retief should be trotted out as influences at this point), we never get suffused with pretentious gravitas. The droll chapter headers—“In which Remington gives and receives a blessing.”—are plainly modeled on such literary classics as Tom Jones: “A short description of squire Allworthy, and a fuller account of Miss Bridget Allworthy, his sister.” Really, the picaresque novel of the eighteenth century—a time of analogous terrestrial empires and explorations—should be used more often for space operas, and Stewart gets big kudos for choosing this model.
The next exciting section of the novel finds Stewart honing his spy chops and his Guild craft on the world of Numarkut. After this, the ship runs afoul of the League, there’s a long stint on a fortress-cum-prison moon, and finally a slambang action climax and neat tidying up of all threads. We leave Simon in an intriguing new position, set for further adventures.
The title of the book refers to the common means of hyperspace travel in this future, and Stewart makes that technology as accessible and relevant as the neuroware, genetic engineering, anti-gravity, and other assorted techno-furniture of the milieu. His various venues—really only about three or four, which is perhaps the one aspect of sparseness in an otherwise well-stuffed book—are limned with vigor, vividness and vivacity. The personages are all true-to-life, delivering fine banter and plot-propelling dialogue, arising out of fully believable motivations and drives and desires.
Although I have made a lot of comparisons here to old-school SF, Stewart’s book does not feel like a pastiche or homage, is not creaky nor fusty. Perhaps not as quite as cutting-edge hip as Corey’s Expanse series, it nonetheless emerges authentically from the current moment in both the culture and the genre, representing the best of what ambitious adventure SF has always done and can plainly continue to do.
Paul Di Filippo has been writing professionally for over thirty years, and has published almost that number of books. He lives in Providence, RI, with his mate of an even greater number of years, Deborah Newton.
Shooting the Rift by Alex Stewart
Cover Artist: Stephan Martiniere
Review by Mel Jacob
Baen Trade Paperback ISBN/ITEM#: 9781476781181
Date: 05 April 2016 List Price $16.00 Amazon US / Amazon UK
Links: Author's Wikipedia Entry / Show Official Info / ShareThis
Faster than light travel via gravity wells to far flung outposts provides the setting for Alex Stewart's Shooting the Rift. The Commonwealth sector and the League worlds are on the brink of war. Each seeks an edge against the other.
Born into a matriarchal society where women are the warriors and men raise the children and manage family finances, young Simon Forrester wants to be a doer and a naval officer. He early learns ways to manipulate neuroware to eavesdrop and find ways to gain an edge against others, especially his mother, a naval commander.
When he tries to enter the Commonwealth Naval Academy, he is caught snooping test answers and is dismissed in disgrace. His mother disowns him and only his paternal aunt is sympathetic. The aunt is a warrant officer, but also a Commonwealth spy and recruits Simon to help her. She gets him a berth aboard a Guild cargo hauler, the Stacked Deck, as a crewman. Some of the crew have enhanced abilities courtesy of genetic manipulation.
Once the captain learns Simon has managed to download information from a customs officer, he is made a guild member. He hopes to use Simon's abilities to eavesdrop on various officials.
The captain agrees to take a rush cargo to a League world. Guild ships are allowed to travel between both empires. Simon hopes the trip will provide useful information for his aunt. However, once in League space, the Stacked Deck and its crew are taken prisoners. The League is looking for spies among the various Guild crews.
Simon's skills are severely strained to both avoid detection and to escape from the League prison. However, he cannot do it alone. His former shipmates don't trust him and are glad to leave him behind.
Stewart uses old tropes with a few twists. Simon is a sympathetic character as are shipmate Clio and her father. The transgenetic people are interesting although Captain Ertica is too similar to the comic book character Poison Ivy. While originality may be lacking, Shooting the Rift is a fun Young Adult read with a likable hero.