Daily Archives: August 27, 2008

A Fantasy Life

By Janet Quinn Cornelow

Barbara Clark, aka April Reid, and myself, aka Janet Quinn, had a book signing last Saturday at Sunshine Books in Cerritos. It was quiet, but we had fun and sold some books. Linda McLaughlin came and visited with us and took pictures.

I started reading a fantasy series written by Lilith Saintcrow. The main character is Dante Valentine who is a necromance. I didn’t sort them when I started, so I am reading them out of order which makes for a bit of confusion at times. She does write well enough that the books stand alone, but a character that was dead in the last book I read is alive again in the next one. That probably isn’t bad since I always read the end first anyway to see who is going to live.

What fascinates me about these books is the world that Saintcrow built. I like dark urban fantasy where the heroine can take out the monsters. This world is filled with creatures that have different powers. There are Magi, Shaman, Necromances, and various creatures who are not quite human. There are also demons and Lucifer who have a great deal of power over the world. There are even humans, which are pretty much throw away creatures that no one seems terribly impressed with.

The author has also created a world post Christianity that lives by rules formed after the fall of Christianity. There is a glossary in one book explaining all the terms that she has created. This is a very complicated world housing good and evil beings who fight each other to defend their own lives. There are even those who Death has refused to take.

Saintcrow had to have spent a great amount of time building this world. She has covered everything from religion to education. It is a great example to look at if you are thinking of doing world building.