Hello, and welcome once again to Beyond the Words. This month, we're traveling to a world much like our own Earth, similar to Europe in medieval times. Our guide will be Sean Russell, who will lead us into a realm of magic, where science holds little sway. In his books, THE ONE KINGDOM and THE ISLE OF BATTLE, Mr. Russell will introduce us to his magical realm of Ayr and tell us a story of love and hate, of murder and suicide and of war and peace. So, please follow me as we step aboard our dream machine and visit this fantasy world.

THE ONE KINGDOM Book One of the Swan’s War By Sean Russell Harper Collins  — February 5, 2002 ISBN: 0-380-79227-3  —  Paperback Fiction / Fantasy Explict Violence Reviewed by Jo Rogers, MyShelf.Com Buy a Copy

At the beginning of THE ONE KINGDOM, four cousins of the Renné family, Beldor, Samul, Dease and Arden, are plotting the assassination of a fifth cousin, Toren, who now is the de facto ruler of the family. Toren wants to make peace with their long-time enemy, the Wills family. To accomplish this, he plans to return a piece of land, the Isle of Battle, to the Wills family. This was taken in a war over succession to the now kingless throne. Neither side was victorious and the land was splintered into a number of small countries, each prince holding what land he had armies enough to secure.
Lord Carral Wills also wants peace. But he and Toren Renné are practically alone in this desire. Blind since birth, Carral has left the running of the family to his wicked brother, Menwyn, and has become a minstrel, living for his music and his daughter, Elise. But Menwyn and the four Renné cousins have no desire for peace. Menwyn wants to force Elise Wills to marry Prince Michael, son of the prince of Innes. This man has a powerful and ruthless counselor who will do anything it takes to form the alliances to fight a war with the Renné. Soon, others are accidentally caught in their intrigue.

When cousins Tamlyn Loell, Fynnol Loell and Baore Talon set out from their homes in the Vale of Lakes, they planned to go to Inniseth and return before the first snows fell. They would travel first by boat down the River Wynnd, taking a stop at a battlefield to dig up some ancient artifacts, then take these to Inniseth to sell. They planned to come back on horses they would purchase in Inniseth. But their plans would go badly wrong.

When the strange traveler, Alaan, first came to their campfire, he seemed like a friendly, harmless fellow. But, he was accompanied by a whist, a bird of blue-black plumage that was thought to be a harbinger of death. The three cousins still thought little unusual about the man until he awakened them in the middle of the night with a warning that there were men hiding in the nearby forest.

The men were dressed all in black and looked like men-at-arms, trained soldiers, rather than the gang of thieves the cousins first thought them to be. Alaan said the men were after him and persuaded the three cousins to cross the Telanon Bridge while he held off the brigands, as he called them. They did so, but to their sight, Alaan was murdered by the brigands. The three cousins hid down the river from the ruins where they had camped. When they returned to their camp, all their belongings had been rifled and their boat, along with the valuables they intended to sell, was gone.

Soon after their narrow escape, they met a band of Faél, a race of wanderers much like our won Gypsies. They were mostly dark haired, dark eyed and dark skinned, though there were some of a lighter complexion. The three cousins told the Faél of their fate. The Faél offered them a proposition. They would help Baore build another boat and buy the cousins horses if they would accompany one of the Faél storyfinders, a man named Cynddl, down the river Wynnd in search of stories. Little did they know how dangerous that would be. Would the three cousins survive their adventure long enough to get back home?

In THE ONE KINGDOM, Sean Russell has begun an epic high fantasy that will keep you reading, though the tale is long. I found it difficult to put down, and I found I really could hardly wait for the second book. This is one of the best fantasies I've read. Pick it up for those long winter evenings. It's much better than TV.

THE ISLE OF BATTLE Book Two of the Swan’s War By Sean Russell Eos (Harper Collins)   —  August 2002 ISBN: 0-390-97490-8  —  Hardcover Fiction / Fantasy Explict Violence Reviewed by Jo Rogers, MyShelf.Com Buy a Copy

THE ISLE OF BATTLE continues the story begun in THE ONE KINGDOM. By this time, Tam, Fynnol, Baore and Cynddl have been joined by a man named Pwyll, a fellow traveler with Alaan. They have found that Alaan is still alive, and they have learned there is a war brewing. The reader also learns that the assassins have failed in their attempt to kill their cousin Toren Renné. Beldor, blinded by his hatred and jealousy of Toren, has murdered his cousin Arden without making sure it was Toren in his sights. Now, he and Samul are on the run, with Toren and Dease following, though Dease is still suffering from the clout on the head he got from Beldor.

Our cousins also have learned that they have traveled down parts of the river that few have ever seen. Many strange things have happened, but they are almost nothing compared to what is to come. Lady Elise Wills had thrown herself in the river to stop the alliance with the Prince of Innes, but Baore has rescued her. But Elise made a bargain with a river spirit called a nagar, and she is not herself. In fact, the counselor to the Prince of Innes, Sir Eremon, is not who he claims to be, nor is he totally Hafydd, a knight who has been dead for twenty years. Nor is Alaan who he seems to be.

These three lead the cousins, Cynddl and Pwyll on a strange and terrifying journey into lands few have trodden. Can they all survive? And can they stop a war when first blood has already been drawn?

THE ISLE OF BATTLE along with its predecessor, THE ONE KINGDOM, are books the reader must experience to truly appreciate. No mere description can do them justice. I anxiously await the next book in this strange tale.

Now, let’s visit with Mr. Russell and see how this fascinating series came to life.

Now, let's visit with Mr. Russell and see how this fascinating series came to life.

Jo Rogers: Mr. Russell, welcome to Beyond the Words. Where did you get the idea for this series? Did it come all at once or grow after you began writing?

Sean Russell: To begin, I had the idea of the feuding families and the young men traveling down the river, but almost everything else came as I was working on the books.

JR: How did you develop your characters? Do you model them after people you know or do they come to life on their own?

SR: I never model them after people I know. Characters are odd; some are really conscious constructions and take a lot of work, others just walk onto the page fully formed. The ones I've had to work at never seem as real to me as the characters who just appear with their whole life story in tow.

JR: Does the land between the mountains have a corresponding place in our own world?

SR: No. It's clearly a northern climate, and would bear a vague resemblance to parts of Europe or North America.

JR: The Faél storyfinders are especially interesting. How did you create them and just what are their abilities?

SR: I love ruins. Whenever I'm on the site of a ruin I always feel like the stones all contain stories and I can almost hear them. The idea of having people with a talent that allowed them to "hear" the stories that had been lived or told in a certain place was really a way to fuse the history with the geography. It allowed the history of different places to be told without it feeling forced, and history is very important to these books. It was also a way to talk about the magic of stories and where they come from. I often feel like I'm finding stories, myself, rather than creating them.

JR: The Knights of the Vow are also an interesting group. What was their vow and who broke it?

SR: Well, they had vows that they took that pertained to their duties. They also vowed never to take sides in a civil war - which they did. But the knights had a secret purpose and secret vows (these are hinted at in book II). You have to read book three to find this out!

JR: Lord Carral Wills is also an interesting man. Why did he think he couldn't run the family's interests? Would peace still have not been achieved?

SR: The Wills family had been involved in a feud for generations, so Carral Wills felt that, as a blind man, he would never be able to protect his family if it was required. His younger brother spent years eroding his confidence, and taking up his duties, to "spare" him from having to perform them. What would have happened if Lord Carral had taken his rightful place as head of the Wills family? I don't really know.

JR: The whist is also an interesting creature. Are these birds truly the harbingers of death?

SR: They're birds of warning. People think the whists are bad luck because they believe the call of the whist foretells death, but they are actually calls of warning, though people seldom heed them.

JR: War is a terrible thing, yet some people seem to thrive on it. Why do you think some are so determined to fight?

SR: I don't think there is a short answer to that. We've had wars throughout human history, so clearly there is something in our makeup that either causes or allows them. Hatred of other peoples can be taught from the cradle in very effective ways. If you look at the ongoing conflicts in the world, there are individuals there whose hatred is so great that they'd rather have a century of war than have peace. They don't care about the cost, their hatred has overwhelmed them. This is largely what has happened between the feuding families in the land between the mountains.

Once you start a blood feud it's very hard to stop. If you look at the places where this is ongoing you see the people on side A kill some people on side B. The people on side B react with horror saying, "how can these A people be so brutal and barbaric?" They then kill some innocent people on side A. The side A people ask, "how can these B people be so brutal and barbaric?" They then kill some innocent people on side B, and so on. It's a cycle of revenge and has nothing to do with seeking justice. Once you give up the idea of justice and replace it with revenge, you've gone over the edge into an abyss from which it's very hard to return.

JR: What happens when a person makes a bargain with a nagar? Does anything of their personality remain? What happens to their body when the nagar is finished with it?

SR: I don't think of the bargain with the nagar as being a possession. It's more like two rivers meeting and forming a single stream. The single stream is made up of the two rivers, but it's a different waterway altogether. The bargain with the nagar is like that. A third person is the result: someone with the memories of the nagar and their former selves, but aspects of both personalities. If the person dies the nagar will go back into the water, if there is water present. The nagar never shucks off the body otherwise. In a way, the person that results from a bargain with a nagar is like a child of the nagar and the person with whom they made the bargain.

JR: Now for the major question - when will the third installment of the Swans' War be available?

SR: Good question. I don't know. The One Kingdom took me two solid years to write. The Isle of Battle took about eighteen months, so book three is going to be a while yet.

JR: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. We've enjoyed your informative answers. We also anxiously await your next book.