The single biggest distinguishing factor that makes a story a fantasy is its use of magic, but there are a number of different flavors of fantasy stories. The most well known is probably epic fantasy, which is the grand, sweeping plot with massive armies and world changing events (whichever world it may be) like you find in Lord of the Rings. Another big one is hero (or sword and sorcery) fantasy, which has a narrower focus and centers on one or a handful of characters and their particular adventures. The Wizard of Oz could fall into this category. Urban fantasy like Harry Potter is set in a relatively modern city, alternate history fantasy poses a scenario of what would things be like if _____ thing from history had actually turned out differently, and dark fantasy is, well, dark and foreboding (think vampires, or the Underworld series).
Michael Stackpole's novel, Talion:Revenant, falls into the hero fantasy genre. It follows the main character, Nolan, through a series of adventures from his aspiration as a young boy of becoming a Talion Justice all the way through some of his critical missions as a seasoned veteran. In this story, the Talions were set apart long ago by the Emperor as an independent city-state with the explicit mission of keeping the peace between the nations of the world. They are the elite of the elite in warriors, soldiers, and tacticians. One branch, the Justices, are also magically endowed to dispense justice throughout all nations wherever they go, no matter the crime or criminal. They are the absolute best of the best, and not only possess skills equal to that of the other Talion branches, but they are given great latitude to function independently and in whatever way they see fit.
Stackpole does his usual brilliant job of describing an ancient feeling world full of knights, chivalry, and history while painting a visual picture through his words like few others can. The way he fleshes out his characters lends an air of believability to them, daring the reader to disbelieve that these were real people doing real things once upon a time. Whereas epic fantasy delivers much in terms of grand battles and massive armies, Revenant delivers an outstanding adventure story full of imagination and grandeur, individual battle tactics, and personal struggles very similar to those we might face in our own lives.
One of my favorite aspects of this book -- and one that I think really makes it unique -- is that it alternates between Nolan as a successful Justice on a real mission in one chapter and Nolan as a young boy in training in another chapter. Each chapter is its own self-contained story, but the chapter describing each piece of his youth also foreshadows the corresponding chapter of his adulthood. On top of this, Stackpole also weaves a broader novel-length plot through both storylines that becomes far greater than the sum of its chronological parts. I've never seen another novel written in this format, and I love it.
If you have any interest in fantasy, this is a great story to pick up.
One of the other reasons I like Michael Stackpole is that he is very tech savvy and is quite plain about trying to push the envelope of publishing. As a very accomplished author, he clearly knows what it takes to make money in the business using standard channels, and he also knows the warts behind the scenes. He is solidly on the bandwagon of self-publishing and ebooks, and has blogged before about how ebooks offer a win-win scenario: lower prices to the consumer (thus encouraging additional purchasing) and higher pay checks for the author (thus encouraging additional writing).
A few months ago, Stackpole offered a very intriguing challenge to his readers. He has wanted to do a sequel to Revenant for a number of years, but due to various publishing constraints he has not been able to do so. If he self publishes, however, he can get around those constraints. So, he recently released Revenant in ebook format, and has pledged that he'll save all the money from the ebook proceeds until he has enough saved away to take a year off from his normal writing schedule in order to write the sequel. Basically, it will be a project for the fans and wholly financed by the fans. To that end, the more copies of his ebook sell, the faster the sequel will appear, so I wanted to put in my own small plug for such a worthy endeavor.
If you are an avid reader of any genre at all, wouldn't it be worth a few bucks to support this experiment to try to rock the traditional publishing establishment and give authors a much more free hand to put out the content they want to put out (and that you presumably want to read)? Or, you could just buy Talion:Revenant because it's such an excellent story. Either way, you win.
Stackpole has begun posting the first few chapters of the book online to give potential readers a sneak peek...check out for free and see what you think:
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