Of Blood and Honey Review and Interview with Stina Leicht - November 2011 - BS-R

Of Blood and Honey Review and Interview with Stina Leicht

By Jennifer Brozek

Liam never knew who his father was. The town of Derry had always assumed that he was the bastard of a protestant - his mother never spoke of him, and Liam assumed he was dead. But when the war between the fallen and the fey began to heat up, Liam and his family are pulled into a conflict that they didn't know existed. A centuries old conflict between supernatural forces seems to mirror the political divisions in 1970's era Ireland, and Liam is thrown headlong into both conflicts! Only the direct intervention of Liam's real father, and a secret Catholic order dedicated to fighting "The Fallen" can save Liam... from the mundane and supernatural forces around him, and from the darkness that lurks within him.

Of Blood and Honey is Stina Leicht's debut novel and a stellar effort for what it is. There is much to like about this novel as well as a number of problems that can be found in first novels. There are two main issues I have with the story and both issues are in the first half of the novel. The rest of the novel is a fast paced thriller with a backdrop of a brutal war.

The first problem is the uneven and unexpected way the beginning part of the story jumps forward through time. It pulled me out of the story and made me reread sections to make certain I had not somehow skipped over part of a chapter. The most egregious example of this is where Liam, the protagonist, is being severely beaten for attacking and maiming a prison guard at the end of one chapter and the next time we see him two chapters later, he has been home for three days from the internment camp. All I could wonder is how, with the explicit brutality of the camp, Liam survived—much less been released. Fortunately, as the novel progresses, the transitions in time become expected and logical.

The second problem is that there is almost no fantasy element in the first half of the novel. If you prefer your stories of the Fey and Fallen to be steeped in fantasy from the get-go, this is not the novel for you. Conversely, if you are the type of reader who loves real world political strife and well-researched history with brief speculative elements, this is your novel. Me? I prefer lots of fantasy and hard politics isn't to my taste. However, the second half of the novel is rife with both political intrigue and the fantastical as well as gritty, historical realism.

Putting those two issues aside, I enjoyed this novel immensely. Leicht is a talented writer who can set a fast pace without sacrificing language. Her characterization of the main protagonists and antagonists is clear, interesting, and entertaining. The world-building of the speculative elements, in particular the Catholic order Milites Dei and the bloody conflict between the Fey and the Fallen, is intriguing. What little we learn about the Milites Dei and its mission makes it worth reading more. There's only a small amount of information about the Fey and the Fallen. Their conflict and the larger conflict with the world is only hinted at in broad strokes, which made me want to read more and rue the end of the novel.

The protagonist, Liam, is a man fighting conflicts on all fronts: the bastard son with an unpleasant stepfather, the war between the Protestants and Catholics, the war with his unknown heritage, and the war with the thing within that threatens to take control and slaughter all it sees—innocent and guilty alike. At first, Liam is a bit of a cipher; not much more than a reactionary force against what keeps happening to him. Then, as he struggles to keep control, he keeps letting his anger get the best of him. In the end, he grows just enough to keep himself and some of his loved ones alive. This growth is hard won and much needed.

While Liam is the main character, it is the supporting characters of this novel that really bring it to life. Liam's strong-willed mother, Kathleen, beleaguered but sympathetic Father Murray, the tempestuous love of Liam's life, Mary Kate, and the good humored Oran; every character has a story and they are the hero of that story. This supporting cast is an excellent foundation for a protagonist who is struggling to figure out who and what he is amidst a brutal war.

Of Blood and Honey is an excellent debut novel for those who enjoy reading through the gritty, historical realism of war and want the fantastical part of the story to unfold a bit at a time. There is so much potential in this world created by Stine Leicht; one that promises political maneuvering, bloody conflict, and personal tragedy. I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Recently, I had a chance to talk to Stina Leicht about her novel.

JLB: What inspired you to write this novel?

SL: Largely, it was due to a non-fiction book about Bloody Sunday (January 30, 1972) that was written by Peter Pringle and Philip Jacobson—two English reporters who were present when British troops shot fourteen unarmed civil rights protesters. It's titled Those Are Real Bullets. I'd written a short story a year or so before and was thinking about the back story of one of the characters due to the urging of Charles de Lint. I was instantly fascinated with recent Irish history because it was easy to see certain commonalities with current events in the United States during the George W. Bush era. It frightened me, frankly, and I decided that Americans should know what really happened. We should learn from the terrible mistakes the British made—not repeat them.

JLB: Near the beginning of the novel, Liam is brutalized in a fashion used in a number of urban fantasy settings. What made you write about such a difficult subject with your male protagonist?

SL: The rape of female characters (both minor and point of view characters) happens so often in stories (both inside and outside of SFF novels, comics and film) that it's practically a trope. (It's certainly a trope when it comes to the love interest of the lead male character.) So much so, that male writers don't seem to understand the distinctions between rape and sexual attraction. Therefore, I decided males should experience what that feels like to female readers when they hit those scenes.

So, first a male point of view character is raped and then we see the standard event as it's usually placed within a story. My hope is that will put the matter in perspective. As with many things, not everyone understands what I was up to with that, but that's the writer gig—not everyone is going to understand your work as you intended. The interesting thing is that it made the book more difficult to sell to a publisher. Why the gender of the individual victimized should matter so much is beyond me, but there you are.

JLB: What was the most difficult part of the historical research you did?

SL: I would say the toughest aspect of my research was finding neutrally reported, factual information about The Troubles. The British had strong motivations for putting a spin on information going outside the country. You'd think it'd be easy to get information these days. I didn't find that to be the case. Honestly, if it hadn't been for Brian Magaoidh (my contact in Belfast) I wouldn't have gotten half of what I needed.

You see, many of the witnesses are older now. There's a whole aspect of their history that is dying out. Luckily, there are a few people who are recording it. Sadly, such things aren't widely available. That said, The Troubles aren't a black and white war. There is no side that is 100% in the right.

However, my impression (based upon what I've read and after a few conversations with informed sources) is that the British made several devastating and horrific mistakes that made matters worse. Bloody Sunday was one of them. Armies aren't police. They don't serve the same function. You can't expect an army to act as a police force. Soldiers aren't trained to protect. They're trained to kill the enemy. Police are trained to protect citizens—at least it's in their charter. So, any time you send in troops to serve a function for which they aren't trained and aren't taught from the start is their priority, you're going to end in a mess.

For the record, the British finally apologized for Bloody Sunday a year ago. Up to then, they'd covered up the truth—some of it with outright lies. So, I had to take into account the source for every piece of reading material. The Troubles aren't a subject anyone should take on lightly—particularly outsiders, and yes, this includes Americans of Irish decent.

JLB: Do you have a favorite character in the novel?

SL: Not really. They're all my favorites. I love Liam. He's got this big heart and regardless of whatever is thrown at him, he gets back up. He might stagger a bit, but he gets back up. I love Father Murray. He's passionate about what he's doing. He wants so much to do the right thing—whatever it takes. He loves the Church enough to disagree with it when it does wrong. He owns his mistakes and tries to learn from them.

I also love Haddock. He too believes in what he's doing. Only he firmly believes that any means is justified by the end. He doesn't understand where he's gone wrong. Unlike Father Murray, he doesn't see that as a possibility. Haddock has sacrificed everything—and I do mean everything—on the altar of law as vengeance, and he's so amazingly gleeful about it. For all those reasons, Haddock is a great bad guy. He's evil to the bone. He's a cautionary tale to be honest. Also,? I personally feel that the best antagonists are those loved by the author. They're more three-dimensional.

Anyway, Kathleen, Bran, even Frankie and little Moira... they're all terrific and flawed in their own way. I don't think I could pick a favorite.

JLB: This novel just touches on the Milites Dei. Will we learn more about them in subsequent novels?

SL: Yes. In fact, they're featured more predominately in the next book. I wanted to focus on the real world aspects of the story in the first novel because I felt it deserved more loving care. One shouldn't throw the reader into such a conflict without a real footing in what's going on. I feel it would've been irresponsible for a whole host of reasons.

JLB: What is your main reference material when writing about the Fallen? Ditto on the Fey.

SL: For the Fallen, I used biblical sources as well as film and comic books. Constantine and The Prophecy are two films that haunted my brain. Also, the comics Hellblazer and Preacher were influences. In particular, I enjoyed the unique way angels were portrayed in The Prophecy. Like Constantine, it's not the best film ever made, but The Prophecy combined angelic imagery with raptors. Plus, the lines "Did you ever notice how in the Bible, when ever God needed to punish someone, or make an example, or whenever God needed a killing, he sent an angel? Did you ever wonder what a creature like that must be like? A whole existence spent praising your God, but always with one wing dipped in blood. Would you ever really want to see an angel?" really stuck with me. Of course, I took them a step farther.

As for the Fey, I used actual Irish myth as much as possible. I read An Táin, parts of The Book of Invasions, The Cuculian Trilogy by Standish O'Grady, a Lady Gregory collection or two, and a couple of William Butler Yeats' Irish myth collections. The actual stories have more in common with American tall tales of Paul Bunyan or John Henry than they do with the vapid, pale Victorian creatures that sit in flowers. They're also ghostly and dark. In addition, I snuck in bits of everyday Irish folklore. For example: the scene where Liam opens a hospital window for the moth pertains to old Irish lore pertaining to the recently dead. It isn't something every reader will notice or understand, but it's there nonetheless.

JLB: What's next in "The Fey and the Fallen" series?

SL: At the start of the next book, Father Murray has negotiated a temporary truce between the Fey and the Catholic Church. It's now up to Liam to prove that the Fey aren't demons by handing himself over to the Church's Inquisitors for examination. As you can imagine, that's not an easy nor comfortable thing to do. Also, in the stories, Fey might terrorize mortals or trick them into dying but they rarely seem to openly kill them. I thought I'd have fun with that idea. So, Liam starts to see some interesting consequences for having killed mortals.

Where can we find all things Stina Leicht related?

SL: www.csleicht.com.

Jennifer Brozek is an award winning author and editor. She has been writing role-playing games and professionally publishing fiction since 2004. She has won awards for both game design and editing. With the number of edited anthologies, fiction sales, RPG books and the non-fiction articles and book under her belt, Jennifer is often considered a Renaissance woman, but she prefers to be known as a wordslinger and optimist.