Elizabeth Bear's Promethean Age Series and Others

I've just read INK AND STEEL by Elizabeth Bear and thought it was one of the best books I've read in a long while. It is set in an alternate Elizabethan era with Marlowe and Shakespeare contending with intrigue, against the Queen of England and the Queen of Faerie, through the magic in their writing. I was an English Major and in love with Shakespeare and Marlowe already... adding in intrigue and Faerie and it's an irresistible combination, especially when done as well as this book. (It's the first part of a duology.)

The sequel is:
Hell and Earth

Since there are four books out in this series, I thought it was time for a dedicated thread.

The first two published were:
Blood and Iron and
Whiskey and Water

They are more in the dark/urban fantasy range, taking place in an alternate, contemporary New York (and environs), with very dark, fey Faeries and their Court. Definitely not your typical easy, wise-crack filled Urban, although there are elements of that. I loved the grim, alien, dangerousness of Faerie. I had a harder time with the second book: too little of the cruel magic of Faerie and too many POV characters and plot threads and plots and intrigues that were too labyrinthine and esoteric to comprehend. But it still had me reading to the end.

Bear has also written:
New Amsterdam (I have yet to read this, but I will soon!)
A Companion to Wolves with Sarah Monette (Animal companion tale for adults. I loved it.)
All the Windwracked Stars (coming out in October, 08)

And a number of excellent SF books (she has also just won a Hugo for one of her shorter works).

For Discussion:
Have any of you read any of her books? Which ones and what did you think?
Which are your favorites?
Do you prefer her Urban Fantasies or Alternate Histories?
Do you like literary fantasy?
What do you think of her version of Faerie?
Are the Prometheans good or bad? Or neither?
Are her characters sympathetic?
What do you think of the use of historical characters? Of Literary characters?

Please comment as you wish--upon anything you wish! Tell us what you think!

I've recently read Dust, one of her Sci-Fi novels and my first ever book from hers, so I can't answer any of your questions except the first to say I thought it was a beautifully written book. I really loved the mix of science-fiction with a bit of religion, her unique look into mankind's future. I hadn't even realized it was a series so now I'm on the lookout for the next Jacob's Ladder book. And more of her work!

I just finished A Companion to Wolves and I read Shadow Unit, a series for which she is a contributer. I think her writing is too analytical for my tastes: she has more concern for the overall purpose of the story rather than the journey or the characters. I prefer character-driven stories.

I have heard very good things about Carnival.

I love this series! I just finished Ink and Steel last night and am now reading Hell and Earth. It's my favorite book in the series so far, although I also really loved Blood and Iron. The second book was good as well, but I also thought it had too many characters and plotlines and not as much of faerie as the first one. I missed some of the main characters from the first book not being present as much.

Other than A Companion to Wolves (which I mostly picked up because of Sarah Monette's The Doctrine of Labyrinth series, my absolute favorite series I discovered this year), I have yet to read any of Bear's other work. That shall be remedied soon, however, as I have Carnival on my bookshelf and ordered Dust a couple of days ago.

A Companion to Wolves was very good as well, although I did enjoy Bear and Monette's individual works I've read more than that one.

I have Blood and Iron sitting over on my TBR couch, and I have to have it read by next Tuesday for a discussion group. I have read a couple of Bear's Sf, Hammered and Scardown, which I enjoyed. So by next week, I will have something to add to this thread.

I don't read a lot of the urban fantasy in general, and faerie interfacing the modern world in particular. I really like Emma Bull's stuff, and really don't like Lackey and confederates in their treatment of it. I read this book for a discussion group. Nonetheless, I thought it was quite well written. In fact, there were spots where the elegance of the descriptive prose stopped me in my tracks--a "well-turned phrase". The characters were interesting and, given they were drawn from very familiar archetypes, handled in an original manner. I had read some of Bear's SF (e.g., Hammered and was frankly surprised and impressed with the way she handled this very different genre.

I have to read Blood and Iron for a RL book group.

I have read the Hammered series and enjoyed it. I also have read Carnival and Undertow, both SF. I much preferred Undertow.

It is about indigenous aliens who have their world invaded and used by humans. Most humans don't even recognize the aliens as people, but think of them as some sort or primitive animal/people cross. The book is about a freedom movement with both aliens and sympathetic humans, who are trying to protect the ecology of the planet, and get decent treatment and status for the aliens.

I also have Dust but have yet to read it. I like her as a writer so far.

Dust is technically a SF, but chock full of fantasy tropes, so that it just boggles the mind! I'm curious to see how the sequels are... I believe she's working on the next one: Chill, or something like that...

I'm still anxious to read Hell and Earth... it's been sitting in my TBR pile, waiting on the library books that need to be read first... ack!

I finished Blood and Iron and have to say I didn't love it. It was OK, and had a good patch, but mostly it was too wordy, and jumbled.

The story has different characters as POV in different chapters. The problem is that several of the characters are bland or not that interesting.

I thought it would be an urban fantasy, and the cover reinforced that, but most of it was set in Faerie.

The big problem though, was that Bear threw everything in, including the kitchen sink: the fae, werewolves, Arthurians, dragons, unicorns, walking-talking trees, Heaven, and Hell.

There were things that weren't explained, why something was done, why Mebd decided to die, how the throne killed her after she had been sitting on it for centuries. Why/how Merlin was different from fae and humans.

It took me about 200 pages to get into it. There was a patch that really grabbed me, but it didn't last. I found the last 100 pages a chore.

Not sure I will read the next one or not.

>1 aprillee: And a number of excellent SF books (she has also just won a Hugo for one of her shorter works)

The only thing I ever read by her was that Hugo winning story titled Tideline. I know many people were underwhelmed by it, but I liked it. In a post apocalyptic landscape, a young boy develops a friendship with a damaged military robot. While it's not the most original storyline it was very well told and I found it touching.

It's available on her website and is one of two of her works recorded for escapepod.org.

Hmm, Ink and Steel looks good. *adds it to wishlist* :-)

FicusFan-- I liked the parts of Ink and Steel that were set in Faerie. I thought she was best at describing something that is familiar (through all the typical legends) and yet still vibrant and creepy and dark and alien. And I liked when that alien, darkness crept out into New York, since it weirdly fit! But I agree that there were too many characters and everything but the kitchen sink! The Sequel, Whiskey and Water, I didn't care for, for those reasons--WAY too many characters whom I didn't care about. And with the addition of Hell and a ton of literary devils! You probably won't care for it...!

The third and fourth Promethean Age isn't Urban Fantasy at all, so don't go there if that's what you prefer!

April --

I don't like stories that are set in Faerie much, nor re-telling of fairy tales. Don't know why.

I don't mind medieval fantasy, and I enjoy urban fantasy.

I didn't like all the legends being included whether they true to the real legend, or something she twisted and tweaked.

I guess the only character I liked was The Kelpie/Whisky.

I will check out the next book, give it a test read, just because someone in our group has read it, and says it continues the story of the characters in book 1.

Books 3 and 4 I understood were Elizabethan, is that true ? Are they also set in Faerie ?

I am not all that familiar with Bear's work but I was lucky enough to get a review copy of All the Windwracked Stars. It is one of the best books I have read this year. I am definitely going to read more of her work.

FicusFan-- 2nd book has more of Whisky in it. Less in Faerie, but just moves to Hell... which is sort of the same thing... There was a fair amount of it set in modern/urban, but I found those characters really boring. I'm not sure you'll like the second book that much! I actually REALLY liked the first and didn't like the second... which may mean you'll have the opposite reaction, but I found her plots and characters more convoluted and obscure than the first... so if you LIKED the complex hints of plots and intrigues and cast of thousands, maybe the second book will be readable!

Books 3 and 4 are pretty much a duology that is only somewhat associated with the first two. They are totally Elizabethan--having to do with magic, murder and intrigue in the Court of Elizabeth and mirrored slightly in the Court of Queen Medb in Faerie. There are a fair amount of scenes in Faerie, so it may not appeal to you, either! I like Faerie AND the Elizabethan Period and Shakespeare and Marlow, so I adored those books... Only a few characters that appear in the 2nd book are in these books (Lucifer, Marley, Queen Medb and Morgan and her son --- No Kelpies! And storyline is unrelated). ^___^

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Valashain-- I haven't read All the Windwracked Stars yet, but am certainly looking forward to it. It's good to hear you liked it.

Aprillee,

Thank you for the detailed information. I am still unsure about the 2nd book. right now I have so much to read that I want to, and so many that I really want, to buy. The 3rd and 4th books might interest me more, I too like the Elizabethan period. But I am in no rush. I will definitely wait until they are in mass market paperback.

I am not sure about Windwracked Stars either. One of the people in my RL SFF group heard her reading it and hated it.

FicusFan:

I completely understand not really liking Blood and Iron. I read it a while back, and even though I did enjoy some bits of it, it was a very hard read. I hated the last 100 pages, mostly because of that really stupid POV shift where everything starts being in first person. It really disengaged me from the book.

The first two Promethean Age books are really problematic not only because the characters are hard to get into, but because it's also really kind of absurd to believe that the entire world, and all the mythologies therein, are represented by just Welsh mythology.

I kept thinking that it's weird that the Mebd has control over Faerie, but there are billions of people in places like China and India and whatnot that have never heard of her and yet she has power over them. I mean, Faerie isn't *their* story. I would have liked more diversity in her mythology.

But the second two books are less problematic. First, they're set in Elizabethan England, which means that there's a good reason why it isn't diverse. Unlike modern day NYC (or at least 1990's NYC as in B&I) which is definitely diverse.

Also, those two books cover topics people might know about. The last two PA books are about Shakespeare and how he gets involved with Faerie, and everybody's at least heard of Shakespeare (well, a good number of people anyway). So it's more interesting to watch Shakespeare doing things you don't expect him to be doing. And he makes a dildo joke in the book somewhere, so that sort of caused me to do a spit take.

I've read Dust by her, and it was good, sorta. I think it was easier to read because she had an editor that didn't let her get away with so much.

EDIT: About All the Windwracked Stars - I found somebody's review copy at a used bookstore and I bought it for a dollar. I still haven't gotten around to reading it, because I'm not sure it will be any good. I just don't know that I could handle having to go through 400 pages of the kind of uphill slog reading where I fight through the author trying to be smart in my face the way I did with the Promethean Age books.

Well, I finally got ahold of All the Windwracked Stars... It was different. A Valkyrie-like character who has escaped dying in a sort of end-of-the-world Ragnarok... only to deal with another end of the world scenario ages and ages later. Has some vaguely techo-fantasy elements. Anthropormorphic critters. Reincarnation. Plenty of oddness. Bear is definitely not a predictable writer!

I'd be interested in hearing what others thought of the book! I'm not quite sure what to think, only that it was an interesting read...

I still LOVE the Stratford Man duology: Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth (the first part a bit more than the second, but both book, for sure. I love Shakespeare and Marlowe and poets and playwrights and the power of words... and faerie, so those suited me down to the ground. They seem the most approachable of her books, too.

I keep reading her otherwise because she definitely heads into strange and different territory and there's just enough fascination there to keep me interested in seeing what she does next.

I just finished All the Windracked Stars and I must say, Elizabeth seems to have a bit of a thing for Bad Boys. Lucifer in the Stratford Man books and now Mingan in this one both end up having those redeeming qualities that make them so interesting and perhaps tempting in real life. Her characters reveal themselves bit by bit so that you come to understand them as the story goes on. You have to pay attention and look for clues as to why they act the way they do. I love complicated, eccentric people and maybe that's why her books appeal to me.

Ms. Bears books lead me to round out my education that had weighed heavily in Chemistry and Math. The Stratford Man books caused me to find some of Marlowe's plays to pursue, now I find myself needing to read up on Valkyries. Fun!