Katy Moran's evocative series of Dark Age novels bring to mind Rosemary Sutcliff's work - they are marked by a similar powerful sense of time and place - a landscape which is a presence in its own right - and use of language and credible dialogue to build a believable past worldview. For Bloodline, her first novel, she has chosen to reflect the diversity of cultures and beliefs of 7th century post-Roman Britain by giving her hero, Essa, a mixed parentage - his father is a Celtic bard of Iceni tribal ancestry, his mother was a Anglian noblewoman. Essa, though clearly of his own time, will be recognizable to modern teenagers- he's a bright kid with issues; headstrong, quick-tempered and impulsive, prone to acting before he thinks. He's driven by anger resulting from unresolved conflict about his father, whom he loves but can't forgive for, as he sees it, abandoning him as a child. Only later will he recognise with hindsight that this "abandonment" was an act of loving sacrifice on his father's part.
The prickly, complex relationship between father and adolescent son lies at the heart of Bloodline, and also its sequel, Bloodline Rising, where, as is sadly so often true of real life, we see Essa make all the same mistakes in dealing with his bright, gifted son as his own father made with him.
Katy wrote Bloodline when she was still a student and is very sympathetic to the aspirations of young authors. She does a lot of class visits and provides helpful starting points for would-be writers on her website. She was herself inspired to set her novel in the Anglo-Saxon period when she was given a brooch which turned out to be a genuine Anglo-Saxon artefact. She talks about this in a short interview she did as a follow-up to my review of Bloodline
Interview with Katy Moran here:
http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Katy-Moran.html
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Katy Moran
Katy Moran
Last edited by annis on Sat July 6th, 2013, 4:32 am, edited 23 times in total.
- Margaret
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 2440
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
- Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
- Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
- Location: Catskill, New York, USA
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I love the story of the brooch!
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info
- Manda Scott
- Reader
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- Location: Shropshire, UK
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Magical novel by an excellent author
I found this novel after the author moved to the next village along from me and we ended up doing an event together at the local literary festival: I bought Bloodlines and its sequel and am so glad that I did - both fantastic books.
so glad someone else enjoys them too...
manda
so glad someone else enjoys them too...
manda
*******************************
Bestselling author of Boudica: Dreaming. INTO THE FIRE out in June 2015: Forget what you thought you knew, this changes everything.
[url=http:www.mandascott.co.uk]http:www.mandascott.co.uk[/url]
Bestselling author of Boudica: Dreaming. INTO THE FIRE out in June 2015: Forget what you thought you knew, this changes everything.
[url=http:www.mandascott.co.uk]http:www.mandascott.co.uk[/url]
Katy popped up on Anthony Lawton's Rosemary Sutcliff website recently too - she made Anthony's day with her clever tweet about the misspelling of Sutcliff's name which is his constant bugbear: "No one could ever give @rsutcliff an E. Only ever A+"
Last edited by annis on Sat August 3rd, 2013, 7:33 pm, edited 5 times in total.
- parthianbow
- Compulsive Reader
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I made the boo boo of putting an 'e' at the end of Sutcliff not too long ago!
Now looking forward to reading Katy Moran's books...!
Now looking forward to reading Katy Moran's books...!
Ben Kane
Bestselling author of Roman military fiction.
Spartacus - UK release 19 Jan. 2012. US release June 2012.
http://www.benkane.net
Twitter: @benkaneauthor
Bestselling author of Roman military fiction.
Spartacus - UK release 19 Jan. 2012. US release June 2012.
http://www.benkane.net
Twitter: @benkaneauthor