strange and random happenstance: The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep

Unlike some of the other authors featured during Regency Magic I didn't have a serendipitous series of events that led to me discovering H.G. Parry. Instead it was fairly straightforward if you're a book blogger. So NetGalley is a website that lets "book advocates," such as reviewers and bloggers, request digital galleys of upcoming publications. My morning routine every day is to check my email and then check NetGalley. Because you never really know what's going to show up when and one of the reasons I started my blog was to get books by my favorite authors before anyone else. Small goal, but it was achieved. One day in 2019 I was looking through the new titles and one caught my eye, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heap. The description sounded very Ffordian so I hit request and according to my records on June 12th, 2019 I was approved. I mean who doesn't want to read a book with more than one Mr. Darcy? Though it was a book published a year later by H.G. Parry, A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, that was even more up my alley. Because it was "technically" Regency Magic. I say technically because it's more Regency adjacent as H.G. pointed out to me in our recent email exchange. But I will counter that they do have a Regency crisis, it's just averted for the moment, and everything that's happening feeds into the Regency. And of course, because I wanted to read this book more than anything I was denied. There was some weeping and wailing but I recovered and they did approve me for the sequel, A Radical Act of Free Magic, so that was some cold comfort. But the thing that is so interesting to me is that H.G.'s writing, especially in her Shadow Histories, is so densely Dickensian and Uriah Heep is Dickens's creation. I just feel that H.G. really knows what she's doing. Her writing is so put together and thorough. Plus she's cranking out doorstop sized books at the rate of one a year, which, well, my hat is off to her. And now that my hat is off, let me cordially welcome her to my blog.

Question: When did you first discover Jane Austen?

Answer: It was Northanger Abbey at my first year of university. I'd never studied her in high school and I think I was expecting something romantic, so I was knocked sideways by how absurdly funny and clever it was. That opening paragraph is still one of the wittiest I've ever read.

Question: What do you think Jane Austen would think of her impact with so many literary offshoots, from parody to pastiche?

Answer: Oh, I think she'd love it! And also mock most of them mercilessly! But her first published book was gloriously intertextual and had great fun with The Mysteries of Udolpho, so she'd get it.

Question: Where do you get your inspiration from?

Answer: Usually, from reading history and famous novels, and then seeing what happens if certain kinds of magic is added - what can it be used to illuminate, or explore, or cast in a different light? I love books that are in conversation with other books.

Question: What makes the early 19th century mesh so well with magic?

Answer: I'm not sure I can answer this: the Shadow Histories are mostly the Revolutionary Wars, so I barely got to the 19th century. I think in general though there's a really interesting overlap between historical fiction and fantasy because there's an equally interesting overlap between the way we think about history and the way we think about secondary world fantasy - both take place in worlds that are in some ways very similar and in others very different to our own. Magic gives us a way of exploring history at a remove, as it does the present day. And the turn of the 19th century was a fascinating and dramatic time, where so many choices were being made that shaped our present day for better or worse.

Question: The world building and system of magic varies greatly in the regency fantasy genre, how did you go about creating yours?

Answer: In the Shadow Histories, magic is innate in certain people, but the right to use it is jealously guarded by the aristocracy - so when the tide begins to turn toward revolution, magic is a right that is being fought for along with other freedoms. I wanted it to be a way of thinking about power - who has it, who wields it, what compromises we make to get it, how we use it to fight for a better world, and all those complicated questions that the French Revolution made a matter of life or death.

Question: If you had to choose between writing only period literature or only fantasy literature, which would win?

Answer: I've written fantasy books set in the present day and I've never written historical fiction without magic, so it would have to be fantasy. But I'd find a way to cheat somehow! My contemporary fantasy had five Mr. Darcys, so...

Question: Be honest, have you ever dressed up in Regency clothes just to pretend for a moment you are in the past?

Answer: Ha! I'm definitely better in the present day. The closest I came was at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, where we were all allowed to try on dresses and shawls and bonnets. I was very excited, but then I just sort of looked like Jemima Puddleduck.

Biography:
H.G. Parry is the author of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, The Shadow Histories duology, and The Magician's Daughter. Her short fiction has appeared in Intergalactic Medicine Show, Daily Science Fiction, and small press anthologies, and she holds a PhD in English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington. She currently lives in a book-infested flat on the Kāpiti Coast in New Zealand, which she shares with her sister and an increasing menagerie of small animals.

H.G.'s Social Media:
Website
Instagram
Twitter
Goodreads

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, A Radical Act of Free Magic, Dickensian, H.G. Parry, Jasper Fforde, Netgalley, Northanger Abbey, Regency Magic, The Shadow Histories, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep

Thrawn: Treason by Timothy Zahn
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Grand Admiral Thrawn faces the ultimate test of his loyalty to the Empire in this epic Star Wars novel from bestselling author Timothy Zahn.

“If I were to serve the Empire, you would command my allegiance.”

Such was the promise Grand Admiral Thrawn made to Emperor Palpatine at their first meeting. Since then, Thrawn has been one of the Empire’s most effective instruments, pursuing its enemies to the very edges of the known galaxy. But as keen a weapon as Thrawn has become, the Emperor dreams of something far more destructive.

Now, as Thrawn’s TIE defender program is halted in favor of Director Krennic’s secret Death Star project, he realizes that the balance of power in the Empire is measured by more than just military acumen or tactical efficiency. Even the greatest intellect can hardly compete with the power to annihilate entire planets.

As Thrawn works to secure his place in the Imperial hierarchy, his former protégé Eli Vanto returns with a dire warning about Thrawn’s homeworld. Thrawn’s mastery of strategy must guide him through an impossible choice: duty to the Chiss Ascendancy, or fealty to the Empire he has sworn to serve. Even if the right choice means committing treason."

Timothy Zahn, you and Thrawn are why I'm a reader. Thank you from little budding bookworm Elizabeth circa 1991.

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry
Published by: Redhook
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The ultimate book-lover's fantasy, featuring a young scholar with the power to bring literary characters into the world, for fans of The Magicians, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, and The Invisible Library.

For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can't quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob - a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancee, and an utterly normal life - hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life's duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world...and for once, it isn't Charley's doing.

There's someone else who shares his powers. It's up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them, before these characters tear apart the fabric of reality."

And also throw in a strong dash of Jasper Fforde.

Fledgling by Molly Harper
Published by: NYLA
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2019
Format: Kindle, 267 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Days away from completing her first year at Miss Castwell’s Institute for the Magical Instruction of Young Ladies, Changeling-born Sarah Smith might just get away with posing as an upper-class Guardian girl named Cassandra Reed.

But strange visions of a Lightbourne destroyed by Miss Morton’s revenant army keep Sarah from enjoying her achievement. Plus, the Mother Book, Sarah’s one secret advantage and the ultimate entrée in Guardian society, suddenly stops revealing itself to her...putting her in a precarious position with the Guild. On top of all that, her former lady’s maid left Miss Castwell’s, and the new hire is, well, taking some getting used to.

If it weren’t for her two best friends, Alicia McCray and Ivy Cowel, who will do anything to protect her secret, Sarah doesn’t know if she’ll make it another year. When the three girls take summer holiday with Alicia’s family (chaperoned by an exacting and very disapproving Mrs. McCray), a relaxing vacation in Scotland is the last thing they’ll find.

Mrs. Winter is thrilled that Sarah is spending time with the influential McCray family, but Sarah can’t help but feel that her real purpose is to find other Changeling children like her, and free them to realize their own magic. Can she find genuine satisfaction in her accomplishments when she knows there are others like her out there who need her help? Will the three girls uncover the deeply-held secrets they’re looking for in the mysterious mountains of Scotland? Will the Mother Book finally start talking to her again? And will Sarah come to understand the importance of her connection with Ivy and Alicia, and the true nature of her own power...before it’s too late?"

More magical schools is what makes me happy!

The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem
Published by: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2019
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"To Leila Abid’s traditional Indian parents, finding a husband is as easy as match, meet, marry. Yes, she wants to marry, but after 26 years of singledom, even Leila is starting to get nervous. And to make matters worse, her parents are panicking, the neighbors are talking, and she’s wondering, are her expectations just too high?

But for Leila, a marriage of arrangement clashes with her lifelong dreams of a Bollywood romance, where real love happens before marriage, not the other way around. So she decides it’s time to stop dreaming and start dating.

It’s an impossible mission of satisfying her parents’ expectations, while also fulfilling her own western ideals of love. But after a series of speed dates, blind dates, online dates and even ambush dates, the sparks just don’t fly! Now, with the marriage clock ticking, and her 3-month deadline looming in the horizon, Leila must face the consequences of what might happen if she doesn’t find "the one…""

The perfect beech read for this summer.