Jon Courtenay Grimwood heads back into fantasy with John Jarrold in tow (publishing news).
Some books arrive neatly pressed, polished and ready for market. Others spend twenty years rattling chains in the attic, refusing to die until their author finally gives them the exorcism they deserve. Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s forthcoming historical fantasy Thrones and Powers appears to be very much in the second camp.
Grimwood has signed with the John Jarrold Literary Agency for representation of his new historical fantasy novels, with Thrones and Powers set to go out to publishers soon. And this one has had a journey. A very Grimwoodian one, naturally, involving Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais, time-slip romance, magic, heaven at war, the Great Fire of London, and the sort of tortured manuscript history that makes lesser writers quietly go off to lie down in a darkened room.
According to Grimwood, the book began life some twenty years ago as a sprawling 200,000-word epic. A publisher was interested, but the timing, apparently, was not. Which is the literary equivalent of being told you are very talented, just not in a way anyone wishes to pay for this week. Several trims followed, first to 170,000 words and then to 140,000, but the real shape of the novel still refused to come quietly.
So Grimwood did what many writers threaten and few actually manage. He went back to the beginning, took a sharp blade to the lot, hacked away everything non-essential, threw much of the lovingly hoarded medieval research overboard, and ended up with what he describes as the far shorter book he should have written in the first place. Writers everywhere may wish to avert their eyes at this point.
What remains, he says, are the battles, the magic, the time-slip love affairs, the war in heaven, the Great Fire of London, and the families we build for ourselves when the official model turns out to be somewhat defective. Which sounds, frankly, like a promisingly rich stew rather than one of those worthy historical fantasies where everyone spends 600 pages frowning at tapestries.
Grimwood also says he is delighted to be working with John Jarrold again, which makes sense given that Jarrold was his editor at Simon & Schuster and is clearly one of those rare publishing creatures an author will willingly trust with the family silver. Jarrold, for his part, has returned the compliment with gusto, calling Grimwood one of the best writers he ever published and describing Thrones and Powers as remarkable and fascinating. He also admitted that the synopses for future projects made him grin widely and want to read them immediately, which is probably the agenting equivalent of waving a large cheque book in the air.
There is, apparently, more where this came from, with three further historical fantasy synopses already lined up for discussion with publishers. So Grimwood does not seem to be dipping a cautious toe back into the genre. He is kicking the door in and bringing the haunted furniture with him.
For those somehow unfamiliar with his career, Grimwood has long been one of those infuriatingly versatile writers who can hop between science fiction, fantasy, crime, thriller and literary fiction without falling flat on his face. His accolades include BSFA wins for Felaheen and The End of the World Blues, while his Jack Grimwood thrillers and alternate-history fantasies have earned both critical praise and an admirably international readership. He has also been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the British Fantasy Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, which is not a bad pile of silverware to have knocking about the house.
He was born in Malta, christened in the upturned bell of a ship, and now lives in Edinburgh with journalist and novelist Sam Baker, which sounds like a backstory assembled by a novelist who had decided plain realism was for cowards.
No publisher has yet been announced for Thrones and Powers, but given the ingredients on offer and the enthusiasm from both author and agent, this one may be worth keeping a weather eye on. Here at SFcrowsnest, we do enjoy a fantasy novel that has survived two decades of surgery and still comes out breathing fire.
