So, as I’m trying to get this %% manuscript out the door…
I have this character. His Nahuatl title is cihuacoatl, and I’m not planning to use it lest I give people headaches. So I have a choice between two translations: the Snake Woman, or the Female Snake.

Although the first one is the traditional, correct Nahuatl translation, I’m afraid it will have also everyone thinking he’s a woman. But I’m not 100% up-to-date on connotations, and for all I know the second one also strongly implies a woman, too…

What do you think–Snake Woman or Female Snake/Female Serpent?

EDIT: what about “She-Snake”?

-James Maxey reviews Servant of the Underworld in IGMS’s latest “Lit Geek” column:

Perhaps it’s true that there are no new ideas in literature, but every so often you run into two old ideas smashed together to create something you’ve never witnessed before. This is definitely the case with Aliette De Bodard’s Servant of the Underworld.

-Dave Gullen does the same in the latest issue of Hub Magazine:

Contemporary fantasy writing has a substantial number of problems with originality, writing quality and sheer story-telling passion. You’ll find little of those faults here, de Bodard’s style is clean and focused, the narration vivid and as the story builds to the climax, exciting and urgent. You don’t have to read the glossary or the historical and writing notes at the end of the book to know that this was a work of dedication, one that consumed the author during the months it took to research and write this book. The energy comes off the page in both the writing and the story.

-And here’s madscientistnz’s take:

The mystery was interestingly complicated (but then I can never guess who’s done what, so all mysteries intrigue me) and I really liked that the stakes started out high and kept getting higher. I loved the Aztec setting, so exotic and different, and I’m always interested in characters whose culture and mindset is different to mine.

The happy writer will now proceed to edit more Harbinger chapters (and to add a pronunciation guide at the beginning, just in case)

-Cheryl Morgan reviews Servant of the Underworld. I’m flattered by the comparison to Liz Williams’ Detective Inspector Chen series, which were a major inspiration (and as to the in-depth study of the society: I would love to write such a book, but it would probably require ten more years, a heck of a lot more research, and some very careful thought in order not to completely lose the reader before I even felt ready to do justice to this. The only book I’ve read which makes an attempt at such a scope is Gary Jennings’ Aztec, but I have a number of issues with it, most particularly its negative attitude towards Aztec religion and human sacrifice, which is annoying when your main character is supposed to have been steeped in said religion since birth)
–quippe at Livejournal, who’s looking forward to the sequel.
-Blushworthy one from jen-qoe on livejournal.
–SFX review, pretty positive altogether.
–Falcata Times likes a lot of things, but hates Acatl’s guts.

I remain fascinated by the range of reactions to Acatl–if he had one fault, I would have said it was his lustreless, wallflower side, but that doesn’t really seem to be the case: he ended up a lot more polarising than I thought. Interesting… (in a useless kind of way)

-Elizabeth Bear at Ideomancer (which, BTW, has an awesome new look):

In Servant of the Underworld, Aliette de Bodard has created a rather good debut novel, replete with magic, blood, and complex worldbuilding. There was a great deal to enjoy in this book, not all of it the immediately obvious.

-Josh Vogt at Examiner:

(…)for those who enjoy mythology, subtle horror, and even “detective” stories, Servant of the Underworld blends these elements into a unique story. Fortunately, it’s labeled the first book in the Obsidian and Blood series, so hopefully we’ll be seeing Bodard’s next release soon. Looks like book 2 is called Harbinger of the Storm. Sounds…peaceful.

-And Hereward L.M. Proops at Booksquawk (who didn’t like it so much, alas, but you can’t win every time):

(…)those looking for something truly different could do much worse than check out this novel. Whilst not perfect, Aliette de Bodard’s debut shows a great deal of potential which could be better realised in the inevitable sequels.

-The book also gets mentioned over at SF Signal as part of the “What Book Have You Recently Read That’s Good Enough To Recommend To a Friend?” discussion.

-Still at SF Signal, my short story “Golden Lilies” is identified as one of several “Nebula-worthy” short stories by Eugie Foster

-Finally, BestSF reviews “The Wind-Blown Man”, in the February 2010 issue of Asimov’s

Aliette de Bodard looks to China to create an alien society, alien cultures and technology – a world in which China is on a par, or better, with Western Christian society. For my money, I’d rather see Earth cultures used as inspiration to create truly alien societies, as that is true SF – but failing this, I’d much rather see the creative efforts as put in by de Bodard.

-Review on Fantasy Literature.

(…) Servant of the Underworld is a highly original debut novel. Thanks to a solid mystery plot and Aliette de Bodard’s extensive research into pre-Conquest Meso-America, this novel should strike a chord with more than just fantasy readers.

–Review at the Honeyed Knot, courtesy of edroxy

While I greatly enjoyed the richness of the setting, the perfect balance between fantasy, mystery and historical fiction, the solid suspenseful plot, for me, it’s Acatl and the many ways through which I could relate to him that really got me. It’s a new aspect of Aliette de Bodard’s fiction I was pleased to discover as in short stories, it’s often difficult to demonstrate the extent of one’s talent at characterization.

Highly recommended whether you enjoy mystery novels, fantasy, historical fiction, Aztec culture and solid characterization. Surely one of those describes you. I’m eagerly waiting for the next installment and hope this gets translated in French and many other languages.

-My very first French review, at Blackwatch’s blog. (very loose translation, done in about 3 minutes. It’s the spirit of it, but I don’t claim it’s 100% accurate…)

(…) This kind of plot can seem over-familiar, especially if you’re a dedicated reader of fantasy. But the strength of Servant of the Underworld resides in the character of Acatl, implicated in events against his wishes. In spite of his authority as high priest, many gates remain closed to him. The obstacles keep growing in number, and the author doesn’t leave us time to breathe, spinning a frantically-paced story.

Personally, I’d recommend this book to any lovers of fantasy or thrillers who want to read something a little different.

(the funny thing is that the first one and the last two disagree quite spectacularly on whether Acatl is an interesting character to follow around. Fascinating).

In non-review links, I’ve put up a specific Obsidian and Blood webpage, which includes a list of characters, and a blurb for Harbinger of the Storm (subject to rewriting and publisher’s approval, of course, so it’s very indicative at this stage). But in case you were wondering what the next book looks like…

And I also have Servant of the Underworld bookmarks, courtesy of the awesome Janice Hardy, which I should be handing out at Eastercon.

…as Granny Weatherwax would say.

Been very, very busy, both with administrative stuff, as well as trying to hammer Harbinger of the Storm into a presentable draft before I ship it off to my crit group, and so the blog’s taken the brunt of the neglecting.

Normal business will resume after the editing flurry has finished, (before the end of the week).

Er, wow.

Lateral Books reviews Servant of the Underworld here:

I was totally knocked over by her deft use of Aztec history and legend to totally rivet me from the opening to the end. It has a fresh and unique feel which is very hard to describe. (…)

None of this, however, was the most exciting thing about this book. No, that belonged to the very first page. Where, in the title of the book, it says, Obsidian and Blood – Vol. 1.

Vol. 1.

That means there’s gonna be more. Thankyou, Angry Robot. They’ve done a great job in unearthing some of the most exciting books of last year, and no doubt will be digging up some more future giants this year. I fully expect Ms De Bodard’s name to be huge.

Meanwhile, book 2 is moving into its endgame. 90k words, 22.5 chapters down (and an embarrassing moment which revealed I had two chapters 21 in the book, soon fixed). About 10-15k words to go, and some cleaning up before the draft is ready. Trying to keep the doubt at bay.

PS: thank you so much for all the comments on the previous post. I will be tackling them, but they do require some thought to answer…

Over at Dave Brendon’s Fantasy & Scifi Weblog, Servant of the Underworld (amazon.co.uk|waterstone’s|whsmith|bookdepository) gets VIP treatment:

All in all, Aliette’s Servant of the Underworld is an incredibly strong and promising debut, showing her talents at full effect – she can create amazing, believable worlds; her characters are solid and relatable, and she knows how to do interesting magic, great action and creepiness in spades. I’m definitely looking forward to Aliette’s next two books – now that the main players have been introduced and the scene set, I can’t wait to see what Acatl gets up to next!

Read the rest here.

Er, wow. I’m out there blushing…

So, 74k words into Harbinger, with the longest chapter yet. The small incoherences (which I keep noting at the end of the book in order to fix them) are running to more than a page now. But on the plus side, the end is nigh. I can feel it–we’re entering the climax at the end of this chapter, and boy is it going to be huge fun.

Meanwhile, Blue Tyson reviews Servant of the Underworld over at Not Free SF, and mostly likes it:

Generally speaking in a fantasy novel you will find that the priests of the Death Cult are not very nice people. Or, at least the antagonist or people to be removed as obstacles. See Graham Masterton’s Pariah for example of the exact same god our protagonist here is the Servant of.

Not so here. Of course, your average fantasy novel is rather more likely to not be set in an Aztec city redolent with quetzal birds and jaguar spirits as opposed to ponies and pointy-hatted prestidigitators.

So, points for giving something different a shot.

Read the rest.

A very nice review of my Asimov’s story “The Wind-Blown Man” here on Tangent Online by Carl Slaughter, as well as some discussion over on the Asimov’s forums (some good, some bad). The upshot is mainly that it reads like a fantasy, which doesn’t surprise me: it’s actually SF, but it’s hard to prove it when the science developed along an alternate timeline which has nothing to do with our own, with biology and genetics developing far more efficiently than mechanics and mathematics[1]. It’s kind of interesting how everything ends up sounding like magic when you don’t have familiar technological landmarks. Mm. There’s got to be something I can take out of this…

That’s all for today. I’m off to watch Red Cliff 2 (I have to say the long version makes a lot more sense than the awful truncated version they showed in the French cinemas)

[1]Yup, I know maths are integral to science as we know it now. But if you choose to view science as a system to explain the world, it’s conceivable that another civilisation might come up with a completely different system that would also explain the world and allow us to predict some of the things that would happen. Then it would do exactly the same thing science does today. Our science was mostly shaped by Western/Greek/Indian thought, which gives a place of honour to mathematics–but the Chinese have always been more interested in biology and how the human body was a microcosm of the world, so I went ahead and used that as a basis for developing the new science. Feel free to argue with me; I’m well aware this isn’t the standard belief by any means…

Well, that’s it. I would seem to have become a published novelist. Today, my Aztec fantasy-mystery Servant of the Underworld hits the UK and Australia, courtesy of Angry Robot.

I can’t help flashing back to that time ten years ago, in London, when I first thought it would be awesome to write a fantasy in English–and all but killed the thought because my cynical self had just pointed out that fantasy was horribly complicated to write because of all that research, that English wasn’t my first language, and that I was bound to bungle it all. It took me ten years and a lot of wordage, but I’m awfully glad I decided to ignore the obstacles and go ahead anyway. Sometimes, things work out a zillion times better than you’d ever expected.

Year One-Knife, Tenochtitlan – the capital of the Aztecs. The end of the world is kept at bay only by the magic of human sacrifice. A priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood. Acatl, high priest, must find her, or break the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead. But how do you find someone, living or dead, in a world where blood sacrifices are an everyday occurrence and the very gods stalk the streets?

And there’s a new review over at Candyman:

…the author has thoroughly researched the language, customs, and such but uses it just enough to flavor her narrative, not over power it. The book reads more like a mystery rather than dark fantasy; either way, it’s very hard to put down. (…) This book is beautifully written and a pleasure to lose oneself in. (…) Please see for yourself and pick up a copy!!

Celebrating tonight with BF. Now all I need is an actual spotting of the book in the wild for it to feel real…