Adrienne martine barnes biography sample

I developed a strong preference for Irish coffee. She too was a novice writer. We may have overdone it. Adrienne developed an allergy to caffeine. Hers were generally fantasy: a heroine in her late teens finds a portal out of an intolerable situation into a world where magic is more powerful…. In the summer of she served as first Queen of the East Kingdom — a reign that lasted less than two months:.

However, the tourney was rained out and postponed. Cultural appropriation, maybe, long before that was a concept that entered public awareness. Very dismissive of the Hindu caste system, and Clair is appalled by the entire concept of untouchables which, fair point , yet she falls in love with Han China and doesn't seem to recognize the vast inequities and class system there.

Again, might be authorial racism because Indians tend to be much darker than Han Chinese. I liked this book best of the four because it was a lot more philosophical, exploring the nature of reality and life and death from various religious and cultural perspectives. And Clair's growth and self-revelation went deeper than earlier characters as she struggled with disability along with the inevitable parental issues and childhood traumas and her connections with a fearsome aspect of divinity.

She found a spiritual home and an adopted land, far more so than previous generations who settled elsewhere. She did retire at the end of the book, but no making babies--this book was far to metaphysical for that. Plus I liked that this book was far more travelogue giving a sense of the flavors and sights and sounds of these cultures.

The heroine thought logically in Greek and poetically in Arabic and was ambidextrous. She wrote home in Arabic and learned the Chinese writing system. This book was not at all about centering northern European culture and its presumed superiority. He's a student in Venice who races home to find his mother dying and father grief-stricken and meets his aunt Rowena, who has written a history of their family's exploits.

His parents didn't really talk about their deeds or their contact with the divine, so he is unprepared for the goddess of poppies to appear and send him on a quest to Byzantium in search of a healing elixir. He doesn't quite realize she's a goddess, and he's overcome with grief and envy of his parents' closeness very Freudian , so he steals a horse, food, money, and his aunt's book how else is he going to understand what the hell is going on to seek adventure and save his mother he thinks.

This time it's the Holy Land, the Levant, that is the scene for immortal struggle. Geoffrey spends the whole time maundering about what a coward he is, how unlike his dad he is, how he's relied on logic and reason yet divine visitations are challenging his understanding of the world. He's not a warrior like his father, nor a singer like his mother.

But he plays a mean flute and can feel the music of his lineage in his bones. Geoffrey doesn't make it to Byzantium because he returns to Venice to arrange transportation and gets stuck when the Doge shuts down maritime travel. He befriends Hermes though of course at first he doesn't realize he's had another encounter with the divine , who helps him get out of the city and on the road.

He eventually figures out the goddess of poppies is Persephone, and it's all about Hellenic myths this time. But what about the sword, and the girl? The scenes alternate primarily between Geoffrey and Helene, the daughter of Hiram, one of the powerful Byzantine mages whose magics have kept the city safe for centuries. She's got a massive inferiority complex and a lot of rage because her father hates her for not being a boy, even though she does her best to be a boy, pursuing the arts of war and studying magic.

Byzantium is under attack by an invading army, and Helene flees in the chaos with an artifact from her father that turns out to be effectively a light saber. Just some sort of cross shape until she empowers it there's a sexual component to this--the book is not subtle , and then it develops an ethereal and ultimately material blade. Turns out she's had a relationship with an unnamed goddess since she was a child who guides and aids her on her journey.

And Geoffrey thinks he's not man enough for women besides being raped by Maenads and wants nothing to do with sex or women. So here they are, traveling companions who sleep with the sword between them while they build trust and understanding. In addition to Persephone and Hermes, we get Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, and Dionysius at least mentioned if not all showing up in scenes.

But wait, there's more. Other chapters feature the viewpoint of Michael ben Avi and his twin brother Jacob, who are rivals in leading their people under siege and as refugees from the fall of Jerusalem called Salem in this book. Is one of them destined to be the king who ultimately receives the magic sword and defeats Darkness? It moves out of northern Europe into the eastern Mediterranean.

And the book opens with a disclaimer that this alternate timeline had no Mohammed, no Islam, no Crusades, no religious schism and hence no Greek Orthodox church. That's a little bit of a red flag for me.

Adrienne martine barnes biography sample

Like, this is book 3 in a series already well established as an alternate historical fantasy. Why signpost No Muslims Here so loudly? Islamophobia maybe? And then we get to these Jewish potential kings. Not that they're ever called that. But the chapter that introduces Michael ben Avi shows him abandoning his extremely pregnant wife Rebecca to pursue his holy mission as the Messiah, and thinking of her as nagging and complaining.

And focused on the adulation of his followers and the power struggle with his twin brother. When Geoffrey and Helene see him, he's described as having "huge doe-like eyes rimmed with ebony lashes, wavy black hair, pronounced nose, and a square black beard" and is later described him as rubbing his hands together. Chronicles of Fionn mac Cumhal [ edit ].

Chronique D'Avebury [ edit ]. Darkover [ edit ]. Dragon Rises [ edit ]. Short fiction [ edit ]. References and sources [ edit ]. Retrieved File Open In Email Client. Send Flowers. Adrienne Martine-Barnes d. July 20, To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Adrienne Martine-Barnes, please visit our flower store. Send a Card.