bibliogramma | Entries tagged with a: cynthia ward

Cynthia Ward’s The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum continues the exploits of Lucy Harker, not exactly human daughter of Mina Harker by the vampire Dracula, adventuress and spy in the employ of the WWI era British secret service, where she works for the consummate spymaster known as M, short for Mycroft Holmes - who is also her stepfather.

Her mission, to protect Winston Churchill, who, currently out of favour and out of cabinet, has decided to join the army and fight the Germans at the front if he cannot fight them in the halls of power. But some things not even a dhampir can fight. When a squad of 20 German created and controlled wolfmen attack, kidnapping Churchill and leaving Lucy for dead, then the only choice is for Lucy and her lover Clarimal - the 300 year old upior, or vampire, Carmilla von Karstein - to go behind enemy lines in search of him. But there is much worse waiting for them than wolfmen.

I’m really enjoying this series, not the least because of all the material from texts that form the basis of science fiction and fantasy, and other genres from the adventure fiction of the Victorian era to the classic mystery. References to characters, milieus and events from authors as diverse as H. G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Agatha Christie are found here, intermixed with historical characters such as Sophia and Catherine Duleep Singh.

Definitely a series that I hope will continue.

Cynthia Ward’s delightful novella, The Adventure of the Incognita Contessa, is an adventure in exploring the realms of speculative fiction from the late Victorian era, a spy story set in an alternate universe where the British government is working to understand Martian technology following the failed invasion of the British Isles by inhabitants of that planet, and Lucy, the daughter of Mina Harker, works for the head of the British secret service, known as M - short for Mycroft.

Lucy’s mission is to provide unseen protection for Major Butt, an American military officer travelling home, carrying secret engineering specifications concerning the submarine Nautilus, recently recovered by German scientists. Among the other passengers on the newly commissioned oceanliner The Titanic are the vampire Millarca, also known as Carmilla, here cslled Clarimal, a mysterious English Viscount, Lord Greyborough, and his American wife (one must remember that the works of Edgar Rice Bourroughs remain under copyright, unlike many other works of a similar era which have entered the public domain), and assorted wealthy persons with names like Astor and Guggenheim.

Lucy, as we quickly learn, is not herself human, but a dhampir, the child of a vampire - in her case, Dracula himself - and a human. As a British spy, she is obliged to protect the British Empire. As the child of vampire hunters, she has an additional mission, to kill monster. Unless, of course, they are in the service of the Crown themselves. Lucy has justified her killings with the secure knowledge that vampires are soulless creatures who can only mime the emotions and conscience of humans, to lull them into a sense if security so they can feed. But as she becomes close to Clarimal, she begins to wonder if everything she has been taught is true.

Constant Reader has likely noticed that I enjoy speculative ventures of this nature, works that take a canonical source and stretch it, expand it, play with its conceits and give its characters new and interesting things to do. This is a splendid example of the genre.

Writing the Other: A Practical Approach, Nisi Shawl & Cynthia Ward

Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward are professional writers of speculative fiction who jointly developed and teach the workshop "Writing the other: bridging cultural differences for successful fiction." This book contains material adapted from their workshop, as well as two essays written by Shawl, “Beautiful Strangers: Transracial Writing for the Sincere,” and “Appropriate Cultural Appropriation.”

This volume is designed to be used by authors concerned about honestly, effectively and respectfully writing about people, settings and cultures that diverge from the dominant paradigm -the unmarked state. I can’t venture an opinion on how well it does this, because I am not myself a writer. But I have found it to be, whether by design or not, an excellent book for the reader who is interested in seeing more clearly how successfully the books she reads are at writing the other.

The authors give many examples of successful and unsuccessful attempts at writing culturally diverse works. While there is a strong focus on race, they also consider sex and sexual orientation, culture and religion. Oddly enough, they seem to consider social class not a major category of "Other," at least in North American writing. I would tend to disagree, but I imagine that in a workshop, one must choose topics carefully, as there is not time enough to cover everything one might want to.

I was personally most engaged by the section on cultural appropriation, because it's something that I worry about a lot in my own life. I have a very strong sense of attraction, indeed resonance, to aspects of the art, culture, philosophy and religion of a number of other peoples, and it is often an inner struggle for me to try to work out whether I'm being a cultural poacher or a respectful learner. I'm still not sure I know the answer, but this essay gave me more ways in which to think about what it is that I do.

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Entries tagged with a: cynthia ward

Cynthia Ward: The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum

Cynthia Ward: The Adventure of the Incognita Contessa

Reading the Other

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May 2019

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