[EMAIL PROTECTED] With Charles Saunders' permission, I am sharing the introduction by noted mythic fiction scriber Charles de Lint to the new, revised, reprinted IMARO - first volume of the Afrocentric epic fantasy novel series relaunch. I hope this will spur interest and sales for this very worthy and exciting genre publishing project. Getting "big name " writer Charles de Lint to endorse the endeavor is quite the coup! Ecstatic Cheers! Amy
Introduction It's hard to believe that it's been 24 years since DAW Books published the first Imaro novel (though of course, Imaro stories had already been appearing in small press magazines for at least a decade before that). What I find harder to believe is that, in all that time, there have been so few fantasy novels based on the rich and fascinating cultures and mythic matter of Africa. But I'm not surprised that no one has yet come close to bringing it to life so well as Charles R. Saunders. * * * Like many of us working in the small press at the time, Charles was inspired by the work of Robert E. Howard when he first began to write. But while Howard was, and Charles is, a born storyteller, that's pretty much where the similarities end. "The trouble is," he used to tell me in those days, "is that there are so few black characters in fantasy or sf who actually matter." So Charles started creating them--not so much to provide character identification for other black readers as that this was a way he could "read" these kinds of stories himself. And in the process he discovered an abiding love for the cultures, traditions and mythological matter of Africa that continues to this day. The first thing he understood was that there is no "African" culture. Like the tribes of the North American Indian (who are also lumped together in many people's minds as having only one culture), the peoples of Africa are part of a wide spectrum of cultural identities as rich and diverse as that of any of the world's other continents. From Yoruba creation myths to Anansi trickster tales, from the Dogon temples of Mali to the palaces of sultans on the Swahili coast, from the Masaai tribes of the Serengeti to the pygmy bushmen of the Kalahari--Africa has enough cultural, historical and mythological wealth to fuel the stories of a thousand writers. Charles delved into this material, mixed it with a brew distilled from what he learned reading the heroic fantasies of Howard, Fritz Leiber, and other classic masters of the field, then put his own inimitable stamp upon it all to create the world of Imaro and the characters that inhabit it. Bandits and warriors, priests and strange monsters, loyal retainers and back-stabbing traitors. And towering above them all, is the character of Imaro himself--still a youth when we meet him in the book you're about to read, headstrong, and certainly out of his depth at times, but already a man, willing to grow and learn. A warrior who seeks peace. An outsider who has been denied the companionship of family and tribe, and so has to create his own. I've never understood why these books have languished out of print for so many years. For me they rank at the very top of the field, not simply because the storytelling is so immediate and absorbing, but for the fresh wealth of culture and myth to be found in their pages, and the sharp insights into the human spirit that Charles brings to each character. I know why the initial DAW sales stalled and died--that's simply the vagaries of the publishing field. By the time the second book came out, the first was no longer in print, so any reader who wasn't there at the beginning (snatching up a copy from that initial small print run), could either enter Imaro's world in what felt like the middle of the story, or turn to some other series where they were able to buy the first book. Unfortunately, most people don't like missing the beginning, and so the series floundered. Their loss, you might say to those folks. But it was our loss, too, because the Imaro's full story was never completed at DAW, and to all intents and purposes, Charles vanished from the fantasy field. But he never stopped writing. He simply turned to writing about other things. Moving from Ottawa, Ontario, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the eighties, he wrote copy, columns and op-ed pieces for the local papers there. He published a number of non-fiction books: Africville: A Spirit That Lives On (1989) to accompany an exhibition relating the history of that indomitable Halifax community, leveled by the local government under the guise of "progress"; Share and Care: The Story of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (1994), a superb history of the neglected and unwanted children of Nova Scotia's black community; and Black and Bluenose: The Contemporary History of a Community (1999), an insightful and passionate collection of his columns and op-ed pieces. And he continued to write fantasy. Besides preparing these new editions of the Imaro books, and also working up a Dossouye novel (she was the lead in another story-cycle from his small press days), for many years Charles has been working on stunning series of high fantasy novels combining Celtic and African mythology. I've read portions of them in manuscript form and they easily rank among my very favourite novels, period. It's my fervent hope that the book in hand will be a rousing success. First, because it, and Charles, deserve that success. But I also hope that it will provide the impetus for our finally getting the whole story of Imaro out in book form. And then, that it will also pave the way for the publication of these new books he has been working on, because lord knows, the field needs the fresh and discerning insights that only Charles can bring to it. * * * I'll admit up front that I'm totally biased--and privileged. Charles and I have been pals since the mid-seventies--his moving to Halifax didn't change that--and I've loved Charles' African stories since I first got to read them, as short story manuscripts and their subsequent appearances in small press magazines such as the late Gene Day's Dark Fantasy, to the ambitious projects he's working on these days. We published our own small press magazine together. We shared our stories with each other--a process from which I learned a lot more than I think he did, since he was already a far more accomplished writer than I was in those days. We helped each other move (and there's a true sign of friendship: helping to move another bibliophile's library) and spent a lot of time just hanging out, talking about this love we had for the field. This love we still have. Since those early years, his level of craftsmanship has certainly risen, but the power and intensity of his stories remains unchanged. And the rich tapestry of his settings and characters has only deepened. That doesn't surprise me. Because Charles remains that born storyteller he was when he first set pen to paper al those years ago. He's one of those gifted writers who can tackle any subject, in fiction or non-fiction, and make it engrossing. At times, even inspiring. I, and the few others lucky enough to read his manuscripts, already know this. But it's high time the rest of the world had the pleasure to discover this as well. - Charles de Lint Ottawa, summer 2005 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/LRMolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/