Taking a break from the Steampunky goodness of Let's Get Steamy, I've got a special announcement from one of my all time favorite authors, J.L. Bryan! One of Jeff's first series, Jenny Pox, is actually one of the reasons I got into book blogging in the first place! I've followed pretty much everything he's written since then and love sharing about his amazing works with everyone! Now he's releasing the FIFTH book in his epic Fairy Metal Thunder series. (For those of you who don't know, YES I'm talking about Faries, and rockstars, and the amazing idea to bring the two together!) Fairyvision is coming out at the end of this month and I am VERY pleased to have Jeff here today to share about it! Take it away Jeff!
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One of my favorite things about writing the Songs of Magic series is the freedom to create all kinds of fun, magical, silly, and often pun-based settings and creatures. To celebrate the release of Fairyvision, the fifth book in the Songs of Magic series, I’ve dreamed up elements of a Songs of Magic board game (which does not actually exist in any form...) and asked some bloggers to share them as guest posts.I’m very happy to reveal the first section of the game board (which represents the first book, Fairy Metal Thunder) here on Unabridged Andra, because this entire multi-blog event was inspired by Andra’s comment that the Songs of Magic series reminded her of the game Candyland! So extra thanks to Andra!
Here’s the first section of the game board:
Fairy Door: The main characters travel in and out of Faerie using tiny doors built into a grove of large, ancient trees.
Sidhe City: (from the Irish sídhe, referring to ancient burial mounds, believed to be home to supernatural beings). The capital city of Faerie. Many of its older buildings and apple groves were transplanted from the Isle of Avalon when the faeries left the world, during the Iron Age.
Fairy Market: Early in the book, we see a busy market square in the fairy city, bustling and hustling with snack-sellers, picture-painters, basket-weavers and shoe-bucklers. On the darker, shadowy side of the square, you can shop among potion-brewers and spell-casters, or have your future poked at by a fortune-teller.
Music Park: These are the “power plants” of Faerie. When human children stumble into fairy rings (circles of mushrooms that serve as doors to the fairy world), they dance all night, enchanted by fairy music, and return home drained in the morning, with no memories beyond dreams of strange music. Their energy is captured and used to power all the magic in Faerie.
Queen Mab’s Palace: Queen Mab is the Empress of Faerie, a realm once known as Aelfer (or “the Elflands”). She rules all of Faerie with an iron wand and her Queensguard, vicious fairy sword-slingers in black armor. Her palace is located in Sidhe City, surrounded by a labyrinth full of monsters for a bit of security.
Sugar Swamp: Located in the Deep South of Faerie, the sugar swamps are full giant primordial sugarcane that has turned the swamp water sweet over thousands of years. Invasive cacao beans have turned large areas of the swamp thick and chocolatey. Sugar swamp farmers provide the rest of Faerie with candy corn, jelly beans, and other important crops. The swamps are home to a number of rare animals, including saber-toothed ducks and a very small number of unicorns.
Glastonbury Door: Located on the old site of Avalon, Glastonbury Tor, is one of the largest fairy gates on Earth. Queen Mab keeps the fairy gates closed and guarded, and she forbids all travel between Faerie and man-world.
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You guys are SO lucky to have stopped by today! In honor of the release of Fairyvision, Jeff is hosting the fairy game giveaway! One winner will receive an autographed set of the five fairy books, including the newest, Fairyvision!!! Follow J. L. Bryan’s blog for more Songs of Magic game posts and more chances to enter!
I've read JL Bryan's Jenny Pox and loved it! I didn't know he had a fairy series! Really cool :)
ReplyDeleteI love the Songs of Magic series so much and this is such a fun feature he is doing for the release of FAIRYVISION! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteNever heard of the author or the books, but I'm definitely willing to try!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for posting, Andra!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing with us today. I was raised an only child and consequently have had little experience with board games, but this looks so fun, definitely going to try to figure it out ;)
ReplyDeleteI love the Sugar Swamp! It is a contradiction of sweet and lethal! I absolutely love it. It is so unique to the fairy worlds I've read about that I think I might declare it might most favorite enchanted place of all time. And I've read a lot of fairy tales!
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