(no subject)

[skygiants]

Is there a specific name for the subgenre of fantasy that's focused on craft or artisanship? Like, it's second world and there's magic but the protagonist is mostly interested in leveling up their art/music/blacksmithing/beekeeping? I'm thinking things like much of Robin McKinley's oeuvre, The Golden Key, The Stars Dispose, the Pern trilogy that's focused on Menolly ...

Anyway, if you have a name for this let me know, and if you have other examples also let me know because it's a genre I really enjoy, as I have been reminded by reading Caroline Stevermer's When The King Comes Home, which kate_nepveu was extremely correct to recommend to me an age and a day ago.

The protagonist: artist's apprentice Hail Rosamer, who has recently become obsessed with the work of Famous Historical Artist Maspero, who lived about two centuries prior and did a lot of work around the profile of Historically Good King Julian.

This means that when Hail stumbles over a distressed-looking hobo under a bridge with Good King Julian's exact profile, she knows exactly what to do.

HAIL: omg you're Good King Julian returned, just like in the stories! I recognized you from Maspero's art!
A MAN WITH GOOD KING JULIAN'S EXACT PROFILE: well, it's complicated, and there's an evil necromancer that -
HAIL: TELL ME ALL ABOUT MASPERO. 😍 WAS HE AMAZING. 😍 WHAT COLOR PALLETTES DID HE USE
A MAN WITH GOOD KING JULIAN'S EXACT PROFILE: ... you mean the Maspero who occasionally moonlighted as an artist?
HAIL: YES 😍
A MAN WITH GOOD KING JULIAN'S EXACT PROFILE: ..... I mean I can tell you he drank a lot and owed me money?
HAIL: OKAY BUT WHAT ABOUT HIS LINEWORK 😍

Obviously, the fact that a dead king has been brought back from the dead by an evil necromancer does in fact turn out to have sociopolitical implications in which Hail becomes inextricably involved ... mostly by trailing around on various efforts to stop the necromancer, attempting to engage anyone and everyone in conversation about Maspero and his artwork until they're all thoroughly sick of it. I love her? I love her. 3/4 of the way through the book she participates in some important art magic and also is forced to grudgingly admit that Maspero's color work may not have always been up to the highest standards.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the tone of the book is as much wistful melancholy as anything else -- the underlying themes are about death and the inevitability of loss and the myths we tell ourselves about the past -- but also, it is truly an enormous amount of fun to watch the entire plot unfold through the lens of a hyper-focused art student.


Other favorite scenes:

- the beautifully awkward moment when it turns out that the original Man With Good King Julian's Exact Profile is in fact not Good King Julian, but instead Good King Julian's personal Lancelot, because the evil necromancer assumed the romantic ring that Good King Julian's queen was buried with belonged to Good King Julian and it ... did not ....... and now everyone in the room knows some historical gossip that they all have to politely pretend they didn't register because a very stressed-out undead Lancelot is standing right there!

- the adorable moment when Good King Julian and his Lancelot are having a cute fake fight over symbolic flowers, and Hail attempts to Resolve Their Dispute by purchasing all the symbolic flowers and they get annoyed at her and poor Hail is just like "I don't get it?" ... basically this book is doing the best possible job it can to channel the best possible version of Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere, and the only complaint I have is that the Guinevere arm of the OT3 is very underrepresented on the page

- the moment when the witty guard captain who's been low-key radiating faint love interest energy in the background comes up to Hail the night before the Dramatic Final Battle and is like "so ... DO you think you could care about anything besides art?" and Hail is just like "nope!" AND THEN THAT'S IT ON ROMANCE, BYE. I mean I liked Love Interest Energy Guy perfectly well as a character but also I laughed so hard.

Comments

[aurumcalendula]

I really want to read this book now!

[skygiants]

I enjoyed it so much!

[kate_nepveu]

<3 <3 <3

I should reread this!

(also I love that both this and _Fionavar_ did that thing)

[skygiants]

This was even a BETTER version of that thing, honestly, because in Fionavar the angst about No Threesomes lasts literal generations and in this book the Arthur analogue is like 'yeah I was stressed for a week and then got over it lol.' Thank you again for recommending!

[kate_nepveu]

lol indeed!

I'm so glad you liked!

[thawrecka]

This sounds absolutely delightful.

[skygiants]

I personally am not particularly art-obsessed, but nonetheless Hail "How Does This Major Magical/Political Event Intersect With My Niche Personal Interests" Rosmer was a very relatable heroine.

[pedanther]

I assume you already know about Ursula Vernon's "Beauty and the Beast" retelling in which the heroine really just wants to get back to her gardening, and also Ursula Vernon's "Cinderella" retelling in which the heroine really just wants to get back to her gardening.

I've read Stevermer's other novels set in that secondary world, but never made time to track down a copy of this one. I should fix that.

[skygiants]

Ursula Vernon is another one of those authors, like Robin McKinley, that I really should just file away as "always doing this in spirit" even when not technically doing this.

[aella_irene]

I read this post and then ran off and bought a copy of my own, which will be in my hot little hands...in a month.

[skygiants]

Delayed gratification! :D

[kore]

OMG, this sounds amazing.

[skygiants]

I zoomed through it (and now I want to reread all Stevermer's other books...)

[schneefink]

All these scenes sound amazing xD

[skygiants]

I read most of this on my lunch break and then I just kept cackling to myself all the rest of the afternoon!

[nevanna]

I wonder if Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series might be the type of fantasy that you're describing?

[larryhammer]

+1

[aquamirage]

+2!!!!! becca did you read circle of magic, if you do now you'll understand a lot about me

[skygiants]

I think I read the first one but it was so long ago I don't remember well, which is why I also don't remember if they're the sort of thing I'm talking about .... but I think they are? Someone's a blacksmith, right?

[aquamirage]

not just a blacksmith a very serious baby lesbian seafaring blacksmith

[kate_nepveu]

well, the thing is, their craft is their magic and they use their magic to do plot-y things, so, it's not as much "just let me get back to this." but they're still very nice craft-wise.

(there are some weird things about the second series, in particular, that I hadn't recognized until rereading them recently, fyi.)

[oracne]

PASSION BLUE by Victoria Strauss also falls into this sub-genre. I like the Stevermer better, but PB has a lot of cool Illumination Stuff done by women.

[skygiants]

Ooh, I've not heard of this! I might let the post-haze of the Stevermer fade a bit and then seek it out. :D

[aamcnamara]

I love this book and I love Hail. It's one of those books where details don't hugely stick in my mind between reads, but then I go back to it and crow, Oh THIS bit!

Not at all in seriousness I say: that subgenre is called craftpunk. (Lifelode is also in it. And maybe The Dubious Hills but there the craft IS the magic, which is a variant like the Circle of Magic ones.)

[skygiants]

Engaging in seriousness what was said not in seriousness: I don't think it can be craftpunk because it's really very not punk! Like, I love it as a genre, but in the way it feels sort of like the opposite end of a sliding scale -- both are much more about Ordinary People than kings and battles and politics, but the 'punk' in genre is (imo) about Surviving And Undermining Broken And Oppressive Structures while the tropes of this genre tend to be a lot more about ... benevolent parallel structures? Apprenticeships and mentorships and neighborhood communities, etc. I think over on Twitter I said that part of what defines this genre for me is that the protagonist follows some kind of professional path to success that hypothetically anyone could succeed in rather than being reliant on special powers or heritage, and that implies structures that allow for that success. tl;dr i like this genre and I think it's nice to read but it's not very punk.

[sophia_sol]

Oh man, I last read this book eight years ago and no longer remember a thing about it! I kind of want to reread it now and discover what I think of it these days.

[skygiants]

I sort of wish I'd known about it when I was younger, but it was also a very enjoyable book to discover now!

[melita66]

Mindy Klasky's The Glasswright's Apprentice series. I lost track after a few books, honestly.

Emerald House Rising by Peg Kerr

Paper Mage by Leah Cutter

Possibly The Tale of the Five by Diane Duane although that's edging over into straight competence porn leavened by forced mental health improvement.

Maybe Winter of the World trilogy by Michael Scott Rohan.

[skygiants]

I haven't heard of most of these, thank you! I would not characterize The Tale of the Five this way, mostly because I don't remember any of the crafts in it ... and I feel like any book that falls into this genre should leave an overwhelming impression of crafts even if no impression of anything else. But also, I only read them once and it was years ago so it's very possible that that's on me!

[melita66]

RE: The Tale of the Five

I was thinking about Herewiss trying to forge a sword that he could use as a focus, plus the magic being very architectural ('these 2 words are too similar and want to attack each other').

Possibly the Across the Jade Sea trilogy by L. Shelby. A main character just wants to be an airship engineer--but ends up with a different fate. James Nicoll reviewed them for me several years ago.

Someone mentioned Chalice by McKinley which made me think of the baker in Sunshine, of course.

Huh, there's also Kristine Smith's Jani Killian who knows the craft of contracts! And how to take them apart forensically! But it's not in the same class you're looking for, I think.

And The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart! With the dragon-turned-girl becoming a chocolatier's apprentice.

[vass]

I don't know if there's a name for it, but I read the first sentence of this post and immediately thought of When the King Comes Home, so clearly we're in agreement there.

Not fantasy, but I think John M Ford's Growing Up Weightless is in a related genre, even though the protagonist has several different things he's good at and practising and deciding between.

[skygiants]

It may honestly be the ultimate example of this trope ... though The Golden Key is very this as well. Lots of books about fantasy artists!

Technically the Pern books are not fantasy either, so Growing Up Weightless can totally count!

[vass]

Also, suddenly I want a very AU AU of the Silmarillion in which Morgoth sprained his ankle and stayed home that day and then thought better of it while he was recovering, and the rest of the fic is just Fëanor gemology hyperfocus porn, with occasional interludes of Nerdanel sculpting hyperfocus porn. And Fëanor still isn't anything in the same building as a nice person, but he is a lot less murdery and arsony.

[skygiants]

I would love to see the AU version of any Tolkien as written by a Tolkien who was as much into Some Craft as our universe's Tolkien is into languages...

[watersword]

Robin McKinley's CHALICE hits that button for me.

[skygiants]

That's the one with the beekeeping, right? That's one of the ones I was thinking of for sure!

[larryhammer]

It's been a while -- too long, really -- since I reread this. Thanks for the reminder.

And I too want more of these. They are the awesomesauce. Another example is a pair of historical fantasies from the mid-90s about a budding chef in Florence, hobnobbing with Michelangelo and other big name artists as he attempts to up his artistic presentations -- I forget the author and titles, though. Someone around here should probably be able to drop those in.

[melita66]

Michaela Roessner? The Stars Compel and The Stars Dispose?

[larryhammer]

Bingo! Thanks.

[skygiants]

Yes! I read the first one of these but a long long time ago, and I either never knew there was a second one, or forgot -- I should hunt them up again.

[larryhammer]

The second wasn’t as good, or at least not as charming, and IIRC doesn’t end with a particularly strong resolution.

[ladymondegreen]

From what I remember, it was supposed to be a trilogy, but the third one never surfaced. I always joked it would be called "The Stars Dispell".

[larryhammer]

The second did indeed read like the middle book of a trilogy ...

[movingfinger]

I'd consider these a variety of craft fantasy, but I could also argue that they should be called apprenticeship fantasy and considered as a variety of Bildungsroman.

I didn't know about that Stevermer, and, strangely, I was just looking at Teresa Edgerton's books and thinking I could reread. Much better to read something new! Thank you!

[skygiants]

Definitely LOTS of them are apprenticeship fantasies but I can think of a few that aren't necessarily about apprenticeship, or start with apprenticeship and go further - The Golden Key is about squabbling artists of various ages, for ex., and Judith Merkle Riley's The Serpent Garden is about a painter who secretly takes over for her dead husband.

I hope you enjoy the Stevermer! :D Is the Edgerton also like this? I don't think I'm familiar ...

[dhampyresa]

THIS SOUNDS GREAT YES I WANT

[skygiants]

It was so extremely enjoyable!