Air Logic Publication Day

Tue 4 Jun 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Seventeen years ago Laurie J. Marks’s first Elemental Logic novel, Fire Logic, was released in hardcover and I, desperately searching for women writers to write about for my monthly BookPage sf&f review, was delighted to find a fantasy from Tor with some blurbs. I enjoyed it quite a bit:

Fire Logic is definitely not a simplistic fantasy where one side is right and the other must be wrong; like real life, it is all about shades of gray. Zanja comes from a highland people who hold themselves happily apart from other nations. She is their avatar, sent out to communicate, trade and learn from the outside world. But the outside world is in turmoil: former refugees have armed themselves and are taking over. The countryside is soon a war zone, replete with horribly familiar acts of war and reprisals. Marks has a wide-angle view and has written an immensely political and unflinchingly optimistic novel. Differences are celebrated as often as scorned, and love can be found even with an enemy without the costs that might be expected in our world.

Less than two years later and an ARC for the second book in the series, Earth Logic, landed, celebrations — and another review in BookPage. Show me the reader who isn’t affected when a book changes the world:

. . .  Karis’ group finds a hidden library and an old printing press. They use the press to publish a book that reminds the Shaftali that they unlike the occupying Sainnites are a hospitable and generous people. This is one step on Karis’ path to the nonviolent defeat of the Sainnites. As Emil, the former Shaftali general says, ‘War cannot make peace.’ The nonviolent choice is a strong and difficult one, and not everyone in Shaftal supports it especially those who have lost family and friends in the occupation. However, it is what Karis wants, and in earth logic “action and understanding are inseparable,” so, although it seems impossible to overcome the warring factions, she is determined to make it happen.

Earth Logic is a thought-provoking and sometimes heartbreaking political novel which absorbingly examines the dynamics between two groups of people. Good bread, wine and friendships alone may not save the world, but they make the doing of it much more palatable.

A couple of years later Laurie asked us for advice on publishing the third novel and we slowly talked it over here and with her until we came to realize that we could and would happily publish it. So in 2007 Water Logic was sent out into the world — sometimes with tea! Laurie was Guest of Honor at WisCon, the book received another starred Booklist review and for readers of the Elemental Logic series, all was looking well.

Then slowly the series became one of those unfinished series that seemed like they would stay that way. We knew that Laurie was working away on it — tying up all those stories in one book that made sense of it all was a huge job — but there were family and health complications.

Air LogicOver the years we’d check in and we were delighted to get a chance to put the first two books out in new editions, at first in ebook, and this year in trade paperbacks, especially as it gave us a chance to work with Kathleen Jennings again who did an amazing multi-part illustration over a number of years that gave a lively fresh visual identity to the series. (Of course, the 4 books still don’t match as we had previous cover of Water Logic stripped off and the books were rebound with the new covers so they have a smaller trim size than the first, second, and fourth Logics. If the books do well and we get to reprint . . . )

And slowly light broke over the horizon and then suddenly the day was here and it is June 4th, 2019, and here we are with the fourth and final Elemental Logic novel out in the world:

Welcome to Air Logic.

 

 


Air Logic

Tue 4 Jun 2019 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

trade paper · 400 pages · $17 · 9781618731609 | ebook · 9781618731616

The fourth and final novel in the award winning Elemental Logic series.

Locus Notable Books
Otherwise Honor List for Series

Fire Logic · Earth Logic · Water Logic · Air Logic

Laurie J. Marks returns at last to Shaftal for the long-awaited conclusion to her acclaimed series. Karis and those who love her must figure out, in the aftermath of war and an assassination attempt, how to bring together Sainnites and Shaftali in a country where old wounds and enmities fester and Air magic conceals the treason hidden in the heart of the G’deon’s household. When Medric is taken hostage to force Karis’s hand, a strange boy will guide Zanja to the place where she may yet save him, a mother must remember the son she has been made to forget, and Air children will find what their place in the world may yet be.

“If you’ve been looking for an exciting, thoughtful, queer, diverse, politically aware, complex, timely, beautifully written saga of a fascinating world and set of characters, here it is.” — Delia Sherman

Reviews “Laurie Marks’s epic fantasy world is brilliantly realized, gratifyingly queer, and satisfyingly, humanly complicated. Now that the story of Shaftal is complete, it’s one that every fantasy fan should experience for themselves.” — Electra Pritchett, Strange Horizons

“You might not believe me, but this is the truth: Laurie J. Marks’s Elemental Logic books are as good as Elena Ferrante’s monumental Neapolitan Quartet. They achieve the same depth, the same spellbinding quality, and the same sense of falling entire into a world on the page, tethered to real life by the sure hand of a master writer. They expose a talent as mighty as Le Guin’s for building intricate moral dilemmas inside fantasy universes, for creating characters the reader will remember for decades, and for presenting solutions that amount to much more than throwing soldiers or magic at the problem. These books are a profound achievement in fantasy literature.” — Katherine Coldiron, Locus “Not everyone survives, and no one survives unscathed. . . . The discipline of hope relies on communal life and love, doing the hard work of coming together and staying together across differences in culture, belief, conviction. Marks time and time again refuses pessimism or grim acquiescence in favor of insisting that, while some people might be monsters, the far greater portion have the capacity for good. There is real power in the dedicated, intentional, thoughtful project of hope with a steel core. The Elemental Logic series provides a compelling, thorough argument in its favor, one I’ve enjoyed reading from beginning to end and which left me cautiously optimistic about the world in which I’d like to keep striving toward a more survivable future.” — Lee Mandelo, Tor.com

“The entire series is highly recommended to anyone looking for a series that presents not only a queer fantasy world, but also one of the most well-wrought and engaging fantasy worlds out there.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Marks brings her much-loved, long-unavailable Elemental Logic series (most recently 2007’s Water Logic, and all recently republished by Small Beer) to a superb finale. . .  an extraordinary fantasy saga that’s well worth revisiting or exploring for the first time.” — Publishers Weekly

“Shaftal is a convincing world, lovingly detailed and fiercely envisioned. Marks’ characters are so real. . . . as the last note in a familiar melody, this book rings true. A final book that stays true to the spirit of the whole, sending readers out of Shaftal on a high note.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Marks (Water Logic) draws a satisfying conclusion to this quartet of novels perfect for readers of K. Arsenault Rivera and previous fans of the series.” — Library Journal

The Elemental Logic series:

Fire Logic Elemental Logic: Book 1
Spectrum Award winner
Romantic Times Reviewers Choice award nominee

The martial Sainnites have occupied Shaftal for fifteen years. Every year the cost of resistance rises. Emil, an officer and scholar; Zanja, a diplomat and last survivor of her people; and Karis, a metalsmith, half-blood giant, and an addict, can only watch as their country falls into lawlessness and famine. Together, perhaps they can change the course of history.

Read an excerpt.
Listen to the author read Chapter 1: part 1 · part 2

Reviews for Fire Logic “Marks is an absolute master of fantasy in this book. Her characters are beautifully drawn, showing tremendous emotional depth and strength as they endure the unendurable and strive always to do the right thing, and her unusual use of the elemental forces central to her characters’ lives gives the book a big boost. This is read-it-straight-through adventure!” — Booklist (Starred Review)

“Marks has created a work filled with an intelligence that zings off the page.” — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“A deftly painted story of both cultures and magics in conflict. Marks avoids the black-and-white conflicts of generic fantasy to offer a window on a complex world of unique cultures and elemental magic.” — Robin Hobb

“Marks vividly describes a war-torn land, and the depth of character development makes this novel a page-turner.” — VOYA

“A glorious cast of powerful, compelling, and appealingly vulnerable characters struggling to do the right thing in a world gone horribly wrong. I couldn’t put this down until I’d read it to the end. Marks truly understands the complex forces of power, desire, and obligation.” — Nalo Hopkinson

Earth Logic Elemental Logic: Book 2
Spectrum Award winner

The second book of Shaftal. The country has a ruler again, a woman who can heal the war-torn land and expel the invaders. But she lives in obscurity with her fractious found family. With war and disease spreading, she must act. And when she does, the very stones of the earth sit up and take notice.

Read an excerpt.
Listen to the author read Chapter 2 or “Raven’s Joke”

Reviews for Earth Logic

“Marks produces another stunner of a book. The powerful but subtle writing glows with intelligence, and the passionate, fierce, articulate, strong, and vital characters are among the most memorable in contemporary fantasy, though not for the faint of heart.” — Booklist (Starred Review)

“The struggle for the world of Shaftal is far from finished in Marks’s stirring, intricately detailed sequel. . . . Full of love and humor as well as war and intrigue, this well-crafted epic fantasy will delight existing fans as surely as it will win new ones.” — Publishers Weekly

Water Logic Elemental Logic: Book 3
Amid assassinations, rebellions, and the pyres of too many dead, a new government forms in the land of Shaftal—a government of soldiers and farmers, scholars and elemental talents, all weary of war and longing for peace. But some cannot forget their losses, and some cannot imagine a place for themselves in an enemy land.

Read the first chapter.
Listen to the author read Chapter 1: part 1 · part 2

Reviews for Water Logic

“How gifts from the past, often unknown or unacknowledged, bless future generations; how things that look like disasters or mistakes may be parts of a much bigger pattern that produces greater, farther-reaching good results.” —Booklist (Starred Review)

“Finely drawn characters and a lack of bias toward sexual orientation make this a thoughtful, challenging read.” — Library Journal

“Marks’s characters are real people who breathe and sleep and sweat and love; the food has flavor and the landscape can break your heart. You don’t find this often in any contemporary fiction, much less in fantasy: a world you can plunge yourself into utterly and live in with great delight, while the pages turn, and dream of after.” — Ellen Kushner

Map of Shaftal by Jeanne Gomoll.

On the web:

Credits

Laurie J. Marks (website) has published nine fantasy novels, including Dancing Jack, The Watcher’s Mask and the Elemental Logic series (Fire Logic, Earth Logic, Water Logic, and Air Logic). She has been writing since her childhood in California, inspired by the works of C.S. Lewis and Lloyd Alexander. Her books have been shortlisted for the James D. Tiptree/Otherwise Award, and have twice been awarded the Gaylactic Spectrum Award. Laurie J. Marks lives in Massachusetts with her wife, Deb Mensinger, and their Welsh corgi, Serendipity.


Weekend Reading

Sat 1 Jun 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Brit Mandelo is writing a thoughtful series of short essays on Laurie J. Marks’s Elemental Logic series on Tor.com. As Andrew Liptak points out in today’s round-up of books to check out this month, the first three novels came out between 2002 and 2007, so it’s been quite a wait for the fourth and final novel, Air Logic.

Last weekend at WisCon in Madison, Wisconsin, it was delightful to chat with Laurie about Brit’s first essay on Fire Logic: Living in Hope is a Discipline:

The centering of hope as a practice, of hopeful thought as expansive and dangerous, is vital to the series’ political argument. Nurturing willful, wild, directed hope—even in moments of despair and defeat—is necessary to be able to envision a path out of conflict, in direct contravention of nihilism or the reactionary impulse.

I am so glad Brit is writing these and pulling up these threads. Hope as a practice, while working for peaceful regime change, is where I am in this world at the moment.

In the second essay (which contains spoilers, so heads up if that bothers you — the way it used to me, but now I don’t mind — maybe it’s time passing and the world encrappening but they seem less important to me now. Everybody’s mileage varies here, of course), on the second volume in the series, Earth Logic Rather Than Defeat the Enemies, You Must Change Them: Brit focuses on the hard work being done and attempted:

Renouncing the moral impulse to be (and to have been) right, decisively victorious above all else, in favor of the ethical impulse to create a better future is the philosophical core of Karis’s ultimate treaties . . .

I can’t wait to read what he has to say about the next two volumes over the next couple of weeks. The publication date for Air Logic is this coming Tuesday, June 4th, and what a celebration it is for all the readers of this series. Any number of people came by and chatted at WisCon about the series — with some picking them all up so that they can read it again and some readers who don’t read series until they are finished(!) picking up the first or all four. These books have had a profound influence in many readers’ lives and I am looking forward to following even more readers’ reactions to them over the next few months, the next few years.