{"id":137,"date":"2011-07-24T17:08:37","date_gmt":"2011-07-24T22:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.judsonroberts.com\/?page_id=137"},"modified":"2011-09-15T14:58:38","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T19:58:38","slug":"orson-scott-card-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.judsonroberts.com\/?page_id=137","title":{"rendered":"Orson Scott Card Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Uncle Orson Reviews Everything<\/a>, by Orson Scott Card:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some books are so badly misplaced in the bookstore that you have to wonder: What were they thinking?<\/p>\n

But I’ve been in the publishing industry long enough that I can tell you exactly what they were thinking when Judson Roberts’ Strongbow Saga was published as a young adult novel, even though it’s a serious adult historical.<\/p>\n

The problem is that there’s no historical novel category anymore. You won’t walk through the bookstore and find a section labeled “historicals.”<\/p>\n

Instead, historical novels are evenly divided among other departments. Some historicals show up in the romance section; usually, they’re anachronistic bodice-rippers, though some of them are seriously trying to be true to a historical period.<\/p>\n

Then you have the trashy-bestseller pseudo-historicals, full of conspiracy theories and exposes and politically correct protagonists struggling against the ignorant prejudices of their time.<\/p>\n

These show up in fiction and literature, along with a few holdover classics like Mary Renault’s Greek novels, Robert Graves’ I, Claudius and Claudius the God, and a handful of others that refuse to go away.<\/p>\n

Visit the mystery section for some of the best historicals. Often historical accuracy is strained in order to make room for a sleuth — most eras had no detectives — but once you get past that hurdle, many writers do a first-rate job of carrying on the nearly abandoned historical novel tradition.<\/p>\n

And then there’s the young adult section, a ghetto walled off from the adult customers. How does a serious historical novel get dropped there?<\/p>\n

When Viking Warrior, the first volume of Strongbow, crossed the desks of the editors, I can guess exactly what the editor thought: This is a terrific writer and a very good novel. But it’s a historical novel. There’s no sleuth, so I can’t push it to mystery. The hero is 15 years old and the only women are mother figures — definitely not romance. No trashy gimmicks and anachronisms — not a potential bestseller.<\/p>\n

So it’s unpublishable, thinks the editor. But that really sticks in her craw, because she knows it’s a very good book that deserves to exist in print and find a grateful audience.<\/p>\n

Wait, the editor thinks. The protagonist is 15! That means this book could be published as young adult! True, the book is actually aimed at adult readers; the writer makes no concessions toward the official Interests of Contemporary Teens. But at least in the YA section it can be published at all.<\/p>\n

So the writer gets steered to YA editors and the book comes out in a section of the bookstore where adult devotees of serious historical fiction will never find it.<\/p>\n

Worse yet, in the effort to convince girls to try a novel that by plot description would seem to be a boys-only book (though it’s not), they decide to put photographs of a sultry male stud in Viking drag and modern sexy-guy hairdo on the cover.<\/p>\n

What they don’t realize is that by trying to create sex appeal for teenage girls, they make it look like a girls’ book! And while girls will read boys’ books, most boys will not pick up books that seem to be targeting girls.<\/p>\n

That’s why author Judson Roberts finds his serious historical novels shunted off into YA fiction. I’m sure he was grateful when his books were contracted by a publisher, but I’m quite certain that this book has not reached anything like the audience that it deserves.<\/p>\n

I can give you a plot summary: Halfdan is a slave in a great Danish household. His father is the lord of the house; his mother is an Irish princess who was captured and enslaved when all the relatives who might have ransomed her were killed in battle.<\/p>\n

On his deathbed, his father agrees to free Halfdan and declare him to be his son. Suddenly Halfdan shifts from the nothingness of slavery to being a warrior prince. The trouble is, no one has trained him for war. So his half-brother, Harald, takes on his training and discovers he has a natural talent with a bow, along with the strength and cleverness and craft to be a good warrior.<\/p>\n

But within the family there is a viper, who betrays everyone and throws the blame for his treachery on Halfdan.<\/p>\n

That’s the plot — leaving out a lot, you can be sure, including the intricate family politics that prompted the publisher to reach for the girl audience.<\/p>\n

What I can’t tell you is the depth and care taken in the research of this book. It’s an alien society, and yet it’s a significant part of the historical roots of our own England-based culture. I quickly become impatient with “historical” novels whose authors have done only cursory research. Judson Roberts has not just done his research, but has also discovered a plausible version of the mind and heart of people from another time.<\/p>\n

Viking Warrior, despite its generic-sounding title, is the real thing: A well-written, well-researched, exciting, moving historical novel that is definitely for adults.<\/p>\n

So walk into the YA section of Barnes & Noble (Borders doesn’t even carry the books, alas!) or go online with Amazon.com and order Viking Warrior, Dragons from the Sea and The Road to Vengeance. (Be warned — the second and third volumes are really a single long book that was cut in half because YA novels can only be a certain length.)<\/p>\n

If some kid decides to borrow your books and read them, well, that’s all right, too.<\/p>\n

Reprinted with permission from Orson Scott Card.<\/p>\n

This review originally appeared on November, 20, 2008 on the website for the Rhino Times: (http:\/\/greensboro.rhinotimes.com\/Articles-i-2008-11-20-187915.112113_Quantum_Bees_Vikings_Facebook_Hamlet.html<\/a>) and on Orson Scott Card’s Hatrack River Web site at
\nhttp:\/\/www.hatrack.com\/osc\/reviews\/everything\/2008-11-16.shtml.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n