Tag: Anbatar Legacy of the Blood Guard

A Few Quick Questions With… Anne Dolleri

Earlier, I posted my thoughts about Anne Dolleri’s debut, Anbatar: Legacy of the Blood Guard. Now, she’s generously agreed to this brief Q&A. I enjoyed her responses to the questions and the opportunity to get to know her a bit better, I hope you do, too.


Tell us about your road to publication—was your plan/dream always to become a novelist and your education/other jobs were just to get you to this point, or was this a later-in-life desire?
I started writing when I was 13 years old. I never really did it with the intention to become a novelist. I was just thrilled about stories, about those beautiful things you could experience in the eternity of your own mind. Even today I consider myself as an amateur. Writing is a beautiful hobby and as weird as it sounds but I never want to make it a day job. I guess that would just rob it of it’s magic. I am a skilled gardener which on the first look might seem like something completely different, but really the fresh air and the hard work inspire me a lot.
I don’t want to ask “where do you get your ideas?” But out of all the ideas floating around in your head, why’d you latch onto this one—what was it about these characters, this idea that drove you to commit months/years to it?
I don’t really have a lot of ideas floating around. My ideas are born from the characters that occupy my mind. Nareth was actually my first book character I ever created. The first story I told was his and somehow there was this world growing around him. This sounds quite vague, I know, but sometimes I got the impression that writing is a mystery to the author even more than to the reader.

Well what made me spent that much time with this book? It’s the unbearable feeling of untold stories. It’s the feeling most of us have when our favorite series seasons finale has aired and ended with the worst cliffhanger you can imagine. You’ll just have to keep going until the story is told. I got my people in my head. And they got their story. And the story needs to be told.

I loved your use of Nareth;s dog and horse. Sure, as with 99% of all books, more of the dog would’ve helped. Was that a conscious choice or just something that happened along the way? [Note: I forgot I asked this question when I wrote about that in my post. I don’t mean to harp on the point, it just happened]
That is a really hard question. As a war horse Alahar has his purpose of course but I can’t recall having planned to create him. The same counts for Revo, who is Nareths dog. I do like having animals in rather descriptive episodes of a book (like journeys) so my character is capable of interacting with something. So you can say in retrospective Revo is a beloved unexpected helper, who does a great job in those scenes. But like Alahar this wasn’t a conscious decision, more a very happy coincidence. Of course I do have a thing for animals, so I guess it would be harder for me to write a book without animals in it.
Similarly, I loved Keni. Without spoiling anything, what can you tell readers about him? Where did the idea to include him come from—not just to include him, but to use him so often?
When Nareth enters Anbatar for the first time I needed someone he could talk to. As a stranger and even more so an enemy to the people of the North it needed to be someone he could risk talking to. Who could be better for that than a boy, who is experiencing the poverty of Anbatar every day while he’s roaming the streets for food. So at first Keni was only planned as Nareths first contact. But the naughty little thief turned out to be a great counterpart for Nareths soldier-like disciplined attitude. And to be honest Nareth grew very fond of the little guy. So he found his way into the story, and turned out to be an awesome character who finds his way from the beginning of the book until the very last chapter.
Who are some of your major influences? (whether or not you think those influences can be seen in your work—you know they’re there)
Of course most of us authors insist on being a unique sparkling unicorn but to be honest the stories of Terry Goodkind (The Sword of Truth), Kristen Britain (The Green Rider Series) and Naomi Novik (Temeraire) had a huge impact on me. What might be seen in my own work from these books is the very character based writing. I am telling my story through the eyes of my main character. And I believe this is what I adapted from the writers above.
What’s next for Anne Dolleri, author (if you know)?
I wish I had an idea. Considering that I am a self-published author and not a native english writer, it’ll definitely take some time until there will be something new to read from me. I had planned to continue Nareth’s story but until it is written, published, translated, edited and published in english, many month will pass I’m afraid.
Thanks for your time—and thanks for Anbatar: Legacy of the Blood Guard, I enjoyed it, and hope you have plenty of success with it.
Thanks for the interview, thanks for reading it, I am glad you enjoyed your time in Anbatar.

Anbatar: Legacy of the Blood Guard by Anne Dolleri: A Satisfying New Fantasy Adventure

If this one ends up looking intriguing, come back in a little bit to read a Q&A with the author (the link’ll work when it posts) to see if she can convince you to give this a shot.

Anbatar

Anbatar: Legacy of the Blood Guard

by Anne Dolleri

Kindle Edition, 488 pg.
Nina Döllerer, 2019

Read: October 14-15, 2019


Nareth is a Samerier warrior (a super-soldier of sorts, I’m going to stay vague about that), and single-handedly turned the tide against an invading army in a recent war. Haunted by what happened (particularly is role in it), and determined to prevent that needing to happen again, he goes on a secret peace mission to the country that recently invaded his own. His brother, the king, sends a security force and an ambassador, too. But they can’t move as quickly as he can (nor are they as driven).

Nareth arrives in the capitol city, Anbatar, and is stymied on every front—he can’t talk to anyone in the government. The invasion had gone so awry that the king was killed, so by law, the leaders of the nation are behind locked doors for weeks until succession is decided and a new king is crowned. Forced to wear makeup to disguise his darker pigmentation, Nareth familiarizes himself with Anbatar, starts to get a feel for the politics in the city, and makes some contacts that will help when he (and the coming diplomat) have a chance to negotiate a lasting peace.

When the opportunity arises (forced, actually, by Nareth taking a reckless and potentially calamitous step), it comes tied to dangerous tasks — digging out the remnants of a secret police and protecting the daughter of a popular candidate for the monarchy from forces loyal to the slain king’s family.

This books would work pretty well as Exhibit A in an examination of why I rarely DNF things. There were a handful of aspects to this novel that felt like deal-breakers when Dolleri introduced them. If not deal-breakers, harbingers of a disappointing read, anyway. The kind of things that felt things I’ve read in other independently published Fantasy novels that almost never worked out well. For example: the way she kept most of the details about the Samerier warriors from the reader for most of the book; the seemingly irrational feud between Nareth and his ambassador—and the way the two interacted with each other; the way the inevitable romance was introduced. Dolleri didn’t do a bad job with any of them, but at first blush these things (and others) reminded me of a disappointment in another book and made me think that this book would be the same. But at some point, without me noticing, she won me over. Every time that I grumbled about something in my notes, or rolled my eyes at an idea, I eventually got to the point where not only did the thing not bother me, I ended up liking the way she was dealing with things.

I’m not sure I’m being clear there—so let me put it this way: every negative (or potential negative) that I came across, she turned into a positive. That’s skill, that’s a good instinct (even if she didn’t see what I’m complaining about as a negative), she put enough heart, individuality or chutzpah into her story that I couldn’t help but respond positively.

At one point (I have to be careful here to not give away anything), it became clear to me what kind of ending she was going for (even if I didn’t have all the details guessed, I could see the trajectory) and it’s not what I expected. Even here, I quickly got behind her choices and was able to enjoy them.

There is a real lack of backstory about this world, about the recently completed war and the ongoing tensions between the two countries (pre-war and after). We get a little bit of information on this, but not much. This is both wonderful—no prolonged infodumps—and frustrating—it’d just be nice to know from time to time. Ultimately, I think this was a smart move (and makes the reading easier), but man…I’m curious.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time talking about this character, but there’s a thief wandering around the city. He can get where he wants, when he wants. His mere presence gets people to give him their money—he’s like Batman would be if he turned. His character alone, plus the impact he has on various points of the story, are real bonuses for me. I’d read a book about him at the drop of a hat.

Typically in Fantasy novels, animals are just part of the background, or they’re invested with some sort of near-magic/supernatural quality. Nothing against the latter, but I’d prefer just some good animals. That’s what we have here—Alahar, Nareth’s horse is a good warhorse—he works well with his rider, but isn’t supernaturally fast, strong or smart animal. Nareth also has a dog, Revo. It seems once or twice that Revo might secretly be supernatural, but in the end, he’s just a good dog. I think he gets short-changed a little in the end (and that’s not just because I’m obsessed with dogs in fiction), but he’s nice to see.

The last character that I want to focus on is Keni. He’s a typical street urchin who does some odd jobs for Nareth and ends up being taken under his wing. There was something infectious and charming about his presence, and I think a lot of the affection I ended up having toward this book is rooted in him. At the very least, Dolleri’s use of him magnified my appreciation for the book.

My last point is this—Dolleri isn’t a native English speaker/writer. Which can be a dicey thing when trying to write/translate fantastical elements. If I didn’t know English was a second language for her, I don’t think I could’ve determined that from the book. Major kudos to her for that—no small feat.

Is this the best Fantasy I’ve read this year? No. But it’s a surprisingly satisfying one. I’m ready to head back to this world, hopefully back to some of the characters. It’s an intriguing setting for some enjoyable characters to have their adventures in with an author that has some pretty solid story-telling chops. I’d get this one if I were in your shoes, folks.


3.5 Stars
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