Bryn Hammond
Biography
Amgalant is three books
One: The Old Ideal - out now
Two: Tribal Brawls - out now
Three: Wonders and Horrors - being written
As of Publication Day, January 2012, I've written Amgalant for eight and a half years, with at least five years ahead for the third book. But I can't imagine life without Amgalant. The material - The Secret History of the Mongols - is wonderful. Favourite quotes on the material: 'A Morte d'Arthur of the steppe'; 'The tragedy of Jamuqa... might have inspired Shakespeare'. It's true. To me, here's a plot the equivalent of Camelot, and there ought to be dozens of novels with the different possible interpretations. I had to write mine.
Twitter @Jakujin
Where to find Bryn Hammond online
Books
Bryn Hammond’s tag cloud
Bryn Hammond's favorite authors on Smashwords
Smashwords book reviews by Bryn Hammond
- Lancelot And The Wolf
on Jan. 20, 2012
The angsty love between Lancelot and his king... how can I not get into this? A dark, dirty, very sympathetic Lancelot (always my fave Arthurian) and King Arthur, when at last we meet him, in a bad way, a tarnished legend. The ups and downs of forbidden love. And there's a sequel. Great stuff.
- Promised Valley Rebellion
on Jan. 21, 2012
I'm fascinated by prehistoric fiction, but haven't found much I'm happy with... so glad to come across this set of novels. What I liked: the characters are fully human, intelligent, with attitudes we recognise, either to go along with or argue with. Stories set in the distant past can assume people were dumber than us, which is unscientific I believe. The characters are engaging, I like and admire our young hero, who's a bit of a fighter for free speech and rights; and the crisis situation turns out to be a sort of conflict of nobility on both sides. I hope that isn't a spoiler. The end is heart-warming. I like the portrait of war, people's attitudes to war (again, we can assume people of the distant past were savage bloodthirsty idiots). I like the shamans - they're called tellers here - and their way of life, distinct from the community. And I like the pitting of hunter-gatherers against early farmers: the issues, the prejudices each has against the other. There are questions also of kingship and what tyranny is and isn't; and questions on religion and the gods. It's an examination of these matters, through a story that's strong and easy to get involved in. Best, we don't have to leave the world: there's a sequel and more to come.
- Litany
on March 08, 2012
What jolted me awake on the first page was the prose and the character-depth; then Rose won me over and I had to read to the end. The prose is often more ordinary, and at times her experiments, for me, went wrong; but she can write.
Rose is a mad old lady. Not mad in the intellect, as she tells herself once almost for sure - it's her emotions that have gone mad (in a lesser way this has happened to me and I made that distinction). Still, she's crazed; she abandons her house with its memories, she packs a bag and there she is, a bag lady. When we meet her she can't stand to sleep indoors. Because the inside of her head is a rant she rants at other people; she's rude even to the sympathetic, and the writer tells you intimately why.
I think Sophie the librarian is meant to be conventional in every respect, except that she fell in love with Barbara: this gives her a little practice and the ability, later on, to question and defy other conventions. It's a chisel to open her mind - just a crack at first - rather as E.M. Forster designed the character of Maurice. Sophie's grief for dead Barbara, and the fact she cannot even tell her workmates she's in grief, are terrible for us to experience. I ought to warn you about the tragedy in the book.
Zak, a fourteen-year-old girl, didn't convince me the way the others did, and Rose remained the most original.
These three, two women and a girl, are thrown together, and the book's about what comes of that. The setting is Chicago 1968. On every street corner there's a prejudice: black/white; we're in a Polish neighbourhood, with much on when and how you use Polish, use English; the homeless; Sophie who doesn't call herself a lesbian; the hippy guys' treatment of the hippy girls is woeful. Then there are the humane, like Jake who gently and most steadfastly stands up to officialdom and the police, as only the runner of a soup kitchen knows how; and of course Rose.
- Beloved Pilgrim
on April 02, 2012
I liked the last 3rd most: it's the tight narrative of a disaster. This works up a terrific head of steam. Great fighting (and I've never met such a fighting horse). A true war tale. What's more, because this is a crusade of 'uncertain facts' and the writer has given us a 'yarn' not a history text, you won't know what's going to happen. The last 3rd is five stars; up til then was four.
But back to the beginning. Girl puts on armour, disguises herself as a knight and runs off to the Crusades (or similar). It's an old story. It's my favourite plot in the Faerie Queene: would I be half so fond of Spenser if not for Britomart, who does exactly that? And Spenser imitated from the Italians who have Bradamante and Marfisa. Our Elizabeth/Elias has quite a tradition behind her. The storyline is certainly my fantasy, and that might explain the novel's readability to me. The book was BIG on readability (even before that last third).
Along the way our naive young E. finds herself gobsmacked by women, than which nothing does more to further her disguise. Now, Spenser and his ilk do not avoid the opportunity for sexual comedy. Women fall for Britomart at a great rate and the loose ones try to get in bed with her. There are idyllic passages when Britomart acts as the protector of a damsel and they behave as if they are in love. Sorry, there's not much modern here.
E. is a real fighter, from the start and to the end; she's made for armour and that is that. She can't always meet the men in crudity, but she's where she belongs, and though she faces other puzzles, she never questions whether she ought to have her chainmail britches on.
- Scar
on April 03, 2012
Too wonderful, I don't know how to talk about it. The spiritual insights of schizophrenia; Irish legends earthily told; artistry, of the sort that only needs a sentence or two, to make you look twice. I have to read this again. I feel inadequate to comment. - Not that you can't gain much, much, on a single and even fast read; the story hastens you along.
