The Fantasy Hive Celebrates…

Here on the Hive, there’s nothing we love move than recommending you our favourite books, especially through our themed posts for Halloween and Christmas! So we put our heads together and thought, what else can we celebrate throughout the year with reading?

(Titles link to book reviews where available)

This is our third celebratory post after St Valentine’s day and Lunar New Year, and this week we’re recommending our favourite Welsh and Irish authors (specifically authors of those nationalities, not authors residing in those countries) to celebrate –

St David’s Day and St Patrick’s Day!

Nils

Sarah Rees Brennan is an Irish author and though she is mostly known for her YA fantasy novels, I’ve only read her adult fantasy, Long Live Evil. This was an absolutely fantastic ride as we follow Rae who falls into the world of her favourite fantasy books but not as the hero, as the villain. There are a lot of shenanigans and twists, including my favourite ballroom dance number. I’m very much looking forward to the sequel, All Hail Chaos. 

Diana Wynne Jones is a prolific Welsh author and though I’ve only read one of her books so far, Howl’s Moving Castle, I loved it. It’s quite different from the studio Ghibli adaptation but that made it all the more compelling to experience the original story. This is an author I definitely need to read more from. 

Gareth Hanrahan is an Irish fantasy author whose debut novel The Gutter Prayer featured a heist gone terribly wrong which then pulled our characters into a tale of betrayal, revenge, and an age old god war. I loved that we had plenty of non-human characters in this one. There are two more books in the trilogy which I ashamedly haven’t read yet. However Hanrahan’s upcoming novel, The Dungeon Book, is one I’m extremely excited to read because it’s all about ‘dungeons and dragons, magic and manticores, and goblins and gargoyles’ which sounds like so much fun! 

G. D. Penman

Arthur Machen is always my first point of reference for Welsh fantasy, The Great God Pan was one of the seminal works of what eventually became the supernatural horror genre. Its themes of ancient inhuman forces lurking in the quiet natural places of a modernised world certainly resonated with my experience of Wales.

And in fairness to Ireland, I’ll reach for an equally venerable author: Lord Dunsany, whose Gods of Pegana bridges the gap between classical mythology and fantasy in a much more deliberate manner, but in a way that definitely leads more cleanly into the modern fantasy genre.

Beth

Ok, there’s one part of this task I’m going to be much better at than the other…

Let’s talk Welsh authors! One of my favourite Welsh authors writing contemporary fantasy right now is Cari Thomas. I’ve absolutely loved her series of novels and novellas starting with Threadneedle. The novels blend that kind of cursed family witchcraft you get in Practical Magic with the darkness of ’90’s teen witch film ‘The Craft.’ The novellas, The Hedge Witch and The Burial Witch, aren’t as dark as the main books in the series and work as a nice companion glimpse into Thomas’s world. The third book in the Threadneedle series is due for release in November this year.

Another Welsh contemporary author with her third book coming out very soon is Sophie Keetch. Keetch’s debut trilogy, beginning with Morgan is my Name, follows the Arthurian figure (sometimes villain) Morgan le Fey (Morganna, Morgeine, etc). If you’ve enjoyed feminist retellings of mythological figures, such as Madeline Miller’s Circe, then this will be perfect for you, as Keetch explores the story of a powerful woman branded a villain.

Nils has already mentioned Diana Wynne Jones, who has a huge back catalogue of utterly magical stories, and an author in a similar vein is Catherine Fisher. I discovered her novel The Snow-Walker’s Son in the library when I was a child and was completely swept up in it, it’s a series I’d love to return to as an adult and rediscover; again, lots of magic, and a traditional fantasy-quest feel. Again like DWJ, Fisher has a large back catalogue of novels, so plenty to explore!

If you like something more speculative and folkloric, I would definitely recommend Caryl Lewis. Lewis is predominantly a Welsh-language author, but Drift is her first English-language novel. Set on the west coast of contemporary Wales, Drift features the selkie myth, and deals with issues surrounding community and immigration.

Finally, I’d like to shout out a Welsh-language book, as it’s hands-down the best one I’ve read that deals with Welsh mythology – Dadeni by Ifan Morgan Jones. Again, set in modern Wales, it’s features a great deal of figures from Welsh mythology, predominantly the Mabinogi, in a thrilling and political adventure.

When it comes to Irish fantasy authors, this is unfortunately where I fall short. I’ve read the likes of Maggie O’Farrell, Emma Donoghue, Roddy Doyle… but no genre authors! I’ve absolutely loved the animated films from Cartoon Saloon; ‘The Secret of the Kells’, ‘The Song of the Sea’, and ‘Wolfwalkers’. They all feature Irish mythology, and I would love to discover books similar to these!