As an added bonus to this week's Friday Review of Hugo Negron's new fantasy epic, Rise of the Slavekeepers, Hugo himself has graciously allowed me to interview him. So, check out the review, and then learn a little more about this talented fantasy author.
Forging of a Knight: Rise of the Slavekeepers is Hugo
Negron’s action-packed, epic sequel to his fantasy debut, Forging of a
Knight. With this new entry to the
series, Negron has crafted a complex tale full of enough action, excitement,
and plot twists to keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page.
The story starts off simply enough with Qualton, fresh from
attaining his place among the Turinthian knights, trudging through a swamp with
a band of his new comrades on a mission to slay a beast that has been wreaking havoc
on nearby villages. We are introduced to
several new characters in this opening scene, the majority of which are prominently
featured throughout the story, including wizened Bartholomew, fierce Jesepha,
and chivalrous Euric, a knight hopelessly smitten by Jesepha.
Not long after this mission, Qualton discovers that the
order of Turinthian knights is not what he had believed them to be, lacking in
the honor he’d always envisioned. This
leads to an agreement between him and a handful of his fellow knights to uphold
the honor of the Turinthian knights that had been lost since the days of
Qualtan’s father.
From here, the story takes off into a complex weaving of
plots involving mysterious disappearances possibly involving Those That Stand
in Shadow, a sinister threat from another world, and a malicious plot that
could drag Qualtan’s world into darkness.
Once the story picks up, Rise of the Slavekeepers rarely
slows down enough to let you catch your breath.
Hugo Negron has truly proven his mastery at crafting huge action
sequences that literally set your heart racing.
I liken the action to a summer blockbuster action movie, epic in scope
and wholly entertaining. However, there
is plenty of substance to the story to complement the action. The plot is enjoyable throughout, and full of
clever and unexpected twists. To go too
far into the story would give away things I feel should be experienced first-hand
when reading Rise of the Slavekeepers, but I will say that if you’ve read the
first entry in this series, this sequel is bigger in every aspect. The multitude of creatures in this book are a
testament to the author’s seemingly boundless imagination, and are vividly brought
to life through his amazing attention to detail.
I will admit that I’d like to see more interaction between
Qualtan and Glaive—the once orcne thief who is now Qualtan’s page to the
chagrin of the king and Qualtan’s wizard uncle—since the way their differing
personalities clashed was one of my favorite aspects of the first book. Also, though entertaining page-turners, the
action scenes occasionally detracted from the story for a little longer than I
would’ve liked. Of course, considering
that they still kept me glued to the pages to the point that I didn’t dare skim
just to get back to the story, this is a minor complaint.
I recommend starting with the first book to truly get to
know Qualtan and his world, but Rise of the Slavekeepers does stand strong on
its own, and I feel it could be enjoyed without reading the first book in the
series. With its ending clearly setting the
story up at least one more book—if not more—I’m already anticipating the next
volume in the series. Considering what the
final pages hint at, it seems we’ll be treated to an even more exciting and
epic tale, and I’m eager to see what Hugo Negron has in store for Qualtan and his
friends.
5/5
****
And now, read on to learn more about Hugo Negron, such as why his 7th grade teacher was so awesome and what the future hold for Qualtan and his friends in the Forging of a Knight series.
Thanks, Hugo, for participating in this interview and providing such great answers!
Be sure to check out Hugo Negron's books here, and like his Facebook page here to get up to date information about the next book in his Forging of a Knight series.
Brian
Forging of a Knight:
Rise of the Slavekeepers is your newest release. Why should readers pick up a copy?
For anyone following the series, and even those that haven’t
– a far-reaching quest, a bevy of villains, and great characters framed within a
backdrop of fantasy and action! Beyond the inter-dimensional creatures, the
threat of Those That Stand in Shadow, and all the intrigue and mystery
in-between, you have down to earth friendships, relationships, romance, maturation,
and growth.
Rise of the
Slavekeepers is absolutely packed with fast-paced, epic action scenes. Where do you draw your inspiration for these?
The one thing I would sometimes be disappointed with when
reading some fantasy tales was the action.
When these scenes would arise, they were on occasion generic, bland, or
glossed over so quickly you were left scratching your head trying to figure out
what actually occurred. For example, you
may have some sort of story buildup to an epic confrontation, and then once it
happens, in one page the protagonists are meeting for a classic battle, and
then in the next the bad guy is knocked on his arse, with no explanation
in-between. I think that was the one
thing I didn’t like about Lord of the Rings –and I’m a big fan, especially of The
Hobbit - all this buildup to Sauron being this great evil, this final
confrontation with the ultimate enemy…and then he just happens to topple over like
a drunken sailor and that’s the end.
That’s it???
Especially without having illustrations to fall back on, I
think its even more imperative to give that mental image to the reader of what
is happening. It’s almost like watching a movie and then breaking down the
fight/action sequences in written form. The challenge was making sure the
action didn’t supplant the story or the characters.
This book is a lot
different from the first in terms of general story. Where the first told a simpler tale of
Qualtan’s struggles to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a Turinthian
knight, Rise of the Slavekeepers dives head first into an elaborate, epic
fantasy storyline. Could you talk a
little about making the jump to such an epic tale? Did you enjoy working with the larger cast of
characters?
As Qualtan broadened his experiences/world view, I wanted to
broaden the world around him. When I
first wrote Slavekeepers, I had Qualtan saving every character/scene in sight,
and I realized, ok, he’s a newbie knight, and even with his special powers, it
doesn’t makes sense if he’s a rookie to be doing everything right the first
time out and hogging the show - the end result was a pretty boring read. So I took the supporting knights I had
originally written as pretty much cannon fodder (think Star Trek Red Shirts)
and fleshed them out. I especially
enjoyed how Jesepha and Bartholomew turned out.
At first there was no “female” knight to the group, and the knights all
tended to come off as being the same. I wanted to add some different
players/voices to the story. Once I made
a he into a she, Jesepha took a life of her own, and took me down some paths I
hadn’t considered. She basically wrote herself along with Bartholomew and
Visandus. It’s pretty cool when you see a character you invent do that to a
story.
What challenges did
you face when writing Rise of the Slavekeepers?
My original concept was really complex – I had some
additional characters, adventures within adventures, and additional sub-plots –
it became way too unmanageable, and the story just got lost in the mess it was
becoming. When I think of it now, I
could have made this into two volumes - a part one and part two, but felt in
the end it was best to keep it down to one book. The big challenge was to
dissect the scenes, keep what I thought was important, and reframe or remove
the rest.
Some reviews of your
first book, Forging of a Knight, mention the book as a young adult novel. Would you agree with this
classification? If so, do you think the same
applies to Rise of the Slavekeepers?
I think the books can be (and have been, judging by the
comments readers have made to me) equally enjoyed by both younger and older
readers. Forging of a Knight starts off
rather simply and there’s a little bit of innocence to it at first, but as
Qualtan starts going through these situations of betrayals, manipulations, and
lies, he starts to mature, and to a degree, so does the premise. Once he becomes a knight, things get a bit
more serious in a way. I tried not to
make the stories and background myths too complex because that can put a reader
off from following the story – at least it does so for me, especially when its
fantasy based and you have all of these strange sounding names for characters,
cities, places, histories, etc. I don’t think that makes it necessarily “only”
a young adult novel, just more of an easier one to follow.
One of my favorite
aspects of the first book was how Qualtan and Glaive, two extremely different
personality types, played off of one other.
In Rise of the Slavekeepers, there are far less opportunities for the
two characters to interact, thus far less instances of their entertaining
banter. Can we expect to see more
interaction between the two in the future?
(this question’s mainly just for my own benefit J)
lol – in Slavekeepers, as far as Glaive was concerned, it
was more about his additional acceptance and acknowledgement by others beyond
Qualtan, and developing a sense of trust and friendship outside of his knightly
pal. For this to take place, I felt I
had to separate the two, otherwise it wouldn’t have really given him a chance
to grow outside of his sidekick role.
There is a lot more coming between Glaive and Qualtan,
however. Glaive makes a very minor
appearance in book three (sad to say), but that’s because of a certain secret
mission he is given by King Prelance, and the end result of THAT, and what
happens to him, will be the premise for book four…
There’s obviously
much more to Qualtan’s story. What can
readers expect for the future of the Forging of a Knight series?
Its funny, I think of your character Max, and it brings to
mind the fact that when I first wrote Qualtan, he had a talking owl companion
given to him by his uncle to keep him out of trouble! Then I just couldn’t
figure out how to insert the owl in the stories to do more than just fly around
looking for danger, so I dropped him.
Each of the stories to date, and those coming up next, have
dealt with certain aspects of Qualtan’s emotional growth, which correlates I
think to what a lot of people go through in everyday life - hoping to live up
to parents’ expectations, fearing failure in a chosen career, and then once you’ve
achieved that comfort level in that career, hoping to excel/advance, to become
the top of your profession, and wondering what to do next. The first book was mainly Qualtan’s attempt
to prove worthy of his dad’s legacy and hoping he could prove worthy enough to
become a knight. The second book was
more about now that he WAS a knight, would he be a good enough one, able to
stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other knights?
The third book will see him testing himself as to whether or not he has
finally excelled as a knight, to become a true hero.
Now, ongoing throughout
all this has been this fear (curse?) that he would end up losing everything:
his sword, respect, his position, all of it.
A few books down the road, he’ll finally find out for sure…
According to your
author bio, you have an extensive background in psychology. How has this helped in crafting your
characters and stories?
Hmmm – well, I think it helps you to visualize underlying
needs in a character – that people usually can and do put on a different mask of
themselves based upon the situation or the need – home, work, family, friends,
etc. So in trying to keep the majority
of the characters three-dimensional, I’ve put in some additional layers to
their behavior. Sir Richard seems to be
a grouchy drunken PITA, but then you learn he drinks to keep himself sane from
all the horrors and bloodshed he has seen.
Sir Rutt seems to want to avoid any teamwork or responsibility with the
other knights, mostly b/c he just wants to make it out alive to retirement. Glaive is a cynical rogue, but that’s to
protect himself emotionally after all the stuff he’s been through. Even with
Darksiege, you discover its not just about being evil, it’s about being evil
with style…
What made you want to
become a writer, and what prompted you to write fantasy?
I always loved fantasy.
I blame my 7th grade teacher for getting me into fantasy. She actually taught her class to play a role
playing fantasy game to encourage teamwork, leadership, and creative thinking –
wonder if that would be allowed nowadays – after that, I read The Hobbit, books
on King Arthur, Greek mythology, went to a couple of Medieval Fairs and never
looked back.
Reading got me into writing.
Reading the stuff I mentioned above, I started tinkering with writing my
own stories, and gradually, from grade school up to my teens, developed what
would eventually become Forging of a Knight.
At one point I got so busy with college, work, life, etc., as we all do,
that I thought, eh, what’s the point, and I dumped all my writing and notes
into the trash! Then I thought twice about it, and went back to retrieve it
all. Glad I did…
What authors
influence your writing?
I would say HP Lovecraft and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – two of
my favorite authors, and mostly because of the “classical” style in their
writing – and how VERY detailed they were in describing characters, situations,
surroundings, etc. I know that can be stifling
for some, but that attention to the small stuff really brought their stories to
life for me.
When you sit down to
write, what items/factors/settings are essential to the process?
Solitude and music (usually classical, tribal, Celtic, or
from movies like Iron Man and Krull – the opening theme song and Flight of the
Firemares from Krull really put me in the mindset to write fantasy!). Having a
21 month old has rather forced me to modify the solitude part, though…
What are you
currently working on (in terms of writing)?
Any future projects in mind?
I’m just about ready to send book three in the Forging of a
Knight series: Prison Planet of the Mah-Lahkt to my editor. If you think book two had a bunch of
characters, wait until you read this one: all the Arch-Mages (along with a
couple of apprentices), all the heroes that have the same enchantments as
Qualtan (meaning a return by Prince Termenon from the first book in addition to
a few others), Jesepha, some rather unique allies, like a lizard-like champion
of the lina folk, and a mysterious knight that’s been cursed by Death, along
with Darksiege, Shaz, and a bunch of others.
Add to that snippets of Glaive, Bartholomew, Euric, and some surprise
others, and it’s going to be quite the party.
After book three, I’ll be at the “halfway point.” I had
originally mapped out six tales of Qualtan’s adventures (I actually had a lot more,
but I came up with six that in my mind made sense enough to be coherent,
readable stories), although I’ve been playing with a concept for a
seventh. We’ll see if I can hopefully
get to all of them.
When you’re not
writing, what do you do for fun?
Biking, hiking, reading, watching British comedies with my
wife, re-watching old sci-fi shows and movies (Tom Baker era Dr. Who, anyone?),
and devouring every stuffed pizza I can find…
Favorite book?
I would have to go with series – all the original tales of
Sherlock Holmes; and from H.P. Lovecraft - The Dunwich Horror, At the Mountains
of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, and
the Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward are all amazing tales. I’ve enjoyed
T.E.D. Klein’s work, and Gregory Maguire’s Wicked series.
Favorite movie?
Anything that has ninjas, Godzilla, super-heroes, monsters, space
ships, and souped-up dystopian cars in them…preferably all in the same movie…
Favorite musical
artist?
Too many to mention – I grew up in the 80’s so you can take
your pick from the artists back then...
8 )
What is one thing
that your readers probably don’t know about you?
Old musicals – Singing in the Rain, An American in Paris,
Gene Kelly, Syd Charisse, Donald O’Connor, Fred Astaire…love em all!!
Hugo Negron is an avid fan of myths, legends, and folktales. He grew up in Illinois where he still resides with his wife and son. His background includes an M.A. in clinical psychology from Roosevelt University as well as an M.A. in industrial/organizational psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
He enjoys reading, biking, and walking winding trails through darksome forests, searching out the mystical beasts that reside therein.
****
Thanks, Hugo, for participating in this interview and providing such great answers!
Be sure to check out Hugo Negron's books here, and like his Facebook page here to get up to date information about the next book in his Forging of a Knight series.
Brian
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