How fitting is this book to my blog? Stormdancer is Japanese inspired and based on Japanese mythology, and Amaterasu (from my blog's title) is the Japanese Sun Goddess!
One of the most awesome authors I've had a chance to talk to, we are featuring Jay Kristoff on our blog today! He'll be talking a little bit about his upcoming book, Stormdancer, and basically just being awesome while doing so.
People call STORMDANCER a Japanese Steampunk novel, but it’d be less like lying to say that Stormdancer is Japanese-inspired. It’s set in an island empire called Shima (Japanese for ‘island’). The customs, language and culture are inspired by Japan’s samurai age, but they have contraptions like air-ships and chainsaw katanas, the sky is choked with pollution, and animal life on the island has been virtually extinguished. Shima is a dystopia, with a capital D. No fluffy squirrels or cuddly bunnies here, friends.
So how does mythology tie into this dying land? I based the religion in Stormdancer on Shinto, a religion in ancient Japan that’s made of awesome. The most important Shinto story is the myth of Lord Izanagi and Lady Izanami – the great maker gods with the easily confused names. Izanagi and Izanami were in wuuuuv, but Izanami died giving birth to the world (and yes, I imagine that would be quite painful). Izanagi went to the underworld to reclaim her, but she’d become corrupted by the darkness (no, not that kind, the other kind). Izanagi fled, and in a rage, Izanami vowed that she’d kill a thousand people every day to punish her husband for leaving her. To which he replied, “Then I will give life to fifteen hundred.” Snap.
Now sure, on the surface STORMDANCER is a story about a girl who can speak to animals, and her friendship with the last griffin left alive. But underneath, Shinto mythology (particularly the tale of Izanagi and Izanami) is at the heart of the series. I had to figure out how the other gods of Shinto would fit into a dystopia too – how would people feel about the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, for example, when the sun is bright enough to barbeque your eyes if you look at it with your naked eye? Or Tsukiyomi, the Moon God, when the pollution is so dense you can’t even see the stars at night? It was a lot of fun figuring out the answer to these questions, and creating a brand new world that’s interwoven with a mythology that’s thousands of years old.
But now I’m running over-length, so as to exactly how it all fits together, I guess you’ll have to read the book to find out
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Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
Add Stormdancer to your Goodreads list!
A DYING LAND
The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, land choked with toxic pollution, wildlife ravaged by mass extinctions.
AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST
The hunters of Shima's imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary beast, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows thunder tigers have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.
A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL
Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a hidden gift that would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her.
But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire.
Stormdancer comes out September 1st 2012 and is published by St Martin’s Press (US) & Tor (UK)
Preorder your copy now on: BOOK DEPOSITORY
Preorder your copy now on: BOOK DEPOSITORY
GIVEAWAY TIME!
WIN A SIGNED ARC OF STORMDANCER!
Yes, you can! And it'll be signed! And it's also open internationally!
All you need to do is fill out the form and then answer this simple question:
Place yourself into Stormdancer's world. You're in Shima. If you were a Japanese God / Goddess, who would you like to be and why?
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