Book about Ren Faire

[Kylan Navon]

A friend of mine wrote a book of urban fantasy that takes place at faire. It's a great little book...and if anyone is interested...you can get more info here...

http://www.faire-folk.com/

[PamJB_66]

I would have responded sooner, but I somehow didn't know there was a
whole other forum! :oops: I couldn't figure out why there wasn't much posting going on. Ah well... I did manage to find the new forums at long last!
I agree that the book is really great! :D It's the best one I have read for having faire as a book setting. Most books are at a faire for only a little bit of the book, but "From the Ashes" is set almost totally at faire. I hope she's working on a new book!

[vanessa]

I was on the email list but got sooo impatient (patience is NOT on my list of virtues!!!) that I went to one of the online stores and bought the PDF version for $6.

It is certainly an easy and a delightful read, it *is* based out of a real renfaire (names and places renamed, etc) and *supposed* she is working on another book (I believe it is with the same characters, different setting, etc).

I did find some of the details to be unnecessary and some parts to be a bit repetitive (there are better ways to describe events/sounds/actions that re-occur rather than repeating the whole page word for word), but that is really the worst I could say of the book. It *really* made me want to visit the faire she based it out of... she aludes to Northern Cali somewhere... as I have never been to a Faire west of Oklahoma, I most definitely could not say for sure... :)

Enjoy the book and I would definitely recommend it!

[Mairi the Herbwench]

I know her, and I know the Faire - it's the one in Shakopee here in MN. And the young lass has slept in my tent! She's a sweetie...

[Janelle of Warren]

After hearing it recommended on AFR, I read From the Ashes a couple of months ago. Depsite having attended faires since 1993, I had never read a book set at faire before. And I loved it! Some of the parts had me in stitches because they were so close to my own experience, others seemed a bit further into the fictional realm, but I greatly enjoyed all of it. I, too, am looking forward to the sequel!

[PamJB_66]

This thread got me to thinking about other books with ren faire settings. The following list is what I have read that have either faire in the story or are SCA. Does anybody have any other books to recommend? Are there any non-fiction books about renaissance festivals? A book about the history of faires would be a fun read. :D

Here's my list:
Garrison Allen: Royal Cat ...... set at a renaissance faire in Arizona
Peter Beagle: The Folk of the Air..... are part of a SCA-like group
Melanie Rawn: Quantum Leap, Knights of the Morningstar...... SCA-like group
G.A. McKevett: Sugar and Spite..... spends a bit of time at a renaissance festival
Mercedes Lackey: Bedlam's Bard.... some time is spent at a renaissance festival (this book is two books combined together. Knights of Ghosts and Shadows is one of the books... blanking on the other)
Sharyn McCrumb: Highland Laddie Gone..... set at a highland games
Mary Moncia Pulver: Knight Fall (or Murder at the War) ....SCA
Meghan Brunner: From the Ashes..... Ren faire setting ...of course the book we have been talking about!

Barbara Lane: Echos from Medieval Halls..... this is a non-fiction book about both ren faire people and SCA people that talk about some of their past lives

The following are books that I haven't read but heard that they had faire or SCA settings. Anybody read any of these?
Gillian Roberts: Time and Trouble ..... SCA type group
Jason Grunewald: Finding Time..... is a modern group that are living like it's 1450
Tom Dietz: The Gryphon King... ren faire setting
Chris Claremont: Dragon Moon... celtic re-enactment
Elizabeth Peters: Murders of Richard III.... mystery with Richard III's group
Janet Laurence: A Deep Coffyne.... mystery at a medieval feast

Some of the books I got from this site:
http://www.webrary.org/rs/flbklists/Historical.html

So anybody know of any others?? There sure is a lacking of books with rennie or SCA settings. :cry:

[Maewyn]

I liked Michael Crichton's "Timeline"...not set at a faire, the story is that they actually go back to the Middle Ages. (After you get through the bit about quantum physics, of course.)

[Morte]

This thread got me to thinking about other books with ren faire settings.
<snip>

Mercedes Lackey: Bedlam's Bard.... some time is spent at a renaissance festival (this book is two books combined together. Knights of Ghosts and Shadows is one of the books... blanking on the other)


On the Misty Lackey books it's Knight of Ghosts and Shadows and Summoned to Tourney (which are followed by Beyond World's End and Spirits White as Lightning and preceded by Bedlam Boyz)

Rosemary Edgehill (who coincidentally co-wrote the 3rd Bedlam's Bards book) wrote 3 books of a trilogy called "The Twelve Treasures" unfortunately the rest of the books were not purchased by the publisher..

the three that were published:
The Sword of Maiden's Tears
The Cup of Morning Shadows
The Cloak of Night and Daggers

have SCAdian characters and are really quite good (IMHO) but are out of print 8( i got my copies through http:www.half.com

she has some other books in print that i haven't had the pleasure of reading yet, but have been recommended.

something else is tickling the back of my mind but i can't place it currently..

the Lackey Books mentioned were my first introduction to the idea of a Faire when i was about 16.. the closest thing we had in this part of Washington back then was the SCA's Medieval Faire.. my first event/faire 8) fond memories...

and i also recommend the Folk of the Air.. although I had thought it WAS the SCA they were in... maybe i should re-read 8)

bookishly yours,

[PamJB_66]

I liked Michael Crichton's "Timeline"...not set at a faire, the story is that they actually go back to the Middle Ages. (After you get through the bit about quantum physics, of course.)

Yeah I thought "Timeline" was fun. I just wish they got back there a bit sooner and left out some of the physics! I had heard once upon a time that they were going to make a movie out of it. I guess it fell through. Anybody hear anything about a movie? That would be a fun one!

Another book of someone going back in time is Connie Willis's "Doomsday Book". I liked that one a lot. They have a scientist go back to the 1300's to study the plague. Very touching story I thought.

[PamJB_66]

[Kylan did post:
On the Misty Lackey books it's Knight of Ghosts and Shadows and Summoned to Tourney (which are followed by Beyond World's End and Spirits White as Lightning and preceded by Bedlam Boyz)]

Thanks for pointing out the other books. Didn't know that the series continued. I haven't finished Summoned to Tourney yet. I loved the part where they are at faire and it's a fun story. Just wish they were at faire a bit more.


[Rosemary Edgehill (who coincidentally co-wrote the 3rd Bedlam's Bards book) wrote 3 books of a trilogy called "The Twelve Treasures" unfortunately the rest of the books were not purchased by the publisher..

the three that were published:
The Sword of Maiden's Tears
The Cup of Morning Shadows
The Cloak of Night and Daggers

have SCAdian characters and are really quite good (IMHO) but are out of print 8( i got my copies through http:www.half.com]

Those sound good. I'll have to see if I can find some. (Isn't half.com great!)

[she has some other books in print that i haven't had the pleasure of reading yet, but have been recommended.

something else is tickling the back of my mind but i can't place it currently..

the Lackey Books mentioned were my first introduction to the idea of a Faire when i was about 16.. the closest thing we had in this part of Washington back then was the SCA's Medieval Faire.. my first event/faire 8) fond memories...

and i also recommend the Folk of the Air.. although I had thought it WAS the SCA they were in... maybe i should re-read 8)]

They certainly could have been SCA. They didn't call themselves that in the book but they certainly are a SCA group. I thought introducing the magic part made them a bit un-SCA, but certainly the group in general was very much so.

[Morte]

Another book of someone going back in time is Connie Willis's "Doomsday Book". I liked that one a lot. They have a scientist go back to the 1300's to study the plague. Very touching story I thought.

oooh she's one of my fave authors, how did i miss that one!

also in the same vein is the Kage Baker's In the Garden of Iden which is an Elizabethan time travel (one of my favorite genre of scifi!) which is the first of i believe 3 "company" books..

and Orson Scott Card's "Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus" is pretty knifty too (similar overtones to the "Company" books)

*yawn*

i AM awake i AM i AM...

[PamJB_66]

(snipped....)
The following are books that I haven't read but heard that they had faire or SCA settings. Anybody read any of these?
Gillian Roberts: Time and Trouble ..... SCA type group
Jason Grunewald: Finding Time..... is a modern group that are living like it's 1450
Tom Dietz: The Gryphon King... ren faire setting
Chris Claremont: Dragon Moon... celtic re-enactment
Elizabeth Peters: Murders of Richard III.... mystery with Richard III's group
Janet Laurence: A Deep Coffyne.... mystery at a medieval feast

Some of the books I got from this site:
http://www.webrary.org/rs/flbklists/Historical.html



Well I'm commenting on my own post! I finally broke down and picked up two of the books I hadn't read.
Dragon Moon is actually set at the war at Pennsic not a celtic re-enactment like I had read from the site above. The story isn't very long but was interesting. They are actually at Pennsic but doesn't talk about what's going on as much as you would have hoped. It evolves into more of a magic/fantasy type of story. They have great illustrations though. They are definitely graphic novelish.
The other book was Time and Trouble. It is a SCA group but they really don't do much with it. It only comes up because one of the side characters in the story is involved with SCA. He lives with other people in the group too and some go off to Estrella War but of course they don't actually go there. They don't even describe an actual event so was pretty disappointed with that book. It was a good story just nothing really to do with SCA.