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With Charles Saunders' permission, I am sharing the introduction by noted
mythic fiction scriber Charles de Lint to the new, revised, reprinted IMARO -
first volume of the Afrocentric epic fantasy novel series relaunch. I hope
this will spur interest and sales for this very worthy and exciting genre
publishing project.
Getting "big name " writer Charles de Lint to endorse the endeavor is quite the
coup!
Ecstatic Cheers!
Amy
Introduction
It's hard to believe that it's been 24 years since DAW Books
published the first Imaro novel (though of course, Imaro stories had already
been appearing in small press magazines for at least a decade before that).
What I find harder to believe is that, in all that time, there have been so few
fantasy novels based on the rich and fascinating cultures and mythic matter of
Africa.
But I'm not surprised that no one has yet come close to bringing it
to life so well as Charles R. Saunders.
* * *
Like many of us working in the small press at the time, Charles was
inspired by the work of Robert E. Howard when he first began to write. But
while Howard was, and Charles is, a born storyteller, that's pretty much where
the similarities end.
"The trouble is," he used to tell me in those days, "is that there
are so few black characters in fantasy or sf who actually matter."
So Charles started creating them--not so much to provide character
identification for other black readers as that this was a way he could "read"
these kinds of stories himself. And in the process he discovered an abiding
love for the cultures, traditions and mythological matter of Africa that
continues to this day.
The first thing he understood was that there is no "African"
culture. Like the tribes of the North American Indian (who are also lumped
together in many people's minds as having only one culture), the peoples of
Africa are part of a wide spectrum of cultural identities as rich and diverse
as that of any of the world's other continents. From Yoruba creation myths to
Anansi trickster tales, from the Dogon temples of Mali to the palaces of
sultans on the Swahili coast, from the Masaai tribes of the Serengeti to the
pygmy bushmen of the Kalahari--Africa has enough cultural, historical and
mythological wealth to fuel the stories of a thousand writers.
Charles delved into this material, mixed it with a brew distilled
from what he learned reading the heroic fantasies of Howard, Fritz Leiber, and
other classic masters of the field, then put his own inimitable stamp upon it
all to create the world of Imaro and the characters that inhabit it. Bandits
and warriors, priests and strange monsters, loyal retainers and back-stabbing
traitors.
And towering above them all, is the character of Imaro
himself--still a youth when we meet him in the book you're about to read,
headstrong, and certainly out of his depth at times, but already a man, willing
to grow and learn. A warrior who seeks peace. An outsider who has been denied
the companionship of family and tribe, and so has to create his own.
I've never understood why these books have languished out of print
for so many years. For me they rank at the very top of the field, not simply
because the storytelling is so immediate and absorbing, but for the fresh
wealth of culture and myth to be found in their pages, and the sharp insights
into the human spirit that Charles brings to each character.
I know why the initial DAW sales stalled and died--that's simply
the vagaries of the publishing field. By the time the second book came out,
the first was no longer in print, so any reader who wasn't there at the
beginning (snatching up a copy from that initial small print run), could either
enter Imaro's world in what felt like the middle of the story, or turn to some
other series where they were able to buy the first book.
Unfortunately, most people don't like missing the beginning, and so
the series floundered.
Their loss, you might say to those folks. But it was our loss,
too, because the Imaro's full story was never completed at DAW, and to all
intents and purposes, Charles vanished from the fantasy field.
But he never stopped writing. He simply turned to writing about
other things.
Moving from Ottawa, Ontario, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the
eighties, he wrote copy, columns and op-ed pieces for the local papers there.
He published a number of non-fiction books: Africville: A Spirit That Lives On
(1989) to accompany an exhibition relating the history of that indomitable
Halifax community, leveled by the local government under the guise of
"progress"; Share and Care: The Story of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored
Children (1994), a superb history of the neglected and unwanted children of
Nova Scotia's black community; and Black and Bluenose: The Contemporary History
of a Community (1999), an insightful and passionate collection of his columns
and op-ed pieces.
And he continued to write fantasy.
Besides preparing these new editions of the Imaro books, and also
working up a Dossouye novel (she was the lead in another story-cycle from his
small press days), for many years Charles has been working on stunning series
of high fantasy novels combining Celtic and African mythology. I've read
portions of them in manuscript form and they easily rank among my very
favourite novels, period.
It's my fervent hope that the book in hand will be a rousing
success. First, because it, and Charles, deserve that success.
But I also hope that it will provide the impetus for our finally
getting the whole story of Imaro out in book form. And then, that it will also
pave the way for the publication of these new books he has been working on,
because lord knows, the field needs the fresh and discerning insights that only
Charles can bring to it.
* * *
I'll admit up front that I'm totally biased--and privileged.
Charles and I have been pals since the mid-seventies--his moving to Halifax
didn't change that--and I've loved Charles' African stories since I first got
to read them, as short story manuscripts and their subsequent appearances in
small press magazines such as the late Gene Day's Dark Fantasy, to the
ambitious projects he's working on these days.
We published our own small press magazine together. We shared our
stories with each other--a process from which I learned a lot more than I think
he did, since he was already a far more accomplished writer than I was in those
days. We helped each other move (and there's a true sign of friendship:
helping to move another bibliophile's library) and spent a lot of time just
hanging out, talking about this love we had for the field. This love we still
have.
Since those early years, his level of craftsmanship has certainly
risen, but the power and intensity of his stories remains unchanged. And the
rich tapestry of his settings and characters has only deepened.
That doesn't surprise me.
Because Charles remains that born storyteller he was when he first
set pen to paper al those years ago. He's one of those gifted writers who can
tackle any subject, in fiction or non-fiction, and make it engrossing. At
times, even inspiring.
I, and the few others lucky enough to read his manuscripts, already
know this. But it's high time the rest of the world had the pleasure to
discover this as well.
- Charles de Lint
Ottawa, summer 2005
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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