The abrupt jumps from one narrative to another are always stimulating I hope they keep the story fast and unpredictable, and don’t just drive readers mad with frustration.It’s also important for me to challenge both the reader and myself, to draw in lots of references, to pack the book with interest and richness.
Then the whole Victorian thread of the story produced Symmes and Moll, and I had fun in that gas-lit, foggy London of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Jekyll. Summer and Gideon and the whole host of the Shee flew in and settled on the story like starlings at roost. This is often true of what start out as minor characters they tend to grow in interest and significance and sometimes even threaten to outshine the protagonists. The characters, especially, Jake, Sarah and Venn, emerged quite quickly, though others, like Janus, Maskelyne, Wharton and Piers, took longer to form. Many reviewers and readers have commented on the collision of genres here- it may or may not work, but at least it’s edgy! The fairies or elemental creatures are a fascinating study and I have often employed them- if such beings can be employed- in stories, and to mix these two genres would be an exciting challenge. H G Wells’ TIME MACHINE is a hugely influential book, and I wanted a time machine of my own. The scope for adventure and the lure of the past are irresistible, as are the paradoxes and problems this sort of story creates. I have always enjoyed time-travel stories. Who has other plans for Venn….Ī mix of fantasy and time travel, with seven identical cats, breathtaking escapes through the cellars and alleys of Victorian London, a mysterious scarred man, and a servant who might be a genie, The Obsidian Mirror is the first in a projected set of four books- The Chronoptika. And in the Wood all around the house live the Shee, and their beautiful, deadly queen, Summer. Only she knows the terrible dangers the mirror will bring to the world’s future. Sarah too ends up at Wintercombe, where Venn is desperate for the Mirror to restore his lost wife, Leah. Meanwhile a girl appears out of thin air pursued by a wolf of Ice and a Replicant from the future. Jake gets himself expelled from school and sent to Wintercombe Abbey, deep in the heart of Devon, to find out just what’s going on. Jake Wilde’s father has disappeared, while working with his friend, the reclusive and mysterious Oberon Venn, on a strange black mirror that Venn believes to be a time machine. But ghosts and phantoms flicker here, in polished surfaces, in glass and crystal.And someone is watching every move I make. My house is a fortress, locked and bolted and barred. He comes and stands at the foot of my bed, and he is half- angel, half- demon.
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