Sebastien’s acclaimed swashbuckling fantasy series, The Greatcoats. was shortlisted for both the 2014 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fantasy. the Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Debut, the Prix Imaginales for Best Foreign Work, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His YA fantasy series, Spellslinger, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and is published in more than a dozen languages. Sebastien lives in Vancouver, Canada with his lovely wife and two belligerent cats.
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decastell.com Uncaged welcomes Sebastien de Castell Welcome to Uncaged! You have a couple fantasy series running, the Spellslingers and The Greatcoats, and a new series starting in September called the Court of Shadows. Can you tell readers more about each series? Thanks for having me – I’m delighted to be here! Spellslinger is a six-book fantasy series that deals with magic in all its forms and exploring its repercussions both on those who possess it and those who don’t. Kellen begins the series as a young man from a magical society about to undertake his mage’s trials only to discover his own magic is fading. With his life looking all but hopeless, he meets a mysterious gambler who offers him the chance to follow a different path than the one he always expected to take. Also, there’s a murderous talking squirrel cat, so really, the series has it all. Way of the Argosi, which is my latest book, takes place before the Spellslinger series and introduces us to
Ferius Parfax, a young refugee struggling to survive against the mages who destroyed her clan and have marked her for a life of torment. In her quest to find freedom for herself and justice for her people, she attempts many paths, from that of a brave knight to a clever thief and even to an aimless drifter. But it’s when she meets one of the strange, wandering philosophers known as the Argosi that she finds the one path that will change her forever. The Greatcoats is my four-book swashbuckling fantasy series, inspired in part by classic adventures such as Dumas’ Three Musketeers and Raphael Sabatini’s Scaramouche but with a somewhat more modern fantasy style. The Greatcoats were travelling sword-wielding judges whose mission was to bring the King’s Laws to the various corners of a troubled nation, but after his murder, they were disbanded and disgraced. Now Falcio val Mond, former leader of the Greatcoats, is forced to rely on his wits and dueling skills – along with the aid of his two closest friends, Kest and Brasti – to fulfill his dead King’s final mission to restore the rule of law and bring back the Greatcoats once more. And finally, the Court of Shadows is the new series that takes place right after the Greatcoats, in which new and far more insidious enemies threaten the troubled kingdom of Tristia. For the first time we join the various secret orders that, like the Greatcoats, were meant to protect the country from dangers that arise both within and outside the country. On your website, you have a “Secrets” section that gives bonus material to your series (yes, I subscribed, I’m too nosey for my own good). Will you be adding material from the new series in the future? Definitely! In addition to deleted scenes, story journals written while drafting the novels, there will also be new images from the books coming! You love to travel, have you gone on any literary pilgrimages? Issue 58 | May 2021 |
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