In honor of my attempts to read 100 gryphon novels (I’m up to about 37 now) I wanted to give away another of my favorites, two paperback editions of The Gryphon Generation by Alexander Bizzell! You can click here to enter the amazon giveaway.
The Gryphon Generation is a little slice-of-life contemporary fantasy with sports (gryphball!) set in Macon, Georgia. I was actually able to give feedback on an earlier draft of Gryphon Generation and show up in the acknowledgements, which always helps my ego! As a bonus trivia, I studied computer science in the same city that the book is set in. Our hockey team was called the Macon Whoopee.
Alex is in the middle of finishing up the sequel and the cover art is a beautiful gryphball stadium, so now’s the time to catch up before it comes out!
I had so much fun reading gryphon books in 2018, I thought I’d give away some of my favorites!
First up is SONG OF THE SUMMER KING by Jess E. Owen, a young adult gryphon novel with a gryphon protagonist and a beautiful Jennifer “Nambroth” Miller cover.
Eyrie releases on March 31st, 2019! The ebook is available for preorder on Amazon for $2.99. The hardcover and trade paperbacks won’t be far behind. I’ve had quite a few gryphon fans from the reading list ask for a case laminate hardcover edition (that’s when there’s no dust jacket, the cover is printed on the book itself), and I have some proofs coming my way to give it a try. If things look good, I’ll okay it for sale in addition to the dust jacket hardcover.
For anyone who wants to order the book from your local bookstore, the ISBN of the paperback edition is 978-1-64392-000-9 and the ISBN of the dust jacket hardcover is 978-1-64392-002-3. They’re both listed in the catalog bookstores use to order books, and I have some proofs on my shelf. They’re scheduled to be made available on the 31st.
The plan is still to release the first three books in the series before summer. Where Eyrie has been done since October, I’m spending this month getting Ashen Weald through it’s final proofreading checks. Starling is on its way to the story editor. I can’t promise all three will be out before May, but you should get the first two, at least! (I don’t know about you, but I like to start a series once the third book is up for preorder, just so I know I’m not going to be left hanging.)
If you’re wondering if you’re the right reader for Eyrie, the obvious question is: do you like gryphons? Eyrie has all gryphon (and opinicus) characters set in a nature-based epic low fantasy world. It has gryphons based on cats and birds ranging from peacocks to saber-toothed tigers, peregrine falcons to diving petrels, harpy eagles to snow leopards. If you read The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey or Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker, you’re probably in the right place. Just in case, though, here’s the synopsis in all its markety-speak glory!
Gryphons,
murder, war, and tasty fish!
Zeph is the craftiest gryphon in his
pride. Living in the untamed wilds, he hunts in the shadow of the massive
sky-cities of the opinici, evolved gryphon cousins. His taste for parrots leads
him to a murder scene and a blood-stained notebook—a notebook the opinici will
do anything to get back before he unravels the mystery at the heart of the
eyrie.
Kia is a serious opinicus scholar with
no time for gryphons, but when her best friend goes missing and only a strange
notebook holds a clue of his whereabouts, she’ll even team up with an
uncivilized parrot hunter to get him back.
When the peace that has held for so long
is shattered, they’ll find themselves mixed up with curious songbird scholars,
legendary cranes, murderous owl gryphons, mad scientists, and the cunning
peafowl who rules them all.
Will Zeph make the sacrifices necessary
to protect the life he’s always known, or will both their worlds crumble to
ash?
The hardcover and trade paperback proofs for Eyrie have arrived… and they look good! As you can see here, the hardcover is only slightly smaller than a ground parrot—when the ground parrot is cheating by standing on two books. Seems a little unfair!
There are still a few hiccups to be worked out. The version that readers get when they order through Amazon is much darker, so the cover artist is figuring that out with me. And the proofs use the “Darkbeak” variant of Zeph, an idea we played around with for making Zeph’s beak stand out a little better in the thumbnail sizes that ebooks show up as in search results, so we need to switch them back to the “Lightbeak” version for the paper editions.
A question that’s been going around the beta reader circles is whether the hardcover should be a dust jacket or a case laminate. I’ll be ordering a case laminate proof soon to see how it looks, but if you’re reading this and have a strong opinion either way, let me know in the comments or on the contact form. If there are strong opinions both ways, I could make both available on different ISBNs.
Next up: sending Starling out for developmental feedback and getting Ashen Weald finalized
In 2017, I started asking everyone for what gryphon books I should be reading. Like so many gryphon fans, The Black Gryphon, The White Gryphon, and The Silver Gryphon had been a big part of my childhood. A lot of time has passed since The Black Gryphon‘s debut in 1994. In my head, I thought there might be twenty new gryphon books.
Well, you’ve sent your suggestions in, and there are a lot more than twenty. More like a hundred a fifty! (You can view them over on the Gryphon Reading List if you’re curious. If you see one you like that’s not on there, use the contact form to suggest it.)
So I started reading, and here are the ones I’ve made it through so far. I’m including a quick sentence in case it piques your interest.
Gryphons Aren’t So Great is a children’s book about a knight and a horse that’re best friends. The knight meets a gryphon and the horse is left jealous. Despite the title, I think it’s based on the premise we already know: gryphons ARE that great. Very cute.
Song of the Summer King, Skyfire, A Shard of Sun by Jess E. Owen. The Summer King Chronicles are middle grade fantasy fiction with a strong myth quality to them. The protagonist is a gryphon, there are no humans, and other characters include wolves and lions. Beautiful covers by Jennifer Miller, a favorite gryphon artist of mine.
Griffin Ranger: Crossline Plains, Griffin Ranger: The Monster Lands by Roz Gibson. Gibson is a comic artist who writes dark fiction and Griffin Ranger is no exception. These books are kick-a-puppy dark. They start in a version of Earth where humans never existed, and instead other species evolved to fill their roles. It’s a little scifi, a little noir crime fiction, a little alternative history, all dark. It includes artwork every few chapters by the author and also fan favorites like Cara Mitten.
The Gryphon Generation by Alexander Bizzell. There’s an interesting story here. When I was recovering from the last pulmonary embolism (thanks for that, APLS), I offered to do a free edit on any gryphon books until I was well enough to start back on my normal editing work. Alex was one of three authors who took me up on the offer. The Gryphon Generation is a fantasy in an urban setting—Macon, GA—where gryphons have come into being and humanity is learning to adapt to the idea of not being the only sapient species around. It’s a little slice of life, a little fantasy, and a little sports drama (gryphball). The cover is by Cyfrowa “RedIzak” Izabela, who also does two interior art pieces.
The Gryphon Rider Trilogy: Windsworn, Windswept, Windbreak by Derek Siddoway. There’s also an optional short story, “Birds of a Feather,” that I picked up from his mailing list. These are fast-paced YA epic fantasy. While Windsworn has a striking cover, seeing the red gryphon Fury on the cover of Windswept is what convinced me to buy them immediately. They took over the Mythical Creatures category at the end of 2017 and start of 2018, holding their own against the usual dragon fare.
The Eyrie Book of Gryphons by John Winkle is a combination of short stories, novelettes, and nonfiction. It has an interesting premise: alternating chapters of nonfiction, then a related fiction story that includes much of the same material.
The Book of Gryphons by Joe Nigg. This is an old, out-of-print book that has a cult following among gryphon fans. Joe Nigg has done two books that explore gryphon culture. While a critique might be that Google and Wikipedia can get you the same information, I’d argue that the author has included a lot of useful photographs and does a better job explaining the non-traditional gryphons that you’ll find on Wikipedia. My takeaway was that every culture has their own version of a gryphon, many of which aren’t just eagle + lion. I did notice a theme in my nonfiction reading, though, that might be useful. If you’re looking for a single source of the gryphon of mythology, there really isn’t one. Humans love combining animals too much. You’ll find bird-cat myths sprung up in cultures that never interacted.
Those were the highlights! I also read two other gryphon books that aren’t published yet, a few short stories like “Foaling Season,” and some articles. There’s a lot of great fiction out there. Definitely give it a go if you haven’t!
Looking forward to 2019, I plan to start with Of Gryphons & Other Monsters by Shannon McGee before trying out the Red Sword Trilogy by Michael Wallace. After that, The Griffin Mage series by Rachel Neumeir and I’ll finish up the Summer King Chronicles with the short story collection that came out in 2018.
