About the Book
Table of Contents:
Love Under Jaarfindor Spires Journey's End Arkund Miro The Numberist Blue The Object The Transmutation of Jamey O'Rooke Fade Away Crack Boy Addiction Fortune's Fool Gone Beyond My Love
About the Author :
Sean Wright's the author of the 2005 British Fantasy Award short-listed novella, "Twisted Root of Jaarfindor," the 2006 British Fantasy Award short-listed novella, "Dark Tales of Time & Space," & the 2006 British Fantasy Award finalist for his story "The Numberist" for Best Short Story. He writes weird, fantastical fiction. He's recently published his novel "Jaarfindor Remade," and edits and publishes projects for Crowswing Books that include new, emerging & award-winning authors and artists.
Review :
"The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor is another entry in the growing list of slipstream fantasy/SF novels, and, while flawed, among the most enjoyable ones... the novel is a highly entertaining and intelligent fantasy adventure." Jakob Schmidt, SF Site "I like a book that tries to do something a bit different. The Twisted Root Of Jaarfindor doesn't so much do something different as systematically demolish most of the conventions of the fantasy genre and storytelling in general... This is the only work of Sean Wright's that I've read to date, but it has placed him on my list of essential writers." David Hebblethwaite, The Zone SF Review 2005 "Sean Wright likes leaving these questions unanswered, but you know, it really doesn't matter because he is obviously a superb writer. Jamey and Layla (Wicked Or What?)are real teenagers, talking and acting like teenagers; if you weren't like either of these two kids when you were at school then I'm willing to bet you knew someone who was. Even given the strangeness of the situation, some parts of the story (Jamey's awful home life, for example), are familiar... Sean Wright has a wonderful, smooth, unhurried prose shot through with quirky metaphors and flashes of dark humour which moves faster than you realise." Karen Stevens, Dark Horizons, Issue 49 Summer 2006 "Take a dash of Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, a sprinkling of China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, and a bit of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and you will have an idea of what Sean Wright is doing in his highly imaginative novel, The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor. Wright takes a storyline familiar to many readers, that of the youth maturing and questing, and dresses it in the clothes of perhaps the bitchiest heroine this side of Narnia or any swiftly tilting planet... As the novel continues, so does Wright's tearing down of the cliche's of the typical princess character... This is a bold, raw uncompromising fantasy novel blending blends elements from all branches of the speculative fiction genre, and left me wanting to discover more of Wright's imagined world." Rob Bedford, SFF World 2005 "This reader was left wanting for more (Jaarfindor) and I suspect that many other readers of this book were left feeling the same exact way. Get back to writing, Mr. Wright. Your fans will be demanding more and you'll most likely be hard-pressed to fulfill that bursting need." Shawn P Madison, Eternal Night ezine 2005 "Sean Wright's The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor is one to watch out for...along with Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother, PB Kerr's Children of the Lamp, Madonna's The Adventures of Abdi, Julia Donaldson's Gruffalo's Child, Charmian Hussey's Valley of Secrets, and Philip Pullman's Scarecrow and the Servant." Jill Insley, The Observer December 2004 "This is a high-paced adventure with plenty of twists and turns. It rarely eases up, and despite its occasional flaws it's hard to put down. Wright is no prose stylist, but the pace of storytelling and the vivid and dark vision are striking. He's like a remix artist -- The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor is a mix'n'match of standard genre furniture given a few dark and innovative twists. There's a lightness of touch, too, with some lovely moments of wry humour: 'Rule the court with a mighty blade of steel and tax the peasants for all you can get' are Lia-Va's father's dying words of advice." Nick Gifford aka Keith Brook, bestselling author of Piggies, Incubus, and Flesh & Blood (Puffin). November 2005 "Reminiscent in style to Mervyn Peak and Michael Moorcock," Hilary Williamson, Bookloons.com 2004 "Twisted Root of Jaarfindor is big, bold, brassy, a mixture of styles, has meaty dialogue with sex bubbling under the storyline and violence splashed all over the pages. Wright produces something satisfyingly different." Dark Horizons, 2006, British Fantasy Society magazine "In New Wave of Speculative Fiction, some of the stories are like fine art. Michael Mirolla's Inside/Out and Sean Wright's The Numberist come to mind. To me, they were like paintings you have to stare at for awhile to start to grasp their depth. Wright's story presents an unpredictably strange future in which God, in his anger, reveals the bizarre nature of the universe." Jonathan Fesmire, SF Site 2006 "Sean Wright has talent and creativity, there's no question about that. The world he describes is bizarre and alien, corrupt and unique. It resonates with the "weird fantasy" crossgenre retro-sci fi atmosphere of M. John Harrison's and China Mieville's works. But Wright's vision of society, politics, religion and human nature is unrelievedly dark and depressing, with the hope of redemption offered only at terrible and destructive cost. Love, one feels, simply doesn't exist in the world of Jaarfindor." Dru Pagliassotti, The Harrow Literary Magazine "Outstanding fiction of the highest calibre (Jaarfindor)," Lucy Masters, children's buyer, Hatchard's Piccadilly, London 2004 "The China Mieville influence is unmistakable (Twisted Root of Jaarfindor) and I think cannot be overstated, regarding both in application and intended effect of the depiction of landscapes and the gallery of characters describable as both eldritch and fantastic. The novella both achieves and sustains a brisk pace; it is not bogged down by the surplus of whimsical ideas, and I think achieves an entertainment value..." Jay Tomio, 2005 "(Twisted Root of Jaarfindor) ...furious pace, ample imagination, and audacious twists..." Paula Guran, (originally published in Fantasy #2, Spring 2006 and appearing at Dark Echo)
