The other editor’s choice to come out of the CT Book Fair is this work of fantasy, TC Southwell’s Demon Lord. Its author visited the BOOK SA stand regularly, with local fantasy champion Vanessa Finaughty, to see whether we’d have the chance to liveblog the book. Unfortunately the squeeze was always too tight, but we sincerely appreciated their enthusiasm, and hope this post helps promote Southwell’s work.
The fearsome twosome are pictured below with Nerine Dorman and the WorkSucks.co.za main man, Yusuf Mahomedy, who all descended upon the stand at once. Southwell’s book – “part one of the Demon Lord series” – is apparently South Africa’s first indigenous fantasy trade novel (it’s published by Wizard Press, an imprint of Stephan Phillips), and its author has an interesting background:
TC Southwell was born in Sri Lanka and her parents moved to the Seychelles when she was a baby. She lived on Cerf Island and spent her formative years exploring the islands – mostly alone. Naturally, her imagination flourished and she developed a keen love of other worlds. The family travelled through Europe and Africa and, after the death of her father, settled in South Africa.
T. C. Southwell has written over twenty novels and five screenplays. Her hobbies include motorcycling, horse riding and art, and she earns a living in the IT industry. A talented artist, she illustrated both the front and back covers for Demon Lord.
Finaughty, meanwhile, has gone to the trouble of writing a review of the book for BOOK SA, so we’ll conclude with her words and wish Southwell all the best with Demon Lord. Thanks for stopping by the BOOK SA stand!
Up-and-coming fantasy author TC Southwell’s Demon Lord is a dark tale telling the story of Bane, the Demon Lord, and his mission to free his father, the dark god Arkonen, from the Underworld by destroying the seven blue wards that trap him there.
What Bane doesn’t realise as he rampages through the Overworld with his dark army, killing anything that stands in his way, is that he is no more demon than Mirra – the young healer set in his path to prevent him from succeeding in his quest.
Mirra, Child of Light, knows nothing other than love and peace, and has been given no indication of her true purpose by those who raised her – she is the only one who has a chance of altering the course of destruction that Bane is set on. But even those who prepared her for the coming of the Demon Lord do not know if she is able to fulfill her destiny and save the Overworld.
Mirra cannot comprehend Bane’s appetite for destruction, and it pains her to know that he is intent on causing her much suffering before he eventually tires of her and kills her. Despite Arkonen’s orders to kill Mirra, Bane, intrigued by Mirra’s healing magic that spares her from physical pain, elects to keep her alive while he devises new ways in which to hurt her.
Fantasy lovers of all ages will enjoy Demon Lord, and although the distinction between “good” and “evil” is too cut and dried for my usual tastes, the characters are compelling and realistic, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story – I am eager to read the next book, Dark God, which will be published in the second half of 2007.
-Vanessa Finaughty, June 2007
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