Storm
Wolf
Stephen
Morris
Genre:
fantasy/historical fantasy
Date of
Publication: September 1, 2016
ISBN: ebook
978-0-9847731-0-
ISBN: Paperback
978-0-9847731-8-3
ASIN: B01JF9SJTU
Number of pages:
392
Word Count:
116049
Cover Artist:
Elliot Kreloff
Book
Description:
"LIBAHUNT!"
Alexei breaks the terms of the wolf-magic he inherited from his grandfather and
loses the ability to control the shapeshifting. His grandfather's magical
wolf-pelt was meant to protect their rural village in 1880s Estonia by fighting
the terrible storms in the sky but instead, it drives Alexei to kill,
slaughtering his neighbors, his friends —even his family.
Heartbroken,
Alexei flees his home in search of an enchanter to free him from this hideous
curse. Wandering through Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Bohemia, he encounters the Master of Wolves, who
forces Alexei to terrorize and murder the local farmers, and the infamous Frau
Bertha who traps all those who anger her by turning them into wolves. Will
Alexei find a sorcerer who can free him?
What Reviewers
Are Saying About Storm Wolf
"Morris'
werewolf isn't a fur-coated romantic, but a refreshingly murky protagonist who's
both flawed and sympathetic; he kills innocents, but never intentionally. There
are quite a few werewolf onslaughts, which the author unflinchingly portrays as
bloody and brutal.... A dark supernatural outing, featuring indelible
characters as sharp as wolves' teeth." -- Kirkus Reviews
"...a
unique weaving together and retelling of central and eastern European werewolf
folk tales. Set in 1890, when such tales were still being told, Storm Wolf
stands apart from contemporary myth and legend retellings... The
magic--Alexei's battles with storm creatures, the conjuring of a snake demon
from pipe smoke, a witch's talisman of skin stripped from a sailor--is
extraordinarily well imagined and described here. Dollops of regional history
and glimpses of customs and legends are fascinating." -- Blue Ink Review
Guest Post: Estonia
Estonia? Where is it? Who
has even heard of it?! Why set a story there, of all the God-forsaken places
that you might possibly set a story?
It just so happens that
Estonia, although little known to non-Estonians, has a fascinating although
difficult-to-trace heritage of folklore and legends that set it apart from not
only its Baltic neighbors (Latvia, Lithuania, Russia) but from almost everywhere
else; traditional beliefs and practices survived in Estonia for much longer
than in other regions of Europe. These traditional Estonian legends and
folklore were primarily handed down via oral tradition until very recently;
there were occasional references to Estonian beliefs and stories but no
systematic attempt to write collect these and write them down until the 19th
century. (The Brothers Grimm made their collection of stories, etc. almost 100
years before that.)
I picked up a book one day
about folklore as I was researching another project and found a brief reference
to the Estonian version of werewolf folklore: in Estonia, werewolves could fly
and would drive away the storms that would otherwise devastate the farms and
destroy the crops, resulting in starvation when winter came. They killed storm
clouds and ate weather devils, not their neighbors. Because of this, werewolves
were heroes, not monsters. I was shocked: Werewolves were the Good Guys?!
Because they were heroes,
everyone in a village or district knew who the local werewolf was. It was an
honored position. (The only other place that had an even slightly similar
version of werewolf folklore is a small Italian region northeast of Venice
where the werewolves are called “good walkers” and drive away witches that
attempt to destroy the crops.) Estonian werewolves were so unlike their more
commonly known cousins in other parts of Europe that it almost seems a shame to
characterize them all with the same moniker as “werewolves.”
This distinctly Estonian
version of flying heroic werewolf folklore set off fireworks in my imagination!
Werewolves as heroes? In a traditional pre-modern, non-ironic culture?! This
was too good an opportunity to pass by! I grabbed it and Alexei, my werewolf in
1880s Estonia, was born.
About
the Author:
With degrees in
medieval history and theology from Yale and St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological
Academy, Stephen Morris brings his extensive knowledge and meticulous research
in medieval magical practices to his historical and contemporary fantasy
novels. In each of his novels, the magical and fantastic elements are all drawn
from authentic occult beliefs and practices from the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance or from local legends and folklore.
“I first became interested in the occult and
magic when I was very VERY young and saw The Wizard of Oz on television for the
first and second times. The first time, my mom says I was terrified of the
Wicked Witch’s appearance in Munchkin Land amidst smoke and flames and ran
straight to bed! (I must have been 5 years old or so.) The next year I began
watching the movie again and made myself stick with it past the appearance of
the Witch and after that — I was hooked!
“The Wicked
Witch of the West became my favorite character because not only is she the most
interesting but she is the only one who wields any real power in the movie. She
became my idol for years and years! (When a major storm recently struck
Manhattan, I made a comment on FB about the wind picking up our house and
depositing it atop someone wearing peppermint stripped stockings and glittering
red shoes and my cousin responded: ‘You’ve been chasing those shoes for YEARS!’
LoL!)”
A former priest,
he served as the Eastern Orthodox chaplain at Columbia University. His previous
academic writing has dealt primarily with Late Antiquity and Byzantine church
life. As a Project Leader with Inter-Disciplinary.net, he also organizes annual
conferences on aspects of the supernatural, monsters, evil and wickedness,
fairy tales and folk tales, and related subjects.
Stephen, a Seattle
native, is now a long-time New York resident and currently lives in Manhattan
with his partner, Elliot.
Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Morris/e/B0089PYB6C/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StephenNYC1
The premise sounds good. I'd love to visit Estonia someday.
ReplyDeleteYes! It's a beautiful place! Worth adding to the MUST SEE list!
ReplyDelete