The City of Brass, Napoleonic Era, and Magical Realism (and Ireland)
I just finished reading S. A. Chakraborty's The City of Brass. I absolutely loved this book, and I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel. It's probably technically "fantasy," but I feel it is fantasy with the sensibility of magical realism, the narrative sense of place you find in Allende or Rushdie. I'm also fascinated with why the Napoleonic era is such fertile ground for historic fantasy? Not only The City of Brass, but His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
I'm trying for that magical-realism, setting as character feeling with Dragonlines, albeit without the historical setting. I think Wenzhou and Xi'an in particular have the right tone, partially no doubt because I've actually spent a good deal of time in both places. I did a ton of research before I moved to China, but I could have never written the novel without actually going there as more than just a tourist. I didn't even know what I was missing beforehand: you can't answer a question you don't know you need to ask.
The same is true for the next book in the series, which I've begun to sketch out. It's going to be set (at least in part) in Ireland or Northern Ireland. We went on our honeymoon there, took a tour of the island that started in Belfast and ended in Cork. My wife and I absolutely feel in love with both countries, and with the Irish people. So of course, when I was trying to figure out where the setting of the next novel would be, I came back to Ireland. I haven't nailed it down just yet, but likely the main focus will be on either the Causeway Coast or the area around Westport. No offense intended toward Belfast, Dublin, or Cork, but the two smaller towns of Bushmills and Westport were much more to our liking (although I think I had a literary religious experience in Trinity College's library after seeing the Book of Kells and the great hall of the old library).
