Sue’s Musings - Book Reviews and Recommendations

Dan FitzgeraldDan FitzgeraldDan Fitzgerald is a fantasy author living in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC with his wife, twin boys, and two cats. When he is not writing, he might be gardening, taking photographs of nature, doing yoga, cooking, or listening to French music. The Maer Cycle is his debut trilogy, with Hollow Road and The Archive on several book bloggers’ best-of lists for 2020. His sword-free duology, The Weirdwater Confluence, includes The Living Waters (out now) and The Isle of 1,000 World (January 2022). All books published by Shadow Spark Publishing.

From Dan:

Hi, I’m Dan Fitzgerald, and I write fantasy where the heroes are the ones who try NOT to kill the monsters, but to learn to understand them instead.My Maer Cycle fantasy trilogy features heroes who start out believing the Maer are monsters, an evil race that kidnap and kill human children. Though their first encounter with the Maer does little to dispel that image, the more they learn, the more they see that the legends got it all wrong. As the trilogy progresses, the Maer become the dominant characters, and we see the world from their eyes, including other groups they see as monstrous, and discriminate against, and sometimes fight, and even kill. But despite some tragic events, the trilogy shows an evolution in the human and Maer societies toward greater understanding of those they see as “Other.”

I wrote the trilogy in part because I hated the Evil Race trope, which we see in Tolkien’s orcs in The Lord of the Rings and countless other fantasy and science-fiction stories (and a few real-world ones too, sadly). The idea that a fantasy or alien “race” could be inherently evil has always bothered me because it suggests that a human “race” or culture could also be inherently evil. The trope is inherently racist, in my opinion, and thankfully there have been many excellent SFF books written in recent years showing a much more nuanced approach to fantasy and science-fiction “races.” You may notice I put the term in quotes because it exists more as a socio-cultural reality than a scientific one, and the term itself is often used in problematic ways.

My books also show a diversity of gender identities, with the goal of normalizing the lack of a clear “normal.” Male, female, and nonbinary characters from across the identity spectrum live, work, fight, and love side by side, without any unnecessary focus on who looks like what or who they love. They just are who they are, and they look like what they look like, and they love who they love. The world has enough discrimination and hate, and if I’m writing fantasy, I’m writing about a world where these artificial divisions are rare and fading.

Maer Cycle Trilogy Dan FitzgeraldThank you for taking the time to read my post. If you want to learn more, visit my website at www.danfitzwrites.com. You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram as danfitzwrites; feel free to reach out on either of these platforms if you have any questions! My books can be found on Goodreads and Amazon, among other places.

Read Sue's interview with Dan HERE