Midnight Never Come
Midnight Never Come seamlessly weaves together history and the fantastic to dazzling effect.England flourishes under the hand of its Virgin Queen: Elizabeth, Gloriana, last and most powerful of the Tudor monarchs.
But a great light casts a great shadow.
In hidden catacombs beneath London, a second Queen holds court: Invidiana, ruler of faerie England, and a dark mirror to the glory above. In the thirty years since Elizabeth ascended her throne, fae and mortal politics have become inextricably entwined, in secret alliances and ruthless betrayals whose existence is suspected only by a few.
Two courtiers, both struggling for royal favor, are about to uncover the secrets that lie behind these two thrones. When the faerie lady Lune is sent to monitor and manipulate Elizabeth's spymaster, Walsingham, her path crosses that of Michael Deven, a mortal gentleman and agent of Walsingham's. His discovery of the "hidden player" in English politics will test Lune's loyalty and Deven's courage alike. Will she betray her Queen for the sake of a world that is not hers? And can he survive in the alien and Machiavellian world of the fae? For only together will they be able to find the source of Invidiana's power -- find it, and break it . . . .
A breathtaking novel of intrigue and betrayal set in Elizabethan England,
Read an excerpt from the novel
Spoiler Zone discussion thread
Novel News
Midnight Never Come has officially been released in both the U.S. and the U.K. If you've read the novel and would like to ask a question of me or comment on anything in the book, please visit the "Spoiler Zone" thread on Livejournal. (You don't need an LJ account to comment there.)
Ordering
Midnight Never Come is published by Orbit Books, with 2008 release dates of May 1st in the UK and June 9th in the US. You can order it from Amazon US/UK or Chapters. In Australia, the title is stocked at Rendezvous Books (Though, as always, I recommend reading this essay to see why I advocate store-buying over online purchases.)
Reviews
"Stunningly conceived and exquisitely achieved [...] Brennan's myriad fantastical creations ring as true as her ear for Elizabethan and faerie dialogue." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Like John Le Carre if he was obsessed with faeries [...] Brennan's plotting is stronger than Gaiman's" -- SFX
"Brennan ably combines elements of danger, romance, and individual moral choices that could affect the fates of great realms, for a tale that's rich in plot and character" -- Locus
"ripe with palace intrigue, Machiavellian double dealing and star-crossed love" -- Romantic Times
"What sets Marie Brennan apart, then, is the quality of her writing, the complexities of her plot, the characterisations, the world-building . . . everything" -- Chris Hyland, The Book Swede
"Returns the fairies to their roots: terrifying, alien, yet captivating at the same time" -- Mervi Hamalainen, CurledUp.com
"[A] skilful and confident book [...] an engrossing read" -- Mark Yon, SFFWorld
"A historical thriller with a fascinating twist." -- Myfanwy Rodman, The Bookbag
"A highly-enjoyable mix of Elizabethan and faerie politics and intrigue" -- Darren Turpin, The Genre Files
"An amazing, moving, murderous, magical tale" -- Debbie Chapman, Waterstones bookseller
"Brennan's ability to maintain historical accuracy while writing an exciting and fast-paced novel filled with elves, fairies, the Wild Hunt, and brownies makes this story worth reading" -- John Ottinger, Grasping the Wind
Acknowledgments
I owe a great debt of gratitude to the many people who helped me research this novel. During my trip to England, I was assisted by the following wonderful volunteers: from the Shakespeare's Globe Library and Archives, Victoria Northwood; from the National Trust, Kate Wheeldon at Hardwick Hall; and from Historic Royal Palaces, Alison Heald, Susan Holmes at the Tower of London, and Alden Gregory at Hampton Court Palace. (The rooftop scene is his fault.)
I'm also grateful to Kevin Schmidt, for the astrology in Act Three, and to Dr. William Tighe, who taught me everything I know about the Gentlemen Pensioners, and mailed me his dissertation to boot. He is not to be blamed for anything I got wrong.
Finally, I have to thank Kate Walton, for needing someone to keep her awake on a late-night drive to the airport back in June of 2006. It was the first of many fruitful midnight conversations about this story, and it wouldn't have been the same without her.
Music
For the first time, I have crafted an honest-to-god soundtrack for a novel: two CDs worth of music chosen for specific characters and events. I've done my best to retitle the songs in a non-spoiler fashion, but to spare those of you who would prefer to avoid even this much information about the characters and plot of the novel, I've put the track listing on a separate page.
I dearly wish it were possible for me to toss up .mp3's you all could download, thus allowing you to hear my musical conception of the book, but the RIAA would set its rottweilers in three-piece suits on me before the files were done uploading. The best I can do is to offer a partial mix of it on iTunes, but as not all the tracks are available there, it's very incomplete.
What I can give you is a theme song! Writer, musician, and all-round amazing person Yoon Ha Lee has composed a song for the Onyx Court series, called "In London's Shadow." (You can also hear an early draft of that song here.) Feel free to share that as you please; just make sure to credit Yoon Ha Lee as the composer and artist, and my series as the inspiration.
Images
This book has a much stronger visual foundation than usual for me, probably because of its real-world basis.
It started with the artist Avery Liell-Kok creating two pictures of Invidiana for me: one headshot (seen above) and one full-length portrait. She's currently planning a third piece, that I hope to use as a promotional goodie for the book.
I also took a great many photos on my research trip to London. It's an oddly-balanced set of pictures, for several reasons. First and foremost, I can't take pictures of 99% of the stuff in the novel because it isn't there anymore. The best I could do was to photograph some stuff like what was there. But that got hampered by the restrictions against photography inside Hampton Court Palace and Hardwick Hall; those were some of the most informative places I went, but I have very little to show from them. Finally, I also took a great many pictures I didn't upload, but they're reference shots from inside museum exhibits, and between the lighting conditions and the necessity of photographing through glass, most of them came out very poor-quality. So my apologies for the odd skew of the set. But those of you who have never been to London will at least have a few mental images now.
The thing to the right is an image of a promotional tchotchke we put together to market the book; if you click on it, you can read the full text. (It's the object for which I held the signature contest, linked below.)
And, of course, you can see a much larger image of the cover. (It really does look better in person, though, where the watermark is spot-gloss on a matte background; the textured effect just doesn't translate.)
