I ran across a blog entry the other day which seemed to take issue with my series The Knights of Breton Court. First off, here’s the book description (from the Angry Robot website): On the streets of Indianapolis, the ancient Arthurian cycle is replaying in the lives of rival street gangs. Told through the eyes of King, as he gathers like-minded friends and warriors around him to venture into the fastness of Dred, the notorious crime lord, this is a stunning mix of myth and harsh reality. A truly remarkable novel.
I understand this book won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, after all, what’s a few pimps, trolls, drug dealers, elementals, homeless teenagers, and the occasional dragon between friends? However, that was the element of disbelief said blog writer couldn’t suspend. His issue was the setting. Indianapolis, specifically selling Indianapolis to British readers.
When it comes to American cities, Indianapolis is nothing special. My apologies to the Hoosiers but it’s true. It may be the 14th biggest US city but in terms of defining characteristics or geography or culture, there isn’t a lot to talk about.
(It’s a great blog, btw. The author goes on to do an informal survey asking people what their impressions of various big cities were. Indianapolis is … yellow and average.)
I debated briefly about whether or not the story would fly in Indianapolis. But considering what all inspired the story, it was ultimately a no brainer. And I’ll admit, I’m a lazy researcher. I had to go all of around the corner to find this tag:
(This really was taken around the corner from my house. If you know what you’re looking at, you know exactly which gang sets, or which gangs someone is claiming to be tagging for, are represented)
Now, the Indianapolis I write about is not the Indianapolis of the tourist brochures. I’m not trying to do anything exploitative or take folks slumming, either. One of the theses of the story is that any city has a shadow side. An invisible side to it that most people choose not to see, a whole world which may be playing out right under our noses that we have no idea is going on. Sometimes that world is poverty or homelessness. Sometimes that world is magic. Sometimes that world is filled with monsters. But it’s our world to explore.
Indianapolis is actually a perfect place to set the story. It’s a blank enough canvas that I’m betting even native readers will have their eyes opened by much of the story’s locales. And frankly, be it Indianapolis, The Shire, or Gallifrey, the important isn’t how familiar the world is to us, but how real the author makes it to us. Here’s hoping I made the Indianapolis haunting, real, and terrifying. If not, you at least have a gorgeous cover to enjoy.
EDITED TO ADD:
Here is the response from Stomping on Yeti and a King Maker inspired contest from them.
It irritates me when people over analyze things. Who cares if the story takes place in Indianapolis, Camden NJ, Tokyo or some unknown village in the mountains; it's FICTION and to me there are no boundaries when it comes to imagination regardless of genre. Is an urban story or any other work of fantasy more believable because it takes place in a big city like NY or Philadelphia? Every country, every state has a "ghetto" or "bad neighborhood" regardless of where it is on the map. If every book took place in the world's largest known cities then I think we would all be bored. As a reader I always read with an open mind because I know the story stems from the imagination of the author. I've never been to Indianapolis or UK so I wouldn't care about the setting as long as the story intrigues me. I've never been to Maine either but I know there are no creepy alien clowns hiding in sewers…or are they?
Sorry for the rant and good luck with the book. It is definitely on my reading list.
I think it's a lovely idea. Very original; socially involved. And if it were New York or London as mythical city the setting would have been overused. Now this is going to have dwellers in mid -sized cities looking over their shoulders and saying: "what if.."
[...] for all of those upset about me setting the legend of King Arthur in Indianapolis, be glad I didn’t set it in Franklin. You REALLY wouldn’t have been able to find it on a [...]
[...] modern embodiment of the spirit of King Arthur. The story of Camelot slowly begins to play out on the inner city streets of modern day Indianapolis. So amidst urban decay, gangs, the drug trade, and homeless teens, there are zombies, elementals, [...]
[...] Maker, I explored the Jungian idea that we have shadow selves, in this case, the “we” being Indianapolis and the idea that even cities have shadows. So on one level, it’s what makes it easy to [...]