Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

I’m always curious, when readers leave comments about my books, as to which of my novels is their favorite and why.

The answers are always varied. Sometimes it’s the subject matter, the period, or the setting. For others, it’s the characters who populate the pages. Occasionally, it’s just je ne sais quoi, that certain “something” that resonates with a particular reader.

Recently, though, the question was turned around; someone asked me what my favorite was.

It isn’t right, favoring one child over another, but parents do it all the time–oh, come on…you know we do–but at the risk of sounding unbelievably diplomatic, I can’t pick a true favorite. Even though I have nine titles on the shelf, in my mind, I’ve only written four books; two of them just needed multiple volumes to tell the whole story, and so much work went into each one–even the standalones–that it seems wrong to elevate one above the others.

However, I’ll admit that they all have their different strengths, and each book carries  its own special collection of memories (good and bad). For these reasons I do favor parts of some over the same parts of the others.

Dreams of the Desert Wind was the first book I wrote, so it’s a sentimental favorite. It also captures many memories of the time I lived in Jerusalem (Samovar Man was drawn from life, for example). It was worked and reworked until it was forged into the strong story it now is. Oh, and I had a crush on Ghazayil for years.

The five books of The Fallen Cloud Saga comprise the work my readers know best. It’s my magnum opus, and represents a boatload of effort. I worked very hard to complete the Saga, despite the vicissitudes of the publishing industry, and I’m exceedingly proud of the work as a whole. I love it for the beauty of the culture, the grand canvas of the setting, and for the story arcs of the main characters.

The Ploughman Chronicles is my forgotten child, the middle-born that gets neglected, but it, too, is a favorite. It has by far my best villains. Guihomarch and Rill were terribly fun to write. The books also have a lyrical style that matches the content beautifully, and I love that about them. Okay, and I love Bronwyn, too. That girl is grand.

Of them all, though, I think Unraveling Time has the best structure, the tightest plot, and the best mix of historical accuracy and storytelling. It also has the most interesting style, a strong mixture of pathos and comedic that keeps pulling the reader forward. It also has the highest research to page-count ratio; I read nearly a score of books, preparing for the various settings, and left tons of research on the editing room’s threshing floor.

So, I love them all, despite their flaws and because of their strengths. However, at the risk of seeming a bit narcissistic, I’m going to pull one of them out to read this week. They’re old friends, and we haven’t had a visit for a long while.