So what about Jaran?

[Rahl Windsong]

Anyone know if this is fantasy or Sci-Fi? Also is it as good as her Crown of Stars series? I just ordered the Crown of Stars series and they aren't going to ship until May so there must be some shortage or something I don't understand. the only one amazon.ca had in stock was The Burning Stone and luckily I have read the previous 2. I don't get it I thought she was a popular author why are they short of her books??

Rahl

[Alia]

The Jaran series is completely different. The writing style isn't the same as The Crown of Stars, except the last book is closer to her writing style that's in the Crown of Stars series. Also, these books are scifi and not fantasy.

I enjoyed the Jaran Series (and so did a close friend of mine). But out of the two series, The Crown of Stars is my favorite while my friend preferred the Jaran series. I suppose it depends if you prefer fantasy to Scifi.

[Teresa Edgerton]

The Jaran books are science fiction, but in an anthropological mode. There's a certain amount of romance. Strong female characters, as you might expect. They seemed like big, complex books until Crown of Stars came along.

[Alia]

Here's something I clipped from Kate's website:

http://www.sff.net/people/Kate.Elliott/jaran.html

Heir to Empire: Tess had been cursed by an accident of birth, cursed to be the sister of the one man honored by the alien conquerors of human-run space. Her brother, Charles Soerensen, the leader of Earth's rebellion, had been given a dukedom after his defeat and now ruled over far-distant worlds. And Tess was his only heir, a position and a responsibility she was not yet willing to assume. So she fled to a world in her brother's domain, a world where -- she was soon to discover -- the alien conquerors were themselves involved in some covert and dangerous mission.
And despite herself, Tess was suddenly forced to become both player and pawn in an interstellar game of intrigue and politics, caught between protecting her brother's interests, and her own growing involvement with Ilya, the leader of the nomadic tribe with whom she had taken shelter. But it soon became apparent to Tess that whether Charles or the aliens were the victors here, Ilya and his people were balanced at a crucial point in their history -- a point at which they must either learn to adapt to the incursions of more advanced civilizations or, by remaining rooted in their own traditions, face inevitable extinction.


Voya Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror of 1992 Locus Recommended Reading List 1992
". . .A deceptively intimate novel that combines interstellar politics and rugged nomadic adventure. . . Elliott's characters are vibrant and compelling." Dragon Magazine
"This wonderful novel possesses the ethical message required in all good fantasy. . . .The story is so gripping it is difficult to put it down." Kliatt
"Every once in a while, you run across a book which is wonderful in every respect, and one you can't put down. Jaran has everything a reader could want: adventure, space travel, history, romance, and intrigue." Voya

Snapshot excerpt from Jaran:
Click on bookcover to see it full sized.
She dusted herself off, flicked a stem of grass away from her mouth, and walked back to the charred sight of the shuttle's landing. Such a faint scar, to mark its having been here. The breeze cooled her cheeks as she strode along the trail of beaten-down grass left by the horses. Snow patched the shadows, but her clothes adjusted their temperature accordingly. She did not bother to pull on her gloves. After all, she would catch up with the Chapalii soon enough. The island on which Charles's engineer had disguised his spaceport was tiny; every hill overlooked the sea. Off-world women and men in Charles's employ lived in the island's only village. There, Tess could find a galley sailing the rest of the way across the vast bay, to the harbor at Jeds. There was no other way off the island.
By the sun, she guessed that her trail led east. Climbing, she felt invigorated, enjoying the sweet pungency of the air, the untainted crispness of the wind. She came to the crest of the nearest hill quickly, her cheeks warm with the effort.
There was no ocean. There was nothing except grass and snow and broken forest straggling along the march of hills. As she stared out at the unvarying expanse, dwarfed by the huge bowl of the sky and the wide stretch of hills, she knew that she had never seen this place before. This was not an island.
All material in this excerpt Copyright 1992 Katrina Elliott. All rights reserved.

[murphy]

Just as a matter of information, Kate wrote a trilogy that precedes Jaran, but takes place in the same universe. It was written under the name Alis A. Rasmussen and is called the Highroad Trilogy, comprised of: A Passage of Stars, Revolution's Shore, and The Price of Ransom. I really enjoyed these books.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Wow, it's not so easy to find someone who's read any of the books she wrote under her real name -- the publisher really didn't get behind the Highroad series, and it came and went pretty quickly.

But they are very different from the Jaran books, wouldn't you say? Not so complex, more quickly paced.

[murphy]

Yes, but a very exciting story none the less. She also wrote a fantasy under her real name called The Labyrinth Gate. It seems to me I enjoyed it, but I have to confess, it's been a while and I don't remember the story. However, I kept the book, so I must have liked it. I dump the books I don't like or figure that I won't read again.

[Rahl Windsong]

So Kate Elliott is not her real name? I have never been able to understand why an author would create something that they poured their heart and soul into and then not want to sign it. I guess there must be reasons but I doubt I would ever understand them.

Rahl

PS: Thanks for the info on her Jaran series I do like Sci-Fi so I might give it a go some day. I see Sci-Fi and Fantasy as nearly the same thing, which is speculative fiction. As long as its a good story then I'd like to read it.

[Teresa Edgerton]

The reason for the name change in this case was that her publisher insisted. Since Baen and Bantam had not given her first four books the push that (some of us think) they deserved, the sales were ... uninspiring ... and DAW didn't want Jaran to come out with that kind of baggage attached, as far as the bookstores were concerned.

DAW is known for really doing right by their authors, in terms of marketing and keeping books in print, but what they don't like to do is live with the consequences of another publishing house's failure to put forth the same kind of effort. So it's not unusual for them to take on an author that they really believe in -- someone who might have a very hard time finding a home for their books elsewhere because of past sales -- and re-invent them under a new name. They've successfully revived several careers that way.

So it was a question of whether she wanted a book that she had indeed "poured her heart and soul into" published under a pseudonym, or not published under any name at all.

Considering how everything worked out -- and the long list of wonderful books she has been able to write that might otherwise not have been written at all -- I think it was a wise choice.

[murphy]

It was because I had liked the Alis Rasmussen books that I bought the Jaran series. That plus the horses. I've always been horse crazy, even though I don't own a horse any more.

[Alia]

I've always been horse crazy, even though I don't own a horse any more.

I can fix that.

The reason why I like the Jaran series is because Kate drew inspiration from Genghis Khan when developing the main character and tribes of his planet.

[Rahl Windsong]

Originally Posted by Kelpie

The reason for the name change in this case was that her publisher insisted. Since Baen and Bantam had not given her first four books the push that (some of us think) they deserved, the sales were ... uninspiring ... and DAW didn't want Jaran to come out with that kind of baggage attached, as far as the bookstores were concerned.

DAW is known for really doing right by their authors, in terms of marketing and keeping books in print, but what they don't like to do is live with the consequences of another publishing house's failure to put forth the same kind of effort. So it's not unusual for them to take on an author that they really believe in -- someone who might have a very hard time finding a home for their books elsewhere because of past sales -- and re-invent them under a new name. They've successfully revived several careers that way.

So it was a question of whether she wanted a book that she had indeed "poured her heart and soul into" published under a pseudonym, or not published under any name at all.

Considering how everything worked out -- and the long list of wonderful books she has been able to write that might otherwise not have been written at all -- I think it was a wise choice.

Ok well I can understand that but now that she is famous, if I was in her place when her contract with that publisher ran out I would insist on a re-publish of the work under her real name or I'd find a new publisher for any future work. The "insisting" can work both ways at least I'd like to think that to be the case but then again I don't have any experience at all dealing with publishers.

Rahl

[Alia]

I was talking to my friend last night about this thread and she told me that she read on Kate's website that Kate prefers to write Scifi more so than fantasy, but fantasy pays the bills.

She also read that Kate is going to go back to the Jaran series now that she's down with the Crown of Stars series and finish writing it and she has names of all the books picked out. I believe there are going to be 8 or 9 of them.

I haven't read or seen any of this news, maybe someone else has?

[Teresa Edgerton]

But she's famous as Kate Elliott, not Alis Rasmussen, Rahl. At this point, another publisher would probably insist on the Elliott name, too. And she'd be crazy to leave DAW, which is the kind of publisher most SF/Fantasy authors dream of working with.

I know she's played with various ideas on how to revive the Rasmussen name over the years, but in the end I suppose she's decided she would rather concentrate on the writing.

And there's more than ego at stake here. Writing is her career, her livelihood, her life's work. It's something she had the courage to stick with at a time when other writers in her position might have given up. I'm sure it means far, far more to her than just seeing her name on the cover of a book.

Besides which, she's already had that experience.

[Rahl Windsong]

Alright I see the point and I now wonder if Robin Hobb is the same? Didn't she publish as Meg Lindholm and then became famous as Robin Hobb? Or is her case the other way around?

Rahl