Guest post by D. J. Butler, introducing his new co-written novel, The Jupiter Knife. It is the sequel to the fantasy The Cunning Man, which was an AML Novel Award finalist in 2019.
The Cunning Man and The Jupiter Knife are two novels set in 1935, co-written by me (D.J. Butler) and Aaron Michael Ritchey. Their protagonist is a Lehi sugar beet farmer named Hiram Woolley, who is also a practitioner of his Grandma Hettie’s traditional magical lore, and who uses that lore to fight the demons of the Great Depression.
Aaron and I had a great time writing these books, and are grateful for the reception they’ve received. I believe that one of the strong points of the novels is their themes, and, with that in mind, I want to identify what I think some of the books’ recurring themes are:
The connections across generations matter. Hiram is a wounded man in part because he was unloved son of an unfavored wife in a polygamist marriage. Another character, learning this of him in The Cunning Man, speculates that his own abandonment is what causes Hiram to refuse to abandon others. Lacking a biological son, Hiram is raising as his adopted son Michael, whose father, Yaz Yazzie, died fighting in the Great War with Hiram. All Hiram’s skills and power were transmitted to him by his grandmother.
The past is always with us. Hiram remembers a world that was pre-industrial, a world more strongly rooted in community and family, a world in which ordinary people turned to arts that his contemporaries would describe as magic, for assistance and comfort. In that world, the lines between faith and magic were different from what they appear to be in 1935, and perhaps didn’t exist at all. Hiram knows that his origin and his people’s origin lies in that older world, which is the source of some of their weaknesses, and also many of their strengths.
There are secret worlds within the world. Hiram lives at the dawning of mass media, which tries to present a unified culture and vision of the world. As a keeper of secrets himself, both sacred and magical, Hiram knows that the mass media vision is at best an approximation and at worst a lie. His allies and his enemies both are similarly inhabitants of the secret worlds within the world, and Hiram strives to defend people who are innocent, and ignorant of these microcosms, from the evils that can pour forth.
We all stand across thresholds. Hiram was born in polygamy but lives in a world in which it is illegal. He was raised entirely by women, but is an adult who is surrounded by men. He was taught magical lore as a child, but encourages his son to master the techniques of science. The freely-practiced charismatic gifts of his youth have been supplanted by an increasingly layered structure of church governance. Hiram lives constantly with the tension that he has one foot at all times in the future, and one in the past.
Righteousness matters, and so does the definition of righteousness. Hiram is a paladin, a holy warrior whose magical powers depend not on his own will, but on his being right with God. Hiram’s God is the God of the Epistle of James, and the Sermon on the Mount, and Hiram’s understanding of righteousness is quite specific: pure religion and undefiled, visiting the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. This gives him a mission, it answers moral dilemmas, and it endows Hiram with power to act in a fallen world.
Baen Radio Free Hour: An interview with Butler and Ritchey about The Jupiter Knife.
Dialogue Book Report Podcast: A conversation between D. J. Butler, Andrew Hall, and Mattathias Westwood about Butler’s career, including the steampunk City of the Saints, the early American epic fantasy Witchy War Series, and the historical fantasy The Cunning Man.
D.J. (“Dave”) Butler grew up in swamps, deserts, and mountains. After messing around for years with the practice of law, he finally got serious and turned to his lifelong passion of storytelling. He now writes adventure stories for readers of all ages, plays guitar, and spends as much time as he can with his family. He is the author of City of the Saints, Rock Band Fights Evil, Space Eldritch, and Crecheling from Wordfire Press, and Witchy Eye, the AML Award and Whitney Award-winning Witchy Winter, and Witchy Kingdom from Baen Books. Read more about Dave and his writing at http://davidjohnbutler.com, and follow him on Twitter: @davidjohnbutler