Bow, Mortal Dogs!

An Interview with Howard Andrew Jones

HAJ: Thanks for the kind comments about The Skull! He shall be pleased. All exterior and interior beauty that isn’t textual has very little to do with me—publisher Joseph Goodman doubles as our art director and he knows some truly talented people. And that stunning layout is the work of Lester Portly. He never fails to impress. I mean, have you seen the table of contents page alone?

As for the order, writing came before nearly anything else. I went into editing because I wanted to be involved in some way with the industry I enjoyed so much. I actually had proofread and edited non-fiction books professionally for years, so it wasn’t a great deal of effort to transfer over to fiction and start working with John O’Neill. It was just more fun.

OMQ: Your debut novel, The Desert of Souls, takes place in early medieval Baghdad. Your most recent novel, Lord of a Shattered Land, concerns the adventures of Hanuvar, a heroic warrior and general who somewhat resembles Hannibal Barca of Carthage. What draws you towards the history of the Mediterranean and the Middle East as sites for mythmaking and worldbuilding?

HAJ: I fell in love with ancient history at an early age—what can I say? The different cultures and the stories of their people and their leaders were at least as fascinating to me as stories of imaginary places. I poured over books about old Egypt and Sumeria and the Romans and other cultures. I didn’t explore the more “modern” Middle East of the eighth-twelfth centuries until much later, after having read and enjoyed the historicals of Harold Lamb and Robert E. Howard set in those places. As a matter of fact, it was after first reading REH’s one tale told by Kosru Malik (the wonderful narrator of “The Road of Azrael”) that I could clearly hear the voice of Asim, the narrator of The Desert of Souls and all his adventures with Dabir.

OMQ: Speaking of Hanuvar: what was the genesis of the character? Conan was based on Robert Howard’s interactions with the cowboys and roughnecks of his time; conversely, many of Steven Erikson’s Malazan characters famously began as RPG characters before debuting in his novels. What path led you to this character?

HAJ: Oh, I’ve been fascinated with Hannibal since reading Harold Lamb’s biography of him in 9th grade. The story of this brilliant general and patriot captivated me—his determination and integrity, his Zorro-like wiliness, his laconic wit, his honor—there’s no other great general like him. Alone amongst the famous generals of antiquity, he seems not to have been after territory, but the preservation of his people. He knew that if Carthage were to survive, the growing hegemony of Rome had to be stopped. I read about him and his life and his era for years, never knowing that I was actually researching.

One day I got to wondering what Hannibal would have done if the Romans had come for Carthage during his lifetime, rather than waiting fifty years (if you’re not a student of ancient history, Rome leveled Carthage and sold its people into slavery—they eradicated an entire city-state containing hundreds of thousands of people). In a flash I knew I had a story idea that I, at least, was excited about, one that seemed so obvious I couldn’t believe no one had yet told it. But after digging around a little, it didn’t seem as though anyone had. 

To free myself up a bit I decided against alternate history. Writing in a secondary world would allow me to play fast and loose with the events and add in gladiators and emperors and praetorians, as I knew people would want. And then, of course, in a secondary world I could have sorcery that actually worked, and monsters, and make some other changes besides. But the character of Hanuvar remains pretty much as I picture Hannibal, and other students of the period are likely to recognize additional analogs, like ones for Scipio Africanus and Cato the Elder, although these people are shoulder-to-shoulder with imaginary ones.