Bell, Hilari 1958-

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BELL, Hilari 1958-

PERSONAL: Born 1958, in Denver, CO. Hobbies and other interests: Camping, reading, board and fantasy gaming.

ADDRESSES: Home—Denver, CO. Agent—c/o Author Mail, HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Part-time reference librarian; writer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best Books for Young Adults selection, American Library Association, and Best Book for the Teen Age selection, New York Public Library, both 2002, both for A Matter of Profit; best science fiction, fantasy, and horror of 2003 citation, Voice of Youth Advocates, and top fantasy book for youth citation, Booklist, both 2004, both for Flame.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Navohar, New American Library (New York, NY), 2000.

Songs of Power, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.

A Matter of Profit, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

The Goblin Wood, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Flame ("Book of Sorahb" trilogy), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003, published as Fall of a Kingdom (first volume in "Farsala" trilogy), 2004.

The Wizard Test, Eos (New York, NY), 2004.

Rise of a Hero (second volume in "Farsala" trilogy), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Forging the Sword, the third installment in the "Farsala" trilogy.

SIDELIGHTS: Hilari Bell has written several science-fiction and fantasy novels for adults and children. In contrast to many books in those genres, Bell's tales are notable for their absence of clear heroes and villains; her characters and societies are drawn with distinct shades of gray and are often motivated by political considerations rather than honor or duty. She is "a master at crafting distinctive societies and characters," as Sally Estes wrote in Booklist. Her books frequently feature multiple, well-developed cultures, sometimes all human, and she sometimes includes goblin, alien, and even whale societies.

Bell's first published novel, Navohar, was written for an adult audience. The book is set in the future, after humans have successfully prevented an alien invasion of Earth with the help of a genetically engineered virus. However, this triumph turns out to be Pyrrhic: the virus has also infected the human population, causing millions of children to be born with altered genes that lead them to develop a fatal, incurable disease. One such child is Irene Olsen's nephew, Mark. These two are among the astronauts traveling the universe, searching for human populations who have not been exposed to the virus. Thus far, most of the formerly colonized planets where their crew has landed no longer have living human inhabitants, the colonizers having been wiped out by various alien diseases. However, when they land on Navohar, they discover a group of nomadic humans, driven out of their former colony by the Kong aliens, living in the deserts where the Kong do not like to go. A cure for the virus does seem to exist on Navohar, but the descendants of the colonists worry about what will happen to their planet if millions of Earth's children come there seeking it. "The story moves briskly," commented a contributor to SF Reviews.net, and "Bell's writing . . . is most amiable." This "easygoing, accessible writing style," the reviewer explained, "gives the book a certain degree of light-reading appeal." Plus, as Fred Cleaver wrote in the Denver Post, "the desert society and the interesting aliens are a delight."

Bell's first novel for children, Songs of Power, is a combination of the science-fiction and fantasy genres. The story is set in a technologically advanced future, but it is the main character's ability to do magic that drives the plot. Imina was taught some spiritual talents by her great-grandmother, an Inuit shaman, but the older woman passed away when Imina was still a child. Now the girl lives with her parents in a research station at the bottom of the sea. Terrorists have released a virus that is rapidly destroying all land-based plants, so "technocrats" are working on developing a way to grow food in the oceans. However, the research station is plagued by technical problems, which the technocrats blame on sabotage by the terrorists, but Imina recognizes as magical. Eventually, with the help of a skeptical classmate, she discovers that whales are using their magic to try to prevent humans from encroaching on their territory. "Bell's depiction of life in the habitat and her feisty main character, Imina, make for a suspenseful read," a reviewer commented in Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal contributor John Peters called Songs of Power "a whale of a debut."

Bell's next two books, A Matter of Profit and The Goblin Wood, both offer an inclusive message about treating other sentient species as equals and being open to receiving their wisdom. In the first book, Ahvren is a young warrior sickened by the battles he has seen. To serve the emperor in other ways, Ahvren is tasked with getting to the bottom of an alleged plot on the emperor's life. To do this, he must understand the way of thinking of the T'Chin Confederation, whose forty planets recently surrendered without firing a shot when Ahvren's Vivitare race came to conquer them. A bibliogoth, a member of the T'Chin who is an exceptionally wise scholar and happens to look something like an ant, helps Ahvren understand why the T'Chin surrendered: their philosophy is always to maximize profit, and it was more profitable to come into the Vivitare empire than to resist it. "Both the bibliogoth's wise mentorship and Ahvren's gradual and believable conversion to the T'Chin way of thinking are distinctively and engagingly handled," Anita L. Burkam wrote in Horn Book. School Library Journal contributor Mara Alpert praised the book as "well-written, thought-provoking, and exciting" and commented, "It's got cool weapons and weird aliens, but it's also got some meat to it." Similarly, Infinity Plus reviewer John Grant found A Matter of Profit "highly praiseworthy that some pretty tough issues are tackled head-on in a way not normally associated with novels for this age-group." Noting the author's ability to create believable characters and alien cultures, Booklist reviewer Estes dubbed A Matter of Profit "one of the best youth sf tales to come along in many years."

In The Goblin Wood Bell "illuminates the sometimes spider-thin lines that prevent cultures from living together in peace," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Makenna, the heroine of the tale, learns to respect goblins when both she and they are caught up in a decision to ban certain forms of magic. Makenna's mother, a hedgewitch, is executed, and Makenna flees into the woods. There, she allies herself with the goblins, whom the Hierarch is also trying to wipe out. For five years, they resist the Hierarch together, until a knight named Tobin is sent to eliminate Makenna's threat. Instead of capturing or killing Makenna, Tobin falls in love with her, and the two work together to try to make the world safe for both humans and goblins. Several reviewers praised Bell for giving the Hierarch realistic, sympathetic reasons for cracking down on magic so harshly: he is only trying to stop an invasion of his realms. "The addition of political motivations to a genre mostly dominated by a good/evil dichotomy is a pleasing surprise," Burkam commented in Horn Book, while School Library Journal contributor Sharon Grover noted that Bell's exploration of "the gray areas . . . makes for some interesting and thought-provoking reading." As Hilary Williamson noted in BookLoons.com, The Goblin Wood is also "great fun."

Bell launched a trilogy, "The Book of Sorahb," in 2003 but changed the name of the trilogy to "Farsala." The "sweeping fantasy . . . draws its underpinnings from ancient Persian poetry . . . and the relentless march of the Roman army," Sharon Grover explained in a School Library Journal review of the first book in the series, Flame. Retitled Fall of a Kingdom, the novel finds the Persian side of the conflict represented by the country of Farsala, which is fighting off an invasion by the Hrum. The tale is told through the interlocking stories of three young Farsalans: Soraya, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Farsalan army commander; Jiann, the illegitimate, half-peasant son of the same commander; and Kavi, a traveling peddler who is being blackmailed into spying for both sides. As in Bell's earlier books, "the cast is fully formed: the bad guys aren't entirely bad, the good guys not entirely good," commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Although the Hrum are bent on world domination, they treat their conquered subjects as citizens with full rights, while Farsala maintains a sharp distinction between the noble deghans and the oppressed peasants. A Kirkus Reviews contributor praised Bell's treatment of these issues of class and culture, commenting that they "are interwoven so well with adventure and archetypal resonance that depth arrives unannounced." Booklist contributor Estes also praised Fall of a Kingdom, concluding that young adults "will eagerly await the promised future installments." A second "Farsala." volume, Rise of a Hero, appeared in 2005

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, February, 2001, Tom Easton, review of Navohar, p. 133.

Booklist, August, 2001, Sally Estes, review of A Matter of Profit, p. 2116; January 1, 2002, review of A Matter of Profit, p. 764; June 1, 2003, Sally Estes, review of The Goblin Wood, p. 1758; September 1, 2003, Sally Estes, review of Flame, p. 122; April 15, 2004, Sally Estes, "Top Ten Fantasy Books for Youth," p. 1455.

Denver Post, June 25, 2000, Fred Cleaver, review of Navohar and Songs of Power, p. G2.

Horn Book, January-February, 2002, Anita L. Burkam, review of A Matter of Profit, p. 76; May-June, 2003, Burkam, review of The Goblin Wood, p. 339; September-October, 2003, Burkam, review of Flame, p. 607.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2003, review of Flame, p. 1171.

Kliatt, May, 2003, Paula Rohrlick, review of A Matter of Profit, p. 23; September, 2003, Rohrlick, review of Flame, p. 6; September, 2004, Samatha Musher, review of The Goblin Wood, p. 27.

Publishers Weekly, June 12, 2000, review of Songs ofPower, p. 74; March 24, 2003, review of The Goblin Wood, p. 76; October 27, 2003, review of Flame, p. 70.

School Library Journal, May, 2000, John Peters, review of Songs of Power, p. 166; October, 2001, Mara Alpert, review of A Matter of Profit, p. 148; July, 2003, Sharon Grover, review of The Goblin Wood, p. 123; November, 2003, Grover, review of Flame, p. 134.

Teacher Librarian, February, 2004, Ruth Cox, "Grief and Acceptance" (review of The Goblin Wood), p. 37.

Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2004, review of Flame, p. 20.