Yes, I concur, a great interview. Thank you to both Mike and Cia.
Unlike the previous commenters, Historical fantasy stories like Mike’s are definitely ‘ my cup of tea’ and I’ve spent many days reading and re-reading Mike’s stories. Over the past 5 years I’ve read both the Preacher and Crown of Tassilo series compulsively, returning to my favorite chapters when I feel lost in the global craziness that seems to increasingly surround us. They constantly remind me that men, gay or straight, can be heroic, that family and friendship are central to happiness, that good people struggle against fate and the darkeness and that their struggle is noble. In short they describe all the themes of great literature and are well worth the reads.
One warning, even though the individual books can stand alone, one really has to read the works as a whole to understand the scope of their vision. They are intricately interconnected over time and space, families and their descendants, great and minor, show up generation after generation, their successes and failures , weaknesses and strengths , driving the action and continuing themes in subsequent volumes. The individual books are actually chapters in a great epic that has required effort and time but I feel my life has been immeasurably enriched by the effort.
There are great books that span the history of nations and great families over generations and speak to morality, god, and the nature of man but none of them have gay hero’s and antagonists. Before I read Mike’s books I didn’t associate these themes with gay men like myself and I thank him for changing that and giving me a heroic vision of gay men.