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Monday, October 21, 2024

Blog Tour- CONQUIST by @DirkStrasser With An Interview and a #Giveaway! @RoundfireBooks

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the CONQUIST by Dirk Strasser Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: CONQUIST

Author: Dirk Strasser

Pub. Date: September 1, 2024

Publisher: Roundfire Books

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 360

Find it: Goodreadshttps://books2read.com/Conquist

Get 50% off the Conquist e-book here by following the steps below:

https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/.../our.../conquist-novel

- Click the above link

- Click 'Add to basket for direct download.'

- Click on your shopping basket

- Click on 'Do you have a coupon?'

- Apply promo code Spooky50

and Validate.

- Proceed to Checkout

HURRY! THE OFFER ENDS ON OCTOBER 31st, 2024! 

Capitán Cristóbal de Varga's drive for glory and gold in 1538 Peru leads him and his army of conquistadors into a New World that refuses to be conquered. He is a man torn by life-long obsessions and knows this is his last campaign. What he doesn't know is that his Incan allies led by the princess Sarpay have their own furtive plans to make sure he never finds the golden city of Vilcabamba. He also doesn't know that Héctor Valiente, the freed African slave he appointed as his lieutenant, has found a portal that will lead them all into a world that will challenge his deepest beliefs. And what he can't possibly know is that this world will trap him in a war between two eternal enemies, leading him to question everything he has devoted his life to - his command, his Incan princess, his honor, his God. In the end, he faces the ultimate dilemma: how is it possible to battle your own obsessions . . . to conquer yourself?

 

Reviews:

Finalist Aurealis Award Best Fantasy Novel

"An original and riveting read from start to finish, An action/adventure fantasy novel raised to an impressive level of literary excellence by the storytelling talents of Dirk Strasser as a novelist, Conquist is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended pick." —Midwest Book Review

"Conquist is the perfect fever dream of conquistadors, magic, and portals, alongside conflict, drama, and gold-mad lunatics." —SFF Insiders

"Strasser tells a riveting odyssey of conquest, magic, and redemption that fans of historical fantasy will devour." Aurealis

"The combination of history and fantasy, along with the rich, thought-provoking, character development, made Conquist a memorable experience. Conquist is well worth the read." —Literaria Luminaria

 

Interview Questions – Dirk Strasser

 

For the readers: can you tell us a little bit about your book and the characters?

Conquist is a historical fantasy set at the time of the Spanish conquistadors in South America. It starts with the discovery of a diary written by Cristóbal de Varga, the leader of a conquistador army that disappeared without a trace while searching for the golden city of Vilcabamba. Conquist is the story of what happened.

Cristóbal is a man frustrated by a lifetime of watching others gain wealth and glory. He knows he is running out of time to achieve the dreams that have driven him since his boyhood in Andalucía. What he doesn’t know is that his Incan consort Princess Sarpay has her own plans.

His campaign stalls in a remote region of the Andes and his lieutenant, the freed African slave Héctor Valiente, is missing on patrol. Cristóbal is facing an open revolt when Héctor returns with a dead soldier, and a tale of a royal Incan messenger who escaped through a curtain of light that causes those who pass through it to vanish.

Cristóbal leads his company through the curtain into a strange new world of crimson skies, fire fountains and a morality that proves to be less black and white than it initially appears. When both the conquistadors and Incas find themselves trapped between the warring forces of demonic natives and angelic beings, Cristóbal is forced to make an impossible choice and face his own angels and demons.

 

What are you working on now?

It’s called The Myriad. I usually like to play around with back cover blurbs to see what might intrigue potential readers. Here’s the current version of the blurb:

Many cities are spoken of as lost. The city of Myriad is the only one that is truly lost, not just to our world, but to all worlds.

There is a place between the worlds where all things are held in abeyance, where a pregnant nothingness reigns. This is where the lost city of Myriad drifts with the tides of chaos.

Every now and again the city comes into contact with a new world. A momentary juncture. This is the only time the inhabitants of Myriad can leave the prison of their walls. And leave they must, because nothing truly lives within the city’s walls bar the inhabitants themselves – and some say even they do not truly live as we do. All food and water must be taken from these worlds that randomly adjoin Myriad for a time.

Yet there are dangers in these worlds that are totally unknown to the inhabitants of Myriad. And when the nexus with these worlds is broken and an inhabitant is outside the walls, they will never be able to return because the city will vanish from that world forever.

And there is danger far greater than this for the unfortunates lost to their city in this way. Within the walls of Myriad, the inhabitants are immortal. Outside they become mortal.

So, the immortals inside the walls are doomed to eternally travel between a myriad of worlds, seeking to return to the world of their origin, to right the wrong that exiled them into the restless void, to find final peace.

The Myriad is the story of the mortal-born woman who brings them to that peace.

 

Were any of the characters in the book inspired by people from your real life?

I think it’s less common for fantasy writers to draw characters from their own life, but in historical fantasy like Conquist, there are often characters drawn from history. For example Lieutenant Rodrigo Benalcázar, with his lean frame and pinched features teeming with energy, is modelled on the real-life conquistador Francisco Pizarro who conquered the Inca Empire. Benalcázar like Pizarro comes from Extremadura, the poorest region of Spain, and has a ruthless chip on his shoulder and something to proof.

The character of Capitán Cristóbal de Varga definitely has a bit of me in him. As I was writing Conquist over many years, I began to wonder whether my obsession with it—first as a short story, then as a novella, then a screenplay and now a novel—was as destructive as the conquistadors’ fanatic pursuit of gold. I asked myself whether we are all trapped by what we desire most. Where is the border between determination and obsession? I came to the unavoidable realisation at one point that the diary that Cristóbal writes in Conquist is an analogue of me writing the novel. Cristóbal says in his final diary entry

I was once given to consider that which in life I most fervently strove for. In the honesty of my old age, I now understand with the certainty of all my glorious and pitiful experiences that I value above all else that my words are heard.

 

Who was your favorite character to write? What about your least favorite?

Sarpay was a fascinating character to write because she is arguably the most successful character in the novel in terms of achieving her aims, and those aims are noble ones, and yet she ends up being conflicted. She takes her obsession with saving the Incan Empire from the Spanish to extremes and to her own detriment. She schemes against Cristóbal with the same intensity as he pursues his obsessions. Sarpay recognizes this in a scene towards the end of the novel where she explains her betrayal by saying “You of all people should be able to understand, Cristóbal.”

Interestingly, because Lieutenant Rodrigo Benalcázar was directly modelled on the real-life conquistador Francisco Pizarro, there was less to play with from a writing point of view, so I guess that makes him my least favourite character. He was also unrelentingly brutal, and although he was following the Pizarro playbook, it didn’t work out quite the same way for him, and he was too inflexible to change his tack.

 

What is your favorite passage/scene in your book?

This is hard to answer without selecting a spoiler, but I’ve chosen the scene of the first nightfall in the new world:

When the sun started to set, turning the sky the purple of bruised skin, silence fell across the company. A strange silence in a strange land. The standard-bearer staked the Cross of Burgundy flag into the ground at the entrance to the pass, and soldiers erected a large wooden cross next it.

Cristóbal then stood in front of his men and spoke the words that he had long dreamt of saying. Words that only a true conquistador could say. ‘I, Cristóbal de Varga, claim this land of Nueva Tierra and all who inhabit it in the name of His Imperial Majesty Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor.’

As a blood-red moon hung in the sky and the wind howled around the assembled soldiers, Cristóbal was no longer certain that God could hear his words.

 

What kind of research did you have to do for the story?

Historical fantasies need a lot of research. If you’re a writer who doesn’t like research, this isn’t the sub-genre for you. Fortunately, I love reading about history and I was fascinated by the Inca Empire and the Spanish conquest of the New World. I wanted Cristóbal’s diary entries to feel authentic, so I read actual diaries of conquistadors such as The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz. I also read about the rise and fall of the Inca Empire in a number of books, plus books on Incan culture and beliefs. I wanted to make the battle scenes feel as real as possible, so I paid particular attention to the weaponry and tactics of both the conquistadors and the Incas.

The trick, of course, is to work these details into the story to make everything sound authentic without cluttering the narrative. The Incas didn’t use money, they had no written language, and in many ways, they treated the mummies of their ancestors as if they were still alive. The Spanish guns were not the effective weapons that they became in later centuries, and the conquistadors’ real battle advantages were their horses, dogs and armor. I think it’s also important for historical fantasy to fit into the known events of the period. Conquist had to be set precisely in 1538 because the search for Manco Inca and his hidden city of Vilcabamba happened that year. All these sorts of things become important plot points in Conquist and are not just window-dressing.

 

Lightning Round Questions

What are you reading right now? Or what do you have on your TBR that you’re dying to read?

I’m just finishing The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo. It’s a historical fantasy set in Spain at roughly the same time period as Conquist, but the two books are poles apart in plot, feel and pace. I knew her name from the excellent Netflix series of her Shadow and Bone YA books, but this is the first book of hers that I’ve read.

 

Favorite social media site?

It used to be Twitter, but not anymore.

 

Favorite Superhero or Villain?

You know, I think I’ve been over the Superhero/Villain trend for some time now. Maybe Deadpool because of his sense of humor.

 

Favorite TV show?

Outlander

 

Sweet or Salty?

Both

 

Any Phobias?

I’m not a fan of cockroaches.

 

Song you can’t get enough of right now?

Unstoppable by Sia

 

2024 Movie you’re most looking forward to?

Inside Out 2

 

 

About Dirk Strasser:

Dirk Strasser's fantasy trilogy The Books of Ascension (Zenith, Equinox and Eclipse) was published in German (Heyne Verlag) and English (Pan Macmillan), and his short stories have been translated into several European languages. ‘The Doppelgänger Effect' appeared in the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology, Dreaming Down Under (Tor). Dirk was born in Germany but has lived most of his life in Australia. He works in educational publishing, has trekked the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, and studied Renaissance history.

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Giveaway Details:

2 winners will receive a finished copy of CONQUIST, US Only.

Ends November 19th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

10/21/2024

Two Chicks on Books

Interview/IG Post

10/22/2024

Fire and Ice Reads

Guest Post/IG Post

10/23/2024

Lady Hawkeye

Excerpt/IG Post

10/24/2024

Book Review Virginia Lee Blog

Excerpt/IG Post

10/25/2024

Daily Waffle

Guest Post/IG Post

Week Two:

10/28/2024

Edith's Little Free Library

IG Post/TikTok Post

10/29/2024

GryffindorBookishnerd

IG Review

10/30/2024

Rajiv's reviews

Review/IG Post

10/31/2024

Sudeshna Loves Reading

Guest Post

11/1/2024

Lifestyle of Me

Review

Week Three:

11/4/2024

Country Mamas With Kids

Review/IG Post

11/5/2024

Deal sharing aunt

Review/IG Post

11/6/2024

Books and Zebras

IG Review

11/7/2024

@callistoscalling

IG Review

11/8/2024

Brandi Danielle Davis

IG Review/TikTok Post

Week Four:

11/11/2024

The Momma Spot

Review/IG Post

11/12/2024

TX Girl Reads

Excerpt/IG Post

11/13/2024

@evergirl200

IG Review

11/14/2024

@enjoyingbooksagain

IG Review

11/15/2024

Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's

Review/IG Post


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