- One for the Morning Glory
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One For the Morning Glory Author(s) John Barnes Cover artist Charles Vess Country USA Language English Genre(s) Fantasy Publisher Tor Books Publication date April 1996 Media type Print (hardcover & paperback) Pages 319 ISBN ISBN 0-312-86106-0 (hc) OCLC Number 33102255 Dewey Decimal 813/.54 20 LC Classification PS3552.A677 O5 1996 One For the Morning Glory is a fantasy novel by John Barnes, published 1996. It is a fairy tale where the characters know that they are in a fairy tale. The novel has a humorous tone similar to William Goldman's The Princess Bride — quite different from Barnes' usual science fiction. It forms the second part of a three book series whose first and third parts are not yet written.
Contents
Plot summary
There is a saying in the land that someone who drinks the Wine of the Gods before he is ready is only half a man thereafter. Amatus, the prince, manages to swig down a significant amount of the Wine of the Gods, and his entire left half vanishes. His father, the normally gentle King Boniface, orders the executions of the four people responsible for this travesty—the maid, the alchemist, the witch, and the captain of the guard—and then begins the long and arduous process of interviewing to fill these four positions.
A year and a day later, four strangers arrive in the kingdom. This is a magical time, and noted by all as being very auspicious. The strangers are hired by the king and become known as the prince's Companions.
The rest of the tale deals with Amatus's growth into manhood, kingship, and love. It is filled with adventure, laughter, tragedy, unexpected reunions and royal pomp.
Vocabulary
The novel is written with playful malapropisms: Barnes takes unusual English words and uses them with utterly different meanings. Characters wear swashes, in which they keep their fencing escrees and dueling pismires; and meet in small drinking establishments known as taborets and stupors. One character is named Pell Grant. Many of the place names, such as the Isought Gap, are philosophical references.
Fictional Works
The story is peppered with references to a number of fictional works, such as the important tomes Highly Unpleasant Things It Is Sometimes Useful to Know, and Things It Is Not Good to Know at All.
Tricycle
Barnes has stated that One For the Morning Glory is the second part of a three book series he calls a "tricycle". The first part of the series will be titled The Knight Who. [1]
References
- Barnes, John (1996). One For the Morning Glory. ISBN 0-8125-5160-5 (pb).
- One for the Morning Glory publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- ^ De Forest, Roger (February 1, 2008). "JOHN BARNES REACHES BEYOND SCIENCE FICTION". Hard Science fiction. http://www.hardsciencefiction.rogerdeforest.com/?mode=8&id=7. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
Books by John Barnes The Century Next Door series Orbital Resonance (1991) • Kaleidoscope Century (1995) • Candle (2000) • The Sky So Big and Black (2002)The Thousand Cultures series A Million Open Doors (1993) • Earth Made of Glass (1999) • The Merchants of Souls (2002) • The Armies of Memory (2006)The Time Raider series Wartide (1992) • Battle Cry (1992) • Union Fires (1992) •The Timeline Wars series Patton's Spaceship (1997) • Washington's Dirigible (1997) • Caesar's Bicycle (1997) • Timeline Wars (1997) (omnibus)The Jak Jinnaka series Duke of Uranium (2002) • A Princess of the Aerie (2003) • In the Hall of the Martian King (2003)The Daybreak series Directive 51 (2010) • Daybreak Zero (2011) • The Last President (2012)Other books The Man Who Pulled Down the Sky (1987) • Sin of Origin (1988) • Mother of Storms (1995) • Encounter with Tiber (1996) • One For the Morning Glory (1996) • Apocalypses & Apostrophes (1998) • Finity (1999) • The Return (2001) • Gaudeamus (2004) • Payback City (2007) • Tales of the Madman Underground (2009) • Losers in Space (2012)Categories:- 1996 novels
- Fantasy novels
- Novels by John Barnes
- Metafictional works
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