Forever Knight: These Our Revels - Softcover

Hathaway, Nayne Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425164918 ISBN 13: 9780425164914

Publisher: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S., 1997

Synopsis

Nick Knight leaves Toronto to travel back in time and becomes one of Shakespeare's players, who little suspect that he is a vampire

About this title

From the Author

What are we without our masks?
As some online readers of the series know, "Anne Hathaway-Nayne" is a nom de plume for two writers. As Forever Knight fans ourselves, we felt a tremendous responsibility to remain true to the characters the show had already established, to write a story that would slide seamlessly into the narrative that began with "Dark Knight" and will hopefully continue long past this novel. We wanted other fans of the show to be able to pick up our book and know from the first page that they could trust us--or much better yet, forget about us entirely and lose themselves in a world they already know and love. But as writers, we also wanted to create a world of our own, a story that would stand alone for readers who'd never heard of the show, who were encountering these characters for the first time. We hope we've succeeded in doing both.

So why a flashback novel? Why did we choose a historical setting? One of the underlying themes of Forever Knight that struck a chord with both of us from the beginning was the idea of the vampire as actor, an immortal creature who can and must masquerade as an ordinary man or woman. Shakespeare's Globe and the world around it seemed a natural setting to explore this idea, the best possible stage. All of the book's characters are "players" in every sense, mortals and vampires alike--each one wears several masks. And none is more aware of this pantomime than its protagonist, Nick Knight, known in this time as Nicholas Chevalier. As the story begins, he is already an accomplished player, a master of his many masks. By the end, he has acquired a terrible knowledge of the consequences of his art and the sacrifices it has required of him and will continue to demand forever. By examining his masks, he learns to crave the sight of the creature underneath--an immortal vampire, a killer by nature, who still longs for a human soul.

Incidentally, "Anne Hathaway-Nayne" now has a webpage at the address given above, where we have! posted a map of 1599 London with the main locations in the book indicated on it, and with links to various sites where readers can learn more about Shakespeare's world and such efforts as the recent construction of a plank-for-plank replica of the Globe Theater only a few hundred feet from where the original stood.

Both of us are still in happy shock to have gotten this opportunity in the first place, and we've been leading a charmed life ever since. Thanks to the efforts of our editor, Ginjer Buchanan, and the indulgence of the show's original producers, we were able to write exactly the book we wanted, the book we would want to read. Here's hoping our readers feel the same.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0425164918
• ISBN 13: 9780425164914
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 274