Rebel here, yeah?
That’s the rallying cry – or the misfit call to individuality at the heart of my series Rebel Vampires. In fact, it’s the core of every book I write: there’s a reason they’re called ‘Fantasy for Rebels‘.
Yet rebellion – against corrupt societies, conformity, kings or patriarchs has been one side of both fantasy and science fiction’s coin.
On the other?
A style of fantasy that conforms to safe patterns: yearns back to a time when men were men, women were women and peasants knew their place…even if they were all elves.
So to celebrate the rebel in fantasy, here are Five of the Best Fantasy and Science Fiction Rebels:
5. V for Vandetta: Alan Moore. V is an anarchist: violent and vengeful. His porcelain Guy Fawkes mask is also the influence for Anonymous and activist groups in the real world. How’s that for subversive fiction?
4. The Handmaid’s Tale: Margaret Atwood. All right, so who’s not watching this right now? Interesting thing about the book? EVERY main character in it is a rebel, even though this is a nightmare world. Each one disobeys Gilead’s Laws, either with active resistance or rebellion within their family. No rule can be absolute.
3. The Dispossessed: Ursula K. Le. Guin. The unlikely rebel here is a physicist. How he rebels? By questioning: neither the anarchy of one world not the pacifism of the other is perfect. There’s no such place as Utopia? Yeah, got it.
2. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: Robert A. Heinlein. This is a true novel of rebellion: a moon colony – an underground penal colony that’s like the Old West – rebels against Earth. The term ‘Rational Anarchist‘ is invented.
1. A Song of Ice and Fire: George R. R. Martin. Where to start? The whole series is a sequence of political machinations, military campaigns, and rebellions. The obvious is Robert’s Rebellion but the one that sums up the spirit..? It’s the Mother of Dragons’ attempts to give the control back to the slaves, so they’ll free themselves in Slavers Bay. Daenerys is the ultimate rebel: against her place in life, her gender, her role and for freedom. What’s not to love?
Like Daenerys, in Rebel Vampires Light rebels against his role and for freedom. He finds himself in both a human and Blood Lifer world, which is corrupt and controlling.
Sometimes rebellion is less dangerous than hiding in the shadows…
So who’s your favourite rebel in fantasy?
From my days as a teenager spellbound by the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer every week (dangerous thrills wrapped in snarky comedy…learn from the best), I’ve loved the idea that fantasy can be empowering…and fun.
Light is a Blood Lifer and Kathy is a human. Their love is forbidden. In the wild 1960s Light realises that not as much divides the species as he’s always been taught. That maybe Blood Life isn’t about freedom but control.
My main character’s chief talent is his photographic memory: living as a vampire and witnessing all the glories and horrors, this becomes both a blessing and a curse.
I hope all the dads are being pampered! To celebrate in BLOOD LIFE style – I’m featuring the NEW 
Vampire books are not only the first books I decided to write in the genre, however, they’re the first books I READ in it too: BRAM STOKER’S Dracula (1897), ANNE RICE’S The Vampire Lestat (1985) and POPPY Z BRITE’S Lost Souls (1992).
BLOOD RENEGADES
I’ve been working on 
Fantasy Rebel announces the launch of 
Rosemary A Johns is a traditionally published writer of short stories, as well as the critically acclaimed novels Blood Dragons and Blood Shackles.
What if your interrogator had been trained to hate you, but if you couldn’t convince them there were conspiracies, secrets and enemies risking the entire world…then you wouldn’t be the only one facing death?
Dive into the perfect escape: a sizzling supernatural world that will leave your heart pounding and your pulse racing. The 
‘Red flames dragon-like flew up into the silence of the night. There was the shatter of windows imploding. The smash of centuries-old walls falling in on themselves. The roar of panelled walls and that posh staircase turned to crackling, as ash billowed into the stormy sky. I’d seen it before on Mann. I’d been the cause. I’ve never been frightened of the flames. Yet this time..? The slavers hadn’t a scooby what they’d unleashed from the shadows – in all of us. Now I knew what this was more like – what we were – and it wasn’t freedom fighters. It was terrorists.’
rosemaryajohns.com 