Jeremy L. C. Jones

This interview with novelist Jaleigh Johnson wasn’t on my flamesrising.com schedule.  But Johnson’s new novel, Mistshore, is so good I had to get in touch with her and ask her a bunch of questions.  It was hard not to go “all fanboy” on her.

Jaleigh Johnson’s second Forgotten Realms novel, Mistshore, opens with a letter from a grandfather to his infant granddaughter. “Someday,” the letter concludes, “you will go forth into the world and find your own adventure waiting. I want this for you, above all things, granddaughter. The world is spread out before you, and life is meant to be lived. Be well, and be happy…”

Mistshore tells the story of the granddaughter, Icelin, as she flees into Mistshore, a district of Waterdeep built upon the wreckage of sunken ships, warped planks, and violent crime. Mistshore is, as Ed Greenwood, the creator of the Forgotten Realms, says in his introduction to the book, “a corner of Waterdeep much whispered about by the fearful, who believe all manner of sinister half-sea-monsters, half-humans lurk in its sagging riggings and rotten cabins. Creatures with webbed fingers, gills hidden under high-collared robes, and sly, stealthy tentacles waiting to throttle or snatch.”

The second release in a series of standalone novels called “Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep,” Mistshore is no mere travelogue through under-explored territory. As the prologue promises, Mistshore is a book of adventure populated by well-developed characters. Johnson gives us Cerest the scarred elf, Sull the well-meaning guardian butcher, Ruen the legendary thief, and Icelin, a young woman with a sharp tongue and more backbone than any of the men she meets.

The Howling Delve, Johnson’s debut, merely hinted at the power Johnson would unleash in the Realms with Mistshore. Delve is good. Mistshore is stunning.

Johnson and I spoke last week, a few days after the release of Mistshore.

Read the rest of the interview here.