Rosemary Sutcliff's influence on Megan Whalen Turner

[duskpeterson]

Megan Whalen Turner, author of the Queen's Thief series (young adult historical fantasy), has been babbling like crazy in interviews about how much she loves Rosemary Sutcliff, so I thought I'd link to a few of the interviews where she mentions how Sutcliff influenced her work.

(A warning that Ms. Turner's series is incredibly spoilerific. The current blurbs all spoiler the first novel in the series, including the blurb to the first novel. However, here's a non-spoiler blurb for the first novel, which won the Newbery Award. The sections on Rosemary Sutcliff in these interviews don't give much away; use your Find button to skip down to them.)

Sutcliff's influence in general on MWT.

Sutcliff's influence on MWT's novel Thick as Thieves.

Sutcliff's influence on MWT's latest novel, Return of the Thief.

Comments

[hedgebird]

I'll keep the third interview until I've read Return, but I can say that I love that there's a connection between two of my favourite YA novelists. Elizabeth Wein is another connection, and they all live on the same bookshelf for me. When I think about it, MWT has quite different qualities than Sutcliff – complex plotting, deceptively plainer prose – yet the association persists.

[duskpeterson]

It's awfully nice when novelist acknowledge their influences; it can lead readers to new reading.