James, William
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of Scottish teacher and author James William Bell (? - ) whose Sunfall sequence – comprising The Earth Is the Lord's (dated 1992 but 1993), The Other Side of Heaven (1993) and Before the Sun Falls (1993) – is told in a Ruined Earth tone, though it is in fact set on a world whose geography is dominated by deserts and steppes, where epic conflicts among Mongol-like barbarians and others flourish. Its frequent close resemblance to Cecelia Holland's Until the Sun Falls (1989), an historical novel about Mongol hordes, drew considerable comment. Holland considered that this and two of her other (unrelated) historical novels had been directly plagiarized by James, and protested strongly through the US Authors Guild: the Sunfall books were withdrawn by their UK publisher, Orbit, in late 1994. [JC]
James William Bell
born Scotland
works
series
Sunfall
- The Earth Is the Lord's (London: Orbit, 1993) [book is dated 1992: Sunfall: pb/]
- The Other Side of Heaven (London: Orbit, 1993) [Sunfall: pb/Tim Gill]
- Before the Sun Falls (London: Orbit, 1993) [Sunfall: pb/Tim Gill]
links
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