Hannah Kaner wanted to write about how faith can be used or abused in favor of power, so that's one of the things that inspired her to write the Fallen Gods series.
What was your inspiration behind "Faithbreaker?" (And the Fallen Gods series more broadly.)
"Faithbreaker" is a tale about war and faith, how faith can be used or abused in favour of power. Throughout the books the characters are forced to keep coming back to the question of what faith means, what community means, what rebellion and resistance mean and how can hope be sustained through pain. "Faithbreaker" brings all of their stories together.
What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?
Reading Rainbow means celebrating the diversity across the LGBTQ community. Reading books by trans authors, disabled queer authors, authors of colour, and lifting them up. It means pushing beyond your own zones of comfort and expertise and seeking out others, making the connections between people and supporting them. For me, pride is in seeing others succeed, it's expanding the world so other people can be included in it.
Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?
I think in honesty, it's just the truth of the world. We are multitudinous, we are explorers and community seekers, that's why stories begin in the first place, telling tales around campfires to get through the dark and the fear.
I do think stories of oppression, isolation and survival are vital and important. I also think that each character should be vivid, real and contextualised, that tokenism and cherry-picking is misrepresentation.
However, the question that's more important is why are so many people are left out of stories? Why can't we imagine worlds as diverse as our own? What are we so afraid of?
Tell us a little more about "Faithbreaker" and why you decided to write it.
"Faithbreaker" is the finale to the Fallen Gods Trilogy, which was written as a kind of love letter to western fantasy. The three books follow these classic story structures of quest, rebellion and war, and "Faithbreaker" takes our characters to war and political intrigue.
It was important that the concepts of the story — what are gods? And what do they mean to the world? — were taken to their extremes, and the characters too were forced to confront the consequences of their choices.
What can fans expect from your "Faithbreaker?"
Big set piece battles, high seas adventures, moments of levity and community, heroism and destruction, a decent bit of heartbreak and of course some good things to eat.
What's up next for you in the bookish world?
Next I'm aiming darker, into a tale of femininity, oppression and isolation and wild magic, it is a fairy tale retelling like Circe meets House of the Dragon, with a sapphic love story at its heart.
