J.R. Alcyone's Blog
January 2, 2022
Stars is the Historical Fiction Company's 2021 Book of the Year!
I'm proud to announce that my second novel, The Stars That Govern Us, was selected as the 2021 Book of the Year by the Historical Fiction Company. You can read the announcement and the book's review over at the Historical Fiction Company's website. The Stars That Govern Us was also selected as the gold medal winner in the post-World War II fiction category.
October 2, 2021
What I am Working On
I am currently about 32K words into the first draft of a sequel to The Stars That Govern Us. The novel is set in 1961-1962. The working title is, The Sweetness of Adversity.
December 6, 2018
Recent Reviews
I am honored that Five Fathoms Beneath recently picked up some excellent editorial reviews. If you'd like to read the reviews, I have them linked on my website.
From Independent Book Review:
If you’re looking for feel-good fiction, look no further than Five Fathoms Beneath. Sure, it’s a story of a young doctor battling depression. Also, yes, his father commits suicide. But when I said feel-good, I meant it. Thanks to J.R. Alcyone, it’s easy to recognize that there’s hope for our main character, and that really, there’s plenty for us too. …. Five Fathoms Beneath tackles many hearty themes throughout its pages. The relationship between fathers and sons may be the most prevalent, but perhaps Alcyone’s best work comes in how she deals with the topic of mental illness. It impacts all those around Alec and Ambrose: from significant others to children to patients. Alcyone does a wonderful job in illuminating the sometimes-invisible signs of mental illness while offering up productive new ways for the reader to feel hope.
And from Publisher's Daily Review:
Five Fathoms Beneath is a superb piece of storytelling on a level with the best of John Irving. A richly layered novel that delves deeply into what it means to be the only child of a devoted mother and an impossibly gifted father, the writing is lyrical — achingly so in places — and the characterization is spot on, allowing each player to make the very most of his or her role in the drama as it unfolds.
And unfold it does, suddenly and viscerally, bending the reader over emotionally with a story-altering development midway through. Other reviewers may choose to disclose this sea change in the book’s progression. We will, rather, leave it for discovery by readers of this desperately important work of fiction and say only this:
There is a vital understory here that reemphasizes the ongoing need even today, almost a quarter way through the otherwise enlightened 21st century, to recognize mental disorders for what they are: chemical imbalances that can change one’s very soul and impel life-altering decisions in a nanosecond.
The black dog of depression is no respecter of age, race, gender or profession. It deals out its debilitating consequences with little regard to whether you are a stay-at-home mom or a brilliant medical professional.
This is the story of one man’s determined quest to outdistance these dark demons that are sometimes laid down in our DNA, genetically impossible to ignore and often influencing our every waking thought.
From Independent Book Review:
If you’re looking for feel-good fiction, look no further than Five Fathoms Beneath. Sure, it’s a story of a young doctor battling depression. Also, yes, his father commits suicide. But when I said feel-good, I meant it. Thanks to J.R. Alcyone, it’s easy to recognize that there’s hope for our main character, and that really, there’s plenty for us too. …. Five Fathoms Beneath tackles many hearty themes throughout its pages. The relationship between fathers and sons may be the most prevalent, but perhaps Alcyone’s best work comes in how she deals with the topic of mental illness. It impacts all those around Alec and Ambrose: from significant others to children to patients. Alcyone does a wonderful job in illuminating the sometimes-invisible signs of mental illness while offering up productive new ways for the reader to feel hope.
And from Publisher's Daily Review:
Five Fathoms Beneath is a superb piece of storytelling on a level with the best of John Irving. A richly layered novel that delves deeply into what it means to be the only child of a devoted mother and an impossibly gifted father, the writing is lyrical — achingly so in places — and the characterization is spot on, allowing each player to make the very most of his or her role in the drama as it unfolds.
And unfold it does, suddenly and viscerally, bending the reader over emotionally with a story-altering development midway through. Other reviewers may choose to disclose this sea change in the book’s progression. We will, rather, leave it for discovery by readers of this desperately important work of fiction and say only this:
There is a vital understory here that reemphasizes the ongoing need even today, almost a quarter way through the otherwise enlightened 21st century, to recognize mental disorders for what they are: chemical imbalances that can change one’s very soul and impel life-altering decisions in a nanosecond.
The black dog of depression is no respecter of age, race, gender or profession. It deals out its debilitating consequences with little regard to whether you are a stay-at-home mom or a brilliant medical professional.
This is the story of one man’s determined quest to outdistance these dark demons that are sometimes laid down in our DNA, genetically impossible to ignore and often influencing our every waking thought.
