Saskatoon couple releases fantasy novel with Ukrainian heart

WATCH: A Saskatoon couple just released a political fantasy novel that draws inspiration from the Russian occupation of Ukraine.

A Saskatoon author and his illustrator wife have released a political fantasy novel that reflects current events in Ukraine with a portion of proceeds going to help other artists.

The fantasy novel, Crown of Horns, was a five-year project that started during the pandemic for F. David Schultz and Audra Balion. It draws from Balion’s Ukrainian heritage and includes adaptations of Ukrainian names. Homages to Ukrainian culture appear throughout the architecture, clothing, and character design. The story’s themes also echo Ukraine’s history. Balion calls it “a story of resilience in honour of Ukraine’s struggles.”

The main character is a refugee with political struggles with authoritarianism addressed in the fantasy work. The importance of art in the face of tyranny is at the very core of the book, according to Schultz. “The characters are in this sort of war plagued country, that has been broken apart. The main character, a refugee, is fighting to try to bring everyone back together. The different characters are fighting against these different prejudices, that are all based on, the shape of their horns and things like that, which is where this sort of fantasy element starts to come in,” Schultz told CTV News.

The couple started the novel before the war with Russia began.

When their 10-year anniversary trip was cancelled in 2020, the couple didn’t kick back. Instead, they created a world together. In just two weeks, Schultz wrote 45,000 words while Balion began illustrating.

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The final work was tweaked in the final stages to reflect the Russian invasion that began in 2022.

“With the sort of more, villainous characters they start to use the language of people like Vladimir Putin to try to trick everyone - and so those were the kinds of things that started to happen that real propaganda started to seep into the book,” Schultz said.

When war broke out in Ukraine the couple knew they wanted to give back. They committed to donating proceeds from every book sold to The Canada-Ukraine Foundation’s Aid for Artists Project. So far, they have donated $500.

Both admit that when the book was finished, they felt a bit of withdrawal from the characters they had created. Not too long after, they started working on a sequel which is already about 1500 words deep.

Only 150 copies of the locally produced book have been made so far.

It is available at all major book sellers in Saskatoon as well as online in both paper and electronic versions.