The Prize in the Game by Jo Walton (Tir Tanagiri Series #3)

The Prize in the Game was published by Tor in 2002, and by Corsair in the UK as an ebook in 2013. It’s my third pubished novel and my non-selling book. It’s a version of the Irish story of the Tain Bo Cuailgne, set in the world of the Sulien books. It features some of the minor characters in those books, before they appear there. It’s essentially their backstory. I had the idea for it by considering that the names Guinevere (Gwynhwyfar) and Fionnbharr are etymologically identical, and considering that if Fionnbharr in the Tain grew up to be Guinevere that would explain some of Guinevere’s subsequent behaviour. That’s where I got Elenn from. Her sister Emer came from the “doubling” of Guinevere in a number of sources, where Guinevere has a “bad” sister. I put Emer and Elenn into the Sulien books grown up and formed, and then discovered that fewer people know the Tain than I had imagined. I wrote The Prize in the Game to elucidate this. This is the story of fifteen year olds in a warrior