fantasy

Progress on Spells of War

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This week, I’ve started rewriting the first draft of Spells of War. The first eight chapters went pretty quickly, without any huge changes. The biggest departure from the first draft, though, is that the action will now span 1556-1557, instead of all taking place in 1556. Things just got too crammed against the approach of winter and Ramadan. With the new timeline, the mages on each side will be able to develop more weapons and train the Landsknechte and Janissaries respectively in their use. This means adding material about what happens over the winter without letting the story drag.

A character who shows up late in the first draft will make his appearance earlier. This will let me build up his role in the story more effectively.

I’ll be putting out a call for beta readers before long, perhaps in early January.

Book discussion: Small Gods and Hogfather 1

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Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels combine humor with commentary on serious issues. My favorite in the series is Small Gods. It doesn’t have a close connection with any other Discworld book. Its time period is earlier than most of them, except for Pyramids.

If you haven’t read any Discworld books, you should! In brief, Discworld is a flat planet whose sun orbits around it. It lies on the backs of four gigantic elephants. They, in turn, stand on the back of Great A’Tuin, a turtle who swims through space, making even the elephants look small. However, if you live where the priests of the great god Om hold power, saying this could get you into trouble. They insist, in spite of all the evidence, that their world is a globe.

Discworld has many gods. They live on belief. If no one believes in them, they dwindle into helplessness and become the small gods. Om used to be a great god, but at the start of the story, he’s well on his way to becoming a small one. He has powerful priests, and Omnia’s terrified populace obeys the commandments of his prophets — but no one actually believes in him. They believe in the Quisition and its power to torture and kill heretics.
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Book discussion: The Neverending Story

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The first book I ever read in German that wasn’t a translation was Michael Ende’s Die unendliche Geschichte, known in English as The Neverending Story. Although it’s considered a children’s book, it has enough interesting ideas and scenarios to hold the interest of an adult fantasy fan. Its main characters are children, and the language is less difficult than the average adult novel, but that doesn’t keep it from being a fascinating read.

I’m aiming this article largely at our German discussion group sponsored by the Portsmouth Library, und ich sage bedingungslos: Die unendliche Geschichte ist ein sehr spannender Roman. Viel spannender als SchnarchenSchäfchenwolkenhimmel und nicht zu schwer. Oh, sorry, back to English.

Cover for Die unendliche GeschichteA movie was made of it in 1984. Ende didn’t like it. It has some scenes that live up to the book, which is saying a lot. As a whole, though, it fails. It stops about halfway through the novel and tacks on a nonsensical ending. The most gripping or frightening scenes from the book are omitted or toned down.
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Book discussion: Piranesi

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Did you ever play those old adventure games, like Zork, where you wander through a maze, mapping it out while discovering strange and wonderful things? Piranesi feels like being in that kind of game. At first it’s just the strangeness and magnitude of the place that grabs your interest. Then there’s another character in the maze, and slowly you discover there’s a story and a mystery to solve.

Susanna Clarke’s first novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, was a huge hit. In 2005 it got a Hugo Award, a World Fantasy Award, and a Locus Award. It was an inspiration for my The Magic Battery. Unfortunately, health issues put a dent in a promising career, and her second novel, Piranesi, didn’t come out until 2020. The earlier book was realistic historical fantasy. This one is completely different.

It’s hard to say anything about Piranesi coverPiranesi without saying too much. As in an adventure game, the world-building comes to the foreground. The narrator lives in a huge house which is his entire world. It has hundreds of halls and thousands of statues. The staircases seem scaled for giants. The House is so large that it has tides, seasonal snowfall, and a wildlife ecosystem. Yet as far as the narrator knows, it has only two inhabitants. The narrator is as much of a mystery as the house is, even to himself.
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A new Magic Battery story 1

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“To Gain the Whole World,” a new story in the world of The Magic Battery, is now up and available to read free of charge.

Nikolas Fest was the character who gave me the most trouble in the story. I had to throw out a whole chapter about him after getting beta reader feedback. Most of the characters are well-grounded. They know what they’re after and what they live by. Nikolas is constantly striking out in different directions and has trouble putting his life together. It’s harder for me to understand that type of character, but they’re often the interesting ones. In this story, Nikolas meets with the Meistersinger Hans Sachs, and he faces a dilemma about how to treat his own past. Meanwhile, pushbutton magic is starting to become a part of everyday life.

It has some spoilers for The Magic Battery. If you haven’t read the novel and hate spoilers, I recommend buying and reading the novel first. :) If you can deal with a few spoilers, it could help you decide whether the hovel will interest you.

If you spot the allusion to an early TV show, let me know in the comments.