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1) Or maybe the bard will leave Oorstemoth…generally something fleeing prison are wont to do.
2) :-k
3) Not exactly…for more clues take a look at the map, go north from Freehold.Well, as far as games vs books in distorting reality. Counter Example books/stories: Xanth, Anything that has been told by Disney, Robert Asprin’s MythAdventures, Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion, etc.
However, in the sense that I was writing the book and developing a game at the same time…there is a basis to your argument about a game. The book came first, then when a friend and I started developing our own RPG, I used Astlan as the world and codified the rules of the book into the game. So that’s more of a game based on a book than vice versa, and now that the game is defunct, there is less of a tie in.
But, yes, overall the world is supposed to be a combination of fantasy books, fantasy RPG, and Video Games. So WoW, or table or online D&D, or Skyrim as well as movies Dragon Slayer (excellent classic fantasy btw—first movie from 1981), A Knight’s Tale, etc are all influences
The world is my interpretation of a Fantasy Zeitgeist world.
Actually, in Astlan, there are official bardic tradtions, which are sort of like schools or unions, and to be licensed by them you would need to be able to read.
Obviously in some places there may be some self taught bards, but if you are ‘licensed’ or in a guild, you can read to some extent. This was less true a thousand years ago. Many bards can read multiple languages, and sing songs in them, even if they can’t necessarily have a conversation in them.Not yet, working on it. Today is a huge battle scene that I started yesterday.
Hope to have it out sometime this coming week.
Actually, I say businessorc like businessman. This is one of those contractions that happens when a term is very common.
I suppose technically I should say business orc if my reference point is human/someone unfamiliar with orcs.
Whereas if my perspective is that of an orc, I could say businessorc.
This is from the human perspective so business orc should be correct.
Sweet, thanks on the 753…I had a terrible time finding it again. Suspected he’d said it but couldn’t find the exact number.
On the sex part, jumping in since Tizzy isn’t around. Assuming that the majority of demons were once adult humans, they would have known about the pleasures of sex and wanted to recreate it in their demonic life. And clearly, the summoners being fascinated by the dark side of sex and violence, which demons are the personifications of, they too would expect demons to be sex fiends. Notice the term “sex fiend” it’s not as theoretical as one might think.
Sex and the temptation of sex is a huge part of human morality; in fact a cornerstone of it for many religions. If demons are all about corruption, sin, temptation and the darker passions of mankind, then demons are almost required by their very nature to be sexual beings, and in particular they represent unbridled sexuality with out the fear of pregnancy.
Sex for anything other than procreation is a sin in many simpler religions (including the older catholic church teachings–and some today) thus demons must be all for it.
You can’t expect a demon to be the poster child for lust and damnation, if they don’t practice it.
But again,not all demons are that sexual.
And, I have to say your discussions on other pleasures are practically foreshadowing a significant story line in book ii. (not sex per se–but your associated arguments) I.e. I actually have quite a bit to say about this in book ii–as I do with demons and sex regarding the Incubus.
Of course on the other hand, reversing 180, I think the point you might be making Rosver is this: Tom doesn’t seem to have much interest in sex. Well maybe without a pressing need, and having no biological need to have sex, it just isn’t something he’s thinking about. No hormones, no real sex drive. Other demons, who’ve been around forever are seeking passions/diversions to spice things up. Tom’s life is spicy enough without such unnecessary distractions. I think that’s a valid point.
Well it is hard for me to describe on those terms, “today”
I don’t think of it as ‘adventure’ in that sense…
I have always thought of it as a take on classical fantasy as a whole, but written from the point of view of acknowledging all the goofy fantasy tropes that we all love and talk/complain about as but conveniently accept for the purpose of a story.
Therefore, you have a mix of
1) Coming of age
2) Character moved to a different universe and adapting
3) Giant battle fantasy (Paul Edwin Zimmer’s The Dark Border Series–>which had to be a huge inspiration for GoT)
4) Political Drama
5) Adventure
6) Maybe-lesser-RomanceInspirations for this would be a very wide assortment of “older” fantasy:
David Eddings
Robert Jordan (but this was started BEFORE Wheel of Time–much was written during the book 1 and 2 phase)
Stephen R Donaldson
Paul Edwin Zimmer
MZB
Roger Zelazny
Michael Moorcock
Glenn CookThe very real point of the Tom protagonist is/was originally that he is a big science fiction/fantasy geek who got stuck in a fantasy world/novel.
It would be if you took a typical person who read multiple SF/Fantasy books per week, played video games, D&D etc and stuck that person in a fantasy world. What would they do. I was tired of people being zapped to a magical land and being a complete idiot. I wanted someone that would react rationally…and then get in trouble because everyone else kept playing by irrational rules. That was the original motivation for the story. I.e. “what would a typical reader do.”
In that sense, I would have to say you are correct: It is an adventure story. That is how it started. Or at least that was the chapters 1->X vision. By the time we blow up Lenamare’s school, however, the vision had evolved and become more complex to be what I am talking about with the various authors.
And it’s gotten more complex yet in the intervening years.
No idea what was up with the twos. Thanks!
The earlier typos are ones that are in chapters that I am thinking are going to stay “at the editor” so I will move this to the after editor to do list for the other errors; i.e. check she got them.
I plan to just send the last/updated/newer chapters to her to do a sort of replace to end; since she works sequentially, mostly and I have no idea where she is at right now.
I am trying very hard to not change character perspective without changing scene.
A scene change has different location and people.
In the quick editing, I have seen a couple places where this is a small change in perspective between two characters…I want to fix that, but that I expect to happen in beta.
So scene change and perspective change are ~ on their own line.
The beta is independent of any bookstore so that’s not easy to do.
But keep in mind, there is no supply or availability issue with the ebook.
And unless demand suddenly goes through the ceiling like crazy (pray to Tiernon!) there should be no availability issue for the dead tree. It’s print on demand.
I ordered a galley copy of the Book 1 second edition on Thursday, paid through the nose for priority shipping and had it the next day from Create Space. Even the slowest method (which they told me would be 8+ days, took 3 days from the day I ordered it.
In fact I will figure out someway to give beta testers away to get a good discount on the Dead Tree one. The ebook version I have no way to technically discount to a group. So I am still thinking about that…the big thing is to get it to people in their kindle libraries. It would be nice if they had promo copies of ebooks…
Can you tell me if this one takes you to the right store?
[url=http://rpbook.co.uk/B015QBDE4G?v=amz]http://rpbook.co.uk/B015QBDE4G?v=amz[/url]
It is supposed to be store independent. Meaning that site will detect your country and send you to the correct store for your country.
I have used that on Facebook, and would like to use it here, but need a way to test it from outside the US (it works for me).
@Lhans
That final battle is a problem. See Beta 3 for that. I will be kind of punting the ball for the battle, but I think the cliff at the ending is going to be far steeper and deeper with Beta 3. I will be interested in feedback on that.
Exactly. He’s obviously lying about being new.
And this is actually how the real world works. Groups of people establish their own “facts” (previously known as opinions) and run with those “facts” regardless of other people’s “facts” or observable reality.
What gets scary is when everyone agrees on those “facts” and there is no room left for questioning.
So this is why “[url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CH0USHG/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk]The Orc of Many Questions[/url]” grabs my interest as well.
There may be some hints on the Rupert/Tom family ties in AOD (even if there were going to be definite hints, I couldn’t tell you there were going to be, hints have to sneak up on you from behind) but the parental mysteries are probably not going to be resolved until the last book or close to it.
There is a fair amount of information hidden out there in the Library and the maps, some of which are hints, a lot of which are background. I continue to add to it, but the problem is, somethings I can’t put in the Library until a book comes out or it gives too much away at this point.
Yep why.
Ah, here is the thing. By this point they have not put all those pieces together.
The Council has drawn the line back on the immortal Ramses probably being a demon forever and doing this reincarnation trick; but they haven’t done so completely for Exador; yet. Mainly because not that many people in Freehold realize that there was an Arch-Vicar Exador. The Ramses thing was hypothesized in book 1; and so Trisfelt definitely knew this theory. Exador has been to recent a revelation.
Particularly at this point. Trisfelt just told her that there there were three people on the carpet that they now believed to be archdemons; partially because they were told there were three; and there were 3 very odd ones watching the battle in a very unusual manner.
Hilda being from Eton is much less familiar with the Anilords, it is possible she would have heard of Ramses (she only 200+ years old) but doubtful Exador; although possibly.
But yes, when they do figure all this out; it will be a big deal. They just have not connected all the dots yet. Not even by the end of the book.
OK here are some reworks. I may be going too Shakespearean in the second case.
[quote]“What an Abyssal disaster!” Jenn exclaimed as she walked around the palace with Maelen and Gastropé. “Did no one think through the consequences of this?” Jenn waved her hands angrily towards a pile of rubble. “You’ve got hundreds of demons trapped in a palace, many with no way out, and then on short notice, with no real planning, cast the most powerful banishment spell anyone has ever used?” She shook her head in exasperation. “How could these supposedly brilliant ‘master wizards’ not even think to open the doors and windows?”[/quote]
Second case? Suggestions?
[quote]Jenn glared at him, “You know that icicle doesn’t count. She needs a bigger codpiece than most of the men I know.” Gastropé glared at her. “Yes, that includes you.” Jenn snapped and then suddenly realized what she was saying and softened. “I’m sorry, I’m just frustrated.” She grabbed his forearm and gave it a squeeze before releasing it.[/quote]
Not actually sure that many men wear codpieces in Astlan.
