o:)
See that’s why I do enjoy this thread. Things you’ve specifically mentioned are “supposed” to be noticed.
The glass table and the electrons etc are supposed to be noticed as anachronistic. Same with the escalators, cars etc in the Abyss.
Books, less so. My reckoning on books is that any society that is supposed to have some of the best wizards in the multiverse is going to have a good way for scholars (sages, wizards, animages, priests, druids etc) to store and transmit their knowledge. The intelligentsia has to have very good access to books and bookmaking. It’s what allows them to excel. One reason that “the church” throughout the dark ages was able to maintain is supremacy in Europe was its access to books, scrolls, records, recorded information. They literally had “monk factories” churning out books. I assure you that the Vatican had little trouble obtaining books, even when something like 90% of the population couldn’t read.
And as I saw it, magic could be used to mass produce books even better than monks. Ink is a liquid, paper is plant matter, thus sorcerers working with thaumaturges would be able to create magic printing presses/xerox machines (more precisely)
Are these books expensive for lay people, yes.
Here is the thing, I actually agree with your assessment on scarcity, rarity. But you have to understand we are looking at a very very skewed population sample.
If you want to know what most of the world is like, look at the very non-canonical (it’s an image) “Business of Wizards” image of Elrose and Trisfelt at the tavern talking about “[url=http://www.astlan.net/Home/History.aspx]portents[/url]” and the Satyrs behind them. That’s the real world of Astlan.
The places the characters have been:
1) Lenamare’s school. Home of arguably one of the best wizards of his generation, and an incredibly wealthy land owner and member of the Council of Wizardry
1a) Zilquar’s school, not much description, but in my mind more primitive than Lenamare’s school
1b) a Cave in the Abyss–crappy hole in the ground infested with a dragon.
1c) Peasant hut–actually not that bad as peasant huts go but…the peasants are at least oppressed.
2) Gizzor Del. Well, they were in a private chapel/workroom of the High Priest of Tiernon in a mid sized city. It wasn’t much, but still better than most. Reread the description of Gizzor Del, it’s pretty medieval and crappy. Think Thieves World.
3) A ship of a smuggler…actually a pretty successful smuggler, who the Oorstemothians really want to bring to justice.
4) Hoggensforth: One of the two largest port cities of the Council States. Not a lot of description, but a step up from Gizzor Del
5) Freehold: A city with thousands of wizards; the greatest known concentration of wizardry on the planet. Lots of really rich people, and the top 0.1% percent of the population live in the Council Palace.
5a) Damien is a Councilor, the Chief Inquisitor and is on really good terms with a very old, very savvy, very thievish Demon (a demon who is literally sleeping with The Queen of Darkness)
5b) Everyone else on the council is really old, really powerful and insanely rich.
So my point is, if this was a D&D universe or WoW or something like that, these are 50+ level characters we are seeing.
The “players” in this book are the ultra-rich, the ultra powerful, they are going to have the best of the best.
Now, as to the physics…this is a bit dicier but…
1) With the CoD? That’s the narrator speaking somewhat facetiously. I don’t really need to tell you who the narrator is, as he mentions it frequently on this forum. He also knows about nuclear power etc.
2) Lenamare is almost as good as he thinks he is, and he has a pretty good understanding of lower level Animanachanics (we might call it Quantum Field Theory) very few other people, wizards included know much about this. Which is why he’s the only one with the spell.
2a) Given that he does sometimes post on this forum, I hate to admit this, but Lenamare is damn good. He’s human, and is his own natural age, and he’s been going toe to toe with a multimillenium old archdemon. Yes that demon is playing under constraints to hide the fact he’s a demon, but still rather impressive.
2b) With the exception of Alexandros Mien, there probably aren’t any other living wizards (non-demonic) that can rival Lenamare.
So, in short, my defense is you are only seeing some of the most powerful people on the planet.
In my mind, it stands to reason they are going to have “the good stuff.”
But seriously, I do appreciate your feedback: you make me rethink stuff.
It’s particularly helpful in remembering/dredging up, and being critical of stuff from the first book in writing the second. As I said most of the book was written a LONG time ago. So overtime, I forget some of the core logic. This thread helps me reestablish the world and people, which helps immensely with book 2 and trying to maintain consistency (or fix it)