A few thoughts about The Sworn and The Dread—Looking Towards the Future Gail Z. Martin October 27, 2010
At the end of this blog, Swear is getting closer and closer to its release date at the end of January, and Terror is almost complete in the first draft. It has been very interesting for me to work on these two books, as they show the characters maturing and dealing with troubling new issues, compared to the challenges faced in the first four books.
Of course, one way Swear and Terror are different is that they provide a gateway to my world of the Winter Realms for readers who have not read the other four books. I like the idea of offering multiple entry points into a fantasy world, so that as the number of books set in that world grows, readers don’t feel like they have to let themselves go. take if they don’t want to or aren’t ready to tackle the project. So for new readers, Swear and Terror are a fresh start, while readers who have been following the series from the start will see old friends facing a whole new adventure.
The Summoner / The Blood King was a hero’s journey, and something of a quest tale, with the inexperienced young mage coming into his power, accepting his birthright and fate, and fighting to avenge his murdered family. Tris and most of the other characters were untested, and it was kind of a contest of what youth and luck could do against age and betrayal. Even Jonmarc, when he was the most seasoned of the group, still escaped his fate, fleeing both the past and the future. Part of the fun for me with the books was watching the characters grow within themselves, and their inexperience and indomitable powers made the dangers they faced all the more perilous.
In Dark Haven / Chosen of the Dark Ladyalthough just over six months have elapsed since the end of The Blood King, all the characters have matured a lot by accepting truths about themselves and new positions of responsibility. Even Jonmarc, despite his protests, goes beyond his fatalistic stance of “looking for number one”, and as usual, no good deed goes unpunished. As the characters and their relationships matured, it was very interesting to watch the story evolve into the hard choices that come with taking charge. I’ve written elsewhere about wanting to answer the question “and then what?” regarding what happened after the closing of The Blood King. Not only is character loyalty tested in many ways in Dark Haven / Chosen of the Dark Ladybut I believe that each of the characters comes to a whole new understanding of who he or she really is, which leaves them forever changed.
When Swear opens, six months have passed since the end of Chosen of the Dark Lady. There are reasons to rejoice, but there are also gloomy omens suggesting that war, pestilence and trouble are not yet over. Tris is now an experienced mage in all her magical might and quickly learned the burden of the crown. Kiara must balance the new demands of motherhood with her responsibilities as Queen of Margolan and heir to the throne of Isencroft, a troubled land that is being torn apart by civil unrest. Jonmarc and Carina eagerly await the birth of their twin daughters, but find Dark Haven awash with refugees fleeing both plague and persecution from vayash moru and vyrkin. Cam and Carroway, whose heroism resulted in each of them sustaining life-altering injuries, grapple with the aftermath. Around them all, the fabric of the Winter Realms seems to be unraveling, shattering all previous certainties.
Terrorthat I’m working on right now, has a lot of story threads to resolve, because the canvas in Swear and Terror is larger than in previous books, encompassing all of the Winter Realms instead of just one or two of the Lands. It’s been a lot of fun learning about some of the cultures we haven’t had the opportunity to see up close before (like Dhasson and Eastmark), and looking at the complex forces of culture, religion, nationalism and the magic of lighting a fire under the action of bringing everything to a boil. In other words, this book is a game-changer, because after the action of Terrornothing will ever be the same.
There are many more stories I want to tell about Tris, Jonmarc and the gang and about the Winter Kingdoms, past and future, but somehow all the roads flow from the confrontations and the choices that happen in The Sworn and The Dread. I promise you: there’s more than enough action for everyone!
Thanks for reading this article – it’s part of my week-long tour of the Days of the Dead blog, so please grab the rest of my articles, contests, giveaways and giveaways at http://www .chroniclesofthenecromancer.com/daysofthedead.html and my other partner sites. You will also find free downloads of my books, as well as freebies from some of my author friends as Trick-or-Treat favors. Featured treatise #17 The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron https://ift.tt/LzfJaC6 plus a preview chapter of my new book, The Sworn https://ift.tt/GUcxiWb TheSworn. html
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