Book II is, hopefully, a meaningful story - especially in the context of recent events - but still funny and exciting (with maybe a few sweet, romantic moments). Some highlights from the hopefully soon-to-be new book:
Some technomagic geekery from the chapter, "We're Under Hill and On Air"
“Octaves,” Ochsner suddenly realized, “The numbers represent octaves. The system is translating between one set of spells and the other using bardic casting as a universal language. The numbers it’s assigned to each of your gnoman spells tell us the composition for each one based on musical notes…”
Vicki studied the numbers and broke out a big grin as she understood what Ochsner meant. She whistled the first sequence in the list, and when she finished there was a soft chime, and then a voice came from the tablet in her hands.
“This is scout two,” the gnoman voice said, “What’s going on? I heard this thing make a dinging noise or something.”
Ochsner and the two gnomans whooped and cheered over the success.
“Seriously, is everything okay?” the voice said again.
“Yes scout two,” Vicki said, “Base is just revolutionizing the art of remote communication.”
Azraea sighed and shook her head. She took Kaira’s hand and squeezed it, “I’m sorry. I know what you meant and there’s nothing wrong about being worried about those closest to us. The problem isn’t that we callously devalue the lives of the rest, it’s that we’ve accepted that the slaughter of a hundred people in the street is just something that can happen, and we believe that if it had to happen, then we should be thankful that at least it didn’t happen to someone close to us.”
Some colorful side characters, from the chapter, "And Things Went South from There"
“Salmon roll!” the little grey haired woman never remembered names, but she could remember her regulars by their orders, “I thought you graduated?! Come in, come in! Who is your friend? Where are Mammoth Steak and Chicken Fingers?”
“Samantha, this is Lily. Lily, this is Samantha,” Azraea said, “She helped me out of some trouble this morning.”
“What sort of trouble?” Lily said suspiciously.
“A dicksack got handsy with Salmon Roll and caught on fire. It was a debacle, ma’am.”
“I see. I always knew that would happen eventually.”
For Syliva, it was simply amazing to watch; she’d crafted a complex strategy to place herself in power, but most of it had become unnecessary – her base was unwavering, sustained not by personal interest or welfare, but simply by the spite they felt for the segments of the population that reviled her. All she had to do to keep them happy was to act like a monster.
A little orc/elf romance from the chapter, "A Fair to Remember"
“Now tell me, have you ever eaten anything deep fried?” Thrakaduhl asked.
“I don’t even know what that is.”
“Well, that explains your delicate dimensions.”
Kaira raised an eyebrow, “Delicate?”
“In much the same way a rapier is, of course.”
“A lot of the guard has gone away without leave, and what’s left is straining to maintain some semblance of peace in the countryside. Technically the men you see here are on vacation.”
“Hell of a vacation.”
“You know what they say, ‘come to the city, see the lights, kill the fascists,’ and all that,” Jericho nailed a rushing Firebrand in the head with one of his arrows.
“Fascists?”
“Or anarchists? Honestly, I don’t give a shit what they are at this point. I’ll call them bad guys and have my moral introspection after this is over."
I could probably do without the romance, but I'm happy to see a sequel so quickly.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work ;)
Thank you :-)
DeleteRomance is certainly not my favorite thing to write, but given the age and circumstance of the book's characters, its absence would be conspicuous, and its impact on their character development too significant to glaze over.