Fantasist’s Scroll

Not “laws of magic” but laws governing magic.
I’m reading a book called Industrial Magic at the moment and the author has some interesting ideas that she tosses around. What interested me the most, however, was a secret justice system for magic. Well, more specifically, for people who use magic or “are magic”. And that really makes sense. After all, would a “normal” court, who has no real concept of how magic works or what is magically possible, be able to effectively render judgements that involve magical crimes? I don’t think so.
So, if you have magic in your created world, whatever its purpose, have you thought about this issue? How do courts deal with curses? Or the withholding of a blessing? Or “unfair competition” that was aided by magic? How about murder that involves magic? These are important issues. And, of course, all potentially important plot devices. Do lawyers have to go through a special school before they can work in courts that involve magic? Does every court use magic to determine the facts of even mundane cases? A little truth spell goes a long way! Are spells a closely guarded asset that one can sue someone for stealing, like intellectual property is today?
So many issues to think about. And every issue can be a potential story. Dealing with any of these problems, or any others in this vein that you might think of, can produce any number of good stories. Just remember what Lawrence Watt-Evans said about magic, “If a story can be written without a fantasy element, then don’t bother with the fantasy element.” It’s a good rule.

So, now I’ve given you some ideas, go! Write!

My favorite fantasy author is experimenting.
Specifically, Lawrence Watt-Evans is serializing an Ethshar novel called The Spriggan Mirror. Apparently, the fans are clamoring for more Ethshar, but not loudly enough to be heard in the halls of the ivory towers of publishing. So, dedicated author that he is, Lawrence has begun serializing the novel on his website. Every week that he has recieved $100, or more, in donations, he will post a chapter, until the entire book is “exposed”. Of course, if he hasn’t recieved the required donations, he doesn’t post anything that week. So, all you rich kids who like Lawrence Watt-Evans, go spend your allowance on this project, so I can read this fine novel for free.

Oh, you know I’m going to contribute, but it’s Friday, so I thought I’d have a little fun. Now, go read as much of The Spriggan Mirror as you can before the boss catches you!

Been a lot of talk about extrasolar planets lately…

In the past week, Space.com has reported about both a “giant Earth” and two Neptune-sized planets being found. So, there’s been a lot of talk about voyages to other planets and finding other Earths lately. I think we’ll eventually go, but it’ll be in generation ships and things on Earth will have to get really desperate first. After all, that would be a “one-way” trip.
That’s nice and all, but I think they’re missing the boat in some ways. I mean, why not inhabitable moons? According to Space.com, they could very well exist. In fact, I speculated on that quite some time ago and I even got a physist to back me up! A very nice man by the name of Sheridan Simon, who’s also done work for Lawrence Watt-Evans, did up a whole planetary system for me. I actually based it around Tau Ceti, which he said was a good choice, actually, since it’s very similar to our own star. Anyway, he did up a whole system for me. I ought to scan it and make it available on-line… Well, we’ll see about that, but it is an interesting line of thought for science-fiction, isn’t it?
Read the articles, think, then write! Go on!

Another great Lawrence Watt-Evans book!

I just finished reading Touched By The Gods by Lawrence Watt-Evans last night. It was, of course, up to his usual wonderful work. Though, I have to admit I had some issues with the names he used. They were occasionally hard to pronounce and that interrupted the “flow” of the story for me sometimes. But, that’s really my only complaint.
It’s a fairly straight-forward theme, really, a champion who is chosen by the gods during a time of peace is suddenly thrust into a war that could destroy civilization as he knows it. Standard heroic fantasy stuff. Of course, Lawrence Watt-Evans manages to bring those “stock” characters to life and make them real with an expert stroke of the brush. Malledd, who is the god’s chosen champion, is born into a smithing family and takes up the trade at his father’s anvil. He grows to enourmous size, even for a smith, but settles into a peacefull life with his wife and children. But, it’s not meant to last, and it would have made a boring book if it had! An enemy of the empire in the far East has found a dark magic that he hopes will allow him to avenge himself against his people’s conquerers. And, along the way on his quest for vengence, he discovers that the gods can favor more than one champion…
I won’t tell any more than that, though, lest I give something away. Let me say only that Touched By The Gods has some interesting takes on destiny and duty. In fact, they’re themes throughout the book as Malledd struggles with the internal conflict between staying home with his family and doing his duty to his empire. An enjoyable read and a bit of a break for Lawrence Watt-Evans who is well known for his Ethshar series of books. I really can’t say enough about his fantastic fiction. And, yes, I meant that as a play on words! So, what are you waiting for? Go get this book and read it!!

I just finished reading Dragon Venom by Lawrence Watt Evans this week.

Wow, what a sweeping book! Lawrence Watt Evans had a lot of ground to cover in this final installment of the Obsidian Chronicles and he did so amazingly well. First off, if you haven’t guessed by now, this is the last book in a series of three novels that are not set in Ethshar, one of my favorite fantasy settings. This world is a little grittier and certainly more savage than Ethshar. And, it allows the author to explore some rather gruesome ideas about the comingling of magic and blood that his somewhat more “happy-happy” Ethshar series doesn’t allow. But, that aside, it’s a great series.
In this final installment, Lord Obsidian attempts to put an end to the dragons for good. And, of course, to seek his revenge on the dragons that devistated his village. Okay, now, if you’re reading this series, stop here, the spoilers are on the way…
Well, he manages to kill quite a few dragons, which doesn’t do much but irritate the remaining ones a bit. But, he also manages to let the wild magic of the South start to encroach on the Lands of Man. So, the Duke orders him to stop slaying dragons until he can guarantee that the Lands of Man will be safe from the wild magic without dragons. That, then, is the main thrust of the book. Obsidian explores far to the South, meets a “wizard”, then kills it, and a god, learning quite a bit about magic along the way. But, not quite getting the answer to his problems.
He does find out that dragon blood is concentrated magic and the key to his problem. So, he goes about trying to create a magical dragon “substiuite”. And, well… I’ll let you read the book.

A new Legend of Ethshar!

For any readers that aren’t familiar with my blog, or preferences in reading material, Lawrence Watt-Evans is my favorite fantasy author. In particular, I love his Ethshar series of books. In fact, I like it so much, I made a digital version of his map of Ethshar. I’ve read all of the Ethshar books that have been published, so far, and
Ithanalin’s Restoration is the latest. I’m about a third of the way into it and, so far, it lives up to my high expectations of Lawrence Watt-Evans’ work. Again, so far, this is yet another piece of literature that I would not have a problem giving to my 11-year old daughter to read. It’s relatively clean, certainly more so than the 10:00pm news. More importantly, it’s creative, inventive and interesting. The story revolves around a spell that’s gone wrong and an apprentance’s attempts to make it right. I don’t want to throw in any spoilers until I’ve finished the book, but it’s been great so far.