Read my short story, Lobo, in Shock Totem #4!
Available now from Shock Totem's Website and Amazon.
Also, check out my new story, The Door, available to read online for free at Lowestoft Chronicle.
Coming this summer:
I’ll post more info soon, but for now I’ll just leave you with that little teaser. Enjoy!
That’s right, I’m back with edition number 5 of my semi-regular feature Literal Daze, where I review stuff I’ve read, listened to, or watched lately. Today, we have not one, but two audiobooks to check out, so let’s get to it.
I’m a huge fan of the series, ASoIaF (“A Song of Ice and Fire”, for the uninitiated). I started reading them back in I think 2006 or so, and rushed through the first three books, which was something like 3000 pages total, in less than a week. Yeah, these are big books, and yes, they’re that good. I literally couldn’t put them down. Then I got a hold of the fourth book, finished it, and kind of went “Whaaaaat?” It just wasn’t as good. For as long as it was, it felt like very little happened overall, and the grand sense of epic settings, political intrigue, and amazing characters that had defined the series so far seemed lost. Maybe this was because of his decision to split up this one into two different but concurrent books, the fourth focusing on specific characters in the South of Westeros and the Iron Islands, and the fifth planned to focus on everyone else in the North of Westeros and the Continent of Essos. It turns out, it felt like he left out all the awesome characters in book four.
But, in a way this was good, right? That means book five, A Dance With Dragons, should be nothing but distilled awesome, right? Yeah, not so much.
Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t bad. In many ways, it’s actually quite good, and it is objectively much better than book four. It was excellent to finally see what become of some of favorite characters like Daenerys the Dragon Queen, Tyrion the Dwarf, Theon the Turncloak, Davos the Onion Knight, and Jon Snow the Bastard of Winterfell. Overall, their character arcs did a decent job of progressing the story and bringing back the sense of urgency that had entirely gone missing in A Feast for Crows, and most of them were genuinely enjoyable. Tyrion’s journey after his deeds in King’s Landing to try and reach Daenerys and finally see the fabled dragons she possessed was particularly enjoyable, and as always his chapters were usually the most fun simply because he’s such an awesome character. Theon’s story, though I wouldn’t call it “fun”, was also really interesting. It was fascinating, after his betrayal in book three, to see him get his just desserts (and much, much worse), but then grow as a character once again until I found myself cheering him on. After what he did, I wouldn’t have thought that possible, but like Jaime Lannister throughout the first four books, GRR Martin seems to have a way of taking the worst of his characters and shaping them into his most beloved.
All that said, the lingering issues that plagued book four did not entirely go away. For as long as the book is, in many ways it still feels like not a lot happened. Going back over it in my head, I know that’s not true. Quite a lot happened, actually. I think the problem, though, is that it could have been told in maybe half as many words. It feels like, as Martin’s series becomes more and more popular, he is becoming less restricted in his editing process. There are tangents everywhere in this book that, while sort of interesting, in no way contribute to the story. Whole chapters could have been chopped out and not have affected the story one bit. This makes the book feel like more of a chore to slog through than the adventure it felt like during the first three. Book three I think was actually longer than this one, but it also felt like twice as much happened. I’m not opposed to a long book, but not when the story suffers as a result.
The bottom line is that this book could have done with some tighter editing and a little self-control on the author’s part. It was a good book, but couldn’t live up to its own legacy, the standard set by A Storm of Swords. Still, if nothing else, it feels like maybe after the train wreck that was A Feast for Crows, we’re at least back on track.
Now that we have the review of the book itself out of the way, let’s talk about the Audiobook experience. First off, have you ever listened to a 1500 page book over audio? It’s long, nearly 50 hours in fact, which is probably the longest audiobook I’ve ever listened to. It was a good way to experience this kind of book though, because the material is just so dense. Where I may skim through sections and not really retain everything when reading normally, audiobooks force me to slow down and listen to every word, savoring each rich detail, at a pre-rendered pace. I definitely retained more of the book in this format than with previous books.
On the downside though, I wasn’t crazy about the narrator, Roy Dotrice. I know I know, some people love the guy, but it just never clicked with me. After hearing the incredible voice talents of Peter Kenny in reading “Surface Detail”, maybe I’ve just been spoiled, but this just didn’t seem to measure up. Dotrice’s regular narration itself was very nice – his deep voice and slightly gruffy British accent fits the world perfectly. The issue comes in with his interpretation of the different character’s dialogue. Where Kenny’s voices ranged from various tones and timbres, accents galore, and subtle inflections that made the characters come alive, Dotrice’s voices essentially consist of “Old Man”, “Old Woman”, and “Roy Dotrice”. Daenerys, a young teenage girl, should not sound exactly the same as “Old Crone #4″. I know that in a story with this many characters some overlap is inevitable, but I can’t help but feel that someone like Kenny would have at least attempted a few more variations.
Still, it was a good experience overall, even if it was a long one. I just hope I don’t have to do it again until The Winds of Winter is released in about 20 years.
Considering how popular the zombie and vampire sub-genres are right now, it’s almost impossible to come up with something fresh and unique. The Strain doesn’t succeed entirely in doing that, but it makes a darn good attempt.
The Strain is about a CDC Doctor named Efrain Goodweather who is called into an emergency one night when a plane lands in New York, then inexplicably shuts down on the tarmac. Why do they call in disease control expert? Because everyone on the plane is dead, despite the fact that all were in perfect health moments before landing. Believing it to be some kind of outbreak, Eff and his team are brought in to investigate. They eventually discover that the bodies are undergoing a metamorphosis, then reanimating with an unnatural thirst for blood. An old professor and holocaust survivor who has dealt with the issue before in Europe comes into the mix to help out, and off they go.
So yes, the book is about vampires. Thankfully though, these aren’t your run of the mill, sharp-fanged, sleep-in-a-coffin type of vampires (well okay, one actually might be, but I’ll gloss over that), and they especially aren’t the angst-ridden, teenage glittery vampires that are all the rage these days. No, they’re almost more like Zombies than Vampires. After reanimating, they wake up with one single-minded purpose, which is to feed. All other higher order functions, at least at first, are secondary to that instinct. When they do feed, they also transfer the agent that forced their transformation onto the victim, and that person then also becomes a vampire. See? Just like zombies.
The authors manage to make them frightening and disturbing in their pursuit of this goal, and they do so while attempting to explain the biological makeup of these new creatures and how they function (certainly a function of Del Toro’s involvement). At several points they are likened by Eff to a “virus incarnate”, which is actually fairly accurate (and also explains the title of the novel). They feed and spread, that’s it.
Hogan and Del Toro do a fantastic job in building up the tension as the book progresses, slowly unfolding the mystery of where these things came from and what’s actually behind the outbreak. As the book goes on, things take a surprising turn from science to the supernatural which I didn’t see coming. I also appreciate the amount of depth written into all characters in the story, whether they ended up heroes battling the forces of evil with Eff or as vamp-food. The impression is that every person is important, that they have hopes and dreams and faults, and none of them deserve such a gruesome fate no matter how small their role in the overall story may be. That attention to detail definitely drew me in and held onto me, even through the rough parts.
Yes, there were some rough spots. My biggest complain is the way that the heroes, as soon as they decide to fight back against the forces of darkness, suddenly become master vampire slayers. Yes, they have some help from an experience hunter, but the change is dramatic to say the least. You have this guy Eff who was a doctor before, and suddenly he expertly wields a silver sword like some kind of crusader. It seems that in this world, it just needs to be accepted that anyone can use hand weapons with perfect skill, despite zero experience with these weapons beforehand. It’s just one of those things that breaks the suspension of disbelief, which is a shame in a story like this that works so hard to build that suspension up in the first place. The other big issue I had is that the story seems to lose a lot of steam toward the end of the book, which is ironic considering that it’s also probably the most action packed. By about 3/4 of the way through, all questions surrounding the mystery of this outbreak have been answered, and all we’re left with is a good old-fashioned vampire hunt. It’s entertaining to an extent, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. The whole thing becomes very predictable.
Still, a solid entry for the genre. Since this is only book one of a trilogy, I can give it some leeway in that there’s hopefully lots more story to tell. Hopefully I’m only seeing the tip of the iceberg here. I only hope that the next book takes things in a direction that I won’t see coming.
The audiobook itself was… eh, it was alright. When I saw it was being read by Ron Perlman, I was beyond excited. His voice is like butter, after all. Yet, only a few minutes in, my disappointment was palpable. Perlman makes absolutely zero effort to create distinct voices and differentiate the various characters in the book. Other than the old Holocaust survivor, which Perlman voices with a barely passable accent, every single other character sounds exactly the same. If not for the fact that his voice is so awesome, this thing would have been a total loss. You get the feeling that if Perlman would put in even a modicum of effort, he would be an amazing voice actor on top of already just being an amazing actor.
I’ve said this before, but look for The Wise Man’s Fear, the anticipated sequel to The Name of the Wind, coming down the pipe soon. Eventually we’ll also be checking out The Pillars of the Earth, another ludicrously long audiobook. Until then!
After much deliberation, I’ve recently determined the following is, objectively, the most epic song ever written. What is it, you ask?
The Soulforged, by Blind Guardian
In case you’re curious, the song itself is about a character named Raistlin Majere from the Dragonlance series of novels. From Wikipedia:
Born to a mother prone to trance-like fits and a woodcutter father, Raistlin inherited his mother’s aptitude for magic. He undertook the arduous Test of Sorcery, which he passed, but in the process acquired golden skin, and was cursed with hourglass eyes which see the effects of time on all things. His health, while never robust, was ruined further, leaving him weak and subject to frequent bouts of coughing blood. Initially wearing the red robes of neutrality, as the first series progresses Raistlin’s powers increase while his mood and actions darken, and he eventually adopts the black robes of evil part-way through the War of the Lance.
Raistlin, although physically very weak, is extremely intelligent, and possesses uncommonly powerful magical abilities. While ruthless in his pursuit of power, he holds to a code of conduct which repays all debts and protects those disadvantaged through no fault of their own. His relationship with his much stronger, better-liked and good-natured twin brother Caramon is fraught with tensions as Caramon seeks to protect and shelter his weaker brother, while denying his cruelty and penchant for hurting any others while in pursuit of his goals.
But who cares about all that? All that matters is that amazing drum fill at 4:00 in. And the awesome guitar riffs throughout the song. And a chorus that might just inspire me to finally finish this novel. Yes, it is epic, and this is not up for discussion.
After a long, long wait, the fourth installment of Literal Daze is here! This is an ongoing segment where I generally review two books, one in written form and the other in audiobook form. I might occasionally throw a movie in as well for fun. Let’s get started!
What if the various Gods throughout the history of mankind were physically manifested through humanity’s sheer willingness to believe in and sacrifice to them? What would they look like, and how would they behave? And what would happen to them when they were eventually forgotten and left behind?
This is the idea behind Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel and modern fable, American Gods. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this book. I liked it and didn’t like it at the same time. It’s central concept, the idea of America being this strange melting pot of the various Gods man has created over the course of human history and brought with them when they came to this country, is an interesting one. As time marches on and the old Gods are forgotten, they are replaced by new ones, Gods who are probably more familiar to you than you know – The Internet, Television, Media, etc. I liked its approach to this idea for the most part (Though I was bothered by one glaring omission. Hypothetically, if this were the way things actually worked, if the “Gods” flourish through our adoration and worship, wouldn’t the most powerful American God be, you know, Jesus? I understand that Christianity wasn’t really the focus of this story, but 70-something percent of Americans claim to be Christian, so the fact that it was basically glossed over seemed strange to me).
Still, a concept can only take you so far, even when well executed. Despite being well written and featuring subtle yet fascinating characters, the heart of any story is the plot. This one does just a bit too much meandering and side-tracking for my tastes. I found myself caring more about the secondary mystery plot that isn’t even introduced until halfway through the book than about the main story, which ends in highly anticlimactic fashion.
So yeah, this one wasn’t my favorite, but it wasn’t terrible either. If nothing else, it’ll probably get me reading more Neil Gaiman.
Here’s my review of Angelology:
This book sucked.*
The end.
*It should be noted, however, that the narrator for the audiobook was quite good. Probably the only good thing about this book. If I’d had to actually read it in print I probably would have gouged my eyes out.
I admit, I’ve never read a single novel in Banks’ “The Culture” series. Frankly, I didn’t know the books existed until sometime last year. Considering what a huge fan I am of Science Fiction, this is probably a crime against the genre, but there it is. In my defense, I have heard of a couple of the books in this series, such as Consider Phlebas and Look to Windward and simply didn’t realize what they were, so at least that’s something.
Anyway, yeah, back to Surface Detail. The good thing about the Culture series, in this case at least, is that it isn’t really a series at all. Notice that little tag on the cover picture that says that it is “A Culture Novel” instead of “A Culture Series”? There’s a reason for that. The universe that these books take place in spans millennia, and so books can actually take place hundreds of years apart. Other than the titular civilization of the Culture, a hyper-advance, sort-of anarchic conglomeration of different species and artificial intelligences, there is no real common thread between any of them. Each stands alone as its own story, and other than some background on the Culture itself (much of which is filled in in each book), no knowledge of previous books is required. So hopping straight into Book 9 as my first foray into the series wasn’t as jarring as you’d think it might be.
In Surface Detail, there are a couple of different story threads that kind of dance around each other. The first, more personal story, is about a young alien woman who is born as an lifelong indentured servant on her home world to an extremely wealthy yet sadistic businessman. Even before birth, she is marked on a genetic level with intricate and amazing tattoos all over her body, the incredible patterns of which help define the novel’s title. The book begins with her attempted escape and subsequent murder by her owner. However, where the Culture is concerned, not even death is always permanent. When she seemingly resurrects many light years away on a Culture ship, she eventually teams up with a slightly insane but powerful warship named “Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints”. Yeah, if that’s not the best name for a starship ever, I don’t know what is. Eventually her story brings her back to face the man who so wronged her, and she must deal with the implications of what she has become.
That story is set against a larger backdrop of war – in this case, a simulated war which isn’t actually real. Not yet anyway. As many civilizations become more advanced, they learn how to manipulate virtual worlds, creating artificial reality constructs that seem as real as the real world. So what happens when some of them take this a step too far Several worlds eventually decide that letting God take care of the afterlife isn’t good enough, and take it upon themselves to create their own virtual heavens and hells. When someone dies, the government downloads their mental state as a digital copy and decides which of these afterlives to place them in. You can imagine how a system like this might be abused and wielded for nefarious purposes.
The war, then, is between the worlds who condone the virtual hells and those who want them destroyed (the Culture falls in this latter camp by the way, though they vow not to become directly involved). Ironically, the war itself is fought in a virtual construct to prevent deaths in the real world. This story line is followed by a soldier who lives and dies a hundred times, fights in every scenario imaginable, and who’s shoulders the war eventually comes to sit upon. In parallel, another human woman who is a representative of the Culture investigates some strange happenings surrounding the war, and why it may be close to breaking through into real bloodshed.
Finally, there’s one more storyline that follows a pair of alien quadrupeds who hack into their own world’s virtual hell. It seems that some on their world don’t believe these virtual afterlives don’t actually exist, and so these fellow activists decide that the best way to blow the lid off is to get solid proof. The only problem is, their escape plan goes badly awry, and in the end only one of them manage to escape. After this their story splits into the man doing his best to expose the virtual hell to his countrymen, while the woman suffers through seemingly endless lifetimes of pain and torture still trapped inside.
If all of this sounds like a pretty complicated affair, you’re right, it is. Each story on its own is pretty good. However, even though Banks tried to tie them all together, it never really feels like any one of these stories has much bearing on another. If I have a complaint, that would probably be it. Though each character’s story comes to a natural end with varying levels of satisfaction, the novel as a whole still feels incomplete somehow.
Despite this, it’s a great book. If you like grand, epic science fiction, it’s hard to get much better than this. I’ve read that there actually may be some modest connections to another book in the series here, which is apparently something Banks doesn’t generally do, so I know I’ll have to go back and start catching up. If the rest of them are anything like this one, great things are in store.
Oh, and as for the Audiobook? Fantastic. I’ll just say right now, the narrator of this one, Peter Kenny, is without a doubt the best audiobook narrators I’ve ever heard. His normal accent and voice is just perfect for reading, soft and gentle yet engaging, and his ability to create new voices, accents, and tones for every new character that pops up is simply remarkable. Narrators like him are the reason I listen to Audiobooks in the first place. Bravo.
Get ready, because the fifth installment of the epic “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, A Dance With Dragons, is coming up! At nearly fifty hours, this was the longest audiobook I’ve ever listened to by far, so we’ll see whether or not that worked in its favor or against it. See you back here then.
This weekend has been just great.
First off, the Texans won yesterday, and Jennifer and I got to go to the game! It was pretty amazing just being at the Texans’ first playoff game, and it was even better seeing them beat Cincinnati to move on to the next round. Next week in Baltimore will be tough, but we believe!
As icing on the cake, we were all treated to an extra helping of Tebow-time in the Broncos-Steelers game today. He needed the big play in overtime, and sure enough, he delivered with a bomb down the sideline on the first play to secure the win. Look, he’s even made believers out of these guys.
Tebow’d!
Anyway, here’s hoping for another great weekend of football next weekend. For the record, I’m calling it now:
You heard it here first.
So, it looks like 2012 is finally upon us. This last year hasn’t been everything I hoped it would be in some ways, and more than I hoped in others. Perhaps it’s time for… an accounting!
Positives in 2011:
As I write this, we are somewhere in northern Mississippi on the road to visit Jennifer’s family in Michigan for Christmas. No, I’m not driving at the moment.
It’s been a busy month. I mentioned in my last post how I finished NaNoWriMo a few days early, but I didn’t give a reason. The reason was that I had to travel unexpectedly out of town for work. Since then, work has kept me extremely busy, all the way up to my year end vacation, so I’ve had little time for anything else. When I return I January, hopefully I can balance work and life a little better.
On another note, I’m happy to report that December has by far been my best month ever for site visits. It’s no secret that this site doesn’t get much traffic, and that’s fine because that was never my intention. Before November, I averaged maybe 150 unique hits a month. Pretty weak, but that was okay. Then, in November that more than doubled to about 400 hits. Awesome, right? Little did I know that December would blow that out of the water. As of today, I just broke 1000 unique hits for the month, and 2500 total visits. It’s still small potatoes, but if nothing else, it’s a positive trend that I’d love to see continue.
So, thanks for dropping by, and please continue to visit now and then! In the new year I plan to ramp up the content, starting with a fresh installment of Literal Daze and much more. For now though, whether you’re tucked in bed, visiting relatives, or cruising down the roads like us, I hope you have a great Christmas.
It is 12:42 AM on Sunday, November 27th, and I am proud to announce that I have officially won National Novel Writing Month 2011!
It’s been a long month, but I’m happy to say that it’s finally over and that I accomplished what I set out to do. In the end, my final word count was 50,148 words. When I went to validate my word count, it actually gave me about a thousand extra words, mainly because it counted all the repeated headers on every page and the titles to chapters that hadn’t been written yet. I actually knew it would do this going in, but I wanted to do it the right way and not cheat with a bunch of filler, so those 50k words are absolutely legit.
Now, that’s the good news. The bad news is, according to my outline, I’m less than halfway done with this novel. So while I did technically win NaNoWriMo and write 50,000 words in a month (27 days, actually, but let’s not split hairs), I did not write a full novel in that month’s time. Honestly though, that’s fine with me. It’s good to know that I still have more to look forward to, and it’s certainly a heck of a start, so I can’t complain too much. I think before I tackle the rest of it though, I’m going to take a couple of weeks off of writing. I need a break. Getting some time to actually read again will be a welcome change.
How about a final excerpt? In celebration of the win, I offer you an entire scene from Chapter Eight. As usual, rough draft, go easy on me, blah blah blah…
The only sound Echo could hear was the whiz of his arrows cutting through the air and striking the thin trunk of a lone cottonwood tree. He preferred to practice at night when the sole illumination source was the residual light from the Summit. The arrows he had already fired stuck out of the tree in a perfect vertical line, each spaced a precise ten centimeters from the one above it. He slotted another arrow and started to pull it back when he heard movement through the grass behind him. Echo listened for a long moment, gauging the interlopers position, then turned and prepared to fire.
“You really shouldn’t be out here after what happened last night.” Liam strolled toward Echo, who let out a deep breath and lowered his bow.
“That’s a good way to get a hole in your skull, mate,” Echo said. He quivered his arrow and walked over to the tree to gather the others. “You should know better than to sneak up on me like that.”
“From the look of it, I wasn’t doing much sneaking. Then again, I never was one to beat around the bush.” Liam stuffed his hands into the pockets of his thick overcoat. “You need to come back inside.”
“Bugger that, I’ll do as I bloody please.” One by one, he yanked the arrows out of the tree trunk.
“I know,” Liam said, “you always have. Still, I would hope you have enough common sense to realize that hanging out around here is pointless. They aren’t coming back, not tonight anyway.”
“That right? And how would you know that, Mr. Chairman?”
“Call it a gut feeling,” Liam turned around to face the Summit, his profile emanating a soft glow from the lights of the city. “She looks like she’s dying, doesn’t she?”
“Pardon?”
“The Summit,” Liam said. “It’s like the life has drained out of her. I guess that, in a way, it has. I’d give anything to go back to last night and stop those beasts.”
“I learned a long time ago not to dwell on the past,” Echo said, brushing the tips of his fingers across the burn scar on his cheek. “It will drive you insane eventually. Believe me, I know.”
Liam turned back around to face Echo. “Do you trust him?”
“Who? The walker?” Liam nodded. “No, I don’t. Then again, that’s not saying much. I don’t trust you either.”
“Ben is convinced that he had something to do with the attack last night.”
“Hmm.” Echo slung the bow across his back. “I don’t know, it doesn’t feel right to me. There are some ghosts in his past, certainly, but he hates the Giants as much as we do. I think he would rather die than help them. On that note, believe me when I say that killing that boy would be no easy task. When he first came here I was skeptical of his story. How could anyone go through that and survive? Now though, I understand. I’ve trained with him every day, and even in the short time he’s been here, his abilities and dexterity have increased beyond my wildest expectations. I no longer wonder how he survived the Giants; now I’m more curious how the Giants survived him.”
“You’re that confident?” Liam asked.
“I am.”
“Echo, I hope you understand how much we have riding on this. If Micah isn’t ready…”
“At this point, I don’t think it matters whether he’s ready or not. We need him.”
Liam cleared his throat. “Alright then. We’ll see you off in the morning. Just remember, there are other enemies out there besides the Giants. I want to believe in the walker as much as you do, but he is cut from a different cloth than you and me. You need to be prepared for anything.”
Echo smiled. “Would you expect anything else?”
Last, but certainly not least, I want to give a huge thanks to Jennifer and Claire. I haven’t been too available for them during this month, and despite that they’ve been nothing but supportive. When I needed to be left alone, they did so, and when I needed encouragement, they gave it to me. I couldn’t have done it without them. Don’t worry, I’ll make it up to both of you in December! Love you!
That’s all for now. Expect your normally sporadic and random updates to resume in a week or so. Until then, fine readers.
NaNoWriMo is speeding ahead, faster than I can keep up it seems. I have still managed to stay on top of my word count, but it feels like I could fall behind at any point. As of right now, I have ten days left to get to 50,000 words. Right now, Im at about 35,000. Bottom line is, I still have a lot to write.
So, not much to discuss today then. I need to get back to writing. Before I go though, I leave you with your weekly excerpt. As usual, keep in mind the super rough first-draft disclaimer.
Bea lied in her top bunk bod and stared at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to come. Every time she closed her eyes, the image of the Giant appeared before her. The scene played out in slow-motion: the crosshairs in her rifle’s scope centered over his face, and when she pulled the trigger, the bullet passed into his forehead and then out through the back of his skull. The last thing she saw before he fell down out of her view were his dead eyes, like two polished glass marbles. In an instant, she had erased him from existence.
What did it feel like? One second he was full of life, and the next he was nothing but a dead sack of meat. So much power in a tiny slug of metal. Bea opened her hand and a brass casing rolled onto the sheets. It had held the bullet that she used to take her first life.
She was scared. It wasn’t that the event had shaken her or that she feared the threat of future attacks. She was scared because she longed for the opportunity to do it again.
Hopefully, the next update I post here will include a winner’s badge. Stay tuned to find out!
We’re quickly nearing the end of week two of this exercise in masochism known as NaNoWriMo. I’m getting to that point where it feels like nothing is happening and I’d love to just throw in the towel. It feels like just about everything I’ve written so far has been background and boring dialogue, and I’d probably feel great if I moved it to the trash folder and never looked at it again.
That said, I press on. The good news is that, according to my outline anyway, good things are coming. A big turning point is about to happen in the story that will move us into Act Two, and I’m really looking forward to being there. I think week three will be a good one. Overall, as of right now I’m sitting at about 21,500 words. Ahead of par, but just barely. I still can’t afford to fall behind, so the next few days will be essential in terms of not falling behind.
Last time I gave a quick synopsis of the novel, and I’d like to talk about that a bit more right now. I mentioned that one of the main aspects of the story are these supernatural beings that start showing up after a worldwide plague. In the events that have happened over the last week, it’s revealed in the story that these beings are the ancient hybrids of angel and man spoken of in the Old Testament – the Nephilim. For those who aren’t aware, Genesis 6 speaks about how a group of Angels came down to earth and took human wives, and their offspring began to inhabit the ancient world. It’s assumed that one of the reasons for the great flood was to wipe these things off the face of the earth. They were an abomination, going against God’s will and plan for humanity, and so they were destroyed in the flood. End of story, right?
Not quite. The nephilim are mentioned again in Numbers, when Moses sent out several men to scout out the land of Canaan. They returned and claimed they saw the Nephilim there. The question is, how did they come to inhabit the world once again after the flood? The Bible never really explains that part. There are plenty of theories, but all we know is that they were there. This actually confirms the original passage in Genesis, which says that there were “Giants on the earth in those days, and also after that.” The “after that” part is very intriguing, as the time period being referenced is the antediluvian period before the great flood. So in essence, it acknowledges that they existed again later on, after the flood. Crazy huh?
Now, it’s widely believed that, just as the flood was meant to wipe the Nephilim from the earth, Joshua and his army were charged with killing the inhabitants of the promised land for the same purpose. The question is, did they succeed? Again, the Bible gives hints to this answer here and there, but never explicitly says so one way or another. Many speculate that the descendants of the Nephilim may have lived for many generations after that. Some say that Goliath, for example, could have been one of them. Perhaps even the Greek myths of the Titans were based on these creatures, or the figures from Norse mythology, or any other number of cultural legends. In the end though, we don’t really know, nor do we know what ultimately happened to them.
In my story, this thought is taken one step further. What if the Nephilim still lived today? What if they’re among us, hidden in plain sight, waiting for their chance to regain dominance over the human species? A worldwide plague, one that their unique gene structure may be immune to, would be a perfect catalyst for this to happen. This concept is where my story begins.
Now of course the question is, do I actually believe that these things are still alive today? No, I don’t. Remember, this is a Fantasy novel. I’m not writing it to pose a theory or claim that this is what could actually happen. It’s meant to tell a good story and maybe strike a theme with someone in the process. We don’t actually believe that a magical world of Centaurs and talking Lions exists inside a wardrobe, but that doesn’t stop us from reading and enjoying C.S. Lewis’ most well-loved series.
I would hope I don’t have to make that point explicit, but you never know these days. It’s a fascinating subject, which is why I wanted to write a story around it, but I certainly do not claim for it to be truth. Far from it. The Bible says very little about these creatures, and some today don’t even believe the passage was talking about Angels in the first place. Point being, I’m no expert. Nobody is. It’s fantasy, don’t read into it more than that.
Okay, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, how about another excerpt? Remember, this is rough first-draft type work, so please don’t hold it against me.
“Leave us,” Oshurel said. Within seconds, the room cleared out. Oshurel stood, and Korin marveled at his stature. Even for one of the Ancient, Oshurel was a titan among them. He walked around to the other side of the desk, limping on his one good leg the entire way. Korin turned his eyes away, not wanting to acknowledge the impediment.
Oshurel tapped the thigh of his bad leg with an open palm. “You know, sometimes I think it is getting better. I will wake up and convince myself that it no longer hurts. Then I come to my senses and accept the truth. It is not healing, and it never will. I have simply forgotten what two working legs felt like in the first place.”
“Father-“ Korin began, but Oshurel held up a hand.
“I understand why you killed him. There was a time when I may have even done the same. But Korin, you must learn to control this anger inside of you. You have lived with it for so long now that it has become a part of you. Can you even remember what it is like to feel anything but rage?” Korin said nothing, and Oshurel hobbled over closer to him. “We have been given a gift. Our ancestors were washed away in the great flood, and upon their graves, humanity flourished. Now we have been given a second chance. No longer must we hide ourselves away. No longer must we bow in submission.”
“If that is so, then why do we hide in this city like scared children? Why don’t we take the fight to them?”
Oshurel turned around and limped back to the other side of the desk. “You know that is not our way, Korin. Each of us contains a spark of the divine. We are Gods unto ourselves, and no God can have authority over another. You may have those who believe in you and rally to your cause, but in the end, all of us are free to make our own choices. It is who we are.”
“Do I not submit to you, Father?”
“Only because you choose to.” Oshurel sat down again. “Look around you. Humanity is defeated. We can do with them as we wish.”
“What I wish,” Korin said through clenched teeth, “is to destroy them. Every last one. Beginning with the walker.”
As always, thanks for reading. Until next week!
