The Brothers Infinite or Fine Print

[bccreations]

So, that new story I mentioned the other day? I've decided to name it THE TRIAD SOCIETY. Reliarach has three armies per duchy compared to Andaria's two and thus three counts to lead them. The counts form a regency board called a Triad that has greater power in the kingdom's system of government than other nations where the duke is an absolute power

Comments

[elizabethpoole]

I like both new ideas. You definitely have enough stuff developed in the WANTED setting to set other books there. I always like doing that because it felt like the books were more real if there were a few books from the same fantasy setting. Like different stories of the citizens.

The fountain of youth idea is neat too. I always like the thought of playing around with immortality and such. Would drinking from the well make the effectively immortal, or just long lived (about three hundred years if they age 1/10 of their actual age)?

[bccreations]

1/10 a person's life would make a 300 year old equivalent to a 30 year old. I keep flip-flopping on whether they are actually immortal or just long lived. Of the brothers, only one remains. One died from the Bubonic Plague, one died in a war (still to be determined) and this most recent one was hit by a bus/drunk driver/some kind of car accident.

So the remaining brother doesn't actually know if he's going to live forever. Of course, this is me, so he'll probably die at the end. :)

[elizabethpoole]

The nice thing about you killing off main characters is that you establish yourself as an author who isn’t afraid to do so. Now, whenever I read something of yours, the character is in greater jeopardy, because I KNOW you will kill characters off if it suits the story. I have that “relationship” with Stephen King. He has maimed, tortured and killed his main characters at great length.

Usually when I read a book, and something bad happens I think “Oh, it’s okay. The character isn’t going to die, the author wouldn’t-wait, who am I reading again? Stephen King? Oh NO! That character is toast!”

I have a short list of authors who won’t pull their punches, and your name is added to that list. Congrats.

I also have a longer list of authors who seem to kill characters off to just seem “edgy” or “hardcore” or “serious” or just because they want to cheat and have a quicker ending. These authors are on my banned to read list.

[bccreations]

You know, when I started A GAME OF THRONES, I was shocked to discover that no one was safe. It wasn't something I was used to seeing, especially seeing someone die not at the climax but just in the middle of the story. It's not done!

It was invigorating to be so forcefully shaken out of my comfort area. By the fourth book, though, Martin seemed to bend the story in ways it was not meant to be bent just to kill people. Some of them (one in particular that I will not spoil) are still awesome. But some of them are just lame. I've gotten to the point where I'm, "Oh, he's dead too. Okay, who's next."

It's really eroded all that excitement I felt in the first book.

[elizabethpoole]

Me too! When I read a Game of Thrones, I sat up and worried more about the characters. Once I got further into the series though, I just stopping caring about the characters. I figured they would just die in an unexpected and horrible way anyway, so what was the point?

There's a fine line between making things realistic and making them so brutal you ruin the empathy the reader creates with your characters. Martin lives on the other side of that line, and like you said, it’s boring now. It’s not cutting edge and exciting if you do it all the time, Martin! Especially if you tell the story false just to kill someone off. That's cheating, and you get a frowny face in my book for that.

[bccreations]

My assumption is that all the major characters in Westeros are going to die, they having betrayed their rightful king. I think it's a "suffer traitors" story and in the end Dany will come back and retake the throne. As such, I'm okay with them all dying. It's just he kind of ramped up the deaths and it really felt like he was trying to cram them in so he could make way for secondary characters I like less. Sometimes far less (I'm looking at you Onion Knight whose chapters are incredibly repetitive).

Then again, it may be a Hamlet style everyone dies because of the level of intrigue. Who knows. We'll find out in a few decades.

[bccreations]

And you know, reading my previous comment, I don't think I would let the brother die at the end. It's an easy and expected out. Having to continue on alone and now with none of the things he built up over the centuries is much worse than death. I think it will end with him defeated, where death would be a mercy. One that he does not receive.

We'll have to see how the story turns out when I get there.