Benedict Jacka's Blog, page 77

DangerousRomance interview

I’ve got a new interview up, this one with Laurie of DangerousRomance – you can read it here!

Encyclopaedia Arcana #35: Air Magic

Air is the element of movement and freedom, and most of its effects revolve around motion in some way.  Air mages are good at moving quickly and avoiding danger, but tend to have less brute destructive power than other elementalists.

Up and Away

The signature ability of air mages is flight, and despite all the other things they can do it’s their ability to fly that they’re most famous for.  Although there are several methods of getting it to work, the “standard” flight spell that’s become the preferred one over the centuries works in two ways:  it channels air magic into the caster’s body to reduce their effective weight, and combines that with manipulation of air currents to allow them to move in different directions.  At lower levels this is only enough to soften a fall, but as air mages develop their skill they learn to levitate themselves and eventually fly freely in all three dimensions.

Although flight is one of the more difficult spells to effectively use, nearly all air mages end up learning it.  There seems to be something about it that appeals strongly to their psychological makeup – if they didn’t want to fly, they wouldn’t have become air mages in the first place.  Air mages who prefer a slightly less obvious method of getting around learn to use their magic to enhance their ability to jump and run, boosting their natural capabilities rather than supplanting them.

Something In The Air

Air mages have a unique advantage over other elementalists in that they get to be immersed in their preferred element 99% of the time.  Most people don’t spend that much time swimming in water, only a certain fraction of the population have jobs that keep them underground or in close contact with the earth, and for the vast majority of humanity being engulfed in fire is a sign that things have gone really badly wrong – but being surrounded by air is so normal that most people never even think about it.

As a result, air mages are never short of something to affect, and this gives air magic enormous utility.  Air mages can solidify or ‘harden’ air to create objects out of nothingness:  swords, shields, hammers, ladders, bridges, levers, and just about anything else they can think up.  They can also manipulate the makeup of air to increase or decrease oxygen concentrations or even create pockets of vacuum.  Finally, they can use air directly as a force, lifting or buffeting items or creating whirlwind effects.  Although air magic can be destructive, it tends to lag a little behind the other elements when it comes to attack spells:  air isn’t really very well-suited to direct attacks and most air mages who go in for combat rely on wielded weapons and projectiles of hardened air rather than wind blasts.

Drifting on the Wind

Air mages tend to be whimsical and independent.  Freedom is at the centre of their system of values, and the most reliable way to make an air mage really angry is to try to confine or imprison them somehow.  On the other hand, as long as their independence is respected, air mages tend to be relatively easy to get along with:  in the same way that they prefer to have some distance from others, they don’t ask or expect much in return.  Air-users often have a creative streak, and it’s very common for air adepts and mages to be artists of some kind.

Socially, air mages tend to never quite fit in.  They’re welcome in larger society, yet never quite at home there:  they tend to have just slightly too much of an inclination towards remaining independent and detached.  They’re often more widely-travelled and experienced than their compatriots, but they rarely commit themselves, and on some level they always seem to be outsiders.

No Portsmouth BookFest after all

Aaaaaaand I just got an email telling me that my event at the Portsmouth BookFest tomorrow has been cancelled.  Disappointing, as I was looking forward to going.  Hope everyone gets this message (from me, or elsewhere) in time.

Portsmouth BookFest tomorrow!

A quick note that I’m going to be at the Portsmouth Bookfest tomorrow!  I’ll be at the Menhuin Theatre at 7pm, talking about “Urban Fantasy and the City Setting” along with Kate Griffin, Ben Aaronovitch, and Jon Courtenay-Grimwood.  Never actually been to Portsmouth before, but hopefully I’ll manage to find my way there . . .

Encyclopaedia Arcana #34: Water Magic

One of the more common elemental types, water magic gives control over liquid and its associated qualities.  Water mages are often thought of as passive and reactive compared to other elementalists, but their magic is well-suited for combat and water battle-mages are common.

Under the Sea

The two most basic abilities water mages develop are water control and water breathing.  The two combine to make water mages the best swimmers in the world by a long way – an experienced water mage can break most Olympic swimming records with ease and stay underwater for hours or days at a time.  More experienced water mages learn to develop immunity to the cold and pressure of the ocean’s depths, allowing them to go deeper.  In fact, many mages get so comfortable underwater that they end up staying there, spending much of their lives beneath the waves.

The abilities of water mages also overlap to a limited degree with weather and ice magic.  Although both areas are strictly speaking considered their own magic type, it’s common for water mages to have some degree of talent for either or both.  In the case of weather effects, the most natural starting point is mist and fog, and water mages have a wide variety of spells that revolve around creating or controlling them.

Wearing Away

Water mages are well served when it comes to combat spells.  Like most elemental mages they can effectively protect themselves with bubble-like shields, but relatively few are aware of how destructive water can be.  Water is a powerful solvent, and given enough time it can wear down anything.  In the same way that the sea can erode away rock or metal, a water mage can dissolve away solid substances.  At higher intensities this can produce the much-feared disintegration effects that water battle-mages are famous for:  a veteran water-mage can literally reduce an opponent to dust.

Water mages with less murderous tendencies prefer spells that harness the effects of water pressure, striking like a high-pressure jet and knocking a target off their feet.  In addition to erosion, water mages can harness corrosion as well, creating acidic or alkaline solutions that eat away solid objects.

Going with the Flow

Socially, water mages tend to fit in easily.  They have a reputation for being agreeable and attractive, if not outright seductive – if a character’s presented as an object of desire in mage stories, then if they’re not an enchantress there’s a good chance they’ll be a water mage.  Water mages are rarely cast as the heroes, however:  they tend to be seen as fundamentally reactive, rather than agents of change.

The reputation does have some element of truth, though much of it may be a reflection not on water mages’ characters but on their capabilities.  Water magic is an all-rounder:  it’s not as good at destroying things as fire and not as good at protecting its caster as earth and not as good at moving around as air, but it’s reasonably good at doing all of those things and a water mage is a useful ally in almost any situation.  While all mages are specialists at heart, water mages are probably as close to generalists as elemental mages get.  This makes it easy for water mages to blend in with the crowd, but does mean they tend to have less motivation to dramatically change things.

Return of the Return to the Forbidden Planet

Just a reminder that I’ll be at Forbidden Planet at 6pm this Friday the 26th for the Forbidden Planet Orbit Signing.  Hope to see some of you there!

There’ll also be an Encyclopaedia article going up on Friday at the usual time.

October Events: Forbidden Planet and Portsmouth BookFest

A few updates for this Friday!

First, some more good reviews have come in.  I haven’t been keeping as close a track of the reviews lately (there are finally so many of them that it’s becoming routine) but here are some of the latest ones for Taken:

Whatchamacallit Reviews

Leo Cristea

British Fantasy Society

Next, I’ve got two events coming up.  Next Friday, one week from today (26th October) I’m going back to Forbidden Planet for an Orbit signing, along with Kate Griffin, Mike Cobley, and Charlie Stross.  Kick-off is at 6pm and if it’s like the last few times I’ve been there, it’ll finish at 7. Come along if you can make it!

After that I’ve got a panel on “Urban Fantasy and the City Setting” at the Portsmouth Bookfest on Tuesday 30th October at the Menhuin Theatre, 7pm.  Kate Griffin will be there again too, along with Ben Aaronovitch and Jon Courtenay-Grimwood.  (Which I think marks the first time I’ve actually known all of the people I’m doing a panel with.)  More details closer to the time!

Ask Luna #5

From: Alex

Hello Luna,

Is there such a magic as Necromancy?

‘Necromancer’ is one of the names for a death mage, though I’ve got the feeling it’s not 100% correct (at least I remember someone getting corrected for using it).  I have the feeling necromancy is supposed to be a kind of ritual magic rather than a proper magic type, but for whatever reason they don’t teach us much about it.  Should probably ask Alex one of these days.  

From: Orion

Dear Luna, I think I remember Verus mentioning that magical creatures escaped to various worlds. What worlds are there and can mages go there?

We’re really getting to the limits of how much I know here . . . As I understand it the two main types of other worlds that get use by mages are shadow realms and bubbles.  Shadow realms are the most common and the easiest to create, and they’re something like a very small parallel world linked to a particular location on Earth.  Because they use a section of our world as a model they have to have some similarity with what they’re based on, but the mage who creates them can ‘tweak’ them, messing with the environment and the magical setup, that kind of thing.  

Bubbles are much rarer and the difference is that while a shadow realm is a kind of distorted image of a place in the real world, a bubble is completely cut off from our reality, so it can be whatever you like.  The problem is that bubbles have a tendency to ‘float off’ and once they do you can’t find them again.  

You can get to both bubbles and shadow realms via gate magic, but it’s harder than with normal gates and you can’t just walk to the initial staging point.  A lot of mages use focuses to make the journey easier.  

From: Orion

Dear Luna,

Can life mages regenerate limbs? And what is the strangest type of mage you have heard about or encountered?

Okay, I didn’t have any idea about the answer to the first question, so I asked Anne and I just learned more than I EVER wanted to know about limb regeneration.   

According to Anne, the basic answer is yes, but it’s difficult.  The easiest way to do it is if you’ve got the severed limb there already.  Anne says she can reattach a limb with pretty much 100% success rate – she says once you line up the nerves and the blood vessels it more or less fixes itself.  No, I have no idea how that works.  Yes, she sounded like she was talking from experience.  No, I didn’t ask.  

If the limb’s GONE gone, then according to Anne it’s much harder.  She says the problem is that human bodies don’t regenerate limbs naturally – your flesh regrows from scratch but your bones don’t, which means you’re trying to get the body to do something it doesn’t naturally do at all instead than enhancing what it can do already, which is apparently much more difficult.  It’s also more difficult the longer the limb’s been missing – something about the body and mind adapting to the loss.

Other issues with limb regeneration include the fact that not all life mages can do it – it’s a specialised skill that takes a lot of practice, and given that the best thing to practise on is a freshly severed limb you aren’t likely to get many volunteers.  Finally, regenerating a limb is really slow, takes a hell of a lot of energy, and has a whole variety of horrible things that can go wrong if you mess it up, such as the body deciding that the new limb’s a foreign object and the immune system attacking it and trying to destroy it.  (She described some other possibilities that were worse, but they were nauseating enough that I don’t really want to go into them.)   

So short answer, yes it’s possible, but don’t go counting on it.  

From: Bob

Hi Luna,

Okay so you get illusionist mages right? Are they mind mages altering what people see (or sense with their other senses) or do they actually creat something which isn’t really there? Would Illusions work on inanimate things like cameras?

Thanks. 

I actually did some research on this for a duel a while back, and it turns out the answer is ‘both’.   

Illusionists are kind of like a cross between light mages (not Light mages, light as in the stuff you get in a spectrum) and mind mages, except that their particular thing is tricking people.  Light-spectrum mages can create illusions out of visible light, and mind mages can mess with someone’s senses, but an illusionist can create a spell that does both.  They can create things that are just in your mind and that no-one else can see (which I think are called phantasms) but they can also do hologram-style constructs.  The first wouldn’t appear on cameras, the second would.  They can also mix the two, so you get something with real light but unreal sensations.  And then if they really want to mess with your head, they’ll set it up so that there are some real things in there too, so you don’t know which ones are the real ones.  

They’re kind of a headache to deal with.  I never did end up fighting the guy who I was doing the research for, but I’ll probably have to go up against one sometime.  

Post-Con and Alex Verus #4 News

So last weekend I was at FantasyCon.  It was only the second fantasy/sci-fi convention I’ve been to after the SF Weekender, and felt very different – much fewer people and no cosplayers, for a start.  Thankfully there weren’t any more six-hour train delays either.

I’m finding that for me, the most fun part of cons/similar events is getting to meet other writers and people involved in the sci-fi and publishing world.  The thing about being an author is that cons, etc. are one of the very few ways you ever meet other people in your profession, so it’s really, really nice for me to have other people to talk shop with (and who understand what you’re on about).  In this case I got to re-meet a bunch of authors I first got to know earlier this year, including Tom Pollock, Francis Knight, Stacia Kane, and Adrian Tchaikovsky – Adrian also moderated the Saturday panel I was on, which was not only one of the more interesting ones, but had the benefit for me that I actually knew a good 50% of the other panel members, which is my highest percentage yet.

One of the more specialised interests for cons for me is getting to meet the other UF authors whose books you get shelved with.  The last one was Ben Aaronovitch, whom I’d had the chance to meet and chat with about his Peter Grant series at the Goldsboro Book launch last month.  This time I got to hang out with Kate Griffin (aka Catherine Webb) – I’d met her once before at Forbidden Planet (when my Fated and her Minority Council were being launched at the same time) but we had a lot more to talk about this time round due to having read each others’ books in the intervening months, and I ended up really enjoying the evening.

The mass signing and my reading were less well attended than the panels, to put it mildly.  The authors at the mass signing outnumbered the readers, and me and Kate Griffin and Stacia Kane ended up seated in a corner with a lot of time on our hands.  In fact we had enough time on our hands to share personal histories, do a count of every other author in the room, start a Chinese Whispers campaign, have Kate teach me cat’s cradle, take a few minutes to go beg free books off Adrian Tchaikovsky, and still leave early at the end.  My reading made the signing look busy, but like the signing the fact that I had some good company (the Orbit team and Kate Griffin) turned what would have been a dull experience into a nice one.

I had one last thing to do over the weekend of FantasyCon – my contract deadline for the as-yet-untitled Alex Verus #4 was 30th September.  Which I hit!  (By about 1 hour and 30 minutes, but on time is on time.)  The first draft of the fourth book in the Alex Verus series is now with my editors, ready to start the long winding road to publication.  Don’t hold your breath just yet though – the provisional release date Ace and Orbit have set is early September 2013.  Still, it’s definitely coming out, even if you’re going to have to be patient for a long while yet!

I’ve also updated the website to include brief info pages for Alex Verus #4 (US and UK) and Alex Verus #5 (US and UK).  I keep getting asked if there are going to be more Alex Verus books, so hopefully a few people will see these and get the answer.  I had thought about putting up a FAQ, but I’m never sure if anybody actually reads the things . . .

Back from FantasyCon

. . . with a cold, annoyingly enough.  It turns out that heated convention centres packed with people from all over the country make really great virus incubators.  Still, I had a very enjoyable time and there’s good news, which I’ll write about on Friday once I’m feeling better again!