Benedict Jacka's Blog, page 81
June 22, 2012
Encyclopaedia Arcana #24: The Concord (Part Five)
This entry will finish off the clauses of the Concord by looking at the fifth clause, then briefly cover how the Concord is enforced in modern Britain.
The Fifth Clause: Forbidden Techniques
This clause prohibits a number of spells and techniques used in the Gate Rune War. In most cases they were prohibited due to being so universally destructive that they were considered a serious threat to magical society as a whole.
The most notable prohibited technique is human Harvesting. Harvesting is a ritual that allows the user to draw the magical power and ability from another creature and take it for their own, a process which invariably results in the target’s death. For obvious reasons mages are less than happy with the existence of a technique that makes them into consumable goods, but despite the risks the rewards are great enough that there have always been those willing to attempt it.
Enforcement
The organisation responsible for enforcing the Concord in Britain today are the Keepers of the Flame, more commonly referred to as Keepers. A mage in breach of the Concord can be prosecuted by the Keepers and tried before the Council, and penalties range from warnings, to fines/weregild, to service, to demotion, to execution. And so the Concord is enforced, in theory.
In practice, this is not even close to how things work. Dark mages, regularly attempt (often successfully) to kill, enslave, or Harvest other Dark mages, and independent ones too, and Light mages all too often do the same. Sometimes the Keepers go after the culprits, and sometimes they don’t. When culprits are brought before the Council, the penalties are totally inconsistent – an offence that would have gotten one mage executed is penalised in another case with a slap on the wrist.
So why is the Concord enforced so erratically?
Playing Politics
The short answer is that the Light mages of the Council don’t care about being consistent – they care about protecting their own interests. The Keepers are controlled by the Council, and the Council follows the Concord only insofar as it would benefit them.
What this means is that if someone wants a breach of the Concord enforced, their chances of success are exactly proportional to how much influence and support they have on the Council. A popular and well-regarded Light mage will have no trouble at all getting the Keepers to help him. An independent mage is likely to be ignored, and a Dark mage is almost certain to be ignored. To make things even more confusing, quite often a mage will have the support of one faction of the Council but the enmity of another, meaning that if they bring a case to the Keepers it’s about even odds whether the Keepers will end up helping them, hurting them, or both. And finally, politics on the Council are so shadowy and byzantine that quite often a petitioner won’t know which sides the factions are going to come down on, or even whether they’ll care at all.
Finally, even if the Keepers are ready, willing, and able to enforce a breach of the Concord, would-be criminals can still evade consequences by the simple method of not getting caught. Mages have access to powerful means of gathering information . . . but they have plenty of ways to block information, too. If a crime never gets reported there’s little chance the Keepers will go investigating it, particularly in the case of breaches of the second and fifth clauses which by their nature tend not to leave many witnesses to testify.
June 21, 2012
Cursed Blog Tour Special!
Lots of things to link to today!
First, the podcast interview that I did with Fangs for the Fantasy is now online! I had a very fun hour chatting with my two hosts about the Alex Verus books and the characters and background to the series.
Book Faery is running a guest post of mine, this one on good and evil in the Alex Verus setting, and how it interacts with the Light/Dark division among mages. There’s another of my guest posts up at That’s What I’m Talking About, this one on my writing process. Finally, some of you might remember that one of the first guest posts I ever wrote was featured a few months ago on The Qwillery, and it’s now joined by a new one on surprising characters.
And on top of that, we have two more interviews up, from My Bookish Ways and from Bea’s Book Nook!
As before, several of the guys and girls above are running giveaways, so if you’d like to win a copy of Cursed, drop on by. There are a bunch of new reviews of Cursed as well, so I’ll try to get those up next week!
June 19, 2012
Interview Day: I Smell Sheep
Sharon and Danielle from I Smell Sheep have done a review of Cursed and also an interview with me. The interview was VERY fun to do, so if you want to hear my answers to a whole set of bizarre questions (and listen to Danielle smacking Sharon a lot) go take a look! They’re running a giveaway too.
And I’m going to be doing another interview tonight, this time live with Fangs for the Fantasy at 10 PM GMT/5 PM EDT.
June 17, 2012
Return of the Cursed Blog Tour
The Cursed Blog Tour continues! First up we have a guest post on Seeing Night Reviews with an introduction to Alex and his shop (which you’ll probably recognise if you’ve read the books, but which can serve as a good intro if you haven’t).
Next up, Under the Covers is running a guest post of mine that gives a brief guide to magic in the Alex Verus universe. They’ve also done a review of Cursed!
And finally, Paranormal Haven have reviewed Cursed as well. There’ll be more guest posts and interviews coming up this week, as well as the podcast on Tuesday, so watch this space!
June 15, 2012
Encyclopaedia Arcana #23: The Concord (Part Four)
The third and fourth clauses of the Concord cover the relationship between mages and normals, and can be looked at together.
The Third Clause: Non-Interference
The third clause of the Concord prohibits mages from large-scale involvement in national and international politics beyond what is necessary to maintain the other clauses of the Concord. The clause was a direct response to the widespread destruction of the Gate Rune War, and its purpose was to avoid bringing different factions of mages into conflict.
At the time the Concord was written, the theory was that there needed to be a barrier between magic and mundane politics: if mages became too closely involved in government, then in the case of war between nations (which would inevitably happen sooner or later) mages would be drawn in once again, reigniting the wars the Concord was supposed to prevent. Mage historians still argue over whether it’s worked or not, but at least there hasn’t been anything on the scale of the Gate Rune War since.
Absolutely every Light Council in the world breaks this clause from time to time. It’s just too tempting not to. However, they tend to follow the spirit of the law, not so much out of principle as out of enlightened self-interest, and as a result there haven’t been any major magical wars stemming out of mundane ones. The exact relationships between Light mages and national governments are highly complex and vary from country to country, and will be left for later entries.
The Fourth Clause: Secrecy of Magic
This clause prohibits any action that would grossly compromise the secrecy of the magical world. Unlike the second and third clauses it applies to everyone, not just mages – most people don’t believe in magic, and the secrecy clause is designed to keep it that way. The clause isn’t new: laws saying basically the same thing were around in the prewar era and for hundreds of years before that, and when the Concord was written the law was grandfathered in.
The clause only prohibits gross violations of secrecy. Telling one person about the existence of the magical world doesn’t break it – isolationist mages might get upset, but the majority of mages couldn’t care less. Even telling a dozen people doesn’t break it, not least because odds are they wouldn’t believe you anyway. What this clause is designed to prevent is things like mages going on daytime television and casting fireballs in front of the cameras, or giving magical lessons via public videos on Youtube. It’s not isolated incidents that are a problem, it’s deliberate, persistent attempts to make people believe in magic.
Why The Masquerade?
Most new apprentices who learn about this law wonder why it’s there. There are two answers: the official one, and the unofficial one.
The official answer is that keeping magic secret isn’t difficult (since normals are strongly disinclined to believe in it anyway) and makes mages’ lives much easier. The secrecy of magic gives mages an enormous advantage over normals, which makes mages richer, safer, and happier. Revealing the existence of magic would cause widespread chaos and a general mess. Much simpler to leave things as they are.
The unofficial answer, and the real reason this law exists, is that deep down mages are wary of normals. Mages might have magic, but normals have technology, organisation, and most of all numbers. A mage is more powerful than a normal human. They might even be more powerful than ten normal humans. But they’re not more powerful than tens of thousands of normal humans, and that’s what the ratio is. There have been wars between mages and normals in the past and at the back of all mages’ minds is the uncomfortable awareness that if it ever came down to an all-out war between mages and everyone else, the mages would lose. And so the majority of mages, both Light and Dark, keep to the law, because as long as magic is hidden then that possibility can stay as nothing more than a possibility.
Not all mages support this clause of the Concord. There are a small minority (mostly the Weissian faction of the Council) who want magic to be made publicly known. They’re greatly outnumbered by the faction that support the status quo, who have made it clear that any attempt to break the secrecy of magic will not be tolerated. So far the Weissians and their allies have reluctantly toed the line, but if they ever decide to break ranks the results are going to be messy.
June 12, 2012
Podcast Interview on June 19th
Fangs for the Fantasy (who reviewed Fated a few weeks back) have invited me to do a podcast/interview on TalkShoe, and it’s going to be taking place live next Tuesday, the 19th. Anyone can call in and ask questions, so drop by if you have the time!
The interview will start at 10pm GMT, or 5pm EDT counting British Summer Time. Hope to see you there! (Assuming I can figure out how to get TalkShoe to work, anyway.)
June 11, 2012
Cursed Blog Tour: All Things Urban Fantasy
Next up on the Cursed blog tour is a guest post at All Things Urban Fantasy, on the topic of being a diviner in the Alex Verus setting. Once again they’re running a giveaway of Cursed, so if you’d like to win a copy go check it out!
June 8, 2012
Encyclopaedia Arcana #22: The Concord (Part Three)
The second clause of the Concord is a simple one: no mage may take hostile action against another mage or against another mage’s apprentice.
The Second Clause: Non-Hostility
This is the “peace” clause. It pretty much does what it says on the tin: don’t fight other mages. The wording is fairly straightforward – there’s a certain amount of disagreement over what “hostile” means, but this was deliberate in order to give the mages in charge of enforcing it some wiggle room. While this leads to a lot of arguments over whether an action qualifies or not, the real purpose of the clause was to stop mages from killing each other. In this regard it’s been moderately successful.
The clause does have exceptions. Hostile action in self-defence is permitted, as is the use of force in situations of consent (a mage entering a duel is automatically considered to have consented). The Light Alliance and all Light Councils are also authorised to use force against lawbreakers, and it’s possible for a Council to ratify a hostile action if it’s considered justified.
The clause also doesn’t draw any distinction between Light and Dark, which tends to be taken for granted nowadays but was a really big deal back when it was written. For a long time, Light policy had been to oppose the presence and activities of Dark mages. The Concord signalled a change in that: by making no reference to either side, it effectively accepted the existence of Dark mages as a group.
However, more interesting than what the clause does say is what it doesn’t.
Reading Between The Lines
The second clause of the Concord protects mages and their apprentices. It doesn’t protect anyone else. If you’re a normal or a sensitive or an adept, too bad. If you’re an apprentice without a master (or if the problem is your master), then again, too bad. Magical creatures aren’t even mentioned. This means that the only ones protected are recognised mages and well-looked-after apprentices, who you would have thought were exactly the ones who needed protection the least.
So why is the Concord written this way?
The short answer is that the second clause of the Concord does exactly what it’s supposed to. It protects Light mages and their apprentices, as well as recognised independents . . . in other words, the people who wrote the Concord, and the ones they care about. It doesn’t protect normals or sensitives or adepts because they weren’t considered a high enough priority.
The main justification given for this by supporters of the Concord is that expanding the second clause to protect non-mages would effectively start a war. Trying to prevent Dark mages from harming normals would lead to non-stop violence and would risk unifying the Dark mages by giving them a common enemy. Left unsaid – but probably more important – is the uncomfortable fact that it wouldn’t just be Dark mages they were opposing. Dark mages aren’t the only ones who use their magic in dubious ways, and if a war did start over the issue of protecting normals, it’s not at all clear which side the Council would be on.
Opposition to the Second Clause
A definite fraction of Light and independent mages in Britain don’t think the second clause of the Concord goes far enough, and would like to extend it. Among Light mages, the main supporters of this are the Crusaders, with some among the Guardians and the Weissians backing them.
The pro-extension faction argue that the Concord only protects those who don’t need it. The standard response from the pro-status-quo faction (who outnumber the pro-extension faction by a significant margin) is that if protection is needed the Council is free to pass laws placing them under direct protection. Of course, this just shifts the debate from “changing the Concord” to “changing national law” and it invariably fails for exactly the same reason: the Council doesn’t want to start a war. With the majority of the Council having neither the desire nor the political will to push through a reform, at present there’s no sign that the pro-extension faction are likely to succeed.
June 7, 2012
Cursed UK Release Day!
Cursed gets its UK release today, hooray!
It’s amazing how fast you get used to these. For the release of Fated I was really excited. For this week, though, I’ve been so busy working on Alex Verus #4 that I’ve hardly been paying attention to Cursed at all! Still, seeing it out is pretty satisfying – and the cover is just as good as ever.
The next batch of reviews for Cursed have been starting to come out, and here are a few selections. First, Whatchamacallit Reviews:
Cursed is just bloody exciting. It is filled with action, magic, and assassination attempts. Readers will be drawn in and unable to escape until the final page. The characters (especially Alex, Sonder, and Arachne) are all well written and complex . . . Cursed is exactly what I wanted out of it. Jacka lays another strong foundation for this fledgling series that has the potential to become something huge.
The Maine Edge was very complimentary too:
Benedict Jacka is currently two-for-two . . . One of the great things about “Cursed” is that while Jacka is clearly building toward an overarching big picture story, the short-term story arc doesn’t suffer. Truthfully, a reader could pick up “Cursed” without having read “Fated” and not feel that they’ve dropped into the middle of something. That said, any fan of urban fantasy – or fantasy in general – would be well-served to fully invest in Alex Verus and Benedict Jacka. The payoff will be worth it.
Candace from Candace’s Book Blog has written another very nice review to go with the earlier guest post:
I think I liked this one even better than the first, but that’s really no surprise. I’m now settled into this world and have a good idea of how things work and how Alex thinks as well as how his abilities work . . . If you haven’t yet started this series I highly recommend you do so as you are certainly missing out!
And finally, from the SciFi Chick:
Fast-paced, action-packed and full of adventure and magic – Cursed is a fantastic sequel. In fact, I enjoyed this thrilling story even more than the first. This series is a must-read for urban fantasy fans. Dark and suspenseful, with plenty of mystery – Jacka does not disappoint in this sophomore novel.
Tomorrow will be the next part of the Concord series on the Encyclopaedia Arcana, so check in for that too!
June 3, 2012
The Cursed Blog Tour Continues
Next up on our blog tour we have another interview, this one with Night Owl Reviews! Following up, Seeing Night Reviews are running a guest post of mine on the subject of Alex and his shop. Once again, both of them are doing giveaways, so if you drop by you have the chance to win a copy of Cursed.
And finally, my US publisher, Ace, are running a special feature on the Penguin website to mark the release of Cursed, an essay of mine on curse magic!
More reviews of Cursed have started going up, and I’ll start posting them in the coming week. And don’t forget that Cursed gets its UK release in five days, on June 7th!
