Benedict Jacka's Blog, page 84

Revenge of the Good Reviews

Another week of good reviews – here are the links!

Tynga from Tynga's Reviews is first up.  This is in addition to the short story she's hosting as part of her Paranormal April Fools, so take a look at that too if you haven't seen it!

Two more nice reviews from Debbie's Book Bag and Under the Covers – you'll have to click through a warning screen as the sites have some NSFW content, but the pages linked to don't.

Bookswarm has a 150-word speed date with Alex, and finally, RT Book Reviews has made their review of Fated freely available too.  Thanks to all!

 

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Encyclopaedia Arcana #12: Spell Components

It's possible for a mage to cast a spell with only their mind and will, but most don't.  Instead they add extra ingredients to a spells formula, and these are referred to as components.

In theory just about anything that can be replicated by the mage can be a component, but the most common ones are physical or verbal.  Physical components are body movements, especially hand and finger gestures.  Verbal components are usually words, recited when the mage casts the spell.

So a fire bolt spell might have three parts to its formula:  the mental concentration, the verbal component 'Ignis', and the physical component of making a gathering and flinging motion with the right hand.  The mage concentrates and speaks the word 'Ignis!', and fire gathers in his hand and flies to strike as he throws.

But They Said The Magic Words

Components usually confuse the hell out of non-mages.  People see a mage chant an invocation to cast a spell and they naturally assume that the magic comes from the words.  The truth is that the words are just a prop.  The mage needs the words to cast the spell, but it's not because they're magic words, it's because that's how the mage learnt the spell.  The words don't have to mean anything, and in fact they can be total gibberish.  What matters is that the words are associated in the mage's mind with a particular magical effect.

The association is done by the mage, and it's almost completely arbitrary.  A fireball spell can be associated with the Latin word for 'fire', but the mage could just as easily pick 'water', 'destruction', 'towel', 'ice cream', 'my little pony', or no words at all.

So if components are meaningless, why do mages use them?

Links and Patterns

If a mage learns a spell as a purely mental formula, then every time they think through that formula the spell will go off, which can be quite inconvenient if you start thinking about a fireball spell while you're waiting for a bus.  In this way components act as a sort of magical safety catch.

Most mages also find that components make spells easier.  Humans are active, social creatures:  most of what we do in a day involves doing things with our hands or talking to people.  Linking a spell to a specific physical or verbal action makes it more natural.

Using components for a spell also makes them easier to record and remember.  Physical components can be remembered via muscle memory, and verbal components can be written down and stored.  This is the origin of the iconic wizard's spellbook, and there's a lot of truth to the legend – many mages do have books and scrolls filled with invocations.  To anyone who doesn't understand the spells that they're linked to, though, they're just ink on paper.  Only a mage has the power and knowledge to actually turn them into magic.

Surpassing the Focus

Despite this, components have disadvantages.  A spell with components is slower than a spell without them, and just as a physical or verbal component is easier for the mage to remember and recognise, it's easier for other mages to remember and recognise.  A mage who always uses components gives away a lot more information than one who doesn't.

A mage who relies on spells with a particular type of component can also be crippled if circumstances stop him from using it:  it's hard to make physical gestures if you're in a cramped space or if someone's grabbing onto you, and verbal components can be disrupted by a hand over the mouth or just a really bad sore throat.

It's a point of pride amongst master mages to use components as sparingly as possible, and they tend to think less of mages who over-rely on them.  Some say this is because being able to bypass components is a mark of skill.  Others just think it's an excuse to look down on everyone else.

Alex Verus Short Story at Tynga’s Reviews

I’m taking part in the Paranormal April Fools event at Tynga’s Reviews!  For my contribution I was asked to write a story with either myself or the characters of Fated that involved an April Fools joke in some way.

After some thought I came up with this story.  If you’d like to see Alex and Luna and Sonder in a short (and not-very-serious) adventure then go take a look.  Bonus points to anyone with a good enough memory to spot where I got the idea from!

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Alex Verus Short Story at Tynga's Reviews

I'm taking part in the Paranormal April Fools event at Tynga's Reviews!  For my contribution I was asked to write a story with either myself or the characters of Fated that involved an April Fools joke in some way.

After some thought I came up with this story.  If you'd like to see Alex and Luna and Sonder in a short (and not-very-serious) adventure then go take a look.  Bonus points to anyone with a good enough memory to spot where I got the idea from!

Eain Miller liked this post

Interview Day

Taking a break from the reviews, here are a pair of interviews that have gone up in the past week:  one from Candace at Candace's Book Blog and another from Leo Cristea at Fantasy Faction.

It still feels a little odd to me that anyone would be interested enough to read an interview with me.  Still, it's a lot of fun for me to talk with reviewers like Leo and Candace so I'm not complaining!

Fated: Return of the Good Reviews

I'm running out of titles for review collection posts, so I think I'll start going with a film sequel theme.  (I was going to call this one 'Night of the Living Good Reviews' but decided not to.)

A short, sweet, and perceptive one from Kiara at Waiting for Fairies:

This book is as slim and subtle and powerful as Alex Verus' talent. You could even say that Fated is the stiletto of urban fantasies (I just did). It's an iceberg story: the reader sees just the tip of what is clearly a massive expanse of world-building. I liked it. And I loved Alex, all noble and haunted and conflicted as he was.

Scruffy Fiction has some interesting things in what's also a very complimentary write-up:

A great first volume in a new series, there are so many elements that show promise and there is plenty to be expanded on in the future . . . I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time in this world.

And saving the best for last, Paul Wiseall from Fantasy Faction has written what I think is my favourite review of Fated yet.  Picks up on lots and lots of things that almost no-one else has noticed, and some really insightful comments.  If you only read one review apart from the Jim Butcher exchange, make it this one!

The Bottom Line: Fated is an excellent example of not just great urban fantasy but also of brilliant story-telling. There is a near perfect mix of everything and it has been masterfully crafted with a meticulous eye for those pieces of humanity that make a great protagonist and a fantastic story.  I am often worried when the first book announces that it is the start of a 'major new series' as it always seems a bit presumptuous but with Fated I truly cannot wait to see where Jacka takes Verus next.

Encyclopaedia Arcana #11: Introduction to Spells

The powers of a novice mage manifest in weird and unpredictable ways.  The magical energy is channelled into effects, but since the mage has no real idea what he's doing it's anyone's guess what the result will be – they're incomplete, uncontrolled, and often dangerous.

At some point – sometimes sooner, sometimes later – a mage realises that he's the source of the weirdness that keeps following him around.  He begins to understand his power, and starts trying to master it.  He learns to keep his abilities dormant when he doesn't need them, and learns to send a surge of magical energy at something when he does.

Mages who keep practising start to develop a finer control over that magical energy.  Over time they notice that their magic can be shaped to form patterns.  By using these patterns in certain ways they can create consistent effects that do the same thing each time.  These patterns are called spells.

What Is A Spell?

A spell is a magical formula.  It's not exactly a step-by-step process like a cooking recipe, or a technique like an athletic skill, or a principle to be applied like a mathematical theorem, or a meditative practice to achieve a certain internal state, but it has elements in common with all of those things.

It's hard to generalise about spells because the spells of different types and families of magic work in very different ways.  Elemental mages tend to think of their spells as similar to skills – for them, learning to use their magic in a different way is like learning how to kick a ball or throw a dart.  Living mages usually develop their skills by interacting with other people, and they're more likely to compare a spell with some kind of social activity.  For universal mages, spells are more like abstract principles that they understand and apply.

That said, there are a few things all spells have in common.

The Things Spells Have In Common

Spells are mental:  Although spells can contain other components (see Encyclopaedia Arcana #12 for details) the core of a spell is concentration and will.  In theory a mage could use their magic without moving, speaking, or even opening their eyes (though as will be seen, it doesn't always work that way in practice).

Spells are personal:  Every spell is designed to work with the unique magic of the mage who developed it.  It's possible that an unaltered spell will work for another mage, but it's pretty unlikely.

Spells need skill:  Learning a spell is just like learning any other skill – it takes practice.  No mage, no matter how talented, can pick up a new spell and use it perfectly on the first try.  To get good with a spell takes time and hard work.

Spells take effort:  Using spells is tiring, just like any other physical or mental activity.  How tiring it is depends on how inherently difficult the spell is and upon how well-practised the mage is with the spell.

Practice Makes Perfect

For a novice, casting a spell is a draining experience.  They have to try several times before they succeed and the mental focus required to perform it exhausts them quickly.  As they practice they learn to perform the spell more and more efficiently until they can do it with only a few seconds' concentration.

Mages who are really determined to master a spell keep going.  They practise over and over again until it becomes as natural as breathing, reducing the amount of effort the spell consumes and the amount of concentration it requires until they can keep it active without trying.  Once they reach this point, they become able to maintain the spell even while casting another one.  For everyday use this kind of mastery isn't really necessary, but for mages who regularly find themselves in difficult or dangerous situations it's crucial.

Fated: Yet More Good Reviews

And the reviews keep coming in!

First, Paul Wiseall from Fantasy Faction has listed Fated as one of his top fantasy books of 2012 on Episode 2 of the Fantasy Faction Podcast, and gave a very fun description of Alex's divination magic (much shorter than mine!).  The podcast covers lots of other good new books too – it's well worth a listen!

Sticking with the Fantasy Faction theme, another of their writers, Leo Cristea, wrote a very detailed review of Fated, calling it "simply excellent, engrossing and delightful".  Good comparisons to the Dresden Files, covering both the similarities and the differences.

Fantasy Book Critic's Mihir Wanchoo also compares Fated to the Dresden Files, although  compared to Leo he's less keen on the similarities.  Still, he finishes up by saying that he'll definitely be picking up Cursed and Taken.

And last but not least, Riley Merrick from Riley's Reviews was drawn to Fated by the Jim Butcher email exchange, and has written a very nice review as a result, highly recommending it to anyone who likes Harry Dresden.  It ends with "All in all, I'm very thankful I stumbled across that story on Facebook" – so am I!

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Encyclopaedia Arcana #10: Time Magic

Time is one of the more common types of universal magic, though given the rarity of universal mages time mages are still vastly outnumbered by elementalists.  It's a notoriously difficult type to master:  many time adepts give up in frustration before learning to use their powers and time mages typically take decades to become true masters of their craft.

Timesight

The signature trick of time magic is seeing into the past.  While diviners have to juggle probabilities, a time mage can view a single past, learning what did happen instead of what might have happened.  The basic difficulty depends on how far back the time mage attempts to go – a novice can manage a few minutes, a competent mage can handle days, and real masters can go back years.  It's not one hundred percent reliable and certain natural or artificial conditions can make timesight much more difficult, but time magic used with sufficient skill can theoretically provide a perfect depiction of any past event.

As you'd expect, this has major effects on magical society.  The fastest way to answer any question along the lines of "What happened at place X at time Y?" is usually to get a time mage to look it up.  This has the potential to trivialise a lot of investigations – instead of interviewing witnesses, combing the scene for evidence, performing forensic analysis, etc., the response is more like "Bob did it.  Go find Bob."

Of course there's a counter to everything, and timesight is no exception.  Time mages can screen off the area around them from temporal scrying, and items exist called shrouds that perform the same function.  More importantly, everybody in magical society knows about timesight.  Even the most sheltered of Light mages knows that in the event of a major crime, the first thing the Council does is call in a time mage to see what happened.  This means that while time mages can roll up mundane investigations with ease, they rarely catch mages so easily unless the mage is unusually stupid.

Timesight is so useful that the demand for the services of time mages far outstrips their supply.  Even a mediocre time mage has no trouble at all finding people willing to pay for his services, even if most of the requests are for the magical equivalent of finding someone's car keys.  As always though, the power it gives has its dangerous side – time mages always run the risk of turning up the wrong secret.

Time Manipulation

The second major branch of time magic involves altering the flow of time directly.  Time mages can speed things up or slow them down in a particular area, accelerating themselves or slowing down a threat or an enemy.  Another popular trick is to temporarily boot something all the way out of the timestream, causing it to seemingly disappear then reappear shortly afterwards.  These sort of effects require concentration and are usually highly taxing, but they give options no other mage can match.

Most time mages have a natural inclination towards one of the two branches over the other – historian types prefer timesight, while the more active sorts specialise in time manipulation.  While the second group are better able to look after themselves, they don't have anywhere near the influence the first group do.  Speeding up time might be cool, but lots of mages can affect the physical world one way or another.  It's seeing into the past that's really unique.

Nature and Demeanour

Personality-wise, time mages have a lot in common with diviners.  They both tend to be analytical and curious, valuing accuracy and clarity.  Where they differ is more in goals.  Diviners tend to be pragmatic:  they want to know things, but it's usually with a view to getting something done.  For time mages, knowledge is the goal, and they don't much care if what they learn is useful.  They're quite happy researching historical puzzles and debating their findings with each other.

It's common for time mages not to realise the significance of much of the information they pick up – they're more interested in finding things out than in putting what they know to use.  Most time mages are much more comfortable dealing with the past than with the present, and they have a reputation for being ivory-tower academics as a result.  The reputation's half true, but only half.

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Fated: More Good Reviews

Lots of reviews have been going up in the past week for Fated, and nearly all have been very positive.  There are getting to be too many of these to post excerpts from – in fact there are too many to even post all the links, so I'll just limit it to the highlights!

Here are a few of the more recent ones:

American Book Center

SFRevu

A Jar of Bees

The Maine Edge

Shades of Sentience

The Bookbag

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