Child of the Ghosts – the (extremely unofficial) soundtrack

I listen to a lot of music as I write, and as I do, various songs tend to get associated with specific characters. Here, then, are the songs from my collection that I associate with the characters and events of "Child of the Ghosts."

This song would be Caina Amalas's first theme – I think of it as "Caina Does Something Clever." It's one of the combat themes from "Heroes of Might and Magic IV." I listened to this over and over while writing the fight scenes for the first Caina story, "Black Ghost, Red Ghost", back in 2007. It captures Caina's more violent scenes perfectly – kinetic, yet very precise:

This next song would be Caina Amalas's second theme. It's "Damp Barachan Nights", from the soundtrack for the "Age of Conan" MMORPG. Calm and placid on the outside – but dark things stirring beneath. An excellent description of Caina:

This song represents Caina's life with her family in Arretia, before she meets Maglarion. It's the "Human Nobility" theme from "Dragon Age: Origins":

This next song comes from an old computer game, "Lords of Magic", (released in 1997), and it is Maglarion's theme. It is utterly perfect for Maglarion. The driving drumbeat represents Maglarion's unyielding will and drive, and the cold, groaning melody excellently portrays the all-devouring nihilistic hubris at Maglarion's core:

This next song represents Theodosia, the prima donna of the Grand Imperial Opera who teaches Caina the arts of disguise. It comes from "Heroes of Might and Magic II", yet another computer game from the 90s, and rather perfectly captures Theodosia:

This next track comes from another 90s computer game (can you tell what I spend most of the 90s doing?), "Planescape: Torment." This is the theme for when Caina disguises herself as Countess Marianna Nereide, an ingenuous noblewoman of the Empire:

Caina's brief affair with Lord Alastair Corus is represented by the "Romance Theme" from "Mass Effect":

And the song for Caina's final confrontation with Maglarion, the ghostsilver spear, and the great bloodcrystal is "1000 Ships of the Underworld", from the "Invincible" album by Two Steps From Hell:

Finally, I think the main theme from "Dragon Age 2″ (composed by Inon Zur) would make an excellent overall theme for the book – it's simultaneously a bit grim and haunting, but with a strong heroic theme to it:

So those are some of the songs I listened to while writing "Child of the Ghosts" – a book that, I should point out, is free if you're interested in reading it.

-JM