Cassan Astor and the Immortal King First Draft Complete

Cassan Astor and the Immortal King is complete! At least, the first draft is. The fantasy adventure novel comes in at 108,607 words and 406 pages. That means, that while it is longer in pages, it is shorter in words than Cassan Astor and the Sea of Krakens, which is 110,184 words and 383 pages. This surprised me, as I expected Sea of Krakens to be the longer story. Between the two of them, Sea of Krakens is far more focused in characters and scope. But then again, this is just a draft, so this could completely change.

There are a few reasons why, despite fewer words, the new book is longer in pages. Firstly, dialog takes up more space on a page than paragraphs. With this book being more “who will sit the throne” focused on rules and positioning, it makes sense that it would be a more dialog-oriented story than a book about a boy sailing through a sea filled with monsters. Secondly, it also has more maps and graphics at the beginning, which take up pages.

Despite my surprise, I am excited and glad to see that the book comes in at this number of words. This is a manageable and digestible book size. I have seen firsthand how books which are too long can turn people away. Having at least three books in this series be around the same “golden” size and length is great!

Re-reading what I have written, Immortal King has a great middle and end, but feels a bit “drafty” to me at the beginning. I am not quite sure what makes it feel this way, but with a few edits and maybe a few other eyes, I think I should be able to fix it up.

Which is a good transition to… if anyone is interested in beta-reading the story, please email me at thecolorofwaterandsky@gmail.com. I would love to get some feedback from a third party!