Iva Koleva
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi Lois, I'm a great fan of all your books, but my question is about the Sharing Knife universe. Do you have in your mind a more detailed backstory of how the first malice emerged? And how precise are Dag's ideas about the lives of the old lords? Could you say something more about it? Thank you.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hi Iva --
The backstory of the first malice is almost as vague in my mind as it is in the characters. I figure to fill in the details if I ever write a prequel which, I admit, does not seem likely. But it involved the most powerful magics of the old mage-lords, a deal of hubris, and an attempt to pull in something that was Not Of This World. From there, things did NOT go according to plan.
I do believe that the alien-ness of the malices is from that Outside; their evil, all from their human parts or programming.
Dag's people have very limited written records of the Old Days, and some oral traditions more-or-less distorted in the retellings. Their broad outline is more-or-less correct, but there are a lot of missing details.
Ta, L.
The backstory of the first malice is almost as vague in my mind as it is in the characters. I figure to fill in the details if I ever write a prequel which, I admit, does not seem likely. But it involved the most powerful magics of the old mage-lords, a deal of hubris, and an attempt to pull in something that was Not Of This World. From there, things did NOT go according to plan.
I do believe that the alien-ness of the malices is from that Outside; their evil, all from their human parts or programming.
Dag's people have very limited written records of the Old Days, and some oral traditions more-or-less distorted in the retellings. Their broad outline is more-or-less correct, but there are a lot of missing details.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Ari
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi Lois, We just had a bottle of this before noticing the name. Have you seen it before: https://goo.gl/images/ZwG5Yq ? From their website it looks like their and your choice of names are of a similar vintage, too. (Apologies if you've been asked this too many times before -- I can't find a way to search the questions.)
Marie
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
What Earth societies are your Vorkosiverse planets derived from? Some are made pretty clear: Escobar is Spanish / Central / South American, Kibou-Daini is Japanese with some Chinese, Barrayar is Russian / French / English / Greek. Cetaganda strikes me as slightly Chinese (imperial) but the names don't match; Komarr seemed French but one character shares a name with a town in Croatia, so.....
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