Michael R. Miller
This is something which comes up a lot in interviews so I thought I'd share it here. This is in relation to the Reborn King, the first book in the Dragon's Blade trilogy.
Reincarnation isn’t startlingly original but I felt it was the right path to take for Darnuir and exploring nature vs nurture. There were two major influences on how I decided to approach the trope.
The first was the old RPG game called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Kotor) in which you play as a character who has had his/her memories wiped and is essentially starting fresh. I loved that game and I think it’s easy with hindsight to see where the seed of Darnuir’s own rebirth came from.
The second was a philosophy question brought up in a basic first year module at university along the lines of ‘what would happen if you took person X and transferred their memories into person Y?’ It was a question without an answer. Something that could only be explored in fiction. And I reckoned it would be a great extra layer to Darnuir.
Reincarnation isn’t startlingly original but I felt it was the right path to take for Darnuir and exploring nature vs nurture. There were two major influences on how I decided to approach the trope.
The first was the old RPG game called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Kotor) in which you play as a character who has had his/her memories wiped and is essentially starting fresh. I loved that game and I think it’s easy with hindsight to see where the seed of Darnuir’s own rebirth came from.
The second was a philosophy question brought up in a basic first year module at university along the lines of ‘what would happen if you took person X and transferred their memories into person Y?’ It was a question without an answer. Something that could only be explored in fiction. And I reckoned it would be a great extra layer to Darnuir.
More Answered Questions
Paul Wandless
asked
Michael R. Miller:
Just finished your short story in the Lost Lore anthology and really enjoyed it. I'll definitely read the Dragon's Blade series. Too bad Elsie is just in this story. She's a great character. I'd love to have seen how things played out once she & Balliol started serving the king. I'd like to think they eventually made Lord Heath suffer the consequences of his actions. Any chance there is a follow up short story?
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more