Got a Victorian Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Looking to Swap

[Matthew]

I've been working on a novel for a while that I envision being the first in a trilogy. I'll go ahead and mention now that it currently weighs in at about 221k words, so if that makes your head spin, I will gladly look aside while you quietly step back and slip away.

I do enjoy critiquing the work of others so I would love to swap, and since I have such an enormous manuscript I would love to find someone in the same boat (that is the boat that's sinking under a gargantuan word count that no one wants to climb aboard) that I can give some good honest feedback to.

I haven't written any kind of a blurb yet, but here's the basic setup: the story takes place in a fantastic Victorian era where the world is essentially divided up into a host of civilized countries (located on "The Continent") and the rest of the world that they colonize and where they fight proxy wars. These countries are ruled by those believed to be the literal descendants of God, which is proven by their ability to command the elements (like God did when he created the world).

The story follows Bevin, a prince who is soon to take the throne of his home country of Gelria and who struggles with his ability to lead the country with his struggle to use the Gift (what they call this power to control the elements). It also follows Nonsa, the young daughter of a recently deceased baron and Nowlan, her uncle, who brings her into his service and places her in a position next to the prince so that she can report on his actions.

This story takes place during a time of tenuous peace, one in which technology (think steam) is being held in an artificial standstill and modern weaponry has led to such devastating conflicts on the Continent that through oppression of their own people and an abundance of treaties the countries of the Continent have kept from engaging each other or in allowing any single one to upset the status quo for a century, but this has begun to take its toll on the people, especially those who see the potential for what could amount to an industrial revolution.

Obviously, I've got a lot going on here. I never meant for the manuscript to get so long - I just had a few different stories I wanted to tell, and I didn't want to short any of the more important characters, and then I started thinking about the next book and wanted to make sure I referenced those things that would become important later...

It is what it is. I have a few contacts I would normally ask for a beta read, but this is outside the genre I normally work in and it's so long I don't like to ask for anyone to read this purely as a favor. If you've got something you'd like to swap (hell, if you've got a couple of manuscripts lying around that equate to mine), please send me a message and we can dig into it.

Thanks!

[Ox]

Hi there Matthew!

Large word counts don't bother me, so long as you don't have any looming deadlines and can be understanding about my reading pace! And your story sounds interesting!

If you want, we can do a swap with the first two novels in my historical fiction trilogy, each of which are around 105K.

Here is a synopsis of my first book:

After the defeat of his country in September, 1939, Tadeusz Stern, an ambitious, twenty-two year old pilot in the Polish Air Force, crosses across Europe to Great Britain to join the Royal Air Force—their last hope of fighting the Germans who invaded their homeland.

In the following summer, the Battle of Britain breaks out, and the freedom of the British Isles has never seemed so fragile. Tadeusz, having formed a close friendship with his dubious mechanic Anatoli Ryszkowski and Auxiliary Air Force volunteer Verity Lovegood, finds himself facing English prejudice, conflicts between his pilots, and wavering morale within the whole squadron.

As he flies mission after mission, Tadeusz struggles to keep alive the hopes of his fellow airmen. But when he is hospitalized and given morphine for his injuries, he realizes not all the dangers he faces can be fought in combat.

My second doesn't have a good synopsis at the moment, but it continues to follow Tadeusz, the protagonist of book 1, and centres around the Polish branch of the British special operations.

If you think you might be interested, perhaps we can exchange our first chapters through email to see if the swap would be a good match!

Please feel free to message me here or send me an email at AWCardiff @ gmail.com

Thanks, hope to hear from you!