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Trope Tuesday: Gone Horribly Wrong
For this week’s Trope Tuesday post, I’ve invited a guest blogger to come on and discuss one of the tropes in his most recent book. Andrew Saxsma is the author of Lonely Moon, a space opera / horror novel. I haven’t read it yet so I can’t say much about it, but it looks interesting, and I’m a sucker for space opera. So without further ado, here we go!
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This trope is all about Science gone horribly, sometimes violently wrong. Morality’s been thrown out of the window, compromised in favor of delicious success. Maybe the Mad Scientist played God; maybe mankind has accidentally awakened a Sleeping Giant.
This trope has many faces and masks and plays out in many different ways. In all cases, ethics are thrown to the wolves, and the big payoff is not as much a payoff as it is a new impeding doom the hero must now overcome.
Classically, this trope is mostly derived, if not invented, by Mary Shelley in her novel Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein’s obsession leads him to create what would eventually become the bane of his very existence. He unwittingly unleashes the mad dog from its dormant cage and makes it his mission to put it down. You might also recognize this trope from Deep Blue Sea, where scientists genetically enhance sharks for cancer research, but the predators get loose and begin eating their masters.
The key element is the backfire, the unforeseen consequence. It’s born of an innate character flaw, the inability to see beyond one’s good intentions. The character has a vision of a greater good in sight–to cheat death, to cure cancer. They’re so focused they never stop to think: was it worth it? Is this a line we should cross?
To make matters worse, this trope can become complicated when one’s intentions are infused with emotions. A dead loved one, revenge, a preemptive strike. Sometimes the choice is long decided before it is made.
In my book, Lonely Moon, the hero, Captain Hane, has a crisis of the monster. He faces a morally weighted fork in the road. Does he open a forbidden gate, opening our galaxy to a potentially devastating entity in an attempt to save us from an equally evil threat, or does he choose the path of uncertainty in hopes of finding a safer, less dangerous option?
Gone Horribly Wrong is a particularly fun trope to play with from a writer’s aspect, and I’m not sure if it’s a one and done. I plan on playing with this one again in the future.
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Thanks, Andrew. I think the Rule of Drama is one of the keys to doing this trope well. Never pass up an opportunity to make things go wrong for your characters. And if the problems are of their own making, that makes it all the juicier, especially when it adds the internal conflict of knowing that they’re the ones to blame. We all love to watch a train wreck, especially in the world of fiction.
What do you guys think of bringing on more guest bloggers for the Trope Tuesday posts? It’s something I’ve done occasionally in the past, but I’m thinking of doing it much more in the future. I think it could be interesting to get some different points of view besides my own, and maybe introduce you guys to some new authors you might like. Maybe it’s something I could rotate every other week.
If you’re looking for the post I took down yesterday…
If there's anything I've learned in the past few days, it's that any SF&F writer w a social agenda is toxic (even if I agree w their views).
— Joe Vasicek (@onelowerlight) July 1, 2013
That is all.
Thoughts on the recent drama in the SF&F community
NOTE: I’ve since changed my views and retracted many of the things I said in this blog post. You can find a link to the retraction here.
Oh, boy, has there been a lot of drama in the science fiction & fantasy community recently. From the trouble with the SFWA bulletin to the revelation of accusations of serial sexual harassment by a senior editor at Tor, it seems like the whole community (or at least, the part that sees itself as part of a wider community) is up in arms. And while a lot of the response has been balanced and civil, I’ve also seen some things that I find troubling.
For the benefit of the doubt, let me just say that I support the people who are coming forward with stories of harassment and abuse. It’s clear that this is a problem, and that it needs to be addressed in a way that brings about real change. Also, I agree that the community has a history of demeaning or undervaluing the women within it, making it a lot more difficult for female writers to earn the same level of respect as their male counterparts. That, too, needs to change.
But guys … can’t we get along? Can’t we come together and get back to what this community is really about–sharing and telling good, fun stories?
Don’t get me wrong–I’m not trying to minimize any of the problems causing this drama. They need to be fixed, and it’s going to take time to do so. But are they going to become the focus of everything we talk about, or are we going to turn back to the things that unite us, and pull together as a stronger and better community than we were to start out with?
Right now, I get the impression that the majority of members who are active in the SF&F community mean well and want it to be a welcoming space. They may have their faults, but they’re working on them. And most of their faults are not causing direct harm to others.
Then there’s a small but outspoken minority who wants change, wants it now, and wants it so badly that they see problems everywhere. Many of them have legitimate concerns, and people from the less outspoken majority are coming out and confirming that. But many of them are dangerously overzealous–and since we have in this community some of the most imaginative minds in the world, it doesn’t take much for people to start projecting onto people they disagree with, or reading things into comments that aren’t actually there, or seeing those who question or disagree as The Enemy.
I cannot control how others perceive me. I cannot speak without risking that someone is going to misconstrue my intent and feel “silenced,” or “afraid,” or whatever. I can reach out to people privately, though, so if you feel like I’m part of the problem, please contact me and let me know.
This whole thing reminds me of my time from ’03 to ’05 as a Mormon missionary. Oh boy, was there drama. Imagine a couple hundred sexually repressed, 19-21 year-old boys (and a couple dozen young women) in a rigidly structured environment, with tremendous emotional pressures and very little direct supervision. There was drama, and I hated it. The best times on my mission were when I never saw anyone but my companion (Mormon missionaries live and work together in pairs) and maybe the four or six other members of the district once a week or so.
But the way things are playing out right now, I wonder if the outspoken minority is so determined to reshape the SF&F community in their own image that they’re tearing it apart. Orson Scott Card, for example, has been tarred and feathered multiple times and thrown out of the community on a rail. And yet, Ender’s Game is still one of the best (and bestselling) science fiction books ever written. Mike Resnick, for all his chauvinism, has written a lot of really good books and stories too. Jim Frenkel, for all his creepiness, has been instrumental in bringing us great books from Tor.
Does this excuse their faults? Of course not. But guys, these authors and editors aren’t The Enemy–they’re part of the community just as much as you are. And you deal with offenders within the community differently than you do with offenders who are not.
A lot of people are congratulating themselves and saying that we’re doing a good job rooting out these problems and dealing with them in an open and reasonable way. And to an extent, I think that’s true. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from all this drama, it’s that the SF&F community is a lot more fractious than I’d previously realized, and that the ties that bind us really aren’t that strong at all. And that makes me wonder if it’s better just to forget the whole thing–forget the conventions, forget SFWA, forget the major blogs–and just do my own thing independently of everyone else.
And honestly, it would appear that a large number (perhaps even a majority) of SF&F writers are doing just that, especially the self-published ones who don’t really care about courting publishers or winning awards. For these guys, it’s all about the readers–and isn’t that the way it should be?
Trope Tuesday: Sinister Surveillance
Someone is watching you. Their eyes are everywhere. Everything you do, everything you say … it’s all being recorded in a giant database. But don’t worry–you can trust the ones watching you. They have your best interests at heart. They’re only after the bad guys. You won’t even know that they’re there.
Sinister Surveillance is a hallmark of Dystopia, as essential to the genre as the Crapsack World and the Police Brutality tropes. Often, you’ll find all three in the same story together. It’s closely related to Big Brother is Watching, where the government is so powerful, and reaches into so many aspects of everyday life, that they see and record everything you do. Where Big Brother shapes every aspect of the society, however, down to the language of the citizens and the basic truths accepted as facts, Sinister Surveillance is more about the surveillance itself, and the ulterior motives behind it.
It’s not enough for the government to simply watch you, though. Even more important in some ways is the idea that you don’t know what they can and can’t see. The reason for this is the same reason why, in horror stories, we almost never see the monster until the very end–because our imagination makes things a lot scarier than they really are. If we the bad guys know the limitations of our government surveillance, we they can safeguard our privacy and basic rights game the system. We’re all afraid of the dark, not because of what’s actually there, but what could be.
The concept behind all this goes back to the Panopticon, a hypothetical prison where the prisoners know that the guards are constantly watching them, but can’t actually see any of the guards themselves. Proposed by the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the 1700s, the idea is to disempower the prisoners and empower the guards simply through the act of surveillance. If everything you do can be seen, and you don’t know exactly who’s watching, that puts a tremendous amount of social pressure on you to conform. As Michel Foucault put it:
The Panopticon creates a consciousness of permanent visibility as a form of power, where no bars, chains, and heavy locks are necessary for domination any more.
But if the prisoners are the citizens, and the guards are the government, how can such a system ever be democratic? How can the citizens of such a society ever give their informed consent? Well, that’s kind of the point. The government in dystopian stories is rarely democratic–it’s usually a dictatorship of some kind, or a system that turns well-meaning people into Knights Templar, showing how even the best of us die like animals when the game is rigged.
As benevolent the intentions of the government may initially be, it is nonetheless true that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Just as the Panopticon takes power from the prisoners and concentrates it with the guards, so does universal surveillance grant dangerous amounts of power to the government–not because the act of surveillance is dangerous in itself, but because it brings out the worst in the people doing the surveillance.
In The Road to Serfdom, Freidrich Von Hayek pointed out that self-serving, ambitious, power-hungry people tend to rise in government a lot faster than people who have others’ best interests at heart, especially when so much power is concentrated in the government. That’s one of the biggest dangers of surveillance–and in stories where Sinister Surveillance is in play, the government has already passed that point.
I wish I could say that this trope is limited mostly to the realm of fiction, but unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case. These days, it’s impossible to talk about surveillance without getting political, even on a blog dedicated to books and writing. Because everything these days is online, it’s easier now than ever before for our governments to watch us. And if Edward Snowden’s claims are even partially correct, that’s exactly what they’re trying to do. Even more worrying are the indicators that they’re trying to do it in secret, such as this recent letter from Senators Wyden and Udall. The United States government has lied to us in the past about the extent of the PRISM surveillance program, and it would appear that they’re continuing to do just that.
Wherever you fall politically on PRISM or the Edward Snowden case, I think that Sinister Surveillance is a trope that we should all find profoundly disturbing. When George Orwell took this trope to its extreme logical conclusions in 1984, he did so to prevent that horrific social order from ever coming to pass. I wonder: only two or three generations after that book came out, have we forgotten its lessons already? Or do we need a new retelling to remind us? I fear that that retelling is taking place, not in the pages of a novel, but in real time on the major blogs and news sites.
I need to get out of Provo, but where to live next?
It’s been almost six months since I moved back out to Provo, and I don’t think I’ll be staying here much longer. It’s a great place if you’re a Mormon college student in your early twenties, or married with kids and looking for a nice, quiet place to settle down, but for everything in between it’s just not the greatest.
So where am I going to go next? Honestly, I don’t have a clue. Probably somewhere in the United States, but I’m not ruling out the possibility of another overseas adventure. In fact, that’s exactly the sort of thing that I’d love.
But I’ve got to be honest here: I came back to the States mostly to find a girl. I don’t know about getting married or not–that’s like step twenty-five, while I’m still on step three–but I do know that next time I go overseas, I want to go with someone, preferably someone special. That’s what I learned while I was living in the Caucasus mountains, that an adventure is like ten times better when you have someone to share it with.
I may be opening up a little bit in this post, and I don’t want to give the wrong impression to the people I know who read it. It’s not that I’m uninterested in any of my female friends here, but so far, nothing has really worked out. Some of that is because I’m not as interested as I thought I was, but the reverse is probably just as true. Nothing wrong with that, and I still value all of my friendships. And hey, you never know–things can always change. But when you start to get sick of a place, that’s probably a good time to move on.
So what am I looking for? Ideally, a place with a lot of Mormons in their late twenties / early thirties, most of them young professionals or recent graduates. A place with a decent art scene, or that sort of vibe to it, where I can meet up with other artists / entrepreneurs like myself and be a part of that community. I really want to live in a place with mountains–my sister is moving to a town just out of Des Moines, and omigosh just from looking it up on Google Earth I know I could never live there. Barring that, I really love deserts, so I wouldn’t mind living in Arizona or New Mexico.
I’ve heard good things about Salt Lake City, so that’s pretty high on the list. I’ve got a couple of friends up that way, and lots of family as well. Other than that, I wonder if Saint George or Cedar City might be good places for a guy in my situation to live. I really love Utah, so if I could find another place out here besides Provo, that would be ideal. Moab, perhaps? Seems like a tourist town more than anything. Though if I could score a job at a hostel out there, that could be a lot of fun.
Texas is also fairly high on the list. Beautiful place, Texas. I’ve always loved driving through that country. Lots of Mormons too, apparently, though where I’d want to go exactly, I have no idea.
One place I absolutely do not want to go is Washington DC. I HATE that place, especially after my internship experience. It’s a great place to visit, and the museums and cultural stuff are amazing, but I never want to live there again.
Other than that … I’ve got a couple of friends who suggested Portland, but I dunno.
And honestly, a not insignificant part of me wants to go somewhere crazy, like Mongolia or the Czech Republic, or even back to Georgia. I’m making enough on my book sales right now that I could probably get a small apartment in Tbilisi and support myself entirely off of my ebook royalties alone. Better yet, I could arrange a long-term boarding situation back in the village, or out in Kutaisi, or maybe even up in Svaneti … but that’s probably just me missing the place. I miss it almost every day.
All I know for sure is that I absolutely cannot stay here in Provo much longer. If I do, I’ll either go crazy or get old and fat and complacent, and I’m not sure which is worse. I’ll stay here through the summer, just to save up some money, but when September comes around, I am getting out of here.
Captain Cosette by R. Bruce Sundrud
So I saw this book in my alsobots on Amazon a few months ago, and it looked interesting so I figured I’d give it a shot. The cover is admittedly pretty bad, but it has two of my favorite things in the universe (space and girls), and besides, I’ll sample just about anything. A few days later, I realized the sample folder on my Kindle was getting pretty big, so I decided to go through and clear some of it out.
Well, I ended up buying this one. The beginning really hooked me, and the rest of the book did not disappoint.
Captain Cosette is basically a Cinderella story set in space, except instead of getting glass slippers and going to the dance, Cosette goes to war and becomes a knock-out starship pilot. It’s military sci-fi with a lighter edge than Drake or Haldeman. And it’s good. I think I read from the 36% mark to the end without stopping. Sundrud is really good at making you care about his characters and then putting them in peril.
One thing that I really enjoyed were all the pulpy Renee Chevalier books that Cosette always reads, which were really just tongue-in-cheek references to modern pop-culture phenomena like Twilight and Casablanca. It broke the fourth wall at times, but I always found them hilarious, especially with some of the twists they add at the end.
Unlike some other sci-fi books that I’ve started recently and failed to finish, the science fictional elements here are not just window dressing–they really drive the plot. I thought the teaching machine was particularly interesting, especially when it … well, I won’t give away any spoilers. And of course, the lost colonies and border worlds were also fascinating. Cosette comes from a backwards farming planet, and the way she thinks about things at first, you really get the sense that this has been her whole universe. As she gradually comes to understand the geo- (astro?) politics of Union and Alliance, her awareness expands, and so does yours as the reader. It’s very cool.
There are a couple of things I wish this book had done a little better. The world is not nearly as immersive as I wanted it to be, and sometimes it feels like the characters are hurrying from place to place. Also, sometimes the characters seemed to blend together a bit. There was enough to differentiate them, but at times they sounded almost the same. None of these issues took much away from my overall enjoyment of the book, however. The story was solid.
So yeah, if you like the kind of stuff I like to write, you’re probably going to love this one. At $2.99 for the ebook, you really can’t go wrong. Even if you’re not a huge military sf fan, if you like Cinderella stories (and who doesn’t?), this one is definitely worth checking out.
Thoughts on writing advice generally
I’m working a swing shift job at a bakery outlet right now, loading and unloading trucks for the next day’s shipment. It’s a great job because 1) the pay is higher than most warehouse jobs, 2) it’s only 20 hours a week, 3) I’m the only guy there, so there’s lots of autonomy, and 4) I can listen to music and podcasts while I work.
Anyway, I was listening to a panel from this year’s LTUE last night, and at one point I actually got so mad with the panelists that I almost swore. In particular, there was one panelist who doesn’t really have any books out or any publication credits to speak of, but she was constantly (CONSTANTLY) chiming in with writing rules and writing advice, to the point where she started clashing with some of the big name authors on the panel.
The reason that made me angry is because I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of bad advice. Not just advice about the craft of writing, which might be good individually but in the aggregate tends to feed your inner editor and kill your creative drive. I’ve heard a lot of really bad career advice, both from established professionals who have no clue how the industry is changing, and (more frequently) from unwashed newbies who spend more time promoting their last book than writing their next one. It’s gotten to the point where whenever anyone starts to give advice, I just roll my eyes and skim over whatever it is they’re trying to say.
This is not to say that I think I know everything and that now I can stop learning. I have no illusions about that. Just this past week, for example there was an excellent thread on the KBoards about cover design, with several designers chipping in with their insights. I admit, I skimmed a lot of the stuff the writers were saying, but the designers I stopped and paid attention to. There’s still a lot I have to learn when it comes to covers, as well as hiring the right kind of artists to do the job.
When it comes to the craft of writing, I’ve found that the best way to learn is to read a lot of really good books and pay attention to the things the authors do. For example, Louis McMaster Bujold has some really colorful ways to describe her characters’ mannerisms, such as having Lord Vorkosigan simultaneously smile at one character and frown at another. Jane Austen is a master of giving the one or two details that you need to feel like you know exactly what kind of a person each character is. David Drake can write action sequences that really make you feel like you’re there in the character’s head, and Orson Scott Card’s dialog is peerless.
And as for career advice, honestly, the best approach I’ve found is to just say “screw you all–I’m doing it my way!” The industry has changed so much in the past three years that no one–absolutely no one–knows anything.
Four years ago, I snubbed my nose at self-publishers and would have been horrified to learn I’d become one. Two years ago, I hated the term “self-publishing” and avoided it like the plague, using terms like “indie publishing” instead. Now, I don’t really care. I’m reaching readers, growing a fan-base, and making money, and that’s all that really matters.
Everyone seems to have an opinion, but the only way to have an informed opinion is to actually go out there and find out what works for you. So basically, I treat everyone’s advice with contempt unless they can demonstrate unequivocally that it’s worked for them. Even then, I pick and choose what I adopt for myself, based on what sits best with my own personal philosophy. In the end, I learn a lot more by rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty than I do from following someone else.
All of this has combined to make me really loathe to give any advice. At Leading Edge, I’ve taken recently to reading ARCs and writing book reviews, rather than writing out those scathing story critiques like I used to. I rarely comment on blogs or message board communities, and when I do, I always feel like I have to include a disclaimer that this is my opinion, or this is what’s worked for me, or this has been my experience (and therefore may not apply generally). Sometimes, I see writers who are so caught up in stupid myths that I want to reach out and help them, but even then, I feel like there’s something restraining me.
The point is, if/when I succeed in this business, it will be in spite of the advice I’ve received, not because of it. I’ll consider almost anything, but whether I actually follow it … yeah, don’t hold your breath.
The Legend of Deathwalker by David Gemmell
I’m not even going to try to write a synopsis of this story. It’s just like all the other books in the Drenai series, which is why I love it so much. Basically, this one gives the story behind the rise of Ulric, khan of the Nadir, and the origin of the Nadir people. Interestingly enough, Druss the Legend plays a major role.
This was the last book in the Drenai Saga that I hadn’t read, so reading it was a very bittersweet experience. On the one hand, this one is just as good as all the other books in the series, and made me want to revisit Legend and some of the others. On the other hand, I knew that once I’d finished it, there wouldn’t be any more Drenai books left. So I took it slow for the first half, but naturally I finished it at a breathless late-night sprint a day or two later.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I love David Gemmell’s books so much. There are many reasons, but I think the main reason is that his writing is honest. He strips away all the incidental stuff and gets right at the heart of the stuff that matters. He doesn’t pussyfoot around, either–if his characters do something despicable, he doesn’t make any excuses for them. He tells it like it is. This can make for a very brutal story, but it also makes for a very cathartic one.
The other reason I love his books so much is because he does such a good job depicting raw, unrepressed manhood–not the stupid stuff like driving big cars and eating meat, but manning up and facing your greatest fears. It’s about friendship, and honor, and fighting with all of your strength for something you believe in. It’s about all that raw, pent-up energy we all have, that animal urge that drives us to competitive sports and first person shooters, and channeling it for a heroic cause.
The craziest thing is that the fight itself is actually more important than whatever side the characters are fighting on. In this book, Druss is actually fighting to help bring about the rise of the Nadir khan who later invades his homeland and kills him on the walls of Dros Delnoch. None of that matters, though, because Druss doesn’t fight with malice. For him, it’s all about fighting for something, not against something, and the battle itself is just as important as the victory. I don’t think I can put it better than this:
“Can we win here?” Sieben asked, as the shaman’s image began to fade.
“Winning and losing are entirely dependent on what you are fighting for,” answered Shaoshad. “All men here could die, yet you could still win. Or all men could live and you could lose. Fare you well, poet.”
The best thing about David Gemmell’s books is the fact that none of the characters–not even the bad guys–are defined by their own evil. The Nadir are supposed to be the evil chaotic race of the Drenai universe, but when you come to understand what they’re fighting for, their hopes and dreams for a better future, you can really see what’s good in them. Likewise, the more civilized Gothir are kind of like the evil white men who want to put down the savages and keep them in their place, but there are good and honorable men among them too.
And yet, even though the two sides clash, and good men die on both sides, it somehow isn’t tragic. That’s the crazy part. It’s almost like you can feel the characters salute each other as they die in a good cause, the way Ulric gave Druss a proper funeral in Legend, even though the two were blood-sworn enemies. In David Gemmell’s world, honor and courage are more important than life or money. Everyone dies; dying well is more important than living without honor.
This book is incredible. As I was reading it, I decided it was the best David Gemmell book I’ve ever read–which is something I do every time I read one of his books. I feel like I’m a better man for having read them. If he had written a hundred books in this series, I would happily read them all. The fact that there are no more new ones deeply saddens me, but I know I’ll revisit these stories again in the future.
I need to read more. A lot more.
Recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to read a lot more than I have been. I’ve read a couple of books in the past few months, but to take things to the next level I feel like I should be reading at least one or two novels a week.
I came to this conclusion last week after visiting the Provo Library to pick up a copy of Gettysburg (the movie based on The Killer Angels) that was on hold for me. Unfortunately, someone had misplaced it, but since I was there I took some time to browse the shelves.
Holy cow, it’s been a while since I was surrounded by actual physical books. I get about 60% to 70% of my books nowadays on my kindle, so browsing through the shelves, I felt like a kid in a candy shop. I picked up the last Drenai book that I haven’t yet read (finished it today, actually), a classic by Heinlein, and an Alliance-Union novel by C.J. Cherryh.
The thing about physical library books, though, is that if you don’t read and return them in time, they tend to cost you money. LOTS of money. I can’t tell you how much I’ve paid in library fines over the years–it seems like every time I go to check something out, I have to pay a couple of bucks. What can I say–I’m not a very disciplined reader. But this time, I figured I would actually go through and do it. That’s why I limited myself to just three (or was it four?).
If you’re a writer, reading voraciously is essential. Not only is it a great way to pick up new tricks, it’s absolutely vital in keeping your sense of story honed and sharp. I wonder how much of what we call “writers block” would actually best be solved, not by just writing through it, but taking some time to just immerse yourself in a good book and recharge your creative batteries by filling your mind with story.
Another reason to read is that it helps to keep you from being stretched too thin by online distractions and obligations. I picked up this tip from Jeff VanderMeer in his writing book, Booklife. It’s a good one. Basically, if you find yourself wasting too much time on the internet, cycling endlessly through your email, your facebook, your twitter, webcomics, message boards, blog aggregator, sales stats etc etc–the best way to break free of that addictive cycle is to sit down and read a book.
A couple of days later, I was at Leading Edge and noticed that they have a whole bunch of unread ARCs in their cabinet. A couple of small publishers send them stuff every couple of months, and it tends to accumulate, especially in the summer when most of the students are gone. Well, I ended up coming home with three of them, with a promise that I’d read and review a couple before the next issue goes out in June.
Not that I’m complaining–not at all. In fact, I’m excited. I’ve been doing a lot to rework my routine recently, mostly having to do with writing in the mornings and finding a good place outside of my apartment to get stuff done. I find that it helps to take frequent breaks when writing, so if I can fill those with reading instead of useless internet browsing, I figure I’ll be in good shape. I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks how that goes.
In the meantime, I’ve got to go, but you can expect another squeeing fanboy review of David Gemmell soon–as in, probably tomorrow. I just finished the last remaining bok in the Drenai series that I hadn’t yet read, and holy crap, it is AMAZING. It makes me want to go through and read the whole series all over again! At the same time, I’m so sad that there aren’t any more of these books left anymoer–if Gemmell had written a hundred Drenai books, I would have read (and gone fanboy crazy over) every last one of them. Sadly, that is not to be. But maybe when my soul passes over to the Void, I can sit at his feet and hear them direct from the mouth of the master … okay I’d better end this before I go all fanboy again. Later.