The King Henry Tapes (By Me!)

Malkav

Malkav

French Madman
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Ritley said:
Finally got around to reading, another great book. Two areas that I had some issues with:

1. Too much internal dialogue. Not just about Val, about pretty much everything. I remember someone asking King Henry a question anf there were multiple pages of internal dialogue pretty much unrelated to what was actually going on before his response.

2. Prior to this book, I was always pretty equally interested in the school and current/future timelines. I would always be disappointed when it switched, but by the time it switched again I was disappointed too. Not so with this book. The current/future portion of it was so much more interesting than the school story that I was always annoyed when it switched to the school timeline and always happy when it switched back.

The current timeline story was probabaly the best so far though. Great pace and plot development
Click to expand...

1. Yeah, I mentioned it about Val (because it kinda made King Henry sounds like Kvothe about Denna if you know what I mean), but god damn was he going on for pages in his head. Feels really weird when it's in the middle of some interactions with another character.

2. School stuff was not helped by the fact that we already knew who did it, obviously.
 
Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar

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Well, that's why I played it as more tragedy and less whodunit. Also why next book has the last school story. They just can't keep up with what's happening on the other side and it's only going to get worse.
 
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Void

Void

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The only reason the school story might have "lacked" in this novel compared to the others, to me anyway, is because it wasn't bright and shiny and new like the others, and because we already knew who did it. Learning all about the mancy and his classmates and the various hijinks was great fun when we were new to it. Now that we know a lot of it, it is easy to overlook how it is still awesome. If this school story happened in the second or third novel it would have been great, even if we still knew who did it, because we'd still be learning more about all the characters and their interactions and such. Sort of like how if Ace Ventura 2 had come first, it would have been awesome instead of just pretty good.

I'm actually a little disappointed that the school stories are coming to an end next book, but I understand why you are doing it, both from a reader's and writer's perspective. Still, to me, having gems like unguarded moments between KH and Ceinwyn on a cross-country roadtrip were some of the best moments of the whole series. Although Annie B doesn't exist in the school timeline (well, she does, but you know what I mean), and she's the best fucking character in the whole series, so you've talked me into no more school stories!

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner, but I finally finished with my move and all the shit going on the past few weeks, so going to stick some reviews up there on various sites. Make sure you guys do too, because (I'm assuming positive) reviews really help indie authors out from what I hear.
 
Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar

Golden Squire
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Took a few months off after FM6. 900 pager in a year kind of did me in! Also did a bunch of stuff like formatting print on demand versions finally and setting up new cover designs to be made. Writing wise, I'm still getting back into the groove but current plan is...

August 2017: New cover roll out starts.

October 2017: King Henry Book Pack One release, Print On Demand versions roll out starts.

November-December 2017: Assault on Dread Fortress Paine release window.

February-March 2018: The Glassbreaker Goes Home release window.

May to August 2018: Gush release window.

November 2018: FM7 release if it manages to sneak into 2018.

Plan will probably go to shit!

Basically I'm working on two novellas at the moment. "Assault on Dread Fortress Paine" is a TBone and Eva POV that takes place a day after FM6 ends. "The Glassbreaker Goes Home" is two weeks after FM6 and intercuts two stories on the same night, from KH and Vicky Welfs POVs, revolving around family dinners. After that I'm going to FINALLY finish Gush, which is like Sanderson Meets Battle Royale I suppose...overland cross country death race with magic type thing.

Then I'll work on FM7.

Which has become problematic length wise since had a hell of a time formatting FM6 for print with Amazon having a 800 page limit. Also knowing what the last one took, not sure I want to go through that again so soon.

Luckily I already planned for this to be the last one with school flashbacks, but I'm either going to have to cut it in two down the middle (inelegant as hell, plus shitty, plus cliffhanger city), drop the final school story (no closure, readers will miss out on not key info but some I'd like them to have) or have FM7 be the last school story alone and then extend the series from 12 books to 13 (closure, more elegant, but will an only school story novel hold on its own and worse, how many of my fans would say "fuck you" and just skip it?).

Plus even though I knew we'd run into the situation where flashbacks just weren't cutting it, so I only focused on the best ones, we still already saw huge strain in FM6 where some people were getting annoyed at distracting from the main story...so...

So yeah...writing...just like roofing.
 
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Malkav

Malkav

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Thanks for the update!

You definitely deserved the break, and I see that once again you have a lot on your plate haha.

Regarding FM7 eventually being only a school story, I see how it could be an issue for some.After the big reveal at the end of FM6, readers will really want to know what happens next. I get that some could be kinda grumpy about getting a school story two years after waiting two years for FM7.

But you do what you need to do. I know that you'll give us some great reads in any case and fuck people if they don't respect your decision.

Meanwhile, I'll eagerly wait for the new novellas.
 
Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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I have written and self published a children's book... and that was quite a process and learned a lot.

I am throughly impressed by all of your work!

I look forward to buying some of your print options once those are available :)
 
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Ritley

Ritley

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I'll be honest, doesn't really look like I'd imagined him. Dude looks like a model on those
 
Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar

Golden Squire
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It is a model. It's just stock photo manipulation, not original artwork. Probably my fault for making KH so out of the ordinanry, should've made him 6'3 with blond hair and dreamy green eyes.
 
TJT

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Just finished the series.

So just a few questions. Is the Learning Council the effective governing body of the Mancy world? At some points it talks about government and Learning Council separately. Causing me a bit of confusion as to how it's all setup.

Secondly, how did the Curator not detect the World-Breaker when he encountered him in the Pit? Is it just because the Artifact purged it of Anima so it was, "dead" and he couldn't sense it? Because it wasn't deactivated at this time.
 
Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar

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The Learning Council is the centralized governing body of American mancers. The rest of the world is much less centralized with several groups holding regional or disipline based authority. I don't know if I'd go so far as to call any of them effective ;)

1) Similar to how a mancer can't sense the amount of anima another mancer has pooled or what conjuration is incoming until it leaves the body (unless using lenses) there's some shielding going on for the wielder. 2) Paine had massive assumptions about his own superiority and ability to detect the real World-Breaker, leading to his own downfall. 3) Probably a bit of RAFO going on here as well...
 
O

orcmauler

Golden Squire
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Finally got around to reading these. Kudos, simply Kudos. If I were pressed to pitch these to the masses I'd compare it to Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series and/or Sanderson's Mistborn, but with a much more interesting cast of characters. Additionally you take and manipulate known cannon/conventions of fantasy and are able to (successfully imo) evolve them into something that feels/reads/seems new and/or fresh. My only complaint is that after reading the final KH novel (thus far) it felt "too damn long." I don't know if it was because I read the short series prior to that or what, but it felt that book 6 could have been somehow split. Book 6 was the first of the series where/when reading, I found myself thinking the book was simply dragging. Considering how important the book is to the overall mythos/plot, that was not a good feeling whatsoever. With that being said I will certainly day-one purchase the rest of the series. Likewise I will be taking a look at your off-shoot writing. Thanks for the entertainment!
 
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Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar

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Just FYI: beta read for the first of the post FM6 mini novels should be taking place at the end of the month. Halfway through the second one as well, still haven't started in on FM7 cuz real life shit, but soon I hope!

Orc, I thought about splitting FM6, but the test run I tried of only giving Void half during the beta read, ending when KH grabs Ceinwyn and they take a little trip...well, it did not go so well...so the Big Fucking Book got released. I'll have to reconsider about splitting FM7 when we get to that point. One should very much pace oneself with FM6 though...
 
Valorath

Valorath

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Neb, you've got to know there's no pacing oneself with a fantasy novel that's engrossing. I've enjoyed them all, and will read anything you publish in a matter of a couple of days.

Keep up the good work, really enjoy your stuff.
 
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