I now have a first bit of my book, chapter zero. Here it is (first draft, that is) and criticisms welcome:
The Death of All Stories
Book One
Chapter ZERO:
Through the Eyes of Gods
I don’t pretend to know everything. That would be boring. I just guess.
Rather strange thought, isn’t it? Considering that I’m a god.
Well, goddess to be exact. My name is Nârēn.
You humans may have a bit of trouble comprehending that, ‘specially if you don’t believe in us. So let me say this nice and slowly: My name is Nârēn, and I’m a god. Got it? Good.
You’re going to need that knowledge for the rest of the story.
Now come on! Time’s a-wasting. Read on.
It’ll be interesting, I promise.
Or maybe not.
Look. There’s a group of worlds that are more transparently polytheist, as a general rule, than most. The group is called – wait, should I tell you that? I shouldn’t. Fine. The group is called – something, and I rule it. In it, I’m the supreme goddess. Period.
So, I rule this-place-C-doesn’t-want-me-to-name, under Her, of course.
If I’m a – the! – supreme goddess, who’s She? Who’s C?
Hah! Who’s C? She’s the kid who invented me, of course! I live in her head! You don’t really disagree with landlords when being evicted may be fatal!
Well, maybe not. It could be, but then it couldn’t. However, she wouldn’t write about me anymore, and that would mean that I’d only exist in the limbo that her other abandoned ideas inhabit. Boooooooring.
I don’t intend to let that happen. I hope you’ll help. Of course, by reading this you already are.
So... I’m really going to have to swallow my pride to say this...
Thank you!
Please don’t tell anyone I just said that.
So. Back to ThisPlace.
There are a lot of sub-div’d worlds in it. Basically they come down to three sub-groups, in which intervene some worlds from other groups altogether:
- The Tarekas series, which has a lot of magic, and so the magic-users in it are (a) quite common and (b) often powerful, just as the norm;
- The Analek, in which magic, when it exists, is rarer than water in a desert; this series also contains world Ny, C’s world. No offense to those who live there, but it seems to me it’s a depressing, magic-less mud pit whose gods’ visits to pop in and say hi are few and far between; it’s redeeming qualities are cool technology (though some Analek worlds with slight magic have that) and that it seems to be an endless fountain of good authors. For that, it’s awesome. Maybe that’s where all it’s magic went? That’s C’s theory, at least;
- The Daer’shin, in which magic is rare, rarely acknowledged, strange, sometimes sadistic and amazingly powerful. It’s a mage’s dream... or nightmare.
And I get to boss most everyone in most of them around (while being bossed around by some adolescent girl myself) ! Doesn’t that sound fun? Yes? Well, you’re about to see some of the consequences of decisions gone wrong.
Then tell me whether it’s a dream or a nightmare, not before.
Welcome to my mind, either way.
*shudders* Ugh, text pasted in from MS:Word...
Well today was originally the date that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was supposed to come out and don't I wish it had. But it's coming out at the end of the month instead. On the subject of not-out books Scott Westerfeld is giving copies of his unreleased book
Extras to the first commenter on his blog. I am trying to be one of the first commenters. Wish me luck?
And now for a quote: "Behold! The consequences of decisions gone wrong made by gods whose brains were freezer-burned!"
NOTE: I may post a drabble for the side story taking place in one of the Analek worlds later (I think Analek C - it resembles Ny a lot)
