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The Five Elements
Book of the Month Fantasy
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May 2013 Fantasy BotM: Five Elements
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Whoa! I've been kind of buried with work on the next book to follow The Five Elements so I didn't even see the poll go up and my book getting nominated. Thanks to everyone who voted.Per the rules, I've got EPUB or MOBI/Kindle files ready to go for anyone who needs it. Shoot me a message and I'll set you up!
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Sorry! I'll make sure a copy of the next book finds its way to you if you wind up liking The Five Elements.
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So a few questions for Scott:1. Who are your major influences?
2. What were your goals in writing this? What do you want readers to take away from the story?
3. In this setting, people take a more scientific approach to magic. Was there any particular reason you went in that direction?
4. You strictly alternate point-of-view by chapter. Did you have any trouble with that format and keeping the story balanced between the two protagonists?
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Steve wrote: "So a few questions for Scott:"Good questions. Let's see...
(no spoilers)
1. Who are your major influences?
I suppose a little bit of each of these authors finds its way into my own writing. Not necessarily all of them in each novel, of course. For example, you'll see a lot more Tolkien in my other novel, The Hall of the Wood, then you'll see in TFE. You'll see some Forester and Lovecraft in the next book in The Alchemancer series. In TFE, you might see some Hobb and Howard. But, to answer your question, Robin Hobb, Tolkien, Terry Brooks (grew up on him, though don't read him much anymore), Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Bernard Cornwell, and C.S. Forester.
2. What were your goals in writing this? What do you want readers to take away from the story?
Really just to tell a good, enjoyable story. If there are any takeaways, it's that life often throws us curve balls and it's how we deal with those that truly defines us. There's a lot of curve balls in The Five Elements, so it gave me the opportunity to really put the best (or worst) of each character on display.
3. In this setting, people take a more scientific approach to magic. Was there any particular reason you went in that direction?
I'm an engineer, but I've also been reading fantasy since I was a kid. I've never wanted to write science fiction, but as I was working on the outline, this notion of science fantasy began creeping in more and more. It really became an evolutionary thing. I started with traditional sorcerers, for example, but then enter the character of Aaron who is a very gifted sorcerer's apprentice who happens to have no magical ability whatsoever. He became an apprentice because of his intellect. This therefore made sorcerers into more than just practitioners of magic. Not all of them, but some begin pushing the boundaries in new ways with the use of science and alchemy. You'll continue to see this blending of science and sorcery in the next book. More "hokum", as one reviewer described it.
The short answer is that I wanted to do something a little different.
4. You strictly alternate point-of-view by chapter. Did you have any trouble with that format and keeping the story balanced between the two protagonists?
No, not at all. In fact, it worked out really well, I think, from the perspective of the writing. There were some issues with keeping things sync'ed in terms of timeline, but those got ironed out fairly quickly after the first draft was done. I found the alternating approach just fit naturally with the way the characters each go through their own adventures and development.
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Scott wrote: "I read this book a while ago and may have to skim through it again to refresh things in my head. I remember being a fan of the alchemy thing as I think it's an underused element in most fantasy."I remember your review. I believe you were one of the first to give me one.
I might pick this one up later. I have just started a couple of others but I will give this a shot later in the month.Great way to find new (and usually) very good books. I haven't yet found one I didn't enjoy.
* Just bumped it up the list:)
For the record I don't mind buying the BOM if they aren't that expensive. May as well support the author:)
Thanks, Alexandra.Same here. As long as the price is reasonable, I'm in.
Ok, so I just finished. Generally enjoyable. I liked the writing style and the science-inspired magic. A few complaints, because that's the kind of guy I am:-Pacing. It had a strong opening and a strong ending, but the mid-sections dragged a bit, in my opinion. The reason for that is...
-Agency. Both Shanna and Aaron were being dragged along by other characters for most of the plot. It wasn't until the last 1/3 or so that they were both making their own decisions and creating their own plans. It was frustrating to see both protagonists be lacking in agency.
-Names. A lot of the names were similar. I actually call this more of a world-building issue than a reader convenience one. The primary elf, dwarf, and sithari all had similar-sounding names. It's a missed opportunity to differentiate the cultures.
-Shanna. I had trouble understanding her motives and character progression, even after she outright stated it. I don't want to go into spoiler territory, but she made some major decisions that didn't really feel properly justified or foreshadowed to me.
Hey Steve, good stuff! I like constructive comments. They're much better than the other kind. :-)You're not the first to call out each of those points (except for Agency; that's a new one). My goal was to keep the pacing as high as possible throughout, but obviously it came down some. I don't know if I could have kept things moving along so fast without taking a breather to settle the characters into the larger story, though.
About names--the similarities were something I never noticed or at least wasn't listening to from early readers prior to publishing the novel. I intend to work harder on that with the next book. The cast of characters grows exponentially in the next one, so it'll be even more important to have that differentiation.
Hopefully I'll continue to mature as a writer so that your other points are not as much of a concern. But, points taken.
Thanks for taking the time to read and offer your opinions, Steve.
Oh, and this... "The primary elf, dwarf, and sithari"-- Is it that obvious that eslar are based on elves? :-)
Oh, one other comment... With regard to "character progression", I get another attempt to do better in the next book with Serena, who takes on a much larger role. I didn't deal with her too much in TFE because she comes into the story kind of late, but she'll get the full treatment and her own story arc in the next one. She's turning into a very interesting character.
Scott wrote: "Oh, and this... "The primary elf, dwarf, and sithari"-- Is it that obvious that eslar are based on elves? :-) "Ah, I'm afraid so. I don't know if this makes you feel better or worse, but I didn't count it against you. It's common enough to have something similar to elves, but with a different name, that I automatically make connections than may or may not be valid and just call them elves.
As to pacing, I may have a different definition than most. The book was obviously more action than not, so it's not that things weren't moving along. I think my problem is that I always want to see how things fit into the big picture, and it was a long time before that became apparent. To give an example of what I mean, look at the 2007 King Kong movie. It felt like about 2 hours of it was straight action sequences, with the characters running away from deadly peril after deadly peril. But none of that fit into an overarching narrative other than, "these guys are trying to survive a hostile environment."
With "The Five Elements," I trusted that there was an overarching narrative beyond the face-level action, but I felt like you took too long getting there. That's kind of what I mean about my pacing complaint. Neither protagonist really knew what was going on, nor did they have the agency to react to it. That's why I say it picked up later in the book. It's not that there was more action, but that the action was more obviously meaningful.
I want to emphasize that even though I'm listing complaints, I did like the story overall. When I'm talking about books, for whatever reason, I have an easier time talking about what I didn't like about them than what I did.
Steve wrote: "Scott wrote: "Oh, and this... "The primary elf, dwarf, and sithari"-- Is it that obvious that eslar are based on elves? :-) "Ah, I'm afraid so. I don't know if this makes you feel better or wors..."
No, it's fine. Both Ensel Rhe and the eslar character in my other book were actually elves at first, but when I started writing TFE I realized that I didn't want to write about elves, so I came up with an elf-like race. Hopefully if and when I deal with them on a larger scale they'll come through as different enough. Eslar, in my mind anyway, are actually a cross between elves and Moorcock's Melniboneans.
I want to emphasize that even though I'm listing complaints, I did like the story overall. When I'm talking about books, for whatever reason, I have an easier time talking about what I didn't like about them than what I did.
Totally understand. I saw your initial comment ("generally enjoyable") and figured I hit the mark since that's all I was really trying for with this book.
Thanks to those who read! The next book in the series should be out in a few months. I'm at the editing stage now.I'm also re-releasing another of my books as a second edition. The Hall of the Wood should be out this month or next. As part of the release I'm giving away a free eBook copy to anyone who signs up for my mailing list. I only use the list for new novel notifications, so you won't get more than a couple of emails/year. More details here: http://bit.ly/ZyxBi6
I just purchased this thing so I'll start reading here tonight!