{"id":11352,"date":"2012-01-27T01:00:46","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=11352"},"modified":"2012-01-26T22:13:33","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T09:13:33","slug":"guest-post-on-orbit-today-but-wait-theres-more-the-role-of-place-in-shaping-the-heir-of-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/01\/27\/guest-post-on-orbit-today-but-wait-theres-more-the-role-of-place-in-shaping-the-heir-of-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post on Orbit Today—But Wait, There’s More: The Role of Place In Shaping ‘The Heir of Night’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have another guest post on my UK publisher, Orbit’s<\/a> blog today, all part of celebrating the mass market edition of The Heir of Night<\/em><\/strong> over there. Titled “Myth, Legend and History: The Shaping of The Heir of Night<\/em>“<\/strong>, it begins:<\/p>\n

“When asked, I always describe <\/em>The Heir of Night as \u201cclassic epic fantasy.\u201d In part this is because it is a hero tale with the fate of the world, and perhaps even of all worlds, at stake. It\u2019s a tale of adventure and magic and battles, of friendship and betrayal and love, of both individuals and a whole people under pressure: all the stuff in which the mythologies and legends that underpin our western culture\u2014the Greek, the Norse and the Celtic, with a fair dash of side influence from the Egyptian and Babylonian\u2014are steeped.<\/em><\/p>\n

…”<\/em><\/p>\n

To find out more and where the history comes in, click here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/h3>\n

—<\/p>\n

But Wait, There’s More—the Role of Place In Shaping The Heir of Night<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In terms of the shaping of a story and a world though, there are always more than one or two elements that come into play. I’ve talked a fair bit about characters lately: here<\/a> when the guest post on “The Evolution of Character”<\/strong> aired two weeks ago, but also here<\/a>, at the time of the UK mass market release last week (yup, it’s now free and in the wild! ;-)), and again here<\/a> only this Monday when I was talking about classic epic fantasy being based on tropes not cliches—and the importance of character in achieving that difference.<\/p>\n

But the whole “character” discussion took a slightly different turn when I posted as part of Mary Victoria’s<\/a> current “Place as Person”<\/strong> guest author series. (A wonderful series, by the way, and well worth checking out—the introductory post is here<\/a> and you just click forward from there.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jaransor; art by Peter Fitzpatrick<\/p><\/div>\n

In my post I discussed what it means for a “place” to become a “person.” You can read the full piece here<\/a>, but one of the places I dicussed was Jaransor, which may be “… not just a chaotic force, but a personality, albeit a fractured one, that has consciously entered into the conflict being played out.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Just for fun, here’s a small Jaransor excerpt:<\/p>\n

“The quiet lengthened, and Malian felt her mind turn to the murmur of the night breeze and the slow movement of the stars.\u00a0 She could follow the breeze, she realized, her fingers clasped around the armring, just as she had followed the vision of the hawk, earlier in the day.\u00a0 She flowed with it across the hillside, letting the little wind show her the fallen stones beneath the grass and the scurrying path of some small night creature.\u00a0 Malian could hear Lira’s footsteps, almost lighter than the breeze, as the guard made her careful way back to them.\u00a0 She could sweep high, too, far above the hills, and make out the whole length of Jaransor stretched out below her, just as the hawk must have seen it, spread beneath its wings. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

There <\/em>was power in the land.\u00a0 Malian could see it flowing like a river—but deep, far down in the earth.\u00a0 The hidden river only bubbled up at intervals along the crest of the hills, in a series of evenly spaced springs. The springs, she realized, matched the ruins of the watchtowers that had once stretched the length of Jaransor. Kyr was right, the ruins were centers of power still.”<\/em><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe place is one of the most significant shapers of both The Heir of Night<\/em> and the soon to be released The Gathering of the Lost<\/em>. Although Heir<\/em> is ostensibly set between three major physical “places”—the Wall of Night, the intervening Gray Lands, and Jaransor—there are in fact a number of other significant places within each of these settings, each with its own distinct ambience. Here’s what’s on my list—but if you’ve already read the book please feel free to put forward any other place you think I ‘ve left out:<\/p>\n