Three Roses, Bk.1 by Roger Eichorn

  • 77 Replies
  • 50449 Views

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #15 on: May 14, 2013, 09:57:39 pm »
Quote from: delavagus
Thanks, Madness!  (What's your name, again?  Mike?  My memory for names is terrible...)

BTW, I had no idea my maps would post at their full size.  I figured the site would make thumbnails out of them.  Do you think I should get rid of them?  Or shrink them?  They make this page rather unwieldy...

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #16 on: May 14, 2013, 09:57:44 pm »
Quote from: Madness
Yeap, that'd be me. Not so terrible.

Hmm... I took the time to explore them. It is only this one page that will be stretched like this within the thread.

I leave it up to those who are reading this thread at all. I don't mind.

Still not the coherency I'd like but some thoughts:

Really like the conception of Kosmos Biblioth, the Kosmokinoi, worldwalkers, the different Orders. Contzen was awesome.
I could read the prologue especially but any sidereas at all, over and over again.

I really appreciate the idea of world-slips, certain individuals being instrumental in using those moments as fulcrums against the Opponent, and the psychological integration that takes.

Late night for me tonight and early morning tomorrow but you've had me exploring your world all day in my mind. Something to be said for that.

Cheers.

String theory a big inspiration?

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #17 on: May 14, 2013, 09:57:50 pm »
Quote from: Callan S.
I've only read part so far (I just don't enjoy reading for pleasure from a computer screen, though I can read forums all day)

Just so far; I'm not sure how much weight you put on opening lines, but to me the first line didn't have a mystery in it. To me, you could tie that sorcerer in, like how it says the monastary is surrounded by fog, you could also add 'and inside it, a fog surrounded by a man. A sorcerer.' or something.

During the game, I think something should be at stake. Yes, maybe I don't know about the thing that is at stake during it and that's revealed latter - but for us clompers, perhaps something of concerning and fairly obvious nature could also be happening in the background, that the player aught deal with?

Am looking forward to this thread getting to the second page - the images are making the posting box unpleasant to work with.

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #18 on: May 14, 2013, 09:57:54 pm »
Quote from: Madness
I just took a gander at editing your post, Delavagus. There's some kind of image portal beneath the text window where you can click text to upload images specifically.

I'm not sure if that will change how these are displayed. The way they're imbedded weirds me out too.

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #19 on: May 14, 2013, 09:57:59 pm »
Quote from: delavagus
I just got rid of the maps.  I could shrink them and repost if anyone's interested.  Let me know.

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #20 on: May 14, 2013, 09:58:04 pm »
Quote from: delavagus
Thanks for reading and for taking the time to post some of your thoughts, Callan.

Quote from: Callan S.
I'm not sure how much weight you put on opening lines, but to me the first line didn't have a mystery in it.

I'm of two minds about the whole 'first-line' question.  Some argue, of course, that first lines have to be big and flashy or otherwise do that something super-special and mysterious that grabs readers by the scruff of their necks and forces them to read on.  Yet the first lines of a great many very good and successful books seems to belie this claim.

My aspiration with the opening paragraph is simply to set a scene, a mood, in as quietly, unobtrusively beautiful a way as I can.

Quote from: Callan S.
During the game, I think something should be at stake.

Hmm.  Something _is_ at stake, of course, but what that 'something' is only comes out at the end.  My intent was that the sheer oddity and smoldering menace of the scene would be sufficiently compelling.  But I'll give some thought to what you've said.

Thanks again.

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #21 on: May 14, 2013, 09:58:10 pm »
Quote from: Madness
+1 for Paragraphs.

devalagus, Wilshire posted a picture he thought would screw with the border in another thread and he simply put it within spoiler tags... I wonder if that would solve the problem with your maps.

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #22 on: May 14, 2013, 09:58:14 pm »
Quote from: Madness
delavagus was kind enough to post another excerpt from The House of Yesteryear. Real good stuff. I'm gauging from what I've read so far that book one of Three Roses is either real big or the he's going to deny us the meat until book two ;). Relatively spoiler free as up til Ch. 3 is released: Three Roses, Book One: The House of Yesteryear[/b][/i].

Either way, guaranteed I'm going to burn through this book in a sitting :(. Keep cracking delavagus, you've got, at least, my modest purchases as future reward.

Excerpt Ch. 10[/b]

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #23 on: May 14, 2013, 09:58:19 pm »
Quote from: delavagus
Thanks for linking to this, and for taking the time to read.

Quote from: Madness
I'm gauging from what I've read so far that book one of Three Roses is either real big or the he's going to deny us the meat until book two ;).

I'm wondering if you could say more about this.  Are you referring to the fact that, even ten chapters in, here we are being introduced to a new viewpoint character (which suggests that even at Chapter 10 the book remains in 'build-up' mode)?  Or something like that?

If so, then it's interesting how wrong -- and yet how right! -- you are.  I thought about mentioning this in my introductory remarks to the 'Bonus Scene' on the TPB, but I'll mention it here: One of the peculiar things about The House of Yesteryear is that it's composed of three more or less self-standing sections (Parts 1-3).

Partly it just worked out this way, but my thinking was something like this:  One of the banes of fantasy series, and one of their most frustrating features, is a lack of resolution.  They just go on and on and on.  But as we know, both from books and especially from serialized television, it is entirely possible to tell long, involved arcs that are composed of a number of smaller narrative arcs.  An obvious benefit of this sort of 'narrative nesting' is that resolutions are satisfying, and so nesting resolutions into the overall arc creates these moments.  We all know what it feels like when a story starts hurtling toward a conclusion: how the momentum picks up, the pieces start coming together, your heart starts racing a bit faster.  Now, of course all these things can happen without anything 'resolving,' but resolutions have a particular sort of narrative spark to them, I think.  They're tantalizing enough that sometimes nothing but the promise of reaching that point will draw readers through literally thousands of pages of a series even if they're tired of that series.  It's quite remarkable, really.

Anyway.  My idea -- I don't know if it's true, but... -- is that fantasy readers are hungry for genuine narrative resolutions.  Scott did something like this by having his overall story break down into three sections.  The end of TTT, while clearly leaving a lot of story to tell, simply feels like an ending.  I'm trying to take it a step further in my first book, by having each of its three parts form its own narrative arc, with a beginning, middle, and end.  In fact, together they even something of the common structure of trilogies: Part 1 offers a satisfying conclusion, but not as satisfying as Part 3, while Part 2 is the most openended.

So you're right that, even in Chapter 10, I'm in 'build-up' mode -- but that's because Chapter 10 is the second chapter of Part 2.  The entire Part-1 arc has been resolved by then, and the second arc is underway.

I figure that if I can pull off this structure, it should be awfully appealing to readers.  The most obvious challenge, of course, is that the most difficult part of any story is the beginning: getting the narrative plane off the ground.  I actually think this is why so many fantasy series never resolve, because it's just too demanding a task to consider landing the behemoth plane only to have to take off in it again.  The way THOY is set up, though, I essentially have to start over again three separate times!

I can never make things easy on myself...

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #24 on: May 14, 2013, 09:58:25 pm »
Quote from: Madness
Quote from: delavagus
I'm wondering if you could say more about this. Are you referring to the fact that, even ten chapters in, here we are being introduced to a new viewpoint character (which suggests that even at Chapter 10 the book remains in 'build-up' mode)? Or something like that?

My association was towards the stage you are sketching, though definitely the late temporal entry in the narrative contributes the size of that stage. I have thoughts, which I'll try and explore with even a measure of the rigour you exercise :).

An aside, I think you would make a very many people happy to do a version of these topics or even a summary of this conversation over at TPB, regardless of TPB being purposeful only towards any specific end ;).

To pick one motif, you've considered resolution extensively. I think - apart from its actual existence in Serial World, as you've mentioned above - that resolution is a readerly assumption, perhaps, even a writerly one.

Yet its the fact of assumed resolution that narrative rests on.

Quote from: delavagus
An obvious benefit of this sort of 'narrative nesting' is that resolutions are satisfying, and so nesting resolutions into the overall arc creates these moments. We all know what it feels like when a story starts hurtling toward a conclusion: how the momentum picks up, the pieces start coming together, your heart starts racing a bit faster. Now, of course all these things can happen without anything 'resolving,' but resolutions have a particular sort of narrative spark to them, I think. They're tantalizing enough that sometimes nothing but the promise of reaching that point will draw readers through literally thousands of pages of a series even if they're tired of that series. It's quite remarkable, really.

Quite so but further they allow the narrative to function at all. Its an aspect that enables garnered attention (the function of teasers and hints) and that Camlost and I (and anyone else who cares to join in, if you hover hither) are toying with in Viramsata.

Avoiding the cognitive elements as much as possible, it is the nature of our brains, that allows for readers to work these obliquely disparate experiences together in their imaginations. I write obliquely disparate because you, likely, write with decided flags and greater sufficiency (terms from a TPB blog, essentially, without flags, readers have no reason to question the sufficiency, as is, of their world or perspective) than the reader is exposed to unlike what has happened in Viramsata where, no matter how unrelated the elements are for writers, the readers cannot but help form a conjoining narrative in their imaginations - and my own, which is where the words keep coming from ;).

So you've given us readers some flags, which, like philosophic-flashlights, shine greater and lesser sufficiencies of your world - I made my commentary from the elements you've given us. Martyn and the Opponent necessarily sketch the greatest dimensions, followed by Jerome's World-Slip and meeting the Stranger, the worldwalker. It seems that Lockard's war is a tool in a more dangerous game.

The introduction Ch. 10 and your thoughts here reveal something of novel intent - I'd be forced to make some new guesses based on those words. Few authors aren't trying for the climatic resolution of disparate perspectives in the nested narrative you suggested.

Quote from: delavagus
So you're right that, even in Chapter 10, I'm in 'build-up' mode -- but that's because Chapter 10 is the second chapter of Part 2. The entire Part-1 arc has been resolved by then, and the second arc is underway.

+1 Novel Intent. It will be interesting. Big book. I appreciate that immensely. I think writers should be trying to advance the craft, add something new, especially in SFF.

My hazard at obscene dimensions, however, is that THOY, even sketching these greater sufficiencies is only book one of Three Roses!

And I'm especially expecting narrative resolution from take-off to landing now :P.

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #25 on: May 14, 2013, 09:58:36 pm »
Quote from: Callan S.
I'd suspect madness wants a slow burn, but needs to protest it because that just makes it all the more an exquisite torture...

 :twisted:

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #26 on: May 14, 2013, 09:58:56 pm »
Quote from: delavagus
Quote from: Madness
My hazard at obscene dimensions, however, is that THOY, even sketching these greater sufficiencies is only book one of Three Roses!

On this point: One of the things about Three Roses that sets it apart from many, probably most, fantasy series is that it covers a long period of time.  It's not like Robert Jordan's minute-by-minute narrative or the sort of day-by-day-by-day style you often find.  In this respect, the book is influenced by much historical fiction.  It's this feature of the narrative that facilitates many (but not all) of the 'nested' arcs.

(click to show/hide)

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #27 on: May 14, 2013, 09:59:04 pm »
Quote from: Madness
Very interesting. As I was tipped off since the first round of commentators on Ch. 1 & 2 preview that the story is closely analogous to real-life history... you're giving us gristles, delavagus.

Lol, keep on trucking :). I'm sure you've done more than enough to convince most Bakker fans to follow your narrative - certainly only one of many fantasy demographics you can leverage.

Lol @ Callan.

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #28 on: May 14, 2013, 09:59:12 pm »
Quote from: Madness
Chapter Eleven Excerpt[/b]

delavagus has a prominent warning within the text but I thought I'd mention Major Spoilers for the initial chapters 1 & 3.

What Came Before

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Emwama
  • *****
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
    • First Second Apocalypse
« Reply #29 on: May 14, 2013, 09:59:17 pm »
Quote from: delavagus
Thanks for the link!

Quote from: Madness
delavagus has a prominent warning within the text but I thought I'd mention Major Spoilers for the initial chapters 1 & 3.

A couple things I think readers should know about the spoilery-ness of Chapter 11:

- Only the very end of the chapter is seriously spoilery, and the spoilery section is separated from the rest by a section break as well as a big fat spoiler alert.  I don't want people to be discouraged from reading.  (I thought about not including the short last section, which contains the spoiler, but I decided to keep it in there.)

- The major spoiler in Chapter 11 does not spoil the first three chapters, but rather gives away a major event that occurs at the conclusion of Part 1, a few chapters before.