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Dance of the Rings
DAW Books, Inc.
| After I'd finished the third Groundties book, I needed a break. Stephen's story is so intense, it was giving me his nightmares! So I thought: How 'bout a book about an adult with his act together! Maybe ... a fantasy! Wow. What a concept. I've been a fan of the Jane Austen/Georgette Heyer school of historical fiction since my high school days, and if I've ever based a character on anyone or anything, Deymio was based on the Corinthian (you should pardon the expression) archetype Heyer portrayed so beautifully. He rapidly took his own form and his own past, and (despite my best efforts) acquired Problems (their names are Nikki and Mikhyel), and my editor talked me into making him under 30 (just), but if you think of him as 35 or more, so much the better. For the society, I wanted to avoid the medieval paradigm that a handful of authors out there write as if they'd lived back then, and I wanted to do something where the people have done the human thing and taken the "magic" to a practical conclusion (meaning some portion of the population was making a buck off it). The Rhomatum Syndicate of Nodes is probably most similar to the Greco-Roman style of mind-set and social structure, but there is no consciously constructed earthly paradigm. Such a parallel would be, in my opinion, inherently flawed as the very basis for the technology (a powersource equivalent to electricity that also creates a detritus-free environment---the sewers very literally feed the power-supply) has no earthly equivalent. I took the power-source/magic, and a couple of basic premises, and worked the rest out logically from that point. Technologically, they're right on the brink of the industrial revolution, but the limitations of the powersource, whose effects are highly localized, has created a technological conservatism that has kept them from stepping across that line ... yet. The "magic" in these books stems from that powersource. There are leylines networking all across the Rhomatum Valley and where these lines cross---the nodes---humans can tap the energy of the ley. They build Towers in which they house the rings that control and direct the energy flow, there are ringmasters to control the rings, and an on-going battle between those who consider the ley a magical gift of the gods and those who consider it a simple fact of nature to be tapped for whatever humankind can get out of it. And just when they think they've got it figured out ... along comes Mother. |
| Anheliaa Rhomandi dunMoren, Ringmaster of Rhomatum is dying. Unless she
finds a replacement, when she dies, the rings will spin out of control and the power
umbrella that gives light and heat to the people of the city of Rhomatum will collapse, as
will the power umbrellas of Rhomatum's satellite cities, the Rhomatum Syndicate of Nodes,
and while Rhomatum can exist without her satellites, they cannot maintain control without
Rhomatum. Obviously, Anheliaa's impending demise is of some interest to the ringmasters of
the satellites. Historically, it has required a Rhomandi to control the Rhomatum rings.
Unfortunately, her obvious heirs, her great-nephews, Deymorin, Mikhyel and Nikaenor, have
displayed absolutely no Talent for controlling the great leythium rings. This is not an ideal situation. Anheliaa, being a rather arrogant sort, and a firm believer in keeping the control of the rings in the Family, so to speak, arranges to have her nephews provide her with an heir. Unfortunately for his well-being, but fortunately for my book, Deymorin takes extreme exception to her methods. Arrogance confronts bull-headed stubbornness and the resultant explosion catapults Deymorin into an adventure filled with lies and innuendo, a bit of politics, a touch of magic ... and a little invention that could blow a city-sized hole in a leythium-based economy: a battery. |
Care to read a sample? Take your pick!
A night in the brothel.
A taste of Mother.
A meeting of hard heads.
A love match
And last but far from least:
The missing page
It had to happen eventually... the irreproducible printers' error. They managed to replace page 320 with page 302, not in every book (they'd've caught the error, if it'd happened in every book... or so they tell me). No-o-o, they bungled page 320 in some of the books, so no one caught it. (Except the readers... who told me... and I told ...) |
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| So.... If you've been wondering what really happened on page 320: |
For reader reviews or to order Ring of Lightning from Amazon.com
| In this, the sequel to Ring of Lightning, the Rhomandi brothers,
Deymorin, Mikhyel and Nikki, return to a city in turmoil. Their great-aunt Anheliaa hangs
on to life by the slimmest of Leythium threads, and Nikki's Shatumin wife, Lidye, has
assumed control of Rhomatum Tower. The web is disintegrating, taking with it the energy upon which the economy of the entire Syndicate depends. Suspicion runs deep, both throughout the Syndicate of Nodes and within Rhomatum Tower itself. The time is ripe for Rhomatum's takeover. The only question is, who will be the first to try? Their traditional adversary, Mauritum? The Kirish'lani to the south, perhaps. Or perhaps, one of the Syndicate's own. As Deymorin strives to resurrect defenses that have lain fallow for generations, and Nikki struggles to bring order to a city in shock, Mikhyel finds himself following a trail of secret agreements and ancient feuds---a trail that leads him from the depths of Sparingate Prison, to the teeming trade city of Shatum, and finally to the decadent courts of Khoratum, and a fight for independence that penetrates to the heart of the leythium web itself. A comment or three... I've become aware (I don't consciously start out to do these things---honest!) that a recurring theme in my books is the question of perception, and the wrong-headed notions we get about people by judging them before all the facts are in evidence---prejudice in its purest form. Character is, in my mind, an issue of motivation as much as action. Absolutes rarely have meaning. Oh, I have my limits, but is it murder when the death of one person saves the lives of ten? or of a thousand? or of a way of life? Is it rape if the alternative is death? In a simpler, more immediate vein, is a person 'good' when they do and say all the 'right' things solely to make someone like them? The intense third-person viewpointing lends itself extremely well to this aspect of storytelling. Thus far, all my books have multiple viewpoints (I think I had nine in Groundties!) but as a reader once you're in them, there's no escaping the fact that you're getting a prejudiced impression of both people and events based on the background and character of the viewpoint individual. As time passes, as you see those characters and events --- even that first viewpoint character --- from other's views ... you might learn that nothing is quite as obvious as it might at first have appeared. So, don't be surprised if you find your own, initial impression of a character slowly shifting ... sometimes 180 degrees! |
It's hard to find scenes that
don't give away too much of one book or the other,
so if you're really into surprise, you might want to avoid these.
But if you're feeling adventuresome ...
WYSIWYG
The Joys of Politics
Sucks-pond-water
Ring of Intrigue FAQ Page
If you've had trouble finding Ring of
Intrigue, it will be available
as of 1/20/00. For more information:
To Order Ring of Intrigue or post a review
Ring of Destiny
December 1999
ISBN 0-88677-870-0
With the Northern Crescent rebellion a thing of the past, the Rhomandi brothers settle into the task of rebuilding the physical, political, and psychological infrastructure of the Rhomatum Syndicate of Nodes. To their relief, in the wake of their show of solidarity and strength in the Rhomatum Tower, they find the task simpler than they'd dared hope.
In the way of things, they find their true challenges to be closer to home. Questions of who and what rules in the Rhomatum Tower, questions of the true fate of Khoratum, questions on the nature of the ley itself, and those who dare to control it.
And underlying it all, the question of the nature of three individuals, the question of whether the tempering of the past can overcome the prejudices of the present that could prevent them from fulfilling the promise for the future.
And if you're seriously into sneak previews...
The man in black speaks
A Matter of Hormones
More Hard Heads
To Order Ring of Destiny or post an Amazon Review
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