1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,600 This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Join me as I discuss whether or not 2 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:13,520 the Book of Three belongs in a place of glory in the fortress fiction. I'm discovering it, 3 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:17,800 I'm discussing it chapter by chapter. I'm talking about chapter five this time, 4 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:23,040 which is called The Broken Sword. And I have a few topics I want to talk about. So the first one 5 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:31,600 I'll start off with is soft magic, which actually, let me adjust my notes real quick. The magic 6 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:37,840 system that Lloyd Alexander is using here is very soft. And by that I mean, we don't really, 7 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:43,280 as the audience, understand how it works, why it works, what exactly people are doing with 8 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:51,400 their magic. And I think it's a good thing. It's very much in line with the way Gandalf, 9 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:56,200 the Grey, operates in the Tolkien books. It's very much in line with the way that 10 00:00:56,200 --> 00:01:06,240 the old queen or old princess Irene works in George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin. 11 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:18,000 It also kind of defines how the goblins themselves work in The Princess and the Goblin. And even in 12 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:23,160 The Princess and Curdie, some of the magical things that go on there are definitely more within the 13 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:29,160 soft magic category. And I like that. I think it's a good thing. I had a preference for hard magic 14 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:40,320 before I was better read, I think, and before I was writing my own magic into things. And as time 15 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:46,800 went on, I realized, you know, doing a hard magic system, it's not as fun for me, as not as appealing 16 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:51,120 to me as the author. And to some extent, it's not as appealing to me as the reader and as the 17 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:58,200 audience. It's just something I enjoy less. Hard Magic by Larry Crea, which is not for children. 18 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:02,920 I do talk about family friendly stuff here in Forced Fiction, but Larry Crea is a prolific 19 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:07,600 author. He's the author of the Monster Hunter International series, as well as the Grim Noir 20 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:13,720 Chronicles, which features a trilogy plus some extra books. The first of which is called Hard 21 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:19,520 Magic is about a hard magic system, sort of. And it's, I think he describes it as an epic fantasy, 22 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:27,160 but it's in a noir setting. And it's very interesting. It treats magic as something 23 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:37,880 systematic. And you discover the origin of magic. The origin of the magic isn't, it doesn't preclude 24 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:43,560 there being real magic in the universe. It just defines the source of the real magic in a 25 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:53,440 to something very finite and not so much infinite versus the grass net that Gwydion uses in here. 26 00:02:53,440 --> 00:03:00,480 He learned it from Dolbyn. He learned that technique from Dolbyn. So he's some sort of, 27 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:05,280 he's got some sort of magic capacity or capability. It's unclear. He refuses to say, 28 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:12,080 and Alexander refuses to divulge that to us. And Ahren has very unclear magic abilities as well. 29 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:20,240 She seems to be at one point healing Tarin, or at least making him feel better, making him feel 30 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:27,040 more comfortable, making him susceptible to talking to her and possibly giving up vital 31 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:34,040 information. So she's enchanting him. And it's kind of hard to tell what's going on. Gwydion 32 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:39,360 realizes what's happening. And so he breaks, he interrupts her flow and she's not able to fully 33 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:46,040 enchant Tarin. Although she was certainly working on it. And then we also get to see, 34 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:49,680 I don't know if this was magical or not. And that's kind of the way soft magic works. She 35 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:58,240 tries to break the sword that Gwydion has and sparks fly. She crashes it into a pillar and 36 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:02,600 throws it to the floor. And then finally she grabs it with her bare hand. She grabs the naked blade 37 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:07,960 and her hands ended up bleeding, but she's able to break the sword with sounds of thunder. And 38 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:13,280 I think flashes of lightning and things like that. And she tells Gwydion that she will break him, 39 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:17,440 just like she broke his sword, which makes her pretty scary. But that's all done through a soft 40 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:21,160 magic. Her eyes roll in the back of her head and she starts muttering something that Tarin is 41 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:24,360 unable to understand. At least I think we're seeing the scene from Tarin's perspective, 42 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:35,440 pretty sure. In fact, I'm mostly sure. And it's really interesting how it's executed. It's almost 43 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:40,720 like a sword and sorcery thing where magic is bad and magic is scary. And you don't want to have 44 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:47,240 anything to do with it. Sword and sorcery referring to things like the Thomas E. Howard's Conan, 45 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:54,920 or what I have more experience with from him, which is Solomon Kane. And so it's like you get 46 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:59,920 to see, you can kind of observe what magic does and the kinds of things magic is able to do in a 47 00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:04,600 world with soft magic, but you don't understand at all how it works. And there's no real attempt 48 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:08,720 to explain it to you. In fact, there may be attempts to obfuscate how the magic functions 49 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:15,760 by the author. But I like it. I think it's very effective. And it's a lot of fun. It definitely 50 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:21,560 helps to keep a sense of wonder, I think, because I, like Tarin, was wondering how exactly Gwinn did 51 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:26,160 this grass net thing. And then it made me wonder and have awe and have fear a little bit of Ahren 52 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:31,800 and what she's able to do because she totally trashed that sword. And we don't know how. And 53 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:37,760 it makes her more scary. So that's good. Also, speaking of Ahren and what makes her scary, 54 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:44,560 her duality is scary. She ends the chapter very much in a position of power and in a position of 55 00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:50,600 making threats and letting everybody know that she is the one who wields the power and that she is 56 00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:57,000 in control of their lives. And yet she starts off the chapter softly. She says something, 57 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:02,320 this lad can barely keep his feet about Tarin. And she's saying, you're injured. And, you know, 58 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:08,960 oh, this must be a terrible mistake. And wanting to help these men and fix the situation that 59 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:15,400 they're in. But the softness that she has is strategic. And it's just kind of hiding the 60 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:23,000 metal underneath. And it's like an iron fist with a velvet glove. She's both, you know, 61 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,280 and that's really interesting, her duality. And she even seems to be hinting at something a little 62 00:06:27,280 --> 00:06:33,360 unsavory when she tells Gwydian that there are like other ways to negotiate or other ways to 63 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:37,400 bargain or something like that. And kind of was very interesting, very suspicious about, 64 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:42,280 I'm very suspicious as an adult, like what exactly is she hinting at? But it's very unclear. And 65 00:06:42,280 --> 00:06:47,520 there's no way Tarin would know. And we probably would fly over most kids' heads. But maybe she 66 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:55,720 just means torture. She could mean torture. Gwydian tries to make space for Tarin to run away. 67 00:06:55,720 --> 00:07:02,760 And Tarin refuses to run. He settles himself in and he decides to fight with Gwydian. And he 68 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:12,160 strikes a blow against one of the Cauldronborn. And Gwydian says, why didn't you run away? And 69 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:19,080 he expresses gratitude for his bravery and some respect for him, for him standing and fighting, 70 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:25,360 even though he should have been wiser and ran. But Tarin really does show courage. And while he is 71 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:31,080 full hearty, he is hearty. And that is good. And that's something to be proud of. And that's 72 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:35,560 something to admire in him. And I think it's clear that we can see that Gwydian does respect 73 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:39,440 that. So that's really neat, neat exchange, neat representation of both of their characters and 74 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:44,120 what's going on under the surface. And then he passes out a bunch and he goes into fever dreams 75 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:51,080 as he's getting carried off by the Cauldronborn to the castle or tower or whatever, where Achren 76 00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:58,320 is and where she's holding them. And the horror, the silent horror of the Cauldronborn is really 77 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:03,680 effective. One of them, Gwydian stabs in the heart and he just like shakes off and then keeps 78 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:08,320 fighting. They don't speak and they seem to not want others to speak as well. They have these whips 79 00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:13,160 that they wear around their waists. And at some point, Tarin is talking to Gwydian and one of the 80 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:20,600 Cauldronborn whips him into silence. And they talk about how Oran has driven all humanity and all 81 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:25,480 memory of joy and all these other good things that made them human out of them. So that they're just 82 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:32,480 like really just shells. They're combat competent shells and they have no more humanity left. And 83 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,800 they almost even seem to detest or well maybe there's a shred of it, which is like they detest 84 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:40,000 and they resent the humanity of others and the camaraderie and the brotherhood of others who can 85 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:48,960 talk because they can't talk. And they keep silencing Tarin and Gwydian throughout their 86 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:53,240 exchange. And it's really interesting to me, like I don't understand what exactly Alexander is 87 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:57,840 hinting at with that, but it does seem to be profound. And it is scary and it makes them creepy 88 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:02,840 and effective. So that's nice. So anyway, this was a really good chapter. The book keeps coming 89 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:07,480 along. It just keeps getting better and I'm thoroughly enjoying it and I hope to continue 90 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:13,520 enjoying it and hope to keep moving forward quickly. From this point on I took a break for 91 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:20,880 a while, but I'm back now. And in the meantime, I did some things like finish my book Mawkuing 92 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:30,240 Mayhem, which I'm working on getting cover art for. And I'm working on running up my email 93 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:36,640 campaign and my launch campaign and all that. So hopefully I'll be announcing that soon. And be 94 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:41,000 sharing that with you and the rest of the world and hopefully we can make a good go of it. It's a 95 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:45,160 fantasy story with magical bugs, battling monsters. And if you want to find out more about that, go 96 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:53,360 to grobugs.com. There's also going to be a cool bonus. If you sign up, you can get a field guide 97 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:57,640 to Mockwing Mayhem where you can learn more about the world of Mockwing Mayhem and more about the 98 00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:02,920 world of the grobugs that feature in the book. So that's it for now.