philtucker
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Major Updates Incoming
🕑 Added 2024-09-24 14:27:19 +0000 UTCI've sold the audiobook rights of Thrones of the Fallen to Podium. I'm going to be structuring each 'book' as a 150k word arc, or roughly 45 chapters each.
This has caused me to step back and eye the narrative sweep of the tale thus far, and realize, reluctantly, that some profound pacing/structural changes are necessary.
On one hand, this will result in shuffling some things around, cutting others, and tightening everything up, meaning that the story you've been reading will become an alternate timeline of what the final and official version will be.
On the other hand, the story is going to get so much better as a result.
What changes? This is what I've planned/executed so far:
Book 1: (Done)
The first 45 chapters will now culminate in Harald dueling Yeoric. That duel will remain square and center for the entire first arc, and Harald's energy and focus will remain solidly on defeating his first rival and foe.
This means that Yeoric's challenge gives Harald only 1 month to train, and he faces his nemesis at Level 1, with only Aura of the Aching Depths and Abyssal Attunement in his arsenal.
However, he changes how he distributes his father's Twilight Infinitum to give him an edge: he now suggests from the get-go that the Infinitum be broken into 10 Horizon's Whispers, with one going to pay Countess Sonora, another raising him to his Second Throne, and two going to Sam to repay her for her life's service. and help her Ascend to her Second Throne as well.
The rest is dumped into the crew fund, and the Artifact's distributed accordingly. We skip the whole chapter where his friends react negatively to his largesse, and instead move straight into their discussing how the crew might best be set up.
Thus the arc for Book 1 is more tightly focused: it's a sprint to gain as much power as possible to face and defeat Yeoric, and the final chapter ends with the next big threat stepping onto the playing board: Lady Yseult Khan knocking on his door, asking for a moment of his time.
Book 2: (Next)
The arc of the next 50 or so chapters will revolve around the auction and navigating the attention of the major Houses. House Celestis presses him to join, Harald and his crew assault the goblin levels, and the Shuddering only cements his prominence. Kársek joins the team, and the narrative arc culminates in Countess Sonora accepting him into her House, and promising to shield him against the anger of the greater Houses, even as Vorakhar sets him up to duel with Thracos of House Thornvale.
Book 3:
This is where we're currently at. The focus here will be much as it's been, but with Harald devoting more time to fighting Sonora's rivals even as he takes on Thracos' challenge and begins to lose himself to the heady power of the Demon Seed.
As soon as I've polished the first Book, I'll post all the new material here, including the duel with Yeoric and the modified outline. I'll also make the PDF of the first book available for download to Backers interested in rereading the story to catch all the edits, large and small.
In the meantime, I'm going to continue posting the chapters from my backlog as I edit Book 2, and then I'll post those major edits. Then I'll revise what's been written for Book 3 thus far, and make a big announcement when I drop those edits and jump the rails completely to the new timeline.
Please note: this is all going to happen fast. Book 1 edits are done. Book 2 edits should only take a week or two. My goal is to have everything reoriented and done by early October.
With a little luck, the new arcs with be tighter, cleaner, and more focused. Harald's journey will make more intuitive sense, and the sense of progression will be sharper. His struggles and the plot will largely stay the same - I'm not doing a complete rewrite after all - but with everything moved around some, it should all be more satisfying to read.
So! Thanks for your support and sticking with the tale. Things are going to get better from hereon out, and I really hope you all agree.
Cheers!
Phil
Comments
Asad haider
Nah, you’re just that good.
Mark Timmony
Excellent! 😍
David Ford
Yea, I liked the reaction, but the timing of it with the overall dysfunction of his group just felt like kicking the puppy when he was down and just getting up
Phil Tucker
Absolutely. I've still got about ten chapters left in my backlog, which is enough, posting-time-wise, for me to finish my revisions, post the new material, and then continue posting on the new timeline without any interruptions.
Phil Tucker
Oh, more books to come. A trilogy is all that I've written thus far.
ShivaMcTimber
Really looking forward to it. This is a great story. I was about to read from the beginning again, but I'll hold off for the new version. Once the edit versions are out, you will be continuing the x weekly posts of the new canon version right? Please say yes.
Mark Timmony
So now it’s only going to be a trilogy? Or are there more books to come?
Phil Tucker
True. It felt real to me, but perhaps too messy and complicated for what's meant to be a broadly appealing progression fantasy series.
Laura Pilkington
woo! it has seemed a bit slow paced, so I approve of this rearrangement. the negative reaction to the largesse was interesting though - I’ll be sad to see that go. people really are weird about money, charity, worth and ideas about ‘earned’ or ‘deserves’
Phil Tucker
No idea who the narrator will be, but I'm hoping they'll knock it out of the park!
Phil Tucker
You're too kind!
Hailhound
Yeah, it was a good show of how sheltered he was and how his approach needs to change moving forward. But you can still get that with a paragraph or two of him agonizing and feeling selfish, but then the rest of the party just shrugging and being like “that breakdown makes sense, it’s your money after all.” And then he gets the practical advantage of the money used to upgrade his thrones as well.
Asad haider
Honestly, I like this story so much already that I don’t want to see it change, even as I know that it will only get better and cooler! ❤️
Lorenz
Also a big fan of Audible and will 100% be listening to the new story when available……I will probably wait to relive the story on audio rather than re-reading it with the new format, and experience the changes when I listen to it. Should be fun and can’t wait. Hope it’s Nick Podehl (Immortal Great Souls) or another one of the great narrators. :-)
David Ford
I think this is 100% the right move. Just reading the changes it sounds better, much better structured. I think him getting told off for his largess was a good moral in life, but put him down at a time he needed a pick me up
Lorenz
Looking forward to it!
