Larry shared an update on the Book of Faces recently- thought you might be interested… -Jack
This month I did the detail outline and planning for Graveyard of Demons (there are a lot of complicated threads to tie up!) and I just finished writing the first 20k words. The plan is to have the book done and to Toni by the end of the year.
I’m so pumped for you guys to see the end of this series. This story is so bad ass. 😀
(and because I know people are gonna ask whenever I mention this series, no, I do not know the Tower of Silence audio book release date yet! Balls were dropped and Tim Gerrard Reynolds is a very in demand narrator. As soon as I know when it’ll be up for pre order I will spam the internet!)
SPOILERS –
Like seriously, if you haven’t read Tower of Silence, stop.
SPOOOOOILERS!
As we left off at the end of Tower of Silence, Ashok had escaped the prison of Fortress, killed their Ram, and may have inadvertently made himself their ruler. He’s not sure. It is a strange place.
Now armed with a new Angruvadal– and we learned a lot more about the nature of Black Steel–Ashok is searching for his prophet Thera, who the enigmatic Mother Dawn told him that he would find her in the city of Kanok, in Great House Makao.
Except along the way, Ashok begins to see signs that the demons are up to something… and not just near the sea, but rather far inland.
After destroying the Capitol aqueduct, Thera was separated from the Sons of the Black Sword, and captured by the traitorous priest Javed, who was secretly an Inquisition Witch Hunter. Only she was then claimed by the Inquisition’s warrior caste escort, which happened to be led by her former husband, Dhaval. Who is really, really vengeful, and looking forward to her very public shaming and execution.
As Thera’s fate is being fought over, her only way out of the dungeons of Great House Makao is by getting executed as a rebel traitor, or getting sent back to the Capitol to be dissected by the Inquisition so they can rip the Voice out of her head.
Well, there’s a third option. And that’s trusting the false priest, Javed, who is now claiming to be wracked with guilt and truly converted after one of the gods appeared to him in person on the road to the Capitol. So he’s either playing mind games with her for some Inquisition end, or he’s quite possibly insane… or he might just be telling her the truth.
Grand Inquisitor Omand has taken control of the Capitol, while under the guise of fighting the demon scourge and investigating the pillar of fire in the north, his puppet king invades Vadal, the only Great House that’s got the political power to stop Omand’s goals. Only Omand is distracted, because his secret deal with a demon to exterminate the casteless has finally paid off, and the ultimate source of magical power and immortality is now within his reach, in the northern jungles of Gujara.
Meanwhile, his puppet king has a mind of his own, and Devedas, now crowned with the new office of Raj, has his own dangerous ideas of how to restore order in the north. It does not help that he believes the woman he loves, Radamantha, has been held against her will Thakoor Harta Vadal… Which is partly true, but Devedas doesn’t know that Rada also might have inadvertently just armed his enemy Great House Vadal with a weapon from the ancient world.
Defending Great House Vadal from the armies of Sarnobat in the east, Vokkan in the west, and the newly formed army of the Raj from the south, is Phontho Jagdish. The man who just wanted to be a good soldier keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time… And that’s not even getting into the complexities of his looming wedding to the Lady Shakti. 😀 (and everybody who was at the infamous Indian Wedding panel at LibertyCon knows what I decided to do there!)
The Great Extermination served its purpose for Omand to deceive the demons, but once a fire that big is started, it will not burn itself out. Now that genocide threatens to tear the Lok apart, and that was before Gutch started mass producing guns on the mainland and handing them out like candy!
But the demons were convinced that the casteless–who are the descendants of legendary Ramrowan–have been wiped out. Now the army of hell is on the move. Why did the casteless matter so much to them? Why did they wait for them to be destroyed before using the ancient’s underground passages to invade the land?
The time of The Law is over. This is the dawn of a new age. But will it be another age of man? Or a time of demons?
Yeah… I’m pretty pumped about this one. 😀
If all goes according to plan, the 5th and final book of the series will be out right about ten years after Son of the Black Sword. That’s pretty damn cool for an epic fantasy series like this.
****SPOILERS*****
Am I the only one who read the latest book and thought that Upagraha’s quiver sounds suspiciously like a big moon laser?
Really looking forward to this one.
***Spoiler cont.***
I thought it was an orbital nuke. Remember the nuclear/radioactive symbol in the cave under the ocean? Then again, it did arrive on target awfully quick, I suppose. Still, it said the Quiver was empty after that shot, IIRC.
I’m sticking with orbital nuke, or maybe planet-side nuke directed from the moon?
*spoiler* with all the comments about the little dark moon I’m pretty sure there’s a big spaceship in orbit. Especially since astronomers are a super secret sect.
My impression was ‘Rod From God’ — one last kinetic weapon, held in reserve. Remember how it burned across the sky?
As Mannie observed in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, a kinetic strike looks a lot like a nuke. Both cause a sudden release of energy and heat.
“I think we should stop hitting Cheyenne Mountain.”
“Why?”
“It’s not there any more.”
See? This is why I don’t try to figure anything out and generally just wait for the reveal. Yours and Andrew’s ideas are much better than mine. Consider me converted. 😉
Seems to me it can only be a laser.
Im sure the nuclear symbol refers to something that is in the guarded city under the ocean. I thought that is what that symbol was. Very clever.
It’s been clear Lok is some kind of human colony world with a lot of ancient artifacts running around. I think this is the first time I’ve ever not hated the “Expected fantasy? Surprise! It’s me! Sci-fi!” twist. Every other time I’ve seen it it came off as the author being too “mature” to have something like magic in their fiction, or a half-assed retcon that opens up so many plotholes.
Great job on both the finish and on not lengthening and padding each new book. Hoping to see it finish up strong!
Jack can you set up Larry with a system where he can post to both Facebook and here at the same time?
Yes, but it wouldn’t be selective- not everything needs to be preserved for posterity. 🙂
True, but the blog feels really lonely these days without your posts
I use a sick day every time one of these comes out.
Five sick days in a decade is pretty damned good!
Pumped about this too. It seems like there’s enough left to wrap up for two books. This thing is going to be packed.
I think I’ve got one thing about Ashok figured out, so I hope to see if I’m right. I’m usually terrible about predicting things.
Super excited for this. Guess I’ll need to go back and read/listen to the series again.
Just tease us, why don’t ya… 🙂
Just ordered the limited edition Hard Magic set. Very psyched for it to get here. Hopefully, it arrives before the apocalypse does. I made sure to get an extra couple pairs of readers for my doomsday kit!
Wild idea: John RIngo is writing part of the next book, and there’s choice weaponry borrowed for the Aldenata sagas. Probably wrong, but would explain some of the overkill.
Oh, Agent Franks, no!
I wasn’t even aware of this series but since this post I’ve devoured the lot. Wonderful story!
Possible spoiler!
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Black Steel strikes me as quantum connected nanotechnology and the demons seem manufactured……lol. I’ll just have to wait and see.
Demons dont seem manufactured. They have feelings, needs, want, and hate. That hardly seems like something that was created. This isn’t Pacific Rim.
They are most certainly an alien race. As for wether or not black steel is quantum connected nanotech? Well…thats the same as saying magic isn t it? There is nothing about quantum mechanics that suggests that we can rearrange atomic structure of stuff. That would be magic.
*click* *wheeze* “Ashok, I am your father…” *click* *wheeze*
Dear Larry and Jack,
We, the fans, humbly request that Jewish space lasers be included in the next book.
Sincerely,
All of us
I have zero say in Larry’s work- I just help him with the non-writing stuff so he can focus on getting us all the next book.
I avoided this post for the longest time since I hadn’t finished the book yet. Just finished it last nite. And it was awesome. I know that I’m late to the party, but I just wanted to say that this is my favorite book series next to LOTR.
One thing I would like to ask, have you ever thought about an adaptation of this series to a comic book/graphic novel? It’s been on my mind since I read the first book as it’s almost perfectly structured for an illustrated adaptation. Just a thought and I can’t wait for the next one, which I actually hope isn’t the last. Unless it’s amazing. I could settle for that.
How hard can it be to read the book by yourself.
Devedas is an evil selfish pric…person. He is avaricious. I bet a black steel blade would have broken to pieces if he touched it.
My sister and I are still hoping Rada sees through him. Our favorite characters are her and Karno. BTW; Larry keeps on making it seem like Karno died….then it turns out he made it…. Meanwhile we bite our fingernails.
SPOILER WARNING!
Waited to read this post until I’d reread all the books, then forgot to start rereading them…anyway finally done, and holy crap that was awesome! Jagdish gets a scary wife who seems worthy of him and Hutch gets to come to the rescue? Awesome! Poor Keta, but we all knew that was coming, and the assassin’s slaves are waking up? Yesss! So glad they’re getting their minds back!
So excited for the final (or even penultimate if it turns out you need another book to wrap it all up!) volume!
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Since I just finished the book, I can tell you, Martine, demons *were* manufactured. Or at least engineered:
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“… “The gods had created black steel as the ultimate manifestation of their powers, a substance able to alter the world according to their whims. It was created in a forge that required heat great as the sun.” Dondrub traced his fingers over the symbols reverently. “The evil tried to copy this miracle and gave life to demons instead. The demons hated the gods, for the gods rejected them. The demons made war on the gods, and all of mankind watched as the two sides filled the heavens above us with fire and thunder for many days. It was war the likes of which had never been seen before or since. …” (Tower of Silence Ch. 11)
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An alien intelligence tried to replicate black steel, failed, and created/manufactured demons instead. Pretty clear cut case of “not just a weird alien organism, actually an engineered weapon” innit? And w/ respect to your point about demons having desires etc, the “gods” appear to have desires too, yet they’re obviously not organic entities. Same with Angruvadal, etc. Like the Dvarapala.
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So excited to read more! Pleeeease let Thera disembowel her former husband! Or just let Ashok behead him without any fanfare or even noticing it had happened. Also, can Omand live a thousand years being slowly tortured to death? Or a hundred, I’m not picky.
Oh, and yes. Karno is the best. And Jagdish. Devedas… he’s broken, and terribly warped, but I wish he could have a redemption arc because there’s clearly a tremendous capacity for good in him.