“On the plus side,” said Harper, “it means you don’t need to worry about using contraceptives. That’s neat, right?”
Lynnette just squinted at him. She was wondering if he was about to admit to joking, but apparently, he was being serious.
“Then again, if you really want to give birth, you could amputate your arm. Or try a surrogate. Personally, though, I’d just recommend adopting. Not enough people adopt, you know. The world already has plenty of kids in need of a good parent, but hardly anyone considers adopting unless they can’t have kids of their own. It’s a real shame.” Another beat passed as he watched Lynnette’s face. “Before you ask, yes, I’ve adopted many children.”
She wasn’t going to ask that.
“They’re all grown up now. It’s why I like to travel so much. They live all over the world. I’ve been thinking of doing it again, but now that I’m with the Vanguard, raising a child would be more complicated. Could also be more exciting, though.” He smiled and let his eyes wander upward a little. “Could take ‘em with me wherever I went and keep ‘em safe while I show ‘em the world. Fantastic, that’d be.”
Lynnette hadn’t realized Mr. Norez could speak at such length so easily. She was starting to think he’d just keep talking unless she stopped him.
“Anyhow, you’re still young. Probably haven’t given any real thought to such things, have you?”
She would have liked to say he was wrong, but he wasn’t. Lynnette had never been the type to fantasize about being a mother or a wife. If it happened, it happened. She didn’t see much reason to dwell on it any more than that. But now, apparently, her options had already dwindled without her knowledge.
An unsettling realization.
She resolved to think about it later. There was still an important question she needed to ask this person. “Can you tell me how to use Incineration?”
Harper briefly turned to the empty space next to him. “Are you talking about your glove’s hidden ability?”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Hidden? I only heard it mentioned in Callum. I don’t know anything else about it.”
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
KIckass sword wielding woman with a bone gauntlet. No 2d cut out fantasy heroines or damsels in distress who needs them. A fully fleshed out female character who can hold her own and is only going to improve.
ReplyDeleteEverything that i love about fantasy is in this story while everything I hate is missing. Every time I think I am as impressed as I'm ever going to get I'm proved wrong.
Points:
Good magic/ability system
strong female characters
strong male characters
adorable children
Evil truly insane antagonists who are not omnipotent but have to develop their abilities like everyone else
The steady and continuous development of abilities
No Deus ex machina moments
Morally grey characters(Colt)
No omnipotent deities to give out tasks special weapons or corrupting people ( lets face it, it becomes less heroic to save someone when the gods of good are on our side or they give you a quest)
The sheer length of the story( Hope me and the author stay alive to finish it and any following stories)
The scope of the world and it's history
And finally the introduction of another civilization underneath the world crust.
WELL, GEE. <3
ReplyDeleteI feel like adding that the Void might turn out to be some kind of diety or something. At least I hope so, there should be some kind of ultimate evil, because Abolish doesn't really cut it. Abolish just needs a bunch of great therapists and they'd be fine. Killing the mentally ill isn't really my preferred kind of end game.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe it turns out that someone has been playing Abolish and the Vanguard all this time so they keep fighting each other. Might have been the Void (and it seems like I have theorized this before), or.. Sai-hee. Kind of rules to be the only neutral emperor in a world otherwise torn apart by war.
That would be truly diabolical
ReplyDeleteBut what does Sai-hee have to gain by killing Vanguard.
ReplyDeleteWhen Vanguard and Abolish fight it's a fight of attrition they loose a lot of resources and personal. Sai-hee however does not so while the Vanguard and Abolish are fighting Sai-hee is growing her powerbase and her followers are not dying, meaning a larger number of them have a chance to grow their power but also teh fact that Sai-hee can move around freely.
ReplyDeletetwo ways to grow your power, time or emergence. Sai-hee uses the slow approach for her followers meaning that they can grow their powers in peace over a long period of time culminating in greater experience with their abilities and greater skill in manipulating them as well as a greater range of the abilities of her followers. The Vanguard and Abolish however only have those that survive, cuts down on the number of recruits and just imagine how many usefull abilities are lost.
If I was an evil mastermind I would certainly Let my competition destroy themselves while I built up my powerbase.
Build up your power base to do what exactly?
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I thought. :)
ReplyDeleteStill, I like the Void for this as well. It eats souls and doesn't care who's dying, so as long as there is enough war going on, it's happy. So it makes sure that the Vanguard and Abolish keep fighting without anyone ever winning.
Who knows? We don't really know anyone's true motives yet, and Sai-hee is even more of an enigma than the other emperors.
ReplyDelete"To rule the world" seems to be the go-to answer to this question. "So why does she want to rule the world?" -- Why would anyone?
Doesn't Sai-hee prevent any side from getting to powerful maybe she is working for the void
ReplyDeleteTo have absolute freedom.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she IS the Void. :D
ReplyDeleteAlright, this is ridiculous, sorry.
No Deus ex machina moments.....
ReplyDeleteIsn't emergence pretty much the definition of it? It even has to be unexpected or it doesn't occur.
One of my favourite parts of it though is that, besides the whole magic and supernatural part, George has been trying to use all the laws of physics properly and not give us some bullshit like a car exploding when someone shoots the gas tank.
One thing I hate though: WE STILL DON'T KNOW IF HIS METAL IS ACTUALLY IRON. WHY GEORGE, WHHHHY!
Maybe it will turn out to be steel, and he'll be able to manifest carbon.....
One problem with this theory is that her followers are less likely to achieve emergence or gain combat experience, while the Vanguard and Abolish do. Emergence gains someone more power far far quicker than time, and real battle combat experience is superior to combat training.
ReplyDeleteBut ask yourselves, what is the point of them fighting besides to weaken them? Abolish wants to kill all humans, but humans are like cockroaches, and they reproduce fast, while as the war goes on, more and more REAPERS die, and there are less and less of them appearing as the genes required become more dilute.
With the appearance of *insert name of the things here which I forgot the name of*, more reapers are joining the fray, and these inexperienced reapers are more likely to die or kill other more experienced rapers through pure numbers.
THUS THE CONSPIRACY CONTINUES.
Yeah but emergence doesn't suddenly leave them with an overwhelming advantage where they suddenly win and they don't spontaneously have control over their new strength either. As for steel sounds awesome could happen since zeff can materialize oxygen and hydrogen to make water however being able to materialize diamond and graphene from carbon would make Hector OP. I might be wrong on whether Zeff can materialize his elements separately or only as water.
ReplyDeleteWhere did the reaper gene first come from mabe dimensional enities that bred with human?
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to have set rules. My favourite book series are ones which the author went to the time to make up actual systems to their magic or supernatural powers.
ReplyDeleteI actually like Deus ex machina moments, as long as they don't break the laws and they can happen to anyone. Although sometimes the author comes up with brilliant idea where their power increases seem like main character op-ness, but are later explained that they were always special - they usually get carried away, when it should be a one trick pony.
That is why I love Jim Butcher among other fantasy authors for the world builds and rpg light novels.
ReplyDeleteThat speech from him about kids about tripled my fondness for the man (Harper).
ReplyDeleteAh, there it is. Incineration. The original aberration's ability I assume, and the key to her being able to power up later on (because we know how much higher the stakes go).
ReplyDeleteI guess this page confirms that Harper has indeed been a servant for longer than he's been with the Vanguard.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's this bout Lynn's ability being "hidden"? Hmm...
I wonder...could you amputate the arm, take the gauntlet off it, then reattach the arm?
ReplyDelete