Today my epic fantasy novel
The Shard first appeared on Amazon. It is only for pre-order, since the actual publication date is May 1, but it's still fun to see the book show up on Amazon for the first time.
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| Original artwork for The Shard by Shane Tyree |
It's funny but
The Shard was actually the first novel that I wrote, from 2006 to 2009. I had trouble being completely satisfied with it, so I put it aside and concentrated on my second book
The Immortality Game, which felt stronger to me.
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| Cover art designed by Vic Caswell |
For those who don't know,
The Immortality Game is essentially the backstory of the wizard character Xax from
The Shard. I create quite a vivid background story for everyone involved in each novel, and for me the story I developed to explain how a Russian scientist from Earth happened to become a wizard on another world was fascinating, so I kept thinking more and more about it until I simply had to write The Immortality Game.
I have several more story ideas within the fantasy world, so I decided to call the series the Chronicles of Xax, since the one character appearing in all of them is the wizard Xax. I don't intend for any of the books to be a traditional trilogy where each story flows directly from the last. I wanted them each to be able to stand alone but also fit within the longer arc of history. So, for example, the next one in this series that I am writing, called
The Shattered Spire, is set 800 years prior to the events in
The Shard. Long ago I even
published the prologue for it.
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| Map of the Known Lands |
I entered this novel into the Kindle Unlimited program for a specific reason--I expect the audience to be more narrow than for my first book, so I have lower expectations for sales. Thus I felt it worthwhile to experiment with KU at first.
Why do I expect a narrower audience? Because fantasy fans are quite divided between those who are sick and tired of anything even remotely related to Tolkienesque fantasy and those who love it and crave more. I understand the first set of people to some degree, but I am firmly in the latter camp. My book won't appeal to those who never care to read about an elf again!
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Well, to heck with those readers then!
ReplyDeleteCool your book is up for pre-order. And that is one cool cover.
Thanks, Alex! It was tough to make a cover out of the original artwork, since it was in landscape. Vic Caswell did a great job.
DeleteI said it before when you previewed the original artwork for your cover (some time ago) but I'll say it again. It's a fantastic piece of work. Congrats on The Shard finally making it to the big wide world (almost). As for your series, my fantasy work is exactly the same. It's not a trilogy as such, more a collection of stand- alones that sweep along my world's time line.
ReplyDeleteSo far I prefer to do stand alone novels set within the same universe. Maybe one day I will have a sweeping idea that can only work spread over several books!
DeleteI prefer it too. I have far too many ideas to make a sweeping trilogy...at the moment :)
DeleteI'm firmly entrenched in the Tolkienesqu camp. Not all the newer fantasy authors can write well in this genre though. I am sure you do the style justice. I am looking forward to reading The Shard.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that. My world is Tolkienesque only in the type (elves, dwarves, dragons, etc.) and not in his style of writing. I wish I had his talents for gorgeous writing, but my own style is very spare and simple.
DeleteI am firmly astride both reader groups, Ted. I love Tolkienesque stories (well, I sort of have to, right, since that's what I write?), but I also love fantasy that has nothing to do with elves and dwarves. They both scratch my fantasy itch, but in different ways. So I can actually like both of your books at the same time in different ways.
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