Shall We Play A Game?

1/1/2015

Often, people ask me how the Traveler's Gate trilogy got so many reviews on Amazon.

My answer: I have no idea. People reviewed it. I rarely ask for reviews, and I always ask for honest opinions. Dishonest reviews serve no one.

And for House of Blades, it took weeks for the reviews to start piling up. The first week or two, I had five reviews on Amazon, and I was grateful to have them. OSAS seems to be going at the same pace, or even a tad faster.

But now, launching a new series, I'm just kind of...waiting. That's boring, so how about we make it a game?

When the two Elder Empire books combined have 10 reviews on Amazon, I'll answer 10 questions here on the blog, in character. I'll respond as anyone from either series, so if you ever wanted to ask Kai a question, or Shera for that matter, now's your chance.

When they have 25 combined reviews, I'll...do something else, TBA, and when they have 50 I'll write a brand-new scene set in the Traveler's Gate universe after City of Light.

So you can do nothing and wait for reviews to stack up, or--if you've read Of Sea and Shadow, Of Shadow and Sea, or both--you can leave an honest review and move us one step closer to the character-specific AMA.

Let's start the new year off right: by tricking me with brutally difficult questions that I don't know how to answer. Fun!

25 Comments

April

1/1/2015 10:17:28 am

Do we ask the questions on this thread, or are we supposed to wait until you get all 10?

Will Wight link

1/1/2015 10:49:05 am

Wait until ten...though that will be soon now, because I have six already. Soon, my children, soooooon!

1/1/2015 12:33:57 pm

I'll wait. My husband and have come up with a list. We have 4 solid questions, plus some that need refining. That was ten questions per person right?

curious reader

1/1/2015 10:19:01 am

In the first book of travelers gate there is the ghost pointing a Simon what is it. That was never really explained. If that question doesn't qualify under the challenge then I would ask Valin how did he first get in valinhall. If you don't want to give that away then we know Kai had the iron scroll but did indirial have any abilities Kia didn't

1/1/2015 10:52:20 am

I would say wait to ask the questions until I actually have ten reviews, but fortunately I can answer these without bothering the characters!

1.) The ghost is an Asphodel mist-construct designed to search for life. The Enosh Asphodel Traveler was using it to hunt for people in the forest, in the hopes of tracking down and cornering whichever Valinhall Traveler was protecting Valin's tree. Little did they know that Indirial was already hunting them.

2.) How did Valin first get into Valinhall? This is the best character-based question in your list, and if you'd like to ask Valin that after I hit ten reviews, then feel free. However, I can say that the full answer will wait for a Valinhall prequel novel.

3.) Indirial's main advantage over Kai was the Nye essence, which made him faster. Kai actually had a few powers that Indirial didn't, thanks to the fact that Kai spent years more in the House. Those include, but are not limited to, the iron scroll.

Anonymously Michael

1/1/2015 05:02:54 pm

So trying not to give any of the story away(beware reading this if you haven't read the books just in case). After reading both books and i started out with Calder then went to Shera. Shera felt too emotional sometimes for the emotionless and lazy demeanor she gave off. Was that just my own impression or was that what you were going for?

1/1/2015 11:03:14 pm

That's definitely what I was going for: Shera's got a lot of issues. Don't we all, really?

But I would be interested to see what someone who read 'Shadow' first thought.

Thanks for leaving a review!

1/1/2015 11:40:11 pm

If i had 10 wishes one of them would be to be able to re-read them over in the opposite order to see what the impression i got would be. I definitely felt a bit more sympathetic of Calder up until the end, Then i kind of wondered what he was planning.

On the other hand though i really enjoyed Shera for the most part.Even then she's probably one of my favorite characters.

Either way both books were excellent and i look forward to the rest. :D Thanks for writing them,

bjh

1/2/2015 02:08:00 am

I read Shadow first and was much more sympathetic to the consultants the entire time I was reading Sea. It took several chapters of Sea before I even started liking the Sea characters. Plus, I thought that the payoff at the end of Sea was better since I had already read Shadow.

My wife started with Sea and is half way through, I'm thinking about having her switch mid-book, read all of Shadow, and then switch back and finish Sea.

1/2/2015 02:21:42 am

Bjh: that's great to know! I definitely think the fight at the end seems more climactic when you're reading the second book, no matter the order.

But that would be awesome if your wife switched over in the middle. If she does, let me know how she likes it! Maybe we can develop an optimal reading order, or something.

Thanks!

1/2/2015 01:11:03 pm

I think one of the cool parts about these books is you kind of choose a side even without knowing maybe when you choose a book to read first.

Which isn't to say that i like either side over the other just that by choosing to read Sea first i sympathized with, not really the navigators, but with Calder because of it. And i liked that.

On the other side though, i didn't feel a really sympathetic towards any of the guilds, it was never really navigators vs. consultants for me, just Calder vs. Shera.

Scott

1/4/2015 01:27:55 am

I read Shadow first and was a great deal more sympathetic to their side as I read Sea. The Consultants' goals, particularly Shera/Meia/Lucan's, seem to be much more beneficial to humanity in the long run (on several levels) than any of the actors in Sea.

I'll probably try reading the second pair of books in the opposite order to see if that changes my view of either side.

bjh's wife

1/4/2015 02:34:40 am

I've decided to switch back and forth between the two. I've read Calder's first 9 and then Shera's. I currently like them equally and love the different POV. I better get back to reading so I can see who comes out on top!

1/8/2015 01:31:02 pm

Life and light Will, those were good! I continued switching between the two books and loved it the entire time. Even with the same scenes I was learning something new. I still don't like one set of characters better than the other. I do feel that if they sat down and talked instead of fighting, they could work together. They are not so dissimilar...Maybe Lucan needs to bust out in to a War song (specifically, "Why Can't We Be Friends") and bring everyone together.

Tim

1/2/2015 11:56:03 am

I could read an entire book of Bliss dialogue. She cracks me up. Has her head on straight too for all her strangeness.

Atreis

1/2/2015 11:56:35 am

Am I supposed to dislike Shera so much by the end of reading Sea that I don't want to read Shadow >:s?

Felt like she got the better of Calder in every interaction they had.

1/2/2015 12:00:17 pm

Aha! I felt the same way! But I am about halfway through Shadow and I have to say I like Shera as well. Once you read her story you see more of what's going on and it makes sense why she does the things she does.

1/2/2015 12:02:20 pm

Also the fights weren't as one sided as they seemed..... Read shadow.

Yosef

1/2/2015 08:05:09 pm

I read shadow first and much preferred it to sea as it felt that Shera knew more or less what she was doing where as Calder just seems to be reacting. however just one small problem with shadow was during the fight scene between Shera and Jyrine there is one mistake "Shera couldn't help but notice the symbols tattooed on Shera's left ankle" I think you meant Jyrine's ankle and it was only noticeable because I caught up in the scene and this felt jarring and brought me out of the scene, however it was the only mistake in both books so that's a plus.

1/4/2015 05:54:38 am

That's definitely a mistake, and I'll fix it ASAP! Meanwhile, Kathrin is currently answering your question in the comments of the latest blog post...

Michael, I hope

1/3/2015 01:57:01 am

Just saw the total of ten reviews go up! I been watching. So. I'd like to ask Kerian. "How did you just make the food appear like that? Or how do the consultants just seem to appear and disapear without a trace?"

1/3/2015 03:08:42 am

I would like to know who and what is Kathrin's adviser is?

curious link

1/3/2015 05:10:39 am

saw that questions are open. So, question to Valin: why did you set forth on a world-hopping, territory-founding quest of vengeance? What were you before you did that?

jeremiah halstead

1/3/2015 09:22:37 pm

You're not getting that answer until, I suspect, the Valin novel

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In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.