D. T. Kane reads chapter 8 of his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapter with his audience.
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Baztian (Baz): Our main character
Leanna: Torchsire Library’s Librarian
Rox: Deliritous’s Harbour (bodyguard)
Deliritous: Baz’s master, heir to Torchsire Library
Duke Octavinal: Deliritous’s father, leader of Torchsire Library
Mentioned in this episode: The Infinite Wrench, improv play performed by the Neo Futurist Theatre Group in Chicago: https://neofuturists.org/events/theinfinitewrench/
What’s D. T. Kane reading this week?
The Eye of the World, By Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time, Book 1)
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This week’s quote: “Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
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Below is a copy of my script/notes for the episode, not a verbatim transcription:
PERSONAL UPDATE
120 pages into hand-written edits of Declaimer’s Flight (SB3)
Cover for SB2 nearly ready! Cover reveal March 11; release date April 15. Preorder now! https://books2read.com/declaimersdiscovery
Going to Chicago next week
Couple of negative reviews last week tempered by a couple nice reviews of The Acktus Trials and the podcast. Bad reviews get me down more than good ones bring me up, but I’m pretty good at not letting it bother me too much. If you’d like to help me out, you can leave a review of The Acktus Trials wherever you buy your books, link in the show notes: https://books2read.com/theacktustrials , or rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts.
ANAYLIS CH. 8
So the chapter opens and Torchsire Library is making final preparations for Deliritous to leave for the Trials. Baz is kind of just standing off to the side, trying to be inconspicuous. We see Deliritous’s father give him a new cloak, though Baz surmises he only gave it to his son so he’d look good for the opening ceremonies. Sort of sad, as Deliritous seems rather taken by the gift.
Baz also notes some of the dangers they might face out in the wilds: wyrms and Citiless, and also “Fire Breathers.” We can guess what those are, right? More evidence of why Readers generally spend so much time preparing for the Trials. Meanwhile, Baz once again reminds us how unprepared he is: I wouldn’t know the difference between a mushroom and poison ivy.
Leanna
It seems whatever hard feelings there were between Baz and Leanna when they departed last chapter have now been forgotten. She sought him out to bid him farewell, and we see just how comfortable Baz is with her, admitting that he’s nervous. “You’re flaming right I’m nervous.” And we also see Leanna is concerned for Baz–she even asks Rox to look out for him, using some convincing reasoning to do so (Rox: My oath is to Deliritous; Leanna: But he’ll be safer with a Speaker available for spells, yes?). Rox actually complements her, saying she turns words just like an Enigman.
Rox
And speaking of Rox, this is probably the most we’ve seen him talk so far. First, a point that I failed to mention last week. Notice that, even after apparently having accepted Deliritous’s argument back in Chapter 2 that Yeltax was a threat, Rox did not kill him even though Deliritous told him to. So Rox takes his oath seriously, but it seems he perhaps has a bit of mercy in him too?
Rox also hardly seems like a monster in this chapter. He offers to hunt when Baz admits he doesn’t know the first thing about finding food in the wild. He gives Leanna that complement we just mentioned, and he laughs while doing it. And he puts up with Baz.
“Your footsteps will scare even the deafest animal away, Rox.” and “Shut up, Rox.”
Rox seems to just brush off Baz’s sarcasm. And what does he say about Baz and Leanna at the end? “There is Truth between the two of you.” And he smiles when he says it (or, at least, the edges of his eyes crinkle–can’t see through the mask). Perhaps Rox sees some of what we’ve already noticed between Baz and Leanna.
Gift
So toward the end of the chapter, Leanna gives Baz a gift–a new cloak, and a nice one at that. It even has a hood, which Baz is particularly pleased with. Remember how he complained back in chapter three how Speakers aren’t permitted to wear hats?
“It has a hood!” he exclaimed. “Oh that’s great. My ears are always so flaming freezing. And my scalp. Couldn’t they let me have a little hair? And…”
Interestingly, Leanna also tells Baz she needs to give Deliritous a break–he’s under a lot of pressure from his father, she realizes. Leanna seems to get that Deliritous is a blind spot for Baz. He can only feel one way about the Torchsire heir. Trust is certainly a theme throughout the story, particularly learning to trust someone who broke your trust previously.
“Come on, Leanna,” Baz said. “You’re talking like Deliritous is actually a person. With feelings. We all know that’s not the case.”
They part with each of them kind of wondering if they should hug the other or something, and Baz notes he feels a bit disappointed when she leaves without hugging him.
CONCLUSION
Homework: Next week we’ll read Chapter 9, which is the opening ceremony for the Trials. We get some more details on the other competitors, and then a bit of a history lesson about Oration’s history. Some of the connections we’ve been making with the prologue come into greater focus here. See if you can pick up on some of them.
Listener Question: D. T., how much time per week do you spend working on your writing?
Quest: Who is your favorite fantasy author? 1 XP
Quote:
“Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
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