D. T. Kane reads chapters 14 & 15 of his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapter with his audience.
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Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/
Characters in this Chapter:
Baztian (Baz): Our main character
Rox: Deliritous’s Harbour (bodyguard)
Deliritous: Baz’s master, heir to Torchsire Library
Below is a copy of my script/notes for the episode, not a verbatim transcription.
PERSONAL UPDATE
Welcome to another episode of D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club. Today is Sunday, April 3, 2022 as I record this.
Drafting of Part 4 of the Spoken Books Uprising is in full swing. I’m currently 26,000 words into my first draft and picking up steam! It’s amazing to see how the characters have grown and changed and I can’t wait to keep sharing their journey with all of you!
I’ve also been continuing my half marathon training. Been tough the past few weeks with poor weather and obligations on the weekends, haven’t gotten in as many long runs as I’d like. But I did get a 7.5 miler in yesterday. That’s about 12K for my non US listeners. Not sure I’m going to be in good enough shape to hit my goal of 2:10, but I do need to keep in perspective how incredible it is that I’m even at the point I’m at, talking about a time goal for a half marathon. A few years ago I couldn’t even run down the driveway. That’s one reason I like running, it’s sort of like an analogy for my writing. Slow, steady work over a long period and you’ll see improvement. That’s how running works and also writing—if you think about writing the whole book or whole series, you’ll be crushed under the overwhelmingness of it. But just focus on the one run or one writing session, then repeat day after day.
Finally, we’re less than two weeks away from the release of Declaimer’s Discovery, Part II of the Spoken Books Uprising! If you’d like to help me out, please take a minute and leave a review of Part I, The Acktus Trials. If you’ve been keeping up with the podcast, I think you’re qualified to leave a review. Part I is the gateway that will get readers into Part II and beyond, so having the social proof of reviews on Part I is really important to convince readers to start reading and discovery the world of Oration. Thank you!
ANAYLIS CHS. 14-15
CHAPTER 14
Reality is behind an opaque window
So we pick up pretty much right where we left off last week. Baz, Deliritous, and Rox have camped just outside Hamlet. Baz laments not having a roof over his head, but after learning that Marla was offering a reward to anyone who would give info about Baz’s whereabouts, he can’t stay in town. Also, this ruins their plan: They can’t stay in town if there’s a chance one of the townsfolk reveals to Marla that Deliritous has dark, shaved hair, and his “speaker” has long blond hair.
Baz also has to point out to Deliritous that Erstwhile frequently sends scouts to Hamlet, so they’d likely hear about the description of Deliritous’s Speaker too and put together that Deliritous hadn’t actually gone to Tome. So their plan of leaving Deliritous in Hamlet has gone out the window.
What to do now?
I suppose this means our deal is off.
Deliritous tries to break off their deal, figuring they’ll need to go back to Erstwhile now. But Baz can’t let that happen, so he continues his manipulation of Deliritous–you’ve dreamed of this for as long as I’ve known you, stop crying about it! “Scolded by my own Speaker… You’d make my father proud.” Baz also got some painkillers from the shopkeeper, so Deliritous has those to help him keep going. And Baz points out that he’ll make Deliritous’s life exceedingly difficult if he tries to back out to the deal—“you need me to do your leg work for you.”
So Baz convinces Deliritous that he should go on, and they exchange cloaks again, Baz getting Leanna’s gift back. He keeps the hat, though, to Deliritous’s frustration. “I rather like it.” “Insolent page burner.”
Behind the curtain: I originally was going to leave Deliritous behind, but by the time I got to this point of the draft decided I didn’t want to spoil the dynamic between him and Baz and figured out a way to keep them together.
Little Del
So they begin to go over Deliritous’s plans for getting them to Tome. First, they decide to go the shorter, but more dangerous way, because that’s the way Hellar went and he no longer has a Harbour. Plus, it’s shorter and with Deliritous’s leg, they want to save as much travel as they can.
There’s then this light-hearted moment where all three of them are basically insulting how one another smell and they all laugh together, even Rox. Their relationship with one another is changing! We even learn that Rox has a pet name for Deliritous, “Little Del,” and he’s upset about failing his oath by letting Marla and Hellar successfully attack them. But Deliritous won’t have Rox feeling sorry for himself.
The plan:
- The Reach: wyrm country, but wyrms generally keep to themselves. If encounter, deal with fire and water spells. Wyrms breath fire and eat charred wood–nod to Patrick Rothfuss here and his “draccus” creatures.
- Firelands: dragons live here, “Fire Breathers.” Deliritous has brought camouflage for them to use, and also reveals that most dragons these days are small enough that Rox could fight them. Also has a spell that heats the air until it turns to water, which they can try and use to keep the dragon from breathing fire. How does this work? Well, basically it’s a spell that creates condensation, removing oxygen from the air to produce water. And if there’s no oxygen in the air, can’t have fire. Would this actually work? I’m not sure, but it sounds cool.
- Weeping Plains–Avoid the Citiless
- Your plan depends a lot on not encountering things that are dangerous.
CHAPTER 15
Plans never survive contact with the enemy
Baz has a bad feeling about this. He’s not used to things going right, listing off a litany of things that have gone wrong in his life. And once again he proves to be right. After a few hours of travel, they find the road blocked by felled trees, likely by Citiless that don’t want them coming to Tome.
The only way to continue on is to go off roading, into the trees. They follow a path they find there, until an odd assortment of sticks draws their attention. Rox goes to investigate, but falls into a hidden pit. Baz goes to investigate, rushes back to Deliritous. “We have a problem.” What could it be!?
I noticed an error on my part at the end of Chapter 15. When Deliritous is frantic over Rox, he calls Baz “Baz” several times. That’s a mistake, as I intentionally avoid having anyone but Tax call him Baz. I’ll have to fix that in a future edition. Life of an independent author!
CONCLUSION
Homework: Next week we’ll read chapters 16 and 17. Baz does something unexpected to get Rox out of a predicament, we learn some things about Rox, and Deliritous does an about face. Looking forward to discussing this and more with you next week!
Listener Question:
Quest:
Last week: My inspiration for Rox? Practical Frost from Abercrombie’s First Law Trilogy and Snorri ver Snagason from Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence.
Share your favorite book reading experience with me!
Quote:
“Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
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