D. T. Kane reads chapters 1 and 2 from his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapters with his audience.
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Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription.
Welcome back to D. T. Kane’s epic fantasy book club. Today is January 22, 2022 as I record this. Hopefully you’re as eager as I am to discuss the two chapters we just read. I’ve got some great listener questions to go over as well, so let’s hop right in.
Personal Update
Before we get to the book, just a quick personal update. By the time this episode airs, The Acktus Trials, the novel we’re reading together right now, is available for purchase at most online retailers where you find books, both as an e-book and physical copy, so if you can’t wait for the next 20 or so episodes and need to find out what happens now, or you just want a copy so you can follow along with the podcast, you can get yourself one.
As far as my current projects go, Part II of the Spoken Books Uprising is with my editor now, and I expect that to release by the end of March. More details to come on that, so stay tuned. I’ve also just finished my first round of edits on Part III. From there, my process is to print the whole thing out and do a round of edits with a red pen, then enter all those into the computer. Once that’s done, it goes to my editor. If everything says on schedule, Part III should release around midyear, so lots more reading for your enjoyment coming soon.
For those interested, Part II is called Declaimer’s Discovery and Part III is called Declaimer’s Flight. And just full disclosure for those of you who are completionists out there, Part III is not the final part. I always try to tell a complete story in each of my books, but the larger story definitely goes on past Part III.
ANALYSIS CH. 1
Tax and Baz
Alright, let’s jump into our discussion of chapters 1 and 2. And if you have any suggestions for how I can structure our discussions differently in future weeks, definitely send them to me, dtkane@dtkane.com. I have a bunch of notes written down, organized into loose categories–I’m sure if you’re watching on YouTube that you’ll see me glancing off camera at them frequently. But really, I’m just waxing poetic about my own writing here, so I’m definitely happy to hear any suggestions from all of you out there listening.
So last week I told you to specifically keep an eye on what the older brother—Yeltax or Tax for short—is teaching his younger brother—Baztian, or Baz for short.
A World Where Reading is a Super Power
Now, right off the bat, we have a rather odd admonition–“Reading Books can get you killed.” I know this technically isn’t the first line of the book, since we had a prologue, but it’s the first line of chapter 1, so it’s sort of the first line of the book. I try not to put too much stock in opening lines, but many folks are so obsessed with that flashy opening line it’s hard for me to completely disregard it. I like to think this is a pretty provocative one, and it really speaks to my concept for this novel and really the whole series.
This gets us into our first listener question. Linda from New York writes: “D. T., what was your inspiration for the Spoken Books Uprising?”
My original inspiration for the Spoken Books Uprising was the idea, “hey, what if reading books was a super power?” And that’s sort of what I’ve done here, right? I mean, it’s not a super hero book, but basically if you can Read, you are a bad ass in this world. It’s the only way to cast magic. I mean, as a lifelong reader and general obsessionist over books, how freaking cool is that? Most people think you’re a nerd if you like reading. Not in Oration–you’re the coolest kid in school!
Of course, as neat as that concept is, I couldn’t leave it at that. I needed to complicate matters, because ultimately that’s what stories are. A whole bunch of obstacles between your characters and what they want. So, I thought to myself, “How could I twist this idea of reading as a super power. Ah, what if only certain people can unlock the power of the magic books?” Ok, interesting, so you have a potential upper class of folks who can read, while all the normal people can’t cast magic. Alright, but that’s how many stories with magic are. Not everyone can cast it. Let’s add another layer–not everyone can cast magic from the books, and those who can are enslaved and never taught to read. Oooohhh. Now we’ve got something. You can see a whole culture forming out of that single idea, and it also evokes some pretty strong emotions. These people are born with such an awesome power, but they’re downtrodden and never given a chance to exercise it? OK, there’s a story . In fact, I think there’s a whole bunch of stories there, since I’m planning on the Spoken Books Uprising to span a dozen books.
Right, so Reading can get you killed. Yeltax establishes this for us in the very first sentence. And we quickly learn he’s not exaggerating when he tells us that his father was killed by the Readers, not because he could read, but simply because he was suspected beginning to have a basic grasp of grammar. Just the risk of him maybe learning to read one day was enough to get him killed. OK, so the Readers, who are the ruling class in society, really don’t want people like Yeltax and his father learning to Read. We’ll get more details as to why this is the case later, but since reading = power, obviously the Readers want to keep that power away from their slaves.
And yet, we quickly realize despite that, Tax is teaching Baztian, his little brother, to read. Obviously Tax isn’t doing this lightly–he makes a point of reminding Baz that he promised their father to look out for Baz, yet he’s still submitting him to this danger. There’s a bit of a rebel in Yeltax, right? What’s he say? “Someone ought to be able to stand up to them.” So he’s teaching his brother to read in hopes that one day he might stand up to the Readers.
Import of Keeping Your Word
Another interesting point here, and this is an example of something I’ll always try to point out–bits of text that might not be obviously important when you first read them, but will become so over the course of the book. Tax tells Baz that “A man always keeps his promises. That’s what sets us apart from the Readers, Baz. We keep our word. Don’t forget that.”
Heavy, right? We see the deep distrust Tax has for the Readers here, and I guess you can’t blame him since they killed his dad for not even a crime, but the possibility he might commit one in the future. And we also see the value Tax puts on keeping his word–you’re as bad as the Readers if you don’t. Even to a young boy like his brother, that’s got to make an impact. You keep your word, Baz, or else you’re no better than the men who killed father. Yeah, remember this sentiment, as it echoes across the rest of the book.
Types of Speakers
OK. The next big piece of information we come to are the three types of Speakers: Destroyers, Creators, and Influencers. Baz is a Destroyer, and we know that because he’s got a dragon branded on his forehead. That gives you even more of an idea of how the Readers treat their slaves, right? Marking them like cattle. We’re also told that Tax is something called a “Tri,” which means he is all three types of Speaker in one. This is rare, so he enjoys special privileges that other slaves don’t, like free time during the middle of the day to spend time with his little brother. Heck of an older brother–using his work breaks to chill with little bro and teach him.
We don’t learn a ton about the distinctions between the three types of Speakers yet, other than the analogies Baz offers for each of them:
Baz had once heard a Conservator compare the language of Creation to a doe lapping water from a creek, and the language of Influence to the drumming of marching men’s steps, steady and inevitable. Destruction, however, wasn’t nearly so straight forward. Some of its syllables were like the menacing snort of a bull, others a falcon’s high screech, and still others like the refined, sharp edges of a lion’s roar.
Dangers of Reading
We do learn there are dangers associated with Reading spells from Spoken Books, though. First, Tax and Baz are in what’s called a Reading Room, and it’s built so that it’s away from the rest of the building. Apparently, that’s done because “Speakings can go terribly wrong.” While it’s rare, we learn that the reading room of one of the other Libraries in the city was recently destroyed by a spell gone wrong. And apparently Speakers can also be injured by mispoken spells. Baz speaks of having burned the inside of his mouth the last time he tried to speak a spell. He also mentions the possibility of “scorched lungs.” So reading is both illegal for Speakers and also carries physical risks if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Wealth of Books
Another interesting tidbit that will be relevant throughout the novel: Torchsire Library, which is the Library we’re in during this scene, has one shelf of Books in its Library and that shelf is only half full. We learn both that this makes it one of the city’s smaller Libraries, but also that that few books is still a “grand fortune.” So we can glean from that that there’s certainly a premium on Books in this world–there aren’t a lot of them, and the ones that do exist hold the power to cast magic. Again, you see how that single concept of a world where magic comes only from books quickly creates a lot of its own rules and culture. Naturally, books are going to be extremely valuable in such a society.
Stop Runes
Alright, that brings us towards the end of the chapter, where we see Baz actually finally get to do his reading. He’s a bit impatient, right? Rolling his eyes at his over-protective brother, eager to set something on fire. Well, finally he gets to do it, but only after we learn another important fact—Stop Runes. These are sort of like the safety on a gun. Before you read a spell, you read the stop rune, and it prevents someone from repeating your same spell and using it against you.
You can also use it as a sort of mulligan, a redo. Speak the stop rune and none of the ill effects of misreading a spell will occur. So that’s good–there’s a way around blowing up the room if you screw up. Even still, you can sense some of Baz’s anxiety as he begins to Read the spell. He’s failed and burned his mouth at least once before, so even what is apparently a rather simple spell carries consequences for failure. But from a story perspective that’s good, right? The magic system needs to have costs or drawbacks. If you can just snap your fingers and cast whatever magic you want, you’re in for some pretty overpowered characters. Often, the most interesting thing in a fantasy ends up being what you can’t do with magic, since there’s where the real complications come from.
And speaking of complications, well we get one at the end of the chapter, right? Baz successfully lights his candle, only to have the door to the reading room open the next moment. And the dire warnings from the beginning of the chapter suddenly become very relevant. Their father was killed for suggesting he might learn to read one day, and there Tax and Baz are, with a stolen book, Tax apparently able to read well enough already to teach his little brother, and Baz having just successfully read a spell. They’re in some serious trouble when whoever it is who just opened the door sees them.
ANAYLIS CH. 2
OK, on to chapter 2. This episode’s running longer than I think the typical one will go, but I wanted to get through Part I today–which is just Chapters 1 and 2–as it’s really just one long sequence and I didn’t want to break it up.
Deliritous
So the door to the reading room opens and we collectively hold our breaths as we turn the page. Phew! False alarm, right? The guy who comes in can’t see that Tax and Baz have a Spoken Book with them. Tax quickly hides the book beneath a loose stone in the floor—crisis averted. Well, at least for now.
So we meet Deliritous, the youth behind the stack of Books. You might not be able to tell it here, but I like Deliritous. He’s certainly one to watch if you buckle in for the long haul on this series. In this chapter, though, we’re sort of scrambling to find redeeming characteristics in him. Flamboyant and cavalier are a few adjectives I think really come to mind to describe him.
I mean, let’s start with his outfit. A velveteen tunic, and he’s wearing this giant hat, a purple feather sticking from it. Think a musketeer hat here. Large and in charge. Probably too big for him, right? I mean, I don’t say that in the text, but I do tell you he’s 13, and an awkward 13 at that, below average height but outgrowing his clothes so they never fit right. Maybe just a bit of a walking-around-in-dad’s-clothes type image here.
I think we get the sense too that he’s a bit entitled–heir by default, rather than really merit, since he’s his father’s only child. And Baz makes a point to say how ridiculous it is, Deliritous walking around with a stack of Spoken Books. In this world, that’s sort of like taking a stroll with a Ming vase under each arm, just reckless in the extreme.
Then he opens his mouth and things don’t get much better. I mean geese, what, in the first two pages we meet him, he makes two awful, insensitive jokes. One’s about letting Yeltax keep his eyes. What’s that about? The implication there is that not all Speakers get to keep their eyes, right? I mean, I guess that makes sense in a chilling sort of way–they don’t need to see, they just have to be able to talk–they’re not supposed to be able to Read, even though we know Tax can. But again, this speaks to just how much power the Readers lord over the Speakers–they can take away their slaves’ sight on a whim if they wish it.
Then just a few paragraphs later, he makes this joke about how it won’t be his mouth that burns if he mispronounces a word–it’ll be Yeltax who ultimately mispronounces the spell and suffers the consequences. At least he’s got shame enough to realize that one fell on deaf ears, where he clears his throat and smooths out his unwrinkled tunic when no one laughs. Still, we’re left with the image of a self-centered, entitled youth here.
Despite Deliritous’s privileged status, though, we also get a sense of how comparatively privileged Yeltax might be, at least compared to Baz. They’re both slaves, but we see Deliritous immediately addressing Tax, whereas he doesn’t even seem to realize Baz is present for quite some time, and when he does finally notice him, he… what do I say… “looks around the room as if there might be some place he could hide Baz.” We sort of get the sense that Baz’s experience is perhaps a bit closer to the norm for Speakers. “Baz, along with the vast majority of other Speakers, was expected to remain silent unless a question was directed to him or he was actively repeating a Reader’s words from a Spoken Book.”
Indeed, an interesting tidbit Baz drops here too: “As often as not, a Reader would assume that a Speaker who opened his mouth out of turn was attempting to cast a spell. And if a Reader believed that? Well, Speakers were far less expensive to replace than a Reader.” In case you were wondering what’s to stop Speakers from just turning on their Masters by repeating a spell? Well, we have the Stop Rune–we already read about that in the previous chapter, the safety on the gun. But we also have this sort of startling reality where, just by talking, a Speaker risks death. That’s a pretty good way to keep yourself safe if you’re a Reader. If your Speakers are frightened to talk at all, well then you don’t have to worry about them speaking spells that might harm you.
Rox
Alright, so we have Deliritous, and then we have our other big introduction of the chapter. Pun intended, right? Rox is a huge man–he makes “tall, oak doors seem small.” He’s two feet taller than Deliritous, and while Deliritous is below average in height, he’s also not particularly short. So that makes Rox, what? Definitely over 7 feet. We’re talking a guy the size of the Mountain from Game of Thrones. He’s bald, with sort of grayish skin. You know when we see Darth Vader take his helmet off at the end of Return of the Jedi? That’s sort of what I picture when I think of Rox. Well, that, and his Hannibal Lector type facemask. How creepy is that? A scarred, bald man with gray skin, wearing essentially a leather muzzle over his nose and mouth? I mean, he doesn’t sound like anyone I’d want to be in the same room with.
And he proves that almost immediately after we meet him. A little old lady startles him and he nearly chops her head off. Now, is he just over protective of Deliritous or a blood thirsty killer? Well, we’re not entirely clear on that at this point. We do learn, after all, that he’s sworn at oath to protect Deliritous and he seems particularly obsessed with the meaning of words. “The words mean what they mean”–Rox repeats this several times. Still, we’re not getting any warm and fuzzies from Rox at this point. And his weapon certainly doesn’t give you any reason to want to cuddle up to him either. I don’t know how well my description does it for you, but basically picture an old-fashioned straight razor, the kind that folds into its handle like a pocket knife, except it’s several feet long and when it’s closed, the back edge of the blade is like a saw, and then you can snap it open to have this longer-range slashing-type weapon. He’s ready to fight Freddy Krueger with that thing, right?
And we were just talking about things keeping Speakers from attacking their Readers. Well, Rox and Harbours like him are certainly another reason, right? If every Reader has a giant protector like Rox, well a Speaker’s going to think twice before attacking their Reader.
Reading
So we learn it’s Deliritous’s job to see to Torchsire Library’s supplicants this day. Apparently this is a frequent ritual, and one that makes the Library money. Poor people come to the Library to ask the Readers to use their magic to cure various problems. And Torchsire Library needs it, apparently. We’ve got this funny for us/embarrassing for Deliritous exchange where he basically admits in front of this old woman that Torchsire Library doesn’t even have enough money to pay a full rotation of guards. Something about money being tight since an injury Deliritous’s father sustained. Hmmm. No more info about that here, but let’s keep that in mind going forward.
But for now, we do get this sense of Deliritous being a bit of a bumbling incompetent, not really knowing how to act like a noble despite being one. Even the old woman doesn’t seem to have much confidence in him. She tries more than once to back out of having Deliritous Read the spell once she learns Deliritous’s father won’t be coming, but he won’t let her. So, the implication here seems to be that Deliritous’s father is a pretty well-regarded Reader, but Deliritous certainly is not. And her trepidation seems founded, right? I mean, Deliritous doesn’t even know what type of spell he needs to read to help her little chicks out. Baz’s brother has to ultimately point him in the right direction, and Deliritous covers with the lame excuse that he was just giving Yeltax a test.
So we finally get the right Book setup on the podium. Deliritous makes this offhand comment about the ink in it being faded and needing to send it to the Conservators for restoration. Tax responds that there appears to be enough elemental ink left in the Book for several more Readings before the Book will lose its power. Two important things here, one explicit, one more implied.
First, the implied point–Spoken Books apparently wear out over time, their ink fading with each Reading. But they can also be restored, and there’s apparently a whole group, the Conservators, who do that. Again, coming back to all these interesting things that grow straight from the novel’s basic concept. In a world where Books hold power, keeping your Books in good order must be important. So it sort of makes sense that a whole profession of Book restorers would arise, right? And, if I was a betting man, I’d say those Restorers likely hold some power in this land. But we’ll have to wait and see for that.
The more explicit thing that comes of this exchange between Deliritous and Tax is that Tax makes a pretty serious mistake here, right? He lets slip that he was looking at the text of Deliritous’s Book. Man, even sickly sweet Deliritous gets dangerously quiet at that, threatening him to never do that again. The moment’s gone in an instant, but you certainly get the sense from Deliritous’s quick shift out of his yappy, incompetent character of how dire it is for a Speaker to do something even suggesting interest in Books. After all, remember that we learned in chapter 1 that Taz and Baz’s father was killed for merely suggesting he might be learning to Read.
One other interesting thing of note here, while inwardly criticizing Deliritous for his dismay over how long the Spoken Books tend to be, and if you’re having trouble picturing them, think like a book the size of a bible a priest might read out of at mass–these things aren’t transport friendly–Baz notes that one reason for their size is that all the elemental ink in them is needed to serve as a sort of fuel to power the spells being Read. So that’s an interesting insight into the magic system here as well–we’ve learned the elemental ink fades over time and now we see that’s because the person casting the spell actually draws power right out of the ink in the Books. That also explains something else you might have been wondering–you can’t just memorize the spell and then go about casting magic without the Book. You need the words of the spell, but also the fuel of the spell’s ink to cast the magic. Another limitation, right? You have to lug around these giant books in order to cast magic.
Alright, so finally we get to see our first Reading, where a Reader repeats a spell to a Speaker and the Speaker casts it. Just to set the stage, we’ve got Deliritous up at his podium, Baz beside him as page turner, Tax off to the side and Rox standing behind him, keeping watch for any signs of betrayal. And, of course, we have this poor old woman looking on who just wants her little chicks healed.
Deliritous starts Reading, and Baz, of course, is immediately hyper critical of him. If you hadn’t gotten this by now, you probably haven’t been paying attention, but Baz doesn’t like Deliritous much, and that’s only going to get worse in a few moments. But for now, we see that Deliritous isn’t too good at Reading, but Tax is so skilled that he can still repeat the spell properly even through Deliritous’s terrible diction.
Well, that is until Baz loses focus and doesn’t turn the page when he’s supposed to. Deliritous tries to get his attention, snapping his fingers at him, but too late. The spell fizzles, Tax yelps in pain, presumably because the failed spell has burned him, and the poor baby chicks! A big bloody mess–remember we’ve already established misread spells can have dire consequences and we see it here. The spell that was supposed to kill the diseased in the chicks, when Read incorrectly, instead kills the chicks themselves. The poor old woman trips to the floor, then goes rushing from the room, her fears of Deliritous’s incompetence proving to be true, at least in her eyes.
Interestingly, while Deliritous is obviously furious with Baz for messing up the spell, he restrains himself from striking him. Now, in modern times this would be no great feat–we of course don’t go around striking people whenever we get mad. But in this world of master-slave, this seems to be an unexpected sign of restraint. So maybe Deliritous isn’t quite as awful as he seems. Or maybe he just didn’t want to hurt his hand. We’ll see.
Tax’s Fate
Of course, the woman’s fall and quick exit reveal something horrifying for Tax and Baz–the stone in the floor where they’ve hidden the Spoken Book has come loose and Rox sees it. Now, maybe they could explain it away, except for, ugh!, the book mark in it. Apparently it used to belong to Tax and Baz’s father and Deliritous remembers it, which means even Deliritous is able to put together who put that Book there. Tax displays remarkable composure here, but little Baz just can’t help himself, blurting out that Tax never meant to hurt anyone, which of course proves that Tax was, indeed, the one who stole the Book. Of course he meant well, but he’s inadvertently sealed his brother’s fate. And what else do we learn? That it was Baz’s idea to use their father’s marker in the Book. So we’ve got the failed page turn, Baz inadvertently revealing his brother stole the Book, and also the Bookmark that gave them away–lots of reasons for Baz to feel guilty about what’s about to happen.
And we all know what happens now–Deliritous orders Rox to kill Tax. Now, did you catch that Rox displays hesitance to do so? He certainly looks like a blood-thirsty monster, but he doesn’t just jump at the opportunity to kill Tax. In fact, he makes a point to reference back to his oath–Tax isn’t posing a threat to Deliritous, so why should Rox kill him? Of course, Deliritous retorts that Tax’s very existence as a Speaker who can also Read–we learn in the last lines of the chapter that such a person is called a “Cuss”–is a threat. “He could lay waste to this Library” Deliritous says, and besides, it’s illegal for a Library to permit a Cuss to live unpunished, Deliritous tells us. The other Libraries would send assassins. Interesting–now, do we think the other Libraries would kill over learning Torchsire has a Cuss because they’re afraid of the Cuss, or could it maybe be because they don’t want a competitor to have such a powerful individual under its control? Hmmm.
Rox obviously isn’t thrilled with Deliritous’s explanation, but as he says in his deliberate, low-voiced way, he hears Truth in Deliritous’s words and moves to carry out his master’s command. “Keep breathing, Baz,” Tax says right before Rox reaches him. “Keep surviving.”
Conclusion
Right, so not the happiest of endings to this week’s reading, but hopefully you’re motivated to read (or listen) onward. What’s going to happen to Baz now that he doesn’t have his brother? Does he get punished as well? We’ll see next week.
Homework. So we’ll read Chapter 3 next week, which begins Part 2 of The Acktus Trials. Baz meets an Illit–a commoner or peasant. Their interaction tells you a fair bit about this society, so pay attention there. Then Baz heads to the Conservatory. We learned today that Conservators have the job of restoring Spoken Books when they’re worn out, so it will be interesting to see what they’re all about. And we’ll meet another new character, Leanna. What do you think of her and how Baz interacts with her? Finally, see if you can catch the reference to the novel’s title somewhere in Chapter 3. And remember, if you don’t do your homework, no problem! I’ll do your reading and answer all these questions and more next week.
Listener Question: Tom writes, “D. T., Who’s your favorite author?” Probably Robert Jordan, just because of the substantial impact he’s had on my writing. I also really enjoy Joe Abercrombie, but I don’t really write like him at all. I enjoy Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files books as well, and I suppose I at times try to channel some of the dark sarcasm the main character uses in those books.
Quest: About how old is Baz in chapters 1 and 2? It doesn’t come right out and say it, but you can figure it out from context. 1XP
Quote: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.”
– George R.R. Martin
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
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