If you’re enjoying the Acktus Trials, or have already read it, please consider taking a minute to leave a review. Reviews help authors by increasing the visibility of their books, which helps get them into the hands of more readers. Thank you for your support! Follow this link to leave a review: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B09QZ8MQ38
The Acktus Trials, an epic fantasy novel, available now:
Deliritous: Baz’s master, heir to Torchsire Library
Below are my notes/script for the episode, not an exact transcription:
PERSONAL UPDATE
Welcome back to D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club. Today is Saturday, April 23, 2022 as I record this, Episode 15.
With release week behind us, it was back to writing and making good progress on Part IV of the Spoken Books Uprising. My first draft broke 50,000 words and I think I’m on track to have it finished before May 20. That’s my goal because May 21 I’m flying to Europe for two weeks, and don’t plan to be doing much work then! Ireland, Paris, and Brussels. It’s going to be awesome and I plan to be sharing lots of photos with all of you upon my return. I’m sure I’ll find some new inspiration for things to put in future novels as well.
I’ve also got my half marathon in two weeks that I’ve mentioned several times on here before. Just got back from an 11 mile run before recording today, so my legs are barking a bit. If those of you watching on YouTube see me fidgeting around more than usual, you know why!
ANAYLIS CHs. 19-20
Chapter 19
Who did Deliritous think he was?
We start just as we left off last week, with Baz in shock over Deliritous sacrificing himself to save Baz. Baz is actually angry: “Who did Deliritous think he was, putting Baz in his debt like that?” Why do we think Baz feels like this? Could it be because he sees that Deliritous is actually the better man than him? That he was willing to change where Baz hasn’t been so far? Tough way to learn that lesson.
Then Rox shows up, having pulled himself out of the bog. And we get some contrast here, first Rox cradling Deliritous like a child—once again, we see how much Deliritous appears to mean to Rox, despite the fact that Rox is essentially another of Deliritous’s slaves.
Then he punches Deliritous square in the chest. Baz laughs when Deliritous curses, showing he isn’t dead.
The tender moment quickly passes, though, when we realize Deliritous is severely burned and all the medicine they had with them was in his saddle bags, which have been cooked by the dragon. But even in his dire state, Deliritous isn’t willing to give up on his dream. We see even more growth here—recall back just about 10 chapters ago, Deliritous wanted to turn back with a broken leg. Now he’s suffered likely mortal burns and he still wants to press on.
Baz sees the impossibility of Deliritous going on and offers to finish the Trials for him on his own while Rox takes Delirious back to Hamlet. “He owed it to Deliritous now.” It continues to be unclear whether Baz has actually truly changed, or if he’s making this offer solely out of obligation. He’s certainly having an internal battle with himself.
He wanted to be furious at Deliritous for even suggesting that he be grateful to the man who had robbed him of his brother. That Baz knew he owed Deliritous his life only worsened the resentment he felt. But would he have rather died than be in Deliritous’s debt? The answer to that question seemed like it should be obvious, but in Baz’s mind it was clear as smudged ink.
Regardless, Deliritous won’t accept the offer. Instead, he suggests they go find some Citiless. Maybe they’ll help him, though Baz points out they’re just as likely to murder them and rob them of all the Spoken Books they have.
Waste is a lie
So they will continue on. But how are they going to transport Deliritous? Well, leave it to Rox. He hacks up the dead horse with his razor and turns it into a sled they can put Deliritous on. Not the most pleasant of scenes here. You know those horse bones can’t be that clean, and Deliritous is also blistered with oozing sores. “The whole thing stank worse than Rox had after crawling out of the bog.”
And it’s not particularly comfortable, Deliritous whimpers over every bump, and Rox is despondent at his charge’s pain. Has to wipe his arm across his eyes several times. Baz puts together that Rox must feel like a big brother for Deliritous. Interesting that maybe Baz is coming around to Rox more than Deliritous, why do we think that is? Rox is, after all, the one who actually tore Tax’s eyes out. But he even recalls staring into his brother’s eyes once when he was sick without connecting the loss of those eyes back to Rox.
Twenty-Seven
That’s how many Readers have died on the Trials in the past 50 years. And it seems Deliritous is preparing to become number 28. “I never really considered it a possibility it could happen to me. But I do now.” Even Baz can’t remain dispassionate in the face of such an admission, eyes burning. Could he really continue to hate this man? He’s just afraid, like any other person in his situation would be. But yet, he’s also brave, still pushing toward what now seems an impossible goal. Baz is glad when Deliritous passes out. At least he’s spared from the agony he’s suffered on Baz’s account for a little while.
Chapter 20
I can carry him.
And now, friends, I invite you to remove your reading glasses, put on your cardigans, and join me this week’s installment of D. T. Kane’s Epic Philosophy Book Club.
Right. So Rox and Baz carry on, dragging poor Deliritous along. Baz is trying to convince Rox that this isn’t working, but Rox isn’t having it: “It is a great Truth, giving your life for a promise. I am ready.”
Baz counters, “There’s no Truth in pursuing a hopeless path…. Anything has to be better than this.”
Rox, growing angry, responds, “We could do worse. We could give up. I will not…. I am no surgeon. I cannot heal him. But I can carry him to someone who may be able to help.”
OK. Who’s got the winning side of the debate here, do you think? Is dying for a promise noble? Or forget noble, is it the right thing to do? I think most of us can agree with the premise that keeping promises is a good thing. But to what point? If it will hurt someone to keep a promise, should you still keep it? What if it will hurt yourself? It’s tough to give exact answers to such general questions. But here, you’ve promised to keep someone safe and now they’re at the brink of death with seemingly no way out. Is sacrificing yourself worth it?
Well, I’m very thankful that I’ve never personally been in such a situation. But I think the key thing here is hope. I think if there was a 100% chance that Deliritous wasn’t going to make it, Rox, and most people in a similar position, wouldn’t sacrifice themselves. But the thing is, almost nothing is 100% certain. Death and taxes, right? And maybe Chuck Norris. Besides that, there’s always some chance. And the thing is, when you care deeply enough about a promise, even the smallest sliver of hope is worth keeping that promise. At least, that’s my theory. And that seems to be Rox’s too. Baz perhaps is more of a realist, but I’d love to ask Baz what he’d do if it was Tax on that sled instead of Deliritous. And who knows, maybe I will ask him that question in another book. *raises eyebrows*
Freedom to Choose
But Rox understands that Baz needn’t bind himself to Rox’s oath. Baz gets angry at that, since Rox insinuated the other night that he’d sworn an oath to Deliritous, but is now suggesting Baz break it after just lecturing him on the virtue on sticking to oaths. But Rox explains that he doesn’t really believe Baz swore a bind oath: “You must be free to swear an oath.”
Again, Baz initially takes offense, thinking Rox is saying Speakers can’t keep oaths. But what Rox means is a slave can’t be bound to an oath given to his master, because there’s no free choice there.
“They could die,” Baz replies.
A paradox, Rox says, one even Enigmans like him apparently can’t solve. It’s true, a man can always choose death. But is an oath sworn where the only alternative is death–the proverbial gun held to the head–a true promise? Rox doesn’t think so. Do you?
This is sort of the same question as before. Maybe modified slightly. Is your own personal truth worth dying for? I guess it likely depends on what you’re being asked to do, though I suppose we can assume that if someone’s holding a gun to your head, it’s something you would never consent to otherwise. Maybe that answers the question right there. I mean, there’s a reason “duress” is a defense to most crimes.
The even harder question is whether it’s actually the right choice to choose death instead of carrying out the coerced promise. You shoot her or I’ll shoot you. What’s the right choice there? I’d like to think I’d take the bullet, but man, I get nervous just thinking about it in the hypothetical.
Baz then modifies the facts a little: “What if it isn’t your own death that’s coercing you, but the loss of another? I’d never see Tax again if I ran.”
To me, this is almost an easier question. If the life of someone I care about is being threatened, there’s probably little I wouldn’t be willing to do to prevent it from happening. But again, tough, tough choices. Even Rox, who has proved to be our surprising moral compass on this journey doesn’t have an answer. But Rox does admit that he sees the injustice of Baz’s situation: Deliritous is better than most, but he still oppresses Baz. Man, Rox really is the best of the three–he cares for Deliritous despite knowing he’s deeply flawed.
OK, you can take your cardigan off now. Baz and Rox continue onward after that rousing debate and come to a blockage in the road. Rox dismounts to see what’s going on. There’s a bright flash! And when Baz’s vision clears, what does he see?
Another dragon.
CONCLUSION
Homework: We’ll read Chs 21 and 22. Baz’s last encounter with a dragon ended poorly. But we’ll see there’s something a bit different about this one. Then Baz makes a surprising deal. And lots of words get repeated. Repeated. What’s going on with that? Tune in next week to find out!
Listener Question:
Quest: What is the name of the dragon we met in the prologue?
Quote:
“We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
If you’re enjoying the Acktus Trials, or have already read it, please consider taking a minute to leave a review. Reviews help authors by increasing the visibility of their books, which helps get them into the hands of more readers. Thank you for your support! Follow this link to leave a review: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B09QZ8MQ38
The Acktus Trials, an epic fantasy novel, available now:
Deliritous: Baz’s master, heir to Torchsire Library
Hellar Xavier: One of the competitors in the Acktus Trials
Trunnel: Hellar’s Influencer (Speaker)
Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription:
PERSONAL UPDATE
Welcome back to D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club. Today is Saturday, April 16, 2022 as a record this, episode 14.
It’s release weekend for Declaimer’s Discovery and it’s been a success so far. The Acktus Trials has hit the top 20 of classic fantasy eBooks on Amazon and Declaimer’s Discovery is selling well too. If you’ve been waiting to grab an eBook copy of The Acktus Trials now is a good time because it’s currently only 99 cents!
My work also continues on new writing. After a down week getting everything ready for the Declaimer’s Discovery launch, I’m back into full writing mode now and plugging away at Part IV of the Spoken Books Uprising. Part III, Declaimer’s Flight, is also now officially with my editor and on track for its June 17 release date. It’s officially available for pre-order, so get your order in now if you’re eagerly awaiting the third installment of the story.
I had a nice birthday last weekend and thank you to all of those who wished me a happy birthday. I spent the day in Buffalo, NY with my parents, sister, her boyfriend, and Mrs. Kane. We went to the Botanical Gardens, which was lovely, then visited a couple breweries and then had a nice dinner. And I did get my new pair of running shoes! And they’re orange, which is awesome.
ANAYLIS CH. 18
Careful what you wish for
We open with our trio traveling on through the Reach, a rather uneventful journey for them. Rox spends his nights creating a necklace from the teeth of the wyrm he killed, which forces Baz and Deliritous to talk to one another. And Deliritous really seems to be coming around to Baz, admitting that even if they don’t win, he’s going to start using Baz more than he was in the past. Deliritous seems to have overcome his fear of Baz, even if he is still a bit nervous around him.
This troubles Baz–he wonders if he can really trust himself if Deliritous starts putting all this trust in him. He hasn’t forgotten what Deliritous did to his brother. But just the fact that Baz is troubled by this and uncertain shows change, right? At the beginning of the story, Baz certainly wouldn’t have been troubled by the prospect of being in a position to carry out revenge on Deliritous.
Bog Bubbles
A few days pass and out travelers reach the Inkwell River. Baz had been hoping for a bath, but it seems “inkwell” is actually a pretty apt name for the water, as it’s brackish and discolored, certainly not something one wants to swim in.
The Firelands certainly don’t sound like a pleasant place. “A boggy wasteland” and bubbles of gas that pop into gouts of flame. You have to stick to the road or worry about being sucked under to your death, and there’s a constant sound of swishing water, pulsing like a heartbeat. Baz even tells us a legend that the gas is caused by all the dead bodies beneath the bog left over from the Burning. It’s a decaying, dead place.
This area is definitely inspired by the Dead Marshes in The Lord of the Rings. I wish my prose was a tenth as good a Tolkien’s. Here’s a quick passage from Two Towers describing the Dead Marshes:
“Dreary and wearisome. Cold, clammy winter still held sway in this forsaken country. The only green was the scum of livid weed on the dark greasy surfaces of the sullen waters. Dead grasses and rotting reeds loomed up in the mists like ragged shadows of long forgotten summers.“
Man, what description. You can see the similarities, if not in the writing, at least in the image it’s portraying.
I knew there was a problem when I heard the roars
So they travel on through the Firelands. Not much problem initially, other than a gas bubble popping and covering them all in slime, which sends Baz into a laughing fit, and even Deliritous and Rox join in with him.
They reach a rock formation that Deliritous calls Torchsire Roost, apparently a famous landmark where his ancestor rested on his way to Tome to begin the Second Burning, which we previously learned was when he either destroyed or confiscated all the Books he could find to consolidate their power amongst the Readers of the three remaining cities of Oration.
Deliritous goes off to do some sightseeing and Baz tries to catch some z’s, but Baz, never the one to accept a good thing, worries that perhaps he’s being lulled into a false sense of security. Which actually turns out to be entirely accurate, because what does he find perched on the giant rock formation when he turns around? A BIG dragon. And not just a dragon, but a dragon with two men riding it–Hellar and Trunnel, his Influencer Speaker. So we see the great power of having an Influencer on the Trials now. No Harbour or Speaker is going to stand up to a dragon! Apparently they saw smoke from their fire and Hellar decided he needed to properly take Deliritous out of the Trials, or at least get back at him. An eye-for-an-eye so to speak. Hellar reveals that he believes Deliritous somehow Read a spell to Baz and that’s what killed his Harbour, so now he’s going to repay the favor by killing Baz.
But all the change we’ve seen in Deliritous comes to a head here. He isn’t just going to stand by and watch Baz get fried. Obviously Rox tries to stop him, but Deliritous isn’t having it. He has Rox help him onto his mount and gallops to try to save Baz, shouting out a spell for Baz to cast as he does so. It’s that spell he’s mentioned before, the one that sucks the oxygen from the air. Baz uses it and it’s semi successful, deflecting some of the dragon’s fiery breath, but it’s not nearly enough. But Deliritous reaches Baz just in time, shielding him from the blast. Except, that means Deliritous instead takes the brunt of it. Baz is knocked down and plays dead until the dragon flies away with Hellar and Trunnel still on its back.
Baz crawls over to Deliritous. He’s burned all over, his clothing melted into his skin. And his chest isn’t moving. Baz sort of goes into shock. Deliritous sacrificed himself for a Speaker?
CONCLUSION
Homework: Next week we’ll read chapters 19 and 20. Is Deliritous really dead? Rox hits us with some deep Enigman philosophy. And our heroes run into yet another obstacle. Man, it just gets better and better for them. Tune in next week!
Listener Question:
Quest: What’s your favorite book 2 or sequel? Could be a book or a movie. Send your answers to dtkane@dtkane.com and I’ll share some of your answers next week.
Quote:
“People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
If you’re enjoying the Acktus Trials, or have already read it, please consider taking a minute to leave a review. Reviews help authors by increasing the visibility of their books, which helps get them into the hands of more readers. Thank you for your support! Follow this link to leave a review: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B09QZ8MQ38
PRE-ORDER Part II of The Spoken Books Uprising, Declaimer’s Discovery, available April 15!
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 back to D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club. Today is Thursday, April 7, 2022, as I record this, episode 13.
Busy busy over here. Declaimer’s Discovery comes out next week! Hard to believe, I still have so much more to do it for. Live of a self-published author! Have to update the front and back matter in the first book, get the preorder for the third book setup so I can put a link in the second book, finish formatting the second book. Ah! But it will get done.
On top of that, I’m plugging away at Part IV as well. Not going as fast as I want, but I knew that was going to happen with the book release and podcast taking away from some of my writing time. And I have to keep reminding myself that’s all right. I’ve only got so many hours in the day, and I have a day job too! Deep breaths.
Not a ton to report on the personal front this week, though this week is my birthday. Woo! Man, 35 years old, tough to believe. I’m looking forward to a fun weekend in Buffalo, meeting up with my parents, sister, and her boyfriend. And hoping for a new pair of running shoes that I can use for my half marathon next month. We’ll see!
If you’d like to give me some last minute help to make my release next week a success, consider leaving a review of Book 1 of the series, The Acktus Trials, which of course we’re reading here on the podcast together. Thank you!
ANAYLIS CHS 16-17
CH 16
There’s a what down there with him?
So right off the bat our cliffhanger from last week is answered. Rox has fallen into a pit with a wyrm! A big one, according to Baz. Luckily, Rox didn’t fall on top of it, and it’s asleep, so there’s a chance to rescue him.
Initially, Deliritous doesn’t actually believe Baz there’s wyrm down there with Rox, looking skeptical. And Baz actually understands. Deliritous is vulnerable without Rox and his injury, and he’s worried for ten years that Baz will seek revenge on him. Baz even admits a few weeks ago, he’d have relished this situation. But now it doesn’t seem to appealing to him. Baz is changing!
So is Deliritous, apparently, since he ultimately decides to trust Baz, basically leaves it up to Baz to figure out how to get Rox out.
An Iridescent Halo
So what does this thing look like? Well, not the most creative monster you’ve ever read about, I’m sure. It’s basically just a giant snake, right? A long length of body with green scales, no limbs, sharp teeth, yellow eyes. It does have this odd glow to it, though. Almost as if the shadows themselves were afraid to get too near it. Hold that thought, it will be important in a minute.
So Baz assesses the situation and realizes he’s not going to be able to use spells to get them out of this. The wyrm breaths fire, so fire spells won’t work. And Baz isn’t great with the other spells Deliritous brought, so the wyrm would just eat Rox while Baz was trying to figure them out. I really like this. I’ve mentioned before, magic is generally more interesting for what it can’t do, than what it can. Blasting yourself out of a tight spot with fireballs might be exciting once or twice, but it gets boring fast. But figuring out how to save yourself without magic? That takes you on twists you might not have expected.
And how many of you expected this? Baz runs back to Deliritous and asks for the “metal hook thingy”–really a grappling hook. Any of you catch that we saw this getting loaded onto the horses back in chapter 8 and Baz wondered what use it could possibly have? Tricky tricky foreshadowing! And what’s the plan? Not to have Rox climb out, there’s no trees close enough to hold his weight, and he’d likely wake the wyrm besides. No, the plan is to give Rox the hook so he can retrieve his razor. Meanwhile, Baz is going to trust Rox to get his weapon while Baz distracts the wyrm. Woah! Baz still might now admit it to himself, but man, times they are a changin’! No way he would have trusted Rox at the beginning of the book.
Words of Import
So Baz throws a rock at the wyrm, draws its attention. The thing rises up, proving to be even larger than Baz thought: ten horses, nose to tail. That’s like 80 feet. I Googled it 🙂 Then the wyrm begins to Speak. Uh, who saw that coming? Well, maybe some of you. The dragon back in the prologue could talk, right? So maybe it’s not so incredible that this wyrm can too. Though it’s not speaking common tongue, but the language of Destruction. Interesting, Baz does get some sense of what it means. “Telling him to be gone, to leave its home.”
Idea from Tax that words are important even if they’re not fully understood. Welcome to D. T. Kane’s Epic Philosophy Book Club! What do you think? Is this sentiment true? I mean, in the context of the book, it seems there’s some truth to this. After all, Baz at least hinted earlier that Tax continued Baz’s education by having him listen to all the Retirees’ songs, and Baz seems to have learned something, even if he didn’t fully grasp it at the time.
What about real life? Well, let me pose this question: Ever read a book, then return to it years later and find all these new meanings you totally missed the first time? Well, does that mean it didn’t have any value the first time you read it? I don’t think so. We’re all constantly changing, and sometimes books and the meanings behind them can change for us too in different chapters of our lives. Should we simply not read something because we can’t fully understand it? I don’t think so. How would we ever learn anything?
OK, philosophy lesson over. So, I hope you think I did a decent job of building some tension here. But obviously, Baz doesn’t die. The wyrm almost breathes fire on him, but Rox gets his razor first and chops the wyrm up. Phew!
Chapter 17
Good Eats
OK, so we go from the Epic Philosophy Book Club to Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. Rox cuts off the wyrm’s head and brings it with him and cooks it for dinner! Man! They’re a delicacy in Enigma, he says. Remember, that’s where he’s from. So initially, this seems like just the typical big brute eating a MAN’S MEAL. But come on guys, you ought to know by now I’m a little deeper than that. (Well, mostly. I did joke about throwing a rock at Rox last chapter!)
We learn that Enigmans actually sort of worship wyrms. Rox tells this quick story that all of them descend from a single mother, the All Truth. While all things are made of the five elements, the All Truth had no shadow in her, which is the element of conceit and uncertainty, says Rox. And we already know Enigmans place a high value on truth, so you can see the appeal of such a creature. Deliritous goes so far as to say that the Enigmans don’t really worship the Scribes. Their religion is Truth.
Isn’t Rox eating his god? Sure, but what else can you do when your gods are constantly trying to kill you? You fight back. And if you kill something it must be put to use. Death for no reason is a Lie! Rox, love it or hate it, he has his code and sticks to it.
Also, an interesting bit about the magic system here, that all living things are made up of the five elements. Don’t think that was explicitly stated before this point, but just a nice tidbit explaining the five elements a bit more.
A relatively ordinary man
Another significant thing that happens here: Baz sees Rox without his mask on for the first time while he’s eat and is struck by how ordinary he looks. If you didn’t notice how big he was, you’d think him just a normal man of thirty. Well, perhaps slightly more grizzled than average.
And the changes continue. We see Rox actually call Deliritous to task for failing to recognize that Baz saved him. He “deserves gratitude.” Baz can’t believe Rox thanked him, but are we really so surprised? Rox has been showing us for many chapters now he’s not just a dumb brute. In some ways, he’s the most moral of our characters. Baz is just in denial because of his brother.
Still, Rox isn’t all rainbows. While they’re talking about Rox’s obsession with Truth, Deliritous notes how there’s no bigger lie than breaking an oath. Or, Rox adds, “permitting another to go back on an oath.” A veiled threat here, just to remind Baz that Rox is keeping an eye on him. His moral code is both good and bad for Baz.
It’s more like they’re trying to keep people away
They briefly discuss the Citiless again in this chapter, because Deliritous confirms for us that the pit was likely a Citiless trap, though he says the Citiless do it so they can pillage valuables off the corpses after the wyrms kill them. Baz points out, though, that out in the wilds, most valuables like aren’t of much use. More like, they’re trying to keep people away from Tome.
Baz recalls that the Citiless who was captured back in Chapter 5 went on about learning to Read at Tome. Baz muses whether there might actually be something at Tome they’re trying to keep them from. Deliritous brushes this off, he thinks they’re just uncivilized heathens. Notice, though, how he evades Baz’s question about what a Declaimer is? “Mindless fiction.” Hmm, what’s going on here? Stay tuned!
No Stop Rune Required
Finally, we get to the end of the chapter, and Deliritous shocks Baz by doing what? He lets him memorize a spell. Just a simple one, to start a small fire. But what a huge step from even just a few chapters ago where Deliritous made Baz stand on the other side of the clearing before Reading to him. Also, a nice bit of parallelism here, the first spell Deliritous trusts Baz with is also the first spell Tax taught Baz. Coming full circle here. Now, is Baz going to grow to trust Deliritous as much as he does his own brother? Well, that seems unlikely. But certainly mountains are moving, if slowly.
CONCLUSION
Homework: Next week we’ll read Chapter 18. We head into the Firelands! Our merry band will face another challenge, and Deliritous shows us just how much he’s changed from that entitled young man we saw at the beginning of the novel.
Listener Question:
Quest: Share your favorite fantasy quote with me and I’ll feature it in a future episode.
Quote: When you don’t know what to do, do what’s right and do what’s in front of you. But not necessarily what’s right in front of you.
-Brent Weeks, The Black Prism
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
If you’re enjoying the Acktus Trials, or have already read it, please consider taking a minute to leave a review. Reviews help authors by increasing the visibility of their books, which helps get it into the hands of more readers. Thank you for your support! Follow this link to leave a review: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B09QZ8MQ38
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.
If you’re enjoying the Acktus Trials, or have already read it, please consider taking a minute to leave a review. Reviews help authors by increasing the visibility of their books, which helps get it into the hands of more readers. Thank you for your support! Follow this link to leave a review: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B09QZ8MQ38
Deliritous: Baz’s master, heir to Torchsire Library
Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription.
PERSONAL UPDATE
Welcome back to D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club. Today is March 23, 2022 as I record this, Episode 11.
On the personal side of things, not too much to report. I appreciate the kind words from those of you who reached out about my home repair woes. They’ve finally dried everything out, and my wife and I were able to actually sleep in our bedroom again for the first time in over a week, so that was a relief. Air mattresses are not a recipe for good sleep! And actually, this turned out to be a bit of a blessing, because when they removed one wall, the contractors discovered an exhaust pipe for our furnace wasn’t properly sealed, which could have led to gas leaks, so really glad that was caught! Now we’re just waiting for the walls to get put back up, which I’m sure will be another fun around of contractors coming in and out.
On the writing front, Declaimer’s Discovery is now in the hands of my advance readers. Thanks to all of those who joined my team. And if anyone listening is interested in joining, let me know, as I have a few slots open still. Basically, you get all my books for free before they release, and in exchange you just have to read them before the release date and post a review once they come out. Email me with your interest, dtkane@dtkane.com.
Declaimer’s Discovery, Part II of The Spoken Books Uprising, releases April 15, 2022.
ANAYLIS CH. 13
The Plan–In the Interest of Keeping Deliritous Safe
So we left off last week with Baz offering to complete the Trials for Deliritous, who has a broken leg. Incidentally, did any of you catch that Baz quipped about Deliritous breaking his leg back in chapter 7? Just a bit of innocent foreshadowing there!
Why is Baz willing to make such a deal after being so down on having to come on this journey at all? Well, obviously he wants something in exchange, and that’s for Deliritous to keep secret that Baz can Read. And as Baz says, as much as Deliritous is horrified by Baz’s ability, Baz has hit on the one thing that frightens Deliritous more than a Cuss: letting his father down. Baz actually says he feels a bit bad about capitalizing on that. “Grungy” is the term he uses. Baz, after all, has a family member he wouldn’t want to let down in his brother, and certainly Baz wouldn’t like someone taking advantage of that. Interesting how Baz and Deliritous are sort of serving as foils to one another even though they’re in such different positions.
So, what are the features of the plan? Well, there’s a few interesting ones.
Baz gets to use Rox. Interesting point here, that Deliritous has the right to “transfer” Rox’s oath. Sort of a reminder that Rox is kind of property too, even though we haven’t necessarily thought of him as such to this point. Interesting too that Rox says he “dislikes the idea of leaving [Deliritous’s] side.” Maybe an indication that Rox views his responsibility for Deliritous as more than just a simple duty.
They need to find a safe location to leave Deliritous while Baz goes off to complete the Trials. We see from how much of a hard time Deliritous has riding that he can’t go on. There’s a town nearby and the plan is to leave him there. But remember, no one can know Deliritous isn’t the one completing the Trials. Imagine the shame if it came out a Speaker completed the Trials for him! So how are they going to handle that?
Well, Baz and Deliritous will switch places! This is a funny sequence, I think, where both Baz and Deliritous are lamenting having to pretend to be the other. More evidence of how they foil one another, we get Baz thinking it will be simple to impersonate Deliritous, then Deliritous says aloud how it won’t be hard to imitate Baz.
Baz: just act clueless and treat everyone he met as if they were below him
Deliritous: Just need to glower at everything and act as if I know more than I ought to.
But Deliritous doesn’t have a brand. Interesting, Deliritous notes this “progressive” movement in the city of Fortune, where some Readers are no longer branding their Speakers. So, maybe not all Readers treat their Speakers as poorly as they do in Erstwhile? That’ll be more relevant in the next book, but file that away. For now, Baz notes that the people in Hamlet are going to know a Speaker ought to be branded because Erstwhile sends Speakers and Readers there every year to serve the townsfolk. So what does he do? He convinces Rox it’s in Deliritous’s best interest to have a wound on his head where his brand conceivably could have been.
Hole in Baz’s plan–he’ll have to give up his only leverage to enforce the promise: The Book he finds at Tome. But one problem at a time. As Baz notes, “an unlikely number of things would need to go right before Baz needed to expend any energy at all worrying over that.”
Hamlet: I’m looking for a hat, good shopkeeper.
So we arrive in Hamlet, Deliritous pouting since Baz convinced Rox to slice up his forehead. It’s a bit of a dump, right? Dilapidated buildings with a few muddy paths for streets. Sounds like it was a bustling hub once, back when Tome was still the country’s capital. But no longer.
Baz stops at a shop and Rox goes in with him (remember, they’re pretending Baz is a Reader, so he’s got to have his Harbour with him). The shopkeeper, though, isn’t nearly as impressed with Baz as Baz figured, and Baz feels like a fool, expecting special treatment for acting like a Reader. “Fair shopkeeper, it is I, Deliritous Torchsire, Reader of Erstwhile, come to grace your shop with my presence.” We learn the shopkeeper had recently been swindled by another Reader, so he’s a bit salty.
And now, the big reveal that I promised last week! What is it? The hat! Finally, we see why I’m wearing the hat. Baz is getting himself one, because he needs to conceal the brand on his forehead, plus he’s always wanted one and he’s taking advantage of the situation. And the shopkeeper does have one: “It was dark brown leather, creased and well-worn with a wide brim.” Here it is!
The shopkeeper tries to rip Baz off, seeing how eager he is. Rox catches him in the lie (Baz doesn’t have much of a concept of money), but Baz tells Rox to give the shopkeeper the sum he asked for anyway, recompence for his previous treatment. Interestingly, Rox agrees. He sees truth in what Baz is doing–it matches up with Rox’s code.
And this act of kindness turns out to be helpful, right? The shopkeeper wasn’t going to say anything, but after Baz gives him the extra coin, he reveals that Marla and Hellar were in the shop, asking around about a lost Torchsire Speaker. The shopkeeper gives a skeptical glance outside, where Deliritous is waiting, supposedly a Speaker. Marla has also told the shopkeeper that she’ll be back in a month, asking again for information. And she was offering good coin for information.
Baz briefly considers whether they need to kill the shopkeeper to keep him quiet. But notice how Rox actually dissuades him from doing so. Again, we see that Rox may actually me the most moral of our trio of main characters here! So instead, Baz asks the shopkeeper how much Marla was offering for the information. Obviously, he’s going to try to outbid her. But does anyone see the issue here? The impact on their plan? Well, tune in next week to find out!
Miscellaneous
Deliritous’s regret over Tax
Stories of men going mad from using shadow spells. Is that what the voices were, going mad? Baz had, after all, agreed to help Deliritous!
CONCLUSION
Homework: We’ll read Chapters 14 and 15 next week. Plans will change, relationships will grow! And then our characters run into yet another problem. What could it be?
Listener Question:
Quest: Any thoughts on what my inspiration for Rox was? He’s a bit of a blend of characters from relatively well-known fantasy works. Send me your thoughts and we’ll discuss them next week.
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
If you’re enjoying the Acktus Trials, or have already read it, please consider taking a minute to leave a review. Reviews help authors by increasing the visibility of their books, which helps get it into the hands of more readers. Thank you for your support! Follow this link to leave a review:https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B09QZ8MQ38
Deliritous: Baz’s master, heir to Torchsire Library
Hellar Xavier: Reader, heir to Xavier Library, one of the competitors going on the Trials
Trunnel: Hellar’s Speaker, an Influencer
Arrow: Hellar’s Harbour
Marla Kolnar: Nice of the Duchess of Kolnar Library, one of the competitors going on the Trials
Ryle: Marla’s Harbour
Retch: Marla’s Speaker, a Creator
Below is a copy of my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription.
PERSONAL UPDATE
March 19, 2022 as I record this, Episode 10.
Well, those of you who read the newsletter saw I had a bit of a tough week. Came home from vacation last week to some water damage in my house and have been dealing with the repairs all week. Fun times.
Thankfully, I’ve still got my writing! I started work on Part IV of the Spoken Books Uprising, wrote my first 7,500 words on that, though now I’ve had to backburner that just for a few days because I got my editor’s edits on Part II back and I need to get that finalized so I can send copies to my advance readers.
Remember, Part II is out April 15 and you can preorder your copy now! Link in the show notes.
ANAYLIS CH. 11-12
Alright! I hope you enjoyed listening to these two chapters as much as I enjoyed writing them. Lots of tension here!
Mutters in the Night
So we start with Deliritous insisting that Rox get some sleep rather than keeping watch. Rox is obviously wary of Marla in particular, but finally relents. He’s been keeping watch every night, so he must be exhausted. Baz notes how it worries him, seeing Rox tired.
He’d always thought of Rox more like a massive tool rather than breathing flesh and blood. It was much easier to disdain a tool than it was a person.
I think this is a bit of theme throughout the novel too–It’s tough to go on hating someone when you’ve spent time with them under difficult circumstances.
But I don’t think it comes as too much as a surprise to any of you that having Deliritous keep the watch instead of Rox doesn’t really work out. Baz wakes to “muttering in the darkness,” and as he notes, while that might not be cause for alarm for an ordinary person, when you worried about Readers wishing you harm, it’s the last thing you want to hear.
So Marla and Hellar have obviously been plotting behind Deliritous’s back because this attack was coordinated. It’s unclear whether Hellar and Marla had planned this all along, or Hellar did initially intend to see if a truce with Deliritous could work out and then diverted after the scene with Marla and Baz at the end of chapter 10. I never make that entirely clear, and I’m not sure it really matters, though I think it’s obvious based on how they were conversing together and giving each other cryptic looks that they had something going between them.
So, to set the scene, Marla is reading this spell to her Creator that results in roots shooting out of the ground to imprison Rox, and Hellar uses his Influencer to lull Deliritous into a stupor so he can’t raise the alarm. It’s dark, the fire having burned low. Baz is laying down, apparently not in direct proximity of Deliritous or Rox, which makes sense since he doesn’t like either of them.
But we do see Marla’s and Hellar’s hubris is a bit of their undoing here. They left Baz unaccounted for because neither wanted to be without their Harbour while they were Reading to their Speakers. Baz ruefully comments on this:
Even now, out in the wilds and in the midst of turning on one of their fellow Readers, they couldn’t trust their Speakers long enough to ensure a loose end like Baz didn’t interfere with their plans.
So a potential weakness here that Baz is able to exploit, and maybe one to keep in mind for the future as well. Hellar and Marla assume Baz is essentially useless if Deliritous isn’t able to Read spells to him, and it costs them, as we’re about to see.
Oh, hello there, chaps.
So Baz shouts a warning to Rox, but it’s too late, Rox is caught by the roots, though he does manage to injure Trunnel, Hellar’s Influencer, before being confined. And we see that perhaps the relationship between Hellar and Marla isn’t a smooth one either. Hellar demands that Marla heal his Speaker, but it seems like she’s going to refuse until she notices that Hellar’s Harbour has a clear shot at her with his bow. Marla’s in it to win it, so to speak. She could have potentially greatly handicapped both of her opponents here, and it certainly raises questions about whether Hellar is wise to be trusting her. What do you guys think is going to happen between the two of them? Let me know, dtkane@dtkane.com!
During the confusion of Rox injuring Trunnel and nearly escaping the roots, Baz runs and hides behind a tree, so now he’s watching the scene from afar. Interesting that he doesn’t run away completely, right? I mean, he comes up with pretty good reasoning–there’s no way he could survive in the wilds alone, he’d never see his brother again. Baz says he’s not a very good runner, though of course he doesn’t say it quite like that:
He had few talents, and none of them involved running farther than the distance from his sleeping pallet to the privy back in Torchsire Library.
But still, you get the sense there’s something more. Hold that thought.
At this point, Deliritous wakes up from the spell Hellar had put him under. Despite the savvy he showed earlier, we still see his innocence, or maybe you’d say naivety, here. He initially doesn’t think anything’s amiss: “Oh, hello there, chaps.” Of course, he’s quickly debased of that when Marla’s Harbour grabs him by the throat and lifts him off the ground.
And then Deliritous realizes Baz isn’t there and starts shouting for him. Almost like he’s concerned, fearing that Marla’s killed Baz. Baz actually feels bad listening to him.
And we really see that all our fears about Marla were totally warranted. She’s here just kind of toying with Deliritous, telling him how they didn’t see him as a threat, they just wanted to eliminate Rox from the competition. “Don’t be daft, deary.”
You spineless Book burner!
Then things for from bad to worse. Marla asks Hellar to have his Harbour kill Rox, which Hellar does. Deliritous frantically tries to bargain, saying he’ll just forfeit the Trials. And that shows his regard for Rox, right? We saw how important it is for him to do well in the Trials, with all the pressure his father’s putting on him and his resistance to his uncle’s suggestion that he just sort of hide and keep himself alive. But Marla declines he entreaties, reasoning she doesn’t want the risk of Rox being around even after the get back from the Trials.
So then Deliritous gets angry, cursing at Marla. He says something about her mother… and that proves to be a mistake. She stomps down on his leg and breaks it.
And now Baz has his moment. Probably the most pivotal moment in the whole book. Remember, I told you Baz was going to make a big decision last week. Here it is.
But Baz was surprised to find another emotion mixed with the fear. Anger. Anger at Marla’s casual cruelty, at Hellar’s detached indifference. And most of all, anger at how ill-equipped Deliritous was to deal with them. Not because he was entirely inept, though he’d plenty ineptitude in him. But because he lacked the deplorable characteristics of Marla and Hellar—he wasn’t despicable enough to concoct a plan like what Marla and Hellar had hatched, nor hard enough to carry it out with the apathy Hellar demonstrated. He was still the ink-spilling bastard who had ruined Tax’s life, but…
Baz’s innate sense of right shines through again! He decides to try and save Deliritous. And how is he going to do it? Well, I’m sure most of you saw this coming–he’s going to Read! He does remember, back from when his brother taught him.
At least, that’s partially it. Baz tells us he hadn’t tried to Read in 10 years, yet he’s still able to Read this very complex spell. He gives two explanations for this: (1) even if Deliritous doesn’t utilize him often, he’s still Spoken thousands of spells, so it’s not as if he hasn’t at least had practice repeating Words Deliritous Read to him; and (2) this is the far more interesting one, I think–Tax’s songs. Baz suggests that they’ve had some innate effect on him, they’ve helped him learn by listening to them over and over. Baz doesn’t say anything definitive here, but it seems perhaps there’s more to Tax’s songs than just passing the time.
Shadow
So Baz sneaks back into the camp, grabs a Book from Deliritous’s Bookpack… and he nearly drops it. Why? Because it’s that crazy Book of shadow spells Baz had scolded Deliritous for even picking up back in the Reading room. Now, we haven’t gotten too much into the five magical elements yet, but we do know there’s fire, earth, water, light, and shadow. And apparently shadow, as Baz tells us, isn’t very well understood and dangerous even to adept Readers.
And we see a couple things suggesting that belief is right. First, as Baz nears completion of the spell, he starts hearing voices in his head, right? Terrible voices, imploring him to do awful things. You know that’s going to become relevant later, but there’s no time for Baz to dwell on it now.
Second, we see just how vicious the spell ends up being. It vaporizes Hellar’s Harbour.
And I guess there’s a third justification for shadow being little understood. When Deliritous makes up the story that it was a dragon, even though he saw it was Baz who Read the spell, Marla and Hellar don’t think to disbelieve him. That suggests whatever the spell was that Baz cast, it’s not one seen often, so Baz alleging it came from a dragon was plausible. And see, they call it a Shadow Breather? We heard reference to Fire Breathers earlier, so there are at least two types of different dragons. Perhaps there are more?
So Marla and Hellar run, leaving Deliritous with a broken leg and Rox trapped. Likely, they think they’re leaving him to die. Baz waits until he’s certain they’re gone, then goes to Deliritous. And what does he do?
He yells for Baz to stay away from him!
A cow chewing cud
Baz is initially incredulous–he just saved Deliritous and this is how he treats him? He actually hits Deliritous when he keeps going on about how Baz will have to be blinded now like his brother. But an interesting reversal of roles here, and it makes Baz sick.
Baz threatens to his Deliritous a second time and he cowers away. And what does he say? “I never hit you?”
Wow, I don’t know about you, but that’s powerful to me. Baz realizes that the instant he was given power like the Readers, he began using it to abuse Deliritous.
Gain an ounce of power and look what his first inclination had been–treat Deliritous just like most Readers treated their Speakers.
An interesting and I guess startling idea here–it’s not always easy to do the right thing when you’re the one in a superior position. Baz perhaps grasps in this moment that having power isn’t all it’s cracked up to be with the temptations it presents. That’s another theme we’ll see returned to again and again throughout the series. Power isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Baz realizes once he cools down that maybe his brother is right about Deliritous. He’s just a product of his environment, and you can’t entirely blame him for that. Baz notes that a lot of slaves in his position would just run, maybe even cut Deliritous’s throat. But doing that would be like “killing a cow for chewing cud. It’s just what they do.”
Baz also realizes that his only chance now of ever seeing his brother again is to work with Deliritous. He can’t go back to Erstwhile if he runs away–he needs Deliritous to get back. And so Baz comes up with a plan. What if he travels to Tome and finishes the Trials for Deliritous?
Duh duh duh! Oh, man! Ending on a cliffhanger this week.
Just a couple quick other things:
When Deliritous is resisting admitting that Baz actually helped him out, Rox chimes in: “Truuuth.” Rox understands. They’d be dead without Baz.
Deliritous notes he has nightmares about Tax. He does feel bad, even if Baz doesn’t want to hear it.
CONCLUSION
Homework: We’ll read Chapter 13 next week. Baz and Deliritous flesh out their plan. And we get to a town. And here in this town is a big moment. A reveal of epic proportions, very relevant to the podcast, particularly those who watch on YouTube. You can’t really miss it, but keep an eye out and jump out of your seat when it comes!
Listener Question:
Quest: Any thoughts on why shadow is dangerous? There has been a subtle hint somewhere in the Book. 3XP
Quote:
“Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’
‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
Declaimer’s Discovery, Part II of D. T. Kane’s epic fantasy series The Spoken Books Uprising, releases April 15, 2022. Pre-Order Now! Read below for the teaser blurb!
Having survived the Acktus Trials and kept his secret safe—for now—Baz has returned to Erstwhile. But Baz’s rest is short lived when an unwelcome guest visits Torchsire Library, bearing news of a revolt amongst the Speakers in Fortune, Oration’s wealthiest city. A special session of Oration’s Congress has been called there, and Baz’s master is selected to represent Erstwhile. Of course, that means Baz is going as well.
Suddenly, Baz finds himself with an opportunity to fulfill his promise to the Keepers he met beneath the ruined city of Tome—search Fortune for the Declaimer’s Transcendence, a prophecy that promises to unlock the secret of freeing the Speakers of Oration from slavery. But circumstances quickly turn dangerous when Baz and his companions are attacked on route to Fortune, and Baz is thrown into a rebellion he’s not certain he wants to be a part of. And that’s before Baz discovers that the most powerful Reader in Fortune not only holds a secret that could destroy all of Oration, but may also know Baz’s own secret.
Surrounded my enemies and friends he doesn’t trust, can Baz survive Fortune city and find the prophecy as he promised?
If you’re enjoying the Acktus Trials, or have already read it, please consider taking a minute to leave a review. Reviews help authors by increasing the visibility of their books, which helps get them into the hands of more readers. Thank you for your support! Follow this link to leave a review: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B09QZ8MQ38
Characters in this Chapter: Baztian (Baz): Our main character Rox: Deliritous’s Harbour (bodyguard) Deliritous: Baz’s master, heir to Torchsire Library Duke Octavinal: Deliritous’s father, leader of Torchsire Library
Hellar Xavier: Reader, heir to Xavier Library, one of the competitors going on the Trials Trunnel: Hellar’s Speaker, an Influencer Arrow: Hellar’s Harbour
Marla Kolnar: Nice of the Duchess of Kolnar Library, one of the competitors going on the Trials Ryle: Marla’s Harbour
This week’s quote: “Freedom doesn’t mean you get to choose what happens to you. But you do get to choose how you react to it.” ― Stephen R. Donaldson, The One Tree
Disclosure: The links above are affiliate links. If you make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. I use these commissions to pay for overhead such as hosting and editing costs. Thank you for supporting my show!
Below is a copy of my notes/script for this episode, not a verbatim transcription.
PERSONAL UPDATE
Today is February 24, 2022 as I record this, Episode 8.
ANAYLIS CH. 9
Import of Trials
It’s like a national holiday, though the sort of holiday the Hunger Gamers were in Pan Am. Libraries rise and fall based on the results of the Trials. The entire government is present, the Table of Ennea, as well as congregations from each of the nine Libraries and Illits to watch.
Of course, Baz notes, they’re much less significant to him. Just another threat to his continued breathing.
Erstwhile is built like a fortress
Fifty foot walls thick enough for eight men to walk abreast, giant portcullis, and a killing ground.
The Competitors
Hellar has an Enforcer and Influencer with him. Harbour seems similar to Rox, though only an “above-average hill, rather than a towering mountain.” In addition to the “standard-issue razor” he’s also got a bandolier full of knives, a bow, and he’s carrying a “Bookpack.” A “traveling bookshelf on shoulder straps” Baz calls it.
Hellar’s Speaker is Trunnel, the same Influencer we saw earlier. Baz notes that’s an interesting choice, as most would either choose a healer (Creator) or a Destroyer who can fling about offensive spells. So let’s be honest here, this choice is obviously going to have consequences down the road. What could Hellar have planned with a Speaker capable of mind control?
Marla. First thing we learn is she probably as a bit of a chip on her shoulder. Baz points out that the Duchess of Kolnar has a daughter old enough to compete in the Trials, but has held her back a year so she doesn’t go against Hellar. So Marla’s a bit of a sacrificial lamb, unless she wins, in which case Kolnar will look good, beating Xavier’s best with a “lesser” candidate. We remember how unsettling Marla seemed back in the scene where the Citiless was tortured, so the fact that she has this as motivation certainly doesn’t bode well.
Her Harbour is a woman, which Baz notes is odd. She uses two razors and seems to exude a similar aspect of terror as her master. Baz mutters to Rox that he better look out for that Harbour. “Hmmm, Truth,” Rox rumbled. “I know Ryle. Words mean… odd things to her.” The hesitance in Rox’s voice concerns Baz. If Rox is upset by Marla’s Harbour…
Marla’s Speaker is a Creator and he seems to be a madman. He wears blinders, like a horse. So his eyes haven’t been removed like Octavinal does to his Speakers, though Baz questions whether that’s any better. “It was said that denying one’s body the use of a sense it hadn’t lost did strange things to a man.”
He swayed in place with a sort of nervy anticipation, as if he’d lash out at the slightest stimulation. He licked his lips incessantly, as if he couldn’t keep them moistened, and his hands kept opening and closing into fists. He reminded Baz of a mute, ravenous dog, just waiting for the collar to come off. Most people thought of Creators as healers and food producers, but Baz knew better. There were some truly awful spells a Creator could utter that would kill you just as dead as any fireball conjured by a Destroyer.
History of Oration
249th Acktus Trials
Before the Burning, anyone could Read and theft, murder, and war were rampant.
Then the three Scribes call the Summit. “Gods given flesh to guide us.” Their vision was to consolidate power and knowledge with only those worthy to possess it. Responsibility, true ability, and foresight. A gather of Oration’s strongest Orators. (The crowd boos this term–apparently what Cusses were called before the Burning).
Intent was to write new Books in a language that could only be understood by a select few. Locked themselves at the peak of the Great Library’s tallest tower. Hmm, where did we see the Great Library’s tower before? But something went terribly wrong. An explosion, blowing the tower’s top off and much of the rest of the Library. The skies turned red and the great Scribes, along with many Orators, were lost. Fire rained from the skies throughout Erstwhile, killing thousands.
The Uncertainties followed. Much of Oration’s leadership died in the Burning. Tome was looted and further ruined. Shelves picked all but bare.
Then Acktus Deliritous Torchsire led the Second Burning, restored order. Confiscated Books until their power resided solely in the nine Libraries of Erstwhile, seven of Fortune, and three of Enigma. Also established the separation of powers between Readers, Speakers, and Illits. “Ensure dependence on one another, rather than division.”
“Baz suppressed a snigger.” Did they actually believe that? Power wasn’t separated, the Speakers had none.
Acktus Trials were started because new Books can’t be made–have to find more. Scribes’ spells still hold sway in Tome, Books don’t age the same way there.
Conservator gives the competitors the Scribes’ blessing, “gesture of the Trinity, hands cupped together like a book then raising three fingers to his lips.”
Rules of the Acktus Trials
Return within 60 days
Two paths to Tome, one is shorter but more dangerous. The other longer but safter. I’ll toss the map up on the screen on YouTube highlighting both paths.
The way through the Reach and across the Firelands and Weeping Plains is shorter, but more treacherous; the way through the Emerald Woods longer, but generally safer, though not without challenges.
Work together or separate
No “mortal force” against another Reader, though Baz notes Readers are capable of inflicting quite a bit of pain without using mortal force. Plus, no prohibition against killing Speakers.
Can only take one Book, by treaty with other cities of the Triumvirate
Table judges which Book is best and declares winner
CONCLUSION
Homework: Next week we read Chapter 10! Our competitors are finally off and traveling through the Wilds. Deliritous makes a deal with his other competitors. Is he savvy or stupid? Baz talks with Trunnel and receives a dire warning–what does that portend? And then Baz really puts his foot in his mouth and is rescued by an unlikely source.
Listener Question: Save these for next episode to go over quests.
Quest: Go over answers from previous episodes:
What do you think was my inspiration for the dragon we meet in the prologue? 2 XP
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
What is that statue of the dragon in the Conservatory calling to mind from earlier? 1 XP
For this week’s quest, I’d like you to send me your favorite excerpt from Chapter 4. 1 XP
What do you think the inciting incident of the novel is? 2 XP
I left out another potentially interesting connection between Tax’s tattoo and something from earlier in the Book. 3 XP
Who is your favorite fantasy author? 1 XP
Quote:
“Freedom doesn’t mean you get to choose what happens to you. But you do get to choose how you react to it.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The One Tree
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
Baztian (Baz): Our main character Leanna: Baz’s Conservator friend; Torchsire’s Librarian Hellar Xavier: Heir to Xavier Library, one of the competitors in the Acktus Trials Marla Kolnar: Niece of the Duchess of Kolnar Library, one of the competitors in the Acktus Trials Deliritous: Baz’s master Rox: Deliritous’s Harbour (bodyguard) Vintas: Torturer (Vicar) from the Conservatory
The Three Scribes: Leamina Fortune Helfax Erstwhile Pront vi Lextor
Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription.
PERSONAL UPDATE
Welcome back to D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club. Today is DATE as I record this, episode 4. For my person update, it’s an exciting one for me, as this is the first podcast I’ve recorded since The Acktus Trials officially released. Releases are a bit exhausting, getting everything just right and uploaded to all the right places, and I had it doubly hard this time around because I released the podcast at the same time. But I have another book officially out in the world now. I’m eagerly awaiting my copy to come in the mail. One of my friends actually send me a photo in a text today that they’d already received their copy. Jealous! No one should get to see the book before the author does. But I guess that’s the world of print-on-demand books that we live in.
A brief note about that, for those of you who don’t know. Authors don’t have to order boxes and boxes of physical books any more. Print on demand has cured that. Amazon and other places now print books one at a time. So if you were to go ahead and purchase one of my books in paperback, it doesn’t exist at the time you click Order. It’s printed once your order is placed, specially for you.
ANAYLIS CH. 4
OK, so Ch. 4 picks up right where 3 ended, with Baz and Leanna talking about this Citiless that’s been captured, and other things.
Citiless
We’ll go a bit out of order here. Let’s talk about this Citiless first even though Baz and Leanna diverge slightly at the start of the chapter.
Right off the bat, we learn that the “Table,” which is the government of Erstwhile, made up of one Duke or Duchess from each of the nine Libraries, has a standing order to kill any of these Citiless on sight. Apparently the Citiless, as Baz puts it, have “crazy stories about living Scribes and a return to the old ways.” Leanna clarifies that this means they advocate for a return to days where men could Read, Speak, and write new Spoken Books. This obviously disturbs Leanna, and shows why the Table has such a harsh standing order against them–they pretty much stand for the opposite of the Readers, right? The Readers don’t want anyone to be able to both Speak and Read. We saw what happened to poor Yeltax.
Leanna’s vehemence against someone who can both Speak and Read unsettles Baz a bit right? He has to tell himself she wasn’t “intentionally trying to make him uncomfortable.” Baz doesn’t elaborate, but come on guys–what do you think Baz is referring to here? He is one of those individuals Leanna finds so disturbing, yeah? He can Read and Speak, we saw that in the prologue. Oh man, here’s ground ripe for tension. Leanna and Baz seem to be something at least resembling friends if not more, but Leanna is a Conservator who hates Cusses even more than the rest of society. Keep an eye out for this to cause issues in the future.
Then Leanna drops the real bombshell here–this Citiless they’ve caught knows how to Read, and apparently he’s Bound, meaning he was born able to draw power from Spoken Books, which means he’s a dreaded Cuss. That’s why they didn’t execute him on the spot, they need to figure out where he learned to Read so they can make sure more like him don’t start appearing. So Baz is about to see what happens if anyone ever discovers his secret.
And we learn that Baz has been summoned because each of the Libraries has to have a representative present for the questioning of the Citiless.
This dashes Baz’s excitement. Just another “criminal being put to the question.” He’s so cavalier about it, apparently this happens all the time in Erstwhile. Yet more evidence this isn’t a great place to be living. And maybe a bit of that good soul he’s hiding beneath all his sarcasm shows through, too? He shares what he thinks of torture, and he’s not too high on it–either the mere threat of it gets the victim to talk, or they don’t talk until they’ve been broken, and then there’s no way to tell if it’s the truth they’ve giving you or just whatever you want to hear.
Baz is also depressed because he realizes he’s only being summoned because Deliritous wants to look good in public. “Delirious would burn page before he made a public appearance with only one Speaker,” Baz tells us. There’s another fun turn of phrase involving books–he’d burn pages, as in, he would rather do something deemed abhorrent in this society than be seen without a retinue in public. Again, if any of you out there think of an fun, book-based curses, email them to me and I’ll share on a future episode.
Helfax Erstwhile, Leamina Fortune, and the Romance Road
Alright, so before we get to the part of the chapter at Xavier Tower, let’s go over this back-and-forth Baz and Leanna have right at the beginning of the chapter. They’re a pair, right? What little we know about Leanna so far, she seems driven and optimistic, whereas Baz is sarcastic and abrasive. Leanna also seems to befuddle Baz. Let’s see, what does he say at the end of their exchange? Paraphrasing: Whenever he made a point that was clearly the right one, she wouldn’t concede…. And somehow he ended up feeling like he hadn’t won the debate at all.
Next we have a link to prologue, Leanna mentions Leamina Fortune and Helfax Erstwhile. They were the two who Pront vi Lextor told the book dragon had fallen fighting whatever the threat was at the Great Library. Apparently, they were the founders of two of the major cities in Oration, and also, per Leanna, “two of the most important people to have ever lived” because they “sav[ed] all of Oration at the Burning.”
Ah, there’s another connection. Maybe subtle, but not too hidden if you pay attention. This is pretty good evidence that, whatever it was that happened in the prologue, it was this Burning event we saw referenced last week. OK, so two of the most important people in Oration’s history “fell”–in Pront vi Lextor’s words–during the Burning to save Oration. And Pront obviously had some connection with them, so more evidence that he was quite important as well.
Well, how important were they? Ah, well Baz tells us, right? Well, at least for Helfax he tells us, and we can imply it for Pront and Leamina. Helfax Erstwhile was “one of the three great Scribes,” Baz says. By jove! Weren’t the Conservators praying to the Scribes last week? And Baz says again, in reference to Leanna: “Conservators were fervent in their worship of the Scribes.” And we already know the Scribes are the ones who created the Spoken Books.
OK, so lots of puzzle pieces about this world’s lore fall into place. There were three Scribes, Helfax was one, and likely Leamina and Pront were the other two. So they’re all treated like Gods, at least by the Conservators. And they were all at the Burning, yet unable to avert the calamity, and at least two of them–Leamina and Helfax–suffered some terrible fate there, and we don’t know what happened to Pront. So this drives home just how bad the Burning must have been. The three Scribes, who are apparently thought of as gods and created the Books that hold magic, were unable to stop the Burning.
We also get this quick story about the “Romance Road,” which is apparently also called the Great Road, which connects the cities of Erstwhile and Fortune. Leanna tells us Helfax built it just so he could visit Mina Fortune at her City on the Ocean Vast.
Of course, Baz’s sardonic attitude shows through here again. “It’s a child’s fairytale,” he says. The real reason Helfax built the road was “the same reason anyone does anything. Money.” Baz doesn’t seem to have much faith in anyone, does he?
He also references that the Great Road connected not only Fortune and Erstwhile, but also Erstwhile and Tome. Ah, interesting. Pront vi Lextor was Librarian of Tome–that was one of his titles–and at the end of the prologue, remember he descends to Under Tome to deal with his enemies. But apparently Tome is no more–Baz says the Great Road connected Erstwhile to it “when Tome was still a city.” But what happened to it? At this point it seems a pretty good bet the prologue occurred at some point in the distant past, when this disaster called the Burning devastated Tome to the point that it’s no longer considered a city today.
One other tidbit, Leanna chides Baz for asserting traveling through unpaved wilderness is no fun because Baz has apparently never been outside Erstwhile’s walls. Store that away for now–Baz has never left this city he’s in.
Xavier Tower
So they arrive at Xavier Tower, which is being guarded by Conservator guards called Enforcers, who are apparently massive brutes, since Baz notes they could stand up to a Harbour like Rox, who remember is Deliritous’s massive bodyguard. The Enforcers are there because there is a representative of the Conservatory there to perform the questioning of the Citiless. I don’t dwell on it any further here, but essentially Conservators have their own bodyguards in these Enforcers, just like the Readers have their Harbours.
So they head downstairs to where the questioning is happening. One of my favorite quotes from Baz in the book here:
Questionings always seemed to be done in basements. It wouldn’t be seemly to do them above ground, what with the risk of the screams carrying to the ears of ordinary citizens. Nothing to see here, my good people!
The poor Citiless seems to have already been tortured for quite some time when Baz arrives, his hands are chained to the ceiling so that he’s just sort of hanging there stretched out, semi-conscious. He’s shirtless, chest displaying marks of “the truth-finding process” as Baz puts it. Baz seems a bit desensitized to the whole process, noting he’s seen questionings like this before. “The Citiless seemed to be doing a poor job of answering in Baz’s estimation, judging by his semi-conscious state.” More evidence that you don’t want to get on the bad side of the ruling class in Erstwhile.
And just note that it’s members of the Conservatory who are doing the torturing, Xavier’s Librarian, so Leanna’s equivalent at Xavier Library, and a man referred to as a “Vicar,” which is some Conservator rank we haven’t been introduced to yet, but he’s obviously in charge of the questioning. Sort of like an Inquisitor from Medieval times. Think, for instance, that torturer in Braveheart at the end of the film. Ugh, that guy’s the worst. I’ll toss a photo of him up on the screen and drop a link in the show notes.
Other Readers
Listener Question: Diane: “D. T., I’m still just a bit unclear on the difference between Readers and Speakers. Could you explain?”
Speaker: They are born “Bound” to the Spoken Books, able to draw power form them (i.e., cast magic). But Speakers are enslaved and never taught to Read.
Reader: They can Read, but are not Bound to the Spoken Books, which means even though they can Read the Books’ words, they don’t produce magic. They have to Read the Words to a Speaker, who then repeats them and casts the magic.
So Leanna leaves Baz to join the other Conservators in the room, and Baz is left to survey who else is present. There are representatives from each of the nine Libraries, though none of the leaders, Dukes and Duchesses–apparently this isn’t deemed important enough for them. Which is interesting, right? I mean, Leanna seemed horrified over the idea of this Citiless being able to Read, but apparently the city’s government is less concerned. Perhaps some tension here between the Conservators and rulers of the city? Are the Conservators more concerned about maintaining this acute separation of power between Speakers and Readers than the Readers themselves? Or maybe the Readers just view the Conservators as a bit overzealous.
We also learned in passing earlier that the city’s government, the Table of Ennea is made up of representatives from each of the nine Libraries. But what about the Conservatory? They seem to have plenty of significance to this society, but they’re not on the governing body? Hmmm. Also, a quick naming note, I got Ennea from Enneagon, which is a nine-sided shape (en-ee-uh-gon). Google is often my friend when it comes to names.
Right, so the room’s crowded with Readers and their retinues. The first time we’ve gotten a good look at other Readers besides Deliritous in the prologue, so let’s talk about them for a minute.
Each Reader has his or her entourage. We see it’s a bit of a “keeping up with the Joneses” type situation–Readers never got out in public without their Speakers and Harbours. Being without one’s Speakers is sort of like going out in public in a cheap suit in this society. I mean, technically you’re not out of place, but everyone’s judging you behind your back.
We also see, just like Deliritous in Chapter 2, all the Readers wear hats. Another status symbol it seems. Baz tells us: “That was another game they seemed to play, attempting to out-hat one another. Each one seemed wider brimmed than the next, adorned with colored feathers of ridiculous length.” So we’re quickly getting the picture here–the Readers are wealthy and image-obsessed. Sort of your typical nobles, right?
They also have “mobile lecterns” to hold their Spoken Books for them. Think of these kind of like a mini desk on a harness so they can read from a book without holding it. Sort of ridiculous looking when you imagine it, but remember how important Books are in this society, and they’re large, so this is sort of a natural outflowing of that.
Hellar Xavier and his Influencer
Next we meet a couple of specific Readers, and I think it’s safe for you all to assume at this point that they’re both important, since we learn they’re Deliritous’s competitors in the upcoming Acktus Trials. First we have Hellar Xavier. The heir to Xavier Library, the wealthiest of Erstwhile’s Libraries. That’s emphasized by the fact that he’s got five Speakers with him. Remember, Baz said that’s a bit of a social misstep–it’s like flaunting your wealth too openly. So a bit of arrogance going on here for sure it seems.
And if anyone thought that Baz’s disdain for Readers stopped at Deliritous, he quickly debases us of that assumption when he describes Hellar. “Hellar had short dark hair, pale eyes that reminded Baz of a dying fish, and a smile upon which Baz hoped he was never on the receiving end.”
We also get our first look at another type of Speaker–an Influencer. Hellar’s actively engaged in Reading a spell to his Influencer when Baz enters, and we learn Influencers are essentially capable of low-level mind control. Now, it’s got limits, right? You can’t just pull someone’s strings like a puppet and make them do exactly what you want. Baz clarifies:
True mind control was nearly impossible on all but the weakest of men, and generally a man that weak would be dead before you could control him. But the spells of an Influencer could push all but the strongest of wills in the Speaker’s desired direction.
So Influence seems an apt name for them, right? They can push your thoughts in the direction desired by the Reader who is wielding the Influencer’s power. Sort of a frightening thought. Think of a society where this type of power exists. You must need to be constantly on alert, wondering if the person you’re talking to might have an Influencer hidden somewhere influencing the turn of the conversation. I don’t think we get into it here, but you’ll learn later on that Influencers are viewed as an important tool in trade, using them to get yourself a better deal. And here they’re trying to influence this poor Citiless into giving them answers about where he learned to Read.
Another interesting tidbit here is that it’s a Reader from one of the Libraries doing the Reading, even though it’s the Conservatory doing the questioning. If there was any doubt about the implications of this, Baz clears them up by explicitly telling us this is a point of contention between the Libraries and the Conservatory. Remember, Conservators can Read, but Baz tells us they have no Speakers of their own. The ability to cast magic from the Spoken Books is pretty much the entire basis for the Readers’ power in this society, so obviously they want to keep a monopoly on it.
Marla
The only other Reader Baz can identify is one from Kolnar Library, which he describes as a “middling Library” approximately the same size as Torchsire. And she’s not a pleasant one, right? She’s enjoying watching this torture, lips twitching into a grin, almost petting the dagger she has at her belt as she watches. Baz obviously didn’t care for Hellar, but Marla seems to legitimately frighten him–he doesn’t even want to look at her.
Also, just a quick look into the writer’s mind here, I’m pretty sure I lifted her name from Fight Club. When I was imagining a name for her, I was trying to think of a name that one might say with a healthy dose of contempt, and I kept coming back to Edward Norton in Fight Club. Marla. “If I did have a tumor, I’d name it Marla.”
Deliritous
Baz finally makes eye-contact with Deliritous and it seems not much has changed in the Torchsire heir. We get the sense he’s still a bit of a brat, still hasn’t quite grasped how to act in accord with his station. “Deliritous motioned for him to come over, the frustrated urgency in the gesture not quite befitting one who was destined to take over a Library of Erstwhile.” And obviously Baz has little respect for him, noting that the glares of the other Readers’ Harbours supplied far more motivation for him to hurry over to Deliritous that did Deliritous’s angry stare.
And once again things only seem to get worse when Deliritous opens his mouth. Indeed, Baz actually seems to have more sense that he does. This is an official function, a man is being tortured just a few steps away. Baz made a point of remaining silent so as not to annoy the Conservators performing the interrogation. Deliritous, though, has no such restraint. He begins berating Baz for being late, basically whining over how it was embarrassing to have only one Speaker with him.
That one Speaker who was already with Deliritous is named Delida. And another strike against Deliritous here, as he’s apparently sleeping with her, Baz noting that she’s frequently absent from her quarters at night, which happen to be right next to his. There doesn’t seem to be any love lost between her and Baz, either. She gives him an annoyed glare when he looks her way, and Baz makes a point to say how he doesn’t exactly find her attractive.
And Deliritous just keeps going on and on, right? Baz grows increasingly uncomfortable with all the attention he’s drawing to them, but Deliritous seems oblivious to the disruption he’s causing. And we also see that same reticence to use Baz that Leanna noted earlier. Even though there had been a Speaking that morning, Deliritous seems to believe Baz was better used as an errand boy. Which is ridiculous, right? Baz makes clear that the Library has “ordinary” servants, presumably that means ones who don’t have the ability to draw power from the Spoken Books. This is sort of like someone who runs an auto repair shop constantly sending his best repairman out for groceries, rather than having him work on cars. So maybe there’s some truth to Leanna’s theory after all, that Deliritous is afraid to use Baz for fear of Baz taking revenge on him.
But there’s also a bit of an interesting dynamic here, right? Despite Deliritous berating Baz, the two of them are sort of bickering like an old married couple, right? I know we haven’t seen much interaction between Readers and Speakers yet, but we will soon, and this certainly isn’t common. Remember Baz noted back in Chapter 2 that merely opening your mouth out of turn as a Speaker is a sure way to an early death. But that doesn’t seem to be the case between him and Deliritous.
The Vicar
Finally, Baz and Deliritous’s conversation draws the attention of the Vicar, who is the Conservator leading the questioning of the Citiless. Vicars are members of the Conservatory who specialize in studying the “mysteries of the Scribes,” as Baz puts it. So they’re sort of the zealots of the already religious Conservatory it seems. And apparently they also play the unofficial role of being torturers. Sort of like the Hand of the Light in Wheel of Time, or if you’re not familiar with Wheel of Time, inquisitors from the Spanish Inquisition. Using religion as a cover for their cruel methods.
The Vicar here is named Vintas, and he certainly strikes an unsettling note. Sleeves rolled up, blood splattered across his white robe. We definitely get the sense he’s not someone you want to get called out by in front of your peers. We see Deliritous wilt under this scrutiny, his voice cracking when he apologizes to the Vicar for interrupting the questioning. And the Vicar capitalizes on his embarrassment, asking if he can borrow Rox to try and get additional information from the Citiless he’s questioning.
Such a request is apparently a faux pas. Baz notes it’s like asking someone to help you move a big piece of furniture. No one ever wants to agree to help, but you kind of look like a jerk if you decline. Same deal here—Harbours are the Readers’ bodyguards, they’re not supposed to leave their side. At the same time, though, everyone in this room is supposedly on the same side, so Deliritous would almost be insulting everyone else in the room if he insists on keeping Rox at his side. You certainly get a feeling here that Baz might not be the only one who doesn’t really respect Deliritous. We don’t see the Vicar asking any of the other Readers if he can use their Harbours.
Home of the Scribes
So Rox goes over to help the Vicar, yanking on the Citiless’s chain until he forces the man’s head off his chest. When the Vicar asks where he learned to Read, the Citiless responds “The home of the Scribes,” which Deliritous tells Baz means Tome.
Interesting, and potentially another connection back to the Prologue. Remember, that took place at Tome in the middle of some great disaster. And Baz seems to believe the Citiless has clearly gone mad from the torture at this point, since Tome had been “razed over three hundred years ago, now little more than a big pile of rubble.” There’s no way the Citiless could have learned to Read there. Again, not coming right out and saying it, but if we piece together what we’ve heard about Tome and the Burning, this seems to be more evidence that the Prologue was depicting a scene from the Burning, which ultimately destroyed the city of Tome. And yet, this Citiless is claiming to have learned to Read at Tome? You can see why neither Baz nor anyone else present believes the man’s answer. Indeed, the Vicar confirms most of this a few paragraphs later, expressly saying no one has lived in Tome since the Burning.
But despite not getting his answer, the Vicar seems almost pleased, right? Obviously this guy’s a bit sick, getting excited at exacting more pain on the man. And apparently he’s grown tired of his ordinary torture tools, instead asking if any of the assembled Readers has a dagger he can borrow. Marla is only too happy to oblige him, right? She almost seems to be competing with him over who is taking greater enjoyment at the torture of this poor Citiless. She isn’t even hiding her smile now when she gives the knife to the Vicar. Man, she is not someone we want to see again. Which, of course, means we’re going to see more of her.
Baz’s Decision
And we all know what happens next. Rox yanks on the chain again, but this time it snaps. If you were paying close attention, you’ll have noted that I took care to mention when Baz first entered that it was an “old, rusty chain,” so I very subtly setup this could happen. Rox goes flying backward since he wasn’t expecting the chain to snap, temporarily taking him out of action. The Vicar also drops his knife and while everyone else in the room is frozen in surprise, the Citiless sees his chance, attacking the nearest person in the room, which happens to be Deliritous.
The Citiless still has the chains around his wrists and swings them. Delritious dodges them, and instead his other Speaker, Delida, is struck in the throat and thrown backward. Then the Citiless grabs the knife the Vicar dropped and charges Deliritous. Turns out on top of everything else, Deliritous is a bit of a coward, right? Despite having taken fencing lessons as Baz points out, Deliritous does little more to defend himself than cower away from his attacker and scream.
Here’s Baz’s dream come true, right? Deliritous is about to eat it. But we learn that Baz perhaps wasn’t as in earnest as he’d have had us believe when he’d spoken earlier to Leanna about Deliritous dying.
Baz quickly takes stock of the situation. Rox is still getting off the floor, and no one else is moving to help Deliritous. While everyone in the room is supposedly on the same side, Baz sees it for what it really is—they’re all competitors and if one of their competitors is killed? Well, no one’s going to be upset about that. And that just doesn’t sit right with Baz. He’s actually a bit annoyed at himself, right? Let’s go to the text:
Baz ought to have felt satisfaction at that, Deliritous falling victim to the same societal mores that had victimized Baz’s brother. But instead, Baz found a hollow emptiness in his gut.”
He helped the lady with her chicks, he tried to help that Illit with that door, and now he’s going to save Deliritous, however much he might dislike him. Baz has got a conscience, even if he won’t admit it to himself.
He sticks out a foot, tripping the Citiless, and preventing him from stabbing Deliritous. That’s all the time Rox needed to recover. The Citiless tries to push himself up to get at Deliritous again, but now we see for the first time just how vicious Rox can be. As Baz puts it, he punches the Citiless in the face with his razor, basically slicing the top half of his head off. But it’s not a clean slice, more like an explosion, showering gore everywhere. He mauls this guy.
Now, just for an instant, we think we see a bit of humanity coming out of Deliritous. He jumps up and runs to his fallen Speaker, Delida who got hit by the chain. He’s concerned for her, right? “Oh, Delida! Speak to me!”
She responds and her voice is all messed up—she just got hit in the throat by a chain, after all. But we quickly see that Deliritous wasn’t concerned about her at all, but rather himself. She was supposed to go on the Trials with him, but if she can’t Speak, she’s useless to him, right? “Oh, your voice! What will I do for the Trials if you can’t Speak?”
The chapter ends with that creepy Reader, Marla, laughing. Remember, she’s set to be one of Deliritous’s competitors on the upcoming Trials, and she just reinforces what Baz observed a few paragraphs back—she doesn’t care about her fellow Readers. She’s glad to see a fellow competitor put at a disadvantage.
The Declaimer’s Transcendence
OK, that’s the end of the chapter, just one final thing to note. Store away what the Citiless said before he charged Deliritous. “The Declaimer’s Transcendence!” he cried out like a madman. “He’ll speak the words to set us free!” There was no time at all to consider this in the moment, other than Baz quickly wondering what that means, same as I assume all you out there listening are. Well, everyone seems to just think the Citiless was a raving madman, but we’ll soon learn that likely wasn’t the case. The Declaimer’s Transcendence. Keep that in mind in the weeks to come.
CONCLUSION
Homework: OK, that’s Chapter 4. Next week we’ll read and discuss chapters 5 and 6. We return to Torchsire Library and find some Readers fighting each other and learn some more interesting details about the dynamic between Reader, Speaker, and Harbour. Then we meet the Duke for the first time, Deliritous’s father. What do you think of him? What does Baz think of him? Maybe for the first time, too, we start having just a bit of a reason to feel sorry for Deliritous, despite everything he’s shown to the contrary so far.
Then we get to what’s probably the inciting incident of our story. Delida has been injured and won’t be able to accompany Deliritous on the Acktus Trials, so what does that mean? I bet a lot of you see what’s coming, but no worries if you don’t, you will after Chapter 5.
Chapter 6 is relatively short, but we see an interesting interaction between Deliritous and his Uncle that sheds some light on the challenges Deliritous faces at the Trials. Then Baz and Deliritous have their first true interaction with one another that we’ve seen. It doesn’t go terribly well. We learn another interesting tidbit about the magic system, though, so look out for that.
And remember! If you don’t do your homework, it’s OK. You all get A+’s just for tuning in. I’ll read for you and answer all these questions and more next week.
Quest: For this week’s quest, I’d like you to send me your favorite excerpt from Chapter 4. I think Baz in particularly has some pretty entertaining one liners in this chapter, and I wasn’t able to touch on all of them in our discussion. But it doesn’t have to be something Baz said. Just anything your found interesting or profound or though-provoking. 1 exp for everyone who emails their answer to me, dtkane@dtkane.com. And keep sending your answers for quests week 1-3. I’ll accept answers until the beginning of March 2022!
Quote: “Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!” ― J.R.R. Tolkien
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription.
Welcome back! Hope you all enjoyed chapter 3. A quick personal update, then we’ll get into our discussion.
PERSONAL UPDATE
Declaimer’s Discovery, Part II of the Spoken Books Uprising, is still in the queue with my editor and I continue working away on my own edits to Declaimer’s Flight, Part III of the Spoken Books Uprising. We’ll be reading each of those together as well once we finish the Acktus Trials.
Also, as I said last episode, by the time you listen to this, The Acktus Trials will be available for purchase, but as I record this, I’m in the midst of getting everything ready for release. It’s exciting, but also a bit overwhelming–there’s always one more thing to do, one more error in the manuscript, or one more box to check. I’m also going wide with this book and the whole series, meaning it will be available pretty much everywhere you can buy books, not just Amazon, so a lot goes into getting it setup in at the various retailers.
I guess I’ll also spend just a minute discussing just why I decided to do this podcast. I want to be as open and honest as I reasonably can be with all of you, so obviously part of my motivation is to expand my reach so I can hopefully sell more of my books. And this, at least, is a way more fun way of marketing than running ads on Amazon and Facebook.
But selling books isn’t my only goal here. I’ve thought long and hard about my writing. For a long time I was in denial about even putting pen to paper, or fingers to keys. Writing was something normal people do. But I’ve realized that’s a bad way to think about it. There probably are some truly blessed writers out there, who just churn out amazing prose without a second thought. But most successful writers don’t ride their talent to success, but their tenacity. Writing a book takes a long time, and most people simply can’t grind it out for the long haul.
The fact is, I’d keep writing even if I never make a dime, because I have all these stories in my head and I want other people to hear them, even if they don’t have the money to buy my books. So that’s a big reason I’m doing this podcast. I want to share my stories, hopefully give a few people a good time with them, and maybe inspire a few of you along the way too. If it sells more books, great, but getting my stories out into the world and into your ears is great too, and I appreciate all of you for tuning in.
Alright, enough chit chat. Let’s get into chapter 3!
ANAYLIS CH. 3
Intro
So right off the bat, we’re explicitly told this is ten years later. As a rule, I don’t like giving such express cues–I’d rather work the timing into the text and trust my readers–that’s all of you listening–to be sharp enough to figure it out. But here, I couldn’t think of a good way to do that without spending a lot of otherwise needless words on it, so I gave you this guidepost.
So it’s ten years after the episode with Baz’s brother, Deliritous, and Rox in the Reading Room from Chapter 2 from last episode. Baz is running errands for Deliritous, so apparently if Baz did suffer any punishment for what happened that day ten years ago, it hasn’t kept him from remaining Deliritous’s slave. Torchsire’s still poor apparently–as Baz notes, he doesn’t wear silk robes like Speakers from other Libraries. Just ordinary black cloth for him, with a pair of sigils stitched on the front. One is a crossed pair of torches with a book between them. That’s the symbol for Torchsire Library we learn. That seems odd, right? Usually you want to keep fire as far away from books as you can, particularly books as valuable as the ones in this world. We’ll have to wait and see the significance of this symbol.
The other symbol on Baz’s black cloak is a dragon , which we’ve already learned marks him as a Destroyer, one of the three types of Speakers. Baz makes a point to lament his lack of a hood on his cloak–the Readers don’t want the Speakers hiding what they are by covering up their brands. This sort of has the effect of making hats a sort of status symbol. As we saw, Deliritous wore a giant hat, and we’ll soon see that most other Readers do as well, while Baz isn’t permitted to wear one at all.
In the opening paragraphs, we also learn that there are nine Libraries in Erstwhile, and Xavier is the largest. They have a big tower that’s the prime landmark in the city, and apparently hold Helfax Erstwhile’s original collection of Spoken Books. We don’t get any other details on who this Helfax was, but obviously he’s the city’s namesake, so must have been someone important.
Encounter with Illit
So we get that all in the first few paragraphs, then we move to the first of three major interactions in Chapter 3. Baz has a bit of an abrupt run-in with a peasant, who are called Illits in this world. Did you like how I wrote the start of this scene? “A door suddenly flew into the street.” I assume most of you read that metaphorically at first, as in, someone opened a door very quickly. But no! Literally a door goes flying off its hinges and nearly flattens Baz. Ah, and we’re introduced to the fine art of swearing in Oration. “Torn pages!” Baz cries as he jumps back from the door. You’ll notice that most of the curses in this world are related to bad things happening to Books–I think it’s a fun way to get creative with language, inventing curses like that. I don’t really have anything against usual swearing, but in writing it often just seems a little lazy to me, particularly in fantasy. If you think about it, most of our curse words don’t make any sense. At least here, they’re linked to something really bad–Books being destroyed is one of the worst things that can happen in a society that treasures them so highly. I’d love to hear what you think about this–drop a comment on YouTube, or email dtkane@dtkane.com. Maybe even suggest some other creative curses centered around bad things happening to Books.
Right, so the man who comes out of the house that’s now doorless is an Illit. Basically a peasant who can’t read. And he’s essentially helpless. I mean, the man doesn’t even know what a hammer is when Baz asks if he has one. And this isn’t an accident or isolated incident–Baz comments that the Libraries like to keep the Illits dependent on them. We already saw that they make money by having Illits come to them for Readings, and now we see that the Libraries also send Speakers out into the city to perform Readings that the Illits need for things as simple as fixing a hinge on a door. Typical sort of mandated dependency in an oppressive government, right? If you need the government you can’t really rise against it, even if it is corrupt. That’s the idea, anyway.
We actually see the suggestions of a rivalry between Xavier Library and Torchsire here briefly, too. Xavier’s encroaching on Torchsire’s turf, the Illit saying he usually pays Xaviers to Read and fix things for him, even though he’s in Torchsire territory. Keep that in mind, as this isn’t the last we’ve heard of Xavier Library.
Interestingly, the Illit shows respect to Baz because he doesn’t want to get in trouble with Baz’s Duke, which flabbergasts Baz, but again just goes to show how far under the thumbs of the Readers these Illits are. For Baz’s part, he internally notes that he never even speaks to the Duke, so the Illit’s worries are entirely misplaced. Still, Baz offers to help the man with the door–internally we see Baz deny he’s really interested in helping–he’s just trying to get out of his chore for Deliritous. This is something we’ll see Baz do a lot of. Deny his true feelings, even when there isn’t anything wrong with them. You might recall from last time, Baz helping that old woman when she dropped one of her chicks. Baz has plenty of issues as we’ll come to see, but deep down he’s a good dude, even if he denies it.
Of course, Baz’s attempt to help goes south in a hurry. The man hands him a box full of various fasteners and when Baz suggests the man label the different compartments, he immediately takes offense, even asserts that Baz accused him of a crime. Baz realizes his mistake, as he’s implied the man might be able to Read. Just another reminder how no one but the Readers are permitted to learn how to read in this world. We can see by the man’s reaction just how conditioned most people are to abhor even the idea of reading. “I’m a law-abiding citizen,” the Illit man tells Baz. “Never even looked at the page of a Book.” He kicks Baz out of his house and we move on to the Conservatory.
Just one other note before we go there. Baz makes a brief note of the Burning, and that there was a Second Burning shortly after. No real details, other than apparently society for a short time tried to let others learn to Read between the first and second Burnings, but that didn’t work out for whatever reason. We’ll hear a lot more about the Burning soon, so tuck this away for now and stay tuned.
The Conservatory
So we get to the Conservatory, where Baz apparently needs to go to run an errand for Deliritous. I give a pretty detailed description of the outside and inside of the building. A lot of the time, I’ll look for real life buildings to model structures in my writing after. For the Conservatory, the outside is modeled after Bodleian Library in England, and the inside after Biblioteca do Convento de Mafra, Mafra, Portugal. I’ll toss a couple photos of those up on the screen if you’re watching on YouTube, and I’ll link to them in the show notes if you’re audio only and want to check them out.
Baz takes a moment to remind us what the Conservators do and how Spoken Books work. Only Conservators know the process for restoring Spoken Books. Baz tells us: “The Books’ inks faded as spells were read from them, the elements infused within them deteriorating with each use. Eventually, the Books wouldn’t work at all until they were re-inked, a costly and time-consuming process that only Conservators knew.” Lots of implication packed in here. First, another reminder that the Spoken Books deteriorate after each use–remember, that’s because in order to cast a spell, you draw power from the elemental inks the Books are written in. And now we learn that only the Conservators know how to restore Books. So they must have some pretty significant pull in society, right? All the Readers have to go to them to have their Books fixed. We see a suggestion of this when Baz notes that the Conservatory is the largest building in Erstwhile other than Xavier Library.
So Baz enters, and it’s pretty impressive on the inside, bright white marble everywhere, and there’s this statue at the center of the atrium he enters into. Baz calls it a Book Dragon. Does that sound familiar? Here, let me read the description for you again:
The center of the atrium was occupied by a large statue. Made of white, polished porcelain, it had a round, winding body like a wyrm, though it had limbs. One end terminated in a massive head with gaping jaws and eyes each as large as the moon. The body was covered in writing inlaid with gold. It was gibberish, though legend told that Words of the Trinity had been tattooed upon the hides of the actual creatures. Book Dragons, the great assistants of the Scribes. None had been seen since the Burning, some three hundred years prior.
Maybe I’ll make this the quest for today. One experience point to everyone who tells me correctly what this statue is referencing from earlier. Email the answer to me, dtkane@dtkane.com.
We also get another reference to the Burning here, learning it happened 300 years ago and that Book Dragons haven’t been seen since. Interesting. So were all the dragons killed in the Burning? We don’t know, but it certainly doesn’t sound good.
And then we finally get our first look at actual Conservators, men in white robes conducting a ritual. The Conservatory is also called the “Conservator’s chapel,” so we already have the implication that there’s some religious aspect to them, and that’s born out here. The Conservators are praying to the “Scribes” and asking for protection from the “Dark Ones” and to maintain the barrier between this world and the Elsewhere. Sounds like the Scribes are thought of as gods and the Dark Ones the devil or some equivalent. The barrier between this world and the Elsewhere? Maybe this world’s equivalent of hell?
You might remember, we did see reference to the Scribes once before this, back in Chapter 1 Tax mentioned the “Scribes’ grammar.” Their father was killed for beginning to grasp the basics of the Scribes’ grammar. Ah, a connection! So whoever these Scribes were, it appears they were responsible for the language in the Spoken Books. Well, there you go. That’s enough to gain some understanding why they’re worshipped–they created the powerful Spoken Books.
We get more of a feeling for Baz’s irreverent personality next. What’s he call the Conservators? A “stuffy lot”? And when they finish their prayer but don’t acknowledge him, he sort of just butts in, yeah? “Uh, pardon me?” They tell him he’ll need to wait. “I will?” he responds. Hah. I still chuckle when I read that reply. He’s about to get himself in hot water, but he’s saved by the entrance of a new character, Leanna.
Leanna
Leanna, we learn is Torchsire’s Librarian. Each Library has its own Conservator assigned there. Makes sense, right? Every time you need a Spoken Book touched up, you don’t have to go running out to the Conservatory. You’ve got some help in-house. Sort of like having a mechanic on call. Tune up your Spoken Books! Leanna also apparently cares for Torchsire’s “retired” Speakers. Not a lot of detail on that yet, but they’ve outlived their usefulness except for breeding because they can produce new Speakers. One, here’s some more evidence of cruelty toward Speakers–just keeping them around because they can breed? Geese.
And two, they must not be that old since they can still reproduce, yet they’ve outlived their usefulness? The picture’s still a bit murky, but you get the idea it’s not a good one. You don’t want to find yourself a Speaker in this society it sounds like.
Let’s take a look at Baz’s description of Leanna:
She was tall. Taller than him, which Baz pretended didn’t bother him, even though it most certainly did. And she had deep chestnut hair that fell in a pleasant way down to her shoulders, and deep amethyst eyes. And a nice smile. And… well, all right. So there wasn’t much to dislike about her. Except that she was just, well, so burning nice to him. It drove Baz nuts.
Maybe a bit of a crush going on here, maybe? Baz internally denies even liking her, but you’ll see he’s a bit of an unreliable narrator. He’ll think one thing, but his actions will say something else. Keep an eye out for that.
We also learn that Leanna is a driven young woman, aspiring to rise through ranks of Conservatory. She doesn’t even like being called by her current title, Librarian, as it reminds her of how far she has to go. Baz actually decides against calling her by that title, which seems to be saying something since he apparently doesn’t have an issue running his mouth with others. See, for instance, Leanna’s reference to Baz having run afoul of the Conservators in the past and having to do penance, staring at a wall all day praying.
Mention of the Trials
So Leanna gets Baz out of hot water and takes him out of the Conservatory. We learn in their subsequent conversation that Deliritous is leaving in a couple days for the Trials. Ding ding ding! If you picked up on this, congrats. A+ for the day–here’s our reference to the novel’s title. We get a few details, apparently the Trials involve competitors leaving the city and bringing back new Spoken Books. And they are dangerous–Baz notes that it’s likely at least one competitor will die, and he hopes it’s Deliritous. A bit unclear how serious he is about that. “It’s just statistics!” he says when Leanna chides him for his impropriety. But he clearly doesn’t have a high opinion of Deliritous, and I guess we can’t blame him after what he did to Baz’s brother back in Part I.
We also see some of the playfulness between Baz and Leanna. Maybe she likes him too, eh? “Too bad you aren’t going with him,” she says to Baz after he says it’s likely someone will die out on the Trials, clearly joking it’s too bad he won’t go out and die too. Also an interesting tid bit here, though, is the revelation that Baz isn’t going on the Trials with Deliritous.
Leanna also notes that she thinks Deliritous is afraid to use Baz because of Baz’s brother, implying there’s concern that Baz might try to get revenge. Baz, in what we’re quickly coming to learn is his characteristic sarcasm says that’s crazy: “And get a shave from Rox’s razor for my troubles?” As we’ve seen, Rox’s razor would give you much more of a shave if he used it on you. Baz does admit to dreaming of Deliritous jumping off a tower, though. Then he cuts Leanna off form further conversation on the topic–obviously anything touching on Baz’s brother is a touchy topic.
We end with Baz turning the conversation to why Leanna was looking for him in the first place. She says Deliritous has asked for Baz to meet him at Xavier Tower. They’ve captured a Citiless. What is that? We don’t know, but it excites Baz. And there the chapter ends. We’ll have to wait until next week to learn what’s so exciting about a Citiless.
CONCLUSION
Homework: OK, so homework for next week. We’ll be reading Chapter 4. A pretty long one. We’ll see some more interaction between Baz and Leanna. She tells a sort of sappy story, but there’s a lot of backstory packed into it, so keep an eye on that. And we learn more about what a Citiless is. And then we move on, going to Xavier Tower and meet a whole bunch of Readers, along with their retinues of Speakers and Harbours. We learn a whole lot more about society in these pages, so pay attention to the world building. Then we’ll meet this Citiless who’s been captured–he’s not exactly being treated kindly. He’s muttering gibberish, or is he? Finally, at the end of the chapter, Baz makes a big decision. Think about that, and what it means for his character.
Listener Question: How do you keep track of all the details and characters in your books?
Quest: I already gave out your quest earlier. What is that statue of the dragon in the Conservatory calling to mind from earlier? Email your answer to dtkane@dtkane.com. 1XP And remember, you have until the first episode of March 2022 to send me your answers for the quests from episodes 1 and 2.
Quote: “The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”
That is from the beloved late Terry Pratchett. Our more casual fantasy fans may know him best as the co-author (along with Neil Gaiman) from the recent hit TV show Good Omens starring David Tenant and Michael Sheen, but in fantasy circles he’s probably best known for his Discworld series, which is a satirical take on the fantasy genre. I like this quote in particularly because it’s funny, but has some depth too, and it sounds like something Baz might say.
Until next time, this has been D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club.
