I’ve written another short story. This one’s called “The Latest Death of Morim,” and it’s about life, death, and music.
Morim woke up with his lungs burning. His whole body was cold. His joints were stiff, so stiff that he couldn’t move. He struggled to remember, to somehow grasp with his mind where he had just been, to hold on to some detail. But there was nothing.
“That one was the hardest yet,” a voice said. “You almost stayed dead this time.”
Finally found the time to read this, and enjoyed it. The writing is very good, the glimpses of the setting we get are full of interesting inversions of old clich̩s, and the main theme/question of the story Рthe Song, and what is to valued in it Рis absolutely excellent.
Would love to read a novel or short story collection in this setting someday.
Very enjoyable.
The world building elements had some freshness to them. The Song, the dwarven shroom ale, the altitude sense. Great. Some exploration of the technical bits of resurrection magic and hints toward how that sort of thing would affect a society at large appealed to the sci-fi nerd in me.
The implications of a combination race/class hierarchy and the fairly obvious social commentary within the idea was only semi-interesting to me until you mentioned the dearth of pure-bred humans and described Mercha in terms of her cross-racial features. A novel approach.
I’m sensing you had some influence from Dragon Age as several of these ideas seem to be alternative or extended and more detailed takes on their core setting features. Heavily stratified classes (upper versus lower not healers versus fighters), bards are incredibly skilled assassin types (your version was much better than theirs) and the seeming limitation of magehood to certain aristocratic bloodlines. To be extra clear, I approve of this. After all good artists copy, great artists steal.
The minutiae of the dialogue between characters is proficient although a little too predictable at times for my taste. Maybe I just read too many of these kinds of stories.
Cheers.
Thanks! I haven’t played Dragon Age, although I’m sure I’ve absorbed some of its lore (and that of its own inspirations) through osmosis.
I think of magery in this world as being available to anyone but requiring a great deal of education. So it’s not hereditary, but it does end up similar to doctors and lawyers in our world, with families where it seems every first child goes into the family business and is perhaps even more skilled than their parent. Common folk can become wizards… if they can afford tuition or find a teacher willing to give them a discount.
A wizard bar exam would be quite the spectacle.
And it does agree with one thing I know of Dragon Age: a failing student would be unlikely to survive. Magic is dangerous.