Master Artificer by Justin Travis Call




MASTER ARTIFICER, BOOK 2 OF THE SILENT GODS

This was a difficult book to write because I had so much that I had plotted and hoped to squeeze into the second novel in the series, but I was still immensely pleased with what I accomplished. This was also challenging since I had years and years to write my debut, but barely a year to write its sequel – but I did it!

For those that are interested in the writer's thoughts about their own books, I'll tell you that my primary goals in Book 2 were to elevate the world building (showing more people and places), the magic system (illustrating how other forms of magic function in Luquatra), and the characters (giving POVs from characters other than the protagonist and showing how each of those characters evolves over the course of the books). I think I delivered on all of that, particularly since readers get to see several new cities, new kingdoms, and even an alternate plane of reality. You'll see lots of new magic, and you'll get to better know certain supporting characters from Book 1 and watch them mature in unique and specific ways. You also get to see the protagonist Annev de Breth discover how to use his own magic, and you get the first major turn as Annev shifts from being a hero and becomes ... something much darker.

I'll also take this opportunity to remind readers that The Silent Gods is a coming-of-age story for a hero who is actually the series' Dark Lord (I've made no secret of this), and while we don't get a lot of that in Book 1 (because Annev is still a mostly heroic, immature teen), Book 2 challenges him in new ways that force him down that darker path. For some readers, this may sour the taste of the series (and to them I can only say ... I tried to warn you very early on). For others, this will be exactly the sort of stuff they were hoping to see in Book 1 (and to them I say "patience is rewarded").

I won't say more (because spoilers), but I hope folks really enjoy the resolution to this second book despite having left a few threads open for Book 3. If I were permitted to write books as long as those in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, perhaps I would have given readers another 300 pages of action, climax, and resolution ... but I think you'll agree that I've done you right with the 800+ pages you're getting. It's more than 50% longer than Book 1, and the major and minor characters have some fantastic character arcs. And while my general preference would be not to have any major cliffhangers, you might discover that the mood of the cliffhangers I've included is very similar to the feeling one gets after watching The Empire Strikes Back: things are bleak for just about everyone ... but you've been given enough light to see how the characters and the story are going to move forward – and hopefully that's a good plug for when Master of the Fallen releases in 2022.

If you enjoyed Master of Sorrows and want to read its sequel, I encourage you to preorder Master Artificer right now (it will be released May 2021). And if you read and enjoyed either of those two books, please leave a review here on Goodreads for other folks and let them know what you enjoyed or are looking forward to. I try to read all my reviews because I think it's important to know how people are responding to the books I write, but I'll only comment if the review is positive so feel free to be critical without the author calling you out (I'm just grateful folks are reading my books and are passionate enough about them to discuss the writing with others).

Cheers and be kind to one another.

-Justin T Call



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