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The Art of World Building #3
Cultures and Beyond
A guide for authors, gamers, and hobbyists Written to help fantasy and science fiction storytellers, game designers, gamers, and hobbyists, CULTURES AND BEYOND (THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, #3) is a how-to guide for filling an imaginary world with fascinating societies. It includes chapters on creating culture, organizations, armed forces, religions, the supernatural, magic systems, technological and supernatural items, languages, names, and various systems our world will have, from health, educational, legal, and commerce, to information systems. You’ll learn how to leverage real world cultures while making them seem original. Even those who’ve never invented a world will soon be masters as the author’s decades of experience walk readers through using pre-made templates that make world building faster, better, and easier to complete. Invent interesting laws, crimes, and punishments that involve imaginary creatures or technologies, and learn how to leverage trial by ordeal and other judicial acts from Earth’s past. Determine how much education is available and what form it takes. Create currencies for different places while keeping them easy for your audience to fathom, plus learn how to determine the value to assign labor, materials, products, time, and more. Master the art of creating naming styles for different societies. Fashion new military groups in gritty detail. Dream up sensible rules for magic, its practitioners, the supernatural and what happens when things go wrong. Learn what kind of files you’ll need to create, how to organize them, and get jump started with a dozen free templates you’ll use again and again. CULTURES AND BEYOND is the third volume in THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, the most in-depth, multi-volume series of its kind. Build better, faster.
- GenresWritingGamingNonfiction
465 pages, Paperback
Published June 24, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 16, 2020
Wow, all he could say was Wow.
Okay my head is spinning but I know that going back and using small chunks of this material at a time will let this pass.
As a Fantasy Game Master (both Role Play and War Game) who has created two worlds between 1974 and 1991 from scratch for personal entertainment this was a chance to study the approach to the subject, world building, in a systematic manner. This was very helpful in that respect.
The solely writer aspects confirmed my view as remaining solely a game master but budding authors should find that material helpful.
Okay my head is spinning but I know that going back and using small chunks of this material at a time will let this pass.
As a Fantasy Game Master (both Role Play and War Game) who has created two worlds between 1974 and 1991 from scratch for personal entertainment this was a chance to study the approach to the subject, world building, in a systematic manner. This was very helpful in that respect.
The solely writer aspects confirmed my view as remaining solely a game master but budding authors should find that material helpful.
May 6, 2020
If You Write Fantasy or Sci-Fi, You Need This Book
This is the third book in a series about world-building in science fiction and fantasy. The first two books looked at creating life (from gods to species to animals to heroes/villains) and places. This book tries to give insight into just about everything else, starting with culture. Other ideas that the author explores include organizations, religions, the military, magic, items, language, and names. The author wants you to think about all these concepts as they relate to your story and the world you are building. He even includes templates at the end that walk you through the process of setting each of these up for your world. There is so much to world-building in all novel writing, especially in speculative fiction. It's not easy to create a world different from our own (or others that you’ve read or seen in movies) yet has inherent logic and consistency. If you work through this book as you read it, creating your world, you will have a much better chance of it being complete and consistent, giving a firm foundation for your characters and plot and making it easier for your readers to appreciate your story world and ultimately your story. I highly recommend this for any speculative fiction writer or author.
I received a free copy of this book from #HiddenGems, but that did not affect my review.
My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
This is the third book in a series about world-building in science fiction and fantasy. The first two books looked at creating life (from gods to species to animals to heroes/villains) and places. This book tries to give insight into just about everything else, starting with culture. Other ideas that the author explores include organizations, religions, the military, magic, items, language, and names. The author wants you to think about all these concepts as they relate to your story and the world you are building. He even includes templates at the end that walk you through the process of setting each of these up for your world. There is so much to world-building in all novel writing, especially in speculative fiction. It's not easy to create a world different from our own (or others that you’ve read or seen in movies) yet has inherent logic and consistency. If you work through this book as you read it, creating your world, you will have a much better chance of it being complete and consistent, giving a firm foundation for your characters and plot and making it easier for your readers to appreciate your story world and ultimately your story. I highly recommend this for any speculative fiction writer or author.
I received a free copy of this book from #HiddenGems, but that did not affect my review.
My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
May 7, 2020
Good Information
Ellefson has once again written an informative book that completes the world building guidance of his the volume world building series. This one helps to guide aspiring world bullets through the culture creation of the world. Societies are great but without differing cultures, everything is too similar.
The book is an excellent guide book in my opinion. Reading this does has helped me to move forward in my own endeavors just by getting me thinking about these different aspects. I recommend this book and the series as a whole to anyone aspiring to create their own world or portion thereof. Just the fact that it makes you think about things that you may not have considered makes it worth the read.
Ellefson has once again written an informative book that completes the world building guidance of his the volume world building series. This one helps to guide aspiring world bullets through the culture creation of the world. Societies are great but without differing cultures, everything is too similar.
The book is an excellent guide book in my opinion. Reading this does has helped me to move forward in my own endeavors just by getting me thinking about these different aspects. I recommend this book and the series as a whole to anyone aspiring to create their own world or portion thereof. Just the fact that it makes you think about things that you may not have considered makes it worth the read.
November 10, 2021
An excellent set of references for creating new worlds, cultures, etc. Anyone who creates stories set anywhere but our "real world" should read this. They may not actually use much of it, but just reading the ideas will still help their own worldbuilding.
May 6, 2020
If You Write Fantasy or Sci-Fi, You Need This Book
This is the third book in a series about world-building in science fiction and fantasy. The first two books looked at creating life (from gods to species to animals to heroes/villains) and places. This book tries to give insight into just about everything else, starting with culture. Other ideas that the author explores include organizations, religions, the military, magic, items, language, and names. The author wants you to think about all these concepts as they relate to your story and the world you are building. He even includes templates at the end that walk you through the process of setting each of these up for your world. There is so much to world-building in all novel writing, especially in speculative fiction. It's not easy to create a world different from our own (or others that you’ve read or seen in movies) yet has inherent logic and consistency. If you work through this book as you read it, creating your world, you will have a much better chance of it being complete and consistent, giving a firm foundation for your characters and plot and making it easier for your readers to appreciate your story world and ultimately your story. I highly recommend this for any speculative fiction writer or author.
I received a free copy of this book from #HiddenGems, but that did not affect my review.
My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
This is the third book in a series about world-building in science fiction and fantasy. The first two books looked at creating life (from gods to species to animals to heroes/villains) and places. This book tries to give insight into just about everything else, starting with culture. Other ideas that the author explores include organizations, religions, the military, magic, items, language, and names. The author wants you to think about all these concepts as they relate to your story and the world you are building. He even includes templates at the end that walk you through the process of setting each of these up for your world. There is so much to world-building in all novel writing, especially in speculative fiction. It's not easy to create a world different from our own (or others that you’ve read or seen in movies) yet has inherent logic and consistency. If you work through this book as you read it, creating your world, you will have a much better chance of it being complete and consistent, giving a firm foundation for your characters and plot and making it easier for your readers to appreciate your story world and ultimately your story. I highly recommend this for any speculative fiction writer or author.
I received a free copy of this book from #HiddenGems, but that did not affect my review.
My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
April 17, 2020
I received this Advanced Readers Copy for free from the author/publisher. I am leaving this honest review freely, without consideration.
This was a fairly interesting book. It’s not so much a manual as it is a book of questions to ask yourself when creating backdrops for your writing. I don’t think this is the type of book I would ever go to the book shelf to reference, but I could certainly see myself rereading it every 5 years or something to refresh these questions in my mind.
The book is written well. Covers subject areas, and the minimum of factors that should be considered, as well as areas you might want to consider expanding. Plenty of good examples, both of the authors creation, as well as examples from well known books and movies.
I liked this book, and it has already gotten me to add several caveats to the book I’m currently outlining. This is the third book in the series, I’ll be ordering the first two books for sure!
As a note, when I rate on a scale of 1 to 5, I use 4 as a good book that I enjoyed, and may well re-read in the future. I reserve 5 stars for incredible over the top achievements, which are far and few between...
This was a fairly interesting book. It’s not so much a manual as it is a book of questions to ask yourself when creating backdrops for your writing. I don’t think this is the type of book I would ever go to the book shelf to reference, but I could certainly see myself rereading it every 5 years or something to refresh these questions in my mind.
The book is written well. Covers subject areas, and the minimum of factors that should be considered, as well as areas you might want to consider expanding. Plenty of good examples, both of the authors creation, as well as examples from well known books and movies.
I liked this book, and it has already gotten me to add several caveats to the book I’m currently outlining. This is the third book in the series, I’ll be ordering the first two books for sure!
As a note, when I rate on a scale of 1 to 5, I use 4 as a good book that I enjoyed, and may well re-read in the future. I reserve 5 stars for incredible over the top achievements, which are far and few between...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews