Alec’s answer to “Hi Alec, Are you not a full-time author? I'm not sure if I'm misinterpreting the answer to anoth…” > Likes and Comments
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More great questions :-)
This is actually the first time I've been asked about inspiration, so I'll try to order my thoughts on the subject without sounding too incoherent.
First off, I've always loved fantasy. My journey went from Narnia to Earthsea to the Forgotten Realms to Westeros to Bas Lag. At each stop the worlds got a little bleaker, the heroes more anti. And while I love Bakker and Lawrence and Martin, I wanted to try and write a modern high fantasy novel that wasn't grimdark, that didn't rely on bleakness or violence for its depth. I wanted to try and capture some of the wonder I felt reading the great fantasy books of my youth.
But I still wanted a depth to the characters and nuance to their motivations. So no evil lords brooding on dark mountains. I wanted my villains to not be evil because they enjoyed making other suffer or needed dominion, but because gaining what they desired (in the case of Alyanna, immortality) would cause suffering in others. From my observation of our world, that is really where evil comes from - not from some burning desire to do bad things, but because of a lack of empathy and callousness for the repercussions of our actions. So I started shaping the book that would become Queen by coming up with Alyanna and what had led her to leave the world in ruins. I think, in retrospect, that her motivation and character was partly shaped by the villains in David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and The Bone Clocks.
Cein d'Kara was inspired partly by an article I read on Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos. Brilliant and beautiful and striving to do what she thinks is right, but blinded perhaps by her own ambitions, and perhaps capable of doing very bad things if she thinks it will accomplish a greater good. I know I shortchanged her a bit in The Crimson Queen, but I hope I can deepen her character in the sequels.
Every other character has their own story and inspirations, but the relationship and conflict between those two will I hope define the series.
My favorite fantasy books in no particular order:
1. The Etched City by KJ Bishop
2. The Scar by China Mieville
3. Game of Thrones by GRRM
4. The Darkness That Comes Before by R Scott Bakker
5. Lord of Light by Zelazny
6. Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
7. Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link (short stories)
8. The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard (short stories)
9. The Wizard of Earthsea by LeGuin
10. The Deed of Paksenarrion by Moon
Take care,
Alec
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on your inspirations.
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More great questions :-)This is actually the first time I've been asked about inspiration, so I'll try to order my thoughts on the subject without sounding too incoherent.
First off, I've always loved fantasy. My journey went from Narnia to Earthsea to the Forgotten Realms to Westeros to Bas Lag. At each stop the worlds got a little bleaker, the heroes more anti. And while I love Bakker and Lawrence and Martin, I wanted to try and write a modern high fantasy novel that wasn't grimdark, that didn't rely on bleakness or violence for its depth. I wanted to try and capture some of the wonder I felt reading the great fantasy books of my youth.
But I still wanted a depth to the characters and nuance to their motivations. So no evil lords brooding on dark mountains. I wanted my villains to not be evil because they enjoyed making other suffer or needed dominion, but because gaining what they desired (in the case of Alyanna, immortality) would cause suffering in others. From my observation of our world, that is really where evil comes from - not from some burning desire to do bad things, but because of a lack of empathy and callousness for the repercussions of our actions. So I started shaping the book that would become Queen by coming up with Alyanna and what had led her to leave the world in ruins. I think, in retrospect, that her motivation and character was partly shaped by the villains in David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and The Bone Clocks.
Cein d'Kara was inspired partly by an article I read on Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos. Brilliant and beautiful and striving to do what she thinks is right, but blinded perhaps by her own ambitions, and perhaps capable of doing very bad things if she thinks it will accomplish a greater good. I know I shortchanged her a bit in The Crimson Queen, but I hope I can deepen her character in the sequels.
Every other character has their own story and inspirations, but the relationship and conflict between those two will I hope define the series.
My favorite fantasy books in no particular order:
1. The Etched City by KJ Bishop
2. The Scar by China Mieville
3. Game of Thrones by GRRM
4. The Darkness That Comes Before by R Scott Bakker
5. Lord of Light by Zelazny
6. Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
7. Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link (short stories)
8. The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard (short stories)
9. The Wizard of Earthsea by LeGuin
10. The Deed of Paksenarrion by Moon
Take care,
Alec
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on your inspirations.
I had the good fortune to read some of Brandon Sanderson's early unpublished work, and while he has always been a genius with magic systems and world building, you can really mark his growth as an author between White Sand and Mistborn. I mention this because I thought TCQ had a particular thoughtfulness in construction that is usually acquired through several novels.
I read a review you wrote which said (paraphrasing) that everything is inspired by something else, and I've often felt the same. The same ideas are jumbled about by particularly beautiful minds and regurgitated in such elegant fashion that they somehow become new and fascinating. That said, what were your inspirations for TCQ and the characters in it? What are some of your favorite books?
Best wishes,
Emily