Michael’s Comments (group member since Apr 03, 2021)

Michael’s comments from the Nolyn: Book 1 of the Rise and Fall Trilogy group.

@ Sarah - thanks - putting in a little tidbit like that here and there is something I'm always trying to instruct new writers to do. If you stay "too close" to the plot the stories seem to be dry - you have to allow yourself to add some spice.

@Bonnie -you are correct - 3,000 years in the future there is a lot of intermingling between the races, but there are reason for it not happening much - which will be explained in more detail as the story unfolds.

@Conny - that's interesting - it never occurred to me whether men gravitate toward male characters or women gravitate toward males. It's certainly not something I think of when I choose the gender of a character. But if I think about it, my favorites are pretty evenly divided.

@Diamond - aye. I think we all expected Nyphron to make big changes.

@Christomir - feel free to pick away - any book is the cumulation of thousands of decisions - some you'll agree with - others you won't. I don't take offense. But because this forum allows us to chat - I'll generally "fill you in" about reasons for things. It's not me trying to be defensive - again I don't take offense at any opinions people have on the books -- it's really just a way of learning more about the process and why I do what I do.

Nolyn's inability to remember names is just a way to give him a little personality -- that and it relates to the fact that with his "long life" - virtually everyone he gets close to will die - so it's kind of like not naming cows when you are a rancher ;-)

As for not knowing the names of his men specifically - well until they find out it's a trap - they basically travel in silence - so there's not a lot of conversation going on where you can "pickup" people's name - and if any orders are needed they are being given by Amicus not Nolyn and he wouldn't necessarily be having to use their names a lot. Plus there were 20 of them originally and I'm not sure I could learn the name of 20 people I just met in a similar situation. But may be both Nolyn and I share "name issues."

I'm glad to hear the books play out in your mind like a movie/telvision show - that's how I see them as well.

As to your speculation regarding Nolyn being in battle at all - you are correct in that it will be addressed.

There was certainly a conscious decision on my part for making "Legends" different from "Riyria" -- Legends does indeed have more "magic" and is more "traditional fantasy" and, of course, it has a larger cast of characters - of which women have some of the biggest staring roles. "Riyria" was more "swashbuckling" - with a great emphasis on swordplay than magic. It also focused on 2 major characters (both men - or so most would classify it that way) -- but in my mind, it was always a 4 "mains" book (two men and two women) either way - it's a "much" smaller cast with (until the end) smaller "stakes" - whereas Legends occurs at a time pivotal point in history such that it is "epic" in scope from the get go.

@Lindsay - haha - agreed. I don't think Elan needs two Nyphrons!

@Sarah - making the book a "good read" for both "newbies" and "veterans" of my work was a high priority - so I'm so glad to see your comment ... "Agreed with the previous comments about tie-ins, but also liked that I could have been new to this world and felt immediately invested in the story. "

@Conny - thanks for sharing your initial impressions. You are pretty much dead on regarding your thought process on where we are as far as the development of various "ages"

@Bonnie - I have no idea if there is a glossary planned for this book or not. If Robin ends up making one, I'll come here and post a link to it.

Jacob wrote: "Hey everyone! Jacob here, started with the first three books of Legends of the First Empire and then moved over to Riyria Revelations and have been a massive fan ever since. My wife is starting to listen to some audio books so hoping to get her to listen to these books soon. Even though she hasn't read any of them I was recently able to convince her to name our puppy Minna. Excited for the new series"

A lot of people read in that order...and congrats on the new puppy - that's a great name - let's hope yours lives up to the high bar that Suri's Minna set.

TS wrote: "I've also finished Legends of the First Empire and was blown away by the real story and truths behind the myths and legends of Elan. Really looking forward to this 'bridge' trilogy, especially when I've first found out that one of the books will be about Esrahaddon"

Welcome to the group! Revealing the truths about all the lies I told in Riyria was a really fun aspect when writing the Legends of the First Empire. And, yeah, I'm guessing more than a few people who have read Riyria are looking forward to Esrahaddon. It's turning out to be my largest book yet, and I think a lot of people will be interested in that character's full backstory.

Gil wrote: "Hi, all! I'm Stilly and first I started with the Bulgarian editions of Riyria (love Royce and Hadrian and so many characters there)"

Nice! The contract for the Bulgarian editions was my third-ever publishing deal. The first one was for the Czech Republic, and the second one was for Hungarian - The Baltic region has been early supporters of my work.

Robin wrote: "Hey all, Robin here - I'm married to Michael, so yeah, I've read all the books - even worked on most of them as well ;-)"

Bah, I guess they let any old "riff-raff" in here.

Calvin Post wrote: "It was an honor to Gamma read for Nolyn. Anyone here who is reading this comment definitely sign up to participate. It’s a really fun time to read the work early and to chat with Michael himself about his work! Not too many authors as easily to chat with like Michael is!"

You are very kind.

Jeffrey wrote: "Was reading a short stories book so I could switch to Nolyn the moment it came out! Looking forward to it 😬. Can't wait until work is done for today :P"

Excellent - enjoy!

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Michelle wrote: "I have to pause what I'm currently reading then and start Nolyn!!"

Haha - that's great. We are so excited people are jumping right in.

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