Britt Griffin
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Hello! I just finished The Death of Dulgath (FANTASTIC book, btw! Possibly my favorite so far!) and I have a question regarding nationalities. I think it’s awesome that your world of Elan is so diverse in its human population, so I wanted to know with all the different nationalities, were there any real-world races or ethnicities you drew reference from when describing the people of different nationalities in Elan?
Michael J. Sullivan
Hey Britt,
Thanks so much for your question. For some books, say Game of Thrones, it's easy to draw direct corollaries (Martin mentioned several times that it's inspiration comes from the War of the Roses). For others, like mine, I don't have such obvious inspirations. I mean it's not like I can say, "Oh the people from Calais were based on x, y, or z." Or the people in Dahlgren were representative of people who left Ireland after the potato famine. But I'm sure there are many things that I've learned over the years (I read a lot of history) that went into the melting pot that my eventual world became. So, I guess the answer is yes and no. Yes, from the standpoint that I'm a bit of sponge and I've gathered up a lot of liquid (history) over the years. But no, in there was any intentional decisions I made for some SPECFIC cases. I hope that makes some kind of sense.
Thanks so much for your question. For some books, say Game of Thrones, it's easy to draw direct corollaries (Martin mentioned several times that it's inspiration comes from the War of the Roses). For others, like mine, I don't have such obvious inspirations. I mean it's not like I can say, "Oh the people from Calais were based on x, y, or z." Or the people in Dahlgren were representative of people who left Ireland after the potato famine. But I'm sure there are many things that I've learned over the years (I read a lot of history) that went into the melting pot that my eventual world became. So, I guess the answer is yes and no. Yes, from the standpoint that I'm a bit of sponge and I've gathered up a lot of liquid (history) over the years. But no, in there was any intentional decisions I made for some SPECFIC cases. I hope that makes some kind of sense.
More Answered Questions
Jerome Fajardo
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Hi Michael! Big fan of your work here! By the way, I bought the audiobook of The Riyria Chronicles Death of Dulgath, and I'm on chapter 7 now. I can't stop thinking about the piano song you used in that chapter! Do you happen to know the name of the track? It's been stuck in my head for days now. PS: The part I'm referring to is around 48:19 - 50:40 in the audiobook.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more