Don't wear yourself out on it, now.  You'll get sick of it before I manage to finish book 8...



Eric Storm

Eric Storm wrote:

Don't wear yourself out on it, now.  You'll get sick of it before I manage to finish book 8...

Having read the entire series at least 4 times I doubt I will get tired of it.

Eric Storm wrote:

Don't wear yourself out on it, now.  You'll get sick of it before I manage to finish book 8...



Eric Storm

Not possible.

About to start my 9th read through. Still enjoying every detail and occasionally finding new ones.

only four times!  I've read it enough that I finally started working on an appendix for myself (not necessarily a complete appendix though).

... and how do you plan to attach it to your intestines?

:-P

Eric Storm

Go ahead and call it a glossary then...  decided it might be a worthy addition when you introduced unique military tanks.  When someone else was talking about a cast of characters, I decided to try to add those.  Spells, races, creatures and other stuff have slowly been making it in.

Of course the glossary as it is right now covers all available chapters and all available books, not just year 1.

Ah, Sahah Charboneau... the quintessential product of a single parent. She finds a nice guy, who by her accounts is a great lay, and ditches him to look for better dick. Rereading this series is pretty entertaining.

(posted from Chapter 5: October)

If you're re-reading, then you know she was not the product of a single parent.

Eric Storm

She is now.

No, she's not.  She was an adult, and not living at home, at the time of their divorce.  She cannot be "the product" of a single parent if, while she was being raised, she had both parents.

Eric Storm

Very much like the pronunciation   guide. I'm  often   frustrated  by unusal names that I  have no idea  how to pronounce.

(posted from Story Notes)

A little warning to all new readers:

before you start reading this story, make sure you have set aside enough time. This story carries a curse so that you will not be able to stop until you have read the last line of the last "book".

Eric, you have outdone yourself. I love all your stories, but this is just awesome. Too bad that your chosen genre keeps your works from the wider public, your name should be out there with the grand authors of best selling fantasy.

By the way, did I catch a reference to Scott Manley there in Year 8?

(posted from the Item Information Page)

Thank you for your kind words.  I hesitate to tell you that, by warning others of the curse, you have brought down a much nastier curse upon yourself... I can't bring myself to tell you about it, it's... too evil...  Just... if you start dreaming about naked fairies all of a sudden... um... well, you'll find out...

(... what is it now, Jerry?  No, I'm not going to tell him about the blowjobs...  what do you mean, why not?  That would lessen the fear factor.  Jerry, you really need to work on your evil sidekick thinking...  Yes you did know that when I hired you.  The ad very clearly said, "Evil Sidekick Wanted"... Oh, you thought I was joking?  For that, you get to clean out Cthulhu's pen again...  I don't care if he eats you.  Why do you think I had to post an ad for another evil sidekick in the first place?...  Jerry.... JERRY!.... BZZZZAP!   *sigh*.... 

"WANTED: EVIL SIDEKICK.  No experience necessary. Office skills and laundry skills required.  Job requires punctual delivery of straight lines.  Required to carry all tools that supervillain might need in an emergency.  Hatred of all mankind a plus.  Benefits package includes personal enslaved servants and company car.  Preference given to psychotic bimbos with large breasts.  Those who have previously worked for the IRS or the post office are over-qualified.  Must provide own costume.  Candy-ass little pussies need not apply...")

Ahem.  Ignore that part.  0

As to Scott Manley... as I haven't the faintest idea who that is... no, you did not.


If you tell me what it is you thought was a reference to him, I can tell you what it really was a reference to...

Eric Storm

Eric - I have some unplanned time off and decided to re-re-read WA. I started last night and I already have a question about Jacob Pendergrast. He told David he's been a demighost for ~150 years but is ~870 years old (we learn this in chapter 1 when asked how old he was, Jacob replies, "Approximately eight hundred seventy years. I have mostly stopped counting, but someone mentions it to me from time to time."). Having read this story many times, I know the average Wizard lives to about the age of 150 years. How then, do we account for the fact that Jacob was already 720 years old when Levi Daily's grandfather (or great grandfather or grand uncle or whatever) turned him into a demighost? According to one of David's Rimohr cases, there are only three ways for a Wizard to achieve that level of life extension - 1) prison life extension, 2) having a large group of, I think, the same group of 600 people get together every year to do some magic (but then there would be a large group of extremely old people around) and 3) illegally draining the life essence of people (like the woman did that David and Viv caught). Actually, there is another way we learned about and that is by being cursed to be a demighost like the one David met when he became a potions master. He met a demighost who was around 3,000 years old.

So, which of these allowed Jacob to get to 720 or so before he became a demighost?

Just speculation, but I bet he ran around as a demighost for several hundred years before the Daily bloke that cursed him caught up with him, or found out he was a reasonably young demighost.
After all, he had the time to earn millions or possibly billions of Granas in that time.

It is possible that he was turned into a demighost centuries before through some other means (we know that at least humans and dragons have curses that can turn someone into a demighost).  Jacob could have been running around for centuries, got noticed by some Dailey 150 years ago, and hunted down.

As Barbarian and Icehawk have pointed out already, the story does not say that Jacob was a demighost for 150 years.  It says he was imprisoned for 150 years.  We have no idea how long he lived before becoming a demighost.

Here's the real question, and I freely admit this is a "Why couldn't Harry see the thestrals from the get-go?" level error:  Since Jacob wasn't imprisoned until he was 720 or so, and given what we know of Levi Dailey's efforts at tracking David, one must wonder why it took them so long to hunt Jacob down and trap him.  The truth is, the Dailey Curse is rather haphazard: it requires someone to just happen to die in the place where the previous demighost was trapped.  Thus, it seems likely that this is not the common way for them to find demighosts, and that Jacob wasn't converted via the Dailey Curse at all. 

It is my thought that the writer didn't actually work out the details of the Dailey Curse until around the time he was writing book 6 or so, and so didn't put in good information when he wrote book 1. 

But that's just a guess.  I mean, it's not like I can read his mind... 0

Eric Storm

Given the incredibly ordered Universe you created, I'll give you a pass on not working out the details that far in advance. Every writer is allowed a Platypus or three.

I keep coming back to this novel. Love the series

(posted from Chapter 2: July)

I'm glad that you enjoy it.  I hope you enjoy my other work, as well.

Eric Storm

Doing a reread and caught something that I’ve never noticed before. In chapter 11 after David morphs the dragonfly into a gecko Gwen says “Better not let Flo see that, David. She hates geckos.�
I have read this chapter at probably at least 30 times and never made the connection of it being a joke about insurance companies.

:-D

Eric Storm

Going for another reread. Nice additions to help the reader out.

(posted from Character List)