Holiday Season

I have fallen behind in my blogging. I planned to post at least once a week and it's been 9 days. Shame on me!

However as my excuse I will claim the busy times of the holiday season.

I have found a new type of book to read. Shared universe collaborative fiction. The first example I found of this is the Wild Cards series. I have the first 3 of the series. They are very enjoyable. While I'm not sure I would recommend them to everyone as they are based on the classical superhero idea (and not everyone is into that genre) I can say they are well written.

Each anthology is a collection of short stories that weaves together the plots of multiple characters who intersect in different ways. Some have major collaboration some only see each other in passing. However they all fit into one major plot line.

I'll be looking for stuff by the Midnight Rose and some of the Leviak shared universe materials in the future. Hopefully I'll be able to find them.

I've always found series set in a single contiguous universe to be very interesting. Having a mythos to delve into and explore makes the universe so much more realistic and engaging.

If the day comes that I do sit down and write a book I might toy with the idea of doing an Asimov-ish set of short stories all set in a single universe with an overarching theme.

Looking at the type of books I've been fond of in the last 5-10 years this looks like a pattern.

R.A. Salvatore. Steven Brust. Scott Lynch. George R R Martin. Sandy Mitchell. L. E. Modesitt Jr. Robert Jordan.

All of these men have created rich worlds where there are tons of interesting characters that have real interactions. For instance, I have 15 books by Brust set in the Dragaeran universe. With that much material (well over 4000 pages) the amount of depth he can create is amazing. Watching a character grow over the time of decades as opposed to the few years that a book might normally span is a wonderful gift.

Thank you to all the authors out there. Thank you for letting us come into your world and watch you at play.