I released the first book in my new Dragon Gate epic fantasy series on Amazon this weekend and thought I’d do a little lowdown and answer some questions about it.
First off, here are the links:
As always, if you want my books early and/or don’t want to shop on Amazon, Patreon is the best way to get them. I release them early there before they launch into exclusivity with Amazon: https://www.patreon.com/lindsayburoker.
As a reminder, here’s the reason I have been launching new series exclusive with Amazon and only later making them available everywhere (it’s an older post, but nothing has changed).
Now, for the lowdown…
What was the genesis of this series?
After doing a big space adventure series (Star Kingdom) in 2019 and a contemporary urban fantasy (Death Before Dragons) last year, I wanted to get back to my roots. My first two major series (Emperor’s Edge and Dragon Blood) were high fantasy adventures set in made-up worlds, and that’s my favorite kind of fantasy.
I read a ton of David Eddings, Raymond Feist, Dave Duncan, and Forgotten Realms as a kid. (Brooks, Goodkind, Jordan, and Tolkien, too, of course, but I tend to be most drawn to books that are a little faster paced and have more humor.)
I don’t usually call my Dragon Blood or Emperor’s Edge series epic fantasy, even though the books in both series add PoVs and get longer toward the end.
With the new series, I decided to just start out big. At 150,000-words, Kingdoms at War isn’t as long as a Brandon Sanderson book (not by half!), but it’s my longest ever Book 1 and introduces a lot of the characters that we’ll be sharing adventures with along the way.
If you like the young coming-of-age characters who are destined to develop great powers, we’ve got Jak (a mere cartography student when we start the story).
If you prefer middle-aged heroines with an academic bent, there’s Professor Jadora, an herbalist-turned-archaelogist, who can’t quite stop plucking up plant samples wherever she goes.
If you like sarcastic hardened mercenaries, try Captain Ferroki, Lieutenant Sasko, and the bitter and grumpy yet vaguely lovable Colonel Sorath.
For a female coming-of-age heroine destined to help change the world, we’ve got Rookie Tezi (I dredged up my own memories of basic training and being a nobody in the army to write her).
What about the bada$$ mage-assassin who works for the other side but might not be quite as evil as expected? Yup, that’s Malek. As with Firefly, I stole from the Latin “mal” for his name.
Okay, but what about the gate?
You might have guessed that it’s inspired by my love of Stargate SG-1. Even though I’ve enjoyed other sci-fi series since, SG-1, Firefly, and the Original Trek are the only sci-fi series where I own the DVDs and have watched select episodes over and over and over throughout the years. Season 4 SG-1 was the best, especially for us O’Neill and Carter shippers, am I right?
So this is a bit Stargate meets your more traditional epic fantasy setting. With floating castles. And dragons.
So, the heroes get to go to other worlds?
Not in Book 1, but it’s coming in Book 2. What is now the end of Book 2 was what I thought would be the end of Book 1 when I first outlined these, but with all those point-of-view characters, the story got long quickly.
Book 2 (coming in June) is 190,000 words, so if I’d left them combined, that would have been a little ridiculous. At 340,000 words, it also would have been too large for a print-on-demand paperback.
I’ve started reading, and this world is… uh, kinda dark. Is this a GRIMDARK series?
I won’t lie. The first half of Book 1 is pretty grim. If you’re coming off reading Star Kingdom or Death Before Dragons, you’ll find this darker and less banter-filled (though the mercenaries are always good for some snark… and their doctor knits *grenade cozies, so who doesn’t love that?).
Perhaps not surprising, given what a CRAPTASTIC year 2020 was, I was inspired to create a pretty dark world. But unlike with our world, the heroes get to fix it in the end. I don’t think the series fits the definition of “grimdark,” and you won’t find main characters being killed off left and right, but I will fully admit it’s a much more serious series than my last two.
*It’s like a tea cozy but for grenades. Naturally.
You usually include some romance. Will there be romance?
Yes. Slow-burn romance lovers should get what they’re looking for. I think you’ll be able to figure out the main couple by the end of the Book 1, but I won’t spoil it.
Will there be dragons? Because Book 1 is light on dragons.
Yes! I keep saying I’m going to retire from dragons in my fantasy, since I’ve done a number of series with them, but when I started thinking about a powerful alien race who’d created the gate… I was like, gee, I could make up something unappealing like the Goa’uld, or I could use a fantasy favorite. Dragons! (And, yes, Stargate fans, I know it was actually the Ancients who made the gates, but you know what I mean!)
How many books will there be?
I’m not sure yet. I have the number six in my mind, but I haven’t plotted out beyond Book 2 yet. We shall see!
What else are you working on this year?
Since the Dragon Gate books are long and involved, my brain requires something shorter and easier in between, so I’ve got some new installments in my Star Kingdom universe in the works.
Asylum is the first of two books and features a couple of all-new characters, but Mari and Kenji have a lot of interaction with old favorites from the main series too. It was fun writing a book where Casmir is an authority figure instead of always being in trouble and on the wrong side of the law! I’m also thinking of doing at least one book on Rache, who was left in limbo after the main series.
I do still have plans to return to old worlds and finish up incomplete series, but probably not this year. Those series were all set aside for a reason, because they didn’t sell that well. I’m not sure I’ve even made back the cost of editing and cover art on the last two Chains of Honor books that I finished up a couple of years ago. (Ahem, Warrior Mage is free if you want to check out that now-complete series.)
Until Netflix comes calling, I need to consider what’s financially worth the time when choosing projects. That said, I will get to them someday. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
The rain and the dog’s noseprints on the windshield made it hard to see into the twilight gloom ahead. Lucky whined from the passenger seat as Morgen guided the car through mud, over downed branches, and around water-filled potholes large enough to support a small flock of mallards. Possibly a large flock. And their cousins.
