The main reason I decided to reread all my books set in the Kyralia world was to refresh my memory and lesson the chance of writing inconsistencies into The Traitor Queen. By that I mean details of the world, characters and magical system, as well as plot, that don’t agree across the books. Of course, if I find any big inconsistencies in the already published books there isn’t much I can do about it, but I might be able to explain them away in The Traitor Queen. Sometimes doing that actually leads to some good ideas, just as the answer to really thorny plot problems are often already there in the story.
Fortunately, and to my great relief, I found no major inconsistencies. There are a few minor inconsistencies, however. Most of them nobody else has ever noticed. (No, I’m not going to point them out!) They annoy me, of course. I suspect every author wants their books to be perfect, but we have to settle with ‘as good as we can get it in the time we have’.
Some errors can be fixed when reprints are done of print books. I’ve yet to see how easily they can be fixed in ebooks. I’ll be letting both of my publishers know what I’ve found and hopefully it’ll be easy for them to make changes.
One piece of good writing advice is ‘write the book you’d like to read’. Ironically, if I do go back to read them I don’t fully enjoy reading them, and there are two reasons for that:
Firstly, stopping to mark errors and make notes constantly breaks the flow of reading. I can’t let myself get carried away with the story, or I might stop noticing problems.
Secondly, I get a terrible itch to tweak things. Partly this is just wanting the freedom to play with words – to shape them into even better sentences and paragraphs. Partly it’s because I’ve written many, many words in the ten years since writing the Black Magician Trilogy, and it’d be a bit sad if I hadn’t got better at it.
Now that I’m reading through what I’ve written so far of The Traitor Queen, I’m enjoying the freedom to play, the chance to avoid inconsistencies, and coming up with ways to explain those small ones from previous books. Also, to wind in some of the little details I enjoyed picking up on – like that the servants bring food to the magicians in lacquered boxes.
And surely there’s some way I can follow up on, in some small way, one fact I’d completely forgotten about: in The Novice Regin’s father was no less than advisor to the Elyne king! It’ll have no impact on the main plot, but it’s such an interesting fact that I have mention it somewhere…
One thing you mind consider straightening up (or just explaining more precisely) are the ways magic power collection system works – from what I can recall you didn’t mention any shortages a black magician encounters when collecting power from another magician.
When you think about it – if I’m thinking right, it’s extremely unlikely that the Guild could win against the group of Ichanis. Let’s assume every one of them has three slaves that are sources (so they have a massive amount of magical energy they can’t use) – simple calculation suggests that after a year of steady strenghtening an Ichani collects what is more or less the power equivalent to a thousand of Kyralian Mages… Even if you count in the everyday usage of their magic, it’s still an overwhelming power they have.
If it didn’t decline significantly (and I do not recall reading about something like that), they’d be able to wipe Imardin off the face of the earth without breaking a sweat.
Hell, if I’m not mistaken, even a single and extra cautious guy who wouldn’t weaken his shield even for a second would be powerful enough to defeat every single Kyralian Mage and able to conquer Imardin single handedly…
So, what’s up with that?
Unless of course I misunderstood something and my logic is flawed. If so, I’m sorry for wasting you time
This is one of those ‘in a vacuum’ mental exercises – something that would work in theory if you took out the variables. Yes, an Ichani would grow incredibly powerful in the time and with the resource you describe… so long as he/she never used any magic. Which, given their lifestyle, wouldn’t happen. Then there’s the likeliness of having three slaves with the latent magical strength of Kyralian magicians, when the only way they can get new slaves is to raid remote Ashaki estates. The owners of those estates would keep the stronger of their slaves close to themselves.
I really wish that HBO would get ahold of you and make a series based off your books. George R.R. Martin seems to have been reborn with his sales (now better than ever) because of the show.
The consistency of the show with the books is unrivaled. You are a great writer and artisst, I wish I was born with your talent and I think that you will only go further as time goes on in your writing career.
Just keep doing what you are, and stay in touch with you fans. We appreciate it.
When I’ll finish Harry Potter series and few other books (I hope before end of my holidays), I’ll read again Black Magician Trilogy. Maybe I’ll find teh same inconsistencies? Honestly, it’s almost impossible
I have to say, the start of the The Magicians Guild is one of the most captivating first lines I’ve ever read
I’ve always wondered if the magic in the realm could be used this way:
Create levitation disks in joystick directions as well as below. Then you could move around at great speed, or at least as fast as falling sideways.
You could then get close enough to attack people with a sword and possibly drain their shield since metal is a great conductor if I remember correctly. Maybe this doesn’t work, always wondered if you could drain the shield a person puts around themselves.
Just curious, I tend to imagine what I’d do if immersed into a magical world.
When a magician is creating a shield they use up magic, and when its struck by magic or physical attacks the equivalent amount of magic energy is drained to stop the energy of the attack.
Creating a magic shield would waste a lot of magic, i think there should be a new strategy by the changing of direction of the attack so you could dodge the attacks and conserve more magic.
Well, I read Your all books…i love your books. I like Sonea and [spoiler removed]? Sorry I’m live in Poland and i know middling english so i do error..sorry and i salute ;D Thank you
Hi Trudi! I’m going to reread all your books set in the Kyralia world too
I think it would be in the Autumn and Winter, because I want to prepare for The Traitor Queen – I’d like to recall the details! I can’t wait for it! Greetings from Poland! 
Hi Trudi,
thank you for all of the Czech books you have sent me again. I am really happy, and enjoy them.
It makes me sad that you haven´t visited Prague on your journey, but I understand. I am sorry, I had all my exams in June, so there were no chance to go to Germany to meet you.
Despite that, I would be so happy to see you somewhere. Are you going to visit the Europe again? It would be gorgeous!
Many thanks,
Iveta
I’m sure I’ll visit Europe again, but probably not for a couple of years.
So we will not see You on The World Fantasy Con in 2013 in the UK or in 2014 at The World Science Fiction Convention in London??
I hope so.
I HOPE too, so… Finger’s crossed for THAT ^^
Sorry if I am mistaken, but wasn’t it Issle the Novice whose father was advisor to the Elyne King? I recall Regin striking up a conversation with her about that very fact, and afterwards charmed her into the foodhall.
It must be strange to read your own writing, I think it would be like seeing yourself on television, or hearing your voice on a recorder.
Ah! You’re right. I wonder how I got that mixed up…
I really love your books set in the Kyralian world, and I can’t wait for The Traitor Queen. I wonder, will you ever write more books set in that world and maybe write more about some of the people we have already been introduced to?
I’ve just read The Ambassador’s Mission and it was great, but something made me wonder. Sonea (In the narrator) says that she has the same amount of magic she had before she learned Black Magic, because she hadn’t used it on anyone since the Ichani Invasion, but what about the magicians who wanted their bodys to be restored so they could be buried? Wouldn’t she have the magic she had taken from them?
Inconsistencies? I noticed a few, but ignored them as I enjoyed the story so much. Just how did Sonea penetrate the magician’s shield with a rock..?
I believe this was explained in the book. The sheilds were simply strong enough to deflect normal rocks, because the only reason anyone would shoot magic at them was if they were rogue or a natural. Because of this, when Sonea accidentally used magic with the stone, the magic was strong enough to get through the weak sheild.
I hope that explained it okay, my mind’s everywhere at once right now.
First I hope nobody will feel offensed by my weak english. Its not the first language in my days, so please try to forgive.
It was fun to read The Black Magician triology, but! I couldn’t stop wandering about few things like what did Akkarin say to Rothen on that exile ceremony. It was strong moment, too strong to forget (all the details on changing faces abd whispering), but not a single hint after that. I reread all the possible pages twice again and some favorites even more times – oh, but nothing. So, I better ask directly: which words did their simple conversation contained?
I haven’t read The Ambassodors mission jet, so, maybe its written out in there. And the second hope I have with the new series – I hope that there are some memory flashes into Soneas greaf. It was such a strong mõment and absolutly irritatingly nothig about recovery of hers.
But I loved those books (even if there where little too many translation errors in – but then again – even one is one too many).