New Review of The Ironwood Staff

A fellow Bard, who goes by the Bondlike yet midalphabetical name of M, has this to say on Goodreads.

If you like Tolkein (The Lord of the Rings), Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), or Carmody (Obernewtyn Chronicles), this book is a must. It clothes the best narrative/plot tools used in the above books in a new and comely garb. Let me try to elaborate without giving too much away (I don't want to spoil your fun with it!)...

There are elves and goblins, sorcery and abilities, nature and travel (in fact, almost a safari in your armchair!), war and love... The African-inspired universe is a clever twist on the scenery, the descriptions are excellent, and the book comes with its own map (oh, yes, every REAL new world needs a map!) and a glossary. And believe me, you need the glossary. Hamilton has such an imaginative brain that pretty much everything important has a new name (don't let that put you off, it all makes perfect sense within the parameters of that world), and there is even an entirely new but totally cohesive system of deities...

The main character, Tomas, is likeable, and - as many heroes before him - he sets off on a journey throughout the pages of this book. It's a heroic journey of growth and transformation (though I would have liked his character, not just his ability, change a bit more, perhaps as strikingly as his body), underpinned by the very real and personal struggle with evil. The encounters with darkness are breathtakingly immersive thanks to the "language Ability" Hamiton possesses. It sucks you in with its own magic of brevity and accuracy.

I hope there will be a need for a reprint in future, edited to smooth out the 15 or so typos that have crawled into the text (mostly a missing space after a full stop, so not too bad for close to 300 pages! So it did not merit me taking a star down for it). And yes, a blog accompanies this universe too, and is worth checking out. (https://www.subscribestar.com/breakspear)

Non-human races of the Ironwood Staff universe

After a few questions from folks who read the book, perhaps some names or classes need to be defined.

Kchabani - These are goblins or orcs, who were created from a mixture of monkey, human and possibly Eladon stock by the filthy arts of the Unnamed Enemy in the dark of the world. They are such an abomination to some Eladi that it is considered a mercy to kill them. Their stock is similar in kind to dogs, in that breeding for certain characteristics produces separate types with differing appearances. Large fighting breeds, of man-size or even larger, are common, but there are also trackers, craftsmen, spies and engineers (among others), who tend to form underclasses in kchaban societies. Males and females are indistinguishable, and offspring mature very quickly in less than seven years, raised either in bands of their group, or in communal schools in the case of fighting kchabani. It has been documented that living beings of non-kchaban stock can be used as living incubators for gestating kchaban imps, in a dark magical process which invariably kills the host. If a kchaban (or even human) leader is sufficiently degenerate, he may arrange for cross-breeding between humans and kchabani, which produces Arkchabani, large, aggressive types with pasty white skin who can fight in the daylight, unlike normal kchabani. Fortunately arkchabani, like mules, are infertile. Kchaban societies tend to be small and isolated in the absence of a strong leader, because they are based on predatory warfare combined with hunting and gathering.

Eladi - These are elves, practically immortal (though they may age very slowly); they are most gifted in physical ability, words and crafts. The oldest people are Moreladi, who settled the lands in remotest antiquity and built cities all over the Sunlands under the guidance of Prophets. The Prophets were spiritual leaders to whom the Powers, or the Lesser Gods, revealed the arts of civilisation, to prepare them for the arrival of the Others. With the coming of the Kchabani, they were beaten back by the superior technology of the Foul Folk, and for the most part they fled and settled in Greenland, across the sea to the south. Those who remained became a furtive, nomadic people, the Oreladi. Some time later came the Celadi, who came on great ships from other lands far away to the north. They settled first on the coasts and then further inland, and with the help of humans from the same northern lands, cleared the Southlands of kchabani, settling where they would. Their language was distantly related to that spoken by the Moreladi, but for the most part unintelligible to them. In time the Celadi came to dominate parts of the South, but they tended to look down on the Oreladi, who they found primitive and uncivilised, though there was no exploitation or conflict between the peoples. The Moreladi in Greenland remained there for millenia, growing in wisdom and culture until a dynastic struggle led to internecine warfare that lasted for centuries. In the time of The Ironwood Staff, that conflict had comparatively recently ended with the accession of King Arandamundon.

Araneladi - these are halfelves, or eladi with some human ancestry. The word comes from Celadon Aran (Man)-Elado. They have been common in some places at some times, but not always tolerated by eladi. Humans, with their easily corruptible minds and bodies, short time horizons and lack of learning, are not thought of as suitable matches, but trysts, affairs or even marriages were not very rare where the races have mingled in the past. The offspring have at times been the majority population of some territories, and the Southland Men are thought to have large proportions of eladon ancestry, even as their language contains a large portion of Celadon words. The Moreladi of Greenland actively dislike Araneladi, because they settled in the lands from which they had been driven in antiquity. As the Southlands became corrupt and unjust with the long peace after the Third Foul War, their dislike hardened into prejudice.

Magic systems and the problem of evil

When I first started thinking about a ‘good’ magic system, as opposed to one that relies on bargains with darkness, I thought to myself, ‘Under what conditions would the Creator grant power over the elements, animal minds, and inanimate matter?’

I thought the answer would be something like, ‘Having proved yourself able to resist the urge to evil.’

So, we come to the question of, What is Evil?

Evil entered the world (for humans) the first time one of us made a conscious choice to do something bad, for our own… our own what, exactly? To make ourselves feel good (in the absence of other factors, which might mitigate guilt)? How does it make us feel good? By exalting us above what we are, by giving us extra, over and above what we need; we desire to be greater, to have more, than we need (is this a design flaw, or a feature?). The self-absorption that leads us to actions which disadvantage others, we call evil. Without having looked anything up in the Cathechism, it seems to me that the insistence on self-satisfaction (concupiscence) at the expense of others is the foundation of all evil. That in turn dovetails nicely with the current idea that the opposite of love is not hate, but use.

Now, we can have self-seeking which benefits others. The energetic people who create artefacts in the material world, and then seek to sell them to others for resources they couldn’t gather while they were creating, are engaged in something good. They use their talents to solve a problem or decrease entropy in some situation, and they deserve a reward for the hard work they put in (this is the problem with political systems which reject the profit motive – they refuse to acknowledge the value of that particular kind of work). In the process, the world improves in some way, their customers get new and useful stuff, they get the resources exchanged, everyone’s happy.

There is another form of self-seeking which is pathological: when someone has enough, but wants more; when you aren’t satisfied with having the due payment for your own work, but seek to control those who supply you; when you experience so much pleasure (from any source) that the levels you experience are no longer enough, and you desire, in ever increasing measures, more and more pleasures, even as they pale and become ‘routine’. In those cases, individual self-seeking, bloated and monstrous, leads to suffering, resentment, anger; a desire for justice which, denied, warps into revenge. Thus the economy of evil has only two classes – the rulers and the ruled, masters and slaves, takers and makers.

So, it would seem that in that respect, the Buddhists have it right. The solution to suffering is to extirpate desire. How do you do that? By cultivating detachment, so that you at least no longer cause suffering by your own self-seeking. So, how do you cultivate detachment? Ah, there’s the rub!

That’s about as far as I got. I know that meditation is supposed to produce detachment. If you concentrate on nothing – on the ‘sound of one hand clapping’, or the ‘sound of the pines when the wind is still’, you should be able to force your mind to be still, at peace. However, that pre-supposes that there is nothing worth desiring… but there is.

There is one thing in all the universe worth desiring, and even that is not in the universe, except as a trace. That thing is a Person, the One Person after whom we are all measured, no matter how wonderful or strange. That Person is the source of all that is good, true and beautiful, so if you guide your meditation towards contemplation of those things, you may appreciate enough of that Person to quench all desire.

That became the power behind my magic system.

New Subscribestar Post

Hi, all

I've a new update on my Subscribestar page, where I talk about the sequel to The Ironwood Staff, The Retribution of Thengon. Includes a map!

Reader Praise for The Ironwood Staff

A reader called Cat, writing on Goodreads.com, said,

I love a good fantasy novel. I knew nothing about the book's genre when I started reading it so that was a pleasant surprise. I found the african-ness of some of the wildlife and situations a lovely unique touch. A classic tale of good vs evil. I loved it.

Get your copy here!

The Epstein cover-up collapses

A mammoth scandal, the opportunity to speak truth to power, and a chance to see justice done for the victim of a horrible crime.

And what did the establishment media do?

They spiked the story. 

The explanation of why creates more questions than it answers: Why did the reporter's superiors act as if it was a non-story? Why did it suddenly become more important for the network to have access to the British Royal Family, than for one of them to be exposed?

It's been said elsewhere that during Epstein's career, it was very dangerous to enquire too closely as to where he got his money.

But I'm left with one almost rhetorical question: If the media can be controlled by big money, why do we trust anything they say, ever?