World-Building, One Of My Favorite Things

Posted by Wolf McTavish April 10, 2016

World-Building, One Of My Favorite Things

If you've spent anytime reading my book discussions/reviews you'll probably know that I love a novel that has a well developed backstory or universe. There are some stories which can get away with not having it but I do love those which hint that the story line is just one of many other stories happening consecutively within this universe (sort of like real life). To this end I love many novels written by Stephen Hunt.

In my review of Anomalous Thrust the 4th book in his Sliding Void series I mentioned that

'...I left the Sliding Void universe... with a sneaking suspicion that there was more to the ship, The Gravity Rose, than we were being shown in the story. There were also a lot of loose ends concerning the ship, and her captain Lana Fiveworlds, background. A sort of larger backstory lurking in the shadows waiting to emerge.' source

This suspicion was not hard to extrapolate from reading Hunt's novels but it was nice to have it confirmed. Stephen Hunt has confirmed this in a recent interview he had with SFFWORLD where he says:

I normally start with the world-building first. Maybe it’s the unreformed gamer in me, but I find that if you start with the ecosystem, it’s much easier to come up with realistic creatures & characters to inhabit said environment. It normally takes me about a month to nail everything down. The Far-called is the first series where I was actually anal enough to produce detailed maps for every part of the world – even large swathes that haven’t made it into the novels yet. This was a reaction to the second most regular complaint from readers of my six-book Jackelian fantasy series … ‘Where’s the ^%%&* map?’ (And the first complaint? Glad you asked . . . US readers asking, “Where’s the e-book?”) source

Yeah, a map of the Jackelian world would have been great, anyway there is a lot more in the article so I encourage you to head on over to the SFFWorld website and have a read. Click here to be redirected to the article.

After reading this article I have been motivated to bring my copy of In Dark Service, book one of Far Called Trilogy to the top of my reading list. I also just purchased Foul Tide Turning, book two in anticipation.

You can find out more about Stephen’s Far-called series on his website or via www.facebook.com/steampunkish/ Stephen also maintains a Facebook page for his SF readers at www.facebook.com/SciFi.Fantasy/

Interested? Use these links to grab yourself a copy from Amazon. Wolf's Books may receive a commission so thanks for helping support this site.

The Far Called Trilogy

The Jackelian World series another fantasy steampunk world from Stephen Hunt whic includes magic in various forms and where steam power, rather than oil, drives the economy.