Mind that you can't explore this area at any time other than right Then, go northįrom the shack to arrive at the slopes of a icy mountain. House and heal up or save your game if you need to. Once you've had your fun in the snowfield, return to the old man's Ribbon, Javelin, Elixir, Fire Armlet, Megalixir, Speed Source, Enhance Sword, Dragon Fang, Neo Bahamut materia, Ether, Hi-Potion, Kaiser Knuckle, Reflect Ring, MP Turbo materia, Poison Ring R.FFVII - Walkthrough - 2.4 The Crater & Whirlwind Maze Items in This Area The third and final novel, LAST TO RISE, releases in November 2013.īefore the Fall, Camorr, epic fantasy, Fade to Black, fantasy, Fantasy Novel, Fantasy world-building, Fantasy worlds, Francis Knight, J. Book two, BEFORE THE FALL ( UK | US | ANZ), releases on 18th June this year. They just fit.įrancis Knight’s debut novel FADE TO BLACK ( UK | US | ANZ), book one of the Rojan Dizon novels, is out now. That’s what makes a fictional city work or fail for me – it works, in context, with the people who inhabit it, they showcase each other. Which he duly does, and then changes the city forever when he invents the gun. Anywhere else, Rojan’s brother Perak might have just been some amateur daydreamer who likes playing with things (and would have probably long ago blown himself up!), but due to Mahala’s reliance on alchemy, he’s given everything he needs and is told to go and invent things. The very fact of the way the city is run, the geography of it, the politics of it, and how that affects him, has helped turn him into who he is. I doubt he’d be such a cynic if he lived in Hobbiton. My main character Rojan Dizon is who he is – a sardonic, womanising bounty hunter – at least in part, because of where he lives. So when I started ‘building’ Mahala for Fade to Black, I tried to make sure the city informed the people, and the other way around. Hobbiton, by contrast, reflects the hobbits – laid back, little thought to anything much except is it pleasing, to eye or stomach? Minas Tirith and Edoras reflect the men and women who live there – on constant guard, where skill at arms isn’t just posturing, it’s necessary, and so are the defences and the oaths and honour the people who live there take so very seriously, and for good reason – oaths and honour are perhaps all that have kept them alive all this time against what lies to the East. The Elder Glass of Camorr shows us a city where things are not always as they seem, that even the city itself has two faces. Because it’s a city of moneymakers, and that’s a perfect example of taking what is there and squeezing it till gold coins fall out. Of course Ankh-Morpork has a thieves guild. And each little factor just adds to the realness of the city. They work, such as they do, because thought has gone into working out how they work and why, factoring in how odd people tend to be. The thing that, I think, connects all these cities is their internal consistency. Or maybe it just stinks that much! The little nooks and crannies that are a hallmark of an old, old city, the weird ways that seem normal to inhabitants but make outsiders wonder what drugs they must be on. As though if I scratched the surface on say Bakers Street, I’d find the Marquis, and all the rest, just waiting for me.ĭiscworld’s Ankh-Morpork, which is so real to me I can smell the river when I open the pages of the book. London Below, of Gaiman’s Neverwhere, a London that feels almost, just not quite, the real one. A city that works, even though I know its fictional. Camorr, from Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora – with its waterways, its dark and grubby underbelly, its Renaissance feel. Other cities come near to that status in my mind (hey, you never forget your first love). Like they really do exist somewhere, I just haven’t found them yet. They are clearly fantasy posing as historical (okay, except the elves) but they feel so. I’d would love, I mean give an arm or something, to walk the ways of Rivendell, to see the Mallorn in Lothlorien, behold the golden hall of Meduseld in Edoras, wind the twisting streets of Minas Tirith. Tolkien has his flaws but being unable to build believable yet fantastical cities is not one of them. So, I love fantasy cities, towns, places that people have made, because they reflect the people who live there and, crucially, how they think. I mean I love the countryside myself, born a country girl, but anyone can write it – there’s only so much you can do without it coming across as odd or unbelievable (unless you’re a genius, obviously).īut where people, or aliens, get involved, anything can and does happen. There’s something about cities in science fiction and fantasy.
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