BoM/TWS Message Forum

In terms of what's influenced what I've written here:

Probably the biggest influence is the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett. It's a tie in book for the tabletop wargame, Warhammer 40,000. The main character in it is a member of the Imperial Inquisition. He starts out as an uncompromising puritan, but as the books progress he uses more and more of the methods of the enemy, takes a more ends justify the means stance and risks his soul in doing so. So it should be obvious how that influences long arcs I've published

From a technical standpoint, the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson is an influence too. In each book, and by the end of the trilogy itself, theres a stream of wham episode   moments that are none the less well hinted at in advance if you knew what to look for (or are obvious on the second reading). That's what I'm hoping to achieve when I write the arc that comes after "A Short Hop"  .

And since I just mentioned wham episodes, I guess I'll have to mention the man who coined the term, Joe Michael Straczynski and Babylon 5 which similarly makes use of careful foreshadowing in aid of telling its four season long main story. Come to think of it, the basic idea behind episodes Babylon Squared   and War Without End parts 1 & 2   is kind of similar to what I'm looking at for "A Nightmarish Future"  . Revisiting the same part of the story twice from different angles


Edit: I should add, in the preface to the omnibus edition of Eisenhorn, the author Dan Abnett mentions how difficult it was to write the story in the first person, and how he wishes he hadn't done that.

I think I know how he feels...