Necromancer News--the newsletter for The Summoner

Summoner video and other tidbits

August 25, 2007

Well, I've recovered from book tour! I had a great time on
the road getting to meet readers, and now it's fun hearing
back from folks I met on tour on email and MySpace.

The biggest news is that the book video for The
Summoner/The Blood King is live! Here's the link on my
page and on YouTube. The YouTube link makes it easy to
share--so please pass it along to your friends or post it
on your profile! A book trailer is like a movie
trailer--it's a short introduction.

http://www.summoner.citymax.com/f/The_Summoner_Feb2008.wmv
or (best for file sharing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BaaGqiXqiE

The Blood King is now available for pre-order. It won't be
out until February 2008, but you can order it on Amazon.

I'll be at a signing in Boone, NC this weekend, and at
DragonCon in Atlanta with the Solaris Books crew over Labor
Day weekend.

And of course, I'm working on Book 3!

Now for the 'lost' chapters of The Summoner....

Several readers have emailed me wanting to know what
happened to Cam, Soterius and Harrtuck after the caravan
was attacked by the slavers. Although we meet up with them
again at the end of the book, we don't see their side of
the action until that point.

The answer is...those chapters got cut for length! In the
original manuscript, there were several chapters that took
up with Cam, Soterius and Harrtuck after the attack. But
even with over 600 pages, there isn't room for everything,
and those chapters got cut. Here's a quick overview of
what happened:

*****SPOILERS AHEAD*********

After the slavers leave the ruined caravan with Tris and
the others as captives, Soterius and Harrtuck regain
consciousness. They find a ruined camp. Cam is
unconscious and very badly wounded. Soterius and Harrtuck
are also wounded, and know that in their present condition,
they can't win another fight even if they track Tris and
the others to the slaver's camp. They are torn between
their duty to Tris and Cam's dire need for medical
attention, as well as the need to tend their own injuries.
With a makeshift travois, they drag Cam to the nearest
village, and find a traveling healer. That healer is one
of the Sisterhood, and the village is being evacuated
because the Sisterhood expects an attack from Margolan
troops.

When Cam and the others recover, they are in a stronghold
of the Sisterhood. The Sisters present Cam with the elixir
which Carina sought, the one which may extend King
Donelan's life. Cam agonizes between going to find Carina
and riding back with the elixir to Donelan. Finally, he
realizes that he must honor his duty to his king, and
Soterius and Harrtuck assure him that they intend to go
after Carina and Tris.

Cam narrowly eludes the Margolan troops. Soterius and
Harrtuck get pinned down by enemy fire, delaying them from
going after Tris. During the battle, the Sisterhood senses
Tris’ struggle in the Ruune Vidaya, and the strength of his
power. Their oracle tells Soterius and Harrtuck to go to
Principality City and await Tris’ arrival.

Why not more angst among Tris and the others over the fate
of their friends? One of the slavers announces that
everyone else in the caravan is dead. Right after that,
Tris and Carina have to heal Jonmarc, and then the group
sets out on a grueling march toward the forest. Tris
struggles with the spirits of the forest long before the
group arrives, and then is nearly killed in the Ruune
Vidaya. The survival issues are too pressing to afford
much time for grief. Why doesn’t Tris call for them on the
Plains of Spirit? Because he’s too new in his power to
realize fully what he can do, and his power is taking a
very heavy toll on him. (Why didn’t Harry use his mirror
to see whether Sirius was really in trouble? Because
people don’t always think to use the resources they have.)
Why doesn’t Tris try to go back to search for his friends?
Tris and the others have no reason to think they are still
alive, and they have covered too much dangerous territory
to backtrack. Why don’t we see more of Carina’s grief?
Because there just aren’t enough pages to fully chronicle
everything that really happened in the elapsed period of
time. One of the frustrating aspects of being the author
is that I know all those side conversations, unwritten
scenes and additional goings on—but there just isn’t room
for all of it!

Soterius and Harrtuck will play very prominent roles in The
Blood King, and you’ll see more of them—plus Cam—in books 3
& 4. Bonus—in book 3, you’ll also find out what Carroway’s
first name is!