Kevin's Watch

From the GI:

Drew(drew): Easy one today.
When you wrote the Second Chronicles, you were planning it to be four books...what was the other title?
I don't remember. Doubtless the answer exists somewhere in my files, but I'm not going to spend an hour trying to dig it out. But I can tell you this: *none* of the present titles is my original title. If memory serves (which it often doesn't, so don't quote me), I planned the story with four one-word titles, of which the first was "Sunbane". (Were they all words that started with "s"? I *think* so.) I came up with the present titles when Lester del Rey informed me that he was going to publish the story as a trilogy--and that none of my one-word titles was acceptable.
(04/30/2008)

Interesting... let's speculate...

Sunbane
Sea?
Sandhold?
Stillness?
Sandgorgon?

Sarangrave
Satansfist / Sheol
Sun-Sage

In the Gradual Interview, Donaldson wrote:I *think* (but I could be wrong) they were all one word titles. One definitely was "Sunbane." Another may have been "Seaquest."

(10/03/2004)

I'm going with Sunbane, Seaquest, Sandhold, Sun-Sage.

If it's any help:

In the Gradual Interview, Donaldson wrote:If you look at "The Wounded Land" and "The One Tree," you'll see that each is divided into three parts. But "White Gold Wielder" is in two parts. That makes a total of eight. If I had been allowed to make the decision, I would have ended the first book after the soothtell in Revelstone, the second after the escape from the Elohim, and the third after the sinking of the Isle of the One Tree. But, as I say, my story remained the same: Lester merely insisted on a 3-3-2 trilogy instead of a 2-2-2-2 tetralogy.

(04/14/2004)

Good guesses!

Meh, I like the titles we have now better.

Wasn't Seaquest a really crappy tv show? Give Lester some credit, he knew what he was doing.

Sunbane, Search, Sacrifice, Sunsage?

Book One: Sunbane
Book Two: Sunbirth Sea
Book Three: Sun-Sage

I wonder if I can do the whole initially planned four books with Sun*-titles?

1. Sunbane
2. Sunbirth
3. Sunking
4. Sunsage

I got Sunking from the Black Sun symbol of Brathairealm. Though, I suppose the name is far too Ludwig XIV... Thinking of other options... Sunfort? Sunstone? Sunsand? Sunrealm? Sunjail (what Sandgorgons' Doom might have been called in an unlucky alternate reality)? Sundark? Sunland? Sunspell? Suncircle? Sundiver (just joking - wrong series)? Suntree (sounds very similar to One Tree and the tiny stars SFX we saw is really a tiny distant suns SFX)? Sungyre? Sunbeast? Sunset? (Thinking in writing can lead to lots of unintentional funniness.)

I like Suncircle (to the degree that I like any of the titles here, which isn't much) even if it has one more syllable that it symmetrically ought to.

But what if Sunbirth is the third book and not the second?

1. Sunbane
2. Sunfolk
3. Sunbirth
4. Sunsage

Stars, suns, it's only a matter of viewing distance, and the Elohim have an obvious star connection.

Sunbane
Search
Sea-Harm (IIRC that's the name of one of the chapters)
Sun-Sage

Nerdanel wrote:I wonder if I can do the whole initially planned four books with Sun*-titles?

1. Sunbane
2. Sunbirth
3. Sunking
4. Sunsage

If you're thinking of the Isle of the One Tree, that's rather Sinking...