Kevin's Watch

The Chronicles Of The Old High Lords

I Berek Heartthew
II Damelon Giantfriend
III Loric Vilesilencer
IV Kevin Landwaster


Has anyone else here ever wondered?

I personally would LOVE to hear those stories - but it's not going to happen.

SRD has said he won't be writing any prequels, so any prequels will belong to the fanfic department. In fact I have started a story about Kevin, probably the easiest of the bunch, but don't expect it finished any time soon, as not only I'm a slow writer with real life distractions, but the story is ballooning quite a bit (but not near novel length) and my current re-read of the Chronicles has already revealed some things I need to change to fit the known facts.

Then there is the problem of further Last Chronicles. I have a feeling that we are going to get new knowledge about matters relating to the Old Lords. We already got some quite important and surprising info in Runes that is sure to feature in my story.

To be frank, I prefer not having SRD write prequels. I'd rather he used his skill in plotting to make up stories whose endings we don't know.

I want the Lost Years of Caer-Caveral. From his hopeless, obstinate rebellion as an apprentice to his hopeless, obstinate defense of Andelain, Caer-Caveral's tale is one of beauty, woe, and hopeless obstinacy.

*sheds a single perfect tear*

The Adventures of Amok would be cool, too. That guy got around, eh? I REALLY want to see him pissing off the Elohim, and laughing as they try to slap or imprison him.

Fist and Faith wrote:The Adventures of Amok would be cool, too. That guy got around, eh? I REALLY want to see him pissing off the Elohim, and laughing as they try to slap or imprison him.

Thatt would be ace, personally i'd like the Giants in there homeland.

I can understand why SRD doesn't want to do prequills...
I mean If you read the life story of Berek..I mean He's add some good stuff into, But you'd already know the major points..it wouldn't be very shocking to read about how he called down the Fire Lions.
It wouldn't really be a page turner when he set off looking for the One Tree (i wonder if he found it?)

I think that's the reason why he won't do them...we already know most of the stories.

_plus if there were any discrepencies..he'd be bombarded by people like us who would be going through the sotries with fine toothed combs.

drew wrote:I think that's the reason why he won't do them...we already know most of the stories.

Indeed, and SRD seems to like the unexpected.

Indeed. Everyone has thought about this... but like others have said: it's not going to happen.

he'd be bombarded by people like us who would be going through the sotries with fine toothed combs.

<looks around> Who - us?

<looks around> Who - us?

*koff* I would like to go on record as faithfully promising NOT to bombard, should SDR ever flirt with the idea of prequels.

Hey, dreaming is free, according to Deborah Harry.

drew wrote:I can understand why SRD doesn't want to do prequills...
I mean If you read the life story of Berek..I mean He's add some good stuff into, But you'd already know the major points..it wouldn't be very shocking to read about how he called down the Fire Lions.
It wouldn't really be a page turner when he set off looking for the One Tree (i wonder if he found it?)

I don't know if that's necessarily true. Sure, prequels don't have as much suspense as the books that come later, but they have their, different value. We know Berek finds the One Tree, makes the Staff of Law, and calls Fire Lions, but we don't what he went through between those. We don't know what sort of person he was. Sure, if a TCTC prequel were ever written (which it won't) it would not have the suspense of wondering how it was going to end, but it would still be a fascinating read. Essentially, we know what happens but we don't fully know how and why it happened.

But as many have pointed out, SRD doesn't like prequels so the Chronicles of Berek Halfhand will forever exist merely in our hopes and dreams.

Prom_STar wrote:But as many have pointed out, SRD doesn't like prequels so the Chronicles of Berek Halfhand will forever exist merely in our hopes and dreams.

Dreams I can see, but where does the hope part scome in?

The only possible way a set of prequels will ever be written is if people are still reading and buying TC books when SRD has been dead long enough for the series to go out of copyright. Even if he were to die today, which God forbid, we'd have to wait 70 years. And somehow I think fantasy readers will have other things on their minds 70 years from now. I certainly plan to.

For my part, I think fascinating reads would be short stories, rather than novels, that would expose to the Legion of Fans insights into how some of these legendary figures started on their paths, before their great deeds were even a "glimmer in their eyes", to borrow a turn of phrase.

As a youth, what set Berek on the path to Lordship?
How did Loric become aware of the power within himself?
How did the Ravers become so? What mean deeds did they perpetrate upon the Land, its forests, and its people prior to their servitude to the Despiser that would have caused him to take notice of them?
The Sarangrave Flat - how many short story adventures could be created around such malevolence...swift stories full of heavy blows and hideous fates that would not necessarily have an impact on the central themes of the Land, but rather would serve to amplify the insidious horror of that place?

I could gobble up stories like that forever!!

(slavering, slobbering, swallowing)

The Seventh Ward

How about "The Giantish Chronicles"

I don't have a problem with the idea of prequels. I'm rereading the first 2 chronicles now (on TWGW), and I know the ending, but I'm still fascinated. Surprise is overrated. Surprise is a gimmick, really, that can't be repeated. If a series can only be good if you don't know the end, then rereading it would be pointless.

Maybe SRD feels that a prequel would be a sell-out, that it would be "mining" his creation solely for monetary reasons. And there are the Star Wars prequels that have spoiled the idea of "prequel" for everyone. But think about the great prequels out there that we have all enjoyed. Would anyone say that the Silmarillion was pointless just because we all knew that the First Age came to an end? That Morgoth was defeated? That Earendil sailed into the West and later into the heavens? That Beren and Luthien ended tragically? No! A surprise ending is a pitiful excuse--in my opinion--for withholding an interesting story from people who would love to read it. In fact, I think that revisiting something that we THINK we know, and shedding new light on it, would be fascinating.

But that's probably what he's going to do with the Last Chronicles, which would eliminate the need for prequels anyway.

I did put a reply in this thread the other day but I think it got deleted with all the problems on the site.
SRD has said that he just has no interest in writing prequels, but if he was interested, he doesn't have enough raw material available to create the story (ies).

He said that he only creates as much 'history' as he needs to write the current story so he doesn't actually have all the info himself! I guess in that respect writing Covenant prequels would actually be a challenge!

I like the mental challenge in trying to think up a prequel plot. We know several important details including the basic ending, and the actual story needs to be constructed to fit them. I think I have came up with some more or less original angles to some things in my Kevin story, but that story remains far from being finished.

As an example of what can be done in a prequel, I think an interesting basis for a story would be how the EarthBlood was first discovered and what sort of events happened before its nature was discerned and, presumably, Damelon made his door. I can see some unlucky person drinking EathBlood and making something radical happen. I don't know what the wish would be, but almost anything would be likely to cause problems. Damelon may well have made the powerful magic of Damelon's door with EarthBlood, and that along with Kevin's reluctance of using EarthBlood against Lord Foul may indicate that something fairly serious happened. I have no such story in the works, so this is just an example of the existing opportunities.

I agree any prequel would be interesting and am thinking about attempting one of my own if I can only organise myself a bit! It would involve a lot of re-reading the chronicles I think.

[The following post should probably be avoided by real storytellers]

I think what is stopping SRD from embracing prequels is that he's a writer.
And writers have this stupid tendancy to want to write a story.
A beginning, character developement, plot and more crap like that.
Oh, and to be original too.
These are all noble ideas but, damn-it!, we want *MORE* Land stuff!!
Timelines, histories, geography detail detail detail........
Like, what do ur-Viles eat?
I don't think Donaldson cares, the bastard!
He's probably thinking "how can this info be revelant to the story?"
Which is totally the wrong way to think about it.

Plus there's that annoying common problem that knowing the details ruins the mystery and joy of the imagination.
But I'm not familiar with this idea myself.