Primal Patterns Series Info
August 19, 2011 4 Comments
The release of the first novel of the Primal Patterns series is coming up on September 1st, and reviewers are already taking a look at the advanced review copies and posting sneak peaks. For readers curious about the setting of this series, allow me to give some ideas about what this book has going on under the covers.
First, the foundations of the Primal Patterns series are complex universes that interact in a traditional type 4 multiverse but with a primal pattern universe projecting other universes. As Charles notes in his review, this approach has similarities to Roger Zelazny’s Amber series in that there are multiple primal patterns that interact, but in the Primal Patterns series, these universes have vastly different properties (like the magnitude of the constant that informs the limit of the speed of light), which cause differences in time flow, for instance. This causes interesting problems for universes that operate slower than rivals, since military training and other activities take much longer. Zelazny’s Amber series begins with only two primals: Order and Chaos. These later expand to three. In the Primal Patterns series there are three known primals at the beginning (and we become aware of an additional nine), and there are huge differences in the types of immortals that populate the projection of the primals that the first novel occurs in. The overall situation and flow of the series will change by the end of the third book, but that’s not a bad thing, I hope.
The similarities with Zelazny’s worlds are not necessarily intentional though I do offer homage to some of his concepts and events. Order and Chaos are common themes, but angels, demons, elves, and goblins are definitely not the bread and butter of Amber. The ultimate motivator for the Primal Patterns series would be more Plato’s Forms than Chaos and Order. Actually, the Hall of Souls can even be thought of as a mechanism for the Forms for denizens of Order, but I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise here. The religious messages in this series are an undertone, even if the title would seem to suggest otherwise. Angels and demons exist, and one came from the other. Jehovah did not create everything, but he has emergently created everything that you or I would care about, and we choose him over the demons and the elves.
Anyway, I hope others enjoy the journey we are taking together half as much as I enjoyed writing it!
As a result of the review on eBookworm.us, I plan on adding the following Author’s Note to the book to prepare the reader for the first book. What are your thoughts?
Author’s Note
This book is about a war between angels and demons but with a different premise and origin story. Angels were once demons, and Jehovah has created a truly unique universe for humanity and his other creations to thrive in and ultimately be reborn into, instead of being placed permanently into heaven- or hell-based eternities. As a reflection of some of our current Earthly religions, this god prefers his creations to those in the rest of the multiverse. And so the saga begins …
Just to be nit-picky: the Amber series started out with two primal patterns, but by the end of book #5 it also had 3 patterns. 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood Zelazny junkie.
I’ll add a note that it expanded to three. During Lucifer’s Odyssey, the reader will become aware that the number of primals shrank from eleven to two, due to Chaos, and then grew to three with Order. But just as Dworkin of Amber came from Chaos, Archimedes had a birthplace too. Which means there will be prequels, but I had to start the story somewhere!
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