Soul of the World - the Ascension Cycle

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lindz

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SOUL OF THE WORLD releases June 27th 2017 - Soul of the World (The Ascension Cycle): David Mealing: 9780316552332: Amazon.com: Books

Three lines of magic must be conquered and three heroes must rise in the first book of this epic fantasy trilogy for fans of Mistborn and The Name of the Wind!

It is a time of revolution. In the cities, food shortages stir citizens to riots against the crown. In the wilds, new magic threatens the dominance of the tribes. and on the battlefields, even the most brilliant commanders struggle in the shadow of total war. Three lines of magic must be mastered in order to usher in a new age, and three heroes must emerge.

Sarine is an artist on the streets of New Sarresant whose secret familiar helps her uncover bloodlust and madness where she expected only revolutionary fervor.

Arak'Jur wields the power of beasts to keep his people safe, but his strength cannot protect them from war amongst themselves.

Erris is a brilliant cavalry officer trying to defend New Sarresant from an enemy general armed with magic she barely understands.

Each must learn the secrets of their power in time to guide their people through ruin. But a greater evil may be trying to stop them.



___

Some of you might know from the grown up forum that my husband has been working on a novel for close to a year now. He's reaching the final stages and is looking for a few beta readers before submitting to agents. I thought I'd help him out by looking for volunteers since most of us here are great examples of his target audience.

What we're looking for are people that can commit to reading and giving feedback on a 220,000 word epic fantasy novel each week over the next month, people that are familiar with and enjoy the genre and people that are comfortable giving detailed feedback.

The novel is a gunpowder-era epic fantasy story with three POV characters: an artist, a cavalry officer, and a tribal warrior. It deals with enlightenment philosophy ideas - freedom, equality, etc used to justify a bloody revolution, with a meta-plot of "ancient evil pulling the strings" while the heroes try to piece together what's really going on.

It's divided into four parts, with about 200-240 pages per part. Each week, I'll send one part and a list of the sort of feedback he is looking for. I can deliver it as a pdf or whatever format works best. Feedback should be honest, both positive and negative. You'll answer questions like:

  • In general, what do you think is working?
  • In general, what do you think isn't working?
  • Which characters do you find strong? (& why?)
  • Which characters do you find weak? (& why?)
  • Are there any scenes you think are particularly well-written, engaging, or contributing to the story?
  • Are there any scenes you think are poorly written, difficult to connect with, or detracting from/unnecessary to the story?
  • What do you think of the world?
  • What do you think of the magic/fantasy conceits?

He is not looking for copyediting or mechanical/grammatical problems unless they are significant enough to inhibit understanding of a scene or a character arc (this stuff is too time-consuming and *hopefully* will be caught in the final polishing steps during rewrites after beta feedback).

If you're interested and have the time to spare, please send me a PM.

Thanks a bunch!
 
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lindz

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I just wanted to thank everyone that volunteered and for the great feedback we've gotten back already. Part 2 is ready to send as soon as you guys are ready.
 
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a_skeleton_03

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Soul of the World (The Ascension Cycle) will be auto-delivered wirelessly to your Kindle on June 27, 2017.
 
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Void

Experiencer
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Unfortunately my post got lost in the drive failure. TL;DR I participated in the beta reading and was really impressed by the early draft, and purchased the pre-order immediately as well.

Typically I hate "gunpowder era" AND "tribal warriors" in fantasy settings, but I really enjoyed this book. And, the tribal warrior, Arak'Jur, was far and away my favorite character in the book. His powers were depicted completely differently than any other book I've read, much more akin to a video game or MMO, but in a way that completely made sense and didn't come off as silly. As soon as I read his powers in action I realized that I had been waiting for this kind of "magic system" for decades. In fact, the males have one type of system and the females have another, and while distinct they make complete sense together. The two main tribal characters (Arak'Jur and a particular female) were so interesting to me that I'd be happy with an entire novel just about their society and magic. In this book, they are only roughly a third of the story, so you get two other completely different power-sets and cultures, etc. too.

Anyway, can't recommend it enough, and I'm super-thrilled to see that I won't have to wait years to read more about the world and the overarching story.
 
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Sharinel

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I've not disliked any recommendations from anyone on this forum, so......
Soul of the World: Book One of the Ascension Cycle will be auto-delivered wirelessly to your Kindle on 29 Jun 2017
 
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Hateyou

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I haven't bought a physical book in years. I'll pick it up to support FOH wife, although no tits were delivered, I'd like a new fantasy book. Haven't read in a while. Actually, do you get more cash from a physical sale or digital? I prefer the kindle these days, but do either.

Hope it does well, good luck!
 
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slippery

<Bronze Donator>
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I haven't bought a physical book in years. I'll pick it up to support FOH wife, although no tits were delivered, I'd like a new fantasy book. Haven't read in a while. Actually, do you get more cash from a physical sale or digital? I prefer the kindle these days, but do either.

Hope it does well, good luck!
I'm actually curious of this as well, though I'll probably just pick up the kindle version if I remember
 
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lindz

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Basically, print is going to make the author more money.

Royalty rates for an e-book is 25% of net whereas for the physical copy, it's going to be around 8% of list price for the trade paperback. If you want to get technical and all that jazz.
 

faille

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Good luck with the launch! Might be worth Renaming this thread or making a new one so people so miss out on hearing about it
 
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Srathor

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Bought it as well. Will review when it is released. Good luck!
 
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Janx

<Silver Donator>
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Just got done reading it. Great book. I did feel like there was something lost with the char focus changing as often as it did but in the end was only a minor issue for me. Can't wait for the rest of the series.