D. T. Kane's Epic Fantasy Book Club

YouTube: https://youtu.be/lw2XyQC_XAA D. T. Kane reads chapter 9 of his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapter with his audience. http://dtkane.com If you’re enjoying the Acktus Trials, or have already read it, please consider taking a minute to leave a review. Reviews help authors by increasing the visibility of their books, which helps get them into the hands of more readers. Thank you for your support! Follow this link to leave a review: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B09QZ8MQ38 The Acktus Trials, an epic fantasy novel, available now: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/ Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/ Characters in this Chapter: Baztian (Baz): Our main character Rox: Deliritous’s Harbour (bodyguard) Deliritous: Baz’s master, heir to Torchsire Library Duke Octavinal: Deliritous’s father, leader of Torchsire Library Hellar Xavier: Reader, heir to Xavier Library, one of the competitors going on the Trials Trunnel: Hellar’s Speaker, an Influencer Arrow: Hellar’s Harbour Marla Kolnar: Nice of the Duchess of Kolnar Library, one of the competitors going on the Trials Ryle: Marla’s Harbour What’s D. T. Kane reading this week? The Eye of the World, By Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time, Book 1) Audio: https://amzn.to/3HiKKqw eBook: https://amzn.to/3Hit7Hw Print: https://amzn.to/3HhNvZs This week’s quote: “Freedom doesn’t mean you get to choose what happens to you. But you do get to choose how you react to it.” ― Stephen R. Donaldson, The One Tree Links to Book 1 of Stephen R. Donaldson’s Epic Fantasy Series, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever Audio: https://amzn.to/3hlbDQj eBook: https://amzn.to/3voq9ig Print: https://amzn.to/3IuGtld Disclosure: The links above are affiliate links. If you make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. I use these commissions to pay for overhead such as hosting and editing costs. Thank you for supporting my show! Below is a copy of my notes/script for this episode, not a verbatim transcription. PERSONAL UPDATE Today is February 24, 2022 as I record this, Episode 8. ANAYLIS CH. 9 Import of Trials It’s like a national holiday, though the sort of holiday the Hunger Gamers were in Pan Am. Libraries rise and fall based on the results of the Trials. The entire government is present, the Table of Ennea, as well as congregations from each of the nine Libraries and Illits to watch. Of course, Baz notes, they’re much less significant to him. Just another threat to his continued breathing. Erstwhile is built like a fortress Fifty foot walls thick enough for eight men to walk abreast, giant portcullis, and a killing ground. The Competitors Hellar has an Enforcer and Influencer with him. Harbour seems similar to Rox, though only an “above-average hill, rather than a towering mountain.

D. T. Kane reads chapter 8 of his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapter with his audience. http://dtkane.com If you’re enjoying the Acktus Trials, or have already read it, please consider taking a minute to leave a review. Reviews help authors by increasing the visibility of their books, which helps get them into the hands of more readers. Thank you for your support! Follow this link to leave a review: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B09QZ8MQ38 The Acktus Trials, an epic fantasy novel, available now: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/ Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/ Characters in this Chapter: Baztian (Baz): Our main character Leanna: Torchsire Library’s Librarian Rox: Deliritous’s Harbour (bodyguard) Deliritous: Baz’s master, heir to Torchsire Library Duke Octavinal: Deliritous’s father, leader of Torchsire Library Mentioned in this episode: The Infinite Wrench, improv play performed by the Neo Futurist Theatre Group in Chicago: https://neofuturists.org/events/theinfinitewrench/ What’s D. T. Kane reading this week? The Eye of the World, By Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time, Book 1) Audio: https://amzn.to/3HiKKqw eBook: https://amzn.to/3Hit7Hw Print: https://amzn.to/3HhNvZs This week’s quote: “Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book Audio: https://amzn.to/3HwtDS9 eBook: https://amzn.to/3HqImOA Print: https://amzn.to/3BV3JGG Disclosure: The links above are affiliate links. If you make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. I use these commissions to pay for overhead such as hosting and editing costs. Thank you for supporting my show! Below is a copy of my script/notes for the episode, not a verbatim transcription: PERSONAL UPDATE 120 pages into hand-written edits of Declaimer’s Flight (SB3) Cover for SB2 nearly ready! Cover reveal March 11; release date April 15. Preorder now! https://books2read.com/declaimersdiscovery Going to Chicago next week Couple of negative reviews last week tempered by a couple nice reviews of The Acktus Trials and the podcast. Bad reviews get me down more than good ones bring me up, but I’m pretty good at not letting it bother me too much. If you’d like to help me out, you can leave a review of The Acktus Trials wherever you buy your books, link in the show notes: https://books2read.com/theacktustrials , or rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts. ANAYLIS CH. 8 So the chapter opens and Torchsire Library is making final preparations for Deliritous to leave for the Trials. Baz is kind of just standing off to the side, trying to be inconspicuous. We see Deliritous’s father give him a new cloak,

D. T. Kane reads chapter 7 of his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapter with his audience. Home The Acktus Trials, an epic fantasy novel, available now: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/ Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/ Characters in this Chapter: Baztian (Baz): Our main character Leanna: Torchsire Library’s Librarian Gar: Old Retiree For those interested in the history of written language I brought up in this episode, check out the following Wikipedia articles: Linear B Syllabary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_B. “Linear B consists of around 87 syllabic signs and over 100 ideographic signs. These ideograms or “signifying” signs symbolize objects or commodities. They have no phonetic value and are never used as word signs in writing a sentence.” Phoenician Alphabet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet#Spread_and_adaptations. “The alphabet’s attractive innovation was its phonetic nature, in which one sound was represented by one symbol, which meant only a few dozen symbols to learn. The other scripts of the time, cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, employed many complex characters and required long professional training to achieve proficiency; which had restricted literacy to a small elite.” What I’m reading this week: Vlad Taltos, The Book of Jhereg, By Steven Brust (Audio: https://amzn.to/3sTCZCz eBook: https://amzn.to/3sv3q10) Silence of the Lambs, By Thomas Harris (Audio: https://amzn.to/3gIhdM4 eBook: https://amzn.to/3szeomi) (Narrated by Frank Muller, 1951-2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Muller) Disclosure: The links above are affiliate links. If you make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. I use these commissions to pay for overhead such as hosting and editing costs. Thank you for supporting my show! Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription. PERSONAL UPDATE February 17, 2022 as I record this. Nearly done with edits for Book 3 and Book 2, Declaimer’s Discovery cover is almost ready! Release date April 15 for Book 2. Started training for a half marathon in May Still reading same books as last week Names on screen during analysis Submit quest answers. There’s still time! ANAYLIS CH. 7 Leanna’s workshop Baz feels better just seeing her. Power of the Conservators–no new Books can be made because Speakers can’t write. Conservators hold power because they’re the next best thing to writing new Books, and they also have the secret to elemental ink. Leanna shows concern for Baz, which he appreciates. Obviously he doesn’t get that too often. But there’s clear conflict between them too. As Baz says, she’s “nestled into her place in society like everyone else.” When Baz suggests trying to get out of the Trials, she criticizes him for shirking his duty. We learn Leanna’s mother was a Speaker, which apparently isn’t uncommon. We haven’t seen how Speakers are discovered, but Baz notes that children are tested at a young age: those who prove to be Bound become Speakers, those who aren’t go to the Conservatory. Once again, we see a statue of a Book Dragon,

D. T. Kane reads chapters 5 and 6 of his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapter with his audience.  http://dtkane.comThe Acktus Trials, an epic fantasy novel, available now: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/ What I’m reading this week: Vlad Taltos, The Book of Jhereg, By Steven Brust (Audio: https://amzn.to/3sTCZCz eBook: https://amzn.to/3sv3q10) Silence of the Lambs, By Thomas Harris (Audio: https://amzn.to/3gIhdM4 eBook: https://amzn.to/3szeomi) (Narrated by Frank Muller, 1951-2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Muller)  Disclosure: The links above are affiliate links. If you make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. I use these commissions to pay for overhead such as hosting and editing costs. Thank you for supporting my show! Characters in this Chapter: Baztian (Baz): Our main characterDeliritous Torchsire: Baz’s master, heir to Torchsire LibraryRox: Deliritous’s Harbour (bodyguard)Duke Octavinal Torchsire: Deliritous’s father, head of Torchsire LibrarySalastair: Deliritous’s uncleTrivinal: Deliritous’s aunt Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription. PERSONAL UPDATE I’ve got my physical copy of the book, finally! I’m about halfway through with my handwritten edits to Part III and that’s going well. And I’m starting to stew over both the plot of Part IV, which I’ll be starting in a few weeks, and also potentially a short story set in Oration that I can give away to fans for free. If you have any ideas for that, let me know! On a note unrelated to my writing, I’m planning a trip to Chicago in a few weeks and looking forward to that. My wife and I love traveling but obviously with the pandemic that hasn’t been easy lately. Finally, I think I’m going to start occasionally sharing what I’m currently reading in my spare time, as that seems to relevant to a podcast that I call a book club. Vlad Taltos, The Book of Jhereg, By Steven Brust (Audio: https://amzn.to/3sTCZCz eBook: https://amzn.to/3sv3q10) Silence of the Lams, By Thomas Harris (Audio: https://amzn.to/3gIhdM4 eBook: https://amzn.to/3szeomi) (Narrated by Frank Muller, 1951-2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Muller)  ANAYLIS CHs. 5-6 Alright, let’s dive into our discussion of chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 Thanks (or lack thereof) We start off walking back to Torchsire from Xavier Library. We learn that Delida slapped Deliritous after his display of insensitivity at the end of chapter 4. And Baz knows that’s going to mean trouble for her. Deliritous, probably not surprisingly, isn’t particularly strict when it comes to discipline,

https://youtu.be/Zbea1WsWTc0 D. T. Kane reads chapter 4 of his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapter with his audience.  http://dtkane.comThe Acktus Trials, available now: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/ Braveheart Torturer: https://tenor.com/view/brave-heart-prisoner-torture-a-word-talk-gif-16415942 Characters in this Chapter: Baztian (Baz): Our main characterLeanna: Baz’s Conservator friend; Torchsire’s LibrarianHellar Xavier: Heir to Xavier Library, one of the competitors in the Acktus TrialsMarla Kolnar: Niece of the Duchess of Kolnar Library, one of the competitors in the Acktus TrialsDeliritous: Baz’s masterRox: Deliritous’s Harbour (bodyguard)Vintas: Torturer (Vicar) from the Conservatory The Three Scribes:Leamina FortuneHelfax ErstwhilePront vi Lextor Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription. PERSONAL UPDATE Welcome back to D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club. Today is DATE as I record this, episode 4. For my person update, it’s an exciting one for me, as this is the first podcast I’ve recorded since The Acktus Trials officially released. Releases are a bit exhausting, getting everything just right and uploaded to all the right places, and I had it doubly hard this time around because I released the podcast at the same time. But I have another book officially out in the world now. I’m eagerly awaiting my copy to come in the mail. One of my friends actually send me a photo in a text today that they’d already received their copy. Jealous! No one should get to see the book before the author does. But I guess that’s the world of print-on-demand books that we live in. A brief note about that, for those of you who don’t know. Authors don’t have to order boxes and boxes of physical books any more. Print on demand has cured that. Amazon and other places now print books one at a time. So if you were to go ahead and purchase one of my books in paperback, it doesn’t exist at the time you click Order. It’s printed once your order is placed, specially for you. ANAYLIS CH. 4 OK, so Ch. 4 picks up right where 3 ended, with Baz and Leanna talking about this Citiless that’s been captured, and other things. Citiless We’ll go a bit out of order here. Let’s talk about this Citiless first even though Baz and Leanna diverge slightly at the start of the chapter. Right off the bat, we learn that the “Table,” which is the government of Erstwhile, made up of one Duke or Duchess from each of the nine Libraries, has a standing order to kill any of these Citiless on sight. Apparently the Citiless, as Baz puts it, have “crazy stories about living Scribes and a return to the old ways.” Leanna clarifies that this means they advocate for a return to days where men could Read, Speak, and write new Spoken Books. This obviously disturbs Leanna, and shows why the Table has such a harsh standing order against them–they pretty much stand for the opposite of the Readers, right? The Readers don’t want anyone to be able to both Speak and Read. We saw what happened to poor Yeltax.

D. T. Kane reads chapter 3 of his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapter with his audience. http://dtkane.com Purchase The Acktus Trials: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/ Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/ Inspiration for the outside of the Conservatory, Bodleian Library, UK: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprodmigration%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F4154e115-713e-303a-a15f-2ad927668d62.jpg?crop=1500%2C1000%2C0%2C0 Inspiration for inside of the Conservatory, Biblioteca do Convento de Mafra, Mafra, Portugal: https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d1e315ebc0633e661ef2028dea1cd0507dd6c202/0_0_4134_3097/master/4134.jpg?width=1010&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=73f43b9248c47182862f76b8fe1e1d1e Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription. Welcome back! Hope you all enjoyed chapter 3. A quick personal update, then we’ll get into our discussion. PERSONAL UPDATE Declaimer’s Discovery, Part II of the Spoken Books Uprising, is still in the queue with my editor and I continue working away on my own edits to Declaimer’s Flight, Part III of the Spoken Books Uprising. We’ll be reading each of those together as well once we finish the Acktus Trials. Also, as I said last episode, by the time you listen to this, The Acktus Trials will be available for purchase, but as I record this, I’m in the midst of getting everything ready for release. It’s exciting, but also a bit overwhelming–there’s always one more thing to do, one more error in the manuscript, or one more box to check. I’m also going wide with this book and the whole series, meaning it will be available pretty much everywhere you can buy books, not just Amazon, so a lot goes into getting it setup in at the various retailers. I guess I’ll also spend just a minute discussing just why I decided to do this podcast. I want to be as open and honest as I reasonably can be with all of you, so obviously part of my motivation is to expand my reach so I can hopefully sell more of my books. And this, at least, is a way more fun way of marketing than running ads on Amazon and Facebook. But selling books isn’t my only goal here. I’ve thought long and hard about my writing. For a long time I was in denial about even putting pen to paper, or fingers to keys. Writing was something normal people do. But I’ve realized that’s a bad way to think about it. There probably are some truly blessed writers out there, who just churn out amazing prose without a second thought. But most successful writers don’t ride their talent to success, but their tenacity. Writing a book takes a long time, and most people simply can’t grind it out for the long haul. The fact is, I’d keep writing even if I never make a dime, because I have all these stories in my head and I want other people to hear them, even if they don’t have the money to buy my books. So that’s a big reason I’m doing this podcast.

D. T. Kane reads chapters 1 and 2 from his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapters with his audience. http://dtkane.com Purchase The Acktus Trials: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/ Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/ Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription. Welcome back to D. T. Kane’s epic fantasy book club. Today is January 22, 2022 as I record this. Hopefully you’re as eager as I am to discuss the two chapters we just read. I’ve got some great listener questions to go over as well, so let’s hop right in. Personal Update Before we get to the book, just a quick personal update. By the time this episode airs, The Acktus Trials, the novel we’re reading together right now, is available for purchase at most online retailers where you find books, both as an e-book and physical copy, so if you can’t wait for the next 20 or so episodes and need to find out what happens now, or you just want a copy so you can follow along with the podcast, you can get yourself one. As far as my current projects go, Part II of the Spoken Books Uprising is with my editor now, and I expect that to release by the end of March. More details to come on that, so stay tuned. I’ve also just finished my first round of edits on Part III. From there, my process is to print the whole thing out and do a round of edits with a red pen, then enter all those into the computer. Once that’s done, it goes to my editor. If everything says on schedule, Part III should release around midyear, so lots more reading for your enjoyment coming soon. For those interested, Part II is called Declaimer’s Discovery and Part III is called Declaimer’s Flight. And just full disclosure for those of you who are completionists out there, Part III is not the final part. I always try to tell a complete story in each of my books, but the larger story definitely goes on past Part III. ANALYSIS CH. 1 Tax and Baz Alright, let’s jump into our discussion of chapters 1 and 2. And if you have any suggestions for how I can structure our discussions differently in future weeks, definitely send them to me, [email protected]. I have a bunch of notes written down, organized into loose categories–I’m sure if you’re watching on YouTube that you’ll see me glancing off camera at them frequently. But really, I’m just waxing poetic about my own writing here, so I’m definitely happy to hear any suggestions from all of you out there listening. So last week I told you to specifically keep an eye on what the older brother—Yeltax or Tax for short—is teaching his younger brother—Baztian, or Baz for short.  A World Where Reading is a Super PowerNow, right off the bat, we have a rather odd admonition–“Reading Books can get you killed.” I know this technically isn’t the first line of the book, since we had a prologue, but it’s the first line of chapter 1, so it’s sort of the first line of the book. I try not to put too much stock in opening lines, but many folks are so obsessed with that flashy opening line it’s hard for me to completely disregard it. I like to think this is a pretty provocative one, and it really speaks to my concept for this novel and really the whole series.This gets us into our first listener question. Linda from New York writes: “D. T.,

The inaugural episode of D. T. Kane's Epic Fantasy Book Club! Each week, he reads from one of his novels and discusses that episode's reading with his listeners. It's like a book club, except he does all the work for you! www.dtkane.com Purchase The Acktus Trials: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/ Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/