The Grand Illusion
Last of the First has been received very well by readers, and for that I’m personally and professionally very pleased. But there are a few readers who were disappointed by the ending, feeling that it was thin and that they wanted more.
What might be the difference between these readers and most of my readers?
As with all novels, it’s a matter of expectation. Some multiple books about a single character build to an end in a way, in reader hindsight, that it seems it really couldn’t have happened otherwise. That was what I was writing.
In others, there are fights and struggles, sudden betrayals, and the reader is never quite sure who will end up on top and how. For readers who expect absolute uncertainty until the last chapter or even the last page, I can see why Last of the First left them not quite fulfilled.
The four books about Alyiakal show the methodical rise of a mage who is also very deliberate and thoughtful, more so with each book. What Alyiakal does from the beginning is to develop not only his skills, but the skills of all those around him, even when it may not benefit him immediately or ever, knowing that his success not only depends on his abilities, but on those of his men, and equally important, on the trust of his men in him, as well as the trust of his superiors, and their superiors. He also operates always in the long-term best interests of the Mirror Lancers, and he never aspired to where he ended up, but accepted his fate because it was his duty.
Saelora operates in much the same fashion, avoiding pettiness and back-biting, and developing a trading house relying on a structure again built on ability and trust.
By supporting Laartol and cultivating allies all across the Mirror Lancers, by the time Alyiakal is posted to Cyad, there are only a handful of individuals who pose a real threat – provided Alyiakal handles matters thoughtfully and with care, because nothing is certain until it is.
There’s nothing wrong with either kind of ending, but I felt the structure and ending I wrote was best for Alyiakal, especially given how history views him.
Last of the First was a solid pay-off for 4 books, I’m glad I bought it in hardback. It left me wondering if we’ll be seeing more Alyiakal, maybe from someone else’s perspective? It feels like you’ve left room for an additional story about his daughter if you wanted to continue in that era, much like how Beltur’s story led into Taelya’s.
In this age where narcissism is only too able to flourish, characters who want to improve everyone around them are so enjoyable to spend time with. Thank you!!
Alyiakal makes sense in his depiction later on as the ultimate in deliberate clear eyed long term thinking – he never hesitates when he sees a chance to stop a future threat. He’s far more ruthless than Lorn, but also surprisingly less exposed to the wider political landscape, probably because the nation is less calcified by tradition in his time. I found his ending very apt – the same clear eyed planning will set the empire up well, but also be the sort of things plotting types are desperate to avoid more of.
It feels an appropriate time to ask – the quote on the frieze – Ad aspera per astra – intentionally reversing the order to imply the struggles of the initial colonists?
Also I’m now curious – was the world inhabited prior to the rationalists colonising it? I always assumed from The Chaos Balance that they’d terraformed over the top of the existing flora, and everyone ultimately descended from them, but it seems in this one that while there were a number of splinter groups, the rationalists only really ever colonised Cyador.
The prepositions are what’s reversed so the meaning would roughly be “to hardships through the stars,” which definitely describes what faces the rationalist colonists.
The rationalists transformed a section of the world, and I’ll leave it at that.
… and leaving me still thinking about The Great/Accursed Forest effect on my mind.
Well, given that we knew from the beginning that Alyiakal was going to be Emporer – ever since Lorn was compared to him – not sure that there was ever much chance of introducing jeopardy!
Yeah, that’s something I don’t get. The way Recluce (and for that matter Imager and Corean) are written we know a LOT and we’re getting to see not WHAT happens but HOW it happens and I find that fascinating.
“…. disappointed by the ending, feeling that it was thin and that they wanted more .…
…. operates always in the long-term best interests ….”
I thought the ending had a message.
Finishing “Last of the First” made me wish every civil servant would read this four-book series—From the Forest, Overcaptain, Sub-Majer’s Challenge, and Last of the First—and look to Alyiakal as an inspiring role model.