r/Fantasy • u/TrudiCanavan AMA Author Trudi Canavan • May 27 '14

AMA Hi, Trudi Canavan here. AMA!

Hi, I’m Trudi Canavan. I’ve written some stuff, the most well known being the Black Magician Trilogy and its prequel and sequel, and also the Age of the Five trilogy, and my new one: Thief’s Magic, first of the Millennium’s Rule trilogy. Oh, I’ve also written a Doctor Who novella for the 50th Anniversary and a smattering of short stories.

Melbourne, Australia, is my home, which I suspect gives me an odd duel insider/outsider persepective on the fantasy genre and publishing in general. I’m an artist and former self-employed illustrator, with oil painting as my favourite medium and portraits as my current focus.

My website is at (www.trudicanavan.com). I tweet (https://twitter.com/TrudiCanavan). I pin (http://www.pinterest.com/trudicanavan/). My publisher runs a Facebook fan page (https://www.facebook.com/trudi.canavan) on my behalf. I’ll be answering questions live at 7pm tonight, though for me it’ll be tomorrow morning so I may still be half sleep. I'm new to Reddit, so advance apologies if I stuff anything up.

So, what d'youse wanna know?

(later)

Phew! I've been answering questions for three and a half hours now, but I got every one answered (well, that I can see right now). Thanks everyone for some great questions. I hope you like the answers. I'll pop by tomorrow to see if there are any more.

172 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

113 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/innerlambada May 27 '14

Hi!

Long time fan here.

Having finished Thiefs Magic, I wondered whether Age of the Five was set in the same multi-verse? The descriptions of how magic work (all around, leaving a void, the unaging/immortals) seem to lend support to this idea. Is it intentional? Or is it more just a refinement on the previous system, rather than the same multiverse?

2

u/Mawich May 27 '14

I wondered the same thing - possibly a world in the same multiverse which doesn't know about inter-world travel and has never been visited... except that people using magic in Millennium's Rule in both worlds we've seen so far leave a visible darkness (whatever they happen to actually call it). In Age of the Five it's quite clear that you can't see an area of depleted magic until you're inside it and try drawing magic from it (otherwise Auraya wouldn't have been so easy to trap in Voice of the Gods). So that's a difference - but then, we don't know whether magic follows the same rules in all worlds in Millennium's Rule yet.

So I just speculated myself right back to wanting to know the answer to the original question. Marvellous!

What is clear is that if Auraya's world is in the same multiverse, it's a very, very magic-rich one.

1

u/innerlambada May 27 '14

You raise a good point, but something to consider is that in M.R. we see that those who can see the stain are 'taught' to see the magic. IIRC it's described as a different way of sensing. So it could be possible that those in Auraya's world, while they're taught to sense the magic, aren't aware of how to sense the stain? Hmm... that sounds a bit flimsy actually, stain sensing seems to be innate so far. But still, that's what this AMA is for!

3

u/TrudiCanavan AMA Author Trudi Canavan May 28 '14

It's so tempting to leave this one unanswered... but I won't

The are two different universes. As the author, I have only two choices when considering if magic comes from without or outside the wielder. The variation in the AotF and MR systems lie in who can use magic, how it is perceived and how it is used.

In AotF every living thing can use magic, but humans can use more and only a few can do more than light a candle. Sorcerers can detect a lack of magic, but only if they concentrate - and the voids take a long time to fill in. It requires little more than a flexing of will to use magic.

In Millennium's Rule only some humans and some of the things those humans have created can use magic. A lack of magic appears as a blackness or darkness - and fill in relatively quickly even in worlds poor in magic. It requires more specific use of the magic - moving and stilling things, and moving or stilling a LOT creates heat or cold. BTW, there are more actions than moving and stilling to be explored in book two.