The Great Bazaar and Other Stories by Peter V. Brett
Authors: Peter V. Brett
Tags: Fantasy
Ads: Link
Introduction
Every novel is a learning process
for the author, and The Warded Man (AKA The Painted Man in the
UK) was no different. It was a real challenge, keeping the story moving along
quickly with page-turning "what happens next?" tension, despite the
book being close to 450 pages and spanning 14 years in the lives of three
separate characters. Part of the process was learning when, for the greater
good, to cut out scenes I'd already written (even when I loved them). A more
important part of it was learning to look ahead and not write some of those
scenes in the first place.
The Great
Bazaar was one of the latter. It is essentially chapter 16.5 of The
Warded Man , taking place during the 3 year gap between Chapters 16 and 17,
when Arlen is working as a Messenger traveling throughout the Free Cities.
This was an
exciting, adventure-filled period in Arlen's life, and a very fertile spawning
ground for short stories about him traveling from town to town, touching the
lives of different people living behind the wards.
Like Caine in Kung
Fu.
I have a lot of
story ideas for those three years, but there wasn't space to include all of
them in The Warded Man, and even if there had been, it would have robbed
Arlen's race towards destiny of all its immediacy. So I decided to skip those
side stories and get to them some other time, putting Arlen, at the beginning
of Chapter 17 (Ruins), at the end of a long series of adventures, lightly
sketched for the reader, wherein he became worldly, and culminating in him
finding the lost city of Anoch Sun, the next true turning point in his life.
Some of those
adventures will be told in upcoming novels, but the tale of how Arlen found the
lost city itself was too big and self-contained to fit in that format, and I am
excited to be able to present it here.
The Great
Bazaar shows everything I love about Arlen, and showcases one of my
favorite supporting characters, Abban the khaffit, with his own point of
view for the first time. Whether you are a new reader interested in an
introduction to Arlen's world, or a fan of the series looking for an appetizer
before the second book, The Desert Spear , publishes in April 2010, I
think you'll enjoy it.
Peter V. Brett
July 2009
w ww.petervbrett.com
The Great Bazaar
328AR
Sunlight was heavy in
the desert. More than heat or brightness, it was an oppressive weight, and
Arlen kept finding himself hunching over as if to yield before it.
He was riding through
the outskirts of the Krasian Desert, where there was nothing but cracked flats
of dry clay as far as the eye could see in any direction. Nothing to provide
shade or reflect heat. Nothing to sustain life.
Nothing to make
a sane person wander out here, Arlen scolded himself, nevertheless
straightening his back in defiance of the sun. He had a thin white robe on over
his clothes, the hood pulled low over his eyes, and a veil over his mouth and
nose. The cloth reflected some of the light, but it seemed scant protection. He
had even slung a white sheet over his horse, a bay courser named Dawn Runner.
The horse gave a
dry cough, attempting to dislodge the ever-present dust from its throat.
"I'm thirsty
too, Dawn," Arlen said, stroking the horse's neck, "but we've used
our water ration for the morning, so there's nothing for it but to
endure."
Arlen reached
again for Abban's map. The compass slung around his neck told him that they
were still headed due east, but there was no sign of the canyon. It should have
come in sight a day ago, and harsh rationing or no, they would have to turn
back to Fort Krasia in another day if they did not reach the river and find
water.
Or you could
spare yourself a day of thirst and turn back now , a voice in his head said.
The voice was
always telling him to turn back. Arlen thought of it as his father, the
lingering presence of a man he hadn't seen in close to a decade. Its words were
always the stern-sounding bits of wisdom that his father had liked to
Every novel is a learning process
for the author, and The Warded Man (AKA The Painted Man in the
UK) was no different. It was a real challenge, keeping the story moving along
quickly with page-turning "what happens next?" tension, despite the
book being close to 450 pages and spanning 14 years in the lives of three
separate characters. Part of the process was learning when, for the greater
good, to cut out scenes I'd already written (even when I loved them). A more
important part of it was learning to look ahead and not write some of those
scenes in the first place.
The Great
Bazaar was one of the latter. It is essentially chapter 16.5 of The
Warded Man , taking place during the 3 year gap between Chapters 16 and 17,
when Arlen is working as a Messenger traveling throughout the Free Cities.
This was an
exciting, adventure-filled period in Arlen's life, and a very fertile spawning
ground for short stories about him traveling from town to town, touching the
lives of different people living behind the wards.
Like Caine in Kung
Fu.
I have a lot of
story ideas for those three years, but there wasn't space to include all of
them in The Warded Man, and even if there had been, it would have robbed
Arlen's race towards destiny of all its immediacy. So I decided to skip those
side stories and get to them some other time, putting Arlen, at the beginning
of Chapter 17 (Ruins), at the end of a long series of adventures, lightly
sketched for the reader, wherein he became worldly, and culminating in him
finding the lost city of Anoch Sun, the next true turning point in his life.
Some of those
adventures will be told in upcoming novels, but the tale of how Arlen found the
lost city itself was too big and self-contained to fit in that format, and I am
excited to be able to present it here.
The Great
Bazaar shows everything I love about Arlen, and showcases one of my
favorite supporting characters, Abban the khaffit, with his own point of
view for the first time. Whether you are a new reader interested in an
introduction to Arlen's world, or a fan of the series looking for an appetizer
before the second book, The Desert Spear , publishes in April 2010, I
think you'll enjoy it.
Peter V. Brett
July 2009
w ww.petervbrett.com
The Great Bazaar
328AR
Sunlight was heavy in
the desert. More than heat or brightness, it was an oppressive weight, and
Arlen kept finding himself hunching over as if to yield before it.
He was riding through
the outskirts of the Krasian Desert, where there was nothing but cracked flats
of dry clay as far as the eye could see in any direction. Nothing to provide
shade or reflect heat. Nothing to sustain life.
Nothing to make
a sane person wander out here, Arlen scolded himself, nevertheless
straightening his back in defiance of the sun. He had a thin white robe on over
his clothes, the hood pulled low over his eyes, and a veil over his mouth and
nose. The cloth reflected some of the light, but it seemed scant protection. He
had even slung a white sheet over his horse, a bay courser named Dawn Runner.
The horse gave a
dry cough, attempting to dislodge the ever-present dust from its throat.
"I'm thirsty
too, Dawn," Arlen said, stroking the horse's neck, "but we've used
our water ration for the morning, so there's nothing for it but to
endure."
Arlen reached
again for Abban's map. The compass slung around his neck told him that they
were still headed due east, but there was no sign of the canyon. It should have
come in sight a day ago, and harsh rationing or no, they would have to turn
back to Fort Krasia in another day if they did not reach the river and find
water.
Or you could
spare yourself a day of thirst and turn back now , a voice in his head said.
The voice was
always telling him to turn back. Arlen thought of it as his father, the
lingering presence of a man he hadn't seen in close to a decade. Its words were
always the stern-sounding bits of wisdom that his father had liked to
Similar Books
