Today Chrysoula Tzavelas joins us to talk about her new novel, Citadel of the Sky. Here is the publisher’s description:
A Dark Lord is rising. Again. But hey, that’s what the royal family is for, right? Kicking butt in nice dresses: a new epic tradition.
Her (not very) Serene Highness Princess Tiana tries her best not to think about the dark lords ravaging her country or how the magic in her bloodline makes her family go mad. The descendant of a legendary hero, she prefers bringing the myths of old to life on the theater stage, not on the battlefield.
Then a rash of suspicious deaths strikes the Regents—trusted advisors, friends, and guides to her troubled royal family—and the Noble’s Council tries to cover it all up. Tiana is determined to get to the bottom of the murders and the conspiracy, even if that means making a dangerous pact with a telepathic demon trapped in a magical sword. But he may just be the edge she needs to save the people she loves.
Cursed sword in hand, Tiana and her friends prepare to face the encroaching darkness—and the ultimate truth about her and her family.
So what’s Chrysoula’s favorite bit?
The magic. It’s one of my favorite bits–or perhaps I should say it’s a few of my favorite bits. I love that the world of Citadel of the Sky has multiple forms of magic, some of which are completely unconnected but all of which draw on my geek experiences.
The first family of magic is the Royal Blood magic, and it has three components: the phantasmagory, the emanations, and the eidolons.
The phantasmagory is communication magic. The Royal Blood can touch each others’ minds and share their dreams and when they’re gone, those dreams linger. Where? How? A mystery of the setting! But I can say that I was definitely inspired by elements of the Internet in crafting this fantasy world. It distracts them away from real life, provides a distancing filter on near events, lets them talk to others far away, and, like the Internet, it has a history that lingers, waiting to be discovered.
Down she went, through layers of the phantasmagory. It was like before, like after Tomas’s funeral: she was descending through history. Its strata passed her by, each one made of layered memories and dreams. Sometimes they could merge into something new and cohesive, something almost alive.
The next two magics are closely intermingled. Emanations are, simply, telekinesis with a sense of touch. My protagonist uses emanations to move things, sense things and levitate. I spent a fair amount of time watching Magneto in X-Men when writing her magic use. I love Magneto.
She extended her hand like a blade, and this time the emanation that she sent out was not pressure, but an edge, sharp and fast, biting through ancient stone, the warped metal, and the clots of mortar. By the time she was on the final side, eating through one of the hinges, she could tell that the door was sagging towards her, though it wasn’t yet visible to the eye. “Back up, back up,” she muttered, trying not to lose her focus. “Get out of the way!” The phantasmagory yawned beneath her, eager to pull her down and change her perspective.
The final side of the Royal Blood magical triad is the eidolons. The eidolons are an advanced form of emanations, although most of the inhabitants of Citadel’s world think of them as distinct. Take a burst of telekinetic force and tie part of your psyche to it so that it acquires an animal’s intelligence and senses. You can use it as a spy or a guardian… if you can create them at all.
She and Shanasee crowded through the door and put Kiar on the couch. One of Yithiere’s eidolons trotted in behind them and joined the moon-glow wolf. Jant’s fox eidolon followed and scooted under a chair. Shanasee didn’t have eidolons now either, though she’d manifested them before Benjen had died. Like Tiana, she was dependent on her relatives to protect her Regent from whatever stalked them.
Kiar wondered if a wolf eidolon was still protecting Lisette as well. How many eidolons was Yithiere maintaining? Again, she was struck to tears. He tried to be so tireless. But the more eidolons one projected, the less resources one had for one’s self.
The Royal Blood triad is a rare magic, though: limited to those of a specific bloodline. Why? Plot mysteries! But there’s another magic that is much more common, despite the activation ritual’s lethality. This is the Logos magic, which I’ve described to friends as the ability to speak the programming language of the world. When a wizard (or Logosworker) activates their Sight, they’re basically seeing the Matrix. They’re learning how to recode the world, using an occult language where the words themselves hurt to say. Some cultures are a lot better at it than others.
Slowly, she pulled the special Logos-vision over her eyes, being careful not to go too far. It was usually easy to get halfway there, to start perceiving the basic component nature of the universe. The problem was resisting going further than halfway. If she didn’t hold it back, it would dominate her vision, turning everything she looked at into an incomprehensible jumble of passive linguistic noise.
While I love the characters and the plot of Citadel of the Sky, it isn’t an exaggeration that exploring the interactions between the different types of magic is definitely one of my favorite bits. I like rich worlds and complex systems. I really love thinking about how familiar concepts can be reimagined in other worlds.
LINKS
BIO
Chrysoula Tzavelas went to twelve schools in twelve years while growing up as an Air Force brat, and she never met a library she didn’t like. She now lives near Seattle with cats, dogs, adults and children. They graciously allow her a couple of hours to write everyday and one day she’ll have time to do other things again, too. She likes combed wool, bread dough, and gardens, but she also likes technology, games and space. This probably goes hand in hand with liking Jane Austen, Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks.
Well…. damn.
On the one hand, this sounds awesome! Very cool ideas!
On the other hand, part of it sounds like stuff I had been thinking of writing, only better.
Oh well. Still sounds awesome.
That’s what I thought when I heard about Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but they’re totally different. Keep writing.
That’s the plan! 🙂
We’ll see where it goes.
Hey, I wrote what I want to read so hearing it sounds familiar makes me excited to one day see what you’ve done!
Well, the idea I’ve been tinkering with includes the legendary ancestor and the Dark Lord angle as well, cuz I kinda wanted it to be a take on the Hero’s Journey type stories.
Although I do like that Tiana has her own life and interests outside of all that, right up until she HAS to act. And making it part murder mystery definitely goes beyond the trope and what I had considered.
The other thing that struck a chord was the idea that magic is like a programming language for reality. It just sorta makes sense to me, the idea that ‘why do they need to say these weird things, who’s listening anyways” (not an original thought of mine, alas, but one that interests me). The Matrix-vision aspect though, again, that’s very cool.
Some intriguing ideas, and I love interesting magic. The cover doesn’t do a lot for me, and normally I don’t care for YA . . . but I read the sample, which I liked, and it doesn’t read like typical YA (yay!). I think I have a book for my to-buy list….
Kendall: definitely not typical YA, from early reviewer feedback. :p
Jonathan, I love your thoughts! Thank you so much for sharing them.