And so we’ve come to the end: The Liberation, the thoughtful and blood-soaked conclusion to the Alchemy Wars trilogy, is on shelves now!
The Liberation is the final installment of a story that began in The Mechanical and continued in The Rising. It’s the story of nobody getting exactly what they want, many getting exactly what they deserve, and everybody trying to avoid a very, very bad day.
It’s always a little bittersweet, when the final volume of a series is published. This is the second trilogy I’ve concluded, and the second time I’ve felt a strange combination of relief and wistfulness. Like many, I write novels in my “spare” time, in evenings and weekends. So writing a trilogy (especially the Alchemy Wars, which is a fair bit longer than the Milkweed Triptych) takes more than 3 years to write and revise. This project, in fact, took a little over 4 years from when I first typed “Chapter 1” into the empty document that would become The Mechanical all the way to last week’s publication of The Liberation.
My (now) wife and I started dating the same day that I shook hands with the great people at Orbit. We’ve been married 2 1/2 years now. Our entire adult relationship (we knew each other in high school, long story) has ever been accompanied by Jax/Daniel, Berenice, Longchamp, Elodie, Anastasia, and Mab. I’m glad we journeyed together, but I’m also glad they won’t be asking so much of us in the future.
Of course, I don’t consider a project completely finished until I’ve moved all the research materials out of the dedicated research bookshelf, which stands in a vaunted spot within arm’s reach of the desk in the writing office, and replaced them with materials for a new project. It’s a strange ceremony, but one that has become a custom for me. One I’m going to indulge right now.
Goodbye abstruse tomes on alchemy, Canadian history, the court of Louis XIV, the Dutch Golden Age, Spinoza, and Descartes!
Hello, books about…
Looking forward to your next project!
Thanks, Denne!
And a very well done finale it was–well done, Ian!
And a very well done finale it was–well done, Ian!
Thank you, Steve! Much appreciated.
I really love this world you built! I particularly enjoyed (well, that’s probably not the right word) the character Visser. His anguish was very vivid, and my heart ached for him. I can’t wait for you next book.
Thank you, Aaron! Visser was a tricky character to write, for several reasons, so I admit I was glad when I was able to avoid his point of view in the later books.
I’m experiencing the bittersweet, melancholy satisfaction of finishing another wonderful trilogy from you. I’m really going to miss Daniel and Bernice, Elodie and Longchamp (not Tunier Bell). Really looking forward to your next book – your characters are so full of life and flawed humanity, it’s a tough, wonderful journey each time.
Well, gosh. What a lovely and touching thing to say — thank you very much indeed, Trisha. I’m glad that you’ve enjoyed the Alchemy Wars trilogy. Thank you for picking it up, and for the very kind words.
Hello, Ian,
I didn’t know how else to reach you for I will try here. After seeing you at the Williamson Lectureship, I re-read The Mechanical and then burned through Rising and Liberation. I loved the Free Will, Descartes, Spinoza and Aquinas discussions and relished prose like this: “A wave of guilt overwhelmed the breakwater she had built around her heart. It flooded the unprotected lowlands of her self-worth, the sun-dappled glades where Louis had resided, to poison the memories there, render them brackish and unwelcome.. Heavier than the sea it crushed her heart and forced the air from her lungs. Again.” Extended metaphor? In SF? YES!! Shades of Zelazny.
BUT the greatest delight was your deft reference (delightfully unglossed) to Jack: “This isn’t your ‘folded hands’ scenario.” (Lib, 208) I want a do-over of this year’s Lectureship with you and Martha Wells tracing the Free Will discussion from “With Folded Hands” to the present.
I thought I could never love a trilogy as much as Milkweed Triptrych, I’ll just have to keep reading your work. Thank you for another thoughtful, (OK, bloody), and enlightening experience.
Patrice