Afterword

It's hard to believe that we're finally here. I started writing Magnus in 2017, now over three years ago. It was the first piece of fiction I'd ever written, and after getting around 60% of the way through the story, I changed my writing style, necessitating a total rewrite. Then I did so much heavy developmental editing that I ended up throwing most of that out, changing the style yet again. A painful process, but one that taught me to thoroughly outline my chapters. Because editing an outline is a helluva lot easier than a 400-page book, who woulda known?

The first version of the story had no prologue; Magnus woke up in the forest right off the bat, but I felt like the story needed something extra to place the tone and mood. And because I just love writing action scenes where Magnus kicks ass. The prologue(and its style) is basically an homage to Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, a cyberpunk masterpiece. If you haven't read it, do so, even if only for the style, which can be summed up perfectly as Badass with a capital B.

The initial version of the story omitted Nova's note as well, and Magnus kinda aimlessly stumbled to Hobogon, then on to Dervegen. While he was going through the same motions, there was no sense of tension, no tangible goal to drive him. Dropping that note there just made everything click, even if it is a somewhat obvious plot device.

With book one, I attempted to explore the themes of the unreliability of perception, 'Othering'(the concept of dehumanizing an enemy to make them easier to kill), and internal conflict. I wanted to do a litrpg-type system, but didn't want an all-powerful Godlike entity running everyone's lives. I feel like no matter how badass a character is in such a world, they will never be the top dog, and that just feels a little tragic. By having the 'system' live within Magnus, I attempted to sidestep that problem while still retaining the sense of progression that is the core of a power fantasy. I'm unsure if I successfully pulled all that off, so you'll have to let me know.

Have any questions you'd like to ask me? Fire away in the comments, as always I'll respond to each one(so long as it doesn't spoil book two or three content). I'd also love to hear your thoughts on what you're hoping for/looking forward to in book two, so please drop those comments like carpet bombs. Who guessed the mysteries correctly? At what chapter?

Book Two Announcements

Don't worry, there's a lot more Magnus coming right up. As you all should know because you read my author notes(you read my author notes, right?), I've already finished writing book two. I've completed developmental editing as well and I'm currently copy-editing while my beta readers go through it. There are 57 chapters, and at present, it stands at 110k words, though I wouldn't be surprised if it puts on a few k during editing(so about the same size as book one).

I'm going to need around two-ish more weeks to finish editing the book, hoping the wait isn't too unbearable! I'll post updates on my progress here, so check back if you're curious. Book two is 100% happening though, given that I've already written it. No hiatuses here. I stand by my synopsis statement that THIS STORY WILL NOT BE DROPPED.

So what can you expect in book two? Well, now that we're done with the prologue that was book one, we can get into some serious plot movement! Expect more action(a lot of it), balanced with some other elements that the story hasn't delved as much into thus far. More characters too, and I'm hoping we'll be able to see new sides of Magnus from those interactions. But above all, expect Magnus Cromwell to kick some serious fucking ass.

MikeWe's Memorable Magnus Memes

So my good artist friend has developed something of an obsession with Magnus memes and he's amassed quite the stockpile, which I shall dutifully dump here. DISCLAIMER: Some of them may considered be offensive to readers. Please don't shoot me! I'm just the author(of the story. Not the memes. I swear!) Enjoy ;-)

Spoiler: Spoiler

Be careful kids. Magnus is out there, and he doesn't play nice!

But let it be known that Magnus is merciful!

And for those who want to see the way I'd envisioned Magnus looking prior to his integration with the parasite, here's one I created in artbreeder. I hesitate to post this though, since I kinda want people to be able to relate to him by filling in with their own imagination, so it's here in the spoiler tag. Click at your own risk!

Spoiler: Spoiler