Erich, Ariel and Astrid have begun their life together, but all is not well.
Ariel and Astrid have discovered that sharing a husband is a greater challenge than they anticipated, a challenge that is exacerbated by a difficult winter trip to Wittenberg, where Erich hopes to enter the service of Frederick III, Elector of Sachsen. But their trip is soon interrupted by unexpected complications.
In the town of Marburg, a century-old agreement that has kept the peace between the Landgraviate of Hessen and a band of witches in the forest is beginning to unravel. The young Landgrave, Philip, needs to consolidate his authority, and the witches want something from him that he does not dare surrender.
Erich and his wives are drawn into this conflict, and in the process discover a mystery that seems tied to their unique magical bond—a mystery that may threaten its very existence if they cannot resolve it.
In this second installment in the bestselling Twin Magic series, Michael Dalton spins together magic, steampunk, and traditional German fairy tales into another entertaining alternate history adventure.
GUEST POST
Alternative History vs. Fantasy Worlds
I will confess to being a sucker for good alternative history. I’ve always been a big history buff, and for me, there’s just something cool about taking what you think you know about a historical period or event and twisting it around into “what-if” situations.
All three of the fantasy novels I’ve written so far have been alternative history set in Renaissance Europe. This is a period I’ve been fascinated with for a long time because of the many political, economic, and technological changes that were taking place. With so much going on, it’s not hard to create intriguing dramas by taking a few elements and twisting them around, or injecting traditional fantasy conventions like magic or dragons into key events.
This not to say that I have anything against conventional fantasy; a well-designed imaginary world can be just as engaging, if not more so. Our literary landscape would be considerably poorer without Middle-Earth, Westeros, Mid-World, Dune, and Melniboné, to name just a few. But building fantasy worlds that are both plausible and memorable is a tall task, one that unfortunately many would-be fantasy authors are just not up to.
Writing a fantasy–alternative history piece might seem like less work than crafting a pure fantasy world, but that’s not been the case in my experience. There’s less imagining and designing, but a lot more research. Doing alternative history right requires having a very good grasp of the material you’re working with. Any changes you make need to be deliberate rather than errors—and these are errors that are all too easy to make.
In conceiving the Twin Magic series, I began with what felt like fertile ground: German at the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, a time when science was starting to rise up against religion but when old fears and superstitions—such as the risk of babies beings switched for changelings—were still strong. It’s important to remember that during this period magic was nothing unusual, in the sense that common people believed in it and believed that witches and wizards existed along with all sorts of fantastical creatures.
So I took that background and made it real. In these books, magic does exist and has become a familiar element in people’s lives, familiar enough to be part of the scientific, religious, and cultural revolutions that were taking place. Developments like gunpowder and advances in engineering, rather than being pure inventions, are instead outgrowths of this magical knowledge. (Thus injecting a bit of steampunk into this world as well.)
That allowed me to ask some interesting questions: How would the presence of magic affect the endless political machinations that wracked the Holy Roman Empire? How would Martin Luther’s challenge to the Church play out in such a context? (Among other things, the Luther in The Witches’ Covenant, who has both mages and indulgences to worry about, comes up with 110 theses rather than 95.) And how would these mages who have become part of the political and religious landscape deal with those pernicious superstitions?
I’m pleased with how it’s developed so far, and I’m excited to see where I can take things as the series evolves.
Michael Dalton is a professional journalist and editor who writes erotic fiction and other works for readers of discriminating tastes.
Michael wrote his first piece of fiction in third grade, for which he was immediately accused of plagiarism by his teacher. His first piece of erotica–which has thankfully been lost to the mists of time–came a few years later.
Since then, he has been writing more or less steadily, interrupted only by occasional demands of work and family.
Michael enjoys writing across genres, and often mixes science fiction, fantasy, erotica, and alternate history into richly plotted and detailed novels.
Michael lives with his family and multiple pets in Southern California.
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