Humanity's fascination with numbers can be traced back to the Sumerians, and the ancient language, cuneiform. In some of the species' earliest cities, written communication was invented as a means of keeping track of numbers. Census data, to be specific, which was used to levy taxes on the populace. Aside from showing that both writing, and math, were developed in order to facilitate taxation, this is arguably the start of humanity's fascination with using numbers to explain the world around it. As we developed new mathematics and new techniques for recording information, the unique capabilities of statistics were leverages for wider ranging applications. Geometry, for instance, which oddly enough has the same root word as geography or geology, geo, which means earth, is called geometry because the Egyptians invented it to measure out parcels of land.
Unsouled Review
Unsouled, and the Cradle series as a whole, is described as something called martial arts fantasy. The magic system has defined levels of skill, with each skill level gaining distinct abilities and possessing unique attributes. It's not a design that I generally prefer, but it worked well in Unsouled. Which matters, because Unsouled is not necessarily the kind of book that you read for the compelling characters or political drama. You read it for the vivid magical fights.
Blood Magic and Other Updates
Writing on the third episode is coming along, although more slowly than I would prefer; I've been pretty busy recently. Still, I'm about 1/3 done. I've also been working on some other projects, which I'll detail below. Hopefully this will reassure those of you who have read some of my rough drafts that I haven't forgotten about these other stories, and give all of you a better idea of what some of the features on the My Works page are all about.
The Last Lecture Review
Though my writing is almost exclusively science fiction and fantasy, I do like to read in a wide variety of genres and fields. In this case, I was gifted a copy of this book by my best friend, who seemed a little surprised that I'd never heard of it before, since it's apparently somewhat famous. Of course, since I live under a space rock, there are all sorts of things that are apparently common knowledge of which I'm totally oblivious. Did you know that spending your free time writing hundred-thousand word novels isn't normal?
Blood Magic Concept
We're gearing up for the release of the pilot episode of the Blood Magic series. This has been something that I've been working on for quite some time, and if you've been following IGC for awhile, you've seen some of the steps we've taken to make it into a reality. With only a handful of days before the first episode is up on the website, I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on what this project is, where you can expect it to go, and hopefully drum up some excitement amongst you readers, so that you'll come to the site after January 31st to read it.
Starsight Review
To be perfectly honest, I did not have high expectations when I picked up Skyward. But it did say Sanderson on the cover, so I did eventually read Skyward. I have to say this was a case of not judging a book by its summary, because Skyward genuinely did draw me in, and I found it to be a unique, compelling story. So when Starsight came out, I may have wished a little that he had been working on Stormlight Archives, instead, but I was eager to read this second installment in the series.
Plausible Impossibility
If you've been a follower of the site for awhile, you may remember the post "Written in a Corner." In that post, I mentioned that I would write another post addressing the topic of plausible impossibility, which is an important concept in speculative fiction writing. Of course, if you've been a follower of the site for awhile, you probably also have realized that I'm not always very good at following up on these post ideas that I drop in my posts in anything approaching a timely fashion. Don't worry, I'll get to it eventually. In this case, it's only taken me a couple months.
Liespotting Review
Oh dear, a three star review. It's not that this book was bad, and please don't accuse me of some sort of non-fiction bias, but it was not quite as strong as other books I've read of similar nature. There were some interesting parts, but much of the book didn't seem especially helpful. Therein lay the problem.
A Look Ahead
Welcome back to a new year, one hopefully full of new stories both real and imagined. Although I didn't do a lot of writing on my break, I did do quite a bit of reading. With 2020 just beginning, I want to give you all an idea of where IGC Publishing will be going for the new year.
The Tropic of Serpents Review
There's something about dragons that stirs the imagination. Whether they're vicious wyrms, wise, ancient lords, or symbiotic fire lizards, dragons of all shapes and forms seem somehow fascinating (this may have something to do with why so many people go through a "dinosaur phase," which begs the question if fantasy authors writing about dragons simply never quite grew out of it). This can result in dragons, like dwarves, trolls, elves, and other creatures that frequently populate pages in various forms, that seem flat, one-dimensional, or simply indistinct. How many times can we read about how the dragons almost disappeared, but then someone finds and egg and returns the symbiotic dragonriders? So any time I come across a new and interesting take on dragons, I get excited.
IGC Publishing 