The Excellence of "The Kandric Saga"

[David McLeod]

[Special Note: The new website is now live. As a result the links throughout this thread are invalid except for the latest posting to the thread. All of Kyle's stories can now be found at Kyle Aarons]

It has been a long time since I read a story that kept me awake well past my bedtime. Reading on an iPad, with the lights off, I felt like a kid reading with a flashlight under the blankets—shivering with excitement, demanding closure, hoping and wishing for a miraculous outcome for the heroes—yes, heroes—of this story.

Although marked as "in progress" (something which tends to stop me from entering a story), this saga as posted reaches a satisfying, a visceral satisfying, conclusion. Yes, there are threads that might someday be continued (and, I hope will be), but the fundamental story has ended.

The Kandrick Saga introduces and creates complex characters and races. It builds a world that is not only eminently believable but also frighteningly real. In my opinion, one goal of a fantasy writer is to create such a world. The Author has done just that. I not only enjoyed this story, I learned from it, and I hope that I will be able to incorporate those lessons into my own writing.

My bow to Teacher Aarons is deep and sincere.

David

 

Edited October 3, 2017 by Zach Caldwell
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[Kyle Aarons]

David,

Thank yo for the kind words.

The world I endeavored to build is just as much of the story for me as is the actual plot. One thing I have really poured my heart into is making the entire world a place a reader could see and understand beyond what the characters have to deal with. It is one of the reasons I have so many open threads and characters of 'lower levels' included. I want readers to get a feel for the whole, not just the super powerful characters and world of the rich. For while the rich and powerful are very important for the world, they are too far above those of the lowest casts to matter much if at all. For those who live in the Kandric world and have to deal with the day to day life and the struggle of survival of just putting a roof over head or food on a plate, there is a whole different feel and struggle.

[David McLeod]

Author Aarons continues to teach with his latest message. They are lessons from which we all can learn: "the world...is as much of the story is is the...plot"; "while the rich and powerful are...important...those who live and have to deal with the day to day life and the struggle of survival [are equally important]."

[Wizard]

Well he is not just saying it either he showed it too.  The conditions Kandric and even all his brother have grown up with were pretty much the lowest of the low.  From either growing in a swamp slum or an orphanage even if they are princes all of them they still had to grow in those conditions.

There is a clear definitions of the caste of each characters inside the story that really help understand his world and now even Rolland had a story in that world as well.

 

[centexhairysub]

Has anyone heard when a new chapter will be added to the Kandric Saga?  I heard from someone that this story was on an indefinite hold and might be finished?  Does anyone know if that is correct?

[Emperor Roland]

Hey all, I figured I can answer this question, since I know Kyle is too busy right now to come on to the board regularly.  As of right now, Kyle is putting the finishing touches on a book for print.  it is based off of one of the MANY worlds that he has created, although I am not allowed to say which one.  (I'm mean, I know it.)  

I can also tell you that he has started, not a new chapter of Kandric, but a new short (For Kyle) story, based in the Kandric World.  As for a new chapter of Kandric, while it has not been started, I know Kyle has plans for what he wants to do, just needs to get the time to do it.  

[mjh66]

I am glad to hear that Kyle is getting close to publishing another book.  I bought his first book and really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to his next book.  I know you have said that you can't say which universe the new book is in, but can you give a guess when we will be able to buy it?

And speaking of things I am looking forward to reading, I am hoping that another chapter of Sands of Time is working its way to us.  I have been checking every Monday hoping that it will be included in the list of new chapters.

Thanks for providing hours of reading (both your own stories and hosting other authors)

[Wizard]

Now that many are stuck at home, does that apply to Kyle and gives him a chance to write some more?

[Jeikor]

I do not know if Kyle's real world job is essential or not but even if he has more time to write it will be spent on whichever story he is "in the mood" to write as I've heard it explained. While this can be very frustrating for those of us waiting for a new chapter of one of his stories it means he is totally immersed in that story's world. And as frustrating as it is we cannot deny that when we do get a new chapter it is well worth the wait. So his method works well for him.

Jeikor

PS- The "in the mood" thing is not an exact representation of how he chooses what to work on but the closest I can come to describe it. I think it is kind of which story or characters are calling out to him.

 

 

[Demented]

With the next chapter of The Kandric Saga potentially being on the horizon, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on it. It would not be an exaggeration to say that I've read through the entirety of what is available at the moment damn near a dozen times over. I had found the story by complete happenstance and got drawn in pretty early on. Even in those early chapters I could tell there was quite a bit of thought put into the world building and mechanics of how the world's magic system worked. Even with the eight hundred thousand plus words the story boasts and the myriad of characters that inhabit this world, their remains quite a lot of logical consistency and coherence that is quite impressively maintained. 

Kandric does not live in a nice world by any stretch. Children are considered property that can be sold at any point in their young lives, and slavery is so ubiquitous and pervasive among the various named locations that many of the characters in this tale would be considered quite morally repugnant by modern sensibilities. That's the fascinating thing about the Kandric Saga's universe however. It is a world where they have developed their own moral code and their own views on things like personal freedoms and the exploitation of the vulnerable. Kandric himself by Chapter 32 is the owner of quite a few slaves, some of whom were former neighbors of his that he purchased specifically cause they never played with him growing up due to him being a half elf. His mentor, Glaster, is the sort of man you'd hear about on date line NBC and almost certainly would not be allowed to live near playgrounds or public schools, yet in this world he holds the ears and respect of royalty and organizations like the Watch. That's not even touching the character Vondum, whom is a mentally scarred sadist and predator with a past so checkered I wouldn't want to be on the same continent as him. Yet in this world he is one of our titular characters closest allies and lovers, perhaps even closer than Glaster by this point.

A setting where rampant child exploitation and slavery like this could have easily been botched by a lesser writer, either making it too edgy or lean too far into the depraved wish fulfillment angle. However, the author manages to play the world as straight and manner of fact as possible. The narrative treats the goings on of the setting like unfortunate but every day occurrences, and it doesn't cast judgement on characters who have various opinions on these practices. There are some like Falk who view the exploitation of free children as wrong, but does not feel the same way about the same happening to slave children. You have some like the Priestess of Vindayin who hold the opposite view and wants to end slavery while simultaneously indulging herself with someone who is mentally and physically, if not chronologically, a young teenager.

It is a world painted with such moral ambiguity that it really highlights just how rare characters like Pontarious and his crew are. Within their Thunder Rapids, people are treated as equals and part of the crew. Many of those who fly under his banner were former slaves who found a home with him. I'd say even King Wyhrem pales in comparison to Pontarious in the moral fortitude department, as the King permits such practices in his lands in the first place. Yet Pontarious isn't treated like a saint in the narrative either. He's portrayed as a fatherly figure just trying to do what he believes is right by his crew and his son. He handled the traumatic upbringing he had far differently than his brother, and in a quite believable fashion as well. 

If there was a weakness in the story, I'd say it'd probably be with Kandric's disconnectedness from what I'd consider to be the main villains. By Chapter 32, his main and only real objective with the massive army he has at his disposal is to find his lost students. Up till now he's been largely in the dark to what Gambra and the Drow High Prince have been up to. While his brothers Conner and Aster have been shoulder deep in the struggle against Dark Mages and Dark Mystics, teaming up with the Watch, Thunder Rapids, and Wraith Sect warriors to weaken and sabotage Gambra's efforts, Kandric has been spending his time in the plot getting roped up in a territorial feud between Monarch and Bandurlock. Kandric's goes from being a starving boy waiting for his mentor to return to the leader of a massive army in a very short stretch of time. The killing of the Ice Demon changed the course of his life, and the subsequent slaying of two great dragons only further launched his meteoric rise to power. 

Gambra and her dwindling forces have been facing heavy losses due to the Crew of a Barge Ship with some Wraith Sect Warrior backup. How in the world is she ever going to pose any kind of threat to Kandric and his combined army that quite literally just took out a demon straight out of legends? What's more, Kandric doesn't really have any personal investment in beating Gambra besides saving his students from her Dark Mages. He does not have the character defining history with her that Conner has. At this point, it isn't a question of if Gambra is going to lose, it's how satisfying is her loss going to be. The way things stand at the moment, she'd really have to pull out all the stops to even stand a chance against the force that is coming her way. 

Then there is the Drow High Prince. His connection to the three brothers, much less Kandric, is far slimmer than Gambra's. Kandric knows something is going on, and all of the cast has some pieces of the puzzle of what this illusive Prince is up to, yet we have not seen hide nor hair of this man in over 800k words. We've heard about him, know a vague timeline of his whereabouts and activities, but we've yet to have a segment with his perspective. There are side characters who have vendetta's with this guy, but our title character has almost no emotional investment in bringing this guy down, nor do his brothers really. Finding a way to really tie him into the narrative this deep into the story is probably going to be rough. I look forward to seeing how Kyle pulls that off. 

I'm sure such narrative issues would be easily remedied if Kandric ever got a second draft however. There are narrative issues one only sees after writing out the story the first time through, and is why drafting stories multiple times before official publication is so important. I truly admire Kyle's dedication to writing such a massive epic, especially when it is clearly a passion project that he does on the side. I doubt such a controversial story would ever get an official publication, but that only makes the effort he's put into this story all the more impressive. I eagerly await the next chapter and will probably be one of the first to devour it as soon as it is available. 

[Zergrinch]

At this point, I believe the actual "final boss" will collectively be the Demon Lords. As I recall, the gods were worried that they would be recruiting Gambra as a counterpoint to their recruitment of Kandric.

A quick way to ensure Kandric's involvement will be to kill someone close to him. As the mentor who's already surpassed by his student, my expectations are that Glaster's days are surely numbered. 

[Demented]

On 9/23/2021 at 5:33 AM, Zergrinch said:

At this point, I believe the actual "final boss" will collectively be the Demon Lords. As I recall, the gods were worried that they would be recruiting Gambra as a counterpoint to their recruitment of Kandric.

A quick way to ensure Kandric's involvement will be to kill someone close to him. As the mentor who's already surpassed by his student, my expectations are that Glaster's days are surely numbered. 

The Demon Lords definitely earned Kandric's ire after kidnapping some of his siblings and friends. As of Chapter 32 he took out Pyrothermal, who was purported to have quite a bit of history and legend about him. I would not be surprised at all if the gods end up making a move during the next chapter due to that. I mean it wasn't just that he took out Pyrothermal, the army he had amassed soundly slaughtered a demon invasion, killing so many that demons actually refused to enter from the lower planes lest they get killed as well. 

As far as Glaster being killed, that is a good point. Kandric has definitely surpassed Glaster in terms of raw ability at the very least. One could probably argue that Glaster still has years of experience over Kandric, but so did all the dragons and such that Kandric took out in his killing spree. Thinking about it from a narrative perspective, Glaster has quite a few red flags hinting that he could end up being taken out to spur Kandric forward.

I would say, despite how dark Kandric's world is, Kyle's been pretty reserved about killing people off. This story does not have the mortality rate of game of thrones. The characters I can think of which have died in the story have been nestled pretty firmly into the background and side character cast. That's not to say that Glaster being killed is off the table, but I would say keeping this writing choice in mind that the likelihood does go down a bit.  

[Emperor Roland]

Just dropping a little note here...  Chapter 33 is officially off to the editors....

Now may be a good time to start a re-read to make sure everything is fresh in your minds... lol.

[Zergrinch]

You know, I think you're right. Kyle looks like he prefers happy endings so perhaps Glaster gets to live. It's not like Kandric needs any more motivation, and maybe he can pull this off without losing anything or anyone. He's way past the point of his hero's journey where the mentor dies and the training wheels come off anyway.

Expectations for Chapter 33:

1. Everyone not in Kandric's army to do something other than talk (e.g. Aster's been sitting around basically talking for the past three chapters 😅)

2. A quick point of view switch, on the abductees or maybe Gambra and Gardagam would be nice.

3. Enough teasing. Under River should just go ahead and open itself already. 🤪

4. High time for Prince Rovanall to get his comeuppance. 

 

 

[Demented]

6 hours ago, Zergrinch said:

You know, I think you're right. Kyle looks like he prefers happy endings so perhaps Glaster gets to live. It's not like Kandric needs any more motivation, and maybe he can pull this off without losing anything or anyone. He's way past the point of his hero's journey where the mentor dies and the training wheels come off anyway.

Expectations for Chapter 33:

1. Everyone not in Kandric's army to do something other than talk (e.g. Aster's been sitting around basically talking for the past three chapters 😅)

2. A quick point of view switch, on the abductees or maybe Gambra and Gardagam would be nice.

3. Enough teasing. Under River should just go ahead and open itself already. 🤪

4. High time for Prince Rovanall to get his comeuppance. 

 

 

I'd agree that Kandric is definitely past that point in the narrative. In fact, if you think about it, he already experienced something similar to a death of a mentor. At the beginning of the story, Glaster had already had been away from the Swamp Slums for a month, which cut off a direly needed source of income from Kandric and his family. He did not have his mentor around, and he had to make decisions based on what he learned from his mentor to solve his problems. It was losing his mentor in this way that spurred him on to follow and investigate Vondum in the first place.

From what I recall, Aster aided Glaster's party in escaping from Rolling Dale and then met up with King Wyhrem's group not long after that. I'd imagine he'd have done a bit more if Kandric would stop Venmoing Dragon giftings to his siblings for five minutes lol. King Wyhrem's combined group will be heading over to see Kandric after that last Dragon kill, which would converge a decent portion of the cast in one location for the first time. 

This would also be the first time in the narrative where Kandric would meet Aster. They've both known about each other in passing through Glaster and Lannet, but they've not shared a proper scene together before now, not even in a flash back. Aster has been hearing nearly legendary stories about this brother of his, and he is quite a bit frustrated with Kandric for wantonly killing powerful dragons and making his immediate family lose their lunch and worse on more than a few occasions because of it. 

Plot threads as of the end of Chapter 32: 

• The Gods have committed to recruiting Kandric after the slaying of Pyrothermal. 
  • With the Death of Pyrothermal, Demon Channelers whom used him as a patron will no longer be able to call on his power, much like what happened after Kandric killed the Ice Demon Inaxia
• Frexla will probably receive word of Pyrothermal's Death along with the loss of all those minions. In fact, I'd even wager the Gods could capitalize on that loss like they did with Inaxia's death. Frexla still has Kandric's siblings and friend, as well as Glaster's adult student the Caravan owner. 
• The Parties of Glaster and Kandric have converged, shortly to be met with King Wyhrem's and Aster's Party as well. 
• Conner's Party, along with the Wraith Sect Warriors and the royal's Whipping boys are all in Rolling Dale. The Whipping Boys are where Kandric's imprisoned students are, and Conner's group just finished up taking out one of Gambra's high ranking leaders.
• I am interested to see the current status of the now de-aged Porma. Now that he is mentally and physically younger, I wonder if there has been some character development since he's been off screen. From what I recall, Kandric's mother has been in charge of his slaves while he's been away, so perhaps Kaylaria has been softening Porma's more rebellious tendencies. His plot thread sort of vanished after all the Dragon Slaying, but I am interested to see where it could go none the less. 
• Vondum and his brother Pontarious may end up meeting. Funny enough, Pontarious is physically older than Vondum now despite being his younger brother since Vondum's been nursing that de-aging potion for who knows how long. I am curious to see how this meeting could end up being. Vondum would probably be happy that his brother is a good father and is living well, even if he probably wouldn't want to show it given how he is. There is a lot of emotional baggage from his childhood that Vondum hasn't come to terms with, where Pontarious is possibly the most well adjusted member of the cast even by modern standards lol. 
• Gambra's spell pages are undermined, her trusted commanders are either dead or out of commission, and she is losing minions by the paragraph. She will probably need to lean into her connections with the Green Dragons to try to turn this around. If she receives word of the massive army near Rolling Dale, I'd wager she'd be looking for that back door she likes to talk about. 
• Prince Rovanall is likely in hot water with the White Dragons. Think about it, an Alphar prince comes to the White Dragons, claiming to defect and wishing to work with them to bring down his grandson. That grandson then ends up slaying the Royal Great Dragon Weraweld, their pride and strength as a race, attempting to help Rovanall with his scheme. Why wouldn't they suspect him of foul play? Even if they don't suspect him of secretly working with the Alphars to ambush their Great Dragons, I'd imagine his status with them is greatly damaged none the less. 
  • This of course is not even touching the level of hot water he's in with King Wyhrem, The Garm and Alphar, and of course Kandric himself. 
• Klent still on his campaign to find Quavis's boy booty. Remember, the whole reason why Klent's party is a thing is cause Quavis spent some time throwing knives with him in the Ghoul Drool. I'd be surprised if Quavis even remember's who this guy is, let alone that the dude's been led on a divinely ordained wild goose chase trying to find him again lol. 
• Several Dragon Leaders want an audience with Kandric; including The Black Dragon Prince Bandurlock, The Mind Master Silver Dragon Prince Millen, and Queen of the Red Dragons Trastifaria. Trastifaria in particular probably holds Kandric in very high regard given that he single handedly dealt serious blows to her enemies the Green Dragons as well as secured a new home for her people. Millen is probably more on the cautious side, however he's been asking for an audience with Kandric since the Premier woke up in his tent on the Battlefield many chapters ago. Prince Bandurlock is probably terrified of the prospect of meeting with Kandric lol. 
• Conth is possibly on the cusp of earning his freedom: The story's been teasing this for a bit now, and it would be good to see him finally get out from under Vondum. 
• Jamon possibly becomes a romantic partner of Kandric? : Jamon is in an interesting place now that he is free and part of Kandric's party. Kandric and him both have shown quite a bit of affection towards one another, and they've been physically intimate quite a few times before, though that was in a master/slave relationship. It would be interesting to see Kandric in a relationship with someone he'd see as an equal that's also relatively the same age as him (at least by equivalency standards). 
• Lacate adjusting to his new life of being a temporary slave of Kandric: He's witnessed Kandric beat the ever loving shit out of a Dragonling after killing a Great Dragon, so any doubts of his position in life right now should be firmly out of his mind. 

On 9/27/2021 at 4:01 PM, Emperor Roland said:

Just dropping a little note here...  Chapter 33 is officially off to the editors....

Now may be a good time to start a re-read to make sure everything is fresh in your minds... lol.

I eagerly await the new chapter! 

[Demented]

One aspect of the story I'm curious about is what our dark mages and Drow high prince have been up to exactly. We know it involves the reopening of Underriver, which at least in part involves that sword that exiled garm prince was branded with. We also know that plan involves the False Klandon. The boy as far as I can tell is either the real Zoldon who was raised by the Warlords of Molden, or some kid from the Warlords who had been magically altered to resemble King Wyhrem's son at least physically. There have been context clues and dialogue that seem to support both interpretations of the false Klandon's identity, so it is difficult to call one way or another. 

Monarch supposedly was involved with this plan as well, and he probably has quite a lot of pertinent information that could be useful now that he is under Kandric's banner. In fact it's pretty heavily inferred that Monarch attacked Kronar many years ago, and was the whole reason King Wyhrem and Glaster ended up blood bonding with that elf back when they were kids. Vondum was also at least aware of the plan and of the true identity of the prince who ended up under Aster's protection. Between Monarch, Vondum, and King Wyhrem's boys, there are enough people in Kandric's circle now that can unearth what this plot actually is. Now that Monarch is no longer aligned with Gambra and has his future kingdom all but assured, he has no real reason to protect the plan anymore, aside from perhaps concealing his ties to Dark Elves. Even that could be smoothed over given Kandric is all about race relations. 

[Wizard]

I am starting to think this chapter is probably huge with the chapter having been at editor for over three weeks I wonder if it is the Final chapter of the story

[Demented]

11 minutes ago, Wizard said:

I am starting to think this chapter is probably huge with the chapter having been at editor for over three weeks I wonder if it is the Final chapter of the story

That does check out. The chapters have been getting exponentially longer since chapter one, which was a mere 8,000+ words. These last few chapters have been the length of an average novel.

[Zergrinch]

The thing is there are so many dangling plot threads, and Kyle is still introducing new characters to the story, their back stories contained in a huge information dump that they often say out loud 😅

[Al Norris]

Hmm... Ya know, without giving too much away... As pure text, the file has 7965 lines. Where each line is either an entire paragraph; a blank line; a horizontal rule or the characters for that section (without including the html formatting)!

[Zergrinch]

That reveals nothing. We don't know how long a "line" is

Revealing the number of words (and letters) would give a better idea of scope 😂

[Al Norris]

On 11/2/2021 at 7:46 PM, Zergrinch said:

That reveals nothing. We don't know how long a "line" is

Revealing the number of words (and letters) would give a better idea of scope 😂

OK, here ya go:

  198,879 words
1,075,480 characters
  879,882 characters excluding spaces

Kyle cannot get his head out of Kandric... Rumor has it that he has started writing chapter 34! Hmm, another tome???

[Zergrinch]

But that's almost half the length of "A Dance with Dragons" 😅

Also, you know, after reading the web novel series "Jobless Reincarnation", my opinion about whether the Kandric series is publishable or not has changed. It may need some editing to deflate the word count of what some little kids are saying out loud in dialogue, perhaps, but the subject matter being covered may not be as controversial as I thought...

[Demented]

3 hours ago, Zergrinch said:

But that's almost half the length of "A Dance with Dragons" 😅

Also, you know, after reading the web novel series "Jobless Reincarnation", my opinion about whether the Kandric series is publishable or not has changed. It may need some editing to deflate the word count of what some little kids are saying out loud in dialogue, perhaps, but the subject matter being covered may not be as controversial as I thought...

Completely agreed on that front. I don't think western publishers would be quite as keen on it, but you could easily translate Kandric saga into the light novel/ manga/ anime sphere with comparably minimal alterations to the story itself. 

To put 198k words into perspective, the average published novel is about 70 to 120k words. So this "chapter" is about 2 moderate sized novels. Should be one hell of a read. 

[Zergrinch]

Well, you'd be surprised at what Western publishers will publish these days. The title I mentioned is being translated into English and published by Seven Seas Entertainment once every 3 months 😅