So Daggers & Steele 1, Red Hot Steele, continues to do great (more on that in an upcoming Three Month Author Introspective post). Success of course comes from sales, and with those sales, I’ve gotten a number of reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads. (Thanks for those, by the way!) I’ve even gotten some fan correspondence through Facebook and Twitter, which is awesome! Keep it coming, friends!
Of course, I’m also seeing that there are a few recurring questions regarding the world-building elements for Daggers & Steele. I’m not sure how many of my fans read my blog, but I figured I’d try to answer the three questions I’m seeing the most of.
1) So, um…what’s up with the world?
I’m seeing this a lot. Some fans are confused about whether Daggers & Steele takes place in a 1940’s-ish noir setting or a traditional medieval one. I think it’s somewhere in the middle. I picture New Welwic, the city in which the stories take place, to be the equivalent of an early to mid 1800’s New York, but that’s not a perfect comparison.
The world of Daggers & Steele is just at the cusp of the industrial revolution. There’s water power, and as I mention in Red Hot Steele, coal has recently been discovered, but the implications of being able to burn coal for energy haven’t been discovered yet. Things like steam power and electricity are just being discovered and haven’t been implemented yet (although you’ll see some of these new discoveries appear in book three of the series, so keep your eyes peeled).
Because of the presence of magic, some scientific and technological fields are less advanced than they were in our society at similar periods in history. Physics and chemistry aren’t quite as advanced as they were in our world in the mid 1800’s, but other things, like medicine, perhaps are a little more advanced. And some technologies haven’t been invented at all, which brings me to the next question…
2) Why aren’t there any guns in the world?
Honestly? Because I liked the idea of a world without them. That’s the honest truth. Yes, I know guns were invented in our world long before the mid 1800’s, which is my self-imposed historical analog. But this is a made up fantasy world, and I get to make the rules.
Now, I know there’s some technological advancements in the first Daggers & Steele novel, stuff related to gunpowder (no spoilers, here…) that would make you think that guns would have been invented, but as I said, technology has progressed differently in this world than in ours. I mean, honestly, the idea of using a controlled explosion to create a burst of pressure that’s used to propel a missile down a rifled tube at high velocity isn’t exactly trivial, no matter how much we take that for granted nowadays. And finally…
3) Wait…in our world, Technology X existed way before Technology Y, and in your world, Y exists but X doesn’t! Explain that.
I kind of already discussed this above, but yes, there are anachronisms in my work—if you think of it as trying to be historically accurate. But it’s not. I mean, there’s elves and trolls and magic. Daggers & Steele isn’t trying to be perfectly accurate to our world, because it doesn’t take place in our world.
I should note, however, that I’m not the biggest fan of world-building in general. I much prefer character- and plot-driven stories, so that’s what you tend to get with my books. If you find a blatant error related to world-building in any of my books, though, please share it with me over on my contact page. I love to hear from my fans, including when I get things wrong.
Hopefully, the answers I’ve posted here will help solve some of the questions you guys are having about Daggers & Steele. Book two, Cold Hard Steele, will be out very soon, so keep your eyes peeled.