Written by Benjamin Medrano

Halls of Power Releases Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the release date for Halls of Power. Depending on where you are in the world, it may be releasing any time over the next 24 hours… in fact, it’s possible it already released in some regions. I really don’t know. I’m probably going to be trying to avoid the internet tomorrow out of sheer anxiety, but I’m almost inevitably going to fail.

However, I’m also putting the kindle Ancient Ruins on sale tomorrow, to more easily allow others to read the first book.

For anyone who reads the book and has questions, feel free to email me and try not to give too many spoilers for at least a few days. I try to answer questions.

29 thoughts on “Halls of Power Releases Tomorrow”

  1. It’s hypothetically out in Japan (there’s usually some delay) ;)

    I said that the last time around, too, but I still find it amusing that Amazon uses local time for their releases, instead of something global like Steam or similar services. I suppose usually it doesn’t matter for their products, but the digitals ones – it’s just odd that it’s still another half day depending on where you are in the US while it’s already out in other parts of the world ^^

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  2. Yep. I’ve had people say that they thought it was funny that they finished Spells of Old before it was out in the United States. It amused me, I’ll admit.

    To me it really doesn’t matter all that much, I just wish that there was a bit more transparency on how everything worked.

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  3. I am re-listening to the earlier books and I think you missed a good side comment in spells of old. When Sistina is getting ready to have Lily speak for her Lily says that she is a glorified gardener. I sorta wish that Sistina had replied “Tree” while pointing at herself.

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  7. So any time line on when the audible version is going to be released? I kinda got addicted to listening to the first two books there.

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  9. I just finished my first read through and I thought it was great! Now I am going to read it again so I can leave a thorough review.

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  10. Well i can say that I managed to hate some of the characters like the archon so Props to the author. the fact that I can actually hate a character me that you gave me a rather large amount of depth of the book is good

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  12. Archon Ulvian Sorvos is the character I hate second-most of all characters I’ve created. Unlike Irethiel, who was at least acting according to her nature, he chose what he did.

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  13. ………i hate auto correct. Much of what I wanted to put into that comment when in the incorrect order what I meant to say was that for me to be able to hate a character means that you managed to give the characters depth rare achievement

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  14. Hehehehehehe! I agree on autocorrect. And that’s awesome! When I created Ulvian, I wanted him to be evil and twisted, but at the same time I didn’t want him to be a caricature, one person called it ‘mustache-twirling evil’. I’m glad to hear I succeeded.

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  15. Loved the book. Bought it at 7:30 am today and then promptly wanted to kick myself because the book was probably available from 12 midnight. Well at least I got a good night’s rest. Sad it had to end though.

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  17. All good things come to an end. That said, I’m not going to completely abandon the characters. As much as I adore them, I don’t think that Sistina & Phynis will be the main characters of later novels, but I know I have stories to tell about other characters.

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  19. Potentially, yes. I know I didn’t fully address the issues in her church, in part because it didn’t need to be said for this particular story. I could see another focused on them.

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  20. I feel somehow disappoint. Firstly becouse the trilogy is at it’s end. And secondly becaouse I feel like this last book wasn’t that good or I expected something else.

    now let my elaborate a little. I mostly hate trilogies because as a reader at second and third book really liked and disliked the characters and feel like I know them. And after the third book is’s all over. It feels so short.

    Some other aspect is, that I feel like, that the plot, especially the war part, is a bit rushed. THe ware really begins in the third book for me. Everything before is more like little skirmishes. And then suddenly averything is over somehow.

    My favorite character for me is Sistina. And it seems like to me, that she didn’t appear as much in the third books in comparison to the books before. I may be wrong though. Some other aspect I didn’t like as much is that you added more and more characters from which point of view the story is narrated.
    Now that I am in the part about Sistina, there is something I would like to know.
    What does it mean that Sistina has become the World Tree? What is the World Tree?
    Did I miss or forget ist, or did you not really explain this?

    I have read in the comments that you will probably not write any novels with Sistina as a main character. I am sad to hear this, but I can somehow understand. Barely.

    I also feel disappointed because of the Adventurers Guild. In the first and second book you really build up the characters of the Guild and I got the impression that the guild would be really important. But at the end I thought that the guild wasn’t that necessary after all. Don’t get me wrong I like the guild but in the third book I feel like the fell a little short.

    The same I could say about the about Lily. She safed Sistina after the assassination attempt but otherwiese unimportant.

    Wenris (the succubus I hope she is right person. I only used text-to-speech ) betrayed Ulvian but he never mention if I remember correctly. Didn’t he notice it?

    Now that the story is over I think you could really have made it a little lonker like 4 or 5 books and then add some more details to some events and explainations. I feel like so much is missing.

    Overall I enjoyed the sries especially the first two books. I probably have to re-read the third book in the future but not at the moment. I am looking forward to the Anthology.

    I hope I was understandable.

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  21. I can understand why you feel disappointed by some aspects of the book. So, let me explain a few things, hopefully in a way that doesn’t spoil things for readers.

    First, where the trilogy is concerned. When I finished Ancient Ruins, I made a firm commitment to myself, that I wouldn’t drag the series out. If the story I wanted to tell felt like it needed to be a book longer, I would’ve made it longer. If it had only needed two books, that’s what I would have ended with. For me, that was of paramount importance because I’ve gotten sick and tired of series that seem to go on forever. I wanted a conclusion.

    Now, for the war. You’re right, the war only starts in Halls of Power for real, and it isn’t gone over in enormous depth. The reason for this is simple enough. I’m not an expert on warfare, and I don’t have any friends that I can research it in the necessary depth it’d require to make it too realistic. I tried, and ended up deleting a couple of chapters worth of drivel. Besides all of that, at its essence Ancient Dreams wasn’t a war story. It wasn’t a dungeon story, despite centering around a dungeon, either, or an adventuring story. Ancient Dreams was a romance, with the focus on resolving the threats that imperiled the relationship between Phynis and Sistina. Unfortunately, that led to me having to go rather far afield to deal with the problems at hand.

    Sistina being the main character of a series is tough. Not because she’s powerful, really, but because she’s immobile and powerful. There are threats that can hurt her, sure. There are things that can cause problems as well, but it makes setting up a plot for her in the future really difficult without making the world so chaotic and overpowered that it breaks my sense of immersion. As for her being the World Tree, no, it isn’t really addressed in the story as to what that means. I toyed with putting it into the last chapter or epilogue, but it didn’t play nice with the flow of the story. I’m fairly certain it’ll come up in the anthology, but until then, it’s simply another plot point.

    Now, the Dungeon and the Adventuring Guild. In all honesty? You’re right, the Guild was going to be important to the plot, as I charted it out back at the end of Ancient Ruins. There was going to be a lot more conflict and battles… but then the plot changed as I wrote it. Ulvian chose to take more direct actions that didn’t give some of the opportunities I had planned on, and the Guild faded into the background. Likewise, the Dungeon was simply a plot element. In Ancient Ruins it concealed what was happening as Phynis and the elves finally gained the first seeds of a chance to defeat Kelvanis. In Spells of Old it was the defender and fortress that kept them safe. But defense can never defeat a determined attacker unless their leadership is slain or the subordinates rebel, and unless Sistina turned her mountain into a floating fortress to slowly rumble across the land, she couldn’t attack. Yes, I considered the possibility, but magically it would’ve taken her years.

    Lily… I love Lily. I adore her to pieces. She also wanted nothing to do with the defenses of the city, or war in general. She wanted to be a gardener, and without her the trilogy couldn’t have happened. Lily is the catalyst, and alas, once she played out her role in Halls of Power, unless I decided to have a random gardening scene or such, she didn’t fit into the plot. I was trying to keep focused.

    Wenris betrayed, Ulvian, yes, but until the very end, he didn’t realize it. But he did, at the last.

    Long story short, is there a lot missing from the books? Yes. In part because I was trying to keep the plot focused and moving. I wanted to do tons with Sirshif, the serpentfolk kingdom, Morak, the land of knights, and more with Yisara. I wanted to expand enormously.

    But that wouldn’t have made for a good story, so I ended up leaving those stories for another time.

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  22. Just to chime in on this, I wanted to add a bit Just because the trilogy is over doesn’t mean there won’t be more books in the setting that tie into it. I’m not going to guarantee that they’re going to happen, either. It was something Ben and I chatted about a lot after the first book, where he wanted to take things with the stories. After a lot of discussion, we decided that the best idea was to tell the story and wrap it up, to focus on one story or series of stories before moving on.

    We’re both fairly avid readers, and while it is wonderful to have a story that goes on and on, it can get tiring waiting for the next book, and the next book, and the next, wondering when it will come to a conclusion, when will things wrap up? It also gets frustrating when an author bounces between two or even three series, leaving you hanging for a year or more. It can also be mentally exhausting for the author to change gears, or to try to drive the story forward indefinitely. Hence the decision: one story to completion, at least of that story; one story at a time before (for the most part) to get the stories to the audience while allowing him to take breaks and fiddle with other things; and that there will always be an option to return and tell another story. If we return to Sistina and Phynis, it will be to tell another story that needs to be told, not to drag out their current story forever.

    -Ben’s wife

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  23. I understand your reasoning.
    But I also feel like especially after the first book that the world and the characters up to that point had great potential. ANd in some ways you lived up to that potential and in some you didn’t.

    You are right about that some book series seem never to end or drag on unnecessarily on. BUt the other way is also ture. Sometimes book series are rushed to much. I am undecided if it applies to Ancient Ruins at the moment. This happens especially often in trilogies in my opinion. I think this happens when the author (or publisher) sets himself a limit at three books at the very beginning or after the first book and want or must stick to that limit.

    You did not answer my question about the World Tree. It may be because of spoiler or something else. Would be nice to know.

    I hope you come back to this world.

    WHat you have written about your project Born a Queen sound goot but I am uncertain if it is a story I want to read. It may not my kind of story. I will stay open minded and will wait for reviews before deciding if I want to read it.

    Thanks for your fast reply and for the Ancient Ruins series.

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  24. @Jessica: you have some points right. Waiting for books is tiring. but the same applies for long series as for shorter series.
    It is not necessarily bat when an author bounces between series. One of my favorite Authors does it. And his reasoning for I can follow and fully understand.

    I won’t write the name of the author because I don’t know if Benjamin has anything against ist (Competetion and all that).

    I personally prefer longer series with a ending in sight. I have and still am reading a series where no ending whatsoever is in sight at 20+ books and am getting a little frustrated because the story doesn’t move any forward.

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  25. Sorry about the world tree, it’s… complicated. At it essence, the World Tree is the source of mana in the world. Without it, magic would not function at all. The old world tree was destroyed, but not completely (its roots are still burning), which is why High Magic didn’t function for thousands of years, until Sistina used it. Really, there isn’t a whole lot more to her being the world tree, so it really didn’t come up.

    Also, I was trying not to rush the ending of Halls of Power, but events ended up playing out more quickly than I intended. In my first revision I tried to slow it down some, and voiced the concern that it was too quick to my beta readers, but none of them thought it was too fast. So, in the end it finished with what it did.

    As for Born a Queen… it’s another slice of life/romance in large sections. I’m not going to lie about that part. Most of the story focuses on the people, not their powers. If you give it a shot in the end, I hope you enjoy it.

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  26. Recommend authors if you want. Criticize my writing if you want, as long as you’re not making threats or being a jerk about it. I really don’t mind. In my mind, authors aren’t in a competition. No author can write faster than the vast majority of fans can read, and the world needs more good authors, not less.

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  27. I will say, he’s always looking out for a good author or series to read. We have hundreds of books in the house, and hundreds more on Kindle, and I have no idea how many hundreds more he’s likely read in libraries and bookstores or borrowed from friends. If you have a particular recommendation, always feel free! It’s fun to see what other people are reading and to discuss!

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  28. Your correct that authors can’t write as fast readers read the books. And I am glad for each boolk I find that could be falling into the genres I am interested in at the moment.

    The author that I meant is Christopher G. Nuttall. He is the fastest writing author I have seen until now. I am always wondering how he does it. I only am reading tow series from him. He has short and long series.
    The negative author I don’t want to name.

    Currently I am interested into series with magic. Vefore that it was vampires. ANd who knows what it will be next.

    I alsways have a problem to find new books to read. THis is because I don’t want to read series that are to similar to stories that I have already read. Sometimes I find books where the basic Ideo is the same or pretty imilar and was probably only written becaus the original was popular and successful or the author liked the idea. These stories often feel like bad copies. This doesn’t happen always but I have seen it.

    After I read Ancient Ruins and Spells of old, I have found a few books that have a Dungeon theme that have been written in 2016 or 2017. THis can be a coincidence but I find this strange.

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  29. I can understand that. I personally know several authors who can write something on the order of 5,000 to 8,000 words a day. That utterly shocks me, because my best day ever was close to 5,000, and my average is closer to 2,500 words. I know some authors put out a 50,000 word novel (a little less than half the length of Ancient Ruins) every month. I can’t do it.

    For Ancient Ruins, I’ve never hidden the fact that I read two other dungeon books (Dungeon Born and The Slime Dungeon), and asked myself how I would write a story with a dungeon as the protagonist. While some of the same concepts might be involved, the direction I took my book is, to my knowledge, very different. I also haven’t read any of their subsequent books because their dungeons were just so… well, mean, for lack of a better term.

    I don’t intend to recycle the same idea, though. For my books that I’m planning to publish in the next year or so, I actually started them long before Ancient Ruins, and when I wrote it I stole some of the different ideas and aspects from these other stories. This means I’m going to be re-working some parts of the old stories so they aren’t too similar. Regardless, there are only a limited number of ‘stories’ in the world, in general plot overviews. It’s how you tell it that makes a difference.

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