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D. T. Kane's Epic Fantasy Book Club

D. T. Kane's Epic Fantasy Book Club

Written by: D. T. Kane
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 Each week, D. T. Kane reads from one of his epic fantasy fiction novels and discusses that episode's reading with his listeners. It's like a book club, except he does all the work for you! Currently, we're reading The Acktus Trials, an epic fantasy sent in a world where magic exists only when read from rare books, but anyone able to cast magic is enslaved and never taught to read. Tune in now to find out what happens when a slave named Baztian learns to read and starts an uprising!



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The Acktus Trials, an epic fantasy novel, available now: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/Copyright 2024 D. T. Kane's Epic Fantasy Book Club Art Science Fiction
Episodes
  • Episode 1: D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club, The Acktus Trials, Prologue

    Episode 1: D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club, The Acktus Trials, Prologue
    Jan 28 2022
    The inaugural episode of D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club! Each week, he reads from one of his novels and discusses that episode’s reading with his listeners. It’s like a book club, except he does all the work for you! www.dtkane.com Purchase The Acktus Trials: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/ Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/ *Below is not a transcription, but a copy of my script/notes. I do not read it verbatim during the episode. Intro Hello, I’m D. T. Kane and welcome to my Epic Fantasy Book Club. Today is January 17, 2022. We’ll usually start the podcast by jumping right into wherever we left off reading last week, but since this is the first episode, I thought a bit of an introduction made sense. I’m an epic fantasy author with two series in progress, the Spoken Books Uprising and The Agarsfar Saga. Now, don’t get me wrong. Selling books is great, but I want to get my stories into as many ears as possible. So I figured why not start a podcast and share my stories with anyone interested in listening. Each week my plan is to read one or more chapters from novels that I’ve written and then discuss them with all of you. Think of it sort of like a book club, except you don’t have to do any of the reading or even participate in discussion if you don’t want to. I’ll do all the work for you—you just need to tune in each week and listen! So if you’re an introvert like me and have always liked the idea of a book club, but getting together with a group of people you hardly know and talking isn’t your idea of a good time, maybe this will be more your speed! I plan to give you weekly updates about my current works in process and life in general so we can get to know each other a bit better, so I’ll only give a brief personal introduction now. I’m a lifelong fantasy reader who only recently came to grips with the fact that I’d rather pursue my dream of being a writer than work a corporate day job for the rest of my life. I’ve released two full-length novels as of this recording, with several more on the way this year. I love reading and listening to and dissecting fantasy stories and I hope to get into some great discussions with all of you in the weeks, months, and hopefully years to come. Each week I’ll give some suggested questions for everyone to consider for next week’s episode, and I also strongly encourage listener questions. I’ll also be giving listeners a mini quest to complete at the end of each episode, so make sure to stay tuned through the end for that! Alright, enough introduction. Let’s get into the fiction. Today and for the next, oh, 20 or so weeks, we’ll be reading the first novel in my series, the Spoken Books Uprising, which is called the Acktus Trial. Here’s the back cover blurb: [read back matter of novel] Alright, let’s get into the actual reading now. For those on YouTube, I’ll put a map of Oration up on the screen and show notes, or you can visit dtkane.com/resources. See you on the other side to discuss what we’ve read. As Deckard Cane once said, “Stay a while and listen.” [Read Prologue of The Acktus Trials] Discussion of Prologue Alright, a lot to unpack here in the prologue. Obviously at this early stage we’re going to have a lot more questions than answers. I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum and when I do give a spoiler, I’ll at least try to imply it, rather than simply give something away, but I don’t think it’s really possible for me to have an interesting discussion with you while keeping all my cards entirely face down. I’m sure I’ll be playing around with the format of our discussions, so feel free to send me suggestions on what you like, what you don’t, and what you think I should try. First Sentence Let’s start right with the first sentence (re-read). Lots of info packed in here. We’re in the tower of a Great Library—that’s capitalized, so it must be important, right? And some terrible spell has blown its roof clear off, and apparently our narrator feels that spell is going to have long-lasting ramifications for Oration, which the first sentence tells us is our setting. The land of Oration. How’d I do with that first sentence? Gripping enough? I’d love to hear your thoughts, either in the comments on YouTube or shoot me an email, dtkane@dtkane.com. Names So from the first sentence, we quickly move on to meet the prologue’s perspective character, and he’s got quite the name, or series of names I guess is more accurate. Pront vi Lextor, Librarian of Tome, Prefect of Saltz, Keeper of the Inks, Protector of the Sheafs. Now, at least one of my readers has asked me where I get the ideas for the names in my novels. Well, how about I answer that with a story? I’m a novelist, after all! Now, as of this recording, we’re just about a month removed from the Christmas season here in the US, and when I was home with my parents we watched The Man Who ...
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    33 mins
  • Episode 2: D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club, The Acktus Trials, Chapters 1 and 2

    Episode 2: D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club, The Acktus Trials, Chapters 1 and 2
    Jan 28 2022
    D. T. Kane reads chapters 1 and 2 from his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapters with his audience. http://dtkane.com Purchase The Acktus Trials: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/ Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/ Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription. Welcome back to D. T. Kane’s epic fantasy book club. Today is January 22, 2022 as I record this. Hopefully you’re as eager as I am to discuss the two chapters we just read. I’ve got some great listener questions to go over as well, so let’s hop right in. Personal Update Before we get to the book, just a quick personal update. By the time this episode airs, The Acktus Trials, the novel we’re reading together right now, is available for purchase at most online retailers where you find books, both as an e-book and physical copy, so if you can’t wait for the next 20 or so episodes and need to find out what happens now, or you just want a copy so you can follow along with the podcast, you can get yourself one. As far as my current projects go, Part II of the Spoken Books Uprising is with my editor now, and I expect that to release by the end of March. More details to come on that, so stay tuned. I’ve also just finished my first round of edits on Part III. From there, my process is to print the whole thing out and do a round of edits with a red pen, then enter all those into the computer. Once that’s done, it goes to my editor. If everything says on schedule, Part III should release around midyear, so lots more reading for your enjoyment coming soon. For those interested, Part II is called Declaimer’s Discovery and Part III is called Declaimer’s Flight. And just full disclosure for those of you who are completionists out there, Part III is not the final part. I always try to tell a complete story in each of my books, but the larger story definitely goes on past Part III. ANALYSIS CH. 1 Tax and Baz Alright, let’s jump into our discussion of chapters 1 and 2. And if you have any suggestions for how I can structure our discussions differently in future weeks, definitely send them to me, dtkane@dtkane.com. I have a bunch of notes written down, organized into loose categories–I’m sure if you’re watching on YouTube that you’ll see me glancing off camera at them frequently. But really, I’m just waxing poetic about my own writing here, so I’m definitely happy to hear any suggestions from all of you out there listening. So last week I told you to specifically keep an eye on what the older brother—Yeltax or Tax for short—is teaching his younger brother—Baztian, or Baz for short. A World Where Reading is a Super PowerNow, right off the bat, we have a rather odd admonition–“Reading Books can get you killed.” I know this technically isn’t the first line of the book, since we had a prologue, but it’s the first line of chapter 1, so it’s sort of the first line of the book. I try not to put too much stock in opening lines, but many folks are so obsessed with that flashy opening line it’s hard for me to completely disregard it. I like to think this is a pretty provocative one, and it really speaks to my concept for this novel and really the whole series.This gets us into our first listener question. Linda from New York writes: “D. T., what was your inspiration for the Spoken Books Uprising?” My original inspiration for the Spoken Books Uprising was the idea, “hey, what if reading books was a super power?” And that’s sort of what I’ve done here, right? I mean, it’s not a super hero book, but basically if you can Read, you are a bad ass in this world. It’s the only way to cast magic. I mean, as a lifelong reader and general obsessionist over books, how freaking cool is that? Most people think you’re a nerd if you like reading. Not in Oration–you’re the coolest kid in school!Of course, as neat as that concept is, I couldn’t leave it at that. I needed to complicate matters, because ultimately that’s what stories are. A whole bunch of obstacles between your characters and what they want. So, I thought to myself, “How could I twist this idea of reading as a super power. Ah, what if only certain people can unlock the power of the magic books?” Ok, interesting, so you have a potential upper class of folks who can read, while all the normal people can’t cast magic. Alright, but that’s how many stories with magic are. Not everyone can cast it. Let’s add another layer–not everyone can cast magic from the books, and those who can are enslaved and never taught to read. Oooohhh. Now we’ve got something. You can see a whole culture forming out of that single idea, and it also evokes some pretty strong emotions. These people are born with such an awesome power, but they’re downtrodden and never given a chance to exercise it? OK, there’s a story . In fact, I think there’s a whole bunch ...
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    1 hr and 26 mins
  • Episode 3: D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club, The Acktus Trials, Chapter 3

    Episode 3: D. T. Kane’s Epic Fantasy Book Club, The Acktus Trials, Chapter 3
    Jan 28 2022
    D. T. Kane reads chapter 3 of his epic fantasy fiction novel, The Acktus Trials, and discusses the chapter with his audience. http://dtkane.com Purchase The Acktus Trials: https://dtkane.com/books/the-acktus-trials/ Map of Oration: https://dtkane.com/resources/map-of-oration/ Inspiration for the outside of the Conservatory, Bodleian Library, UK: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprodmigration%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F4154e115-713e-303a-a15f-2ad927668d62.jpg?crop=1500%2C1000%2C0%2C0 Inspiration for inside of the Conservatory, Biblioteca do Convento de Mafra, Mafra, Portugal: https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d1e315ebc0633e661ef2028dea1cd0507dd6c202/0_0_4134_3097/master/4134.jpg?width=1010&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=73f43b9248c47182862f76b8fe1e1d1e Below are my notes/script for the episode, not a verbatim transcription. Welcome back! Hope you all enjoyed chapter 3. A quick personal update, then we’ll get into our discussion. PERSONAL UPDATE Declaimer’s Discovery, Part II of the Spoken Books Uprising, is still in the queue with my editor and I continue working away on my own edits to Declaimer’s Flight, Part III of the Spoken Books Uprising. We’ll be reading each of those together as well once we finish the Acktus Trials. Also, as I said last episode, by the time you listen to this, The Acktus Trials will be available for purchase, but as I record this, I’m in the midst of getting everything ready for release. It’s exciting, but also a bit overwhelming–there’s always one more thing to do, one more error in the manuscript, or one more box to check. I’m also going wide with this book and the whole series, meaning it will be available pretty much everywhere you can buy books, not just Amazon, so a lot goes into getting it setup in at the various retailers. I guess I’ll also spend just a minute discussing just why I decided to do this podcast. I want to be as open and honest as I reasonably can be with all of you, so obviously part of my motivation is to expand my reach so I can hopefully sell more of my books. And this, at least, is a way more fun way of marketing than running ads on Amazon and Facebook. But selling books isn’t my only goal here. I’ve thought long and hard about my writing. For a long time I was in denial about even putting pen to paper, or fingers to keys. Writing was something normal people do. But I’ve realized that’s a bad way to think about it. There probably are some truly blessed writers out there, who just churn out amazing prose without a second thought. But most successful writers don’t ride their talent to success, but their tenacity. Writing a book takes a long time, and most people simply can’t grind it out for the long haul. The fact is, I’d keep writing even if I never make a dime, because I have all these stories in my head and I want other people to hear them, even if they don’t have the money to buy my books. So that’s a big reason I’m doing this podcast. I want to share my stories, hopefully give a few people a good time with them, and maybe inspire a few of you along the way too. If it sells more books, great, but getting my stories out into the world and into your ears is great too, and I appreciate all of you for tuning in. Alright, enough chit chat. Let’s get into chapter 3! ANAYLIS CH. 3 Intro So right off the bat, we’re explicitly told this is ten years later. As a rule, I don’t like giving such express cues–I’d rather work the timing into the text and trust my readers–that’s all of you listening–to be sharp enough to figure it out. But here, I couldn’t think of a good way to do that without spending a lot of otherwise needless words on it, so I gave you this guidepost. So it’s ten years after the episode with Baz’s brother, Deliritous, and Rox in the Reading Room from Chapter 2 from last episode. Baz is running errands for Deliritous, so apparently if Baz did suffer any punishment for what happened that day ten years ago, it hasn’t kept him from remaining Deliritous’s slave. Torchsire’s still poor apparently–as Baz notes, he doesn’t wear silk robes like Speakers from other Libraries. Just ordinary black cloth for him, with a pair of sigils stitched on the front. One is a crossed pair of torches with a book between them. That’s the symbol for Torchsire Library we learn. That seems odd, right? Usually you want to keep fire as far away from books as you can, particularly books as valuable as the ones in this world. We’ll have to wait and see the significance of this symbol. The other symbol on Baz’s black cloak is a dragon , which we’ve already learned marks him as a Destroyer, one of the three types of Speakers. Baz makes a point to lament his lack of a hood on his cloak–the Readers don’t want the Speakers hiding what they are by covering up their brands. This sort of has the effect of making hats a sort of status symbol. As we saw, Deliritous wore a giant hat, ...
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    1 hr and 4 mins
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