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John Dalmas

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Journeyman Overlording the Underworld from On a throne in a vault overlooking the Wasteland Since: Nov, 2010
Overlording the Underworld
#1: Apr 24th 2014 at 1:23:49 PM

He's one of my favorite authors. I'm not surprised his work doesn't have much representation on here, considering his stories are fairly low intensity, and tend to have multiple minor climaxes instead of one massive one. They generally also have a religious bent, following something akin to Buddhism instead of Christianity, so in the Western world it's a bit harder to find people who really get into them. But once you do get into them, they're quite fun.

The best place to start, if you're interested in reading his stories would be The Regiment and its sequels. The first one goes into the most depth of any of his books as far as the central ideas his stories work from. They aren't all the same, but they do tend to follow similar guidelines, and The Regiment spells them out and even has a nice chart you can go back to.

So . . . has anybody else read his stuff?

Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#2: Apr 24th 2014 at 2:59:34 PM

Yes! Yesyesyes, and I absolutely love the Regiment series. The care he took in building the whole concept of the T'sel shows so much; not in a Shown Their Work way, but in the seamlessness of it. As far as I can recall, the only thing that approaches a handwave is why the people who don't have the T'sel go catatonic-mad when they try to use the teleporter, and even that is really not too bad

Journeyman Overlording the Underworld from On a throne in a vault overlooking the Wasteland Since: Nov, 2010
Overlording the Underworld
#3: Apr 25th 2014 at 7:22:18 AM

Well, the way I see that is "You're getting broken down into your molecular level, and those with a free attitude about the Universe at large won't panic when they go through it." I don't think we ever see the trip through those gates, we just see what happens at either end.

Unless you count the cover art on the White Regiment, in which case it looks like they're going through the world's Matrix. If you're not familiar with that, Mattie, it's in one of his other books. I'll try to find the title for you. It's another quintessential Dalmas book.

ETA: Found it! The Reality Matrix. I knew the word Matrix was involved.

And have you ever read the Yngling books? They're quite a fun read. They were his first ever. He got into writing because he read the old Conan the Barbarian books, and thought to himself that he could do better. And so the Yngling himself was born.

edited 25th Apr '14 7:24:47 AM by Journeyman

Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#4: Apr 25th 2014 at 7:29:01 AM

That's the way I read it, as well. What I meant by "The closest it comes to a handwave" is that statistically, there should be some people who have a way of seeing/dealing with the universe that's close enough in effect to the T'sel, even if it isn't the T'sel, that they would also be unaffected. And "That's not too bad of one" because even if that's true — that there are some — given the devastating effect it has on the majority, using it on someone in the hopes that they're one of that statistical blip is unconscionable.

edited 25th Apr '14 7:30:39 AM by Madrugada

Journeyman Overlording the Underworld from On a throne in a vault overlooking the Wasteland Since: Nov, 2010
Overlording the Underworld
#5: Apr 25th 2014 at 7:34:23 AM

Indeed. And they tested with so few people that the chances of those tests finding one was probably astronomically low. And that's a good thing, really, seeing as the series was about the T'sel taking hold in the general populace and enlightening people.

Once Standard Technology has been abandoned for a few more decades, I'd expect envoys to cross Garthid space and start trying to enlighten the people in the wrecked portions of space.

Journeyman Overlording the Underworld from On a throne in a vault overlooking the Wasteland Since: Nov, 2010
Overlording the Underworld
#6: Apr 26th 2014 at 4:45:24 PM

The Reality Matrix and The Scroll of Man are two very good standalone books where Dalmas delves into his central ideas. And they seem to be his real world beliefs to a point. On his blog site he has a section discussing the weird things he's seen in the world that contributed to his stories.

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