How To Survive a Summoning 101

[durrendal]

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Tittilating Chapter 19 of How to Survive a Summoning 101! Chapter
19: Surviving Fates .
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[durrendal]

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Chapter 20 of How to Survive a Summoning 101! Chapter
20: Surviving The Other .
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[Namorax]

Hi durrendal, read your story in one go and it's rather interesting.

However, why the "High Fantasy" tag?
If I had to suggest a high fantasy story to a friend, your story wouldn't be on the list I would give. It is dark fantasy, and while it may mirror some aspects of a high fantasy storyline, but it is definitely NOT "high fantasy". Or at least not in the way I define it.
As far as I am aware, a "high fantasy" has clearly defined "good" and "evil", with the protagonist obviously being on the side of "good". They set out on a journey to get a Macguffin and defeat the "evil". Lord of the Ring is often used as a prime example.
HTSAS' protagonist is very, very gray. He admits that he keeps going because of his hatred, and we have seen that he did some downright evil things to accomplish his goals. Even if he "can't help it" because the god(s) screwed with him using their "gifts", he still did things no "hero" would be able to do. Why tag this as "high fantasy"?


Now about the story:
I think you got as bit too slow, at least for my personal tastes. After the fight with the spiremaster-wyrm, everything went kinda... psychological. The focus is on the MC and his (temporary?/current?) female companion and their fight surrounding their individual psyches. I saw in some of your author-notes that you try to show the psychological side of things, but I liked the way you did that during Act 1 better.
(For those who haven't read: The protagonist was slowly changing the way he told the story, until the climax was reached. After that, he regressed and started to unravel. The unraveling is apparently still ongoing).

And they way the story is going, I can't see a happy end for this companion, or anything that doesn't involve a (literal) dead end.
The theme of his third gift is "sacrifice", considering what he plans to get his hands on next, there is no way he wouldn't have to sacrifice anything. Especially since his gift seems to focus on people he values...

In general, your story is interesting to read because it focuses on a different side, but now that it kinda sits centerstage and everything revolves around "how does a person define him/herself" and "how someone else manipulates the mind of another person" I slowly start wanting to skip ahead. Maybe it is because I have to wait for the next chapter, instead of being able to just continue reading as if I had a book.

------------------
TL;DR:
The story is interesting because it emphasises the way the protagonist perceives the world, and how his mind relays the story to the reader and/or himself.
I liked how subtle it was in Act1, but during Act2 it feels like the story doesn't get anywhere because now it is sitting in the middle of the stage with everything revolving around it. And everyone has to progress through the various "stages" without leaving even a single one out.
Also: "Why High Fantasy?! Who put that there!"

EDIT:

Spoiler for those who don't want ANY spoilers, but I still have a question:

So, the Tree uses the Elves (Dryads?) to lure in strong warriors because of "reasons", and after the "trap" is sprung it writes an "ancient magic circuit" thingy into the person it caught with the elf.
What would happen with Rigel? He already got one of these circuits, and from a god on top of that! What was seen of the circuits so far doesn't suggest that people can have more than one in their body, so a semi-divine tree (as in "It is not a god") shouldn't be able to overwrite a circuit personally written by a God.
So, either the "process" will fail and the tree realises something is very wrong and Rigel should be killed ASAP, or... something unexpected will happen.

[durrendal]

Originally Posted by Namorax

Hi durrendal, read your story in one go and it's rather interesting.

However, why the "High Fantasy" tag?
If I had to suggest a high fantasy story to a friend, your story wouldn't be on the list I would give. It is dark fantasy, and while it may mirror some aspects of a high fantasy storyline, but it is definitely NOT "high fantasy". Or at least not in the way I define it.
As far as I am aware, a "high fantasy" has clearly defined "good" and "evil", with the protagonist obviously being on the side of "good". They set out on a journey to get a Macguffin and defeat the "evil". Lord of the Ring is often used as a prime example.
HTSAS' protagonist is very, very gray. He admits that he keeps going because of his hatred, and we have seen that he did some downright evil things to accomplish his goals. Even if he "can't help it" because the god(s) screwed with him using their "gifts", he still did things no "hero" would be able to do. Why tag this as "high fantasy"?


Now about the story:
I think you got as bit too slow, at least for my personal tastes. After the fight with the spiremaster-wyrm, everything went kinda... psychological. The focus is on the MC and his (temporary?/current?) female companion and their fight surrounding their individual psyches. I saw in some of your author-notes that you try to show the psychological side of things, but I liked the way you did that during Act 1 better.
(For those who haven't read: The protagonist was slowly changing the way he told the story, until the climax was reached. After that, he regressed and started to unravel. The unraveling is apparently still ongoing).

And they way the story is going, I can't see a happy end for this companion, or anything that doesn't involve a (literal) dead end.
The theme of his third gift is "sacrifice", considering what he plans to get his hands on next, there is no way he wouldn't have to sacrifice anything. Especially since his gift seems to focus on people he values...

In general, your story is interesting to read because it focuses on a different side, but now that it kinda sits centerstage and everything revolves around "how does a person define him/herself" and "how someone else manipulates the mind of another person" I slowly start wanting to skip ahead. Maybe it is because I have to wait for the next chapter, instead of being able to just continue reading as if I had a book.

------------------
TL;DR:
The story is interesting because it emphasises the way the protagonist perceives the world, and how his mind relays the story to the reader and/or himself.
I liked how subtle it was in Act1, but during Act2 it feels like the story doesn't get anywhere because now it is sitting in the middle of the stage with everything revolving around it. And everyone has to progress through the various "stages" without leaving even a single one out.
Also: "Why High Fantasy?! Who put that there!"

EDIT:

Spoiler for those who don't want ANY spoilers, but I still have a question:

So, the Tree uses the Elves (Dryads?) to lure in strong warriors because of "reasons", and after the "trap" is sprung it writes an "ancient magic circuit" thingy into the person it caught with the elf.
What would happen with Rigel? He already got one of these circuits, and from a god on top of that! What was seen of the circuits so far doesn't suggest that people can have more than one in their body, so a semi-divine tree (as in "It is not a god") shouldn't be able to overwrite a circuit personally written by a God.
So, either the "process" will fail and the tree realises something is very wrong and Rigel should be killed ASAP, or... something unexpected will happen.

Sorry it took me so long to reply. I have been a bit bust with collge and stuff.

Well, I tagged it High Fantasy for the same reasons there is a debate about let's say 'A Song of Ice and Fire' or the Malazan Series. Both this series have really gray protagonists but at the same time are considered High Fantasy because of the otlerworld setting and epicness of scale.

The Psychological bit...it is a temporary bit where they both have some time to think about the stuff in the absence of other external agents. As soon as they get out of their current location, they won't have much time to mull over it.xd

Spoiler for Answer to the question!:

The Tree is a god. I think the latest chapters make that clear(Also the fact that gathering warriors is a defence mechanism of the tree and preparation for a war). Well, a god with an earthly form though. So, it has to either overwrite the circuit or kill Rigel.
Btw, there is another possibility, no? What if the Tree simply exploits Rigel's antagonism towards Zain? He can act as a double-agent without getting a new circuit. Besides, We haven't come across anyone else with a circuit(Except Faeve, an intermediary) so we don't yet know if there is a possibility of more circuits existing within a body.

Again, you see, this is a polytheistic society. It follows that a god might have more than one aspect. Example like Apollo, both sun-god and god of archery. Which means if he was a god in Sangraal, he can inscribe one or both aspects of his godhood as circuits in his vassal. Of course, there has to be conditions for some other god to overwrite the current circuit, one of them is permission from the current god or, someone of his blood/ilk can do it. Apollo's son/daughter might be able to hijack his vassal to some extent because same blood/divinity flows through them.

Now...if only Zain had a vassal or god(s) forbid, a daughter.xd

[durrendal]

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Chapter 21 of How to Survive a Summoning 101!

Chapter 21: Surviving Quiet Days .
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[Namorax]

Spoiler:

Well, doesn't that kinda require those gods to be willing to share their toys?

And the tree kinda gives the impression that it does the lure-thingy because it wants direct control over the warriors it is giving those super-powers. If the goal were just to gather an army... it already has that in the form of the normal sunelves that worship it.

Apart from that, don't worry about answering late. Do it whenever you have time.
As for he Highfantasy bit: I do kinda think that Malazan is a Highfantasy, just a very complicated one with lots of stuff happening at the same time.
But in the end, everything is about the Fallen/Chained God, and the series ends once the cast "did the thing".
As for GoT... I have no idea what exactly the end or goal is. It is just a lot of politics, intrigues, sex, etc... Since there are dragons and magic in it, you can argue that it is the opposite of "low fantasy" (a world that is 99% like earth, only humans but different geography/countries). GoT also has some vague forshadowing about a "big evil" or something that will prolly come from beyond the wall, but at the moment it is definitely not "high" fantasy IMO.

[durrendal]

Originally Posted by Namorax

Spoiler:

Well, doesn't that kinda require those gods to be willing to share their toys?

And the tree kinda gives the impression that it does the lure-thingy because it wants direct control over the warriors it is giving those super-powers. If the goal were just to gather an army... it already has that in the form of the normal sunelves that worship it.

Apart from that, don't worry about answering late. Do it whenever you have time.
As for he Highfantasy bit: I do kinda think that Malazan is a Highfantasy, just a very complicated one with lots of stuff happening at the same time.
But in the end, everything is about the Fallen/Chained God, and the series ends once the cast "did the thing".
As for GoT... I have no idea what exactly the end or goal is. It is just a lot of politics, intrigues, sex, etc... Since there are dragons and magic in it, you can argue that it is the opposite of "low fantasy" (a world that is 99% like earth, only humans but different geography/countries). GoT also has some vague forshadowing about a "big evil" or something that will prolly come from beyond the wall, but at the moment it is definitely not "high" fantasy IMO.

[QUOTE=Namorax;5910486]

Spoiler:

Of course. Unless the god is a very low powered one. In that case, the toy can be just taken by beating 'em. Jokes apart, the god's purposefully introduced loopholes in their covenant. The prime of them being 'Permission'. For example, a god cannot directly use a resident of Sangaal, unless they give explicit permission. So gods would often cause tragedies so people would be like, 'Please give me power, I'll do anything'. Boom! Contract.
But like everything, the circuits also have countermeasures. Removal of circuits is possible belonging that the two powers are of same level or superced the other. Imagine if the Tree gives Rigel a better deal, he might just agree to stop serving Zain and choose the tree.

Okay, I mischose my words. The Sunelves are the regular army, yes. The Aiverns are able to use the Tree's ancient cicuit, hence more powerful. And more importantly entirely subservient generals to the Tree to control the army. In fact, Rigel presents a very annoying problem to the tree. Wonder why only Sun-Elves are chosen as Aiverns? Because, they have been cultually educated/indoctrinated to serve and obey the tree. An outlier presents problems. The control isn't 100% perfect and an outsiders presents a whole lot of trouble. Psychology plays a very important part in the Tree's contract.

[Namorax]

Outsider or not, it is clear that the tree is able to influence Rigel strongly.
One even gets the impression that once the tree is done, Rigel will be no different than a normal sunelf in thrall to the tree. We've only seen one aivern bonding so far, so we can't tell if the... subversion of Rigel's mind is proceeding at a normal pace or not.

[durrendal]

Originally Posted by Namorax

Outsider or not, it is clear that the tree is able to influence Rigel strongly.
One even gets the impression that once the tree is done, Rigel will be no different than a normal sunelf in thrall to the tree. We've only seen one aivern bonding so far, so we can't tell if the... subversion of Rigel's mind is proceeding at a normal pace or not.

I can't answer that without spoiling...but prepare to be surprised!

[durrendal]

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Special Chapter of How to Survive a Summoning 101!

Intermission I: Wrought of Shadows.
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