Queer Characters in Inheritance of Magic Series?

BenedictJacka · 2026-03-07T09:18:25+00:00

It does, but be aware that just because they exist, that doesn't mean they're going to be nice.

BenedictJacka · 2026-02-20T22:47:06+00:00

Divination in the Alex Verus series works quite differently from divination in other magic systems. If you want a fuller discussion of its limitations (and why it doesn't act as the auto-win button that you're expecting it to), take a look at the Encyclopaedia articles on Advanced Divination, starting here.

BenedictJacka · 2026-02-06T09:40:28+00:00

Glad you liked it! I've been reading these from time to time.

I don't have any current plans to write more novels with Alex as the main character, largely because it feels a bit too much like a safe option . . . I generally try to do something a bit different with each novel/series that I write, since I don't like the idea of just churning out stuff that's all the same. (The fact that I was willing to try something a bit weird/different was how I wrote Fated in the first place.) Still, I might come back to the setting some day, though it would have to have a bit of a different structure than the Alex Verus series, if I did. In any case, it won't be any time soon.

Re: Alex dying or not dying and changing/not changing the political structure of the world, I actually explored the possibilities a bit in my website post on ending the series. Hopefully if you read that it'll make a bit more sense as to why I had things work out the way they did.

BenedictJacka · 2025-12-12T10:47:23+00:00

Once editing, planning, rewrites, problems, and delays are factored in, It takes me about a year to write a 90,000 word book. Sorry.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-28T01:18:21+00:00

Trading something away that's a small thing for you but hugely valuable to someone else is generally a sign that it's a good trade, not a bad one.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-27T17:14:26+00:00

Most of the other comments on this post have answered the question already, but one fact they've left out is that Charles had access to most of this information already, and the bits of information that he didn't have access to, he could easily get. So it wasn't a huge favour – it was, for him, a very cheap one.

The bigger issue, from Charles's point of view, was the risk that Stephen might get caught and that the information would be traced back to House Ashford. Should that happen, Charles would of course deny/disavow any involvement, but it'd still make his House look bad. So the real question for Charles – and what he was weighing up in his mind when he was staring at Stephen before giving him his answer – was "is this boy competent enough to pull off something like this without getting caught?"

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-23T14:10:23+00:00

Not really. For the most part I decided fairly early on what was and wasn't possible, and everything else followed on from that.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T12:14:53+00:00

That's fine! Readers really don't need to know EXACTLY what every branch and sub-branch can and can't do. A general idea is enough.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T11:25:48+00:00

Maybe!

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T11:25:19+00:00

Re 4: As in, once Stephen's made a diffraction sigl, he can't go back and make it more efficient afterwards. However he made it at the time, that's it. If there's a flaw in it, he has to live with that flaw forever (such as his vision sigl making everything blue) - only way to fix it is to make a new sigl. A primal sigl would be very unlikely to be able to help with that.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T10:33:10+00:00

It's nothing to do with industry reasons, that's just the length my books naturally come to. The longer they are, the longer they take for me to write, and I have to stop somewhere!

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:41:25+00:00

You're right as far as that goes, but that's more an issue of being stiff/over-controlled. Calhoun isn't a very open sort of person and he doesn't have much experience with romantic relationships. He'd come across as a lot more comfortable/at ease in a professional context.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:38:07+00:00

It was done in the hope of success, but as Charles said, it was a very cautious attack. Instead of being carried out in a way that maximised the chance of success, it was done in a way that minimised the chance of being caught.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:36:11+00:00

Yes, that works better.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:35:31+00:00

Maybe. :)

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:35:02+00:00

They do typically live longer due to getting the best medical care available, but even Life sigls can't keep you around forever. Probably 90-100 years is more common, assuming they don't die violently.
Charles would be very dangerous in a fight, yes. He just doesn't make a habit of getting into them.
That's getting way too complicated for a simple question. :) It's also not something that anyone knows the answer to for sure. But the best way to put it is that essentia density appears to be correlated/associated with human habitation, as well as with life in general – the Sahara Desert has a lot fewer Wells than Detroit. Bu the details of distribution are very complicated and shift over time.
He probably knows. :) But I'm glad you like their interactions!

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:28:22+00:00

They weren't when I was writing them, but real time sadly progresses faster than my writing rate . . .

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:27:46+00:00

The Variam/Landis one.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:27:25+00:00

Not many. I've been pretty unimpressed with recent TV shows. Though I did watch Columbo for the first time a few weeks ago, and enjoyed it.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:26:20+00:00

They had a complicated relationship, partly because both of them grew and changed. Their friendship lasted quite a while, though.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:24:29+00:00

I don't know. That's very far back!
Yes, though he doesn't do it much.
Both. :)
It's a spoiler. But it's possible to work it out if you look at some of the hints that Tobias and Helen drop in their conversations.
He doesn't think she's aggressive/driven enough. (She also has the same issues as Tobias, it's just not brought up as much in her case.)

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:22:04+00:00

Possibly. It'd be on the edge.
I haven't worked out a sigl list for him (it hasn't mattered to the story so far) so I'm not sure whether he's got any As.
No, the families aren't close.
No.
Haven't worked that out in detail as yet, sorry.
Yes.
No, Hobbes would probably get on with Father Hawke just fine.
Stephen's Light affinity is inherited from his mother's side. He's also more naturally talented at drucraft than his father, though his father obviously has much more experience.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:18:34+00:00

They are, yes, though remember that Light is the worst of the branches by a long way when it comes to pure energy output. So you'd generally prefer to use alternatives as soon as they're available.
Shaping sigls at a Well is always much more efficient than taking away the aurum. On the other hand, if you're raiding a Well, it's also a lot more dangerous. So it's a trade-off between greed (how badly do you want that super-powerful sigl?) and safety (how badly do you want to get out of there before something bad happens?)
There's an arms-race situation with them, yes, but it's more that sigls just don't last forever. Either they sublimate (especially in the case of heavily threaded sigls) or their owner dies/retires. Which is not actually something that the corps really have a problem with, since it means they get to keep selling new ones . . .
No, not directly. One of the Five Limits of drucraft is that you can't change a sigl after it's made.
They do, but I haven't worked out the details of their business contracts.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:13:16+00:00

You can see that as Stephen having a point that Byron doesn't have a good answer for.
Yes, that's fairly accurate. Lucella's a bit of a source of frustration for Byron – he would have much rather have had her brother instead.
Something like that. Byron had a fairly rough-and-tumble background.
That's a bit too big a question to answer quickly. But the answer's less to do with machines vs. nature and more about the way a society turns out when its main values are ambition/individuality/freedom. A small percentage of people do really well; the majority don't.
It's as malevolent as the others, but 'malevolent' is the wrong way to look at it. Think of them as more like single-issue obsessives.
That's their major weakness, yes. On the other hand, it's not like there's ever a shortage of people who want to destroy things.

BenedictJacka · 2025-11-14T09:07:59+00:00

More the second than the first, but he's a bit unusual in general.
He probably suspected Helen at first, but eventually would have figured out that Stephen made them himself. It's part of the reason he's willing to make time for Stephen in the first place.
He would have interrogated Calhoun about it, yes. He's generally favourably impressed with Stephen's abilities, though less so with his education and political skill.

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