World FAQ
20 comments Jul 29, 2009 | FAQs, Featured Articles
Is Atlanta the only place battered by the magic waves?
No, the whole world is affected.
What caused the magic to start flooding the world?
I’ll let Kate explain, since I already wrote it once and I’m lazy: “Theory said that magic and tech used to coexist in a balance. Like the pendulum of a grandfather clock that barely moved, if at all. But then came the age of Man, and men are made of progress. They overdeveloped magic, pushing the pendulum further and further to one side until it came crashing down and started swinging back and forth, bringing with it tech waves.
And then in its turn, the technology oversaturated the world, helped once again by pesky Man, and the pendulum swung again, into the side of magic this time. The previous Shift from magic to tech took place somewhere around the start of the Iron age. The current Shift officially dawned almost thirty years ago. It began with a flare, and with each subsequent flare, more of our world succumbed to magic.”
What’s a flare?
Flare is a magic tsunami, a wave of terrible magnitude. It starts as a series of shallow magic fluctuations. During those short waves, the magic never completely falls, coming back stronger and stronger until it finally drowns the world in an enormous surge. Weird things happen during the flare. The magic lasts for three days straight and some really nasty critters come out of the woodwork. The upside to this whole mess is that after the flare, the magic takes a while to return. Weeks if not months.
Does it bother you that you ripped off a “flare” from Robert Jordan’s bubbles of evil on the Pattern in the Wheel of Time series? Because it bothers me.
Terms like Weird, Flare, dhampir and so on are routinely getting used by many authors. “Flare” is not a copy-righted term. There are very few similarities between Jordan’s world and ours, and you would know that if you bothered to read the books.
I have zero tolerance for trolls, especially ones that don’t leave their real names. I’ve logged your IP. If I see you again leaving some sort of skeevy reply, I’ll take out your vowels. Fair warning.
The worlds are so different that there is no comparison. Shall we say the author is also ripping off Kim Harrison and Stephanie Meyers?
i just finished the newest WoT book a few days ago, and re read the KD books last week, and there is nothing that could be considered similar, much less a rip off. Either this is reading comp fail, or someone has to engage the net nanny before smoking the funny stuff.
Yeah admin, you tell em! I’ve read both series’ and I am totally in agreement with you, completely different worlds.
Human nature though, if one person produces something interesting and good, there will be equal parts people loving the experience, and people trying to crap all over it.
I’ll never understand the ones who try to do the crapping, seems pointless to me, but each to their own I guess. Maybe bagging someone else’s work makes them feel better about not having the brains to create something themselves.
all authors, screen-writers, etc borrow ideas from other sources…its called inspiration! Ilona Andrews created a one-of-a-kind fantasy world that is both original & believable. I read constantly, especially in this type of genre, & i think IA has done a wonderful job! much better than u would be able to accomplish, in fact, so if u don’t have anything nice to say, don’t speak! nobody is forcing u to read her books, so if u have a problem, don’t read them anymore. shut-up, & let the rest of us enjoy her great work!
Gosh, WOT fan, I bet you’re pissed that Ilona Andrews uses vampires and werewolves in her stories, too . . . . .
Are you going to go to other cities to find out what is happening there? I truly enjoy the stories and think that Kate and Company need to journey to other cities and battle Roland.
I love your books!! My boyfriend Tiyrecq picked one up at the library and when he finished it I read it and I WAS HOOKED!! I wrote a book myself and I’m working on the sequel…but I’m worried about publishing companies…any advice on knowing a scam company from a real? And I can’t wait for the rest of your books!!! Me and Tiyrecq keep saying how they should be made into movies (that would be GREAT!!)
Hi nicole. Try predatorsandeditors.com I, was told about it by a published author.
I’m also writing a book. Would you like to talk?
Hi i love your books. A friend of mine segested them after i had said i liked Jim Butchers the Dresden Files. I bring this up because I recently discovered that they have made a rpg based in the world of the dresden files and that got me thinking that your world would make a good rpg have you ever concidered working with wizards of the cost to make one. just a thought
I own all the Kate Books and I have the Edge books on my To Read list My question is how did so many magic institution reach the mature level so rapidly? The order has an academy which implies professors and a body of research and I wonder how that to developed so quickly. By way of contrast The Untied States Army did not set up a military Academy until 1802 26 years after the creation of the Republic and military science had a body of knowledge reaching back centuries.With the cyclical nature of the flares (btw that WOT guy of way out of line) there would have been a period of confusion and uncertainly before the realization that a fundamental change was under way This has been a recurrent question to me since i began reading the books
I kind of figured it was Roland, he was probably an owner of some c operation pre- first flare, and when the magic hit he had a plan of action on how to go about profiting from it.
I have a similar question. Kate professes confusion when she meets that really old vampire and there are other situations when age is a factor. I know magic has always existed, but what did the Pack do before magic got the upper hand? Did they hide themselves? I love this world very much, but darn my analytical mind. I have to tear things apart and analyze them. I just don’t see Mahon hiding who he is, or Aunt B.
the whole 30 years shift thing has bothered me as well. I remember somewhere i think in the first book where 200 years ago tech was supposed to be firmly in place, so could be possible that the shift happened 30 years ago but magic started seeping back in before that? strong organizations coming about like the order in only 30 years would be possible but only if they had a strong knowledge base before hand, the us military academy would be a good example. The other thing i wondered about is how do people eat. Its mentioned that the forests reclaimed most outlying areas, specifically farms. It would seem that since the viability of 6 billions people being on earth is mostly dependant on some level of consistent technology and lots of cleared farm land, the kate daniels world would have suffered a severe decline in population.
about electronics, i remember you explained something along the line that since people generally understand cars, they don’t work, and since they don’t understand telephones, they do work in magic, so my question is how come stuff like the internet dosent work? since its even less comprehensible the telephones
I love your books! Are you going to release the audio books for Magic bleeds and any future titles in Australia? I have the first three on audio & would like the 4th one as well – great to listen to on the walk to work!
Probably because people are used to the internet blinking out and computers crashing. The phone, on the other hand, works pretty much all the time. Note that most (all?) the phones we see being used are landlines since cell phones are just as flakey as computers.
The internet might seem magical, but it’s not reliable. So, magic comes and people are saying to themselves “well, darn, there goes the internet..” and so, there it goes.
Are you going to publish a time-line of Kate Daniels world anytime soon? You gave a hard date (2024) in Magic Strikes, so I’m guessing the series starts sometime in 2040. I’m very interested in Alternate Universe stories, and like to try and figure out when their world starts to seperate from ours.
I hope someone makes a map of this universe’s Atlanta. I’d do it if I can, I just don’t have the skills. haha