A&A The Official Dave Wolverton Discussion Thread

Dave Wolverton is author of 'The Courtship of Princess Leia', Episode I Adventures and Star Wars Missions.

Website:
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Discuss Dave's novels and aspects of his writing in this thread. You never know, Dave might drop by from time to time!

 

And don't forget to check out his Runelords novels under the psuedonym David Farland. They're great fun!

BTW, his website is www.runelords.com. You can get in touch with him through his email link there. He's also got cool stuff there.

 

I like Dave's JA #1 book and his short story in the Unicorn Anthology. He's number one on by list of people I'd like to take a writing course from.

 

Check out the writing tips on his webpage...after you read all that, you won't NEED a writing course.

 

His runelords books seem like an entirely different writer. i liked COPL, but at times it got a bit corny, i thougt han was shown as a bufoon and out of character at time, but runelords is an awesome series, i think everyone should give it a try.

 

Thanks for the tip, IAmTheDarkSide, I will.
Has anyone read his The Golden Queen series of books. Are they worth picking up?

 

I've got the first one, I found it in the bargain books section, but I haven't read it yet.

 

I have the second one, but the first one is in our library. I have seen a third one, but haven't bought it yet. I really like CoPL as well, but the title is kinda goofy.

 

The COPL was one of my fav SW books. I've never read any of the others but from what I read in this thread I'll look into this Runelords. The title sounds good!

 

Courtship... is one of my fave SW novels.I loved his use of Rancors.

 

Would anyone want to write reviews of his non-Star Wars books for theforce.net - if so, please Private Message me if you are interested.

 

Could anyone please give short outline to Runelords. Never heard of it but it sounds great. Very interested.

 

Runelords has to do with a special kind of magic. What happens is, people donate certain traits, such as stamina, metabolism, brawn or wit, to others. The donaters are called Dedicates, and the receivers are Runelords. When an endowment is given, example brawn, the Dediate becomes very weak and the Runelord must take care of he or she. Servants usually take care of the Dedicates and they are well protected.

A hitch is that if someone kills a Dedicate, the Runelord loses that endowment and the Dedicate is restored.

The plot has to do with an Earth King and the battle against many things, i will not go into it, but it is very well done.

 

Woverton and his Whiphids...

I swear, he has whiphids in every one of his stories. His Dengar story in Tales of the Bounty Hunters, The Rising Force, and of course Courtship.

 

RuneLords raises a lot of interesting points.

For example, there are these guys called "Days," who each give each other an Endowment of Wit, so they're in each other's head. On of the pair is assigned a noble, and the other sits in their HQ and records the events of the noble's life. It raises interesting moral questions, because the Days obviously know when a noble is going to do something drastic or terrible, but they're forbidden to tell.

Also, there's the concept of "The Sum of All Men," a guy who's gotten endowments from THOUSANDS, and more thousands are chanelled through them, so any wound heals instantly (which is interesting when it also heals improperly), and the person is so beautiful, with such a commanding voice and presence that most cannot resist them, and so smart and so keen and so FAST that it's just about impossible to stand against them.

There's also the question of the morality of taking endowments from animals, and all kinds of other neat stuff.

The Runelords books aren't the best written books out there, but they're so interesting and fun and, best of all, fast-paced that they're definitely worth it.

 

Thanks for the info jedilord and Iamthedarkside!!

 

Dave's non-SW books:

On My Way To Paradise, published in 1989

Serpent Catch, published in 1991

Path of the Hero, published in 1993

The Golden Queen (Book 1 of a trilogy), published in 1995

Beyond the Gate (Book 2 of a trilogy), published in 1996

Lords of the Seventh Swarm (Book 3 of a trilogy), published in 1998

The Sum of All Men (The Runelords, Book 1), published in 1999. Written under the name David Farland.

A Very Strange Trip, published in 1999. I don't know what the deal is with this one, I think it was based on an L. Ron Hubbard story or something.

Brotherhood of the Wolf (The Runelords, Book 2), published in 2000 under the name David Farland.

Wizardborn (The Runelords, Book 3), published in 2001 under the name David Farland.

Revenge of the Scorpion King (The Mummy Chronicles #1), published in 2001, YA

Heart of the Pharoah (The Mummy Chronicles #2), published in 2001, YA

The Curse of the Nile (The Mummy Chronicles #3), published in 2001, YA

Flight of the Phoenix (The Mummy Chronicles #4), published in 2001, YA

 

I liked Dave's take on Dengar. Very good story.

Regarding Courtship, I thought some parts of it weren't fun, like Leia throwing Han over, but Dave wrote some of the most riveting action sequences ever: the attempt on Isolder's life, the whole Nightsister attack on our heros (spanning several chapters!), especially the fight on the balcony.

I also thought that Han saying goodbye to Leia was a real great scene. Very tear jerking.

Freakiest scene: Luke and that little lizard dude talking to him.

 

Iamthedarkside, that book you mentioned, Brotherhood of the Wolf. Is that what that movies is based on?

 

No, it's got absolutely nothing to do with the movie.

 

I just got to say, I really really like Jedi Apprentice #1 The Rising Force!

 

Hello

I am taking creative writing from Dave Wolverton this semester (great guy) a BYU in Utah.

Anyway, he is currently working on getting funding for a Runelords movie - but there aren't many details beyond that right now.

Runelords is an interesting idea - he's actually said he is using the magic system as a way to explore power structures - especially in capatialism - though like Tolkien he shuns the idea of it being an allegory.

The Runelords is one of the top ten fantasy series out there -

My favorite concept in the series is the Reavers - Wolverton/Farland manages to sidestep the common fantasy tropes of elves, orcs and goblins and instead creates a wonderfully detailed new race called reavers - who are apparently evil (except that developments in the third book seem to indicate they aren't all evil).

 

Wolfe you make it sound like you have a class with or he is teaching the class! Do I have either one right?

 

His best novel is On My Way To Paradise. Courtship is the best of the Star Wars novels in my opinion.

I've read the first two Runelords books. A solid series. I highly recommend them.

 

I am taking a Creative writing class from Dave Wolverton.