Recent content by AJ Stevens

I'd like to offer the flip side of the argument for a shorter year. It doesn't necessarily mean that your planet is closer to the star. A more massive star means more gravity means the planet has to orbit faster means a shorter year. I'm not too hot on the knock-on effects of such an occurrence...

I think this is an important point, and you can certainly relate it back to our own world. Why do people live in the desert on Earth? Resources is the main reason; most obviously oil. A look at what Dubai looked like fifty or so years ago is quite telling. Historically (and still today to a...

Ultimately, you can do what you like without having to really justify it too much. Which is great! Look at Earth; we have all kinds of weird anomalies that make it what it is. From El Nino to the jet stream, to one pole being more covered by ice than the other. All explainable of course, but I'd...

I'd echo what the others said. Is Tatooine a good name for a planet? I don't know; it seems okay. It's different. I have no idea why it's called Tatooine, and I don't really care. Your readers will most likely have a similar attitude, I would guess. I think Phantorian is just fine, but I'd be...

My personal view on this is that it would annoy the hell out of me, and if I picked it up off a shelf and read a page, I'd put it back down again pretty quickly. That's merely personal preference, however, and it doesn't mean it's a bad idea, but I figured you were trying to canvas opinion...

Or a return to this way of living following the collapse of an 'advanced' civilisation, resulting in a (sometimes questionable) loss of knowledge.

In terms of military prowess, I always think dragons are the equivalent of a WWII bomber. Something that is well armoured, capable of flying out of reach that can devastate large areas. Imagine dropping that technology into medieval times. Its wielder would command absolute power. It just so...

Interesting. I'm going to tackle a fight scene from a third person POV over the next day or so, so this contained a few useful pointers.

I've done this is a fair amount of detail. Which isn't to say it's any good, but I'll share it to perhaps give you some ideas. I have a Pantheon which is split into two. The Elemental Gods - Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Life. Then the Younger Gods, which are War, Dreams, Chaos, Time, 'The...

Yes I do. I have a number of vaguely humanoid races in my current WIP. - A race that is human, but with varying degrees of animal physiology. This might range from someone having gills that allow them to breathe underwater, to someone who is more animal than human, which may involve...

Average height and build, short cropped grey hair and blue eyes (which are different to the grey eyes that most of the local population has). Sharp features. Appears to be in his late forties by modern human standards, but he is roughly 150 years old - he's a mage, therefore lives longer than...

Yes, but I'm not imaginative enough to get that bizarre! :)

While trying to keep this free of spoilers, GRRM effectively does this over the course of his first two books, at least with one of the plot arcs.

I think it's extremely hard to do from scratch, and it's inevitable that we end up leaning towards cultures which mirror those we've seen throughout history. It's what we know, after all. Even if you built one from scratch, someone would manage to categorise it into a human culture, whether it...

I think place names tend to fall into one of three categories: They are descriptive, but bear in mind that the language may have been twisted since the initial naming. Also consider that the name may change as the language changes. Consider 'London,' which was named Londinium in Roman times...