Dev Edit of Book 1, what to expect from Book 2
About book 1
As of this morning, I finished dev-editing book 1, and I just got done editing the chapters on Royalroad. Lots of copy-pasting. My hand hurts.
I'm sure there's plenty of typos in there, but those are my publisher's problem Ɛ>:)
Don't mind the typos/grammar, those will be picked up, but if you noticed inconsistencies or continuity issues, do let me know. There'll be plenty of rounds of edits with my publisher, and I'll make sure to fix them when we start the process.
Thanks a bunch for your patience. I hope you'll find the edited version a little better. If you'd rather not re-read everything, here's a quick resume (though it most certainly won't cover every little aspect)
Changelog(ish):
Ethan is generally more likable and a bit less of an edge-lord (especially early). He still dealt with many people in mostly the same manner as before, and he's consistent with how he had been portrayed over the last 20-ish chapters. The largest change I can think of is that he gave that dick-ish guy in chapter 1 a box-cutter to free himself before he left him to get his early bird reward. He still considered leaving him stay stuck in the car, but disrespect isn't worth letting someone die.
Arcanum (previously wands) are better structured and have less fluff (removed the mana regen numbers and left only the upgrades, removed the numerical cooldown). The upgrades to their elements are easier to track and follow. Generally, everything about the Arcanums is a little clearer and less obfuscated.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Ember origin is clearer from the get-go. She's from an outside world and that's why she knows what she does. Most of you have probably read the prologue for book 2, so this isn't spoiler: Ember's aware of magic, arcanums and spells, but the interface and system stuff is as new to her as it is new to Ethan.
Fragments are always visible as gold smoke-like thing that emanates either from the body of the dead user or from their summoned Arcanum (if it's still around)
Rifts in general will sortof replaces side-quest, and Ethan gains an extra trait when he finishes this rift (and the rift reward is listed at the same time as the rift challenge). It's also spelled out that there will not be any new side quest for a while. Once he finishes the one he still has, that'll be it.
Ethan spends most of his fragments at the end to bring his third Arcanum to tier-3 and it now also has 3 spellform slots available.
Amanda's motivation is a little clearer. Added a scene where she deals a little with the fallout of getting captured by Edwin's people, and where she wants to go from there. It fits better with how she is behaving in book 2
...
I'm sure there's more I missed. In any case, I feel more confident with this version going to market. Let me know if you like this better!
About book 2
As you start reading book 2, you might notice a couple of small discrepancies when it comes to stats/formatting/equipped spells/etc as I just finished editing book 1, and these had been written a little before that. They will be fixed as soon as I finish editing a book for another story. It shouldn't be anything major.