BookView Review

Welcome to BookView Interview, a conversation series where BookView talks to authors.

Recently, we talked to Langdon Franz, about his writing and recently released Heirs of the Promise: Book One of the Immortal Arbiter Saga, a seamless combination of fantasy, mystery, and political drama. (read the review here).

In Heirs of the Promise, you’ve created both a new world system and a magic system. What was the process of building all of this from scratch like? 

To put it simply, incredibly satisfying. I knew I wanted a flat world, because they are so rare in fantasy novels. Additionally, I love post-apocalyptic settings and wanted to create a high fantasy world that is slowly dying, forcing the characters to not only confront the rising evil, but do so knowing they are on a time constraint.  

 The magic system of Carvings evolved over time, with most of my time going into developing the limitations and costs of the magic, versus what Arbiters could do with it. I believe the limitations of magic are more interesting and compelling than the magic itself.   

What were your inspirations for this book and series? 

Brandon Sanderson’s three laws of magic was the foundation for my magic system. Ever since picking up the Mistborn series a decade ago, I’ve been hooked on hard magic systems. The Witcher series played a large role in my development of Arbiters. Like Witchers, Arbiters were created to combat enemies of the human race. But what happens when those enemies are considered by the populace to no longer be a threat? What do the Arbiters, whose very existence was defined by a need to defend their land, do when they no longer need to defend it?

The final thing that really inspired this series, and in particular my creation of Kilal, the Immortal Arbiter, was a deep dive into mental health. As someone who has struggled with depression my whole life, I wanted to explore what the psyche of a 200-year-old man with similar issues, experiencing extreme trauma and loss, would look like.  

What has been the most gratifying thing about publishing a novel? 

Definitely hearing from people who have read it and loved it. The reason I write is because I have a story I want to share with others. 

Is there a character in Heirs of the Promise you hold particularly close to your heart? 

Kilal. Absolutely Kilal. Unfortunately, not for his better qualities like being tall, extremely muscular, handsome or immortal. But because of what I mentioned above. He and I share similar mental health issues. Kilal struggles with crippling guilt, self-loathing, suicidal ideations, and acts of self-harm. These are heavy issues, and it has been very therapeutic for me to write about them as they have been something I have kept to myself for about…thirty-eight years. In my experience, depression in men is not something to seek help for or talk about, but it is something to suppress and “get over.” Being able to explore my own experiences with depression through Kilal has helped me understand myself better. 

Was there a sequence in the book that was particularly challenging to write? If so, can you tell us what that was like? 

Kilal’s interaction with Claire towards the beginning of the book required many rewrites as I had to figure out what I wanted the reader to come away with from those sections. Ultimately, it was meant as another way to see Kilal’s immortality. It’s easy to conceptualize it as being unkillable, but it is so much more. Being reunited with a woman he was romantically involved with decades earlier before losing contact with her was meant as another way to view his Immortality. Here he is, not having aged a day, and Claire is close to dying of old age. Not only does that depict a piece of the trauma he endures, losing loved ones while he continues living, but it was also an opportunity to show the softness of his heart. He isn’t just a brutal fighter on the verge of a mental collapse, but a man who has loved many and lost many. And time hasn’t done anything to callous his heart. If anything it has made him value love even more. The difficult part of writing that scene was understanding where the reader will be when they encounter it. It’s very early in the book, so readers may not yet have a strong enough emotional connection with Kilal to appreciate the encounter as much as if it had occurred in book 2 or later in book 1. The first couple of rewrites played more into the tugging of heartstrings, but it just felt forced and flat, which eventually led to the current and final rendition of the scene. 

You studied creative writing at the masters level prior to publishing Heirs of the Promise. Have you always been a writer, and did you always know speculative fiction or fantasy was the genre you wanted to write in? 

I’ve dabbled in writing since I was thirteen years old. Ever since then I knew if I wrote a book, it would be a fantasy novel. Along the way, I’ve completed a novel which will definitely not see the light of day and begun a few more, but Heirs of the Promise is my first completed novel I was proud enough of to seek publication for. 

Who are your favorite authors, or what are your favorite books (or both)? 

Brandon Sanderson and Will Wight are my two favorite authors. Both have been very influential in shaping me into the author that I am today. Will Wight’s Cradle series is my favorite, but most of what Sanderson writes is at the top of my list. 

Heirs of the Promise is the first book in the Immortal Arbiter Saga. Can you give us a sneak peek of what to expect in Book Two? 

It’s hard to say too much without giving away spoilers, but I’ll try! Heirs of the Promise, for the most part, follows only Kilal’s perspective. Book 2, The Tower of Eyes, will include a second perspective, Allyria’s. Additionally, her story will pick up where it left off at the end of Part 2 of Heirs of the Promise, so readers will be able to see what she and her team were up to during Part 3 of Heirs of the Promise. The only other thing I’ll say is that what happens to Allyria during that time will have major ramifications for the rest of the series! Stay tuned! 

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