Pre-Story Stuff
"I can't live with you,
But I can't live without you!
'Cause I'm in love with you,
And everything about you!"
- Queen, "I Can't Live With You"
Disclaimer: I admit to have shamelessly stolen ideas from following literary works;
C.S Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia"
(A must!)Roger Zelazny's Amber-books
(Shadows: cooler then multiverse)Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere"
(If you're not nice, Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar will get you!)Astrid Lindgren's "Mio, My Son"
(…cut through the hardest of stone!)Michael Ende's "The Neverending Story"
(Another must!)J.R.R Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings"
(Then again, who haven't?)A few episodes of "Babylon 5"
(For cool and inspiring quotes)A good deal of Norse mythology
(More exactly, the legend of Tirfing)And of course Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials"
(Duuuh!)All of these are excellent reading, especially Ende's "Neverending Story". Don't be fooled by the crappy movies! The book is a thousand thousand times better in any way! Oh, and anyone who isn't familiar with the world of Narnia shouldn't even have bothered to read "His Dark Materials" in the first place, so I'll assume you are all familiar with that one.
I must also confess that I have changed large parts of the legend of Tirfing, since I couldn't have Will running around killing people every time he wanted to use it (which is what the original curse was all about).
Will, Lyra, Serafina Pekkala, Mary Malone, Iorek Byrnisson and any other character from the original His Dark Materials trilogy belongs to Phillip Pullman. The rest are to most part mine.
Now, enough of these pointless attempts of saving of my own skin from accusations of plagiarism, let us get on with the story!
But first…
Great Thanks Goes To: John Williams for providing music during the writing ("Rocketeer Theme"), Ludwig von Beethoven for writing his 9:th, which later became "A Song of Joy" and gave me hope during the terrible aftermath of "The Amber Spyglass", Robert Wells and the Rhapsody in Rock-crew for their wonderful version of said song and finally every author I have stolen from (listed above), and especially then Phillip Pullman himself, for all the powerful emotions he invoked in me through his books, for good or for bad.
As always, reviews are very much appreciated.