Hello and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Matthew Ward’s new novel Legacy of Light, the third and final volume in the Legacy Trilogy, which is published today by Orbit. For this post, Matthew has written a fantastic guest blog in which he talks about the experience of finishing this epic fantasy trilogy, and offers up some interesting (and spoiler-free) facts about the brand new Legacy of Light. If you haven’t already, make sure you also check out all the other stops on this great blog tour for reviews, interviews and more guest blogs from Matthew – I’ll include details of where to find these at the end of this article – but for now I’m delighted to hand Track of Words over to Matthew…
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So, today sees the release of Legacy of Light, capstone to the Legacy Trilogy (unless I pull a Douglas Adams and decide the whole ‘three books and done’ thing is more of a guideline than an actual rule). It’s been a long couple of years getting to this point, and a longer two+ decades since the end of what became the Legacy Trilogy first took shape.
It’s been a splendid – and often unexpected – ride. There are still moments, even now, when I look at the three books sitting side by side on the bookshelf (and very lovely they look too, thanks to the art of Larry Rostant and the design by Charlotte Stroomer) and I’m not entirely sure how I got here.
I mean, I know the filthy practicalities of it all – I was there, after all – but there’s still part of it that doesn’t quite jibe. It still feels special to have the trilogy out in the world, I guess I’m trying to say, and long may it remain so. Even us hardened cynics should experience brief moments of wonder, if only to provide something by way of contrast.
One thing I’m still not entirely sure about is why the Legacy Trilogy’s a trilogy. A mean, why is anything a trilogy? Why do we decide to stop and start stories in groups of three? What are we, Minbari? (Obligatory Babylon 5 joke.) It’s strange, and I find myself wondering if there was always this expectation, or whether it’s a distinctly modern phenomenon.
As for the Legacy Trilogy, I don’t think it really became a trilogy until I was pulling synopsis documents together for submission. At various stages before that it was sometimes two books, sometimes four, sometimes just one – because no one’s going to read it, right, so why write any others?
The broad scope of the story was always there, more or less. Definitely the end, some variation on the beginning… As for the middle? Well, the middle has wobbled back and forth over the years, more a series of plot points and character beats. What became the ending for Legacy of Steel was always part of the story, but it could easily have been the inciting moment for a different book, or a different narrative arc.
As for the whole [REDACTED] storyline in Legacy of Light, that was a whole separate book for a while. I mean, insofar as unpublished me was able to estimate these things. Now? Well, I can’t imagine the story playing out any way other than how it has. It wasn’t a trilogy, now it is. And now it is, it can never have been anything else, even when it was.
My head hurts.
Anyway, you’ve been sitting there patiently while I’ve been rambling to myself, and I feel like I ought to offer you a little in the way of engaging content for your trouble, so let me tell you a few fun (spoiler-free) facts about Legacy of Light.
- All told, the final word count is around 240,000 words, the same length as Legacy of Ash and a little bit shorter than Legacy of Steel’s 242,000 words.
- It was written over the course of roughly seven months (November to June), with about five months of actual full time writing (I took most of February off due to freelance work, and the odd week here or there along the way), making it the longest of the three books to draft, as the crow flies, but about the same actual writing time (five and a half months, full time).
- The beginning gave me the most trouble of any of the three books. Not only was I not certain where I wanted to start the story, it took a lot of frustrating back and forth before I was happy with the first chapter. I started in early November last year, but I didn’t have something I was truly content with (especially which characters were present) until nearly a month later.
- The ending, by contrast, was much easier. Though when I started writing I wasn’t 100% sure which characters were going to be present – apart from two or three obvious ones – the characters themselves were kind enough to let me know before I got there.
- My favourite chapter isn’t one with high stakes or bloodletting, but one which is mostly just the characters talking to one another and enjoying each other’s company. Sure, there’s plenty of stuff going on under the surface, but it’s a rare moment of quiet.
- I don’t think I sneaked any weird little Easter Eggs into this one. Must try harder.
- I got weirdly attached to one of the Hadari side characters. I don’t ever feel mean for killing characters off – especially when I know in advance that they’re going to die – but killing this one felt just a little bit mean.
- Once again, I probably identify with one or two of the ruthless characters more than I should.
All told, I suppose I should feel bereft. There are definitely plenty of doors shut and bridges burned at the end of Legacy of Light, but there’s a grand feeling of closure to it all.
That said, the world of Aradane will keep on turning, and characters will go about their lives – we’re just no longer there to watch them. It’s something I feel oddly defiant about, that a story doesn’t encompass the whole of a world – it just lets you live in it for a while. A good story – the best stories – leave a little more to be said, another path to be explored, because that’s what makes them real.
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Cat-servant and owner of more musical instruments than he can actually play (and considerably more than he can play well), Matthew Ward is also the author of the Legacy Trilogy and a roaming Creative Consultant in video game land, titles such as Vermintide 2, [Redacted] and [Redacted] (pesky NDAs).
He’s afflicted with an obsession for old places – castles, historic cities and the London Underground chief amongst them – and should probably cultivate more interests to help expand out his author biography.
After a decade serving as a principal architect for Games Workshop’s Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 properties, Matthew embarked on an adventure to tell stories set in worlds of his own design. He lives near Nottingham with his extremely patient wife – as well as a pride of attention-seeking cats – and writes to entertain anyone who feels there’s not enough magic in the world.
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Thanks so much to Matthew for this brilliant article, and happy publication day for Legacy of Light! If you haven’t already made a start on this brilliant series, I really recommend you give it a go – Legacy of Ash and Legacy of Steel are both fantastic, and I can’t wait to read Legacy of Light. Here are a few links to other articles on Track of Words about this series:
Review: Legacy of Ash
Interview: Legacy of Ash
Interview: Legacy of Steel
Guest post: Legacies, the Power of the Past
Here are the details of the full Legacy of Light blog tour – make sure you check out some or all of these great posts too!
If you would like to get hold of a copy of Legacy of Light, here are a couple of useful links (if you buy anything using one of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details):
Order Legacy of Light from my store on Bookshop.org
Order Legacy of Light from Amazon
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