The Grand Illusion
Could you give a run- down on the approximate equivalents for your time references in the Imager series?
The week is seven days, based on the French equivalents: Lundi, Mardi, Meredi, Jeudi, Vendrei, Samedi, Solayi. A “glass” is roughly equivalent to 100 minutes of our time, and a quint is a fifth of a glass. There are five two-month seasons [Winter, Spring, Summer, Harvest, and Fall]. The ten months are Ianus, Fevier, Maris, Avryl, Mayas, Juyn, Agostas, Erntyn, Feuillyt, and Finitas. Each month is thirty-five days long.
Can anything be done to fix SyFy (formerly the Sci-Fi Channel)? Anything good gets cancelled, and only “reality” shows stay on the air.
I have my doubts. The problem is that, in general, reality-style shows cost less to produce than what I’d call more solid shows. These days, everything in the entertainment field is based on attracting the widest possible audience with the lowest possible cost — unless the network/channel has a huge guaranteed audience for a specific show or the show is the very occasional blockbuster designed to drag in a wider audience to justify sky-high advertising rates (directly or indirectly). Even in niche markets, the suits want the widest chunk of the niche with the lowest cost. This pretty much guarantees lots of low-cost, lower quality program with an occasional “show-stopper.” Until these economics fail, I don’t see anything changing, at least not in the near future.
Just finished reading Princeps and was kind of stuck with a question if Quaeryt and Lord Bhayar are all that much different. Maybe it’s just the cynic in me but as time (in the novels) progress they both seem more and more comfortable into manipulating people for the end goals. Perhaps Lord Bhayar was always this comfortable but Quaeryt seems to be able to justify it more and more, he might not like it, but justifying it half the battle. Really enjoyed the novel, and sadly it has been read through, now to wait for the next one……..and wait we shall. 🙂
In the world Quaeryt lives in, you either manipulate, are manipulated, or dead.
Thank you for the description of a quint when referring to time, but how about when referred to as distance? I was trying to think of it as a “fifth of a kilometer” perhaps – about 220 yards? One descriptive sentence referred to a compound as being about two quints wide, so not sure if I was right.
Also, besides a small reference to Veliora’s ancestor always sleeping in a separate room, we haven’t seen anything about Quaeryt’s (or any of the “lesser” imagers) being a danger to others while sleeping. Or will this change as the story progresses?
Always enjoy the books! Princeps may have been the first in a long time where the love interests weren’t together at the end…
A quint in distance would be a fifth of a mille — 400 yards.
One thing you missed was how many minutes/glasses there are in a day.
Also, I’m confused – does the Corean Chronicles series work the same way? I feel as though I remember you writing that that series worked on a ten day week…
As a clarification on how many minutes/glasses there are in a day: I ask because the normal amount of time in a day, (60 minutes x 24 hours = 1440 minutes), does not add up to a 100 multiple…which would imply there’s an uneven amount of glasses in a day, which…is not exactly optimum, haha. So that’s why I ask.
In the Imager Portfolio, there are only twenty glasses in a day, and each glass is 100 of our minutes.
The “week” in the Corean Chronicles is a tenday.
I’ve just started reading Princeps over the last few days and got stuck on the following sentences:
“Have you received any more dispatches?”
The governor shook his head. “I doubt we will for a time, unless we fail to send off the regiments in a fashion Lord Bhayar deems untimely,….”
I’ve read them a few times trying to take in their meaning and could be wrong but it feels like a double negative. If I understand the meaning correctly I would have thought it should be phrased “unless we fail to send off the regiments in a fashion Lord Bhayar deems timely”.
Perhaps I’m reading it wrong. Sometimes I get stuck on things and can’t absorb their meaning.
Your observation is correct.