Introducing Mr Perky:

Subverting the fantasy trope of immortality

in contemporary speculative fiction

Jennifer Ryan

A novel (published under the pseudonym Jennifer Fallon)

and exegesis submitted for the requirements of the
Masters of Arts (Research)

Faculty of Creative Industries

Queensland University of Technology
2009

Key Words
Fantasy, immortal, immortality, fantasy tropes, immortality tropes, desire for
immortality, fiction, genre fiction, publishing, ways to kill immortals, plot device,
Fallon, Canavan, Tolkien.

ii

Abstract
The Tide Lords series of fantasy novels set out to examine the issue of immortality.
Its purpose was to look at the desirability of immortality, specifically why people
actively seek it. It was meant to examine the practicality of immortality,
specifically having got there, what does one do to pass the time with eternity to
fill? I also wished to examine the notion of true immortality immortals who could
not be killed.
What I did not anticipate when embarking upon this series, and what did not
become apparent until after the series had been sold to two major publishing
houses in Australia and the US, was the strength of the immortality tropes. This
series was intended to fly in the face of these tropes, but confronted with the
reality of such a work, the Australian publishers baulked at the ideas presented,
requesting the series be re-written with the tropes taken into consideration. They
wanted immortals who could die, mortals who wanted to be immortal. And a hero
with a sense of humour.
This exegesis aims to explore where these tropes originated. It will also discuss the
ways I negotiated a way around the tropes, and was eventually able to please the
publishers by appearing to adhere to the tropes, while still staying true to the story
I wanted to tell. As such, this discussion is, in part, an analysis of how an author
negotiates the tensions around writing within a genre while trying to innovate
within it.

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Contents
Key Words .......................................................................................................... ii
Abstract ............................................................................................................. iii
Contents ............................................................................................................ iv
Statement of Authorship ....................................................................................... v
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. vi
1. Introduction The Fantasy Definition of Immortal ........................................... 1
2. Methodology - Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole ..................................... 5
3. Literature Review ........................................................................................ 10
3.1 Trope: that immortality is desirable ........................................................... 13
3.2 Trope: that immortals can be killed ........................................................... 17
4. Case Studies ............................................................................................... 19
4.1. Priestess of the White Book 1 of The Age of Five Gods by Trudi Canavan .. 21
4.2. The Immortal Prince Book 1 of the Tide Lords ......................................... 25
4.3. Reflective Case Study - The Gods of Amyrantha Book 2 of the Tide Lords .. 29
5. Conclusion .................................................................................................. 34
6. Bibliography................................................................................................ 36

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Statement of Authorship
The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or
diploma at any other institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis
contains no material previously published or written by another person except
where due reference is made.

Signature ________________________
Date ___________________

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the members of my cohort for their support, particularly
Sonny Whitelaw for writing an exegesis which helped me define my thoughts, Anita
Blake for her advice and Valerie Parv for posting simple but brilliant questions that
helped solve a potential plot problem in the subsequent books that followed The
Gods of Amyrantha.
I must also mention the help of my supervisor, Craig Bolland, for his input and Nike
Bourke, who made our retreat so interesting.

vi

1. Introduction The Fantasy Definition of Immortal

As a writer, I have always laboured under the belief that my creative work
the story I wished to tell and the world in which I wished to set it was
sacrosanct. I have never been averse to new ideas, criticism or editorial input,
because, by and large, it has always served to improve the tale I wished to tell.
If I disagreed with suggested editorial changes, I have been able to defend my
stance and have usually won the argument.
I am also fortunate to enjoy a very close and effective working relationship
with Stephanie Smith, my editor at HarperCollins Publishers, Australia, who has
overseen my previous nine successful fantasy books, all of which were
published by HarperCollins, in Australia, as well as being published in the US,
the UK, Germany, France, and Russia.
In 2005, I sold a new, four-book fantasy series to Tor in the US and
HarperCollins Publishers, Australia. Sold on synopsis and a detailed plot
outline, the overarching premise of the series was immortality. Specifically, it
related to the simplest definition of immortality not subject to death (Collier
1977, 514) rather than allowing my characters an out, or, as fantasy
author Trudi Canavan refers to it: the fantasy definition of immortal (Fallon
2005).
According to Canavan (ibid), the fantasy definition of immortal in
contemporary1 speculative fiction2 presupposes two things. Firstly, that one
desires immortality, and secondly, that immortality means long-lived and not
subject to ageing, rather than the inability to die.
1

In this exegesis, contemporary is regarded as the period in which the work was published or
produced.
2
In this exegesis, speculative fiction is regarded as works of fiction published under current
publishers imprints, such as Voyager, Orbit, Tor, etc., which by their own admission, specialise in
publishing this genre.

Faced with the challenge of creating a world where immortality defied these
suppositions, the first book of the Tide Lords series, The Immortal Prince3, was
submitted to HarperCollins Australia in early 2006.
Following several lengthy discussions with both my agent and my editor, two
issues were identified as follows:
1. The protagonist an immortal desperately searching for a way to die
was unsympathetic. Readers liked the idea of immortality and it
therefore was dangerous to present the idea as being less than
desirable.
2. Because the immortals of this series (who are the enemy of mankind)
could not be killed, the human characters would never be able to kill
them. Therefore, the story lacked hope for a happy ending.
It became clear that this was genre, not literary, fiction, and as such, it must
work within the tropes of the genre. Charles Babbages view of immortality,
expressed as early as 1838, The wish universally felt, and expressed in every
variety of form, to remain in the memory of our fellow creatures... has
sometimes been explained as being founded of an instinctive belief that we are
destined to be immortal..." (Babbage 2007, 82) appeared to be the prevailing
sentiment and my editor at HarperCollins, Stephanie Smith, was adamant
Voyagers readers shared this view (Personal interview, 2006). A rewrite was
commissioned with the request that the manically-depressed, suicidal
immortal protagonist be re-worked so he was more upbeat.

The proposed title of the first book in this series was Suicide of the Immortals but this title was
rejected for being unmarketable.

This suggestion was problematic. Not only would such a change invalidate the
entire premise of the series, but also made the plots of the other three books
to follow redundant.
I do not think this hesitation on the publisher's part to buck the trope of
immortality was intended to force me to produce a work I did not want to
write. Rather, in my opinion, the eager acceptance of my four-book proposal
now seems solid poof of the strength of the trope. It is my belief that my
original proposal, and its implications, were not examined in detail when first
submitted, where my intentions were revealed at the outset.
Rather it was skimmed over, the key words immortals and Jennifer Fallon
identified, and the series purchased on the strength of two key factors: the
immortality trope, a repeating theme that historically always does well in
fantasy, and a named author with a sufficiently sound sales record to take a
risk on a publishable work on the subject being produced.
Only when confronted with a work that defied the tropes did the publisher
express concern. In my opinion, had the proposal been submitted by a less
well-known author, it would have been examined more closely, and these
issues raised prior to the sale of the work, not on receipt of the first
manuscript.
The time frame in which the publishers concerns were identified did not
mitigate the need to address them, however. In order to deal with these issues,
the tropes needed to be defined, and a way around them discovered, that
would allow the story to unfold as I had originally envisaged. Yet it was still
necessary to produce a work that was acceptable to the publishers, and,
ultimately, the readers of speculative fiction.

Any changes to The Tide Lords series would have to be done in such a way that
the rest of the story continued to follow the general path of the series synopsis
and outline, laid down in the original 2006 proposal (Fallon 2006). I had to
explore the consequences of immortality, and some of the practicalities of
living forever, and then present the ideas in a way that left the reader with the
hope that lesser mortals would eventually prevail.
The remainder of this exegesis will firstly examine the sources of the tropes,
secondly examine a work which I believe specifically influenced the publishers
position, and finally reflect on how I was able to add new elements into my
existing story, which acknowledged the tropes, but still allowed me to tell the
story I set out to tell when I first conceived of a series that examined the
dilemmas facing an immortal who truly could not die.

2. Methodology - Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole

For the sake of presenting this exegesis, it would have been very useful if I
had, in order to defend my position, spent three months in a library
researching the literary tropes of immortality in fantasy. It would have been
even more useful if I had then presented a sound academic argument to my
editors, backed up by numerous cited references, which swayed them to my
position with my fabulously researched response.
Alas, this was not the case. The time between the editors at HarperCollins
expressing dissatisfaction with my treatment of the immortality tropes and the
solution being hammered out over a long-distance phone call, was, in fact, less
than a week. This would have been even shorter, had I not sulked for two days
before getting around to discussing the issue. The re-write took another two
weeks, and the amended manuscript was in the hands of the line editor within
a month of the original submission. Such are the pressures of working to a
commercial release schedule planned up to two years in advance.
The discussion that took place between me and senior editor, Stephanie Smith
(Personal interview, 2006), Associate Publisher, Voyager, regarding
HarperCollins concerns about the manuscript was the key element in
developing strategies to buck the tropes. For the purposes of defining the
tropes for this exegesis, I have referred to a number of works on the subject,
but it must be made clear at the outset that at no time, before during or after
the discussion, were any other works about immortality mentioned in any
discussion between the author and the editor.
There are sound reasons for this. Firstly, in my experience, no editor who
intends to keep working in publishing is ever going to tell one author they liked
another authors take on a subject better than the one they just submitted for

publication. Quite the contrary. My career in over the past ten years dealing
with editors in Australia, the US and the UK, suggests that they religiously
avoid mentioning any other authors, even in the most banal terms, other to
remark on their general health and wellbeing. Writers can be fragile,
egotistical creatures and one of an editors functions is to convince the author
they are the only writer in the world who matters, in the belief that this will
elicit the best work from them. Greco (2005) states this need even more
clearly, in his book, The Book Publishing Industry.
An editor must have a keen grasp of standard written English,
communicate quickly and effectively with authors, and remain aware of
the varied needs of authors, many of whom are mercurial, insecure and
rather demanding, if not outright hostile to anyone who dares touch a
single word or comma in a manuscript (Greco 2004, 126).
I have observed that editors want writers to believe they live only to work with
them. I have never had an editor discuss another authors work (unless theyre
long dead, perhaps) because this opens a Pandoras Box of questions about
commercially sensitive information regarding who got the prettier cover, the
bigger advance, and perhaps, most contentiously, the better publicity budget.
Editors are also, in my experience, very clever people. I have never met one
who would willingly step into such a minefield. As a consequence, although a
number of works, both currently in print and long forgotten, are quoted later in
this exegesis to support the definition of the tropes and examine their
influence, the spectre of these works loomed unspoken between us. They were
never mentioned aloud. Greco also comments on this expertise, claiming
Everyone in publishing agrees that editing is an art (and not a science)
(Greco 2004, 126).

The second reason for not referring to these works during our discussion is one
of expedience. When a senior editor with twenty years experience in the
genre, and a spectacular record for picking bestselling authors4, is discussing a
manuscript with an author with nine bestselling titles behind her in the same
genre, there is a vast assumed level of knowledge between the two. Some
editors are generalist, others are specialists (ibid), A fiction editor reads
works issued by competitors, poures over bestseller lists trying to detect
patterns, follows the latest trends in fiction (whether it be serious literary
fiction, experimental fiction, or short stories) and keeps up-to-date with the
journals that publish fiction(ibid).
Thus does it become unnecessary to refer to other works. No more than
Einstein would explain where he learned his multiplication tables when
discussing his Theory of Relativity with a colleague, would a fantasy editor
bother to mention Tolkien, when talking of what the readers expect when they
pick up a story about immortality.
This left me with a dilemma. How to present the solution to a problem defined
in such vague terms as everybody knows, the readers like to see, and
the fans expect in a way that will satisfy the forms of academia? No
market research was presented to support the Editors (or my) position. There
were no studies quoted, no empirical evidence of any kind. Sales statistics are
available on many of these works, but they are often commercial-in-confidence
as well as being useless. You cannot compare the work of JK Rowling to any
other author, for example, because her sales figures are such an anomaly, and
to present an author with an argument along the lines of Rowling did it this
way, and she sold 100,000,000 books, so I think you should consider doing it
that way too is patently absurd, creatively fraudulent and frankly, insulting to
the author and to Ms Rowling.
4

Stephanie Smith discovered (i.e. was the commissioning editor for) Fiona McIntosh, Trudi
Canavan and Jennifer Fallon, among others.

So, the tropes are accepted without being spoken. My editor has no need, nor
inclination, to mention specific works by other authors. We are left with a
discussion that relies on the well-honed instincts of an expert editor speaking
to an experienced author, both of whom accept these assumptions as true,
because their experience leaves them unable to draw any other conclusions.
Greco also speaks of Thomas McCormacks take on the subject, in The Fiction
Editor, The Novel and Novelist, which speaks of this skill set as the ability to
identify what is causing a response within a reader, which can vary from being
unengaged, deflated, frustrated, or baffled by the title in question. This
process leads to the editors inevitable quest to repair the manuscript, which
is no mean assignment (McCormack in Greco 2004, 130).
This notion is not unprecedented in the field of practice led academic
research, either. Acceptance or rejection of a practice or theory comes about
because a community is persuaded. Even research specialists do not judge a
conclusion, as it stands alone; they judge its compatibility with a network of
prevailing beliefs (Cronbach 1988, 6). These prevailing beliefs informed the
discussion that resulted in the changes required to accommodate the
publishers concerns while still staying true to the story I wished to tell.
This dynamic lends itself to an interesting methodological tension between this
exegesis and the accompanying creative work. It would be fraudulent for me to
claim that a literature review or other scholarly unpacking of genre tropes
informed or inflected the creative work. My approach in writing this exegesis
has been perhaps unorthodox in this respect. I have written the creative work,
and then the exegesis, in that order. The dialogue between the works then, is
unidirectional, rather than the kind of dialectic assumed in methodologies like
an action research cycle5 (Brannick 2004, ix). My experience reflects that of
the majority of the participants in Donna Lee Briens 2004 survey of creative
5

Observing and documenting practice; teaching and speaking about it; writing articles and
books; implementing the concept and moving to advanced implementation.

writing RHD students where she found that 90% of respondents completed
later or final drafts of their creative work before they began their exegesis
(Brien 2004). My methodology is more in line with Elliot Mishlers contention
that Rather than relying for their assessments on an investigator's adherence
to normal rules or standardized procedures, skilled researchers depend on their
tacit understanding of actual, situated practices in a field of inquiry (Mishler
1990, 415).
My methodology, then, in creating this thesis has been:
1. Practice led (perhaps to an extreme, where the practice was allowed,
for commercial and other logistical purposes, to lead the non-practice
research).
2. Self-reflective (in that I am analysing the issue after the fact, rather
than allowing the analysis to inform the solution).
That being said, to claim that nothing other than my own self and my editor
influenced the creative practice would, of course, be nave. Writing does not
take place in a vacuum. Part of my reflective approach in this exegesis will be
to examine some of the issues and influences I believe were at play when I was
writing the Tide Lords series.
Methodologically, this exegesis will include a literature review, albeit a brief
one, for the purposes of positioning the reader against the tropes, that ambient
unsaid that existed at the time of my editor and my conversations. I will then
go on to examine a work I am certain influenced my own, because of the timing
of its submission to the same editor just prior to The Immortal Prince being
submitted (even though as previously stated it was never actually
mentioned).

Finally, I will reflect on writing the first two books of the bestselling Tide Lords
series, and how I navigated the tensions between market (both publisher and
reader) expectations, and my own creative goals.

3. Literature Review
From my own creative perspective, and certainly a commercial one, the
subject of immortality is very attractive. It resonates with readers and offers
an infinite array of creative options within which to examine the concept.
Physical immortality is seductive, according to S J Olshansky, in an article he
wrote for the BBC in 2004:
The ancient Hindus sought it, the Greek physician Galen from the 2nd
Century AD and the Arabic philosopher/physician Avicenna from the 11th
Century AD believed in it. Alexander the Great roamed the world
searching for it, Ponce de Leon discovered Florida in his quest for the
fountain of youth, and countless stories of immortality have permeated
the literature, including the image of Shangra-La portrayed in James
Hilton's book Lost Horizon (Hilton 1933), or in the quest for the holy grail
in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Spielberg 1989)
(Olshansky 2004).
The psychology of exactly why physical immortality is so seductive to humanity
is a vast field of study and beyond the scope of this exegesis. My dilemma, in
any case, did not arise from the many reasons psychological, ontological or
theological that humans desire immortality, or even where the tropes
originated.
It was enough that the tropes existed at all, and that I was now required to find
a way around them.

10

Nevertheless, in this section, I will examine some of the sources of the

immortality tropes for the purpose of defining them. I will look at a number of
contemporary works, some of which, such as Tolkiens Lord of the Rings, could
be considered the modern archetype of the tropes notably within speculative
fiction works. I will also look at several other works in the genre produced
since Lord of the Rings first appeared, and several other works, which have
bucked, on the surface at least, the tropes.
In examining peer-reviewed material, aside from Lake and Nestvolds analysis
the importance of tropes within the speculative fiction genre, Genre Tropes
and the Transmissibility of Story (Lake and Nestvold 2007), published in the
Internet Review of Science Fiction, there appears to be a paucity of peer
reviewed articles specifically relating to the application of, and more
importantly, the bending or breaking of, specific immortality tropes in
speculative fiction. Despite this, fear of alienating readers with unfamiliar
concepts, or those that fly in the face of the accepted trope is not unfounded.
Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold argue that when familiar tropes are missing or
unfamiliar tropes present, this can lead readers to reject a story outright
(ibid).
Sonny Whitelaw examines this phenomenon even more closely in her thesis,
The Attraction of Sloppy Nonsense: Resolving cognitive estrangement in
Stargate through the technologising of mythology. In it, she describes the
technique of familiarisation, de-familiarisation and re-familiarisation
(Whitelaw 2008, 3) as a technique to encourage the suspension of disbelief and
the acceptance of the incredible as an everyday occurrence specifically, in
this case, immortals who truly could not be killed. The more grounded the
audience in the familiar, Whitelaw says, the more receptive they will be to
defamiliarisation and refamiliarisation. Subject to the refamiliarisation being
contextually coherent and credible, it provides a solid groundinga new
familiarisationfor further defamiliarisations and refamiliarisations (ibid).

11

According to Joseph Campbell, all human mythology (and by extension, all

speculative fiction) contains two common elements: the recognition of
mortality and the requirement to transcend it (Campbell 1974, 22). This is the
familiar of which Whitelaw speaks. Any successful subversion of the tropes of
immortality requires a firm grounding in the existing tropes, before I could
attempt to subvert it through defamiliarisation and refamiliarisation. This
realisation evolved organically as part of my writing process. It is only now,
after the fact, that my instinctive understanding of this self-evident truth
became apparent.
Lake and Nestvold also support this technique of familiarisation first, to make
the reader comfortable. The tension for the genre writer lies in the balance
between the degree of familiarity of the trope and the degree of novelty of the
writer's innovation within the story at hand (Lake and Nestvold 2007), and
further, when a writer takes up a standard trope, either to serve in its stock
role or to invert it for their own purposes, they are tapping into the traditions
and shared referents of their genre (ibid).
Reflecting on this tension between trope and innovation, particularly the two
tropes my publishers had identified:
1. The desirability of immortality
2. The expectation that immortals can be killed it is useful to look at the origins and pervasiveness of these tropes.
Like Lake and Nestvold, I believe that story happens in the context of the
shared expectations of writer and reader, and the controlled management (or
violation) of those expectations during the course of the narrative (ibid).
The cultural fascination with immortality is pervasive, and a quick survey of
authors who deal with the topic gives some hint as to how the trope has been

12

shaped within speculative fiction. The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction states

almost all eventually favour the prospect (Clute and Nicholls 1999, 616) of
immortality, although the article offers no further definition of the descriptor
almost all. Sharon Scholl, whose 1984 study Death and the Humanities
examines the presentation of death in several modes, discusses the trope of
desirable immortality in a variety of different media. Her book, which
illustrates the diverse ways in which the humanities can express fundamental
human experiences by drawing on visual, literary, and musical sources, states,
Immortality here on Earth, in the avoidance of extinction, has become the
absorbing concern of this century (Scholl 1984, 169). Indeed, Klotz argued
that all works of literature reflect man's obsession with death and his creative
attempts to evade or postpone it (Klotz 1979, 29).
Part of this seductiveness of immortality relates to two specific tropes that
exist in many6 works of speculative fiction on the subject namely, that
immortality is regarded as a desirable state of being, but that immortality is
not necessarily a permanent state of being that immortals may die.
I will now go on to examine these two tropes in more detail.

3.1 Trope: that immortality is desirable

James H Snowden asks in his 2007 book, Can we Believe in Immortality?, is
the hope of immortality planted in the very foundation of our being a true
instinct, or does it really have a glimpse of the green mountain-top of a far
new world?(Snowden 2007, 2). Snowden assumes, as did my editors, that the
desire for immortality is more than just pervasive, but an instinct inherent in
all human beings.7

almost all, if you accept Clute and Nicholls word on it

Although in the case of a publisher one could safely assume that definition to be better defined
as all human beings who read and have a disposable income.
7

13

In his 2003 online paper published by Brown University, Transcending Death:

Mortality and Immortality in Fantasy Literature, Aramphongphan states, The
theme of mortality and immortality, well thought out and sometimes subtly
presented, appears in the works of many well-known figures in fantasy
literature, especially C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien (Aramphongphan 2003).
This trope is further supported by Olshansky in his BBC article Dont Fall for
the Cult of Immortality, where he notes Its unsurprising the human race has
often dreamed of immortality. Just as it reflects the general attitude toward
death, fantasy literature also reflects the desire of becoming immortal. Indeed,
immortality means not having to worry about death(Olshansky 2004). The
Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction dissertation on immortality states
Immortality is one of the basic motifs of speculative thought; the elixir of life
and the fountain of youth are hypothetical goals of classic intellectual and
exploratory quests(Clute and Nicholls 1999, 616). Dr. David Brin, science
fiction author and essayist, in an article originally written in 1999 for AOLs
Online Magazine, iPlanet, remarks on the diversity of authors who have written
on the subject, stating that a number of eminent writers like Robert Heinlein,
Greg Bear, Kim Stanley Robinson and Gregory Benford have speculated on
possible consequences, should Mister G. Reaper ever be forced to hang up his
scythe and seek other employment(Brin 1999).
These authors are weaving once again the seductive web of immortality,
tantalising us with the tale that we all so desperately want to hear, and have
heard for thousands of years - live life without frailty and debility and
dependence and be forever youthful, both physically and mentally(Olshansky
2004).
Here again, familiarisation(Whitelaw 2008) appears as a factor for
consideration, when looking for a way to subvert the trope. Olshansky
describes the seductive web of immortality as something we have heard for

14

thousands of years (ibid). It is familiar and therefore any attempt to subvert

the trope by defamiliarisation must ground the reader in this familiar trope
first.
Aramphongphan goes on to say that works often begin by presenting death as
fearful and portraying immortality as desirable, ultimately they attempt to
transcend death, answering the question why one should not fear it because
death and life form a cycle of life; without one or another, the stage of life
would become incomplete (Aramphongphan 2003).
It is important to note that there are works which treat immortality in a subtler
way than just being desirable. Some authors have explored the complications
and contradictions arising from humans being indefinitely long-lived. I would
argue, however, that immortality is often desirable to the non-immortals, and
its complications are mostly appreciable by immortals themselves.
Lynne Lundquist, in her essay, Living Dolls: Images of Immortality in Children's
Literature, looks at two children's books to show that immortality is not always
depicted in literature as desirable. "Peter Pan and Hetty, Her First Hundred
Years offer two unpalatable prescriptions for achieving eternal life: Peter must
stop thinking and suffers mental stasis, while Hetty must stop moving and
suffers physical stasis" (Lundquist 1996, 204). One way or another, as Lundquist
demonstrates, immortality exacts a heavy price.
The theme of the Tide Lords series examines this point of view. It considers the
argument that mere perpetual existence is obviously not enough (Clute and
Nicholls 1999, 616). In The Immortal Prince (Fallon 2007), the suicidal
immortal, Cayal, articulates his despair to a mortal intrigued by the notion of
living forever. Immortality seems like such a gift at first. But heres the real
problem: you can, given enough time, master any skill, acquire any knowledge
and once its done, there is nothing more(Fallon 2007). The character,

15

Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, from Douglas Adamss Hitchhikers Guide

To The Galaxy series (in Life, the Universe and Everything), having seen and
done everything there is to see and do, solves the problem of his eternal
boredom by dedicating the rest of his existence to insulting every single living
being in the universe-in alphabetical order (Adams 1982, 147).
The public perception of immortality is, in my opinion, best summarised by the
user-created Wikipedia, which offers anecdotal rather than empirical evidence
on immortality: Ultimately, one desires that this existence be of a desirable
quality, the anonymously authored entry in Wikipedia explains. As the
prevalence of suicide suggests, people would often prefer not to exist at all,
than exist in a severely unpleasant environment(Wikipedia entry 2006)8. Even
Tolkiens elves suffered for their longevity. In Tolkien's Middle-earth mythos,
the immortal Elves were said to view the mortality of Men to be a gift. This was
chiefly due to the Elves' clear faculty of memory, which could accumulate
millennia of sad experiences (Wikipedia entry 2006).
Offering any material referenced in Wikipedia is problematic, of course, due to
its unreliability. Ironically, even this has started to filter into speculative
fiction. In Keith R A Candidos novel, Supernatural: Nevermore, Sam and Dean
Winchester approach an academic for his expertise in the works of Edgar Allen
Poe. In response to the statement by the main characters that we did some
research on the poet, the professor in question responds:
Please God, tell me it isnt Wikipedia. I swear that site should be
banned Ive had to give out more Fs because of numbnut students who
think copying an entire Wikipedia page constitutes research...
(DeCandido 2007, 246).

Wikipedias entry on immortality specifically states that the entry is not sourced or referenced.

16

So the site itself has achieved pop-cultural status as a recognisable reference

source hence its inclusion in a TV series tie-in novel even while those using
it as such are questioning its validity (ibid). The mere fact such an entry exists
on a site created and fed by internet users a site so recognisable that it is
quoted in popular fiction reinforces the strength of the trope, and is offered
as a reference only in that context.
Trudi Canavans 2006 work, Priestess of the White, Book 1 of The Age of Five
Trilogy, which has a cabal of five immortals ruling humanity, has her newlycreated immortal lament: I worry about being lonely, Auraya admitted.
Mairae nodded. Everyone fears that, mortal or not. You will find new friends
to replace the old. She smiled. And lovers, too (Canavan 2005 p150).
In Kushiels Dart, by Jaqueline Carey (2003), another fantasy that touches on a
character dealing with immortality, the heroine spends much of the series
trying to release her friend from the burden of immortality, which in his case,
means he continues to age indefinitely, in much the same way as Tithonus, the
immortal granted eternal life by Zeus at the request of his lover Eos, who
continued age until he faded to nothing but a voice. Although at first glance,
this seems to buck the trope, it is the characters relentless and unending
descent into decrepitude that causes his immortality to become a curse.
Immortality, in and of itself, is not the problem, just that he does not seem
likely to enjoy it.

3.2 Trope: that immortals can be killed

This trope in speculative fiction, the acceptance that even though long lived,
or indeed impervious to harm, all immortals must have an Achilles heel, is
pervasive and appears in works as diverse as Bram Stokers Dracula whose
immortal vampires can be killed by a wooden stake through the heart (Stoker
2004) to Tolkiens elves, who can be killed in battle, or by a broken heart.

17

Some authors have found a way around the fact that immortal means living
forever(Collier 1977, 514). They opt for the device of emmortality a term
coined by Alan Harrrington in his 1969 work, The Immortalist, and which was
examined further in his 1977 novel Paradise1. What is usually involved is,
strictly speaking, extreme longevity and freedom from ageing(Clute and
Nicholls 1999, 616).
Other examples of mortal immortals in fantasy literature include the immortal
god Torak, of David Eddings Belgariad series, who can be destroyed by the Orb
of Aldur (Eddings 1983). Moral immortals in fiction, of course, feature far
earlier than this. Homers Achilles, the son of the mortal Trojan king, Peleus,
and the immortal sea nymph Thetis, had a weakness that enabled him to be
destroyed. His mother, Thetis, dipped him in the River Styx to make him
immortal, holding him by the ankle, which proved to be the only part of him
that could be harmed. He is, in fact, one of the archetypes of this trope. His
name or rather his weakness, the Achilles Heel now embodies the trope of
immortals who can die or be killed.
The immortal god Xaphista, in my own Demon Child trilogy, is killed by the
heroine finding a way to make his believers doubt him long enough for him to
become mortal (Fallon 2002), enabling him to be trapped and then taken by
Death. This work, like Eddings, is set in a low-technology, quasi-medieval
world where magic is commonplace.
The trope filters through, however, even to fantasy in a modern setting.
Laurell K. Hamilton's Meredith Gentry series, whose heroine is part sidhe
(elvish), part brownie, part human, and mortal because of her human blood,
lives in Los Angeles where she works for the Grey Detective Agency, which
specialises in "supernatural problems, magical solutions" (Hamilton 2005). In
this fantasy set in a contemporary world, Hamilton writes of an immortal once

18

being killed in combat by her mortal heroine. Blood is exchanged at the

beginning of a duel, which shares her heroines mortality, allowing her to kill
her opponent (ibid). Like Eddings, Hamilton also uses the device of a talisman,
in the sword Mortal Dread, a weapon that can bring true death to immortals.
Similarly, old pagan gods of Neil Gaimans American Gods are engaged in a
battle of survival with the new gods of technology, because they will cease to
exist as people stop making sacrifices to them (Gaiman 2001).
The strongest evidence, however, of the pervasiveness of the immortals can
be killed trope, comes, not from literary works, but from readers themselves.
A promotional competition run on www.jenniferfallon.com in 2006 asked
readers to suggest how they would kill an immortal. Of the 160 entries
received9, only 12 of them did not propose some form of making the immortal
mortal, either through the use of talismans, or emotional manipulation
(Tolkiens dying of a broken heart trope), in order to put an end to him.

4. Case Studies
In a conversation with Stephanie Smith (Associate Publisher, Voyager) in 2003,
she related the following anecdote to me: I swore Id scream, she said, if I
saw another fantasy manuscript off the slush pile that began with a teenage
boy returning to his village after a day in the fields, or goat-herding, or
whatever, to find his village destroyed, so he can set off on a quest to avenge
them. And then Raymond Feists new book came out the other day, and its an
international bestseller and guess what? Thats exactly how it starts. I could
have cried. Well never stop them doing it now(Personal interview 2007). Such
are the tropes of fantasy, and even editors who wish to buck them, know
better.

Can be independently verified by Speculate Pty Ltd

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Sonny Whitelaw faced a similar problem to me while writing tie-in novels for
MGMs Stargate universe. She explains how, by combining aspects of familiar
off-the-shelf novums10 to technologise the creation mythology, the audience
is familiarised, defamiliarised and refamiliarised in a cogent manner, desirable
narrative and character elements are used, restrictions imposed by the
Stargate framework are met, and the newly-created technology is linked to the
broader Stargate framework (Whitelaw 2008, 36). This is, in a slightly
different context, what I found myself having to do with the Tide Lords. I
needed to combine aspects of familiar off-the-shelf immortality novums (i.e.
desirable immortality, immortality with an end in sight) with variations on the
theme, such as limiting the number of immortals who seek death, and giving
hope that one may succeed. In this way, as Whitelaw suggests, the audience is
familiarised, defamiliarised and refamiliarised in a cogent manner, desirable
narrative and character elements are utilised, and restrictions imposed by the
immortality tropes are met.
In the following case studies, I will be examining three works: Priestess of the
white, The Immortal Prince, and The Gods of Amyrantha. These are,
respectively: a work which falls squarely within the immortality tropes I
identified as being desirable; the work I submitted and then modified to cater
for the second trope (the ability to kill a mortal); and finally, the creative work
I undertook while working on this exegesis, which not only covers the first
trope (the desirability of immortality), but also looks at the various devices I
used to subvert the tropes, while appearing to adhere to them.

A novum is a specific plot device, an icon or concept original to an SF story that changes, the
mundane experience based upon some scientific or logical innovations (Johnson-Smith 2005,
25).

10

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4.1. Priestess of the White Book 1 of The Age of Five

Gods by Trudi Canavan
Trudi Canavan is a bestselling Australian author who, in 2005, was offered an
advance of 1,000,000 ($2.4 million AUD) by Orbit for the worldwide rights to a
4 book fantasy series, set in the world of her earlier Black Magician trilogy.
Canavans success is in no small part attributable to the UK sales of her Age of
Five Gods series, the first book of which was published by HarperCollins
Publishers Australia, just prior to the submission of The Immortal Prince to the
same editor. Canavan sent me the manuscript in draft form, prior to
publication, to read and discuss, because she was aware that I was also working
in the same area, with the same tropes, and wanted my input.
In the opening chapters of Canavans 2006 novel, Priestess of the White, one of
the immortal Five, when introducing the selection of a new member of their
ranks, explains to the gathered population: To the one we choose we bestow
immortality and great strength. When our Gift is accepted, another stage of
our great task will be completed (Canavan 2006, 106).
Immortality, in this work, is considered a gift. In fact, it is referred to
throughout the series as a capitalised Gift, in order to emphasise its
importance.
Lip service is paid to the consequences of not ageing as the implications of
immortality begin to dawn on the new immortal, Auraya. Mairae looked
exactly as she had ten years before when she had come to Oralyn to negotiate
with the Dunwayans. This evidence of the Whites immortality sent a shiver
down Aurayas spine. One day, she thought, someone will look at me and
marvel at this sign of the gods powers (Canavan 2006, 195).

21

Ten years would not, in reality, provide evidence of immortality; however,

within the context of this novel, this statement reinforces the consequences of
immortality for the heroine and reminds the reader that not ageing is a part of
the Gift, reinforcing the trope with which the audience is familiar.
As the story unfolds, this issue of immortality becomes problematic. The
tension a writer must build in a scene to engage a reader becomes blunted by
the notion that the character, despite the peril they appear to be facing, is
immortal and therefore not in any real danger. Canavan attempts to address
this issue through expositional question and answer dialogues between her
newly immortal heroine, and others who have previously trodden the same
path.
Is Rian in any danger?
No.
Then why did Juran warn him to watch for a surprise attack? Surely he
cannot be killed.
Dyara crossed her arms. Only if he makes a foolish mistake and he
wont. I taught him well.
So were not invulnerable. Or immortal.
Dyara smiled. Not exactly. Most would say were close enough to it. We
do have limitations (Canavan 2006, 106).
So, despite the constant references to the characters being immortal, by
Chapter 6, Canavan has back-pedalled on the issue. Although she calls her
characters immortal, they are not. They are now firmly back within the
familiar and accepted trope of immortals who can be killed.
Canavan knows her market, knows better than to alienate her readers, and has
a seven-figure advance to prove the efficacy of her technique.

22

I discussed this with Canavan at the time of reading the draft version, pointing
out that one is, technically, not immortal if one can die. Canavan responded by
coining the phrase the fantasy definition of immortal, or what she sees as
the general acceptance by fantasy readers of the fact immortals are immortal
in fantasy, right up until they die. She knows her market and had no intention
of bucking the trope, as her writing bears out. When, during the process of
writing this thesis, I asked her directly why she had chosen to go with the
tropes of immortality rather than try to defy them, she responded, because I
needed them to be able to die for the story to work (Personal interview 2006).
Canavan does not attempt to disguise her adherence to the trope. Her
immortals fear death the same way mortals do. This is text-book
familiarisation. The reader accepts the idea that Auraya can be made
immortal as a Gift from the gods, because in all other respects she has human
emotions the reader can relate to and identify with.
The knowledge hit her [Auraya] like a physical blow. The Pentadrian
could kill her. She felt a wave of terror and hastily created another
shield. Looking up at the sorcerer, she saw him smiling broadly. So much
for immortality, she found herself thinking. People are going to
remember me as the shortest-lived immortal in history! (Canavan 2006,
195).
Having effectively taken away the immortality of her characters, while still
referring to them as such, Canavan can now provide her characters with quite
normal (and familiar) human fears, such as acrophobia, in order to reinforce
the trope.
The stairs were steep, narrow and worn to a dip in the centre of each
tread. She started climbing and was soon breathing deeply. The higher
she climbed, the more disconcerting the drop to the shore became. Wind

23

buffeted her, and she wondered uneasily what would happen to her if
she fell. Dyara hadnt taught her how to survive a fall. Would a
defensive shield like the one used to protect her from a magical attack
also save her from the impact of landing on the sand or rocks far below?
(Canavan 2006, 40).
The technique of limiting a superbeings powers allows the reader to identify
with the character, by making them vulnerable. It is also a convenient plot
device for thwarting omnipotent characters, who, without such vulnerabilities,
would suffer no opposition to their will and therefore rob the characters of any
opportunity to develop or grow within the arc of the story.
Canavan takes this vulnerability one step further by making her characters
immortality a temporary state of affairs. The white ring on her middle finger
almost seemed to glow. Through it, the gods gave her the Gift of immortality
and somehow enhanced her own Gifts In return she gave her will and her now
never-ending life to their service (Canavan 2006, 191).
Removal of the ring reverses the process. In Priestess of the White, immortality
becomes nothing more than a convenient word used to describe a state of
being that temporarily halts the ageing process.
Canavan does not consciously serve the tropes. Market forces and reader
expectation are not issues that need consideration when they are catered to as
a matter of course. Furthermore, true immortality (as in characters who
cannot, under any circumstances, be killed) within the scope of her narrative
would have been problematic and not enabled the progression of the story in
the way the author intended.

24

The tropes, however, have been served. Canavans immortals desire

immortality and they can be killed. Immortal remains an adjective to describe
a concept at odds with its actual meaning.

4.2. The Immortal Prince Book 1 of the Tide Lords

Two problems became immediately apparent during the structural edit of The
Immortal Prince:
1. The main protagonist an immortal desperately searching for a way to
die was unsympathetic. The immortality trope favoured the idea of
immortality and it therefore was dangerous to present the idea as being
less than desirable.
2. Because the immortals of this series (who are the enemy of mankind)
could not be killed, the human characters would never be able to kill
them and therefore the story lacked hope for a happy ending.
During the lengthy, and often fraught negotiations following the structural
edit, a number of other issues were raised, such as the fear that readers would
not relate to a character so determined to end his life. There was no facility
for making new immortals within the current plot, precluding the hope for a
character considering the prospect of immortality desirable from ever
achieving their aim. The trope favoured the mortals in the story attempting to
find a way to join the ranks of the immortals, not wishing to be rid of them,
and my narrative flew in the face of this.
In my previous works, I was known for creating heroes with a great deal more
wit and snappy dialogue (Timmony 2007, 12). The depression so pervasive in
a determinedly suicidal hero did not allow for the kind of wise-cracking

25

dialogue the publishers (and more worrying for them, the buying public) had
come to expect from a Jennifer Fallon fantasy.
The nature of the character, Damin Wolfblade (Fallon 2004), hero of my earlier
Hythrun Chronicles series, had become my own private archetype. This was the
type of character my readers had come to expect, the familiar trope unique to
a Jennifer Fallon novel. Unfortunately, such a personality did not fit the
character of an immortal willing to destroy a world in order to achieve his own
death.
The irony that I was now a victim of my own tropes does not escape me. In
my previous nine published works, I had (quite inadvertently) created a
character type that had become both familiar and popular. To meet reader
expectations, Cayal, the Immortal Prince, the key character in a series where
the entire work was predicated on his desire to end his life, would have to be
more upbeat and less, well, suicidal.
This realisation was problematic. Not only would such a change invalidate the
entire premise of the series, but it also made the plots of the other three books
to follow which had been laid out in synopsis form for the sale of the series
redundant.
Any changes to The Tide Lords series would have to be effected in such a way
that the rest of the series continued to follow the general path of the synopsis
and outline. To explore the consequences of immortality, and the practicalities
of living forever, the ideas must be presented in a way that left the reader
with the hope lesser mortals would eventually prevail. I needed to return to
the familiar, before taking my readers down the path of the unfamiliar.

26

I had an epiphany at this point, and was able to summarise the problem I now
faced in one sentence We need a character that all the male readers want to
be and the female readers want to shag.
Although my editor objected to the crude nature of the statement, I knew I
was on the right track.
The solution became immediately apparent to me. I could not, without
invalidating the entire series, make Cayal less suicidal. But I could add a
character familiar and comfortable who fitted the bill.
I needed to work in a protagonist who fitted the all the male readers want to
be and the female readers want to shag criteria. I needed to create a
character that sat firmly in the middle of the tropes, both the popular tropes
relating to immortality, and my own trope that required me to provide the
perky, likeable hero, readers had come to expect. He could spout all the
snappy dialogue he wanted, without it seeming absurd. After all, this new
character Mr Perky as I began to think of him would not be a character
devoted to trying to kill himself.
The first challenge was finding a way to add another major character to what
was, essentially, a completed work. I overcame this problem by not adding a
completely new character, but by taking a minor character, that of the Kings
Spymaster, and changing his role in the story.
The choice of the Spymaster for this transformation was not accidental. The
occupation of spy has a connotation of danger, the title master implies
expertise and intelligence. By default, the newly named spymaster, Declan
Hawkes was a dangerous and clever man. I renamed him from the blandlymonikered Daly Bridgeman and halved the age of the original character from
a jaded man approaching 60, to a young man of 30, further enhancing his

27

virility. With the stroke of a pen, this new spymaster was obviously smart,
clever and ambitious.
This change required the addition of a new chapter 2 to introduce the
character, and set him up as a major player. It also required the addition of
two other chapters throughout the book to increase his profile. I then gave him
a history of a long friendship and unrequited love for the heroine, further
weaving him into the main story, and making him less and less like the add-on
he was.
To add another layer and deal with the trope of immortals who can be killed
I created a secret organisation within the story, the Cabal of the Tarot, of
which the new spymaster was an integral member.
The Cabals function is to find a way to kill the immortals. Even though I have
made it quite clear in the narrative that these immortals truly cannot die, by
including an organisation devoted to finding one, I was able to acknowledge the
trope. The mortals in the story have hope. More importantly, they have faith.
They believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that they will eventually
prevail. The reader, thanks to the fantasy definition of immortal, believes
the same.
The inclusion of a secret society devoted to destroying the immortals satisfied
the publishers. They believed (and still do, I suspect) that I will eventually
allow my immortals to die, even though I do not intend to allow this to happen.
But while the mortal characters are engaged in finding a way to dispose of
their immortal foes, the trope is (on the surface at least) being served. The
publishers, like the readers and the characters in the story, have hope.
This then was the second of the two tropes that I wished to subvert,
successfully dealt with. The Immortal Prince now offered a story of a suicidal

28

immortal, unable to find a way to die, and an organisation of mortals bent on

the same outcome. Because all the characters believe a solution is eventually
going to present itself, so too does the reader.

4.3. Reflective Case Study - The Gods of Amyrantha

Book 2 of the Tide Lords
As part of the promotional activities to publicise The Immortal Princes release
in March of 2007, I ran a competition on my website, www.jenniferfallon.com
asking readers to submit their suggestions on How to kill an immortal.
I posed the question, still wondering at the strength of the trope. More than
80% of the entries suggested the immortal, if he so willed it, could make
himself mortal, and therefore be killed. Entrants seemed to understand the
concept of immortality while not grasping that it was an irreversible state of
affairs.
The entries11 ranged from the concise
Turn him into a mortal.
To the ridiculous
I would do so many random acts of complete stupidity that the
immortal God would look at me and wonder what the hell he was
thinking creating me. Once he started thinking like that I would
continue doing these things until he got so upset he either A committed
suicide on himself over being so depressed, or B he chose to make
himself human long enough to come down and kill me (since the Gods in

11

Names of entrants have been withheld to protect their anonymity.

29

your books arent allowed) at which point I would turn the table and
well, errr, chop his head off :)
To the well thought out, but ultimately absurd
Immortality is the concept of an infinite amount of time one has to live.
Therefore, immortals cannot die, as it makes the infinite, finite,
completely going against that definition. Immortals cannot be killed by
physical means, nor can they be killed by any known supernatural
means.
But what is the source of immortality? For something to begin, there
must be another beginning. If one takes away the source, the immortal
will not die, but will cease to exist. Ta da! Problem solved.
So, what could be the source?
The source of the immortality is the world itself. Meaning, that the life
source of all the creatures/plants/organisms in existence are all
combined together into one whopping life source for the immortal. The
immortal is using the life source of the immediate plane of existence he
is in to live a long, long, long life.
How to kill him? There is on way to go about it.
He will be the source of his own destruction. The immortal will be so
drunk on his power he will misuse it, and flagrantly kill, pillage, abuse
and wreck havoc upon the world, being the cause of much chaos and
wars. However, little does he know, that with every creature that he
kills, especially human, even the blade of grass he steps on, and ant he
crushes between his fingers, the immortality is leaking away, bit by bit.
As he heads off in the path of destruction, he will, ultimately, kill
everything, and thus as a result himself.
OR
The protagonist discovers that and kills everyone in the world and when
there are only both of them left, the protagonist kills himself and so
saves the non-existent world.

30

This last entry, where the author states Immortality is the concept of an
infinite amount of time one has to live. Therefore, immortals cannot die, as it
makes the infinite, finite, completely going against that definition. Immortals
cannot be killed by physical means, nor can they be killed by any known
supernatural means indicates that the reader understands the concept of
immortality.
The following paragraph, however, indicates that even with such a clear
understanding, they are unwilling to accept that it might be a permanent state
of affairs. But what is the source of immortality? For something to begin,
there must be another beginning. If one takes away the source, the immortal
will not die, but will cease to exist. Ta da! Problem solved.
Combined with the publishers earlier concern over the problem of bucking the
tropes and this definitive evidence from the end consumer, The Gods of
Amyrantha needed to study these concepts in a more practical form in order to
buck the trope, if the word practical can be applied to a work of fantasy
dealing with immortality.
I had dealt with the issue of killing immortals by setting up the Cabal of the
Tarot. But, if I was going to continue to successfully buck the trope of
immortality (one that allows death), and address the first trope the
desirability of immortality, The Gods of Amyrantha would need to set the Tide
Lords series up to examine both aspects of immortality.
By presenting immortality from both a jaded and fresh perspective, I could
examine the trope in some depth, something that I still had plenty of scope to
do within a four book series. Presented in the right format, and in a way that
was character driven, as well as integral to the plot, not only could I avoid the
expositional dialogue used so frequently in Priestess of the White whenever the

31

issue came up, but I could gently coerce the reader and hopefully the editors
into coming around to my point of view.
The desirability of immortality trope, offered a plot problem of some
magnitude. A large part of the story in The Immortal Prince is devoted to the
reason why no more immortals can be made. The novum, which allowed
immortality the Eternal Flame had been extinguished by the Cayal, the
Immortal Prince, I extinguished the Eternal Flame. For that reason alone, it
was worth every life I destroyed to do it(Fallon 2007, 523). With no hope of
making any more immortals, the characters were not likely to be seeking a way
to achieve it, therefore negating the likelihood that they would desire it. I had
also outsmarted myself with the creation of the Cabal of the Tarot, and making
most of the protagonists members of an organisation actively trying to
eradicate immortality.
My task then, in The Gods of Amyrantha, was to address the problem of making
new immortals. I achieved this by first discrediting the immortality-making
powers of the Eternal Flame, giving the act of making an immortal a quasiscientific basis. This technique was used in the Star Wars movies by George
Lucas, when he introduced the concept midi-chlorians (Lucas 1999). By
changing the Force, a mystic energy field that "surrounds and binds us" in the
original trilogy, into a deity by imbuing it with will and suggesting it could
cause immaculate conception(Domenjoz 2000) he justified the act via quasiscience.
By altering the nature of the Eternal Flame, I was able to devalue its purpose
without negating the impact of the story told in The Immortal Prince. In The
Gods of Amyrantha, another immortal reveals that the Eternal Flame was a
deliberate deception, perpetrated by several of the original immortals to
disguise the fact that immortality was a hereditary trait. If one is more than
half-immortal, faced with a traumatic and life-threatening event (i.e.

32

immolation) immortality along with the ability to wield Tide magic would
be triggered and a new immortal made.
This addition was warmly received by the publishers, who were now satisfied
that the tropes had been addressed. It was possible, now, to achieve
immortality. There was hope that if the immortal characters could not be
killed, then perhaps the hero and heroine could join their ranks. And as a final
concession to the tropes, at the very end of The Gods of Amyrantha, Declan
Hawkes (Mr Perky, himself) is made immortal.
This twist at the very end of the book appears on the surface to be pandering
to the trope. But it allowed a close examination of the implications of
immortality in the next book, Palace of Impossible Dreams, from the
perspective of a character yet to decide if the concept is good or bad, whereas
previously, with only Cayals suicidal point of view, I was unable to pursue this
point of view. The publishers accepted this and were satisfied that their
concerns had been addressed.

33

5. Conclusion
The Immortal Prince was published in March, 2007. It achieved a ranking of #7
on the Dymocks National Fiction Bestseller List and spent four weeks at #1 on
their Fantasy/Sci-fi list. The Gods of Amyrantha was released into Australian
bookstores on 22 August 2007, with only minor changes relating to line editing.
Another bestseller, it went to reprint five days later, four days before its
official release date of 1 September 2007.
In December 2007, it was shortlisted in the Aurealis Awards in the Best Fantasy
of 2007 category.
Palace of Impossible Dreams, Book Three of the Tide Lords, was submitted to
the publishers in May, 2007, and accepted with almost no changes, except for a
minor plot inconsistency relating to a particular characters ability to earn a
living. It also achieved national mainstream bestselling status, achieving #8 on
the Dymocks National list and #9 on the Book City National Bestseller list in
April 2008.
The third book, The Palace of Impossible Dreams, continues the theme of the
original series. There is still a suicidal immortal. There is no clear way of
disposing of them. The mortals are facing their rising power and the threat that
their magically induced conflict might eventually decimate them. The story
still centres on the need for Cayal to find a way to die.
Woven through this, however, are acknowledgements of the tropes designed to
re-familiarise(Whitelaw 2008) the reader. By the fourth book, The Chaos
Crystal (submitted to the publishers in May of 2008) - as the series nears the
inevitable ending predicated at the outset by my desire to write a series about
immortals that truly cannot die, I was able to go so far as to have the main

34

protagonist, Cayal, The Immortal Prince, openly acknowledge the trope, and
then explain why he does not subscribe to it:
People want immortality, or at least they think they do, because they
cannot bear the idea of letting go. Those of us who have it, soon learn
its not the gift it appears to mortal eyes, but that day I learned just
how far some men are prepared to go, how much they are willing to
forgive, if they believe it will help them live forever. Fools(Fallon
2008).
With the introduction of a newly-minted immortal, I am able to examine his
new status without the burden of ten thousand years of memories. There is
hope that the heroine may be made immortal, if indeed, it proves too hard to
kill them. And there is hope that they can be killed and the mortals will
prevail.
I have my series centred on a suicidal immortal. HarperCollins and Tor have
their series about immortals who can be made and unmade, not to mention a
perky hero to carry the story.
But if one needs further proof of the publishers unfailing belief in the strength
of the immortality tropes, it can be found in the HarperCollins Australian
Publishing Program for 2007, where the entry for The Immortal Prince and The
Gods of Amyrantha states: from the bestselling author of Medalon and
Wolfblade, comes a compelling epic fantasy quartet about the desire for
eternal life(HarperCollins 2007 P35).

35

6. Bibliography
Adams, D. (1982). Life, the Universe and Everything. London: Pan Books Ltd.
Aramphongphan, P. M. (2003). Transcending Death: Mortality and Immortality
in Fantasy Literature. Rhode Island: Brown University.
Babbage, C (2007). The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise. London: Murray.
Bannick, C. A. (2004). Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.
Brien, D. (2004). The Problem of Where to Start: A Foundation Question for
Creative Writing Higher Degree Candidates and Supervisors.
http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue3/brien.htm
Brin, D. (1999). Do We Really Want Immortality?
http://davidbrin.com/immortalityarticle.html.
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