The Dark Science Series

by Katriona E MacMillan

How do you write an epic 6 part fantasy series, anyway? Hint: it’s mostly stubbornness.

The Dark Science Series has been a lifelong toil of mine. Not quite, but close enough. I started writing it in University, so at the time of writing this, about 15 years ago or so. That’s a long time to put together a few books.

The Dark Science Series is a high fantasy/borderline horror, easy-reading style story. It’s about how magic left the world: with a bang, not a fizzle. It’s tongue in cheek, dark, and it’s told with a female lead who goes through every kind of trial you can think of to get to the end of the story. She’s not your average heroin. She’s battered and bruised up. I write characters on the cusp of “bad”. The idea is always that people aren’t good or bad, they’re always somewhere in between.

How do you start writing a fantasy series?

Where od you start? That’s the question new writers often ask. There’s an old school belief in script writing that you start with either the character or the plot. It entirely depends on both your writing style and your inspirations.

Dark Science came from an old LARP event I used to attend. It’s so far removed from the system you wouldn’t recognise it, but it retains some characters from that world (with their permission, of course.) I leaned heavily on the Temple of Shadows, a concept from that game. I had my own character, Asa and Captain Echan. The rest was filling in blanks. I knew, at some point, that the characters were going to save the world in a backwards way that many would argue did more harm than good. I knew poor Abigail’s parents died. In fact, the story started there, as a character background for that LARP system that I never stopped writing.

Nowadays, outside of Dark Science, I start stories and novels in other ways. Usually I have the main end plot point in my head. Then I develop a character capable of achieving that goal. The character can’t be capable of achieving the goal at the beginning, you have to mould them into shape as you go through tough circumstances. The better the character ark, the easier they are to write and the more engaging to the reader.

Using Plot as Inspiration

Those who write hard plot will know exactly where the story is going and develop characters to suit their needs. This usually means pages and pages of developed plot points and less focus on the character than the story.

The plot points I had when I first wrote Edelweiss were simple. I knew Abigail’s parents would die, that Stephen would save her, and that they would be firm friends. I knew they’d travel and adventure, I knew they’d eventually find the people they found (no spoilers!), but other points were a surprise to me. Why? Because I am a character writer, not a plotter.

Using Character as Inspiration in Dark Science

I find that the more you round off a character, the better your story moves. You can put that character in any situation and they will fill their role the only way they can… as themselves. I knew Abigail fairly well, although the Abigail you know is very different. The original character was a drunkard sworn to a God of Truth. She couldn’t lie. It was interesting. The group made her a diplomat.

Anyway… the developed version was only ever just a kid. The point was that all of this was placed on her shoulders and she could not take the strain. Abigail isn’t a ‘strong’ person, she’s someone who is barely surviving through the whole 6 book series. If it wasn’t for the people around her, she wouldn’t live past the first few chapters of book 1. So I knew I needed a whole team capable of dragging her through it and keeping her alive. Stephen was born: the idea of a butler who dreamed of bigger things.

Stephen Laurence

Stephen made some sort of promise to Abigail’s father when he was still alive. The Laurence family have served the Jones family for generations. Stephen is next in line. He’s an only child. His own mother is already years gone when the story starts. His father is a stubborn old man. Stephen’s about 18 when the book begins.

Stephen’s character ark is unique in that he goes from the sweet, fluffy headed kid, to the sensible guy who’s “seen some stuff” within the first few chapters. His decision to leave the town is based on protective instincts but it’s also rooted in his need to get out of there. He was never a butler, not really. He was more like a big brother with nothing left to lose. His family was dead. He had only one real connection to the world and he was watching it be destroyed.

By the end of the whole series, Stephen Laurence just isn’t the same. He’s haunted, he’s stronger, he has seen things that no man should see. He’s ordered things he never would have before. The tough choices he makes shape him the whole way through. By the end you realise that his nice guy persona is doing more harm to the people around him than it is doing good.

Greer Dickson

Greer was a complete surprise. I wanted a huntress with them but wrote Siara Teel for the job. Siara annoyed the heck out of me. She shaped herself really firmly early on and in a way I didn’t expect. I knew she’d never be right for Stephen, which was what I’d written the female huntress for, so I had to start again. Greer was who I got when I tried to start again. Up until then, her husband George had been the only Wanderer.

The Wanderer race were a strange arrival, too. The only reason their pack were anywhere near Beeton to begin with was because Samuel Jones studied them for a paper. When we first meet Greer, she’s living under the spell of an alpha that beats her. There are a few moments with Siara and Greer early on where the cultural difference is hugely evident. It’s this difference that first plants the seed in Greer’s mind that things don’t need to be as tough as they are. That love doesn’t come with scars when it’s done right.

Greer’s character ark is to go from a barely-human to essential for the human’s success. She is the caregiver, even though her care comes with a slap on the back of the head and maybe a few fleas attached.

Abigail Jones

Abigail was always going to be the girl that grew up and changed the world. At the start of the series, in Edelweiss, she is almost entirely helpless. This helplessness continues into Valerian, where she goes through massive changes caused by men who want to hurt her. It’s an allegorical tale of caution, of being 15 turning 16 and not being able to trust the people around you.

For two books, Abigail Jones annoyed the crap out of me. She was so whiny and helpless and useless. When you are writing fantasy characters, there is a brand of character known as ‘the squishy’. Squishy characters are easily beaten, don’t have any combat skills of their own, and rely on everyone else to save them. For Edelweiss and Valerian, Abigail was a squishy. She didn’t become fun to write until her trip to Beeton in Quicksilver. Up until then, her ark is to grow, learn, and try not to die.

Armed with these three main characters, I went off on a fantasy adventure that spanned a world, a few epochs, and at least one generation of my own time. We’ll finish this up with a quick rundown of the 6 books, so potential readers know what to expect.

Edelweiss

Part 1 of the Dark Science series sees Abigail lose both parents, her home, and her inheritance. All three characters are hunted across the islands by the Estorans, helped by an epic sea captain and his sidekick, and end up living in a hillside cave with a giant, friendly, magical elf. Abigail gets kidnapped by the Estoran “soulstealers”, the people that killed her parents. Stephen causes merry hell to get her back. It emerges that she might be a genius in the world of Dark Science. Imagine if you could perform scientific experiments with the injection of a little magic? Abigail becomes an alchemist, and the large elf in the forest shows her how.

Valerian

War breaks out, caused by the same people that killed Abigail’s parents and kidnapped her. Stephen has to lead the people once again, an echo of the opening sequence. This time, they’re not his people and it’s not his island. By the time he gets them to safety, we all love him dearly. By the end of Valerian, the sea captain has tried Abigail’s kidnapper – who, by the way, turns out to be another main character – and sentenced him to joining the army. After further appraisal, the rest of the group sees sense in following suit. Before they can recover, the bad guys are at the gates and the town is falling. They leave in a hurry… but not everyone makes it out alive.

Quicksilver

Abigail finally earns her stripes in Quicksilver by hunting down an invisible assassin during Valerian, so now she has a taste for blood. After being pushed to extremes, her temper snaps and cleaves her completely in two. Abigail developed a personality capable of coping with her trauma, and that personality decides it’s time for a rampage. She washes up alone, on an unknown shore, with an unknown enemy attacking her. The shadows – her ever-present watchers – make themselves known. Abigail decides it’s time for her aunt to die and goes off on a quest to kill her. Meanwhile, the others gear up for an attack from across the sea… just because they got to safety doesn’t mean that their situation remains safe.

Iolite

By book 4 in the Dark Science series, Abigail has become a worthy opponent. The bad guys are literally scared of her now. She’s still a healer, but now her second personality can weave shadows into solid shapes. The possibilities for mischief are endless. She decides that it’s time to end this war, once and for all. Ever the little genius alchemist that she is, she develops a method she thinks she can use to heal the death magicians – the kidnappers and rapists and bad guys. She makes plans to go to the island that started all of this while the others battle for their lives in an epic city fight. Stephen Laurence has found himself leading troops by now. Nobody else can survive the Estorans yet he’s fought them and lived with nothing but a handful of civilians and some hope. Before the book finishes, Stephen is shot in the back.

Comfrey

Abigail expected to go to Estora and wipe out the bad guys. She was not expecting to be blackmailed, brainwashed, or beaten for 300 pages. In Comfrey, part 5 in the series, everyone becomes separated. Cobol, fabled hunter and definition of a guy who hasn’t got time for this *hit, has his mettle tested, while Wreather remembers what it’s like to be powerful again. The ongoing battle for Sterling City brings questionable allies through the gates, but with an army threatened by plague and surrounded on four sides, there’s little choice but to work with what they’ve got. What have they got? A furious hunter, exhausted mages, druids hunting one another, and a dead princess. And all that without the Butler Laird.

Oleander

The last book in the series, Oleander ties together all of the former parts. It even has a parallel storyline in the future, so you get to see how the story ends.

As for me? It’s been a long ride. I’m not going to lie… I have already started working on two stand alone books for when these are finished. Don’t forget to check out my short stories, too.

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