As a junior professor of physics and computer science, Eric used to enjoy going to parties with grad students so he could watch them drink too much, with the usual levels of mirth associated with that. Afterward, he drove people home and poured them into their residences. (Although, for fun, sometimes into each other’s residences, so they could wake up in someone else’s bed and search for anti-hangover medication.) He also participated in the Society for Creative Anachronism and was something of a sci-fi geek.
After becoming a vampire, his hobbies changed a bit. Eric would love to experiment and playtest his rules for Battle Chess ( click here ), but he doesn’t have enough mundane people for it. He does still enjoy mountain climbing, horseback riding, and swordplay, but they aren’t really hobbies, now—more like survival skills. He’d probably do well at sicaricudo, but he’s been too busy not getting killed to really have much in the way of hobbies.
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Is the mountain rebuilding bronze? You didn’t explain why the mountain was using so much energy you also eluded to the fact that all the flakes of disintegrated bronze disappeared. I figured he would find that the mountain absorbed it all and was rebuilding her. After all his horse was learning to do magic and the mountain did things he never asked for so it should be able to do something like that. Also it seems like his computer is gaining a soul. Not sure but if empty elf bodies can get souls why not over time his mountain or his computer since they start out more sentient than the elf bodies? Also i understand him not wanting to create his religion on other worlds but he might need to so his god side can become more powerful. I kept thinoing his evil half did it and became the god of light that is why he had a hard on to destroy him. Maybe you are taking it in another direction but that was my thoughts. Also will he create a more stable place when he finally talks to the god in the mountain before it all goes away? It would be interesting for the god and the mountain to create a real world that is a ball. Then they could have a real sun and moon to keep it more sensible. One last thing he supposedly doesn’t know how to find things in other universe’s but he already knows that if he starts opening a portal all he has to do is think about what he wants and it opens to that. So why does he not use the same knowledge of finding his evil ball and plug it into a gate as he opens it?
That’s a lot of questions! Most of which are answered… in the next book! (What can I say? I’m a writer.)
While I would love to answer all your questions—and, in fact, I probably will when I finish with Book Five!—answering them here would require a much bigger Spoiler Alert Warning!
However, I can offer this: Eric is an individual. Since the vast majority of the story is told from his point of view, we only really know what Eric knows—or what Eric *thinks* he knows. He is quite capable of being wrong, misinterpreting, or simply never finding out about something.
He also has a nasty tendency to lie to himself. For example, he thinks he’s a terrible king. I think we can agree that he’s no worse than mediocre. Certainly he’s not as bad as he thinks he is.
Bearing this in mind, it *is* possible that some mysteries in the story will have no resolution. If he doesn’t find an answer, we don’t get the answer, either!
But, as I said, Book Five has most of these answers. As for those things it doesn’t answer, it should at least provide clues! (Book Six finishes the formal series and, largely, ties everything up.)