.
The Secret of the Sunstones
Book 1:
The Wanton Kingdom
By Jeffrey Howard
- Updated 6-29-2016 -
wan·ton (wŏn-tən)
adj.
1. Immoral or unchaste; lewd.
2. Gratuitously cruel; merciless.
3. Marked by unprovoked, gratuitous maliciousness; capricious and unjust: wanton destruction.
4. Unrestrainedly excessive: wanton extravagance; wanton depletion of oil reserves.
5. Luxuriant; overabundant: wanton tresses.
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods? They kill us for their sport.
- William Shakespeare
Author's Overview / Forward
Hello Final Fantasy Fans and Readers,
This is my first time publishing to this site. I've been working on this project for many years - on and off since 2003. It started as a Fan Fiction for the Final Fantasy IV video game, but evolved into something very different.
I consider it a re-boot or "re-imagining". So what do I mean by that? I think a good example would be what the "Dark Knight" did to the original Batman concept (or if you go back earlier, Tim Burton's 1989 Batman was already a radically new re-imagining). Or consider what Peter Jackson did to the Lord of the Rings series. In my mind, re-imaginings can delve deeper into the concept than what the original works intended. They can bring out darker and more sinister roots, evolve or change the characters, or even fork the plot in entirely new directions.
Final Fantasy IV is one of my favorite games. When I first played it in the early '90s, it blew me away in terms of the richness and structure of the plot. However, since I'm now more than 20 years older and see the world differently, I wanted to go back and see if I can imagine the world of Final Fantasy IV into something more epic, and involved.
Given its gaming roots, I wanted to get some initial feedback from Final Fantasy fans, or even fans of the adventure/fantasy genre in general. Fans of the series will recognize similarities to the original game, but as the story line evolves, things will go in very different directions. My hope is that the reader enjoys these differences, and looks forward to how the plot and characters evolve.
Please feel free to reach out, review, criticize, and join me in discourse on how to make this better. I've seen a lot of great work on this site, and I know that there are avid readers here with extreme amounts of talent and feedback. I hope you will join me in promoting it, assuming you find it interesting enough.
I hope you enjoy my work. Thanks to everyone willing to read it.
-Jeffrey Howard
Updates
This section is to document significant changes to existing chapters. The site already does a fine job updating the story every time new chapters are added, so those will not be listed below. Note that minor updates are made on a consistent basis, based on feedback from beta-readers or reviewers. Those will not be listed below.
7-20-2015: I've updated Chapter 1 with a major revision, courtesy of the help from my beta-readers. I'll be updating them all, eventually.
7-27-2015: I've added beta-reader attribution, below.
8-04-2015: I've updated Chapter 2 with a major revision, courtesy of the help from my beta-readers. I welcome any and all feedback from readers. Hopefully you appreciate all the updates!
9-20-2015: I've been working on Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 revisions. All sections have seen major overhauls, but more to come as I continue to get feedback from my beta-readers.
10-08-2015: Chapter 3 has gone through significantly more polish, based on help from my beta-readers. Thanks to everyone for their inputs!
11-25-2015: Chapter 5 has gone through a major overhaul, which finally completes 6 month's worth of work to refine plot content, dialogue, and story flow of Book 1. From now on (including Chapter 6), all newly posted sections will have already gone through this overhaul process. I plan to perform a final pass-through of Chapters 4 through 6 at a later time to put some final polish on it, but if you haven't read through Chapter 5 in a while, you may want to go back and take a second look. Thanks to all the recent reviewers who provided their feedback. Much of what I see in reviews, I eventually implement into the story. I'm also close to posting the last couple of sections of Chapter 6, which just leaves Chapter 7 for Book 1. Thanks to everyone who have been following the story so far. I hope to see some reviews from some of the lurkers out there. If you're reading this, and you've been reading through the story, it would make my day if you leave a review. :-)
11-30-2015: Chapter 6 has been fully posted. I'll need to take a short break before moving onto Chapter 7. While you're waiting, please leave a review. :-)
1-08-2016: We're in the final stretch! Lots of updates have happened over the last month. If you haven't seen this story in a long time, you'll see improvements in almost every chapter. I'm really excited about the current status, and feel this work has finally met my really high expectations. I hope others feel the same way. Don't forget to leave me some reviews. They really mean a lot to me!
1-12-2016: Did anyone notice? The story has been published, in its entirety! :-D I'll continue to make updates, but only in terms of polish or in response to reader requests. I want to thank everyone who ended up following this work through its posting period, during which I made significant edits as I went (sometimes retroactively). It was an ambitious project, but now I feel I've grown as a writer, and can produce some reasonably good stuff. So, on to Book 2: The Hermetic Tower!
3-31-2016: I've updated the cover art, based on an image I had commissioned by a local artist, Xilia Faye. She's awesome, and I'm happy to pass on her contact information to anyone wanting to hire her. I also updated by reader attribution section below, to include some very important thanks to faithful readers.
6-29-2016: Although the story has been in "complete" status for a few months now, new updates continue to happen! I am still in a process of revisions, and everything through Chapter 6 has seen the latest edits. If you haven't been around in a while, you might want to stop by again. And if you've provided feedback in the past, you may see some of your suggestions now in place.
Reader Attribution
Thanks to everyone who provided all the excellent feedback for this story - especially those who contributed to the astounding 105 reviews on this story! My heartfelt thanks goes out to each and every one of you!
Special thanks also goes to the following, who have provided many sizable in-depth reviews:
- Euphonemes: thank you for the incredible detail and effort you put into each and every section. You deserve huge praise for the degree to which you've advanced the readability of this story!
- Spaceman Spiff: thank you for reading this fanfic from cover to cover, and providing a ton of meaningful reviews - especially the final review that was filled with encouraging compliments and praise. I can't thank you enough for motivating me to continue writing.
- Waging Wonder: thank you for providing numerous reviews filled with very thoughtful ideas. While I was resistant at first, I really feel like the rewrites have had a meaningful impact on the quality of the story, and I am very grateful that you have been willing to follow along and offer them. I hope to have you continue through until the very end!
- Shadow's Interceptor: thank you for being my first beta-reader, and for sticking with me through schoolwork and all your other conflicts. It's a huge help to get the perspective of a Final Fantasy IV fan!
- brycep40: thank you for being my only beta-reader to have made it to Book 2. Your feedback and compliments give me huge amounts of self-confidence!
Thanks to my other reviewers: soulsrepreive, E.J. Wedge, MadamAerith, Reasons of Heart, Trasson, and KorneliusPrisma
I also wanted to thank the following beta-readers, who provided some initial feedback on the first few chapters: Harbinger-of-script, Emiliya Wolfe, HypotheticalEyeball, SilverNight104, Liimbo, StyxxsOmega, GodOfBananas, Flautist4ever, Nord Ronnoc, and Shaldana Blackwater
Thanks for the insight and critical eye. I hope to hear more from you in the future!
I appreciate all of your reviews - please keep them coming! :-)
Thanks again, everyone! I extend my deepest respect and gratitude!
Thank You!
.