In Stranger Skies: An Insider's Review

First draft cover design, with art by Ben Wootten

A few hours ago, I completed and submitted the last tiny diagram for +Bruce Heard's Calidar: In Stranger Skies.  In Stranger Skies is the name of the first book for the +World of Calidar — hopefully the first of many more to come.  The layout phase is drawing to a close, and any day now Bruce will submit the book to the printers.

Now that my work on this book is done, I'd like to share my impressions of the project — an insider's review, so to speak.

I've seen a draft, and I have to say, it looks wonderful.  More importantly I have read through everything three times while proofreading, and the truth is that this is why I am so excited about the project: the writing.

Yes, I have been a fan of Bruce's writing and maps for more than twenty five years, and a member of the Mystara online community for seventeen of those, so sure, I'm biased.  But I'm also a picky and discerning reader.  I know what I like and what I don't like, and by extrapolation what is good and what is not.  (As always when it comes to opinions, your mileage may vary.)

Calidar is good.

I always enjoyed the Voyages of the Princess Ark series.  Every month I looked forward to its release, and indeed I bought Dragon solely for that one article.  The months when it didn't feature, I was not happy.  To be fair, I was also looking for articles for BECMI, but the Princess Ark was always my favourite.  Bruce's quirky humour and very current genre references made me smile every time, but the stories also served a purpose in introducing new areas.  The fiction brought everything to life, allowing readers to sample the flavour of a culture, which made the gazetteer sections all the more interesting.

I guess you could say I'm a fan of this rather unique pairing of fiction and gazetteer.

Well, the thing is, Bruce's writing style has matured and improved over the last twenty years.  In Stranger Skies is very much the spiritual successor of the Princess Ark, and there are many similarities.  Some will undoubtedly call it a reboot, although I wouldn't go that far myself.  You see, it's much more than just a reboot: it's a whole new thing of its own.

With Calidar, Bruce has created a whole new universe with its own themes and tropes.  It has some very interesting themes and plot devices built into the story and the setting, such as the Vortex, which allows a limited form of travel between realities; world souls as a source of magic and life; skyships and space travel, including multiple ways to travel the Great Vault; as well as some rather interesting dynamics which shape the relationship between mortals and their gods.

An excerpt from the Great Caldera poster map.  Bruce came
up with a new language, Kragdûras, for the names.

You can see some of this in the short stories which Bruce has already released — and if you haven't already read them, you should — but it'll become apparent just how much there is when you read the main story and its gazetteer.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention another of Bruce's talents: he is great at coming up with names.  Any Mystara fan can attest the linguistic richness and logic of place names in Mystara.  It's no secret how he does this, by adapting real world place names, but it's also something that's very hard to get just right.  For me, as a Tolkien fan as well as a Mystara fan, I have been completely spoiled with great place names, and it's something that continually holds me back from enjoying many other fantasy worlds.  I'm sure I'm pickier than most in this regard, but suffice it to say that Calidar's names just fit.

So yes, the story is wonderful, and the gazetteer section is great.  In fact my only complaint about them both is that they're too short, and left me wanting much, much more!

Art by John Dollar showing the ship's cook — sure to be a fan favourite.

Moving on to other parts of the book: the art is sumptuous.  A total of four artists contributed to the book: Ben Wootten painted the cover art; John Dollar and Savage Mojo did interior art; and Pierre Carles drew the astrolabe which has become the Calidar Publishing logo.  All of these artists have contributed wonderfully to the look and feel of In Stranger Skies and indeed the whole World of Calidar.

My new topographical style in its most zoomed in form.

Obviously when it comes to the maps I am totally biased, but I hope you will enjoy them, too.  As my blog's subtitle suggests, I have made every effort to make Calidar's maps as accurate and consistent as possible.  Every town and city has its own latitude and longitude coordinates, and there is even a special coordinate system for each planet in the Soltan Ephemeris.  I have tentatively called Calidar's "Calidar 2014", although perhaps "Calidar 1512" would have been more appropriate.  You can see these things in the maps with graticules (latitude/longitude grid lines).

I have also developed my own original style for Calidar's topographical maps, which you can see on the Great Caldera poster map, as well as the in-book Kingdom of Meryath map, and the local map of Glorathon's Royal Domain.

Close-up of the Meryath poster map, with all new hex art.

For fans of hex maps, the bonus poster map shows the Kingdom of Meryath in glorious hex format.  It's 100% compatible with all the other maps.

I chose an appropriate projection for each of the maps: Stereographic for the Great Caldera, to show its shapes undistorted; Equirectangular for the world maps, to provide a familiar view; Albers Equal Area for the Meryath maps, including the hex map, to facilitate demographic calculations; and so on.

Of course, none of this matters if you just want to enjoy the maps for what they are.

Looking at everything together, I truly believe that Calidar: In Stranger Skies is a great product.  I am seriously looking forward to talking Calidar with all of you in the coming weeks and months.

You can bet I'll keep you updated on the release schedule.

Thanks for reading!

One last Stretch Goal for Calidar's Kickstarter

Skyship art by Ben Wootten.  I can't wait to
see what he comes up with for Calidar.

Thanks to our incredible backers, the Calidar Kickstarter has just hit the fourth Stretch Goal – five skyship plates by artist Ben Wootten, as I blogged about last week.  Congratulations, everyone!

Now, with 48 hours to go, +Bruce Heard has sprung one last surprise goal: $18,000 for Skyship Deck Plans.

The details are still being worked out, but if we reach this new goal, an artist will be added to the team to create black and white 2D and 3D deck plans for at least three different skyships, including the Star Phoenix.

Bruce has really come through with this last goal.  It's another really great one.  With only 48 hours, it's all up to you now – if you've already backed, tell your friends, share the link, and let's see if we can make it happen!  If you haven't backed Calidar yet, but you're following my blog, what are you waiting for?  It's only $10 for the PDF version of the book.  Come and join in the fun!

Next Calidar Stretch Goal: Skyship art by Ben Wootten

A great skyship painting by Ben Wootten

The World of Calidar Kickstarter has entered its final week.  Thanks to all of our amazing backers, we are speeding towards the next stretch goal: five full colour skyship profiles by the incredible Ben Wootten.

If you're anything like me, your first reaction may be, "That name sure sounds familiar."  And you'd be right: Ben has done work for Weta on Lord of the Rings (check out his biography at IMDB), as well as for Paizo (Artwork by Ben Wootten at the Pathfinder Wiki) and Wizards of the Coast in the RPG industry.  The chances are quite high that you have seen his work in one or more areas.

Ben Wootten, from Weta's interview page

Ben has a degree in zoology, which probably explains why his dragons and other fantasy creatures look so great.  He also does great fantasy character pieces and landscapes, but it's probably his paintings of ships that most attracted +Bruce to add him to the Calidar team.  The painting at the top of this page shows an excellent example of Ben's talent for depicting skyships, and I have collected some of his other ship-related paintings below.

Check out these links for more information on Ben Wootten, and lots more of his fantastic art:

• Ben Wootten: Illustrator and Designer (Portfolio)
• Interview with Ben by Weta
• Ben Wootten's deviantART Gallery
• Ben Wootten Illustration and Design on Facebook

If we can make the $15,500 stretch goal, Ben will produce artwork depicting five skyships, including the Star Phoenix and one for each of the major Calidaran races (humans, elves, and dwarves).

Take a look at Ben's work, and imagine what he could do with these paintings.  Let's make it happen!

All art by Ben Wootten.