The following is a Twitter thread that Glynn posted on the day of the release of A Darker Magic, book 10 in Starship’s Mage.
- Starship’s Mage was originally written as a short story. I think it was 5500 words long. My then-agent suggested turning it into something longer, which became Episode 1 of Starship’s Mage (the first 27,000 words of Starship’s Mage, now)
- Alaura Stealey was originally envisaged as this grizzled badass older man, a physical form and mood eventually applied to Hand Hans Lomond.
- Mars in the Starship’s Mage universe has a twenty-four hour day. When Desmond the First was magically completing the terraforming of the planet, he decided to adjust the spin as well. Because why not?
- Desmond the Third’s wife and the mother of the current Mage-Queen was a diplomat and died in a car crash on another planet. Keira has basically no memories of her.
- Damien has zero ancestors or genetic connections to Project Olympus. He is entirely a genetic fluke, a natural Rune Wright. So was Merlin.
- Following on from 5. A Mage who knows some magic can experiment and create more, but it’s hard. A Mage who knows no magic is only ever going to be very lucky. A Rune Wright, though, is going to work out magic from base principles. Several have existed over history
- Once Starship’s Mage was compiled into a single book, my plan was still for only two more books, titled Hand of Mars and Sword of Mars. The plan for that trilogy ended up covering all Starship Mage books up to Sword of Mars.
- Artificial gestation in the Starship’s Mage universe is a fully accepted and mature technology. It would be considered unusual for a woman to bear her children herself-and irresponsible for a woman to get on a spaceship carrying a live fetus.
- Connected to 8. Admiral Grace Mclaughlin was delayed by work matters in Sherwood and almost didn’t make it back to Mars in time for the birth of her twin daughters.
- Between work, children, and cats, Damien Montgomery is never again going to go anywhere more dangerous than a desk.
10A: Roslyn Chambers will be the titular Mage-Commander in Starship’s Mage book 11, coming later this year.
Check out her first entirely solo adventure dealing with the shadowy remnants of the Republic in A Darker Magic.
I got turned on to Starships Mage by Nathan Lowell and loved the reference to Whelkies in the second book (I think that’s the right book).
Do you have any plans to explore the Eugenics period and/or the Reekit?
Hi Mike! Glad you’re enjoying Starship’s Mage. Glynn answered the question re: The Eugenicists in his most recent Q&A on Facebook. The short answer is he won’t be exploring that era, as getting into the mindset of them is not something he wants to do. You can see the whole Q&A here, and he talks about this around the 15 minute mark: https://www.facebook.com/glynnstewartauthor/videos/406217667116665/
Thanks Robin.
Is there any possibility of a Sci-Fi RPG-compatible sourcebook for the “Starship’s Mage” universe? Not an entire game system, perhaps – but a sourcebook with background information about the world, that could be used with Traveller, GURPS, Expanse, Starfinder, etc?
Hi Rich. Glynn has been asked this a few times before, and the answer is: he wouldn’t be opposed to it. The problem is that it would likely require his heavy involvement, and his current writing schedule of releasing a book every few months doesn’t allow for it.
It may one day happen, but it’s not something that’s planned, or that he has time for, unfortunately!