I continue to be flat out astonished by reviews of JADE CITY that basically go, "I'm so confused by the time period of this novel because there's magic AND cars and guns but NO CELL PHONES. I don't understand at all." Seriously? (I don't think they're all Millennials, either.)
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Replying to @FondaJLee
Wait wat? Do people think cell phones were invented at the same time as cars and guns?
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Replying to @DjangoWexler
I... guess so? I mean, not sure how else to explain it. Or the genre has wired some readers' brains to believe that magic can either exist a) in the medieval era or b) NOW i.e. urban fantasy (w/ cell phones, natch) and there are no other options.
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Replying to @FondaJLee
I mean, I read the tech as somewhere between 1940 and 1960? (Ubiquitous landline phones and cars, consumer motorbikes, tommy-guns, television) Seems pretty consistent to me!
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Replying to @DjangoWexler
Yep! It's funny, because "latter half of the 20th century before the digital era" is a pretty specific time period, but when people read medieval fantasy, no one ever gets on Goodreads to be like, "Is this early or late 13th century?? Because the crossbow tech isn't clear??"
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Replying to @FondaJLee
I do occasionally get people who are wrong about gunpowder tech!
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Replying to @FondaJLee
Although more often, they tell me I'm wrong about military stuff on the assumption that all armies are 20th century Anglo-American armies.
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Replying to @DjangoWexler
It's amazing how much readers' base knowledge informs whether they "believe" the worldbuilding or not. Basically if they have a really set idea of how things are/were/supposed to be, all the assertions of the author's meticulous research rolls off them.
1 reply 0 retweets 8 likes -
Replying to @FondaJLee @DjangoWexler
I’m sorry, but SN1 wasn’t actually used by the Espenian military until the late 90s, by which point there were cell phones in Janloon. That inconsistency totally ruined my suspension of disbelief.
2 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
(Sorry - what I actually think is that the world building in Jade City was truly superb, and that I don’t even care if it maps to a specific 20th century time or not because it’s its own world, its rules are made clear and the story works wonderfully within them).
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