Patricia Hall & The Warlock Curse

post by Jsevillamol · 2022-03-06T16:32:59.611Z · LW · GW · 3 comments

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Patricia Hall had studied all her life to become an archmage diviner of the Ivory Tower. When she was expelled, her heart broke and her world shattered. Even worse, she learned short after that the world might be literally about to end.

Join the eponymous character on a life-transforming journey that will take her out of academia to become an unlikely hero of magekind.

Read it now in our exclusive reading platform

Testimonials

Oh no, what have I done.

Jaime Sevilla, prolific writer

I read the book! Really enjoyed it. Definitely very clear rationalist/EA influence.

Anonymous kind friend

No Jaime, I haven't gotten around to reading your novella yet.

Anonymous patient friend

Thanks to Faatima Osman, Anne Wissemann and Jonas Sandbrink for support and feedback.

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3 comments

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comment by Pattern · 2022-03-07T21:19:05.482Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I would have suggested slightly more on the golems. (Making sure they can't do magic, self-modify etc.) But also it was about things still being in motion, so. And that could have been done earlier.

We never did find out how the nuclear stuff was being handled. I guess we didn't need to though.

(It was interesting where biology and stuff around it came up. Like, the warlock stuff did (and we never found out how warlock magic worked - in keeping with it being lost entirely).)

We also didn't find out what happened to Nade - though that might be realistic.


Overall, this story did well at being short. The characters in it are focused (or living their lives), and it fits that.

I recommend saving a copy of it as is (in case you change it to be longer - or shorter).


It's good. There were a few parts (not quite grammar or spelling) that could use another look, but I think they already had comments on them about that. It didn't really break things up enough for me to stop and look at it more - I wanted to keep reading and finish the story.


One idea I didn't see in there that seemed relevant was expanding to other worlds. "If something could destroy civilization, without possibility of recovery, it was game over." If you wanted to do a sequel that would be interesting. At the same time, I'm not sure if the tech level is there for that, or not, or if that would have to be farther into the future.

comment by Yair Halberstadt (yair-halberstadt) · 2022-03-07T06:38:04.347Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I enjoyed this, thanks for writing.

Replies from: Jsevillamol
↑ comment by Jsevillamol · 2022-03-07T12:57:00.633Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I am glad Yair! Thanks for giving it a go :)