Bestselling author Eric Nylund told Tor.com that his new novel, Mortal Coils, was inspired, in part, by his experience writing the HALO video game tie-in novels—specifically the parts about the young Spartan super solders as they overcame impossible odds, which he very much enjoyed writing.
“After those novels were published, I got thousands of letters and emails from 13-15 years kids (and their parents) saying they especially enjoyed those parts, too,” Nylund said in an interview. “I knew I’d stumbled onto something universally appealing about being a kid or young teen and kicking some serious butt, so I started thinking: How far can I take this?”
Mortal Coils follows Eliot and Fiona Post, who think their parents are dead, but on their fifteenth birthdays they find out their mother was a goddess and their father is Lucifer, Prince of Darkness. “Both sides of this estranged family want the children, so to decide who they belong with the gods fashion three heroic trials for the twins to endure…while the fallen angels concoct three diabolical temptations for them to survive,” Nylund said.
Eliot and Fiona are fifteen-year-old twins and have genius IQs. “They’ve been raised in the overly strict household of their grandmother and must abide by a list of 106 rules,” Nylund said. “Although half divine and half infernal—they are also nerds and extraordinarily socially awkward.”
Nylund said that the novel required quite a lot of research due to the scope of its mythology. “I had to assemble a cast of characters that stretches across all of history (and well before history) through several mythologies, religions, as well as fairy tales,” he said.
An interesting thing happened as Nylund researched a dozen or so mythologies and religious: connection quite naturally appeared across cultures. “Loki in one story did the same things as Coyote in another,” Nylund said. “From these interconnections was just a short leap to spin stories wherein Angels and Valkyries fight the forces of evil in one battle…and then after the victory celebration drunken Valkyries brawl their divine counterparts and cause a rift between Norse and Christian religions! There’s a mytho-historical synergy that I think my readers will enjoy.”
When asked if the novel was personal to him, Nylund replied that anyone who is part of a family knows what kind of a Mexican soap opera of a drama that can be. “This novel is like anyone’s family…only magnified to larger than life proportion by a few orders of magnitude,” he said.
Although Moral Coils is the first of five novels in a new series, Nylund promised that it stands alone, and has a nice solid ending, so those with a series phobia should have no fear.
I just got the paperback edition 3/26/10. (released March 2010) Love the book. I was heartbroken when I got to page 484 and found the next page to be 517.
The 2nd of 5 books in this series came out some years ago. I periodically check around the Internet for new news on the series and I’m always let down by what I find. That toe books has discontinued the series with no explanation to the fans of the book. These books are great works of fiction. I wish Tor would let Nylund have the rights to the books so he could continue the series on his own or find a new publisher. There are people out here that want to read what Nylund has in store for all these great characters!
Tor really needs to figure out what they want to do with this series. People want to read and finish the rest of the series. If Tor doesn’t want to publish his books then the rights need to be sold to Nylund so he can find a new publisher, one that will let Nylund market to the demographic of his choice. These first two books are fantastic and the series needs to be finished with or without tor publishing.
Please Tor, please either publish the 3rd book in the series or sell the rights to the book back to Nylund. These books are fantastic and I really want to read the rest of the series. Does it really matter who you market it to? Just publish it and whoever buys it buys it. I would litterally pay any price to read the next installment in the series, so please publish it already.
Agreed, I really want to read the third book of this series.
Yeah, I’d pay a premium just for the rest of the series. Really hope Tor changes their stance on the matter. Been checking on the next book for years now.
I very rarely post comments or write towards anyone but I figured “hey, maybe one comment is all it’ll take”. Maybe if more people did the same we’d finally get Tor’s attention.
Does anyone know how much longer Tor owns the rights to this series?
It is a shame that it has not been completed.
Is there any news on the status of the third book or the rights? Been waiting ages and have bought the books in paperback, Barnes and Noble, and Apple Books now.