Quick update.
The Kindle edition of On the Shoulders of Titans has been submitted for publication. Assuming I didn’t make any mistakes, should be approved and available within the next 72 hours.
The paperback version will be just a bit after that, probably within the next couple weeks.
The audio book edition will take considerably longer. This is because the audio narrator will need to find time in their schedule to record it now that the book is finished. This could take a number of months; it depends on the narrator’s availability, as well as the amount of time it takes in post-production, etc.
I’ll make a post when I get confirmation that the book is available for purchase.
Andrew Rowe 
Wahoooooo
Just in time for me to binge read this over the long weekend 😀 😀 😀 so pumped
Hey Andrew,
Sorry if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but will I be able to purchase a paperback edition in the UK straight away, or will I have to wait a bit longer/import?
Thanks!
To the best of my knowledge, it should be up in the same time in the UK. That’s something determined by the publisher (Kindle Direct Publishing, which is a part of Amazon), but I think they print in the UK at the same time.
Awesome thank you – I’m very excited!
At long last
Awesome!
Thanks so much mate, love the world that you have built in your novels and am looking forward to diving back in.
Thank you for the update!
ITS OUT AND PUBLISHED ON AMAZON WOOOOOOT
Congratulations 🙂 hope the final yards weren’t too stressful!
I have it too, on my Kindle, says the book worm as he disappears figuratively into the book.
just got it — am I #3
Take a nap and dream that the book is out, wake up and find its been submitted for publication! I’ll accept this reality.
Bought. For some reason it won’t appear when you search on the UK site or for the author on the Kindle app. Does pop up under the book title on the app and the US side of Amazon is working fine. Hope that spares someone some aggravation.
Thanks!
Well, I am done reading it after way too many interruptions.
Minor Spoiler, I see that I guessed right about Cecily being the sister of Tristan’s girlfriend and was totally wrong about a lot of other things
Great job on predicting Cecily’s identity!
Did you end up enjoying the book?
Minor Spoilers
You surprised me in many things. I was right about Life in his Mark of Glory, but was completely wrong about what it would do. At least we know how it fits into other special (restricted) Marks and some idea of how it is used and how others were using it. I think that we were not too far off on Keras and how he uses Magic from the Broken Mirrors area of the world. You do surprise me by having Transference in two different Marks on one person (Corin). I did not think that would be needed. I think the action fans (versus the School fans) should be pretty happy, but we still learned a lot more about how Attunement Magic works. You also surprised us on how Sera would get healed.
Apparently the trains, in the trans continental railroad, are NOT traveling at a very high speed if it takes weeks to do the crossing, or even a week to another city in Valia.
You seem to be using semester as being the same as the whole school year, when I am more used to a school year being two semesters, not counting any summer term. Also how long is their planetary year and more about their calender system? Their school year seemed to be ending in the Winter also.
You also surprise me a little about it being possible to go through a Judgment, to get an Attunement, at more than one Tower. Maybe Corin and the others might pick up an additional Mark in Caelford in the future (maybe in Dalenos as well, although I think you said that it is harder each time). I still think that they need to get someone with teleportation abilities in their party, perhaps one of them can get it in a new Mark. Also they need a Shaper and a Diviner, who they might acquire from an additional member(s) to their party ( I can not see Jinn remaining around for a long time(years)). I hope that Corin can pick up Soul Blade in Dalenos, as well as one of the Attunements you mentioned for Caelford, (I was half expecting Life and Transference to give Soul Blade instead of Arbiter). From Caelford, I am wondering if he might get Biomancer since it is connected to the Artificial Attunement program (along with Enchanter, maybe Corin with enough levels of experience might be able to do them, either with his Arbiter + Enchanter, or with Biomancer as well).
Then of course, there are the other restricted Attunements which I will not mention here for spoiler reasons, or what Sera’s Mark is as well, but I think that she can do a lot with it in the future. I do wonder if Corin will switch over to being his Mother’s heir in the future and leave Sera to be his Father’s heir, particularly after he finally meets his Mother again after 3 or so years of separation. I wonder if his Mother started doing all of her climbing in the Dalenos Tower, as well as getting her Swordmaster Mark, after she stopped climbing Valia’s Tower after Tristan disappeared and the event mentioned in Book 2, and after she left Corin’s Father’s House.
I’m glad you managed to predict some of it correctly, but still got surprised by a bunch of other things. As a writer, that’s pretty much a best case scenario for me.
The school year is split into two semesters for second year students, but not for first year students, which is why it ended up being sort of confusing. I was originally planning to do two semesters for both, but it didn’t work out with the school schedule. I may just go back and change the text to make that clearer.
The year is 360 days (12 months with 30 days each).
The months are as follows:
Winter Season:
o Snow
o Contemplation
o Birth
Spring Season:
o Sky
o Bright
o Growth
Summer Season:
o Burning
o Change
o Wilting
Autumn Season:
o Harvest
o Night
o Cold
Each month is five weeks long (with a week being six days).
So it took me about 15 hours minus a lot of interruptions to read it, i.e. about 10 to 12 hours. I had to switch Kindles because of battery charge running out to keep on reading it. I have a several year old 8 inch Kindle and a new (less than a year) 10 inch Kindle.
As a different example, when the the last two Harry Potter Books came out, over a decade ago, it took me about 6 to 7 hours to read each of them (in book form).
Minor Spoilers: (I am trying to not be too specific about things)
You told us what Sera’s expanded Attunement’s name was and what it can do, but you did not tell us what additional mana type(s) she got. I suspect Life and maybe Ice. With the right contracts, Sera is going to be very versatile and powerful.
Since you made a point of telling us that it was possible, I think that you are planning for them to try to do a Judgement visit in Caelford’s Tower on their new trip, to get each of them an additional Attunement. I would like to see Corin get Biomancer for obvious reasons, and one of the others to pick up an Attunement (with a Lung location) with Teleportation abilities, we do not know the name for that in Caelford. We also know of Controller and Analyst. Caelford has to have Attunements related to automobiles and trains, probably involving Motion, as well related to the advanced cannons and other advanced techs they have. I also wonder if Caelford might have Light Mana. We have no idea of their combat related Attunements, although we have heard of several without knowing which Tower they come from. I do wonder if the new student (unnamed) accompanying them on this trip might end up joining their party of students in the future. In addition to a Judgement visit, I wonder if they might do at least one real Tower climbing trip in Caelford with the 6 people leaving on the trip to Caelford. I am not sure that they will have enough time to visit Dalenos as well, before the 2nd School Year starts.
You’ve got some excellent theories there. =)
Minor Spoiler
I notice when you were discussing Restricted Attunements the text Corin read said it was commonly believed that there are eight restricted attunements, but it only listed 6 of them by Name and what they did, except for Necromancer which it discounted.
Yep, that was deliberate. =)
Minor Spoiler
So even if they can not do a Judgement visit to Caelford’s Tower for some reason, they still can do a Tower climbing trip that might get some or all of the students a new Attunement.
I am trying to be careful not to discuss the many events of Book 2 for spoiler reasons.
So how are sales doing a couple of days being available?
Typo I just noticed: (spoilers)
at location 6281 of 17506 on my Kindle (Chapter XI), When Corin was checking out the site of the 2nd round of the final exam for the Dueling class on the day before the Test,he saw a class of 2nd year enchanting student of Prof Vellum setting up and revising the runes on the tiles in the vaban arena, he referred to them as a class full of “Citrines” doing all the work. I think he should have referred to them as Carnelians.
Citrines is WAY too high for a class of 2nd year students, they are only Carnelian or in rare cases Sunstones in 2nd year. Most/Many of the School Professors are probably only Citrines.
Also the cover art picture is wrong, Corin was not using a sword in that 2nd round of the test the next day (they were not allowed). ( but almost all cover art is not particularly accurate) (unless the picture is supposed to refer to a later event in the Book, but on those various occasions, they were fighting other things, not each other)
Also why did not Prof Edlyn ask Corin what his new Attunement was when she realized that he had a second Attunement?
I’ll get the Citrine error fixed, thanks! I probably shouldn’t have used two “C” names for levels.
The cover art is meant to be more of a preview/teaser than an accurate representation of a specific scene. The same is true for my other covers – the scene in Stealing Sorcery doesn’t match anything in the book, for example.
No comment on Professor Edlyn.
Perhaps she realized what it was without him telling/showing it to her.
Spoilers
Thank you for the Calender info, as well as clearing up my confusion on the subject of semesters and first year. So how long do they have until the beginning of 2nd year of School? They just left for Caelford on the train which is supposed to take 2 weeks and allowing for 2 weeks for return, that is 4 weeks total not counting any time spent doing things in Caelford.
I can see one BIG problem with Corin getting Biomancer on top of Arbiter and Enchanter, when he gets done with the 2nd year of School, it should guarantee him being assigned to the artificial attunement program; actually Enchanter plus Arbiter ought to guarantee it even without Biomancer, since Arbiters are so rare. I suspect that is unheard of (or extremely rare) for a student to acquire Arbiter.
If they are going to have to worry about fighting major summoned creatures from the Tower(s) they need to get the restricted Attunement Abjurer, but of course the problem will be getting a Visage to give it to one of them.
I just saw that someone else told you about the same error in Chapter XI regarding Citrine instead of Carnelian in another message thread.
I think they have 12 weeks between school years, but I’ll have to double check my notes later.
Minor Spoiler
I suspect that most other nations’ Arbiters, probably only a handful each, are not Enchanters, and even in Valia Enchanter + Arbiter is rare. So Corin might just be the only one currently alive, or 1 out of 2 or 3 on the whole continent. Although maybe the one mentioned by name in the Book might have been one.
It will be interesting to see what Corin can do with it once he has some training and experience, as well as reach higher levels.
I wonder what makes train travel so slow. One possibility is that they need sunlight to provide the power(energy) to run the train, and therefore can not run at night.
So that will give them at most 8 of their 6 day weeks in Caelford, unless they can arrange for someone to teleport them back, but even that might take a long time to make many short jumps. They also might need some time back in Valia before 2nd year starts. I will wait to start speculating about what they might do in Caelford, since it may be 2 years or so in real world time before Book 3 comes out.
I do notice some overlap in Names between Book 2 of Broken Mirrors and Book 2 of Arcane Ascension that indicate who might be the Tyrant in Gold and his most powerful Children.
Minor Spoilers
I just noticed something that I missed earlier, Sera said that Summoners at higher level than her present level can learn teleportation spells. Good! because they are going to need it and better because it will be from Sera’s Lung mark.
I also noticed that Forgemaster (metal working) is a Caelford attunement, rather than Dalenos that I thought I had (mis)read.
I noticed another correction needed: At the very end of Chapter XI, after they are finished with the 2nd half of the Dueling Class Final Exam, location 6814 of 17506 on my Kindle, Corin thinks: We’d all passed the class. The hardest part of classes for the “first half of the year” was over.
I think that this line was written back when you were planning 2 semesters for the first School Year. It is no longer accurate since they are now just before finishing the first school year. (see your message above in this message thread, about the year, months and calender, when you said that you originally planned on the first school year being 2 semesters but then changed that plan).
You’re 100% right, this is a continuity error. I’ll get this fixed, thank you!
I think that Lord Teft at some point (during the Final Exam for the Dueling Class parts of the Book) mentions something to the effect about having to pass this Test in order to get to the the 2nd half of the (Dueling) Class, which also assumes that this is a two semester school year. I will have to see if I can find the exact location that he said that.
or else it is the first third of Dueling Class if you count 2nd year as 2 semesters, while 1st year is only one semester.
This one is more open to interpretation. He just says, “Today’s match will determine which of you are prepared for the second half of this class.”
He could easily just be talking about the second year here. I’m going to change the wording to “second year” to make it clear, though.
Another inconsistency, location 16368, Derek is at his house (along with Elora and Sheridan) after the last time they leave the Tower and then Corin (and others) tell them what happened. But at location 16585, Corin says that he never had a chance to say goodbye to Derek. He’d disappeared right around the time I’d entered the Spire (Tower). These locations are out of 17506 locactions on my Kindle.
Fixed this, thank you!
I am a little surprised, I see the correction from Citrine to Carnelian just before the 2nd round of the Dueling Class Final Exam, is already in place in my Kindle copy of Book 2.
Nice, I’m glad they’re pushing the updates through!
Spoiler
As I have said elsewhere, I (half) expect (at some point in the future) Corin to give up the Cadence surname and become his mother’s heir completely, leaving Sera to be his Father’s heir.
The only thing against this possibility is that Corin will be afraid that his Father will then start “training” his sister in the same way that he was “training” Corin. So he may wait at least until they graduate from 2nd year of the school before formally doing this, when Sera will be a lot stronger with a direct combat Attunement, like his Father wanted him to get.
As a separate matter, I think that someone (unnamed) with a Sovereign Attunement would probably have the best chance (of any Attuned people) of fighting one of the Children of the Tyrant, preferably with the help of other people with restricted attunements. I would not be surprised to see more of them in the future in Corin’s party of students.
Spoiler
In particular, Patrick as a Paladin, and Marissa as an Abjurer.
I also wonder if Corin (or someone else) could use the Chronomacer restricted Attunement to change the subjective rate of passage of time in order to speed up the process of gaining higher maximum mana levels for himself and/or other people in a small group, IF he could get that Attunement someday (probably in the Spider Tower).
On the other hand slowing down or even freezing the passage of time might be very useful in fighting dangerous enemies such as Children of the Tyrant, or major Spire defenders.
change of subject
Also Keras said that people who work for Aayara, who is supposedly one of the two most powerful Children of the Tryant in Gold, have names that start with an S, but then later when/after they have fought Saffron, Keras says that Saffron is a Child of the Tyrant also, rather than a servant of Aayara.
So I am confused, unless it is possible for one Child of the Tyrant to also be a servant of another Child of the Tyrant, i.e. Aayara.
Spoiler
I think that Corin may be the only person, or one of a handful of people, on the continent who has both Enchanter and Arbiter, particularly since the disappearance of Warren Constantine. I see a skill that would be very useful that maybe only he can acquire/develop: learning how to REMOVE (or CHANGE) Brand type Attunements on other people, particularly on his brother and Elora. He will probably have to learn a lot about the artificial attunement program as well, which may take a long time. It may also require him to get the Biomancer Attunement from Caelford, which he just might acquire on his forthcoming trip to Caelford, either by a 2nd Judgement visit to Caelford’s Tower or if that is not possible, by a long Tower climbing trip.
I think that you may already be planning something along these lines for the future, given the information you have already told us.
On a separate matter; the longer Valia’s Tower remains sealed the more of a disadvantage Valia will be at relative to Edria in developing and training it’s attuned people, particularly in it’s army. If it continues, it will also make getting a Judgement a lot harder for it’s prospective students.
Any idea when the audio book version will be available?
Currently it’s looking like it will be recorded in October, which hopefully would mean a launch before the end of the year. That’s up to the publisher and the narrator, though. I don’t have any official release date yet, sorry!
Hello Andrew, any new update on when the audio book or audible version of Book 2 will be released?
To the best of my knowledge, it’s being recorded right now, but I don’t have a release date yet. Sorry!
Thank you, my mind is at ease now that I know that it is currently been recorded. I am listening to audible version of book 1 at the moment, loving every second of your writing complimented by Nick Podehl’s voice acting!!
I’m glad you’re enjoying the audio book of the first one! I agree that Nick did a fantastic job, and I can’t wait to hear his rendition of the sequel.
I’m currently near the end of book 1 (audiobook). I have never before been so enthralled and captivated by a book. I’ve read my fair share from almost all categories. This by far is in my top 3 favorite books. I find myself getting real emotions at simple narration and story plot. i.e. getting frustrated when Corin holds back at using mind mana. While is hesitance has a solid foundation part of me wants him to grow more expand and become more powerful.
I only have a few hours left on the audio book and will be impatiently waiting on the second to come out. Thank-you for crafting this incredible story and “enchanting” us all.
Thank you, I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the book so much! I hope you enjoy the rest, as well as the sequel. =)