Category Archives: Iolanthe Dechantagne

Voyage of the Minotaur: Iolanthe

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Spoiler Alert

Iolanthe Dechantagne is in some ways the main character in The Voyage of the Minotaur.  She is very much the same character that she is in Brechalon, at least in the beginning.  By the end of the story, she has undergone some subtle changes, mostly a result of the isolation which is in part her own making.

Iolanthe has had troubles in her past, but during the course of this story, she falls in love, is seperated from her lover, moves to a primitive colony on a distant colony, leads the colony, fights off frightening aborigines and has to deal with one brother who is a drug addict and one who is possibly a serial killer.  One of my favorite scenes is when Iolanthe finds a blood-soaked shirt in Augie’s cabin, and in a characteristicaly Dechantagne move, tosses it overboard to cover it up.

I suppose Iolanthe is a character people love to hate, but I just love her.  I think I have more fun writing her than any of my other creations.  As I was writing this, I would read the completed chapters to my wife and always enjoyed it when she said, “Iolanthe is such a bitch.”

Voyage of the Minotaur is availble wherever fine ebooks are sold, and you can find links to it in paperback to the right.

Iolanthe Dechantagne

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Spoiler Alert

Iolanthe Dechantagne (pronounced Yo-lon-thee Day-shan-tane) is one of my favorite characters in the series.  She is a strong woman and can be a real bitch.  I hinted that there was something in her past that drove her to be what she was, and in Brechalon, we see in flashback what that was. This is also something that is resolved in Book 5: The Two Dragons.  Iolanthe really is the main character in Book 0: Brechalon and Book 1: The Voyage of the Minotaur.  She drives the action and events, and in book 1, we see the beginnings of her growth as a person.  This continues in Book 2: The Dark and Forbidding Land.  She can be ruthless and mean, and at least in Book 0, cares nothing for anyone except her older brother Terrence.

Characters: Iolanthe Dechantagne

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In my very first pre-outline ideas about Senta and the Steel Dragon, Iolanthe Dechantagne was going to be the primary character.  Senta originally was nothing but a person who would be the eyes through which we saw Iolanthe.  As the outline firmed up, it became obvious that Iolanthe would be too bitchy to be around all the time.  I got so tired of her that I rewrote her part in book 2 and made Yuah the main character in that book instead.
I don’t know where the idea came from for Iolanthe.  In a lot of ways, she’s a much bitchier version of my mother, at least as I remember her from when I was a kid.  Iolanthe has to be really tough to make it in a man’s world– especially a Victorian one.  And her history explains a lot about her disposition.  Her most distinctive physical feature– her aquamarine eyes, just came out of nowhere.  I was looking for things to make my setting a little more other-worldly and that just popped into being.  Her first name came from a baby name web site, but I made up the last name.  I wanted something that could have gone from French into English aristocracy.
Because she is such a major BITCH, Iolanthe is a lot of fun to write.  She can be very sympathetic and just when you think you’re going to start liking her, she does something excrutiatingly mean.  Still, she is one of the heroes of the story.  So what if she drives her family to distruction, basically enslaves an entire native population, and (arguably) commits several murders.