The Voyage of the Minotaur: Zurfina the Magnificent

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Zurfina the Magnificent is a character in The Voyage of the Minotaur and the other books of Senta and the Steel Dragon.

Spoiler Alert

When we last saw Zurfina in Book 0: Brechalon, she was prisoner 89 in the Kingdom of Brechalon’s magical prison of Schwarztogrube.  Now we find her living in the city of Brech, although it is pretty clear early on that she is in hiding, at least to a degree.  Needing a high power magic wielder, the Dechantagne’s hire her to go with them to Birmisia.  About this same time, she comes into contact with Senta and takes her in as an apprentice.

Zurfina is really not a major character.  She is a very important minor character.  She acts as a deus ex machina in several situations.  She is however in the front of the action in this book more than any of the others, primarily because she and Senta spend so much time together aboard the HMS Minotaur. 

Zurfina is fun to write because she is completely self-absorbed.  While Iolanthe thinks of nothing but the good of her family, Zurfina thinks of nothing but herself.  Even when Terrence chastises her for allowing Senta to almost get eaten by velociraptors, she simply replies.  “Children are going to be eaten.”  Still, her relationship with Senta grows as the story progresses and we see a few hints of affection.

The Voyage of the Minotaur: Zeah Korlann

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Zeah Korlann is a character in the Senta and the Steel Dragon Series.

Spoiler Alert

Zeah is another character who makes quite a transition in the course of The Voyage of the Minotaur.  He starts off as the Dechantagne’s head butler, just as he is in Brechalon, but in journeying to a new colony and being one of the main figures leading and organizing that venture, he becomes quite important in the new community.

Zeah also finds himself being courted by a much younger woman, one who is not of the same faith.  This causes a great deal of consternation for him, though others don’t seem to have nearly the problem with it that he does.  One of the things I enjoyed was slowly changing Zeah from a stuttering self-consious servant to a much more confidant man.  He still finds his stutter whenever cornered by either Iolanthe or Egeria Lusk.  More about her in a few days.

The Voyage of the Minotaur is Book 1 in Senta and the Steel Dragon.  It is available wherever fine ebooks are sold.

Voyage of the Minotaur: Yuah

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Yuah Korlann is a fictional character in the Senta and the Steel Dragon series.

Spoiler Alert

Yuah has a much bigger part to play in The Voyage of the Minotaur than she did in Brechalon.  In making the journey to the colony, she steps up from the servant class into something closer to middle class.  She is a sister to Augie and wants to be so much more than that to Terrence.  To Iolanthe, she goes from being a dressing maid to being something close to a friend, or if not friend, at least confidant.

It’s easy to like Yuah.  She is sweet and kind and beautiful, if suffering (understandably) from a bit of
an inferiority complex.  She is also one of only a few characters whose story arc takes the entire series.  

The Voyage of the Minotaur is available wherever fine ebooks are sold.

Nostalgia: Commodore Vic-20

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The summer of 1982 I was trying to decide which video game system to buy– Atari or Intellivision.  Then I saw Captain Kirk himself on a TV ad for the Commodore Vic-20.  That was it.  I had to have one.  I bought a Vic-20, a joystick, and a Jupiter Lander game cartridge.  Total $330.00.  I used and enjoyed my Vic for years.  I still have it, stored in the garage.

Voyage of the Minotaur: Terrence

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Spoiler Alert

Terrence Dechantagne is really the star of this volume of Senta and the Steel Dragon.  He has a lot going on.  Yuah is chasing after him, as are a few other women.  Iolanthe is riding him constantly in an effort to make him stand up and become the man she thinks he is.  And his drug addiction is in high gear.

“Terrence’s Jungle Adventure” is one my favorite chapters in the entire series.  Here, Terrence gets to play Indiana Jones and chase the bad guys, fight his way though a temple filled with baddies and traps, and rescue the damsel in distress.  The fact that he does this right after scoring his fix just adds another dimension to him.

Terrence has some great moments in the other chapters as well, becomming a hero, hunting down and bringing a bad guy to justice, and saving children from several types of predators.  On the other hand he suffers some truly horrible injuries– physical and mental.  I remember reading the chapter of the great battle with the lizzies to a group of friends for the first time and feeling great satisfaction when they all stared at me in open-mouthed shock.

It may sound weird, but my favorite parts of this book are those scenes when Terrence falls apart.  He’s really like a Greek tragedy.  He’s fated to a sad end and it doesn’t matter how high he flies in the meantime, he’s going to fall in the end.

Voyage of the Minotaur: Augie

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Spoiler Alert

Augustus P. Dechantagne is the same happy-go-lucky devil-may-care fellow that we’ve come to love in Brechalon, but in The Voyage of the Minotaur this is complicated by his expansive womanizing (even when he meets the frightening sorceress Zurfina, he’s not afraid to “hit that”), and the posibility that he might be a serial killer.

Augie is seldom the focal point of the action, but he is almost always there– chasing cultists on the tropical island of Enclep or fighting a lizzie army in Birmisia.  Ultimately though, it is Augie’s failings, especially with the natives, that are his achilles heel and almost spell the end to the colony.

I love all my characters, Augie included.  He would be a guy that I would enjoy knowing– casually.  I would never want to rely on him though.

Voyage of the Minotaur: Senta

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Spoiler Alert

Senta is a much more interesting character than she was in Brechalon.  In that book she was a six year old child, and as endearing as six year olds are, they are not the stuff of an adventure book.  Even at 8/9 as she is here, she is mostly interesting for the trouble she gets into.  She has run-ins with wizards, a child molester, and velociraptors.  But she also begins to learn magic for the first time, something that gives her more power than the average nine year old.

I think Senta gets more interesting with each book, and I suppose that’s how it should be, since she’s the title character.  She has a destiny that she is growing into.  I think she might come off as a bit of an airhead in this book, but kids are like that sometimes regardless of their potential.

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.

The Voyage of the Minotaur: Characters

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I finished discussing the characters of Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 0: Brechalon.  This week, I’ll be discussing the characters in the Voyage of the Minotaur.  Many of the characters are the same in both books, but in some cases they have grown from one to the other.  Each of the books in the series take place several years apart– Here is a timeline.

1897  Book 0: Brechalon
1899  Book 1: The Voyage of the Minotaur
1901  Book 2: The Dark and Forbidding Land
1902/1903  Book 3: The Drache Girl
1905  Book 4: The Young Sorceress
1907  Book 5: The Two Dragons

Each of these postings will carry a spoiler alert, because hopefully I’ll be getting into a few character secrets.

Casting Brechalon

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Terrence is still in his twenties in Brechalon and Henry Cavill would be a good choice to play him.  Of course I would want British actors for all these characters.

Emily Blunt would make a great Iolanthe.  She is beautiful but can be scary cold too.

I really like Charlie Cox in Stardust and he would make a great Augie.  I think though Augie would be the easiest character to cast.

Annabel Scholey might be a tad too sexy to be Yuah, but Yuah is described as being more beautiful that Iolanthe and there aren’t many actresses who would fit that bill.  I really liked Annabel in Being Human.

Zeah is probably the hardest character to cast, but I could imagine David Thewlis speaking his lines complete with stutter.  He’s actually the right age, though I think he might need make up to look a bit older.

Prisoner 89 aka Zurfina.  As soon as I saw Lynn Collins with blond hair (it’s usually dark brown) I thought she was perfect.  The fact that she is Dejah Thoris in the upcoming John Carter makes her a must for the part.

Andrew Garfield would make a great Nils Chapman.  In fact, I think he would make a better Nils Chapman than a Spiderman, but that’s just me.

Karl Drury is a scary guy and needs to be intimidating, especially to Nils.  Rufus Sewell could pull that off in spaces.

Have a different actor in mind?  Let me know.