Foreword

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I am not proud of this sequel, I didn't like much how it turned out in Russian. It's not an immediate sequel, Alva's journey started about 12 years after the end of Ekleipsis, he had time to marry Ithildin's twin sister and have a son with her (although the story was a little more complicated, hehe, it will be described here). Then he went with Kintaro to Irshawan - the world described in my other novel 'Gates to Glory', and Ithildin stayed behind to look after young Taessa. I have no idea why I couldn't have written just another story with those three together. Frankly, I was more interested in Kintaro's daughter and Alva's son, that's the dynamics I also used in 'Gates to Glory', with a strong assertive female and a pretty seductive male, 'gender roles reverted'.

Writing Caged Bird was difficult, and I didn't like it much while writing. Then again, as it was finished, I read and quite enjoyed it. There are funny and endearing episodes in it, and there is at last description of Rudra Ruatta and Daronghi Dancennou's almost deadly duel which is mentioned in 'Royal Blood'.

I started translating it and immediately remembered why I didn't like it much. The language is too complicated, the sentences too pompous and long, and it's a pain in the butt to translate. Also I'm still not sure how to spell the name of Kintaro's daughter - Faid, Feid, Faidh or Faith? Maybe Feyd, like Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen from the 1965 science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert? I'll have time to decide, because she won't appear for some time. Also, long chapters that must be divided into smaller parts for Wattpad, general angst in the beginning, heterosexual romance in the second half which is not appreciated by all my readers... The list of Caged Bird problems is way too long XDD

I probably shouldn't have mentioned this novel to my English-speaking readers at all, and they wouldn't have suffered from not being able to read it. I also have a short stories collection which could be called Ekleipsis #1.5, and it's even harder to translate, the word count is massive. I don't know what to do with it. And Royal Blood #2 needs translating too! It is short and very cute. I really need to do it. Or maybe I should keep translating 'The Fifth Beast' which is way easier and happier reading. But I wanted to see if I can translate something difficult. At least if there will be very few readers of Caged Bird, I wouldn't feel obliged to keep translating it. Let the readers decide what they want more, by votes and comments.

Caged Bird - Ekleipsis #2 (Fantasy Romance, LGBT, MxM, WxM)Where stories live. Discover now