Another interview! This one with Mihir Wanchoo of FantasyBookCritic. FBC’s Robert and Liviu gave me some of my first five-star reviews when 100K came out (you can see them both at Goodreads), so I’m especially happy to do an interview for this site. A sample:
What level of technology is the overall world of the 100K kingdoms set at? I mean for eg. The city of Aramari (sic) seems to be very technologically advanced, however the rest of the world doesn’t seem to match up in that regard.
Technologically speaking, all of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms are at about Renaissance-level technology. They’ve got newspapers, very basic sciences, long-distance seafaring, and so on. The Amn’s capitol city, Sky, is no different in this respect. What Sky has more of, is *magical* advancement, mostly because the Arameri have money. Anyone in this world can have access to magic — the power to imitate the gods — if they can afford it. The nobility and wealthy people all use some of the same magical doodads as the Arameri, like the communication spheres and healing sigils. The poor people, however, make do like poor people in any society: they work a lot harder and they die more easily.
Enjoy!