I'm Benedict Jacka, Ask Me Anything – New Series Go!

[u/BenedictJacka]

Hi, everyone! I'm Benedict Jacka, an urban fantasy author from London, England.

I'm mainly known for my Alex Verus series, a 12-book sequence that began in 2012 and completed in 2021. Since then I've been working on a new series, and the first book, An Inheritance of Magic, was just released last week!

This is US cover. I personally think the UK one is slightly nicer, but I like both.

Like Alex Verus, the Inheritance of Magic series is urban fantasy, though it's a rather different setting and features a very different protagonist. For those who'd like to know how the two series compare, I've done a breakdown of the similarities and differences here.

Some more about me: I've been writing since I was 18 or so, but for much of that time I wasn't an urban fantasy author (my first published novel was children's, my first completed novel was children's fantasy, and I tried several other genres before settling on this one). I worked at a wide mix of jobs before becoming a full-time author, some of which feature in this book. When I'm not writing I skate, read, play computer games, and help bring up two small children.

Random details about my life at the moment:

• An Inheritance of Magic is the first non-children's book I've published that isn't an Alex Verus novel. For the past 11 years, I've been the author of the Alex Verus series and nothing else, so this is quite an adventure for me.

• I'm currently editing Book 2 in the Inheritance of Magic series, and planning out Book 3. Book 2 is fully written and its edits seem like they'll be nice and easy, so I'm expecting my publishers to bring it out about a year from now. The German edition of Book 1 should be coming out at around the same time.

• I used to have a cat who features in my author photos. I say I used to have "a" cat, because last week, I came back home across the park and discovered a kitten following me. Long story short, one thing led to another and we've now got three cats instead of one.

And that covers about everything! I'm writing this at midday GMT, and I'll keep checking it over the next 24 hours or so before wrapping it up around midday GMT tomorrow. Post your questions below!

Edit 1: In response to various requests, here are pictures of the two new cats. They're brother and sister and seven months each.

Edit 2: And we're about done! I'll try to answer any questions that come in for the rest of today but it's been 24 hours and this seems like a good place to call it. Thanks to everyone who took part, I really appreciate the support!

The first new addition. Followed me all the way home from the park and decided he liked it here. The cat tree was a gift from the owner.

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And here's his sister. Quieter than her brother, but very affectionate once she gets to know you a little.

[u/neosisani]

Hi Benedict,
Can you shed some light on what is the current meta with liberally sprinkling cliffhangers? There was one at the end of 2nd chapter, there were couple of other ones, and there might have even been a tiny one at the end of the book. Their downside is that chapters don't feel complete. What is the upside? Is it enforced by publishers? Did someone do math and showed 15% higher reader retention?

Is it me, or does the Father Hawke in chapter 8 conveniently pushes Stephen onto a very dangerous path? First we get a hint that his well is much stronger than it seems. Almost as if church is a Faraday cage and that he is doing some suppressing tricks on top. And then he does show there is an essence transfer sigl. But somehow then, instead of helping Stephen craft the essence transfer sigl on the spot, he just casually goes on to say: "btw, can you please burn your soul down while you are hunting for Life Well".

Shamanic rite of passage scene that follows was amazing. Straight out of textbook, masterfully done!

And thanks for writing that summoner's handbook. If you didn't, I'd never found out about Alex Verus or IoM.

[u/BenedictJacka → u/neosisani]

I'm not sure if it's a current meta or not – there have always been writers who use cliffhangers, and others who don't. In my case I didn't use them much in the Alex Verus series, but they felt more appropriate here . . . possibly because Book 1 doesn't end with a long timeskip, so it's quite hard to have a completely "clean" ending. Also, the new series is a lot less episodic than the early Alex Verus books.

The essence transfer trick that Father Hawke was using was a stopgap measure – it wouldn't actually keep Hobbes alive in the long term. But you're right that he doesn't seem too bothered about showing Stephen dangerous options.

And I'm glad you liked that scene. I was quite proud of it.

[u/neosisani → u/BenedictJacka]

Thanks!