The big news is that Tor.com has published one of my short stories. As they have noted, this story–called “Firstborn”–was the first sf story I ever published. Though, ‘published’ is kind of a loose term here, as the story originally appeared in The Leading Edge, a BYU publication with a very limited print run. (This was after I’d graduated. The magazine asked me if I’d donate a story to one of their anneversary issues, and so I sent them this one, which I’d actually just finished writing.)

I’ve long been looking for a place where the story could reach a larger audience (when I was at BYU, The Leading Edge–despite having some very high quality fiction in it–had a distribution of under a hundred copies.) So I sent the story over to Tor.com, asking if they’d consider it even though it had appeared before in a small publication. Patrick enjoyed the story, and said he might be interested in it if we put it through some editorial work. Moshe, my editor, gave it a very strong edit (something it really, really needed.) A few months later, here it is! With an illustration by Donato, no less. I’m flattered.

I’m very pleased with how the story turned out. You who visit the blog frequently may have heard me say that I don’t think much of my short story writing skills. I think I’m best suited to long-form fantasy epics, but when I do turn my attention to short stories, they almost always come out as classic-style space operas. This story, and the one that appeared in Asimov’s earlier, are both good examples of this. (They also happen to be the only two good short stories I’ve written to date.)

I did an audio reading of “Firstborn” for Tor.com as well, though I don’t know when they’ll be posting that.

The first thing I thought when reading it was, how cool is it going to be to see this on screen! I cannot wait. I also was surprised by how much they crammed into one episode. Prior to reading this, I was a bit concerned about the pacing of the episode, since in the book not a lot happens between the prologue and Bran’s fall. Benioff and Weiss have done a great job of getting all the important info in and keeping things interesting.

The other surprise to me was some of the changes to the story and additional scenes not seen in the book. With GRRM mentioning how faithful an adaptation it is, I expected it to follow the book a little more closely. For example, in the script, we don’t actually see Royce engage in combat with the Others, nor do we see undead Royce. Rather the Others surround Royce and Will and it is implied that they are killed.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to me was the addition of the scenes in King’s Landing. I think it works though. It is good that we are introduced to an important city in the first episode. Also introducing Tyrion in a brothel is, I think, hilarious and fits his character perfectly. Even though these scenes don’t appear in the book, Benioff and Weiss have done a great job with them, especially the dialogue between Jaime and Tyrion in the brothel. They really have captured the essence of the characters.

A few more details I found interesting. Regarding ages, Jon and Robb are listed as 17 in the script, Sansa as 13, Arya 11 and Bran as 8, Dany is listed as 15. All the other children seemed to be the same age as in the books. Was a bit odd when a 13-year old Joffrey was acting like a 17-year old Robb was no match for him. Also, the credit sequence, this very idea was proposed over at the Westeros forums. I wonder if David & Dan took it from there? Or if they had it in the script already? My script doesn’t have a date on it so I don’t know for sure. Also, no flashbacks. I think the history of the world is established well, even without the flashbacks. We get pieces of the story of the Rebellion, Robert and Lyanna, the Mad King, etc. through dialogue between characters and not through flashbacks or exposition. This is the way it should be though and it works well.

I’ve been writing professionally for nine years now, and, with the exception of a few short stories and my upcoming Star Wars novel, I’ve written almost everything in the shared, tie-in setting of the Forgotten Realms. Hence, I’ve been sensitive during these nine years to the claim — the conventional wisdom, really — that tie-in fiction sucks, or at least isn’t as good as non-tie-in fiction.

…

Once upon a time, the conventional wisdom went like this: All tie-in fiction sucks. Later, it became, Well, maybe these particular tie-in novels do not suck as hard as other tie-in, but they’re still tie-in. Still later, this became, Well, these tie-in novels don’t suck at all, and are just good pretty good books by any measure. Now, one of the blogger/review sites that I consider one of the opinion leaders (Fantasy Book Critic) is able to write, in a review of Shadowrealm, that “Paul S. Kemp’s ability to do this with ease and grace marks him as one of the best fantasy authors writing today….”

I’m grateful to FBC for such a great review, but I’m not sure that there was enough intellectual space in the reviewosphere for that sentence to have been written five years ago. I think the reviewer’s peers might have sneered at such a claim. I have little doubt that some still do, but many, perhaps even most, probably don’t. The conventional wisdom has changed so much that it’s not recognizable. It’s been elbowed so hard that it’s got a bunch of cracked ribs and a broken jaw. I’m glad of it, and hope its staggered ass is soon sent to the mat for good.