_________________________
A.R.Yngve

DARC AGES Book Three
_________________________
AFTERWORD to
DARC AGES Book I-III

DARC AGES began as an idea for a comic-strip back in the early 1990s, believe it or not; the illustrations can be traced back to sketches done for that early version. The plotline was written down as a detailed, illustrated synopsis in 1993, and the finished books I-III contain the exact same plot -- with some scenes written almost word for word as they appeared in early storyboards and scripts.

However, before this story was plotted, I had made a detailed and illustrated outline of ANOTHER, separate story set in the same "universe" as DARC AGES BOOK I-III. This "prequel" took place immediately before the events depicted in the current 3 parts (sounds familiar, eh?), and will be included in Book IV to VI.

So Book I-III are but fragments of a much larger sequence of events I dreamed up, in more spectacular settings, with characters even more vivid, and even greater conflicts. Do you want to hear more? All right, sit down and I'll tell you a story...

A.R.Yngve
March 20, 2000




APPENDIX: Inspirations and References

First, a clarification: A "travesty" of a paragraph from Alfred Bester's novel THE STARS MY DESTINATION appears intentionally in Book One, Chapter 6. Please note that this "swipe" is not meant to simply steal Bester's thunder, but to imply that a piece of his book was mistaken and quoted as "real" history by a future chronicler!

Second, many references to existing rock'n roll songs occur in the text, with their original titles correctly given, but are not quoted in any great length. This was to avoid thorny copyright issues, which indeed risked poisoning the whole project. It became for me a matter of quoting respectfully, and I have tried to do so throughout DARC AGES.

Third, listening to music while writing DARC AGES was of great inspirational importance. Here is a listing of musical inspiration, which you may listen to while reading the book... and for fun, try to guess which pieces of music inspired specific passages in the text!


CLASSICAL:
Maurice Ravel: Daphne & Cloe
Igor Stravinsky: The Fire Bird
Otto Respighi: The Pines of Rome, Roman Festivals
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana
Edward Elgar: The Enigma Variations

FILM SCORES:
John Williams: The STAR WARS Trilogy
Joseph LoDuca & Danny Elfman: Army of Darkness - The Medieval Dead
Maurice Jarre: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Patrick Doyle: Henry V

ROCK/BLUES ARTISTS:
Elvis Presley
Jerry Lee Lewis
BB King
Meat Loaf


1st PAPERBACK EDITION of DARC AGES

now available to buy from
Xlibris Bookstore
and
Amazon.com