With Eternity’s End (hardcover, paperback, Kindle), author Zachary Hagen is concluding the epic Christian romantic fantasy series The Eternal Chronicles, which he launched two years ago with Eternity’s Well.
In the following email interview, Hagen discusses what inspired and influenced both this series and it’s final installment.
For people who didn’t read the first four books — Eternity’s Well, Eternity’s Mirror, Eternity’s Refuge, and Eternity’s Edge — what is the Eternal Chronicles series about, and what kind of a world is this series set in?
The Eternal Chronicles follows the lives of Elior, a bastard prince; Nyx, a cursed merman; Opal, a deposed dwarven queen; and Nereza, a brilliant magitechnician, through conflicts with Taariq, the power-mad djinn bent on world domination and revenge against the world’s deity, Aelon, the Great Spirit.
The series is about growth, grief, hope, and family — both born and found — set in a modern fantasy world that goes beyond the normal dragons and swordplay of most fantasy series. Readers will find old values like duty, courage, sacrifice, and freedom brought forth in new and relevant ways that is compassionate and sensitive to the modern reader while emphasizing universal truths in accessible ways.
And then for people who have read those books, and thus can ignore me writing SPOILER ALERT, what happens in Eternity’s End, and when and where does it take place in relation to the previous installment, Eternity’s Edge?
Eternity’s End is the immediate follow up to Eternity’s Edge, beginning with meeting Elior and those traveling with him as they make their way back to Granite Valley to carry out Aelon’s directive for their salvation from destruction. Taariq continues to pursue his own goals as the world falls further into chaos.
This epic conclusion brings everything together and delivers on the promises of previous novels.
So, did you go into Eternity’s End knowing it would be the end of the Eternal Chronicles series, or did you realize it while you writing End?
I definitely knew that it would be the end of the series. I had a particular end in mind, and this was the final bridge to the final scene in the main body of the story.
What was it about the Eternal Chronicles series that made you realize it should be a five part series as opposed to a single volume?
I originally planned on writing a trilogy, but as I wrote, I discovered that my writing style and attention span did not function with the scope that a trilogy would need to cover in each novel, and in planning the series, it became clear that there were pretty clear divisions that lent themselves to a four or five arc series, at least in the main story.
Should I see a marked uptick in the popularity of the series, I do have other prequel stories that could be added to The Eternal Chronicles, but Elior’s story is very much concluded. With how I left things, there really wouldn’t be anything of interest left to add for the readers unless they were looking for a very particular kind of read.
When it relation to writing the other books did you come up with the plot for Eternity’s End, and what inspired it?
I came up with the basic plot for the whole series about a quarter of the way through writing Eternity’s Well. Like C.S. Lewis, I pulled from Biblical themes and stories in the construction of my story, so the basic plot was already written for me, but I adapted it to my own world and characters and their lives because when I taught ELA in North Carolina my 7th and 8th grade group had never read The Chronicles Of Narnia, and this deeply upset me, so I set out to write a spiritual successor to Lewis’s work that would be relevant and interesting to a new generation of children.
It sounds like Eternity’s End — and the other books in the Eternal Chronicles series — are epic fantasy stories. How do you describe it, genre-wise?
Epic fantasy, romance, adventure, allegory. These are all words I would use to describe the books. I want people to feel a sense of awe for the world they’re invited into when they read my books, and I want them to be transported to a world with a different sense of possibility that still plays on their desire for love, intrigue, and deep truth.
The Eternal Chronicles series has also been called a Christian fantasy. But how Christian are they? Is it like with C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles Of Narnia, which can be enjoyed by anyone but Christians will glean more from it, or is it more overt like Jill Williamson’s Blood Of Kings, which even some Christians have said can be preachy, albeit not in a bad way?
I think that it can be enjoyed by anyone. I wanted those seeking hearts to see something deeper, but I never wanted to beat anyone over the head with the “point.” People in the know will see the obvious things as they read, but the books aren’t preachy. They aren’t a conversion tool or proselytizing. The books relay an epic story through a new lens, and I think everyone can and should enjoy them regardless of their faith background.
As we’ve been discussing, Eternity’s End is the end of the Eternal Chronicles series. In writing End, did you look to any other novels that ended multi-book sagas to get ideas of what to do, and what not to do?
I’d say yes and no. I am pretty widely read, as most authors are, so I did read series that have ended multi-book sagas well and some who didn’t end as I, as a fan, would want. I could retroactively say I see inspiration or parallels, but I wasn’t directly referencing any particular author in constructing my own end.
Speaking of other authors, are there any other writers, or stories, that had a big influence on the Eternal Chronicles series and especially Eternity’s End? You mentioned C.S. Lewis earlier.
I think that there are two, with the perspective of hindsight, that stick out as influential (aside from Lewis). I would name Christopher Paolini, particularly in Inheritance, and Marissa Myers in her Lunar Chronicles series.
What about non-literary influences; was Eternity’s End influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?
The early concepts of the series definitely had influences from Grimm, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and various other shows with epic fantasy components.
And how about your dogs, Bellaluna and Flynn? How, if at all, did they influence Eternity’s End?
They were excellent distractions when I was trying to write. Bellaluna and Flynn are butt-scratch junkies and vocal in their recognition of passing cars and people outside our windows.
Now, there are undoubtably people who’ve been waiting for Eternity’s End to come out and complete this series so they can finally start reading the Eternal Chronicles. And some are probably thinking they might read all five books back-to-back. Do you think binging these books is a good idea, a bad idea, or that it doesn’t matter?
I think binging them is an excellent idea because every single first page of a sequel essentially picks up almost exactly where the last book left off with only one exception. Eternity’s Edge is the only book with any significant passage of time between its predecessor, Eternity’s Refuge. Even with that passage of time, the stories very much build on each other and are one continuous story. I would think of it in the same way as binging the Harry Potter movies or a season of television.
A moment ago I asked if Eternity’s End had been influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But do you think Eternity’s End, and thus the Eternal Chronicles series, could work as a series of movies, a TV show, or a game?
I think they would work well as a series of movies or as several limited series. I could see each book being made into a three part arc of 60-80 minutes each. I think that would balance nicely, but if there are any stakeholders in that sort of thing reading, I’m very open to suggestion and / or negotiation. I would love to see my books come to life that way, and I have the first few scenes of a screenplay written.
Of course, if Disney happened to buy the rights, I would probably make my sale of the screen rights contingent on it being included, in some way, in the next major entry of the Kingdom Hearts video game franchise. I don’t necessarily think my books should be a stand-alone video game, but I would absolutely die if I got to see Sora, Donald, and Goofy explore Lux Terra and Nox Terra.
Interesting. And if Disney did decide to adapt the Eternal Chronicles series into some movies or a show, who would you want them to cast as the main characters?
Very off the wall picks, but here are my ideas. Timothee Chalamet [Dune] would make an excellent Elior / Eliam, [Heathers‘] Brett Cooper as Opal, Rhys Matthew Bond [Good Witch] as Nyx, Zendaya [Spider-Man: No Way Home] as Nereza, and [Shazam‘s] Zachary Levi as Michael.
So, is there anything else a prospective reader might need to know about Eternity’s End and the Eternal Chronicles series?
Keep some tissues nearby in the endings of most of the books. If I cried writing them, you will probably cry reading them. The story is worth the disappointing moments, but they hurt in the moment.
Finally, if someone enjoys Eternity’s End, and has thus concluded the Eternal Chronicles series, they’ll probably want to read something short and quick. So, what anthology of fantasy short stories would you suggest they read next?
If they enjoy my work, they probably will enjoy Christopher Paolini as well, so I would suggest The Fork, The Witch, And The Worm, as that is an excellent addition to the Alegaisian lore. To be frank, I don’t read a lot of short or quick reads, but I did enjoy how the shorter stories flowed into one another in that book, and it is much shorter than most of the books I read.
