Timeline Issues

[Peter Murray]

I've finally updated the timeline webpage to the end of Wizard's Dilemma. Let's see if I can get through Alone faster.

The private recension of the Oath from Alone is now in the lists at the end, though I squashed it to make it fit better into a webpage.

[semiramis]

Er. I've been back from China awhile now, and I just thought I'd give you the other Oath thingies:

Arhu's version: "In Life's name, and for Life's sake, I assert that I will employ the Art that is Its gift in Life's service alone. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way: nor will I change any creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will ever put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is fit to do so--looking always toward the Heart of Time, where all our sundered times are one, and all our myriad worlds lie whole, in Thta from Which they proceeded..."

And Ith's version: "The Fire is at the heart, and the Fire is the heart; for its sake, all fires whatever are sacred to me. I shall kindle them small and safe where there are none, for the wayfinding of those who come after: I will breathe on those fires about to die in dark places, and in passing, feed those that burn without harm to any; the fire that burns and warms those who gather about it, in no wise shall I meddle with it save that it seems about to consume its cofocals, or to die. To these ends, as the Kindling requireth, I shall ever thrust my claw into the flames to shift the darkneing ember or feed the the failing coal, looking always toward that inmost Hearth from which all flames rise together, and all fires burn undevouring, in and of That Which first set light to teh world, and burns in it ever more..."

Oh, also--I've spotted what may possibly be an error: the calendar lists only one day for HW, but I remember Dairine specified at least a day and a half (was it 36 or 48 hours?) in her program when she found the Motherboard planet to think and rest. Er. I could be remembering incorrectly, tho.

BTW, Petey, I'm loving your new avie XD It has the entire WTF-at-first-sight-oh-wait-I-see thing going on for it XD

[edit] okay, I accidentally had Ith saying "Fire is at teh heart" and "as teh Kindling".... that sounds a bit too 1337-speaky to be a part of the actual oath... XD

[Peter Murray]

Ah, thanks for the Oath bits. I'll copy and paste them from your post, it's easier than copying from the books . (Hmm, better fix that stylesheet quirk I just noticed.)

Oh, also--I've spotted what may possibly be an error: the calendar lists only one day for HW, but I remember Dairine specified at least a day and a half (was it 36 or 48 hours?) in her program when she found the Motherboard planet to think and rest. Er. I could be remembering incorrectly, tho.

I've got High Wizardry starting on Sat, Aug 31, continuing to Sun, Sep 1, and ending on Sat, Aug 31 again - blame the Winged Defender for that. So the three wizards did experience more time than the book lasts for.

[nitafan211]

SAVING..

[semiramis]

Oh, poot... I just noticed I had two typos there, one at the end of Ith's, where it says "Wihc first set light to teh world" instead of "the world" and one at the end of Arhu's, where it says "in Thta from Which they proceeded" instead of "in That"... sorry...

I've got High Wizardry starting on Sat, Aug 31, continuing to Sun, Sep 1, and ending on Sat, Aug 31 again - blame the Winged Defender for that. So the three wizards did experience more time than the book lasts for.

Oh, I see... that makes sense, now ^.^v

[Peter Murray]

Oops, I didn't notice those. Now fixed. And "darkneing ember", too.

I decided to add all the Wizards books . So the file now includes the Errantry Concordance which I expect I'll read one day, and Short Circuit, which seems less likely, and The Big Meow which seems very unlikely. Oh well . Got to be complete, if I'm being properly obsessive.

[semiramis]

Ooops... didn't catch that one it's amazing I can even play piano, my fingers are so confuzed all the time...

*run over by poot*

[Moeen]

Okay, previously, I probably would've been quite content with Peter Murray's version of the timeline (which he links to above), but due to recents developments (in particular the recent Concordane update to Kit and others) the chronology of events for the YW universe will have to be reworked. So, after spending quite a few hours trying to piece events in the book together, and chatting with Peter Murray in the chat room, I've finally managed to come up with my own version of events, which I think works quite well. In making this timeline, I worked off my hunch that DD had written most of her books to take place soon after one another (that is, only a few months at most would pass between books, and certainly not a year). I originally put it up as part of a discussion on Kit's talk page.

I'll put my version of events below for everyone to see and comment on. I've put explanations where I think they're needed, and I'd appreciate any suggestions anyone here might have; however, just a word of advice that I think will come in handy: Please read what I've written carefully before bringing up any points, or I might end up just repeating myself, and I think it's in everyones interest to avoid wasting time and board space here. That said here goes:

Note 1: All acronyms are explained in the FAQ xection of the boards, except UL, which refers to the short story "Uptown Local," and TBONWM, which refers to the novel "The Book of Night with Moon."

Note 2: In the US, children born in a given year are all placed into the same grade, unlike many other countries. Hence, in order for Kit to have skipped a grade, but be in the same grade as Nita, he must have been born the year before Nita, so I will be assuming this henceforth. Furthermore, from the start of the series, Kit and Nita are both in eighth grade.

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>

<LI> SYWTBAW: This book takes place during the spring of some year, sometime between March and May. (A date given in DW would imply that it takes place in May.) Kit is 12, and Nita 13 and note that Nita's birthday is never explicitly stated (nor in any later text), so we cannot be certain as to her date of birth. (When her dad say he couldn't get her bike "this month" that could just mean he tries to the bike for her at the start of every month.) The time frame of this text spans about a week or two.

<LI> DW: This takes places early July, which is consistent with schools of the Long Island area, as school ends around the last day of June. The time frame of this novel is about a week, and ends (according to the text) on July 15.

<LI> UL: In this short story, Kit is 12, and Nita 13, and certainly takes place after DW according to the text. It is also clear that it takes place during the summer. As the story itself spans only about a few hours in the afternoon, it can take place with a matter of days after DW has finished. Say, July 20th, for example.

<LI> HW: Here, it is clear this takes place during some of the hottest days of the summer, and mid to late July certain fits as a typically hot period of the year around Long Island. The only technicality (which is probably what throws everything else off), is that Kit is mentioned as being 13, but his birthday is on August 25th. However, assuming this is simply an oversight on DD's part, this novel can take place as soon as a week after DW. So Kit is still 12, but Nita may or may not be 14. Dairine's age is given as 11, and the novel itself spans only a day, or two at most, so can take place within days of UL.

<LI> AWAB: This story we know starts out in late July, for Nita says school starts September 9th, and Nita's mom wants her to go to Ireland for the rest of the summer, a "six week" break. This book, however, makes a few statements that lead to serious timeline confusion, but a few stand out in particular: First, it states that Nita's been doing wizardry for about two and a half years now. Second, Dairine's age is given as 10. Personally, I think DD was just being a little sloppy here with the timeline. For one thing, the two statements contradict each other. For another, Dairine shouldn't be growing younger as everyone else gets older (unless she somehow figured out how to reverse entropy, which should then lead to the complete defeat of the Lone One and make Dairine the most famous wizard of all time...). Lastly, if Nita has really been doing wizardry for two and half years, she and Kit would be a lot older in later books, and certainly wouldn't be starting ninth grade in the next book. Another statement that stands out is Shaun (Johnny) mentioning the Song in DW as having had taken a year ago, again, I'm putting this in as an inconsistency. Nita is mentioned as being 14 here, so that likely means her birthday as having taken place sometime between HW and AWAB, but as I said, this novel is the one with the most timeline problems, so I can't be sure. This book will also probably be the major point of contention as to the accuracy of my version of events. In any case, I'm putting it in as taking place a few days after UL, and the text spans about a week or two.

<LI> TBONWM: Yup, Nita and Kit make an appearance here, so I'll put it in. This is certainly after HW, and before TWD, so it could take place in between HW and AWAB, or AWAB and TWD, but is apparently during the summer. My guess is probably that it takes place after AWAB, since there isn't a whole lot of room for anything extra between HW and AWAB (remember, Nita and Kit were working with trees for a few days shortly before Nita left). Also, Rhiow mentions Nita as being "fourteenish," which would imply that this is indeed after AWAB (assuming Nita is in fact 14 in AWAB and Rhiow's hunches are on target).

-Well, so much for summer break!

<LI> TWD: This takes place the September after AWAB, and doesn't appear to contradict this version of the timeline. Kit is 13 by this time, and Nita 14. It takes place in the span of about a week in mid September.

<LI> AWAL: This takes place sometime between December of the given year, or January of the next, over a week or two. No problems here.

<LI> WH: This takes place over spring break of the year after the given year. So Kit and Nita are both in ninth grade, Kit is still 13, Nita 14, and Dairine 12. Spring break can refer to any number of breaks (all during the spring, obviously), and depending on the school, can take place in either February, March, or April. In any case, it's been about a year since SYWTBAW. A lot happens to a wizard in year, no? Tom seems to be starting to show it. Also, DD {cleverly?} never mentions either Nita's, Kit's or Dairine's ages anywhere in this text, so no confusions here.
[/list]

Well, this is the best I've been able to do, and it comes closest to fitting DD's statement on Kit, namely that "Kit is twelve years old at the beginning of SYWTBAW, and can be assumed to have been thirteen for the seven books following. However, he will turn fourteen during the events of AWOM." In fact, it fits perfectly if the first statement is modified slightly to say that Kit can "assumed to have been no older than thirteen." My hunch is that this was pretty much what DD had in mind for the series. Indeed, one of her statements in the afterword to the 20th anniversary edition of SYWTBAW seems to fit well with this version of events, for she says: "in one book Dairine is hacking away at a wizardly version of CP/M, and in another book, ostensibly set only months away, Kit is wrestling with a mulish DVD player," implying that HW and AWAL are in fact only a few months apart.

I guess the only way to be sure is for DD to tell us herself whether this version is the one she really had in mind, but in the mean time everyone here can give their opinion. (And DD, would you mind giving an index for these texts? It makes looking stuff up a lot easier )

[Nathan]

Peter: Here's a correction for the ancillary information in your timeline: WAW actually has a dedication (to one James White&mdash;most likely this one), though it appears, oddly enough, on the book's copyright page. Perhaps this was a page-saving measure on the part of Harcourt, considering that WAW is quite a thick book, so they may not have wanted to include a separate dedication page for a mere three words.

(Huh. Groupee seems to have some problem with the parentheses in the Wikipedia link. The original URL from Wikipedia used ASCII 28 and 29&mdash;29 was left alone, but Groupee converted 28 into a left square bracket for some mysterious reason, which is why I changed to using parentheses proper. However, they seem to have their own problems&mdash;my guess is that a URL is not supposed to contain parentheses, though I have no problems accessing the Wikipedia page if I use the URL with parentheses in Safari.)

[Peter Murray]

Oh, right. I've got some of his books, most of the Sector General series. As you guessed, I didn't look on that page.

I've updated the timeline to add James White's name. Now I need to finish Wizard's Holiday's timeline, as I did say I'd finish it this year.

Ooh, Nathan uses Safari :-) . Another Mac user!

[_~*Castine*~_]

kewl timeline. I could never do something like that.

[tori]

OMG! PM that is absoulutley AMAZING!!!
iNEVER BEW SOME OF THAT STUFF! Where did you get all the info? And the "wizards on call" is wonderful. I didnt read all of it but i was still very impressed! How and where do you get all the free time? Any, that is still very lovely and hope you can keep it going as DD writes more!

Dai's to all *--_{ToRi}_--* Wizettechica91

[Peter Murray]

I hope I got it all from the books, plus DD's answers in chats, and the Errantry Concordance. (For instance, Mrs Callahan's and Mrs Rodriguez's maiden names came from the Concordance.)

The titles of the two books that haven't been written came from DD's or Kathy's Usenet posts, or from DD's Out of Ambit blog.

I'm still three and a half books behind, so I hope I catch up soon .

[Mel]

Hey PM, nice work on the timeline! I actually checked it out yesterday, coincidentally (or however you spell that) in a link in another topic. I wouldn't have the time, patience, or something I can't think of to do that. It really didn't cross my mind.

Now, you see, you kind of made the whole YW series real for me in a way. It's like it all actually happened and is in my history textbook. But is much cooler.

Yay for PM!! *rallies 3 cheers*

[Peter Murray]

For DD's comment on timelines, see this Out of Ambit post.

Yes, it took me a long time to mention it. And I'm biased towards liking the post .

I have to find out where I'm up to in WH - I have a feeling I haven't uploaded the last few additions. However, it seems that I need to change The Big Meow's heading one way or the other this weekend.