The Book of the War (novel)

The Book of the War
Main character(s):	The Shift
Main setting:	The War
Key crew
Publisher:	Mad Norwegian Press
Editor:	Lawrence Miles
Writers:	Lawrence Miles, Simon Bucher-Jones, Daniel O'Mahony, Ian McIntire, Mags L. Halliday, Helen Fayle, Philip Purser-Hallard, Kelly Hale, Jonathan Dennis, Mark Clapham, (uncredited) Lars Pearson
Cover by:	Steve Johnson
Artist:	Jim Calafiore
Release details
Release number:	1
Release date:	17 September 2002
Format:	272p paperback
ISBN:	ISBN 1-57032-905-2
Faction Paradox novels
Next →	This Town Will Never Let Us Go

The Book of the War was the first novel in the Faction Paradox series of novels.

Publisher's summary

The Great Houses

Immovable. Implacable. Unchanging. Old enough to pass themselves off as immortal, arrogant enough to claim ultimate authority over the Spiral Politic.

The Enemy

Not so much an army as a hostile new kind of history. So ambitious it can re-write worlds, so complex that even calling it by its name seems to underestimate it.

Faction Paradox

Renegades, ritualists, saboteurs and subterfugers, the criminal-cult to end all criminal-cults, happy to be caught in the crossfire and ready to take whatever's needed from the wreckage... assuming the other powers leave behind a universe that's habitable.

The War

A fifty-year-old dispute over the two most valuable territories in existence: "cause" and "effect."

Marking the first five decades of the conflict, THE BOOK OF THE WAR is an A to Z of a self-contained continuum and a complete guide to the Spiral Politic, from the beginning of recordable time to the fall of humanity. Part story, part history and part puzzle-box, this is a chronicle of protocol and paranoia in a War where the historians win as many battles as the soldiers and the greatest victory of all is to hold on to your own past...

Entries

• Academicians for Game Logic
• A'daltem Ano'nde
• The Analytical Engine
• Anarchitects
• Cousin-Thrice-Removed Anastasia
• The Anchoring of the Thread
• Anchormen
• Apportation
• Armour (Faction Paradox)
• House Arpexia
• Audience of the Ruling Houses
• Babels
• Cousin Belial
• Beshielach
• Biodata
• The Book of Enoch
• "Briefings"
• The Broken Remote
• Michael Brookhaven
• Brookhaven's Follies
• Burlesque Devices
• Captain Sir Burton
• George Gordon, Sixth Baron Byron of Rochdale
• Ada Byron
• The Caldera
• Canon per tonos
• Casts
• Catch-the-Bear's War Bonnet
• House Catherion
• The Celestis
• Chaotic limiter
• City of the Saved
• The Clockwork Ouroboros
• Closed Session (of the Ruling Houses)
• Compassion
• Conceptual Entities
• Confusion
• The Cult of Celebrity Death
• Christopher Rodonanté Cwej
• Cwejen
• D-Mat
• Dating War Era Events (Difficulties)
• Academician Devonire
• The Diaspora
• Dronid
• House Dvora
• Father-Twice-Removed Dyavol
• Earth: History
• The Edimmu
• The Eleven-Day Empire
• The enemy
• House Strategist Entarodora
• Eremites
• Faction Hollywood
• Faction Paradox
  • Inset: The Faction Paradox "Family"
• Faction Precursors
• Fallahal
• The Faraway Declaration
• Fashion Paradox, London
• The Fat
• The First Message from the Enemy
• Fluxes
• Lord Foaming Sky
• Forced Regen Missions
• Mrs. Foyle
• Gargoyles
• The Gauntlet
• GCI Processor
• Ghetto of the Damned
• Ghost Shirts
• Gragov
• The Grand Families
• Grandfather Paradox (Representations)
• The Grandfather's Arm
• Gravity Spiders
• The Great Houses
• The Greater Autrobulan Franchise
• The Gregorian Compact
• Grindlay's Warehouse
• Grotesques
• House Halfling
• Lord Halved Birth
• Hauserkinder
• The Head of the Presidency
• HEM (Highest Entropy Matter)
• History
• Hollow Spectaculars
  • Inset: Brookhaven's Ghost Kingdom: The Six Central Characters
• The Hollywood Bowl Shooting
• The Homeworld
• The House Military
• The House of Lords
• The House of the Rising Sun
• The House of the Seven Gables
• Humanity
• The Imperator Presidency
• Intercreationals
• Intervention
• Investigators
• Investigator Thirty-One
• House Ixion
• The Jallama Reed Transmissions
• Jungle Children
• "Justine's Story"
• Kaiwar
• Karachi
• "Killerbots" (Autonomic)
• Gargil Krymtorpor
• Labyrinths
• Amanda Legend Lefcourt
• Lesser species
• Lethean Campaign
• Leviathans
• Liber Sanguisugarum
• House Lineacrux
• Protocols of Linearity
• Loa
• House Lolita
• London (Eighteenth Century)
• The Lords Celestial
• The Malachite Room
• Mal'akh
• The Maltese Incident
• Lady Armourer Mantissa
• Mark of Indenture
• Memeovore
• Mictlan
• House Mirraflex
• The "Monsters" Coda
• Godfather Morlock
• The Mount Usu Duel
• The Mountains of the Moon
• The Musical Offering
• "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"
• Cousin-Once-Removed Nadim
• Nanotechnology
• Napoleonic Era
• Nechronomancers
• Ronald Bela Nevitz
• The New Young Gods
• The Nine Homeworlds
• Noosphere
• North American Warrior Tribes
• The North Los Angeles Cabal
• Cousin Octavia
• Open Doors
• Order of the Dragon
• Order of the Iron Soul
• Order of the Weal
• Order of the White Peacock
• Ordifica
• The Ottoman Purges
• Pai'ngya
• Parablox
• House Paradox
• Paradox anxiety
• Peyote Dream Runners
• The Piltdown Mob
• Cousin Pinocchio
• Planetesimals
• The Poenari Relic
• Posthumanity
• Praxis
• The Presidency
• The "Princess of Parallelograms" Letters
• The "Probability" Doctrine
• Production Hell
• Protocols of the Great Houses
• Quintessence
• Grigori Efimovitch Rasputin
• Personality Reboots
• Recruitment (Faction Paradox)
• The Red Burial
• Redemption Cult
• Regen-Inf
• Remembrance Tanks
• The Remonstration Bureau
• The Remote
• Removal of Members
• Ritual (Faction Paradox)
• The Ruling Houses
• The Rump Parliament
• Sacrifice
• Sand and Snow Ammunition
• Robert Scarratt
• Secret Architects (of the City of the Saved)
• The Act of Severance
• Sex
• Shadow-Masks
• The Shelley Cabal
• Shifts
• Siloportem
• Simia-KK98
• The Society of St. George
• Sombras Que Corta
• Sons of Tepes
• Space (Five Famous Battles)
• John Hanning Speke
• The Spiral Politic
• The Stacks
• The Star Chamber
• Father Stendec
• Tenskwatawa
• Chatelaine Thessalia
• The Thirteen-Day Republic
• The Thousand-Year Battles
• "Through the Eye of Eternity"
• Time-thickening
• Time-Travel: Biodata Principle
• Time-Travel: Posthuman
• The Timebeast Assault
• Timeships
• Father Timon
• Tirgoviste
• Laura Tobin
• Tower Hill
• House Tracolix
• Ulterior Worlds
• Academician Umbaste
• The Unkindnesses
• Uptime Gate
• Utterlost
• Vaccinations (Temporal)
• Battle of Valentine's Day
• Chad Vandemeer
• The Venue Accords
• Former Citizen Verrifant
• The Viewers and Listeners Protocols
• Vlad III of Wallachia
• Voodoo Charter
• The Walking Dead
• Wallachia
• The War King
  • Inset: The War King's Inaugural Address
• War Predictions
  • Chatelaine Thessalia
  • The Rivera Manuscript
• Waves of the House Military
• Weaponstores (Remote)
• New Palace of Westminster
• The Winter Palace
• Witch-blood
• Women (Dressing Up As)
• Worldofme
• Wovoka
• Xenoprediction
• House Xianthellipse
• Carmen Yeh
• "You" Diversions
• The Younger World Story
• Yssgaroth
• Zero Time
• Zo la Domini

References

• Het Linc is a polymath.
• The Malachite Room is part of the Winter Palace.
• Faction Paradox uses Sabakash bones for armour.
• 104-forms are timeships.

Notes

• While editing the Book, Lawrence Miles described it as "a continuity in a book, it's an encyclopaedia to the War Era universe. It's got a structure rather than a plot, the way history's got a structure or a Bible's got a structure. Some parts of the universe are cross-referenced with other parts, and it all comes together to make up this great big ... vision."
• It was deliberately kept unclear as to which authors contributed which articles. However, later releases in the Faction Paradox series would provide some clues.

• Lawrence Miles himself likely penned the entries for Faction Paradox, the Remote, the Great Houses, the Spiral Politic, Grandfather Paradox, and the enemy, at the absolute minimum. As editor, he rewrote many or all entries. The "Faction Paradox Family" section was credited to him in the book's notes.
• Simon Bucher-Jones wrote slightly more than any other contributor to the Book, with the exception of Lawrence Miles. The final edition of the book included at least one SBJ-authored entry for every letter of the alphabet, including "Lords Celestial", which was interrupted by the Shift. PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil identified him as the creator of Robert Scarratt; he presumably penned many of the entries about the Celestis, who he had previously explored in his Eighth Doctor novel PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5, and Entarodora, who featured in his novel PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage.
• Daniel O'Mahony used Thessalia, the Imperator, and babels in his novel PROSE: Newtons Sleep. He stated that he'd had no involvement in Michael Brookhaven's filmography.
• Ian McIntire introduced Carmen Yeh in his unlicensed short story Schrodinger's Botanist for the charity anthology Perfect Timing. His entries were co-written with the uncredited Mad Norwegian Press CEO Lars Pearson.
• Mags L. Halliday used Cousin Octavia in PROSE: Warring States and presumably wrote about Anastasia and the Thirteen-Day Republic for The Book of the War.
• Philip Purser-Hallard wrote the articles concerning the City of the Saved, which was later featured in his novel PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... and Obverse Books' City of the Saved anthology series. Purser-Hallard commented that he had not written the articles on Wallachia, Michael Brookhaven, Grigori Rasputin, or the Spiral Politic; however, he did write an entry for House Mirraflex, though Miles thoroughly overhauled it in editing.
• Kelly Hale, who herself is part Native American, wrote the entries concerning Cousin Belial and the Faction's Remote experiments on the Native American warrior tribes.
• Jonathan Dennis created Faction Hollywood, but at least three other writers contributed to those entries. He would later reuse Faction Hollywood in his story PROSE: Remake/Remodel and co-write PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage with Bucher-Jones.
• Mark Clapham and Bucher-Jones explored the Celestis in their cowritten Eighth Doctor novel PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5.

• Lawrence Miles' "The Faction Paradox Family" was originally published on the Faction Paradox website.

Continuity

• The Shift was a liquid life-form before it was transformed into a shift; it then received the Mark of Indenture and was enslaved to the Celestis. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
• An interventionist member of the Great Houses was believed to have died as the fighting began on Dronid. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
• Homeworld weapons like babels and casts were used on the planet Lethe. (PROSE: The Parliament of Rats)
• Chris Cwej was recruited as an agent of the Great Houses. (PROSE: Dead Romance)
• A Homeworld colony was located on Simia KK98. (PROSE: Alien Bodies, Dead Romance)
• The Faction Paradox created the Remote on Ordifica. They reproduce through Remembrance Tanks. (PROSE: Interference)
• Grandfather Paradox was imprisoned on the Great Houses' prison. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet, Interference)
• House Mirraflex was an illustrious Great House. (AUDIO: The Conscript)
• Investigator One was the Celestis' head field agent. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)
• Compassion was the first and only 102-form timeship. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon)
• The Homeworld is ruled by Great Houses. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)
• House Lolita is an up-and-coming force in the War. (PROSE: Toy Story)
• The Mal'akh are connected to humanity's noosphere. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
• Multiple Homeworlds were constructed during the War. (PROSE: Alien Bodies, The Taking of Planet 5, The Shadows of Avalon)
• The leader of the Homeworld during the War used the title War King. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon)
• The Star Chamber ran secret operations in Great Britain and around the world. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)

External links

• The Book of the War at the Faction Paradox wiki