Comps: Runelight, Dragons Reach

Book marketers are constantly pushing the concept of “comp titles.” Essentially, they want to say, “If you liked that, you’ll like this.” As an author, I’ve always found identifying comp titles difficult. I tend to think of works that influence me, but I take lots of minor influences from many places, so I always come up with too many and can’t decide. However, an excellent and modern comparison to my debut book, Metamancer, has recently become apparent. Since I read these after I wrote Metamancer, it’s easier for me to say, “Hey, this resembles something I wrote.”

Recently, I wanted to read something self-published with an audio version, so I picked up Runelight by J A Andrews. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable book. Then, since book 2 of Aenigma Lights is not out on audio (yet), I followed with her The Keeper Origins series. I’ve now finished the first book in that series, Dragons Reach; amazingly, it’s even better than Runelight. If you have already read my book, I highly recommend that you check them out.

Beyond her excellent storytelling, one of the fascinating parts of reading her work was continually finding significant parallels to my work. Here’s a list of similarities that I think make these two J A Andrews titles a good “Comp” for my book Metamancer:

• Style – Single-character POV (Runelight, Dragons Reach)
• Style – Good description of setting (Runelight, Dragons Reach)
• Style – Linear with strong A plot, limited B plots (Runelight, Dragons Reach)
• Style – Childhood origin start (Runelight, Dragons Reach)
• Theme – Difficulty of long-lived Elf relationships with Short lived humans (Runelight)
• Coincidence – Main Character befriends a female red-haired elf. (Runelight)
• Theme – Powerful characters manipulate naive main characters. (Dragons Reach)
• Setting – Magical Powers are inherent to individuals; not everyone can use them (Runelight, Dragons Reach)
• Theme – Romantic interest, as a sub-plot, not a Romantasy (Dragons Reach)

Of course, there are differences, too.

• Style – Main character gender: Her MC is female in both cases; mine is male.
• Style – I delve a bit deeper into the childhood origins.
• Style – I spend less time inside the character’s head, relying more on actions and dialog to convey emotion.
• Setting – Magic systems are very different.
• Setting – My book takes place on a far-future, unrecognizable Earth; hers is an entirely separate world.
• Style – Though my book focuses on the MC, I have some scenes that cut away from the main character to show things the MC isn’t aware of. However, those are generally 3rd person non-omniscient (fly on the wall) and not really a character perspective, so I still consider my work single POV.
• Style – Metamancer uses dramatic irony much more heavily (fueled by what we learn in the cutaways).
• Theme – Life throws more varied problems at the MC in my book; some are internal self-conflicts, some are intentionally caused by others, and some are things nobody controls that just happen. In J A Andrews’s works, pretty much everything that happens is something someone or something did, while in my world, simple accident, inanimate environment, and factors no one controls may all play a role. In Metamancer, one major event stems from a danger the characters are unaware of. Technically, it would have been preventable, but lacking awareness and experience, they knew of no reason to take precautions. Sometimes, life just plain blindsides you.

I think it’s reasonable to say that my imagined world stands a little closer to our reality as we know it. However, it is still high fantasy and far from anything that would be called low, urban, or historical fantasy.

Final note: I’m now listening to Raven’s Ruin (Book 2 of the Keeper’s Origins series), which is less of a comp. Although it does have a warrior monk element (that also appears very briefly in my book), it leans into the romance far more heavily. Also, it spends more time on the main character’s internal dialog, which is less like my style. Of course, Raven’s ruin is also book 2 in a series, so we’ll have to look again after I have book 2 out.

Agree? Disagree? Care to suggest another comp title? Leave a comment below!