Background[]
The How to Be A Hero Novels was a series of planned books created by Lori Cole and Mishel Baker. The conceit behind the story is that it tells the 'real legend' of what happened in Glorianna (How To Be A Hero) (which the Quest for Glory games story was 'based on').[1]
According to Mishel Baker;
- Depending on how you look at it, there are either eight or ten books in the series. The first two books we’re going to release at first as four shorter books, until we have a solid enough fan base that we can start writing longer novels. Then we’re hoping to re-release them as two long books. Books three through eight will be longer, and will cover the next three QFG settings, plus add three new ones to continue the story. As for titles, that’s usually the last thing we come up with, but the first two are going to be called “By the Book” and “By the Sword.”
Lori: We originally intended to write a book per game. It is clear now that we’ve started that we have more to say in a book than the game did. So it will probably be at least two books per game, and at least three books after that. We’ve got a long ways to go.
Each series of two books while following all four siblings was apparently going to focus on at least one sibling. The first two mainly focused on Hawk. The Mordavia books according to Lori would likely have focused on Falcon the Paladin inspired by Mistress of Darkness short story premise.
Corey surmises it might have been a total of twelve books or more total. Lorey believes it would have been at least ten books.
Books[]
- The Gypsy's Tale (this was originally the prologue but was edited and cut from the books to be it's own short story tie-in to the books)
- By the Book (Hawk carries around a book "How To Be A Hero" which he learned about how to be a Fighter, the story focuses largely on Hawk, but is important for Wren as well, set in Siegburg. Owl grows a magic user with his visits to Erasmus.)
- By the Sword (the sword is gift Hawk received, continuation and focuses on Hawk, set in Siegburg)
Presumed titles (for some of the books):
- By the Pendant (Wren received pendant as her gift, one of two books focused on Wren)
- By the Key (A mysterious key is held in Wren’s pendant, one of two books focused on Wren)
- By the Spellbook (Owl received a spellbook, one of two books focused in Owl.)
- Second owl focused book.
- By the Shield (Falcon received a shield as his gift, set in Mordavia)
- Second Mordavia Book (focuses on Falcon)
- By the Heroes (Focuses on all four siblings and saving Silmaria)
- Second Silmaria focused Book.
- Plus two or three books based on heros children’s adventures possibly set in Asia or India.
- Later books in the series names are not known, but following each of the previous books themes it is possible that’s some would have gotten their titles based on the items each of the Four Heroes were given as a child, and represented their personalities.
"This is the sword," she said. "This is the warrior, the leader."
"This is the shield," she said. "This is the protector, the defender."
"This is the book," she said. "This is the knower, the sage."
"This is the key," she said. "This is the seeker, the opener."
- The first two books cover the events of QFG1. It is not known how many books would have been written to cover the rest of the series. But there could have been up to four more.
- Additionally there had been discussion of plans to continue the series beyond Quest For Glory adventures and follow the children of the four heroes on new adventures.
- Note: There is material In QFG2 that would be great for both Owl (WIT) and Wren (series is robberies) making it a great place to focus on either of those characters. Hawk and/or Falcon could share the EOF possibly each getting separate titles. Maybe Hawk killed the Gryphon?
- Tarna would be a great focus for Owl as there was alot of extra quests for the magic user including the ritual to make his magic staff. Mordavia would be a great place to to put secondary focus on Owl because of the unique encounter with the Fairy Queen. Wren would also get some great content via the secret Thieves Guild.
See also[]
Behind the scenes[]
Note due to the unpublished nature of the novels its place in current Hero-U 'canon' is not clear, and may even be considered apocrypha to the current series. Elements of it actually are part of the backstory of Hero-U, but certain things like renaming of place names, and character names are not (Siegburg for example).[2] In other ways that Hero-U differs from the How To Be A Hero novels is that Quest For Glory 'single hero' coexists alongside the Four Heroes, allowing both stories to be 'true', see Four Heroes and Hero (Hero-U). Other parts which may not mesh with current ideas are the status and organization of Fae and Elf races (as currently viewed by Lori Cole) see Sidhe.
It is likely that the series would have to be re-edited in order to get the series in a published state, and only the first book was in a completed state, with the second book in a rough draft (as it was split from the original document). But the second half may have been lost in a hard drive failure.
Quest for Glory story
References[]
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUQ7H1cqmxQ
- ↑ Lori Cole notes in Faacebook: "In the apocryphal book series, The Chief Thief of Spielburg and the Master are one and the same... but this Chief Thief is not."