David’s answer to “Er. Whatever happened to Legacy of a Watcher? Why has it never appeared and why the Epilogue if you…” > Likes and Comments

You killed my favorite character. And it's how you liked him that I can't forgive. You gave everyone super powers but him. You did him an injustice. It took me 6 months to finish that book after I read that chapter. Only made me hate the half-orc brothers. Ok rant over

If it makes you feel any better, I wrote that part before I wrote any of the Shadowdance novels. Obviously I'd have done things differently otherwise (especially the confrontation with Thren in book two). However, I'd still have had him die in that novel. It'd just have been a bit more epic in how I did it. That said, there's plenty of characters who die in non-epic ways all throughout, and he did save the life of Dieredon in doing so. If you want to blame anyone, blame him. In my original draft, Dieredon died there, and Haern lived, lol.

Him dying was acceptable. It just didn't do him justice how he died. My only consolation was that if you had given him powers then he would have been way too overpowered. He already was almost unbeatable as a mere human. But I have to say that I finished the half-orc part and it actually pissed me off even more because of who you decided to give powers to in that story. I understand they were the main characters but it was how we call it in anime...plot armor and predictable. And he should have died too. Maybe I was being salty at the time but it just felt too much of a happy ending without much sacrifice for their win against what seemed like the complete and utter impossible. It only would have been a successful impossibility if it was Haern (with super powers) and only because he had pulled an impossible win in every one of his stand alone novels. I still haven't continued the series though. Maybe I'll pick it up soon. I have to say out of all the books I have read in my life none have made my mouth drop like the opening to the dance of cloaks. It was epic

hi, first of all, really like your books, treat this as a rant if you like but with all due respect, Haern isn't just any character, he is the main character of an entire book series and it is his legacy that is closing out Dezrel's universe with Half-orcs book 9. Now i first got introduced to Dezrel thorough the Shadowdance series so i might be a bit biased and i do understand that you wrote the first five half-orcs books before the shadowdance books but (to me at least) from the way i read them with the shadowdance books first, it almost felt like the Half-orc characters, for lack of a better word "Stole" Haern's deserved ending. What i mean is that after everything we see Haern go through in the Shadowdance series, he deserves a happy ending, yet, according to the timeline, barely a year later, In comes the Half-orc characters and the 2nd gods war occurs and Delysia dies so Haern and Delysia don't end up together and Valdeeran is destroyed so his objective of keeping his home safe, what to me was one of his core tenants and goals is over, and then he dies in a rather anti-climatic way and i'm struggling to remember Dieredon and can't even remember if he is still alive and part of the main crew of book 8, which is a bit of a problem. Meanwhile Harruq gets to marry Aurelia, he gets to know his children, he saves the world and Hearn only gets passing mentions in the next four books. Once again, this is me ranting so I'm not expecting anything to come of this but It just feels wrong to not have Haern there to pass down the Legacy to Erin and instead have the Half-orc characters (or some other means) do it as with the exception of Tarkin, I don't think there are characters that really knew Haern, They knew the watcher but they weren't around during the Shadowdance series and that is where the Watcher is forged and it would be that more so then the Enigmatic Assassin that we met in Half-orcs that would be the legacy that needs to be passed on.

Anyway, once again, love your books and keep writing great stories