So, this whole 'love' business...

Right then, with my typical sense of good timekeeping, it's time for me to remember that Valentine's Day was two weeks ago, and write a post about love. After all, it's quite possibly the most talked about emotion in the entirety of human history, and since the whole topic plays a rather large part in Messiah's Shard, I reckon it might pay to talk about love, and soulmates, and all that gubbins.

Oh yes, there's much more than just epic, prophetic shenanigans going in the book...

Y'see, we begin Book 1, Act 1 by going and sitting next to John Harley, a man whose whole character is kinda sorta defined by love. The painful love he still feels for his long-dead sister, the heartache when he remembers her little face and realises he's never going to see her again, is simply one aspect of it, but it's not unfair to say that a big chunk of Harley's personality is a reaction to that aspect of his past, that bond with a sibling who's no longer with him.

And then, there's her. Anna. The woman he loves with all his heart.

The genesis of Messiah's Shard happened waa-aaaaa-aaaaay back in the mists of prehistoric time (seriously, we're talking pre-2000, here), back when I was young and daft, and still remained utterly convinced that soulmates existed, in a literal sense. I eventually moved away from that viewpoint, but that nugget of an idea kept festering away in my brain, as I thought more about what the idea of soulmates would actually mean.

Think about it; say that soulmates really are two parts of one soul, and say that they can only be happy together. What then? What happens if the souls can't be bonded in this lifetime? Would only having half a soul hurt? What if something happened to the other person, the other half of your soul, and you knew you could never be whole?

That's a horrible thought!

So therefore, my take on soulmates is possibly a little bit darker than you might be expecting...

On a brighter note, though, there's another relationship in the novel, and this one's quite a bit happier. I'm talking, of course, about Jake Mooney and Madeleine Wilder, a couple who are just perfect for each other, and who were fun to write. Not that that will stop me messing with them; no-one gets a happy ending unless they've been stretched right to their breaking point.

Because that's the big question, of course: can love survive the apocalypse? When humanity falls, can love endure?

There's only one way to find out...

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