One of the most important elements of any fantasy novel is the authenticity of its setting. The more the reader can believe in a natural retelling of a fictional reality the more he or she will accept the events. Creating a world isn't just a matter of physical description either - it's being able to take a series of elements that together form an entity the reader accepts without question.
Language, culture, belief systems, physical characteristics, architecture, history, philosophies, social structures, and even educational systems are all aspects that clue us into the nature of the novelistic world. At the same time characterization — from personal behaviour to familial and class-oriented interaction — is one of the key ways to develop that world, even a fantasy setting which depends for its success on the subtlety rendered nature or form of the fantastic element. The reader needs to believe in its reality within the context of the world - or the whole story falls apart.
In the first two books of her Oran Trilogy — New Moon and Sadar's Keep — Midori Snyder established the world her story takes place in by these less-obvious and nuanced means. In some ways it has been like watching the development of a Polaroid picture as circumstances have come more into focus the more we have read. Through getting to know the characters, the gradual unfolding of Oran's history, and the depictions of the social hierarchy, by the time we have reached the final book of the trilogy, Beldan's Fire we have as clear a picture of the world as the characters do.
Beldan's Fire starts with our focus split between characters and locations scattered across the whole of the island country. The Fire Queen Zorah's power is starting to weaken with her repeated attempts to control the new elemental queens who have come into the world. Each time her grip slips, another little bit of the world disappears as the forces of chaos reclaim the world.
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