The Final Calling: Suggestions wanted!

Okay, I talked to the probable publisher last night — John Betancourt from Wildside Press — and he wants a different title.

I think he’s right; The Final Calling was kind of a stopgap I stuck on the project when Tim Powers published a novel using my original title, Last Call. It’s not a very exciting name for the book.

I came up with the obvious The Last Warlock, but other suggestions would be welcome.

There’s no prize involved, and titles aren’t subject to copyright, so if I do use yours you’ll get nothing out of it but my thanks, and the odds are pretty good I’ll wind up using something I came up with myself (maybe inspired by a suggestion here), but still, if you have any clever ideas, I’d like to hear them.

Thanks!

27 thoughts on “The Final Calling: Suggestions wanted!

  1. I like The Last Calling it’s the subject of the work, and for fans your your series, it quickly identifies what is going on. It’s been long enough since Last Call was published that you could probably use that.

    Based on what I’ve seen so far, and using some titles you’ve had before 🙂
    The Willing Warlock
    The Warlock and the Wizards

  2. The problem with Morning of Sanity or Day of Sanity is that there isn’t a whole lot of sanity on display.

    Someone on Facebook suggested The Unwelcome Warlock, and I rather like that, at least for the moment.

  3. Given the book is fundamentally about Hanner you could always go with “The Return of Hanner”, fans of the series would know what that meant without explanation. Alternately “The Return of Vond” or “Warlock’s End”. You might even get Aldagmor in there somehow, “Return from Aldagmor” would be clear enough to your fans without being unrelated to the book.

  4. Hmm, the “the last warlock” seems to suggest what the ending of the book is? It is either a spoiler or inaccurate.

  5. Just some possibilities:

    The Warlock’s Dilemma

    The Unexpected Warlock

    Warlock’s Return

    The Day of Awakening

    The Warlock’s Answer (I sort of like this one, personally, since it touches on both Hanner’s solution to the problem and the Answer to the Calling.)

  6. I’m kinda partial to “The New World” as it references Hanner’s Refuge as well as The World after the Calling is ended.

  7. I also have to agree that I didn’t have a problem with The Final Calling; it might not be the most memorable title ever, but I think it does the job.

  8. You get a nice thank-you if I pick your title.

    So far, Allen Dobkin’s The Unwelcome Warlock is still leading the pack.

  9. I’ll throw in a couple:

    Calling’s End
    Warlocks’ Return
    Awoken Warlocks

    and a bad pun: Vond’s Voyage 🙂

  10. I don’t know whether question marks are seen as a bad idea in titles, otherwise adding one to your original idea would ensure it’s not either a spoiler or a wrong steer:

    “The Last Warlock?”

    Or if it’s to appeal to those who’ve read the series:

    “Vond Unchained”

  11. Quoth LWE:
    >Talked to John Betancourt tonight; he likes The Unwelcome Warlock.

    A much better title than the first one that popped into my head:

    A Middle-Aged Man Without Magic. 🙂

    Bill

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