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!
I like “The Last Warlock”. I tried to think up a play on “The Unwilling Warlord”, but failed (“The Willful Warlock”, “The Unwarlocked” etc)
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
How about “Morning of Sanity” to bookend “Night of Madness”
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.
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.
Hmm, the “the last warlock” seems to suggest what the ending of the book is? It is either a spoiler or inaccurate.
Myself, I really like “The Final Calling”. Just putting a word in for the original…
Unoriginal, but what about “Hanner’s Refuge”?
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.)
The End of Warlockry
The unwilling warlock
The unwanted warlock
Final Call
I’m kinda partial to “The New World” as it references Hanner’s Refuge as well as The World after the Calling is ended.
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.
Vond’s Vacation
The World Turned
Vond’s Last Call
Hanner’s Tapestry
What do we get if you pick our title?!?
Or:
Hanner’s Recall
Hanner’s Return
A Brigade of Warlocks
You get a nice thank-you if I pick your title.
So far, Allen Dobkin’s The Unwelcome Warlock is still leading the pack.
No…LOL
You can’t change the name, I already wrote the book review!!!
http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Final-Calling-Book-Review
I’ll throw in a couple:
Calling’s End
Warlocks’ Return
Awoken Warlocks
and a bad pun: Vond’s Voyage 🙂
Hey, thanks for the review!
Total Decall.
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”
“The Unenchanted Warlock”
“The Ultimate Warlock” – this fits with the same meaning as the last warlock, but also has a connotation of being the best/most powerful/etc. which could also apply to Vond.
Talked to John Betancourt tonight; he likes The Unwelcome Warlock.
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
A Middle-Aged Man Without Magic — ha! I like that!
Vond’s Radio
The Warlock Unemployment Line