Welcome back to the Hammer and Anvil author commentary. Be warned there will be SPOILERS ahead for the book!

Today I’m talking about the big bad of the novel: The Minotaur!

Bringing the Minotaur into the story

The Minotaur was one of the few pieces that had to be in the book right from the start. Signs of Portents made it pretty clear that this menace was one of the first handled by Soriya during her training years. I thought it was a significant touchstone to tie in the new prequel trilogy with the main series.

There is a flashback of Mentor watching Soriya battle this creature. It is all of five paragraphs in the book, but it stuck with me throughout the series to the point where I want to expand that moment.

I wanted it to resonate with the readers as much as it did with me.

What drew me to the Minotaur

There was a level of expectation with the character. After writing about men like Henry Erikson and Julian Harvey, it was refreshing to have this powerhouse of a threat against Soriya.

Having the Minotaur also focused in on something I thought was important for this trilogy. There is no Loren here. This is Soriya’s story. So rather than have it bogged down on the investigation angle of the series, this was a chance to amp up the action.

Greystone-in-Training became a fast-paced adventure series instead of the crime thriller that Signs was. And that was the direction the series was going anyway. You could see it with The Medusa Coin and A Circle of Shadows. The action bits were bigger and more prominent, than the seedy underbelly of the mystery.

That was Soriya’s influence on the narrative. And since this was her story to tell, it made sense to take it to the next level with a bad guy like the Minotaur.

The Evolution of the Minotaur

Readers of these commentaries know where I stand when it comes to writing the villain. Writing Nathaniel Evans in Signs of Portents was an eye-opening experience for me. Where I saw all this nuance and motivation in him, most others felt he was one-dimensional. Not that he was a terrible villain, but that there was no meat to him.

I took those comments to heart and redoubled my efforts in fleshing out the threats in each of the subsequent novels.

The Minotaur was no exception.

I dug deep into the lore. I read about his subjugation at the hands of King Minos (though he didn’t see it that way at the time). He was abused consistently, and still felt love for his king.

Adding that backstory was just the first step for me.

The moment I knew I had something with the Minotaur in this book was the scene with Mentor, where the Minotaur holds out the phone and speaks for the first time.

It was in the original script. It was in the outline. But I didn’t realize the significance of why that mattered until later drafts. He was evolving. He was becoming something more than the monster in the labyrinth.

I loved that turn. Because it meant he could be viewed as a creature anymore. He was a living, breathing entity with unknown potential now.

He took things too far, of course. I mean, who wouldn’t? Here he sees his freedom, this new world, and he seeks to claim it as his own. He tries to test himself, to prove himself, and it leads to his own downfall.

We can all identify with the villain.

Not the mania or the immorality of them, but their ambitions – their dreams? Sure, why not?

Once I tapped into that evolution vibe with the Minotaur, I went back and filled in the blanks. I layered it into every scene. You can see it starting with the scene where the two cops arrive. He figures out that’s what they are by “reading” the word from the cruiser.

He “reads” the relationship between Mentor and Soriya during their fight in the old city. The Minotaur even lays a trap for Mentor.

All this things point to the Minotaur’s ability to grow, to evolve, and it made him a truly terrifying menace (IMO).

I hope you enjoyed his tale as much as I had writing it.

Will he ever escape the labyrinth again to threaten Soriya and Portents? There is an answer to that question. But should I tell it to you?

No, I better wait. Just a little bit longer.