''Die'' ''Gezeitenwelt'' (The World of Tides) is the name of a series of German

fantasy novels Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fa ...

. They are set on a planet named World of Tides that is hit by large fragments of a

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...

with dramatic consequences: The coasts are hit by gigantic

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

s, earthquakes alter the landscape, a global

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

ensues - and mysterious magic awakes, that lets monsters appear and dreams become reality. A distinct feature of the ''Gezeitenwelt'' is its attempted realism in a fantastic context, which is based on research by the authors with the help of

geophysicists Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' so ...

, archaeologists,

anthropologists An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

and

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

s. The series was planned in three groups of four books. After the release of the introductory group, the publisher

Piper Verlag Piper Verlag is a German publisher based in Munich, printing both fiction and non-fiction works. It currently prints over 200 new paperback titles per year. Authors published by the company include Andreas von Bülow and Sara Paretsky. It is owne ...

offered only to finish the series with one instead of eight more books, which the authors refused. The series rests at the moment (2007).

Authors

The novels are written by four authors sharing the pseudonym ''Magus Magellan''. ''Magus'' stands for the magic in the World of Tides, while ''Magellan'' represents the element of discovery. The authors are: *

Bernhard Hennen Bernhard Hennen (born 1966 in Krefeld) is a German writer of fantasy literature. He is best known internationally for his series ''Die Elfen'' ("The Elves", since 2004), which has been translated into a number of European languages. Career He ...

* Hadmar von Wieser * Thomas Finn * Karl-Heinz Witzko These authors have among other works contributed intensively to the role-playing game ''

The Dark Eye ''The Dark Eye'' (German: ''Das Schwarze Auge'', lit. "The Black Eye") is a German tabletop role-playing game with a high fantasy theme created by Ulrich Kiesow and launched by Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH and Droemer Knaur Verlag in 1984 ...

''.

Books

The ''Gezeitenwelt'' series was planned to cover a fictitious period of about 50 years divided into three groups. Only the first group has been realized (2007). * Prelude ** ''Das Geheimnis der Gezeitenwelt'' (The Secret of the World of Tides)(10/2004) (SC) * 1st group ** ''Der Wahrträumer'' (The True-Dreamer) by

(10/2002) (HC) / (SC) ** ''Himmlisches Feuer'' (Heavenly Fire) by Hadmar von Wieser (03/2003) (HC) / (SC) ** ''Das Weltennetz'' (The Worlds' Net) by Thomas Finn (09/2003) (HC) / (SC) ** ''Die Purpurinseln'' (The Crimson Islands) by Thomas Finn (04/2004) (HC) / (SC) ** ''Das Traumbeben'' (The Dreamquake) by Karl-Heinz Witzko (10/2004) (HC) / (SC) Each book of the 1st group is a self-contained description about the events directly before to some years after the cosmic hit in different parts of the world (only book three and four by Thomas Finn belong together), with some reappearing events and minor characters. The novels won the Deutscher Rollenspiele Preis (German role-playing prize) for best novel in 2003 and 2004.

Illustrations

The maps of the world were designed by

Franz Vohwinkel Franz Vohwinkel (born 1964 in Munich, West Germany) is a German artist and illustrator whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Works Vohwinkel drew the cover art for the book ''Dataware'' (1998) for TSR's ''Alternity'' game, and illustra ...

, who became known for his illustrations of games like ''

Settlers of Catan ''Catan'', previously known as ''The Settlers of Catan'' or simply ''Settlers'', is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It was first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) as ''Die Siedler von Catan''. Pl ...

'' and ''

Magic: The Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a Tabletop game, tabletop and Digital collectible card game, digital Collectible card game, collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards ...

''. The interior illustrations were done by German drawer Caryad, known mainly for her work in ''

''.

References

{{Reflist

External links

(all German)
Official Gezeitenwelt homepage

Homepage of Bernhard Hennen

Homepage of Hadmar von Wieser

Homepage of Thomas Finn

Comprehensive fan encyclopaedia
Book series introduced in 2002 Fantasy novel series German fantasy novels 2002 German novels 2003 German novels 2004 German novels