Hello, new member, and a fantasy writer here! I'd like to ask some of the questions that I've been struggling for the past 2-3 months. Here we go, My first book is closing on its end, and when I look back, this book feels like a 'Prologue' rather than an actual first book. You get to know our main characters, there's conflict all over the place and a grand, big-bang kinda thing happening at the end. The thing is, I don't know If the readers will keep reading till the end, or actually give a shot to my characters, and because my first book is 'character-heavy', there's not much worldbuilding happening. I want to expand my world in the second book, but lately I've been struggling to keep my motivation up. The other thing is, how my characters are set up. There's two best friends, finding themselves in a rather long, deep plot, revolving around the man who they thought raised them like their father, but in fact, he's trying to get them to help him in his big, chaotic plan. There's the other guy, who lives a poor life in an old, Victorian London like city, and suddenly finds himself surviving a near death experience, and getting an old, ancient power, and bonding with another guy who is the worst enemy of the last guy, the Father. The last guy - the man that first two guys calls Father - is an old man, nearly 2000 years old and burning with revenge. He's the son of fire god, Igni. He wants to set this world on fire, to end all the past and future. The story revolves around 4 guys, and they all have the same power. But there's the thing; what if the climax do not satisfy the readers? And how risky is it to write a 'character-heavy' first book? Don't know if all these makes sense, but just want to vent some of my feelings. Lastly, English is not my main language, so pardon my mistakes. Thanks!
I'll try to answer your questions first before giving any other advice. 1. what if the climax do not satisfy the readers? Then they may not read your next book. But to be honest, if you got them that far, the climax has to be pretty shit for them to make them give up. So I wouldn't worry about the climax not being satisfying as much as how can you sustain your readers attention to get them to that point in the first place. 2. how risky is it to write a 'character-heavy' first book? This is an odd question. It's as risky as not writing it. If you are asking if it's marketable, I think character driven stories tend to be the ones that are most well received in the first place. In the context of fantasy, you may have some issues if you have withheld world building without reasoning. But character driven story telling is effective even in the arguably most popular modern fantasy (ASOIAF). Plus, my favourite fantasy series tend to be smaller in scope then expand their scope in subsequent books. So in all honesty, I think you'd have no problem if you stick with it.
I'm sorry to keep referring to Anne McCaffrey, but she's my favorite sci-fi/fantasy author so I tend to offer her work as a shining example. Her Dragonriders of Pern series began as a single book, then expanded to 26 books. Of the 26, the first 17 were written by Anne herself. Six were written with her son, Todd, two (which I consider to be greatly inferior) were written by Todd alone, and one was written by Anne's daughter, Gigi. Each book had its own plot and its own resolution of the immediate crisis, but each also offered a setup for the next. The seventh book of the series was the first "prequel," set centuries before the time of the first book in the series.
Character heavy is fine, if this is fantasy you will probably disappoint your readers if you don't provide world building, however, contrary to its namesake worldbuilding does not have to limit itself to the entire world, if you are going to be narratively locked in a city (for example) you can explain a little bit of how it works, maybe name drop a nonexisting fruit/vegetable or two, maybe a god, I like how the light novel "Ascendance of a Bookworm" handles this, every "part" expands in scope and is always building the world starting with small day to day stuff going all the way to some basic geopolitics in the later volumes. Also, aren't first books usually the opener to their respective series???
