Peter Gribble and the City of Magicians: Where Pacifism Collides with Reality

In this episode of The Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory, Mookie Spitz sits down with Peter Gribble, author of the sprawling City of Magicians trilogy. They dig into a world where magic replaces military force, complacency masquerades as stability, and a barbarian invasion exposes the cracks holding everything together.At the center is a deceptively simple premise: a pacifist, pilgrimage-driven city-state has grown rich, comfortable, and dangerously soft. When violence comes knocking, the ruling council scrambles—not to fight, but to manipulate, negotiate, and survive. Their solution? A reluctant young man tasked with telepathically binding himself to the invading warlord, while a parallel underground faction plots its own dangerous alliance.Peter's trilogy becomes a pressure chamber for asking some big questions: Can a society built on nonviolence survive contact with those playing by a different set of rules?When does restraint become weakness?What happens when power—magical or political—corrupts the people who wield it?And underneath it all: are we actually in control, or are deeper forces shaping our choices?The conversation moves beyond plot into process, as Peter breaks down how this 1,600-page epic was created over decades, resulting in a sprawling epic through obsession, daily discipline, and the kind of creative “possession” writers die for: where characters hijack the story, structure manifests later in the game, and entire scenes get scrapped and reborn in a single manic burst.Mookie pushes the discussion into even sharper territory, showcasing how Peter's epic uses fantasy to confront the realities of history, war, and human failure, and asking whether idealism can survive contact with the real world and its more pragmatic brutalities. The answer, like the trilogy itself, is messy, conflicted, and brutally honest.If you’re into dense, character-driven, immersive world-building with philosophical teeth—think Borges-level ideas meshed with Tolkien-scale ambition—this one delivers. And if you’re a writer, this episode provides a raw look at what it actually takes to build something big, finish it, and then figure out how the hell to get anyone to notice.The GuestPeter Gribble has written for NUVO and other magazines in British Columbia. For over ten years he wrote a monthly gardening column for a local Vancouver paper. The City of the Magicians is his first published series.His Websitehttps://petergribble.com/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show