Corridors
‘Corridors’ is the fourth novel in the Magic Crystals series. It begins eight-and-a-half weeks after the conclusion of ‘Hunt and Power’ on the day when the Hammerheart organisation, controlled by the Hammerson family, takes swift control of two thirds of the entire world in just a few days. The story covers the events of the previous eight-and-a-half weeks in the first eight chapters before jumping ahead to the ensuing struggle, and what our heroes intend to do about it. Even though they have most of the magic in the world, they are unable to stop or even slow the Hammerhearts down, so they decide their only chance of success is to go back through time. To understand the present, they must first understand the past.
MC4 had a much more complicated plot than any of the first three novels, with many different subplots separating from each other and crossing paths at various points. It meant that Stephen Hayes had to spend a good time planning before beginning to write. After three months of such planning, he began work in November 2008 and wrote steadily until it was completed in August 2010. At more than 375,000 words, MC4 is by far the longest novel in the series. It has undergone several revisions since then, with several fragments of the story being re-written and a few sections re-arranged for smoother transition throughout the story.
After months of development, MC4 was first published on November 27, 2015. Due to the timing, it was originally only available in Ebook format on this website, and could be pre-ordered in paperback format as well. It would become available on other retailers in both formats over the following weeks. The 2015 print - paperback edition can be purchased here.
Leading up to the publication of MC4, Stephen Hayes decided that some of the content of the book, as well as content from MC5 and MC6 (which he was still writing at the time), was too ‘full-on’ to be consumed by the adolescent audience to which the books were originally targetted. He decided to published two separate editions of the book: A clean edit edition, mass produced; and the original explicit edition, only available through StephenHayesOnline.com. The differences between the editions can be read about here, and they can both be purchased here.
The audio book edition of MC4 was in production from early-2015 to early-2018. It was not immediately published due partially to financial reasons but also due to a dispute between Hayes and one of his distributers. That dispute has since been resolved and the MC4 audio book, recorded by Nick Flint, can be purchased here.