---
title: "FAQ (no spoilers) | SurrealDB University"
description: "FAQ (no spoilers). A chapter of Aeon's Surreal Renaissance, SurrealDB's narrative SurrealQL course."
url: https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/faq-no-spoilers
---

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Course chapters

[Aeon's Surreal Renaissance](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book) [Prologue - your story](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/welcome/prologue) [Chapter 1: One year later](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-01) [Chapter 2: The grey book](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-02) [Chapter 3: Gone in an instant](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-03) [Chapter 4: The security door](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-04) [Chapter 5: A long road to travel](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-05) [Chapter 6: Inspiration from the past](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-06) [Chapter 7: A rude surprise](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-07) [Chapter 8: A nice surprise](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-08) [Chapter 9: A peaceful interlude](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-09) [Chapter 10: The ancient world reappears](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-10) [Chapter 11: A growing map](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-11) [Chapter 12: The wires return](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-12) [Chapter 13: The outsiders](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-13) [Chapter 14: Learning from each other](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-14) [Chapter 15: France saves the day again](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-15) [Chapter 16: Keeping knowledge free](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-16) [Chapter 17: Landevin's journey](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-17) [Chapter 18: Restoring civilisation](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-18) [What now?](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-18/what-happens-now) [Chapter 19: Aeons later](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-19) [Chapter 20: Take three](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-20) [Chapter 21: Breaking out](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/chapter-21) [Congratulations](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/the-end) [FAQ (no spoilers)](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/faq-no-spoilers) [FAQ (contains spoilers)](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/faq-with-spoilers)

# FAQ (no spoilers)

## Aeon's Surreal Renaissance FAQ (no spoilers)

Welcome to the FAQ for Aeon's Surreal Renaissance! At the time of publication, this and the following page have a few questions and answers made entirely by the author so that there is a bit of content for you to read. But what we really want are your questions. Anything you'd like to know about the book and the story behind it? [Drop by Discord to let us know](https://discord.com/invite/surrealdb) - `#general` is a good place to start - or email the author at [dave.macleod@surrealdb.com](mailto:dave.macleod@surrealdb.com)!

### Where did the idea for the story come from?

I originally wanted to write a textbook that followed the story of the Enchanted Knights, which was so beautifully illustrated in [this book](https://archive.org/details/gri_33125012874737/page/n24/mode/1up) in the early 1900s. But it isn't long enough to make for a full textbook's worth of content, and the story itself isn't that well known either.

I then began thinking about a library of books instead of a single book, and whether the book could be based on the construction of a library using SurrealDB. That felt a bit closer, but even that would just end up being a single project that would be tough to stretch over a full textbook.

At that point my imagination kicked in, and I began thinking about what sort of library it could be...then all of a sudden the story began to take form and I knew I had found it.

### Why the word renaissance in the title?

Renaissance means rebirth, and there is quite a bit of that in the book.

- The story itself involves bringing back the world of the past (that is, the world of the late 21st century), similar to the Renaissance in Europe which involved rediscovering a lot of the knowledge that had been lost.
- It's a surreal (lowercase) Renaissance because the knowledge in this case was straight up given to the main character.
- It's also a Surreal (uppercase) Renaissance, because SurrealDB is finally being used again after centuries.

Previous

Congratulations

[Previous](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/the-end)

Next lesson

FAQ (contains spoilers)

[Next lesson](https://surrealdb.com/learn/book/faq-with-spoilers)

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