Sequel to Cauldron of Ghosts - sort of spoilers, maybe

From Eric Flint's Facebook page today:

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I have now started working on the next Honorverse novel I'm co-authoring with David Weber. We are at the initial stage we always go through when we start a novel -- of which we have now written five together, two in my 1632 universe and three in David's Honorverse.

I think of this stage as the Nursery. This has two connotations. One is benign: this is the stage at which the story idea comes into existence. The other is, ah, grouchier. This is the stage at which the clear-headed and forthright partner in the collaboration -- that's me -- has to wrangle with the obsessive-compulsive anal-retentive fussbudget who is driven by an ultimately futile quest for background perfection to insist that every miserable goddam little plot twist has to be reconcilable in every respect with the ontological essence of the insanely complex nail-down-every-minutia setting he dreamed up over a period of way, way too many years when he could have been doing something practical and useful like washing dishes.

(Clears the throat.) In fairness, I suspect David has harbored similar thoughts when he's worked with me in the 1632 universe.

So. Back to the Nursery, where I currently have to contend with the stubborn one who is insisting that we have to develop a story line wherein two of Our Heroes -- actually, one hero; one heroine -- plot to overthrow the Wicked Establishment even though the evil ones have made sure that all their subjects are implanted with nanotech that causes them to commit suicide whenever they fall afoul of said evil ones or just find themselves in a bad spot where their continued existence might discomfit the evil ones.

Yes, we'll figure it out. Medieval theologians would be aghast at our tortured logic and dumbfounded by our devotion to the oxymoron called "true fiction."

dvdscar wrote:From Eric Flint's Facebook page today:

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Snip...
So. Back to the Nursery, where I currently have to contend with the stubborn one who is insisting that we have to develop a story line wherein two of Our Heroes -- actually, one hero; one heroine -- plot to overthrow the Wicked Establishment even though the evil ones have made sure that all their subjects are implanted with nanotech that causes them to commit suicide whenever they fall afoul of said evil ones or just find themselves in a bad spot where their continued existence might discomfit the evil ones.

Yes, we'll figure it out. Medieval theologians would be aghast at our tortured logic and dumbfounded by our devotion to the oxymoron called "true fiction."

Alison immediately comes to mind

George J. Smith wrote:Alison immediately comes to mind

Strange, I immediately thought of Victor and Thandi -- you kno since they were the protagonists of the last book and Victor has been the main protagonist in all of the previous Torch series.

George J. Smith wrote:Alison immediately comes to mind

Weird Harold wrote:Strange, I immediately thought of Victor and Thandi -- you kno since they were the protagonists of the last book and Victor has been the main protagonist in all of the previous Torch series.

Actually, the ones that came to my mind were Zach and Gail - that was an extensive subplot that apparently went nowhere, and they would be individuals who had the nano-tech, which Victor and Thandi don't

fallsfromtrees wrote:

Weird Harold wrote:Strange, I immediately thought of Victor and Thandi -- you kno since they were the protagonists of the last book and Victor has been the main protagonist in all of the previous Torch series.

Actually, the ones that came to my mind were Zach and Gail - that was an extensive subplot that apparently went nowhere, and they would be individuals who had the nano-tech, which Victor and Thandi don't

Zach and Gail sound much more likely. Of course, it might all be smoke and mirrors and misdirection. "Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat" reaches into hat, and pulls out a peak bear. "Wrong hat"

(apologies to Moose and Squirrel)

My thought was that it would be Honor's children he was speaking of initially but then I thought it might be a pair of the people who were hustled off to Darius without their family or friends.

Fireflair wrote:My thought was that it would be Honor's children he was speaking of initially but then I thought it might be a pair of the people who were hustled off to Darius without their family or friends.

I thing Victor and Thandi are a better choice. Gail was a NAVAL expert, not a likely position to be involved in betrayal of her sponsors.

Also, we know that there is going to be another arc about a generation later. If Gail got out a message about the location of Darius, ASSUMING SHE WOULD EVEN KNOW IT, things would get nasty immediately.

Therefore, it is more likely to be Victor and Thandi...although it could be that Zach and Gail start a resistance movement. However, that would not be all that likely and are we ready to dub Gail a heroine based on what we know?

ldwechsler wrote:

Fireflair wrote:My thought was that it would be Honor's children he was speaking of initially but then I thought it might be a pair of the people who were hustled off to Darius without their family or friends.

I thing Victor and Thandi are a better choice. Gail was a NAVAL expert, not a likely position to be involved in betrayal of her sponsors.

Also, we know that there is going to be another arc about a generation later. If Gail got out a message about the location of Darius, ASSUMING SHE WOULD EVEN KNOW IT, things would get nasty immediately.

Therefore, it is more likely to be Victor and Thandi...although it could be that Zach and Gail start a resistance movement. However, that would not be all that likely and are we ready to dub Gail a heroine based on what we know?

She was indeed a naval expert, but if she comes to realize the extent to which the Malign covered up the disappearances on Mesa, it could well drive her (and Zach) into open (or covert) rebellion. it is apparent from textev that Jack McBride had not had his conscience amputated, and Zach appears to be cut from the same cloth.

I hope to hear more about Zach McBryde and Gail, but I think the chance of their being the heroes of the story are small. That ship sailed when they landed on Darius. I would find it hard to believe that the Alignment would ever allow them to leave Darius, and if they became suddenly inconvenient to the Alignment, their nanotech would kill them.

Peregrinator wrote:I hope to hear more about Zach McBryde and Gail, but I think the chance of their being the heroes of the story are small. That ship sailed when they landed on Darius. I would find it hard to believe that the Alignment would ever allow them to leave Darius, and if they became suddenly inconvenient to the Alignment, their nanotech would kill them.

Which is the very problem Eric and RFC are trying to find a way round. Based on the previous books it is much more likely to be Victor and Thandi. But I immediately thought of Zach and Gail as well, and it would be an interesting new twist. The long sub-plot about them didn't seem to warrant the space it got, but then I suppose that could be said of quite a lot of Honorverse sub-plots in recent years (Ducks reflexively).