Gordian Division series - on to Book 6?!

So, David and I have been busy. Really busy, and I figured a progress update was long overdue. Here’s were we stand on the Gordian Division series.

Book 3 (The Janus File) comes out this October (10/4/22). Personally, I’m super excited about this release. At its heart, it’s a murder mystery police procedural with some time travel thrown in to spice things up. This is the most fun I’ve had writing a novel since… well, ever! It features two investigators (Detective Isaac Cho from SysGov and Agent Susan Cantrell from the Admin) who have quickly become my two favorite characters to write. Also, this book happened partially because David Weber and Toni Weisskopf put me on a universe-destroying diet after The Valkyrie Protocol.

Book 4 (The Weltall File) has been submitted to the publisher. It’s another Isaac and Susan police procedural. I’m not sure where it is on the release calendar, though.

Book 5 (The Dyson File) is basically finished. Just doing some review and cleanup. It’s another Isaac and Susan police procedural. This is my first solo novel for Baen Books, so I hope you’ll check it out. I should have it turned in to Baen in a month or two.

Book 6 (The Title-Goes-Here Protocol) is in the early planning stages. David and I will be combining the main casts from both the Protocol and File books for this one, essentially bringing the two streams of the Gordian Division series together for one big adventure. We had our first major planning session this past Saturday and made a ton of progress. Not much more to say at this stage, though. Plenty of work ahead of us!

Jacob Holo wrote:So, David and I have been busy. Really busy, and I figured a progress update was long overdue. Here’s were we stand on the Gordian Division series.

Book 3 (The Janus File) comes out this October (10/4/22). Personally, I’m super excited about this release. At its heart, it’s a murder mystery police procedural with some time travel thrown in to spice things up. This is the most fun I’ve had writing a novel since… well, ever! It features two investigators (Detective Isaac Cho from SysGov and Agent Susan Cantrell from the Admin) who have quickly become my two favorite characters to write. Also, this book happened partially because David Weber and Toni Weisskopf put me on a universe-destroying diet after The Valkyrie Protocol.

Book 4 (The Weltall File) has been submitted to the publisher. It’s another Isaac and Susan police procedural. I’m not sure where it is on the release calendar, though.

Book 5 (The Dyson File) is basically finished. Just doing some review and cleanup. It’s another Isaac and Susan police procedural. This is my first solo novel for Baen Books, so I hope you’ll check it out. I should have it turned in to Baen in a month or two.

Book 6 (The Title-Goes-Here Protocol) is in the early planning stages. David and I will be combining the main casts from both the Protocol and File books for this one, essentially bringing the two streams of the Gordian Division series together for one big adventure. We had our first major planning session this past Saturday and made a ton of progress. Not much more to say at this stage, though. Plenty of work ahead of us!

Will Isaac Cho find himself as an exchange officer in the Admin universe?

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:Will Isaac Cho find himself as an exchange officer in the Admin universe?

Sort of. Their case in The Weltall File requires them to travel to the Admin and for Isaac to be granted legal authority to carry out the investigation in that territory, which leads to him being made a temporary member of the DTI, much the same way Susan is made a temporary member of SysPol at the start of The Janus File. So, I'd say he already has one foot firmly through that door by the end of Book 4.

Eventually, there could be an Admin-centric case the two work on where they spend most or all of their time in the Admin universe during that novel. That's actually one of the "File" concepts I have stashed away in my notes for future projects.

Jacob Holo wrote:Book 3 (The Janus File) comes out this October (10/4/22). Personally, I’m super excited about this release. At its heart, it’s a murder mystery police procedural with some time travel thrown in to spice things up. This is the most fun I’ve had writing a novel since… well, ever! It features two investigators (Detective Isaac Cho from SysGov and Agent Susan Cantrell from the Admin) who have quickly become my two favorite characters to write. Also, this book happened partially because David Weber and Toni Weisskopf put me on a universe-destroying diet after The Valkyrie Protocol.

Hello Jacob, thanks for the update! Looking forward to the Janus File and seeing what the not-universe-destroying side of time travel looks like. I said before that the post-scarcity society you and David designed for SysGov and, to a lesser extent the Admin universe, is quite compelling. And it would seem that, with time travel available, detectives should be out of a job. So I can't wait to see just how you've solved that particular problem.

Also... will detective Cho lose his gun every other chapter, like another detective from a certain famous The Something Files series? I'm hoping you've inserted some Easter Eggs for that, like Star Trek did for DTI investigators Dulmur and Lucsly.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:And it would seem that, with time travel available, detectives should be out of a job. So I can't wait to see just how you've solved that particular problem.

This is a point we address in the novel, and we approach the issue from multiple angles. For one, the Gordian Division's time machines are a strictly controlled resource, and the quantity of crime in the solar system versus the number of available TTVs makes their use during most investigations impossible. Furthermore, the nature of many crimes in SysGov makes them less helpful than one might initially believe. This is partially due to how formidable SysPol forensics specialists are at reconstructing the events at a crime scene. In effect, SysPol already has a way to look into the past. Criminals, likewise, already need ways to get around this and will sometimes employ sophisticated methods to avoid detection.

So, while the ability to go back in time and observe events at a crime scene could be helpful, it is unlikely to provide a definitive edge in solving the case. The murder that kicks off The Janus File is a good example where time travel would provide little to no benefit to the detectives.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Also... will detective Cho lose his gun every other chapter, like another detective from a certain famous The Something Files series? I'm hoping you've inserted some Easter Eggs for that, like Star Trek did for DTI investigators Dulmur and Lucsly.

Isaac actually doesn't carry a gun (his SysPol drone is no pushover, though), and Susan's not going anywhere without some firepower to back her up. Never mind she's basically a walking weapon. As for Easter Eggs, I did sprinkle a few fun references throughout the next three books, though most are fairly subtle. I expect the majority of readers won't spot them.

In other news, I learned yesterday that The Weltall File is on the schedule for a June 2023 hardcover release.

There was at least one Judge Dredd reference in Janus...

Jacob Holo wrote:So, while the ability to go back in time and observe events at a crime scene could be helpful, it is unlikely to provide a definitive edge in solving the case. The murder that kicks off The Janus File is a good example where time travel would provide little to no benefit to the detectives.

Very nice! Can't wait to read the book to discover how.

Isaac actually doesn't carry a gun (his SysPol drone is no pushover, though), and Susan's not going anywhere without some firepower to back her up. Never mind she's basically a walking weapon. As for Easter Eggs, I did sprinkle a few fun references throughout the next three books, though most are fairly subtle. I expect the majority of readers won't spot them.

Challenge accepted?

I guess we'll be seeing patterns where there aren't any and will be discussing wild theories here in October.

turol wrote:There was at least one Judge Dredd reference in Janus...

There is?!

You know, honestly, I didn't even think of that one until you mentioned it.

Jacob Holo wrote:There is?!

You know, honestly, I didn't even think of that one until you mentioned it.

Like I said, we'll find patterns where there are none. Some Easter eggs you added but didn't know you did?

A few years ago, I read an article by a famous contemporary author in my native language who'd tried some SAT-level exam questions on one of his books. He claimed he wouldn't have got passing grades from the answers he'd give.

Jacob Holo wrote:In other news, I learned yesterday that The Weltall File is on the schedule for a June 2023 hardcover release.

So when do we start getting snippets?