Anticipated length of Safehold series.

Braudel26 wrote:

McGuiness wrote:...I'm not wild about the idea of adding other authors for books that might impact the main storyline of Safehold. ...

I really do like the side series that don't impact the main storyline of the Honorverse - the anthology books, the treecat novels targeted at teens, and Timothy Zahn's novels that he's writing about the early years of the Manticore system and the RMN. Unlike the collaborative books with Eric Flint, they have no effect at all on the publishing dates, details, or plot of the main storyline...

In fact, we agree. The part of your post I quote above is exactly what I thought about when I said after finishing the current (first) period, it would be good for RFC to open to other writers (not collaboration) for books before or during this first period, leaving RFC to manage/write about the new (second) period (probably from what he wrote just before the supposed return of the millennium )

We certainly agree on books that wouldn't affect future novels in the main storyline - perhaps a book about the battle for Earth in the war with the Gbaba to tell us a lot more about what the TF was like, and the horrors of the war with an intelligent species whose only purpose seems to be your complete destruction. Of course RFC already wrote a series with such a species as the villains - the last two books of the Starfire series, "In Death Ground" and "The Shiva Option." Those were the first two of RFC's books that I read, and I absolutely love them!

There's lots of books that could be written from different nation's points of view, or from the point of view of different layers of society. An orphan in Tellesberg, a Desnairan nobleman, a dynastic church family in the temple lands, or serfs in Harchong. Going back into the past may be difficult, since you can't write about the War of the Fallen when we don't know who the good guys and bad guys really were at this point. Same with Operation Ark - of the survivors, who were the villains and who tried to preserve Shan-Wei's vision and the operation's original intent.

The problem with such novels is the time RFC would have to spend bringing every author the background information and a plot (or the info if they had a plot he liked.) None of us are immortal, and the shock when Asimov and Heinlein died was tough. Knowing you'll never read another new book by one of your favorite authors isn't easy to accept. I'm not sure how much time RFC spent with the authors of the short stories in the anthologies, or with Timothy Zahn, but it had to have been substantial - and I like the direction Timothy Zahn is going, and we'll get a look at Manticore that we'd otherwise only see in short infodumps.

So yeah, Safehold is big enough for some books that fill in some blanks and written by other authors. I just hope any such books don't take up too much of RFC's limited time.

Now that I've voiced such worries, he'll probably live to be 100, still be writing the day he dies, and outlive me by decades! (And be a first generation prolong recipient!)

runsforcelery wrote:Eventually, however, the Group of Four will get its just desserts. At that point, there will be a hiatus (on Safehold) before the next book, which will deal with what happens when the truth is revealed while the prospective millennial return of the Archangels looms over everyone’s heads. Ideally, I’ll last long enough to deal with that (I’m currently estimating perhaps 3 or 4 books for that second story arc) and actually get Our Heroes back into space to deal with the Gbaba once and for all. I would be astonished if there were less than 10 or 12 novels in the series, and I promise that (assuming I don’t drop dead in mid-book) I will conclude the series in as satisfying a fashion as possible. That is, I won’t leave the readers hanging wondering what the final outcome of the human-Gbaba conflict is/will be. I turn 62 this year, so at one a year and additional 3 to 4 novels will get me close to 65 (at least!), by which time I am assuming I will have to slow down at least a little bit.

Bolding mine.
Based on previous experience with the Honorverse, I think this means that the "return to space" part will be at least 6 books since Weber tends to expand his universes far more than he intends to.
But at least we know how it (probably) won't end.

McGuiness wrote:Golly, did RFC just inadvertently reveal that you can invade Zion, take over the Temple, hang or rather creatively execute some vicars who very richly deserve it, and not set off the Rakurai so badly that it destroys the EoC?

Also that there will be a wait of several years before the Archangels return, but the Truth will be proclaimed to everyone before the Archangels show up, however they manage it?

I'd imagine being told that the CoGA and the CoC are complete frauds could shake up even the EoC and Siddarmark with their Reformist teachings, since this goes beyond reformation, the CoC, and straight to apostasy, and I just don't see how Safehold (and even most citizens of the EoC) could accept it. I imagine most people will actually look forward to the return of the Archangels, and there might be some rather nasty wars to cleanse the world in preparation for their return.

If that's how it works out, let's hope the Hamilcar was hijacked by some Shan-Wei supporters who show up declaring that Langhorne was a fraud, because I don't see any other way that a reasonable amount of the population will accept the truth. Granted fewer and fewer will bend the knee to the CoGA (and those high tithes!) if it were potentially a fraud, but it's going to be a long and very violent transition, which Merlin expected all along. It's hard to progress into space even with the Rakurai removed if you've got a bunch of Luddites in your planetary population who believe it's their duty to God to kill everyone who doesn't believe the same way they do...

So I'm really looking forward to seeing how RFC breaks the chains of the CoGA and reveals it as a fraud in a way that the average Safeholdian in the street can accept. I don't see how people can accept the truth without a major demonstration - maybe Merlin will find a use for the assault shuttle and all those rounds of ammo...

Actually, I read that little evil Snerk quite a bit differently. I've never seen the EoC marching into Zion and laying siege to the Temple... rather putting on enough military and *especially* economic pressure that the Go4 falls and the new leadership offers a truce. The Snerk seems to imply what has already been implied in the text of LaMA: arming the Harchongese peasantry with effective weapons and training becomes a two-edged sword. If Reformism sweeps Harchong at rile point behind a determined mutinous army of serfs, then it's all over for the AoG, and thus all over for the Go4.

I see the new leadership offering to call off the Jihad and recognize the non-heretical nature of the Church of Charis, leading to a period of retrenchment and stability. That sounds like the interim period RFC is referring to. It'll take several years to repair all the damage this war is causing and proliferate many of the new innovations among those that will accept them.

As you note, I do see the ultimate truth as a trickier issue to pull off. The safe route would be to wait for a few generations and let the ideas of innovation founded in the current schismatic war to really take hold, but that would make for one borrrrring series.

I still think the key to that is finding out that there's an AI matrix in the Stone of Schuler that's a recording of Schuler himself, and that he was a reformist who had the Book of Schuler hung on him out of convenience and spite. That would set up a second Angelic War when the Archangels 'come back' (AI matrixes wake up in the Temple, housed in the Hamilcar's computer core).

Unless the goodies in Nimue's cave is just a giant red herring that never gets used, then a scenario like this is the only way I can think of where they WOULD get used. Orthodox AI (Chihiro?) in the Temple wake up and open the Secret Temple Armory, and Nimue deploys the weapons from the Bat Cave. I'd also wager that the friendly AI (be it Schuler or someone else) disables the orbital system early on in the plot.

Having one or more original Archangels come right out and tell the populace that the CoGA is a lie is about the only way I can think of to realistically get a good chunk of the safehold population on board with the idea. And even then there's going to be a significant percentage that will NEVER believe it.

Here's to RFC and Sharon's health and long life! Or, at least until we have the tech to make a VR recording of him. Imagine if he could live in accelerated time...

runsforcelery wrote:
The honest answer is that I don’t know for certain. I do know that the current game plan is to complete the present story arc (and, no, I’m not going to tell you how the current war with the Group of Four plays out in the end). Depending on what those pesky Harchongians in the Mighty Host of God and the Archangels do or do not do, and how well Brother Lynkyn’s newest brainchild and Lieutenant Zhwaigair’s spar torpedoes workout, things could wrap up in the book I’m working on right this minute. On the other hand, they might not.

Please mark spoilers.

(Yes, I'm joking!)

*I'll add that perhaps those spar torpedoes should try the Zhayne Phonda workeout?

Ooooops.

Those Thousand Years where calculated in the very beginning of Safehold. When they still used Terran Federation years.

Gives some extra time to prepare the population for the truth.

OK, RFC.

In anticipation of my not having to dig you up and put a pen back into your hand (I am guessing that trying to type while dead would be more difficult that writing long hand), I think we need to implement some contingency plans.

First. Please be sure to update your virtual persona with the new plans for the series. If we have to have it finish for you, we wouldn't want it to go back to a previous version.

Second. I am afraid that we shall have to cancel any upcoming leave.

Third. Please accept this gift of a lovely piece of ankle jewelry. Rest assured that the chain and heavy ball will not significantly impact your lifestyle.

Thank you very much for your cooperation in this. We, your fan base, realize that it is slightly inconvenient for you, but it really is for the overall good and our sanity.

I disagree.

The message that the Archangels were to return in a thousand years was given to the Wylsynn family who would think in terms of Safehold years.

So when Schueler said "a thousand years", he meant a thousand Safehold years.

Tanstaafl wrote:Ooooops.

Those Thousand Years where calculated in the very beginning of Safehold. When they still used Terran Federation years.

Gives some extra time to prepare the population for the truth.

ryndieum wrote:OK, RFC.

In anticipation of my not having to dig you up and put a pen back into your hand (I am guessing that trying to type while dead would be more difficult that writing long hand), I think we need to implement some contingency plans.

Typing while dead is probably a little better than what speech recognition software will get from a zombie...500+ pages of Raughhhureeeaaaughhuuurrghaaaugh bbrrrraainnsss
aaaarrrgheauughhh... except with Safeholdian spelling for about a third of it would probably not be the most riveting book (although we would probably still buy it )

And I would be interested in seeing how Duchairn, Magwair and Thirsk react to the Seijin's Mab's note if it leaks out. And if it leaks out it would be interesting to see if some Archbishops publicly note that Seijin's fought on the side of light in the last war against the fallen.

I wonder, could Duchairn and Magwair work together to use the Harchongese Army against the inquisition and Clynthan?

=2014/02/27=

Hi McGuiness

In your post, you mentioned enjoying war with an intelligent species whose only purpose seems to be your complete destruction.

You might also like "Apocalypse Troll"

R
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