Hutch wrote:
In regards to the OP, I still think a trilogy would be better.
Book 1 is the Fall of the Solarian League, the Beginnings of the Search for the MAlignment and the beginnings of the RF.
Book 2 is the "MAlignment Strikes Back", where these new 'invincible' ships show up and the RF declares itself, with various disasters and deaths afflicting Our Heroes.
And of course Book 3 is the discovery and defeat of the MAlignment/RF foe and the Triumph of Truth and Justice.
And yes, if that sounds suspiciously like several other trilogies, well,that's because that sort of storyline has been a winner since Oog the Cro-Magnon explained the adventures of his last hunt to his family around the campfire....
And then he could go back, renumber them as books 4, 5, and 6, and then write book 1 as the creation of Manpower, book 2 as its rise to galaxy wide power, and book 3 as the corruption of the SL by them, but ending with the birth of HH as possibly the hope of the future.