Hi Cnrd22,
Was RFC's talk at HonorCon or another Con?
Any further details or hints [date etc] would be most helpful to all of us who weren't there.
How much or your speculation is based on what he said, and what he hinted, which isn't always the same thing.
20 years would might put it beyond the less than 18 years when the "thing in the basement" supposedly wakes up.
This implies Paityr never got into the temple at the end of this war, which is quite a surprise, given how little the CoGA would then have left to stop him.
This in turn means the allies are still stuck without electricity for ~20 years; which I find hard to believe, since RFC has about exhausted how far they can go on just steam, which may be why we have the 20 year break as the allies catch up to all the ramifications of the steam technology they do have, ie extensive double tracked railroad networks throughout Siddarmark and the empire, besides steamships and steam powered factories, etc.
It's quite possible that by that time the faithful CoGA nations may have caught up on most of the EoC's technological lead [or think they have], again possibly putting the empire at risk, although the empire's population may have doubled in those ~20 years.
A 20 year cold war R&D competition might do wonders in forcing the remaining CoGA nations to modernize despite their preferences, albeit with the potential casualties of the next religious war making this one's pathetic by comparison.
On the gripping hand, Paityr and Merlin may indeed enter the temple and turn the OBS controls off, so the allies have almost 20 years to develop electricity in its various aspects before the next war after AtSoT, which knowing what they need and can do, leaves the CoGA remnant's R&D in the dust.
While we've posted about fluidic computers and other possible non-electric technologies, I think there's an effective limit that Charis is close to reaching, given its tech limits, long before the ~18 years are up.
The downside is how much of a story will there be when the nominal bad guys, the CoGA faithful are so outclassed?
Granted our favorite celery courier can make that conflict epic and fascinating NTM poignant, but just how long is the next story arc supposed to be?
The problem of Duchairn being quickly killed by inquisitors and all the rest of the conservatives for the heresy of even treating with them, let alone honoring the agreements made to name just one of Duchairn's obvious crimes, would put the 20 year war hiatus immediately at risk among other direct results.
So we are all waiting almost breathlessly for the first snippets, possibly starting in March.
L
cnrd22 wrote:Nick wrote:*quote="cnrd22"*
The synopsis clearly indicates this is the last book of the arc as we already suspected based on DW's recent comments*quote*
I'd say that the synopsis
suggests that this is the last book of the arc. It's been my impression that RFC will let people run with assumptions and enjoy the surprise when they turn out to be incorrect. It's not like he's setting out to mislead us (heaven forbid!), but he's not going to pass up the opportunity to have some fun.
Although I'm excited to see how this all gets wrapped up, HFQ didn't feel like the penultimate book to me. I'm thinking that before we get to that final showdown we'll see our heroes encounter what appears to be an insurmountable obstacle, such as whatever lies beneath the temple going active. Maybe that all happens in a single book, but I wouldn't put it past our favorite author to end a book named "At the Sign of Triumph" with triumph having disappeared from sight. (I'll be quite happy to be proven wrong, which admittedly happens more often than not.)
I wouldn't disagree about book 8, but DW stated fairly firmly in his latest talk in the fall that the next Safehold book (the one we now know as At the Sign of Triumph) is the last in the arc and in that context I think the synopsis kind of confirms it; in another thread I mentioned that I think the endgame for the arc will be negotiated peace with (a sincere) Duchairn after Aivah sacrifices herself to take out Clyntahn, while in the background the future bad guys of the next arc start plotting on how to take down Charis in a few decades
Anyway let's hope the book is not a mirage and we will get it in October as that would be a bit surprising for me but awesome