And following along with out of order snippets . . . . .

Trynair's been quiet because he's getting close to a nervous breakdown. As we see in HFQ, he's no longer involved in any of the major decision-making, and he lacks any of the assertiveness and confidence he once had. Duchairn notes it's no longer the Group of Four - it's the Group of Three now.

Sinse we are all speculating, here is mine.

I think the two out of order snippets are not in the same context. I agree with what seems to be the general consensus on the first one that it is in Zion and involves Helm Cleaver.

But I think that the second one is in Corisande and Nimue's outrage involves reaction to a rakurai strike, perhaps targeted against the throne...

Don

-

It's like RFC is actually out to kill me at this point.

Ah, well. I can't say I didn't volunteer for it.

fallsfromtrees wrote:And as demonstrated by the Hector snippet from LAMA, and the Thirsk snippet from HFQ, it is clear that RFC in some respects considers us as cat toys.

"I wonder what direction David is going in Safehold? I think...Ooooo! Red Dot!" <scramble scramble chase chase>
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Dennis

If I follow the several snippets correctly, Rayno has some hope of keeping the event a secret for a while, which argues that Saint Thyrmyn's is not inside the city of Zion.

With respect to attacks, consider something that put everyone to sleep, and when they woke up all of their prisoners and all of their files were missing, not to mention that they are a bit short of clothing. Taht would require a lot of SNARCs and tractor beams to haul out the files in a rapid way.

SCC wrote:

PeterZ wrote:So, Rayno connects with Helm Cleaver and Trynair. Trynair coordinates with Duchairn. Duchairn coordinates with Major Phandys who organizes the pro Hawerd Wylsyn arm of the guard. Duchairn also coordinates with Magwair. Clyntahn is so focussed on Duchairn, Magwair and the jihad that Trynair has some room to maneuver with Rayno and the Vicars.

This is the bit I have real trouble with. I can see Rayno plotting with Trynair to bring down Clyntahn, but him being a part of Helm Clever? No way.

I concur, though if he were part of any such conspiracy, he wouldn't be aware Helm Cleaver was among the conspirators. They'd take pains to keep just who they were concealed.

And any such conspiracy involving Rayno has the issue of what happens to Rayno? The death of a Grand Inquisitor leaves a power vacuum. Who fills it?

You can assume Duchairn, Magwair, and likely Trynair trust Rayno about as far as they can spit into the wind, and too many people would love to see Rayno's head on a pike next to Clyntahn's. Some of them are likely to be Vicars of Mother Church.

If Clyntahn goes down, Rayno almost certainly does too, and he knows it.

PeterZ wrote:Duchairn delivers the popular support of Zion. Magwair delivers the Army. Rayno keeps the Inquisition under control. Trynair gathers the Council of Vicars under wing to bring legitimacy to the transfer of power.

Could happen, but their not going to surrender peacefully the Charis and friends, the Inquisition and Rayno will still be a major power to contend with, and their not going to want to face Charisian nooses, heck the entire Go4 are likely in for the long drop.

I don't think the entire Go4 is in for the long drop. When the dust settles, I think we might even see Duchairn as the new Grand Vicar of a radically changed CoGA. Magwair might survive, too. I suspect Trynair is in for the long drop.
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Dennis

CRC wrote:(OOOPS) - I just looked at the cover of the book again. Sure looks like a full fledged infantry assault on something that could be the prison - complete with rockets and what could be an assault shuttle.

It does appear to be an infantry assault, but I take the depiction of advanced technology on the cover with liberal amounts of salt. The intent of the cover is to catch the browser's eye and make them pull the book off the shelves (or open a detail link online) for a closer look, as the first step in the buying process. Exactly what connection the cover may have with what's in the book will vary (and in the genre, may be "None at all".)

Merlin's recon skimmer has also been depicted on the cover of a Safehold book where it could be seen by normal Safeholdians, but that did not occur on the book.

I'll be rather startled if the assault shuttle puts in an appearance at all. I do expect it to be significant at some point. David tends to follow the old aphorism from the theater: "If a character places a gun in a drawer in the first act, it should be pulled out and used to shoot someone by the third act." I just don't think things are far enough along for the EoC to reveal that card in their deck.
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Dennis

DMcCunney wrote:I know an assortment of traditionally published writers working in the genre.

<snip>

Things are easier for David, because the Honorverse and Safehold books tend to hit the NYT best seller lists these days, so he will see royalties. But David seems to just like to write, and being constantly busy is good.

Dennis

Dennis, I'm sure what you say is quite true, but I don't think very much of it is relevant to RFC.

Back in 2005 Baen were claiming he had had 9 NYT top ten books and over 5 million books in print. It has only gone way upwards in the past 10 years.

He has 2 major series, one middling one and 2 or 3 collaborative ones currently on the go. On average at least 2 new books seem to come out per year. He is translated into several languages and has an international following. While the royalties for the English versions of the early books will be restricted by the Baen CD giveaway, they are still on sale and even coming out in 25th Anniversary special editions, which Baen is presumably doing because they sell.

He seems a pretty savvy kind of guy and has been around the industry a very long time - I think we can assume his contracts give him a more than reasonable share of all that.

I know nothing substantive about his financial situation, but it sure doesn't seem like he should be struggling to keep his head above water.

DMcCunney wrote:
I'll be rather startled if the assault shuttle puts in an appearance at all. I do expect it to be significant at some point. David tends to follow the old aphorism from the theater: "If a character places a gun in a drawer in the first act, it should be pulled out and used to shoot someone by the third act." I just don't think things are far enough along for the EoC to reveal that card in their deck.
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Dennis

I totally agree. I think the Assault Shuttle will be saved for the next war; the one after the Great Reveal. Unless the Thing Under the Temple wakes up and pulls out some high-tech of it's own. But that's extremely unlikely since that would almost certainly precipitate the Great Reveal which is the last thing it would want.

Randomiser wrote:

DMcCunney wrote:I know an assortment of traditionally published writers working in the genre.

<snip>

Things are easier for David, because the Honorverse and Safehold books tend to hit the NYT best seller lists these days, so he will see royalties. But David seems to just like to write, and being constantly busy is good.

Dennis, I'm sure what you say is quite true, but I don't think very much of it is relevant to RFC.

Back in 2005 Baen were claiming he had had 9 NYT top ten books and over 5 million books in print. It has only gone way upwards in the past 10 years.

He has 2 major series, one middling one and 2 or 3 collaborative ones currently on the go. On average at least 2 new books seem to come out per year. He is translated into several languages and has an international following. While the royalties for the English versions of the early books will be restricted by the Baen CD giveaway, they are still on sale and even coming out in 25th Anniversary special editions, which Baen is presumably doing because they sell.

He seems a pretty savvy kind of guy and has been around the industry a very long time - I think we can assume his contracts give him a more than reasonable share of all that.

I know nothing substantive about his financial situation, but it sure doesn't seem like he should be struggling to keep his head above water.

Oh, I agree. I don't think David has any problems keeping his head above water. He just likes to write, and seems to like having more than one project in progress at a time. He works as hard as he does because he wants to.

But David is atypical. The vast majority of published writers will not do that well. The catch phrase among writers is "Don't give up your day job!"

I interact elsewhere with the self-published/indie-published crowd, and there's a truly astonishing amount of wishful thinking.

Back before The Internet Ate the World and eBooks were even possible, I saw stats from the American Bookseller's Association indicating that there were over 50,000 new titles published per year in the US. That was close to a thousand new books a week. Who would buy and read them all? Most did not find an audience and get bought and read. They died in the stands and got returned for credit. Publishers all hoped enough books would sell to cover the losses on the ones that didn't and make them enough money to stay in business.

Now with the Internet, eBooks, and self-publishing/indie publishing, it's more like a thousand new books day. The same question applies, with the same answer, but the bar has been hugely raised.

I tell folks "Write because you must, can't imagine not writing, and will do it whether or not anyone else ever reads it. Self publish because you can. Don't expect to make money, because without a benevolent $DEITY to work a miracle for you, you won't!"

I'm delighted by David's success, and the fact he can do it full time and turn out more books I can read. But he's an exception that proves the rule. Most writers will not be so lucky.
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Dennis