Hope & Aspirations for the Finale

Fireflair wrote:I agree strongly with npadln, and I am sure I am not the only one. It is not that we want to dictate story to the Wonderful Wizard Weber, rather that we enjoyed certain aspects of his writing the most and wish to see those types of scenes and stories again. Much of the angst over the last two books has been about the lack of movement and the story that has been written not fulfilling our particular hunger that was previously being well sated by his writing. We hope he gets back to that, as the many comments elsewhere have urged him.

I too would like to see the Lenny Det's in action. I am not sure (in spite of the great discussion threads we've had about them) what their capabilities may be in the end. I feel that some people believe that the way the MWW has built up the GA and it's technologies has left there no effective method for the MAlign to fight back. Even with the Lenny Dets.

Every scene we've had so far of the MAlign leadership's talking about the GA tech has implied that not only is the GA ahead of the MAlign in weapons tech, the MAlign (Who was paying attention to the developments of the Haven sector wars) was still being routinely surprised by the GA's abilities. I can't help but wonder if the story may veer off of using the Lenny Dets. Perhaps a discussion scene of the leadership of the MAlign along these lines:

'Wow, the Grand Alliance would kick our rump up one side and down the other, even with the marvelous super weapons on the Lenny Det's. We'd win the first few rounds with our super weapons but the alliance would counter them shortly and we'd be stuck. Especially if our non-combat experienced crews didn't have the advantage in every engagement.'

'You know, you're right. Why don't we hold off and close the tech gap before we expose ourselves and our fleet to the rest of the galaxy at large? We can hunt small ships and convoys for practice in the meantime.'

'Sounds good....'

After which the MAlign, Darius and the Lenny Dets are all moved out of the storyline to wait until the next arc of the series. The gap in time would give the MAlign time to not only continue developing their superweapons but would also be able to catch up to the GA tech in other areas so when the battles do come it's on a more even keel.

We definitely want to see the Mandarin's fall be well covered from a lot of angles, as Maldorian requested.

For myself, I would like to see some of what goes on at Bolthole. Some of the tech discussions or the work-ups for the new construction.

cnrd22 wrote:After listening to the podcasts a few random things that came to mind:

SNIP

- Beowulf becomes the focal center of the action (as expected) and if i remember it right from earlier comments of the author, it will suffer million level casualties in the SL's misguided attempt to bring it in line, and that probably will lead to the immediate downfall of the Mandarins and the dissolution of the SL as that will happen in the last volume from the podcast

-SNIP

Fireflair wrote:snip...
After which the MAlign, Darius and the Lenny Dets are all moved out of the storyline to wait until the next arc of the series. The gap in time would give the MAlign time to not only continue developing their superweapons but would also be able to catch up to the GA tech in other areas so when the battles do come it's on a more even keel.

npadln wrote:Such an ironic thread title. Is this a joke? I have lately been reading the many amazon readers reviews of DW's latest book and something struck me while reading them; there is fan fiction and then there is this; all the topics and discussions here on this forum reflect a desire, hope and anticipation for what content will be found in the NEXT book; ALWAYS the next book. Although I don't always participate here I do scan and read the various topics for discussion.
Much of DW's content in his last book did NOT correspond to the bulk of what people here would discuss. My "hopes and aspirations" are that DW spend a few hours and review not just this thread but many threads and reacquaint himself with where his readers' passions lay.

cthia wrote:

npadln wrote:Such an ironic thread title. Is this a joke? I have lately been reading the many amazon readers reviews of DW's latest book and something struck me while reading them; there is fan fiction and then there is this; all the topics and discussions here on this forum reflect a desire, hope and anticipation for what content will be found in the NEXT book; ALWAYS the next book. Although I don't always participate here I do scan and read the various topics for discussion.
Much of DW's content in his last book did NOT correspond to the bulk of what people here would discuss. My "hopes and aspirations" are that DW spend a few hours and review not just this thread but many threads and reacquaint himself with where his readers' passions lay.

I didn't intend it to be ironic - or a joke. Though irony is rarely planned. I wish someone would inform me, in layman's terms, what the problem is with the title of this thread. I can't figure it out and there has been a few taunts and jeers at it. With George Smith's comment, I just chalked it up to the differences in American and British English. I'm married to a Brit and oh my. I have my suspicions, but I don't wish to assume.

Your hopes and aspirations are the same as the hopes and aspirations of this thread—that perhaps RFC may answer a few calls. Hope. If hope dies...

RedBaron wrote:

I'd like to see Dr. Illiescu find the source of the leak responsible for Honor's invasion of privacy.

I'm surprised that hasn't been dealt with already. After all, finding the culprit would be easy - just have Dr. Illiescu re-interview the staff with a treecat present.


What I'D like to see is confirmation on Honor's son winding up having near treecat-like mental abilities.
After all, Honor is already close to those abilities herself, and from how DW has written about the interaction between Raul and the treecats (Nimitz in particular) you'd have to be blind not to see that that's the direction he's heading in....

AND Raul having those abilities could help wrap things up nicely, as he would be able to use it to break up the MA.

cthia wrote:

npadln wrote:Such an ironic thread title. Is this a joke? I have lately been reading the many amazon readers reviews of DW's latest book and something struck me while reading them; there is fan fiction and then there is this; all the topics and discussions here on this forum reflect a desire, hope and anticipation for what content will be found in the NEXT book; ALWAYS the next book. Although I don't always participate here I do scan and read the various topics for discussion.
Much of DW's content in his last book did NOT correspond to the bulk of what people here would discuss. My "hopes and aspirations" are that DW spend a few hours and review not just this thread but many threads and reacquaint himself with where his readers' passions lay.

I didn't intend it to be ironic - or a joke. Though irony is rarely planned. I wish someone would inform me, in layman's terms, what the problem is with the title of this thread. I can't figure it out and there has been a few taunts and jeers at it. With George Smith's comment, I just chalked it up to the differences in American and British English. I'm married to a Brit and oh my. I have my suspicions, but I don't wish to assume.

Your hopes and aspirations are the same as the hopes and aspirations of this thread—that perhaps RFC may answer a few calls. Hope. If hope dies...

George J. Smith wrote:cthia,


I know full well that you meant the readers' hopes for what may be included in the final book.

My comment was meant as a take on the title of the thread, specifically I "hope" I will still be alive to read the final book.

Fireflair wrote:'Wow, the Grand Alliance would kick our rump up one side and down the other, even with the marvelous super weapons on the Lenny Det's. We'd win the first few rounds with our super weapons but the alliance would counter them shortly and we'd be stuck. Especially if our non-combat experienced crews didn't have the advantage in every engagement.'

'You know, you're right. Why don't we hold off and close the tech gap before we expose ourselves and our fleet to the rest of the galaxy at large? We can hunt small ships and convoys for practice in the meantime.'

'Sounds good....'

After which the MAlign, Darius and the Lenny Dets are all moved out of the storyline to wait until the next arc of the series. The gap in time would give the MAlign time to not only continue developing their superweapons but would also be able to catch up to the GA tech in other areas so when the battles do come it's on a more even keel.

We definitely want to see the Mandarin's fall be well covered from a lot of angles, as Maldorian requested.

For myself, I would like to see some of what goes on at Bolthole. Some of the tech discussions or the work-ups for the new construction.

NervousEnergy wrote:

Fireflair wrote:'Wow, the Grand Alliance would kick our rump up one side and down the other, even with the marvelous super weapons on the Lenny Det's. We'd win the first few rounds with our super weapons but the alliance would counter them shortly and we'd be stuck. Especially if our non-combat experienced crews didn't have the advantage in every engagement.'

'You know, you're right. Why don't we hold off and close the tech gap before we expose ourselves and our fleet to the rest of the galaxy at large? We can hunt small ships and convoys for practice in the meantime.'

'Sounds good....'

After which the MAlign, Darius and the Lenny Dets are all moved out of the storyline to wait until the next arc of the series. The gap in time would give the MAlign time to not only continue developing their superweapons but would also be able to catch up to the GA tech in other areas so when the battles do come it's on a more even keel.

We definitely want to see the Mandarin's fall be well covered from a lot of angles, as Maldorian requested.

For myself, I would like to see some of what goes on at Bolthole. Some of the tech discussions or the work-ups for the new construction.

That's plausible, but doesn't feel right. I'd bet money a major block of the LDs will sortie and meet their doom against the GA forces, likely taking quite a few of Our Heroes with them. I hadn't read/listed to the podcast, though, so this is the first I've heard that Himself isn't likely to have Darius taken off the table in the last book. This is why I'm more convinced that the great LD fleet is (mostly) toast, since if he's not going to have Darius fall there still needs to be *some* accounting with the MA for plot closure in the current arc.

I'd guess a similar situation to the Battle of Manticore, but perhaps not quite so bloody for the Good Guys (or maybe even more so... who knows.) The MA fleet attempts to fulfill the original mission of OB and the Haven Fleet by engaging and destroying the cream of the GA fleet as they rush to the defense of Beowulf, and we get our big fight and the fall of the Mandarins / breakup SL, along with the destruction of much of the MA's offensive firepower. The LDs fight and die mostly from the Stealth they employ so well, and none are captured, so the greater galactic population never gets hard evidence of the MA's existence.

The GA is consumed with keeping things stable in their own areas after the breakup, and the RF attempts to gather power themselves but without the expected backing of the 'invisible, invincible MA LD fleet', and Darius stays hidden to contemplate the next move from the Onion.