After Rising Thunder

Letting the SLN build up in the Sol System for fear of propaganda effects could be used by Manticore itself. "Look! Old Earth, even Mars, gets lavished with all the shipping the League Navy has. Is your world protected? Does it have the League's efforts defending it? Or are the League ships floating over dead Mars even now being readied to make your world just as lifeless? If they won't defend you, can you expect them to let you be if you too, like Beowulf, exercise your right to leave a corrupt relic?"

I just finished A Rising Thunder. I'm a bit irritated there is not a straight up sequel written that continues directly from the end of ART.

Based on some online research, and this link (http://honorverse.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_of_Freedom), the next book Shadow of Freedom is described as entry in the Sagami Island series, but was originally written as part of ART, then split off.

I've not read any of the Sagami Island series. I assume that the only path forward is to read SoF, and then Shadow of Victory?

Does it make any significant difference to the main narrative, the war with the Solarian League, if I've not read any of the Sagami Island series?
Thanks!

Wormhole wrote:I just finished A Rising Thunder. I'm a bit irritated there is not a straight up sequel written that continues directly from the end of ART.

Based on some online research, and this link (http://honorverse.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_of_Freedom), the next book Shadow of Freedom is described as entry in the Sagami Island series, but was originally written as part of ART, then split off.

I've not read any of the Sagami Island series. I assume that the only path forward is to read SoF, and then Shadow of Victory?

Does it make any significant difference to the main narrative, the war with the Solarian League, if I've not read any of the Sagami Island series?
Thanks!

Hi Wormhole, welcome to the forum and have your favorite virtual beverage on us.

Also welcome to our collective frustration. There is no direct follow-on book to A Rising Thunder (ART). You are correct, SoF pushes the storyline forward - a little- followed by Cauldron of Ghosts (CoG)- a little - then SoV - again a little - Collectively they bring us to a point somewhere around mid October 1922.

I do heartily suggest reading the Saganami Island series as well as the Torch series, both do add to the background of what is happening as well as featuring what becomes main events in the series. Originally they seemed like side stories, but as the focus of the series has shifted from the battle with Haven, to the battles with the Solarian League and the real enemy, the Mesan Alignment, what the side books contain has become very relevant, and without them you will be lost (and miss some good battles).

If you look around, you will find thousands of posts on the frustration with SoV - The main problem is the publisher's blurb for the book is far from the truth, and a statement by David in the past that he was done with the side series was not true. SoV is a Saganami Island series book, it is important for setting up the next Honorverse mainline book, and it only pushes the main plot SLIGHTLY forward.

Unfortunately, the next book is to be the last book in this Honorverse series, and will be out in 2018. There may be more Honorverse books, but none featuring Honor as the main protagonist. How David will settle the many loose threads in a manner which will satisfy most of his readers in just one book is up for question.

And at that, here's that virtual frothy mug you asked for; grab a seat at the bar with the rest of us and wait with us for the next installment.

Wormhole wrote:I just finished A Rising Thunder. I'm a bit irritated there is not a straight up sequel written that continues directly from the end of ART.

Based on some online research, and this link (http://honorverse.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_of_Freedom), the next book Shadow of Freedom is described as entry in the Sagami Island series, but was originally written as part of ART, then split off.

I've not read any of the Sagami Island series. I assume that the only path forward is to read SoF, and then Shadow of Victory?

Does it make any significant difference to the main narrative, the war with the Solarian League, if I've not read any of the Sagami Island series?
Thanks!

Regardless of what Wikipedia and so forth tell you, there is no "mainline" and "side series." Everything fits together, and if you skip one piece, SoV isn't going to make a lot of sense because it ties up a whole lot of loose ends; you'll be looking at it not knowing why this and that keep coming at you out of left field.

I'm going to be a bit vague in the next example to avoid spoilers. There's an incident where a main character arrives back on Mesa to find everything in a turmoil. Why is everything in a turmoil? Well, the incident that caused the turmoil happened way back in Torch of Freedom. Without knowing about it, what happened is simply going to look like an ad-hoc plot device that comes out of nowhere.

There are lots of those items.

The path forward is Shadow of Freedom, followed by Cauldron of Ghosts, then Shadow of Victory. You might need Torch of Freedom for Cauldron of Ghosts to make sense. As well as the incident I mentioned and at least one other incident.

And that main character I mentioned? He goes all the way back to Shadow of Saganami.

On the other hand, SoV has almost nothing to do with the war with the SL, other than the fact that everything has to do with the war with the SL.

JohnRoth wrote:And that main character I mentioned? He goes all the way back to Shadow of Saganami.

Which is the best post-1st Havenite War Honorverse novel bar none anyway, so you should read it.

Thanks Theemile and JohnRoth for the welcome and the info!

If I read your replies right, if I just try to wait till 2018, for the next Honor novel, I could arrive at a point where there is a big hole between where I left off and where the next book will start up? My main interest is the conflict with the SL and the Mesan Alignment, and will continue to not be happy if a dedicated reader of the main story is forced to go back and read several what were originally described as offshoot stories, especially if that is where the Mesan Alignment is dealt with- Is that the case?

JohnRoth thanks for the reading sequence, I will ponder what you said and make a decision.

In the past I've seen where authors purposefully leave off important details to obligate you to buy another book, but this is the first time I've seen this situation and from an author responsibility to his/her readers, this is inexcusable imo. Now you can go read these other 5 books to get you up to speed with the main story. Hah!

drothgery wrote:

JohnRoth wrote:And that main character I mentioned? He goes all the way back to Shadow of Saganami.

Which is the best post-1st Havenite War Honorverse novel bar none anyway, so you should read it.

Why is it that the best novels in the Honorverse center around a starship captain handed a bucket of snakes in the ass-end of nowhere?

drinksmuchcoffee wrote:Why is it that the best novels in the Honorverse center around a starship captain handed a bucket of snakes in the ass-end of nowhere?

There are some kind of books that David is really good at writing. Which is lucky, as I don't think his romance writing career is going anywhere.

Wormhole wrote:Thanks Theemile and JohnRoth for the welcome and the info!

If I read your replies right, if I just try to wait till 2018, for the next Honor novel, I could arrive at a point where there is a big hole between where I left off and where the next book will start up? My main interest is the conflict with the SL and the Mesan Alignment, and will continue to not be happy if a dedicated reader of the main story is forced to go back and read several what were originally described as offshoot stories, especially if that is where the Mesan Alignment is dealt with- Is that the case?

JohnRoth thanks for the reading sequence, I will ponder what you said and make a decision.

In the past I've seen where authors purposefully leave off important details to obligate you to buy another book, but this is the first time I've seen this situation and from an author responsibility to his/her readers, this is inexcusable imo. Now you can go read these other 5 books to get you up to speed with the main story. Hah!

Obviously, we have no knowledge of what the next book contains. However, important happenings have occurred in the timeline since the last book ended. In addition, many other occurrences or alternate POVs have happened over the last 3 years in the other books, which are important for the overall storyline. I dare say it was never David's intention to "force" readers to buy unnecessary books, but if you wish to stay up to speed, I would recommend reading the other books.

Wormhole wrote:Thanks Theemile and JohnRoth for the welcome and the info!

If I read your replies right, if I just try to wait till 2018, for the next Honor novel, I could arrive at a point where there is a big hole between where I left off and where the next book will start up? My main interest is the conflict with the SL and the Mesan Alignment, and will continue to not be happy if a dedicated reader of the main story is forced to go back and read several what were originally described as offshoot stories, especially if that is where the Mesan Alignment is dealt with- Is that the case?

JohnRoth thanks for the reading sequence, I will ponder what you said and make a decision.

In the past I've seen where authors purposefully leave off important details to obligate you to buy another book, but this is the first time I've seen this situation and from an author responsibility to his/her readers, this is inexcusable imo. Now you can go read these other 5 books to get you up to speed with the main story. Hah!

Well, as I said, there is no "main story" and "offshoot lines." Everything contributes to the tapestry. The delusion that there is, being perpetrated by Baen, Wikipedia and so forth, is causing a lot of people a lot of grief when they find that there are essential pieces in those supposed "side stories," as well as the anthologies.

In any case, since you say you're interested in the MAlign, SoV is almost entirely about the MAlign. As well as a lot of loose ends from other books being tied up.

Also: RFC has said that the MAlign arc will not be resolved in the last book. It's going to be left dangling. If you want to see what's going on with the MAlign, this is the book.