A teeny out of order snippet — I mean TEENY!

isaac_newton wrote:
with the name 'thunderbolt' hmmmm - not so likely - I would have thought something more 'regal'.

so is this even bigger than the Gwilliam Manthyr?

I would say chances for Cayleb/Sharleyan are still intact. I doubt there is a imperial yacht battleship, they just snatched the newest and biggest ship, and with battleships likely to be in fewer numbers than the sailing galleons, Cayleb may have not been able to slip another Empress of Charis through.

isaac_newton wrote:
with the name 'thunderbolt' hmmmm - not so likely - I would have thought something more 'regal'.

so is this even bigger than the Gwilliam Manthyr?

Yes. Bigger, more armor, and more 10" guns. RFC posted the specs for it in the snippet 13 thread.

Honestly I doubt its Hector, at least as CO. I know he is good and all and is no doubt earmarked for higher command, but CO of THE prime warship in the Charisan fleet? I just don't see that going to a young captain, especially not in a peacetime fleet.

Personally I kinda figure it would be Cayleb or Sharleyne... There aren't enough people important enough to warrant a. that ship, and b. that reception.

Or Allanah on her own conducting a state visit, but honestly I still think she would be to young.


That being said I am only taking a random ass stab at the year so it could be far later in the time line then we currently are.

Direwolf18 wrote:Honestly I doubt its Hector, at least as CO. I know he is good and all and is no doubt earmarked for higher command, but CO of THE prime warship in the Charisan fleet? I just don't see that going to a young captain, especially not in a peacetime fleet.

Personally I kinda figure it would be Cayleb or Sharleyne... There aren't enough people important enough to warrant a. that ship, and b. that reception.

Or Allanah on her own conducting a state visit, but honestly I still think she would be to young.


That being said I am only taking a random ass stab at the year so it could be far later in the time line then we currently are.

Hahlynd was a junior admiral as of Shipworm Shoal. He is now head of the Dohlaran Navy. This is 10 years later or thereabouts. Hektor would be 28 years old or so with 10 years of command experience. Most of those years in command of steamers. He would have been as experienced in handling steamers as all but a handful of ICN captains. Giving him a city class or a coastal steamer in 899 isighly likely.

Bottom line is this could be Hektor.

PeterZ wrote:Hahlynd was a junior admiral as of Shipworm Shoal. He is now head of the Dohlaran Navy. This is 10 years later or thereabouts. Hektor would be 28 years old or so with 10 years of command experience. Most of those years in command of steamers. He would have been as experienced in handling steamers as all but a handful of ICN captains. Giving him a city class or a coastal steamer in 899 isighly likely.

Bottom line is this could be Hektor.

Is it really 10 years later? The OP doesn't say WHEN this takes place.

evilauthor wrote:

PeterZ wrote:Hahlynd was a junior admiral as of Shipworm Shoal. He is now head of the Dohlaran Navy. This is 10 years later or thereabouts. Hektor would be 28 years old or so with 10 years of command experience. Most of those years in command of steamers. He would have been as experienced in handling steamers as all but a handful of ICN captains. Giving him a city class or a coastal steamer in 899 isighly likely.

Bottom line is this could be Hektor.

Is it really 10 years later? The OP doesn't say WHEN this takes place.

Indeed. I'm estimating how long it takes for a junior admiral to rise to the pinnacle of his navy. Also the plot could be jumping in 3-5 year periods with between 3-5 story arcs covered in the book. So assuming they built an all steel Haarald before Thunderer, Thunderer would be being designed right now. Rather the class Thunderer belongs to is being designed right now. I doubt this is the lead ship and so by the time it deploys, we're into a decade after AtSoT.

Still, it's just a guess.

PeterZ wrote:Indeed. I'm estimating how long it takes for a junior admiral to rise to the pinnacle of his navy. Also the plot could be jumping in 3-5 year periods with between 3-5 story arcs covered in the book. So assuming they built an all steel Haarald before Thunderer, Thunderer would be being designed right now. Rather the class Thunderer belongs to is being designed right now. I doubt this is the lead ship and so by the time it deploys, we're into a decade after AtSoT.

Still, it's just a guess.

I really hope the plot is not jumping around by years. I cannot imagine how this should make for coherent story telling. We know there is a time skip after the last book, which is good, but inside the book I can't imagine how it would not be jarring and confusing.

Whitecold wrote:

PeterZ wrote:Indeed. I'm estimating how long it takes for a junior admiral to rise to the pinnacle of his navy. Also the plot could be jumping in 3-5 year periods with between 3-5 story arcs covered in the book. So assuming they built an all steel Haarald before Thunderer, Thunderer would be being designed right now. Rather the class Thunderer belongs to is being designed right now. I doubt this is the lead ship and so by the time it deploys, we're into a decade after AtSoT.

Still, it's just a guess.

I really hope the plot is not jumping around by years. I cannot imagine how this should make for coherent story telling. We know there is a time skip after the last book, which is good, but inside the book I can't imagine how it would not be jarring and confusing.

In fact, jumping and skipping is what will happen, as evidenced by the following {from the thread Re: TFT Snippet #9 (fixed to satisfy smart alecs)}

cnrd22 wrote:
As noted above - from people who were lucky to actually read the advance reader copy Tor has provided - I heard a few things that I think will prove accurate - the book ends in March 916 (as the first Archangel return date is summer 915, the book has to take us past it), there are a lot of weddings, funerals and economic turmoil, but not much war and the snippet like structure following a few threads across years holds until the end

Whitecold wrote:

PeterZ wrote:Indeed. I'm estimating how long it takes for a junior admiral to rise to the pinnacle of his navy. Also the plot could be jumping in 3-5 year periods with between 3-5 story arcs covered in the book. So assuming they built an all steel Haarald before Thunderer, Thunderer would be being designed right now. Rather the class Thunderer belongs to is being designed right now. I doubt this is the lead ship and so by the time it deploys, we're into a decade after AtSoT.

Still, it's just a guess.

I really hope the plot is not jumping around by years. I cannot imagine how this should make for coherent story telling. We know there is a time skip after the last book, which is good, but inside the book I can't imagine how it would not be jarring and confusing.

I believe TFT is setting up the next story arc dealing with the return. I believe it will be best to consider it a series of connected short stories spanning 16 years. I'll trust RFC to manage this affair well,

Whitecold wrote:

PeterZ wrote:Indeed. I'm estimating how long it takes for a junior admiral to rise to the pinnacle of his navy. Also the plot could be jumping in 3-5 year periods with between 3-5 story arcs covered in the book. So assuming they built an all steel Haarald before Thunderer, Thunderer would be being designed right now. Rather the class Thunderer belongs to is being designed right now. I doubt this is the lead ship and so by the time it deploys, we're into a decade after AtSoT.

Still, it's just a guess.

I really hope the plot is not jumping around by years. I cannot imagine how this should make for coherent story telling. We know there is a time skip after the last book, which is good, but inside the book I can't imagine how it would not be jarring and confusing.

PeterZ wrote:I believe TFT is setting up the next story arc dealing with the return. I believe it will be best to consider it a series of connected short stories spanning 16 years. I'll trust RFC to manage this affair well,

Based info the Author mentioned in other threads (talking about what books were coming out when), he was originally going to start this book 20 years after ASOT and include flashbacks to fill in the 20 year gap. But he apparently found that didn't work (he said he had written ~90,000 words and had to essentially start over). My guess is what the Author planned for the first book in this arc has now been split into 2 books. We're going to get a richer "backstory" for this next arc at the price of having to wait for the actual start until the next book.

This is probably for the best. I'm not sure I've seen any author do a story well where significant, important and lengthy details are contained in flashbacks. Particularly where there are multiple threads with significant actors in each one. I suspect it all got too confusing for the Author and if the Author was confused, we the readers were going to be even more confused. A relatively straight forward (time-wise) narration, even with multiple threads, would be a lot less confusing. Even though the result is 2 books instead of one (think of the door-stopper that one would have been! )