Sequel to Cauldron of Ghosts - sort of spoilers, maybe

Peregrinator wrote:I hope to hear more about Zach McBryde and Gail, but I think the chance of their being the heroes of the story are small. That ship sailed when they landed on Darius. I would find it hard to believe that the Alignment would ever allow them to leave Darius, and if they became suddenly inconvenient to the Alignment, their nanotech would kill them.

Randomiser wrote:Which is the very problem Eric and RFC are trying to find a way round. Based on the previous books it is much more likely to be Victor and Thandi. But I immediately thought of Zach and Gail as well, and it would be an interesting new twist. The long sub-plot about them didn't seem to warrant the space it got, but then I suppose that could be said of quite a lot of Honorverse sub-plots in recent years (Ducks reflexively).

Which subplots. I can't think of one that spanned two books that didn't turn out to be fairly relevant by the end of UH.

fallsfromtrees wrote:Which subplots. I can't think of one that spanned two books that didn't turn out to be fairly relevant by the end of UH.

...
Does the phrase "Chekov's Gun" spring into anyone else's mind regarding the apparently non-relevant plot regarding those two when they last appeared?
Weber has loaded and fired some spectacularly delayed Chekov's Guns before. I mean, he set up the foundations for the CLACs in the second book in the series! He (probably) wouldn't drop those two after all that effort he put into slipping them into the story...

ldwechsler wrote:
Also, we know that there is going to be another arc about a generation later.

We know that was the plan. That's when the entire Mesa - MAlign plot was supposed to happen. Is it still the plan? Only the Mad Wizard knows.

JohnRoth wrote:

ldwechsler wrote:
Also, we know that there is going to be another arc about a generation later.

We know that was the plan. That's when the entire Mesa - MAlign plot was supposed to happen. Is it still the plan? Only the Mad Wizard knows.

Helmuth von Moltke said it best:

"No plan survives contact with the enemy"

The only question is "Who is the enemy?"

JohnRoth wrote:

ldwechsler wrote:
Also, we know that there is going to be another arc about a generation later.

We know that was the plan. That's when the entire Mesa - MAlign plot was supposed to happen. Is it still the plan? Only the Mad Wizard knows.

and Eric the Red of course

isaac_newton wrote:[quote="JohnRoth]

Also, we know that there is going to be another arc about a generation later.
[/quote]

We know that was the plan. That's when the entire Mesa - MAlign plot was supposed to happen. Is it still the plan? Only the Mad Wizard knows.[/quote]

and Eric the Red of course [/quote]

I don't know that Zach and Gail will be all that vital. We've had a lot of characters and planets that quickly dropped from sight.

The issue is that a) Gail in particular is not likely to be all that rebellious; she has been doing naval stuff, b) there are a lot of controls in place on Darius, c) unless the next arc is very brief or there is another enemy on the horizon, major issues inside the "onion" won't come all that fast, which means d) chances are there will be others creating issues.

isaac_newton wrote:

JohnRoth]

Also, we know that there is going to be another arc about a generation later.
[/quote]

We know that was the plan. That's when the entire Mesa - MAlign plot was supposed to happen. Is it still the plan? Only the Mad Wizard knows.[/quote]

and Eric the Red of course [/quote][/quote]
[quote="ldwechsler wrote:I don't know that Zach and Gail will be all that vital. We've had a lot of characters and planets that quickly dropped from sight.

The issue is that a) Gail in particular is not likely to be all that rebellious; she has been doing naval stuff, b) there are a lot of controls in place on Darius, c) unless the next arc is very brief or there is another enemy on the horizon, major issues inside the "onion" won't come all that fast, which means d) chances are there will be others creating issues.

The other planets and people were not those that constituted a significant subplot over two books - at least when they were dropped, it was after some resolution of why they were no longer relevant to the plot. We did not get that in the case of Gail and Zach, and I can help but think that we are going to see a lot more of them.

While I think that Zach and Gail will have an impact, I don't think it will be the next book. It will be during the end game, either when Darius is under threat and they act to keep the Detweilers from destroying the system rather than surrender, or to prevent the MAlign from committing some atrocity.

The next volume will be searching Mesa for evidence of where the people Anton identified as missing went to, which may lead to Zach's and Gail's transit through Balcescu Station where they and their fellow evacuees encountered the Torch Navy. So my guess for the protagonists will be some combination of Anton or Victor and Yana or Thandi (or maybe Ruth?).

BillT52 wrote:While I think that Zach and Gail will have an impact, I don't think it will be the next book. It will be during the end game, either when Darius is under threat and they act to keep the Detweilers from destroying the system rather than surrender, or to prevent the MAlign from committing some atrocity.

The next volume will be searching Mesa for evidence of where the people Anton identified as missing went to, which may lead to Zach's and Gail's transit through Balcescu Station where they and their fellow evacuees encountered the Torch Navy. So my guess for the protagonists will be some combination of Anton or Victor and Yana or Thandi (or maybe Ruth?).

The whole "Checkhov's gun" theory should be put to rest. This is more like Chekhov's pen or something like that. They are not all that vital to the story except as a way to show what happens to the people involved in Houdini, the weirdos doing enforcement, and a bit on Darius.

On the other hand, Z and C will likely be doing research probably helped by Harahap. It will also provide an interesting bit of fun about the new government.

And, for us real fans, perhaps some new relationships as the arc ends. Many more of the POV characters have been paired up. Perhaps a few more. Plus a bit more of a luck at Honor's kids as prep for the next arc which we can hope comes soon.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

George J. Smith wrote:Alison immediately comes to mind

Weird Harold wrote:Strange, I immediately thought of Victor and Thandi -- you kno since they were the protagonists of the last book and Victor has been the main protagonist in all of the previous Torch series.

Actually, the ones that came to my mind were Zach and Gail - that was an extensive subplot that apparently went nowhere, and they would be individuals who had the nano-tech, which Victor and Thandi don't

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I can see Zach and Gail in an anthology story to keep them active, perhaps seeing a ground-level view of Darius -- warts revealed and all -- for later resolution when the location of Darius is discovered (or revealed)

-- Stewart