Empire of man further books?

Yes. We Few reminds me of how Prince of Sparta ended with Lysander being hailed as emperor by elements of the CoDominium Navy. Both have the "and how can you write an interesting story about the protagonist after that" problem.

Eagleeye wrote:

jontom wrote:This matches what Weber told me when I asked him at a book signing. Ringo sees Roger getting into the thick of things (think Gustavus Adolphus) and Weber does not (emperors are not issued as skeet targets). Irreconcilable visions, so I don't expect we'll ever see a sequel.

Jon

Only way I see a sequel would be, if David would turn over the series completely to Ringo. But I've no clue how probable that solution would be. (Best guess? Not very, else it would've happen already - probably)

Eagleeye wrote:Only way I see a sequel would be, if David would turn over the series completely to Ringo. But I've no clue how probable that solution would be. (Best guess? Not very, else it would've happen already - probably)

Tbh, as good a writer as Ringo is, turning over any series to his control entirely is quite possibly the best way to kill said series.

When he writes, or rather IF he writes, he's usually pretty good. But he's a little too quick to blame the whims of his muse for why he moves on from stories and leaves them for extended periods of time, regardless of what kind of cliffhanger he leaves it on.

Roger's in a good place right now, sure it's a bit of a cliffhanger with war looming, but it's a more natural pause than most of Ringo's other novels. Council Wars (hot war still ongoing, neither side with huge advantages), Troy Rising (hot war still ongoing, neither side with huge advantages), Hedren War (hot war, early days neither side has huge advantages), Looking Glasses/Space Bubble (cold war, but very likely to turn hot if another novel ever drops)

Would I like to see more Roger stories? Absolutely, but not if it means Ringo only writes 1 book, and then uses his muse excuse and leaves Roger in... a hot war still ongoing, neither side with huge advantages.

Ringo seems to have a pattern of abandoning story arcs, Troy Rising, Princess of Wands, Ghost, council wars & Legacy of the Aldenata were all dropped then he started writing about zombies. I read the 1st book and it was well written and thought out, but l really hate zombie-mania. David Weber just has so many projects that Prince Roger is unlikely to be revived. I have to say that it really was a fantastic story and lm sorry that its unlikely to continue.

I think this partly may a key problem with almost any writer, possibly in part by learning the wrong lesson from Sherlock and Moriarty.

Because Sherlock was dead and the bad guy won, the series was over. But then Doyle decided to pick it back up, so he had to come up with a (barely) believable way for the plain text of the last book to actually be wrong.

Because of this, they always want to at least leave room for a possible sequel. Even if they don't actually intend to write it, they don't like to wrap stuff up "fully". Gotta leave themselves a hook or two. Then if they don't continue, well, there's always tomorrow or next year or next decade, perhaps they can consider picking it back up again later. IMO I think this is exactly what Ringo did with Claws that Catch. It's not the ending I wanted, but he did at least tie up the story on that book. But he could eventually decide to pick it back up again someday, if he wants. (Perhaps he learned from other mistakes in this regard. Or perhaps it's the influence of Travis Taylor here. Impossible to say for sure. Though I think he applied at least some similar thoughts to the mainline Black Tide as well, or at least he did in the last novel there which I read...)

Of course if they do intend to continue, they'll leave those hooks well-baited with several (or several-dozen) tasty-looking worms. And that does make sense, if the next book is coming then they want to sell copies of it too. Of course, if then the next book never comes... IMO it's even worse if they do intend to continue and then just never get around to it. That's frustrating for the readers. Very frustrating.

I think it's clear that We Few was exactly the latter. They intended to continue... then never did. Because of that I have long-since rewritten the ending in my head. In my version Prince Jackson's ship exploded and the "main" bad guy is safely dead. There will almost certainly be war with some of his supporters who desperately want to finish what he started, but they are neither as smart, capable, charismatic, or anything else. They will eventually fail... but the battles just aren't worth writing about, so we have to imagine them for ourselves.