Update on next Safehold book

Not quite, he did clarify in a comment on facebook - he got a contract with Tor for another Safehold book and it's on position 4 in the queue:

Safehold is my next solo Tor project. It's long overdue, I know, but so is a lot of other stuff. If all goes as planned, I:

(1) finish the short HH novel I'm working on right now;
(2) Complete the Multiverse novel with Joelle;
(3) Complete Rebel with Richard Fox;
(4) Write the next Safehold Novel;
(5) Complete the next Manticore Ascendant novel with Tim and Tom;
(6) Write the sequel to Sword of the South;
(7) Write the next Star Kingdom novel with Jane Lindskold.

(6) and (7) may very well flip, and I hope to get (1) through (3) finished still this year. There's that saying about "best laid plans," however . . . .

Tl;dr: Best case he starts writing on the next Safehold book beginning 2023.

There was an update over in the Honorverse forums (a crosspost from Facebook)

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11080

TLDR: 2, MAYBE 3 more books for Safehold before a 'satisfying' ending. And somehow he thinks he's gonna get 23-25 books done in 10 years.... I have doubts.

I do have to admit I'm saddened to hear it's been shortened from the 3-5 books for the next war, +X# of books for the Gbaba war, but the toil of time takes its toll.

I'm not upset that it's unlikely we'll ever see RFC write books concerning the Second Gbaba War. After all, it would be difficult to write the Gbaba as interesting, much less sympathetic, opponents without retreading the ground he already covered in the Dahak novels.

That said, I'll be surprised if he can get to the point of being done with the archangels' return and the rakurai system in a mere two novels. I expect the next book can get through the start of the next war and the book after that may be able to finish the active fighting, but it'll take a very compressed resolution of what's slumbering under the Temple to bring everything to a close in just two books. Perhaps there could be an abbreviated appendix that can be added to the second upcoming book if a third additional Safehold book proves impossible to be written.

Read through the comments on where the next SafeHold books ought to go. I'd just like to suggest/hope that a couple of other "issues" get consideration in the remaining volumes to be written, and maybe even eventually resolved:
1) As we know the Temple is basically a deep defensive bunker, the question is "What is it defending, or maybe who?" I'd guess that one or more of the Archangels are in stasis pods down there. And could that Wesllym staff be somehow connected to waking them up?
2) I'm expecting that the Temple is host to an AI at least as capable as Owl, and I'd expect that the two AIs will eventually engage in some type of combat over which will control the orbital platforms.
3) As others have pointed out, the Testimony of Schueller is surely a new wildcard thrown into the mix.
And finally, 4) I'd not be surprised to find out that robotic construction systems have spent the last 1,000 years harnessing the resources of the Safehold solar system constructing and hiding a massive fleet to eventually be sent out to take on the Gbhaba in a final showdown over control of their arm of the galaxy.

Nice thought, but don't forget that they disposed of their existing fleet. Unlikely to do that if they expected to build more.

letkin wrote:Read through the comments on where the next SafeHold books ought to go. I'd just like to suggest/hope that a couple of other "issues" get consideration in the remaining volumes to be written, and maybe even eventually resolved:
1) As we know the Temple is basically a deep defensive bunker, the question is "What is it defending, or maybe who?" I'd guess that one or more of the Archangels are in stasis pods down there. And could that Wesllym staff be somehow connected to waking them up?
2) I'm expecting that the Temple is host to an AI at least as capable as Owl, and I'd expect that the two AIs will eventually engage in some type of combat over which will control the orbital platforms.
3) As others have pointed out, the Testimony of Schueller is surely a new wildcard thrown into the mix.
And finally, 4) I'd not be surprised to find out that robotic construction systems have spent the last 1,000 years harnessing the resources of the Safehold solar system constructing and hiding a massive fleet to eventually be sent out to take on the Gbhaba in a final showdown over control of their arm of the galaxy.

letkin wrote: 4) I'd not be surprised to find out that robotic construction systems have spent the last 1,000 years harnessing the resources of the Safehold solar system constructing and hiding a massive fleet to eventually be sent out to take on the Gbhaba in a final showdown over control of their arm of the galaxy.

That one seems unlikely. I'd enjoy the twist, but it would take a lot of good explanations in-universe to make it even remotely justified.

Langhorn and his group wanted humanity to stay on Safehold forever. They'd have absolutely no reason to build ships. It's one of the reasons they dismantled all the ships except the Hamilcar in first place.

I could see the Peis and their group wanting, maybe even trying, to set something like that up; but I don't see a feasible way that they could without those loyal to Langhorne and/or Chihiro, especially those on the Hamilcar destroying them. And that's assuming the unlikely event that they could even get the plan started.

Daryl wrote:David wrote a hilarious fan fiction ending to Safehold, complete with FTL weapons, and Honor crossing over to help. It is on here if you want to find it.

Honor? Where is she in that one?

letkin wrote:And finally, 4) I'd not be surprised to find out that robotic construction systems have spent the last 1,000 years harnessing the resources of the Safehold solar system constructing and hiding a massive fleet to eventually be sent out to take on the Gbhaba in a final showdown over control of their arm of the galaxy.

I don't think so--that would produce an industrial signature, something they were trying to avoid.

letkin wrote:Read through the comments on where the next SafeHold books ought to go. I'd just like to suggest/hope that a couple of other "issues" get consideration in the remaining volumes to be written, and maybe even eventually resolved:
1) As we know the Temple is basically a deep defensive bunker, the question is "What is it defending, or maybe who?" I'd guess that one or more of the Archangels are in stasis pods down there. And could that Wesllym staff be somehow connected to waking them up?
2) I'm expecting that the Temple is host to an AI at least as capable as Owl, and I'd expect that the two AIs will eventually engage in some type of combat over which will control the orbital platforms.
3) As others have pointed out, the Testimony of Schueller is surely a new wildcard thrown into the mix.
And finally, 4) I'd not be surprised to find out that robotic construction systems have spent the last 1,000 years harnessing the resources of the Safehold solar system constructing and hiding a massive fleet to eventually be sent out to take on the Gbhaba in a final showdown over control of their arm of the galaxy.

1. The Temple was built ontop of the old colonial management base that was nuked. To build something more there they had to remove a lot of topsoil and dig the hole a lot deeper. I always felt that to fill that gigantic hole you would just land the ship in it and build on top, so my thought is that the cellar of the temple is the last ship with all its manufacturing, ai and other facilitys. There is probably a mountain somwhere in the artic that is still giving off radiation.
2. See number one. Plus the encripted file they have is probably the ai and the temple is running on automatic.
3. To shake things up since they can no longer take the temple down with war.
4. Do not think so, the platforms have their own facilitys for self repair and power, but if they can take them, then they have a good space infrastructure to begin with.

It was in the Safehold topic thread, and I think the title was "How Safehold won't End". Starts with Merlin dying slowly, the Gbaba closing in, and ends up eventually with Honor riding to the rescue across multiversus. Sort of what a 15 year old fan would write if they had David's skills.


..

Loren Pechtel wrote:

Daryl wrote:David wrote a hilarious fan fiction ending to Safehold, complete with FTL weapons, and Honor crossing over to help. It is on here if you want to find it.

Honor? Where is she in that one?