Next book

Got a lot of ideas about the next book kicking around inside the cranium. What sounds most appealing:

1. Normal “continuing adventures” of Taj and crew, largely intact
1a) Expected near future interactions with the universe, as governments start reacting to a new military and political force in their world
1b) Development and adventures of the first new Armadillo-class ship built at Tau Piper
1c) Further future book, such as one about Quinn

2. “Book of the past,” a story about one or more of the characters’ earlier development, what is it that got them here?
2a) Helton
2b) Taj
2c) Lag and/or Harbin
2d) Kaushik and/or Kaminski
2e) Allonia
2f) Kwon & family
2g) Quiriti
2h) Quinn (obviously would be more a “when he grows up” story)

3) Intersectional story, primarily about one or more other characters that are seen in the book but not a primary character, and what their existence was like before, during, and after Taj and company emerge on the scene.
3a) Penger Trask
3b) Admiral Flicker
3c) Admiral Hawk
3d) Councilor Darch and/or Seymore
3e) Brother Libra
3f) Private Horkle
3g) Life aboard the HMS Hussein on it’s flight back to civilization
3h) Taj isn’t the only remaining AI aboard such a hull

4) Something else that sounds really cool.

Thoughts?

11 thoughts on “Next book

  1. [SPOILERish material follows]

    1a all the way! Keep the momentum. The revolution has begun. Powerful forces want to preserve the status quo. You’ve got a great cast; don’t reset. If this is a trilogy, then it could be your The Empire Strikes Back.

    1. That’s the obvious one. The reason I’m asking is that I’ve got what I think are pretty good ideas for all the rest of them. But only marginal ideas and details for that particular one. I’m already ~30k words into one of the others, but it’s also a somewhat different genre from mil-sci-fi. I think it will be good, just not what people might expect. Sooooo… Quandary. I suppose I could work on both as the mood fits. But like I said, I don’t have a solid “ah-HA!” plot line for a direct sequel beyond the generic “empires fight back” that are not well-used tropes, or are not true to character, or have solar-system sized problems that don’t have good fixes. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually.

      1. Well if you’ve got something in the works… go for it! That’s the story that wants you to write it, isn’t it?

        If the story is even partially as compelling as TSCB is, you’ll do well with it.

    2. 1a. You’re book is definitely the BEST book I’ve read this year and in a while. THANK YOU!

      Do you have a Facebook Account we can Like to keep up?

      1. Thanks for the compliment, glad you liked it. (now go tell your friends 🙂 )Seemed like a story worth telling. Straight-up sequel of the same complexity won’t be easy, but I’m penciling out ideas now. Writing is easy. Writing something good is rather more difficult. 🙂
        Nope, no data-mining FB account. I like what little data I put out there to be known and secured. It’s possible one will get set up sometime, but no plans at this time.

  2. I agree with Sean. 1a. However, 1b and 3h are quite appealing also. So many ideas, so little time… Whatever you choose, keep on writing. You have a gift.

  3. The main thing that comes to mind is thumbs down on 3g. At least it seems unlikely that you can find compelling heroes there. I may be wrong. But I find that a story needs heroes to grab me; if it only contains questionable or bad guys, I can’t bring myself to care, which means I can’t bring myself to buy or recommend. (Same with movies: I’ve seen a few like that and avoid them if I know.)

    1. The thought that occurred to me was a handful of techs & engineers, good guys surrounded by a bunch of cronies, nepotistic appointees, incompetents, and failures, leading a small group of servant-types that are there as what amount to servants/slaves, who manage to hold it together and survive because of hard work, being smart and practical. Story starts where the Hussein was left, ends when the survivors meet Taj a few years later. Definitely a dark story, but I think there is a good one there.

  4. I’m surprised no one talked about the planet movers. While an “empire strikes back” plot should be more than enough to fill out a book, a much more epic story would be about the planet movers swooping in and making such petty squabbles seem, well, petty.

    1. I’ve kicked that around a bit. How big it would be is largely a function of their intentions – most people are pretty apathetic after the initial ‘hey, cool’ impression if something doesn’t affect them personally. A drought in Africa that kills a million is tragic, a drought here that doubles your water bill is a flipp’n catastrophe!
      Part of the reason I like the ending in TSCB is that there are a million places it could go, but it’s not leaving us hanging, so there is no particular place is HAS to go. The downside of that is that there are a million possible plot-lines, but no obvious ones. I’ve tried penciling out a dozen different main themes, and I don’t like any of them. Lots of side themes to work in, but there has to be a major payoff at the end, and I’m just not happy with anything I’m coming up with.

  5. Rolf, just finished the book in about 3 days. Probably could have done it in two, but a man needs priorities and my girlfriend wanted to watch Firefly with me.

    It was an awesome story. Loved the Firefly references, and the hat tip to Star Trek (bldg 1701).

    If you write another book, I will definitely buy it.

    As for future stories, I wouldn’t mind some backfill on how the worlds got where they are. Helton’s world seems corrupt and tyrannical, while Plantaea seems militaristic but also somewhat libertarian. I wondered if you were going to bring Art back into the story or not.

    Seems obvious to me that Quinn will end up as Captain someday, but if the story still has a lot of mileage in it, jumping directly to that seems premature.

    Then of course setting up a society or base of operations on their former corporate moon could lead to some interesting story arcs. People fleeing tyranny, but still being human, ultimately setting up new tyrannies where they settle could provide some background plot too.

    In any case, it’s your story and you obviously know it better than me. I’ll just wait to buy the next book.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *