Next Shadows Book(Spoilers)

We were told by Himself MWW, that he invisioned there to be about 10 books in the shadows series and fewer in the Honor series and the Torch Series. About 6 a piece in those 2.

Since we know the RF has 13 worlds/sectros? + Darius as their own + their daughter colonies I am assuming, we don't know where they are.

We do know that there were going to be far more books in the Shadow side of things than the other series. This would indicate that the action will be taking closer to Talbott Quadrant. We know Visgoth/Mesa are a pair of the RF worlds and where they are. We know that they are the closest to the Talbot Quadrant.

How much energy will the RF expend protecting Mesa as 1) a symbol and 2) to keep everyone off their backs and trying to attack Mesa.

But this brings up another problem. We know that Mesa is only 200 Light years from the TQ and Mesa itself has no effective navy, so defending it is next to impossible. It has to be a sacrificial lamb/duck so to speak. On top of this is that we know that Mesa is one of the giant shipping hubs of the galaxy. Not up there with Manticore/Old Earth or a couple of others, but close. It is situated in the Shell, not the League itself.

Would this indicate that the Shell worlds around Mesa area are far more numerous, older, wealthier, then say out towards MAYA/Joshua? Could Visgoth/Mesa effectively hold the whole Sector/Quadrant by themselves? In otherwords would there NOT be any other RF worlds near Visgoth/Mesa in my thinking since if they want to take over and control the WHOLE SL they need to Bracket ALLL areas of the SL. The worlds headed by RF defectors therefore would NOT be "near" each other. Of course all things are relative of course.

A long way of saying that the RF has to be weighted towards the Talbott Quadrant(TQ) otherwise the quickest attack vector is through Beowulf. Unless that vector gets sealed off with Spider Detweiler class ships? =) Twould be my guess as where those ships will attack first.

BFoote

No, all that we *know* is that MWW does not allow
himself to be bound by the numbers in any of his
books, when he writes the next one.
Any numbers he gives us, are valid for that book only.
He will give different numbers next book, if he pleases.

It is frustrating, I know full well, but there is
nothing to be done about. it.

HTM

bafoote wrote:We were told by Himself MWW, that he invisioned there to be about 10 books in the shadows series and fewer in the Honor series and the Torch Series. About 6 a piece in those 2.

Since we know the RF has 13 worlds/sectros? + Darius as their own + their daughter colonies I am assuming, we don't know where they are.

We do know that there were going to be far more books in the Shadow side of things than the other series. This would indicate that the action will be taking closer to Talbott Quadrant. We know Visgoth/Mesa are a pair of the RF worlds and where they are. We know that they are the closest to the Talbot Quadrant.

How much energy will the RF expend protecting Mesa as 1) a symbol and 2) to keep everyone off their backs and trying to attack Mesa.

But this brings up another problem. We know that Mesa is only 200 Light years from the TQ and Mesa itself has no effective navy, so defending it is next to impossible. It has to be a sacrificial lamb/duck so to speak. On top of this is that we know that Mesa is one of the giant shipping hubs of the galaxy. Not up there with Manticore/Old Earth or a couple of others, but close. It is situated in the Shell, not the League itself.

Would this indicate that the Shell worlds around Mesa area are far more numerous, older, wealthier, then say out towards MAYA/Joshua? Could Visgoth/Mesa effectively hold the whole Sector/Quadrant by themselves? In otherwords would there NOT be any other RF worlds near Visgoth/Mesa in my thinking since if they want to take over and control the WHOLE SL they need to Bracket ALLL areas of the SL. The worlds headed by RF defectors therefore would NOT be "near" each other. Of course all things are relative of course.

A long way of saying that the RF has to be weighted towards the Talbott Quadrant(TQ) otherwise the quickest attack vector is through Beowulf. Unless that vector gets sealed off with Spider Detweiler class ships? =) Twould be my guess as where those ships will attack first.

BFoote

How about a comment that means something instead of a NSS nebulous post that has no bearing on speculation.

BFoote
PS let you figure out what NSS stands for. Middle word Starts with an S and is 4 letters Long. Last is a famous sleuth detective and the first is NO.

I replied to your other thread about ToF with more info. For this particular thread:

I'm thinking Shadows is done for a bit because we saw most of the STFS characters in MoH and there's nothing new going on in Talbott anytime soon now that Crandall's force is gone.

I'm pretty sure even though the MAlign don't anticipate being discovered or Mesa being attacked, that they left Mesa as the cutout and potential sacrifice to keep the rest of the onion hidden. All the RF nations are anti-genetic slavery, there would be no good reason for them to try and "save" Mesa without risking some questions. Also, since they are all sleeper cells, I don't think they even identify themselves as Mesan. Their loyalty and actions are not for any one planet or star system but to the purification of the human genome and taking over the human galaxy.

Your points about the RF being spread out among the more important areas of the SL are probably true. Far enough away so that they can each spread and maximize territorial gains without running into each other, but close enough probably (1 month travel?) to provide possible mutual support, and to have a defined sphere of influence by the RF, would be my guess.

RF attacking Talbott is iffy, I think they'd be more concerned about breaking up the SL first, and then dealing with the Haven Quadrant or SEM stuff like Talbott later. Yes it'd be the most direct route, but as we've seen, the MAN is short on the new ships as it is, and the RF only has conventional forces that we know of in their SDFs.

I thought the Shadows cycle is not about Talbott per se, but about secondary Navy characters - like the Cachat and Zilwicki cycle is defined by characters not place, and Honor cycle... well, you get it... Third Shadows may as well play in Silesia...

Well yeah it's more about characters than location, but the new generation featured in Shadows is coincidentally mainly located in Talbott, and dealt with the issues affecting Talbott, like Crandall and Byng. If they got shipped to Silesia, sure it'd be about Silesia then.

However, because they featured so prominently in MoH anyway, the new generation can just be written into main-stem novels from this point on. They may have started out as a branch-off, but it makes sense to just put them in Honor's books now unless something major comes up to devote time for an entirely separate book and an entirely new plotline.

I hope we do see more of Talbot though I like the characters

by the way does anyone know what will happen to the terrorists on whatsitsname?

last time we caught up with her she was still alive and kicking.

BaFoote
I think your numbers are a bit off. The latest number I saw that he said out loud was no more than 10 Honorverse novels in all. If we are looking at anything like your numbers, then at one book a year, I need prolong. But, as was said, he keeps changing and also keeps writing other stuff, like 6 more Safehold books he has to deliver plus another book for TOR. And then there is the stuff people keep asking for more of in his other books and series.

Clearly, the mainline and Shadows books have come together in Mission, and we can see the characters in the Torch books in Mission as well, so those may be coming together, too.

Could be right ROFWH and sorry Howard for being a grumpy bear at you yesterday.

His "book" numbers were from 2? years ago when he said he was writing MoH at the time. He is 58 years old? He will start slowing down some whether he ever will admit it or not at that age is another matter. I know my own father at age 62-63 hit a wall. Everything started taking twice as long as they did before. Work he used to enjoy was just a grind and instead of working all he did was worry and stew.

Home we all don't need Prolong.

Robert Jordan needed Prolong, didn't get to him in time either.

BFoote

bafoote wrote:Could be right ROFWH and sorry Howard for being a grumpy bear at you yesterday.

His "book" numbers were from 2? years ago when he said he was writing MoH at the time. He is 58 years old? He will start slowing down some whether he ever will admit it or not at that age is another matter. I know my own father at age 62-63 hit a wall. Everything started taking twice as long as they did before. Work he used to enjoy was just a grind and instead of working all he did was worry and stew.
BFoote

Yeah, Jerry Pournelle is slowly fighting his way through the end of next Janissaries book.