_Shadow of Victory_ Comments

WeirdlyWired wrote:The Harahap killer nanites thing is vague, perhaps intentionally. All I read was didn't have time and should have.

Yep, that's another thing that got left wide open. Is Firebrand going to live long enough to tell the GA about Operation Janus and fill in a few blanks. He's the only person they've got who has actually met some of the main players. And will he be able to get time the Streak Drive courier that's been ferrying him around? (My estimate: doubtful).

WeirdlyWired wrote:The Harahap killer nanites thing is vague, perhaps intentionally. All I read was didn't have time and should have.

Collin Detweiler, who should know, believed that Damien had been given the killer nanites (see end of chapter 23 of _Shadow of Victory_). For him to be wrong, either Isabel lied to him (which I don't believe), or the Gamma Center medical clinic lied to Isabel (and I really, really don't believe that they would dare).

copy-pasting Text-Ed from the Baen Snerker boards:



Points out to me that there was a misunderstanding...
Colin interpreted the fact that Harahap went to Gamma Center as "he got the whole package" but as Harahap had to get rushed to a mission, his sojourn on Mesa was too short for him to get the DNA-tailored Nanos

excerpt from Ch 17 (!)
The oxygen reservoir implanted in his abdomen and the EM spectrum sensors implanted across his shoulder blades were well worth having, as well, and he'd been promised improved anti-disease nannies when he got back, as well. Unlike the repair nanites, they needed to be specifically coded to his own genotype so they could recognize any intruders, and there hadn't quite been time to get that done before he had to catch his shuttle for his new assignment.

Text Ed: last paragraph of chapter 23....
"He may not get as deep a look as you're afraid he will, Father" Collin said, reaching for his Whiskey glass once more. "And even if he does", he pauset to sip from the glass, then smiled coldly, " he did make that trip to the Gamma Center clinic, didn't he. "

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:

WeirdlyWired wrote:The Harahap killer nanites thing is vague, perhaps intentionally. All I read was didn't have time and should have.

Collin Detweiler, who should know, believed that Damien had been given the killer nanites (see end of chapter 23 of _Shadow of Victory_). For him to be wrong, either Isabel lied to him (which I don't believe), or the Gamma Center medical clinic lied to Isabel (and I really, really don't believe that they would dare).

JohnRoth wrote:

WeirdlyWired wrote:The Harahap killer nanites thing is vague, perhaps intentionally. All I read was didn't have time and should have.

Yep, that's another thing that got left wide open. Is Firebrand going to live long enough to tell the GA about Operation Janus and fill in a few blanks. He's the only person they've got who has actually met some of the main players. And will he be able to get time the Streak Drive courier that's been ferrying him around? (My estimate: doubtful).

Listening to DW's Baen podcast of November made it clear Damien will be a major player going forward and will most likely survive the last book and be around for the rematch a generation later; my speculation is that actually the good guys will actively look for the suicide codes and find them in time, but it may be the subtler ones are not there

WeirdlyWired wrote:The Harahap killer nanites thing is vague, perhaps intentionally. All I read was didn't have time and should have.

JohnRoth wrote:Yep, that's another thing that got left wide open. Is Firebrand going to live long enough to tell the GA about Operation Janus and fill in a few blanks. He's the only person they've got who has actually met some of the main players. And will he be able to get time the Streak Drive courier that's been ferrying him around? (My estimate: doubtful).

cnrd22 wrote:Listening to DW's Baen podcast of November made it clear Damien will be a major player going forward and will most likely survive the last book and be around for the rematch a generation later; my speculation is that actually the good guys will actively look for the suicide codes and find them in time, but it may be the subtler ones are not there

Exactly. The place where the Mantie officer greets Firebrand in SoV ends quite abruptly, so we don't know what happens in the next instant. If RFC is going to follow the plan he mentioned in the podcast, Damien survives. If RFC decides he doesn't need Damien after all, Damien goes "uurk" and falls over dead.

Pretty humorous, the book was so disappointing, no one even bothers with Spoiler warnings...

If this book had been published instead of Shadow of Freedom, would people have been whining as much? Doubt it. Or at least take the battles from SoF and place in this book and remove one of the Chezck or Polish planets would have been vastly superior.

Just a rumination...

JohnRoth wrote:Exactly. The place where the Mantie officer greets Firebrand in SoV ends quite abruptly, so we don't know what happens in the next instant. If RFC is going to follow the plan he mentioned in the podcast, Damien survives. If RFC decides he doesn't need Damien after all, Damien goes "uurk" and falls over dead.

The way DW talked about Damien in the podcast (he compared him with Victor), it's highly likely he will survive

Relax wrote:Pretty humorous, the book was so disappointing, no one even bothers with Spoiler warnings...

Actually we're past the spoiler warning period required here - they're only required until 1 month after hardcover release.

So lack of warning isn't necessarily evidence the book was disappointing. [G]

[Edit: Unless you were talking about the bits from the podcast. I'd forgotten about those posts; they probably should have warnings on them]

Jonathan_S wrote:[Edit: Unless you were talking about the bits from the podcast. I'd forgotten about those posts; they probably should have warnings on them]

GRRRR ... Now I have to trek to the library and peruse podcasts. At least the librarians like me (I guess)

Sharidann wrote:copy-pasting Text-Ed from the Baen Snerker boards:



Points out to me that there was a misunderstanding...
Colin interpreted the fact that Harahap went to Gamma Center as "he got the whole package" but as Harahap had to get rushed to a mission, his sojourn on Mesa was too short for him to get the DNA-tailored Nanos

There is this explicit statement by Collin in chapter 23 on why Damien was in Gamma Center:

“Isabel was really rushed when she had him prepped, though. You know the suicide-protocol nannies have to be genetically coded and programmed before they can be injected. If she was going to get that done before she sent him out, the Gamma Center clinic was the best place to do it. But I don’t think you have to worry about anything he may have seen there. Among other things, she had Chernyshev personally escort him.”

He could only have known that from Isabel's report. Isabel would have only reported that if she had ordered it and the clinic reported that they did it. It is my working assumption that all internal inner onion communications are as accurate as the messenger can make them. External communications are assumed to be lies until proven innocent.