HFQ Official Snippet #6 (oopsie!)

Just a caution for snippet addicts(myself included)...RFC has made the statement that snippets for HFQ would be longer between and more irregular than for previous books to avoid having too much out there before publication.... Sooo, I'm reminding myself(and you) not to be too surprised (and disappointed) when he actually follows through on that.

I wonder how soon we can reasonably expect the announcement of a publication date from Tor

Don

Honestly, at this point I'm pretty sure that rfc could drop the whole book into the forums and he'd still make a mint from people like me who feel compelled to own hardcopy versions of everything.

n7axw wrote:Just a caution for snippet addicts(myself included)...RFC has made the statement that snippets for HFQ would be longer between and more irregular than for previous books to avoid having too much out there before publication.... Sooo, I'm reminding myself(and you) not to be too surprised (and disappointed) when he actually follows through on that.

I wonder how soon we can reasonably expect the announcement of a publication date from Tor

Don

bigrunt wrote:If Nynian is the mother superior then is the SSK located in Zion? It would be odd to have the head of an organization stationed far away from the rest. And is that why she has to return to Zion quickly?

SSK may well have a decentralized structure since their goals so far hasn't necessitated quick communications until the war broke out which means it isn't as odd as you may think.

From a intelligence standpoint it makes a lot of sense for the head of SSK to be stationed in Zion since there is a lot of information that's flowing to it all the time, PLUS that it's a lot easier to send information from Zion to other places too compared to some out of they way abbey or cloister.

But now when the war is in full swing and SSK is taking an active roll faster communication is necessary, especially since Nynian may be the only one who knows all the agents/passphrases/deaddrops etc. in Zion and she now needs to disseminate some information quickly which means asking for a lift back to Zion.

Decentralized structures don't work well when the lead decision maker is a couple of five-days away by secure communication. If that communication was discovered by the inquisition they would have a field day, especially with all the assassinations. I am thinking they have to have some kind of comms that owl has not detected yet.

Joat42 wrote:SSK may well have a decentralized structure since their goals so far hasn't necessitated quick communications until the war broke out which means it isn't as odd as you may think.

From a intelligence standpoint it makes a lot of sense for the head of SSK to be stationed in Zion since there is a lot of information that's flowing to it all the time, PLUS that it's a lot easier to send information from Zion to other places too compared to some out of they way abbey or cloister.

But now when the war is in full swing and SSK is taking an active roll faster communication is necessary, especially since Nynian may be the only one who knows all the agents/passphrases/deaddrops etc. in Zion and she now needs to disseminate some information quickly which means asking for a lift back to Zion.

bigrunt wrote:Decentralized structures don't work well when the lead decision maker is a couple of five-days away by secure communication. If that communication was discovered by the inquisition they would have a field day, especially with all the assassinations. I am thinking they have to have some kind of comms that owl has not detected yet.

If the communication lines really are secure, then the Inquisition isn't going to discover them.

Really, unless the whole asking for a ride thing was just a pretext to open up to Merlin, what Nynian wants transport for is likely something that needs a quick turn around time when it comes to decision making.

If Nynian really did have some kind of hidden comm system similar to what Merlin and Charis has, then she'd have no need for a ride, because the turn around time for any decisions made would be just as quick with her sitting in Siddarmark as it would be in Zion.

summercat wrote:Who had the "Nynian is the person in charge of the Sisterhood", because you earned an otter gif.

I for one wasn't surprised at all to find this out. Sure, it's one of the only things in the series I've predicted and gotten right, but I'll take what victories I can.

Thanks for the snippet RFC! Looking forward to more, as always.

The only thing I can think off is to have them deep buried in commercial semaphore messages. In which case communication can be quick. The only drawback is the encryption must be strong as we had textev that church decripted a lot of messages, so the bandwifth would be low

bigrunt wrote:Decentralized structures don't work well when the lead decision maker is a couple of five-days away by secure communication. If that communication was discovered by the inquisition they would have a field day, especially with all the assassinations. I am thinking they have to have some kind of comms that owl has not detected yet.

Joat42 wrote:SSK may well have a decentralized structure since their goals so far hasn't necessitated quick communications until the war broke out which means it isn't as odd as you may think.

From a intelligence standpoint it makes a lot of sense for the head of SSK to be stationed in Zion since there is a lot of information that's flowing to it all the time, PLUS that it's a lot easier to send information from Zion to other places too compared to some out of they way abbey or cloister.

But now when the war is in full swing and SSK is taking an active roll faster communication is necessary, especially since Nynian may be the only one who knows all the agents/passphrases/deaddrops etc. in Zion and she now needs to disseminate some information quickly which means asking for a lift back to Zion.

alj_sf wrote:The only thing I can think off is to have them deep buried in commercial semaphore messages. In which case communication can be quick. The only drawback is the encryption must be strong as we had textev that church decripted a lot of messages, so the bandwifth would be low.

Not encrypted, but encoded. We've already seen a pair of coding schemes -- Merlin's tactical flag signal book, and the personal cypher that Earl Corlis used with the Regency Council. Bury your code words/phrases/numbers in a normal commercial message, hand it off to the semaphore operators, and sit back.
Paranthetically, I suspect the SSK built quite a bit of their financial resources through insider trading with the various banking houses.

.

My personal belief is that SSK has extensive ties to Siddarmark through their financial dealings over the centuries, and that Nynian came to Siddarmark for a number of good reasons, including the desire to check Merlin and Cayleb out personally, before approaching them.

That she has turned so many of her cards face up to them indicates two things. First, she's come to trust that they are who they say they are, that Merlin is truly a seijin, and that they have access to technology that would enable her to travel a great distance quickly. Second, that she has access to information, and at least to some artifacts, that aided both her predisposition to believe, and her ability to seek Merlin/Cayleb out. We haven't seen all her cards yet, of course.

My other thoughts are that Merlin will be drooling for a chance to look at Khody's diary and other historical information that's been gathered and archived by SSK, the SSK will be drooling for him to translate the Spanish portions of it, and the Alliance heads (and we readers) will learn a lot more about what happened in the first couple of centuries after the Fall.

There should be a huge information dump in the first third or half of HFQ.

That information may or may not have an immediate impact on current military strategy, but it will have a huge effect on endgame, and it likely will have a not-insignificant effect on the Alliance's political strategies in the near future.

Oh - and I suspect Nynian really does foresee a solid need for her to be able to get to, or near, Zion quickly.

As for the location or diverse location of SSK assets, quarters, archives, etc., my suspicion is the archives and former headquarters are not in Zion, but likely are close by, say within a couple hundred miles. Lakeview or its near environs seems a decent (but not certain) bet.

My personal belief is that SSK has extensive ties to Siddarmark through their financial dealings over the centuries, and that Nynian came to Siddarmark for a number of good reasons, including the desire to check Merlin and Cayleb out personally, before approaching them.

She did not come to Siddarmark to meet Cayleb and Merlin. She was in place long before it was necessary for Charis to even send them. She was instrumental in blunting the Sword of Schueler, and had been in Siddar City for months prior to the attack. If anything, Cayleb and Merlin (unintentionally) went to her, not the other way around.