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Eric Flint hs died

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Re: Eric Flint hs died
Post by cthia   » Mon Jul 25, 2022 6:36 pm

cthia
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Jonathan_S wrote:
cthia wrote:Anyway, anyone read David's very first novel? Which is a colab itself.

Sure, I've read Insurrection. It's one of 4 books that Weber and White wrote in the universe of the Starfire tabletop game.
Chronologically Insurrection come last, though it was written first.

(The four, chronologically, where Crusade, In Death's Ground, The Shiva Option, and Insurrection; and were later bundled together and republished as The Stars at War and The Stars at War II)

His co-author Steve White went on to write some later novels in that same universe, but I don't find them as interesting as the earlier collaboration efforts.

They books have far more point of view characters than the Honorverse does; and are spread further apart in the universe's chronology. IIRC Crusade happens 30 or 40 years before the middle two, and Insurrection at least that far after them. So as best I recall you don't have anybody who appears in all 4 books.

Huh, how did that happen?

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: Eric Flint hs died
Post by Jonathan_S   » Mon Jul 25, 2022 7:26 pm

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cthia wrote:
Jonathan_S wrote:Sure, I've read Insurrection. It's one of 4 books that Weber and White wrote in the universe of the Starfire tabletop game.
Chronologically Insurrection come last, though it was written first.

(The four, chronologically, where Crusade, In Death's Ground, The Shiva Option, and Insurrection; and were later bundled together and republished as The Stars at War and The Stars at War II)

Huh, how did that happen?

As David explains in the infodump on 'The Great Vanishing Crucian Mystery' they didn't start out planning to write a novel; much less a series. (Note - the infodump contains some significant spoilers; which I'm trying to sidestep; so don't read it unless you're fine with getting some major points potentially spoiled)


David was working with the designers of the Starfire tabletop game, doing some early work on a new major scenario. And, as he explains, the way he worked when he "was doing game design was to write a short story which set the tone for the game background." So he wrote at the end of, or possible beyond, the end of the game scenario -- one that eventually became a chapter of Insurrection. He then sent it off to Steve (who he'd been discussing the plans with) for feedback. Well that inspired Steve to write a story of his own, which eventually became another chapter in Insurrection; which inspired David to write one, which inspired Steve to write one, etc. and "Neither of us thought we were writing a novel; we were simply exchanging short stories on isolated incidents drawn from the future history/scenario plans I'd concocted"
"After a month or two, we did realize that we had the makings of a novel, and we began shaping it in that direction, but by the time we finished covering the entire war, we had roughly 285,000 words. Since neither of us had thought in terms of submission when we began, the length of the final manuscript had played only a minor part in our thinking, but I did realize that 285,000 words was just a tad long for a science fiction novel, so I sliced 100,000 words out before we submitted it initially." And this was eventually published (with significant further editing) as their first novel, Insurrection.


Then a couple years after Insurrection was published they went back and published a prequel; filling in events that had been mentioned in passing as having occurred before that expansion scenario David had been working on for the game. That story became Crusade. (2nd book published, but earliest chronologically). About about five years after that they decided to go ahead and do a novelization of the key events in the game scenario David had been working on, way back when, and that became the 2-part story In Death Ground and The Shiva Option.

And that's how their first book was the furthest into the future of that universe (at least of the ones they coauthored. Like I said, Steve went on to work on books that postdate Insurrection; but David wasn't cowriter on those.
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Re: Eric Flint hs died
Post by cthia   » Tue Jul 26, 2022 4:26 am

cthia
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cthia wrote:
Jonathan_S wrote:Sure, I've read Insurrection. It's one of 4 books that Weber and White wrote in the universe of the Starfire tabletop game.
Chronologically Insurrection come last, though it was written first.

(The four, chronologically, where Crusade, In Death's Ground, The Shiva Option, and Insurrection; and were later bundled together and republished as The Stars at War and The Stars at War II)

Huh, how did that happen?

Jonathan_S wrote:As David explains in the infodump on 'The Great Vanishing Crucian Mystery' they didn't start out planning to write a novel; much less a series. (Note - the infodump contains some significant spoilers; which I'm trying to sidestep; so don't read it unless you're fine with getting some major points potentially spoiled)


David was working with the designers of the Starfire tabletop game, doing some early work on a new major scenario. And, as he explains, the way he worked when he "was doing game design was to write a short story which set the tone for the game background." So he wrote at the end of, or possible beyond, the end of the game scenario -- one that eventually became a chapter of Insurrection. He then sent it off to Steve (who he'd been discussing the plans with) for feedback. Well that inspired Steve to write a story of his own, which eventually became another chapter in Insurrection; which inspired David to write one, which inspired Steve to write one, etc. and "Neither of us thought we were writing a novel; we were simply exchanging short stories on isolated incidents drawn from the future history/scenario plans I'd concocted"
"After a month or two, we did realize that we had the makings of a novel, and we began shaping it in that direction, but by the time we finished covering the entire war, we had roughly 285,000 words. Since neither of us had thought in terms of submission when we began, the length of the final manuscript had played only a minor part in our thinking, but I did realize that 285,000 words was just a tad long for a science fiction novel, so I sliced 100,000 words out before we submitted it initially." And this was eventually published (with significant further editing) as their first novel, Insurrection.


Then a couple years after Insurrection was published they went back and published a prequel; filling in events that had been mentioned in passing as having occurred before that expansion scenario David had been working on for the game. That story became Crusade. (2nd book published, but earliest chronologically). About about five years after that they decided to go ahead and do a novelization of the key events in the game scenario David had been working on, way back when, and that became the 2-part story In Death Ground and The Shiva Option.

And that's how their first book was the furthest into the future of that universe (at least of the ones they coauthored. Like I said, Steve went on to work on books that postdate Insurrection; but David wasn't cowriter on those.


Whew! That is all so very interesting! Thanks for that!

Is this board game still available? Any personal reviews? Anybody?

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: Eric Flint hs died
Post by Louis R   » Fri Jul 29, 2022 1:25 am

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Mother of Demons, 1632 and the Rivers of War books are all solos, as are some of the later 1632 books. For the Belisarius books, Ursus took an outline by David Drake and turned it into a 6-book series. Since the final text is largely or entirely Eric's - it's never really been clear to me which - it's hard to say how much they really count as collaborations.

But the simple fact of the matter is that Ursus _liked_ working with other writers, was good at it, and so did a lot of it.


cthia wrote:
Relax wrote:The Philosophical strangler.


Thanks, the title itself is very interesting. But that is a colab, is there anything that is solely his own work?

It seems his death was unexpected, as in he wasn't ill or anything?
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