I got out early this morning, trying to get ahead of the day for a change.
Note: there’s a bit of a hiccup right at the end.
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What needs to happen for Ishmael to make the transition? I’d say lot of bumps in the road and some failure. He’s probably going to be doing a lot of things he’s never done before. Yeah, he’d never worked on a solar clipper either, but maybe his success there was a fluke.
As for the alien idea, I’m glad you’re not going that route. There are so many other interesting things you could talk about in the setting that I think readers would relate to and I think that ability for readers to relate to what’s happening in your work is one of the reasons why your stories do so well.
Indeed – this universe is ripe for the expansion. There’s no real need for sentient aliens – Asimov, after all, set the Foundation series in a galaxy with only two races – humans, and the robots/androids humans created (that started to evolve themselves). There’s been fun hinted at in the Exploration division – fertile ground for small group dynamic issues. I expect there is a certain amount of tension developing over time between spacer families, orbital residents, company planet people, and non-company planet people – each sure they’re being over-charged by the others. There are oligarchical elements to the governing structures (and even if they aren’t government in the traditional sense, the CPJC*s are governments in the functional sense), but there’s a strong libertarian element, mixed in with the whole company towns/planets thing. Lots and lots of room for play, and without needing a lot of gunfire and knife fights!
What if, instead of one tight book concluding with Sarah heading for the Lois, you let the characters from South Coast go where they will, such that it could be just one more book, or more. Wrapping up Sarah’s part and her marriage could just be hinted at, and her perception that Otto pushed her into it might not be quite accurate. And what if Otto was called to visit other worlds? Or to go with the crews, as his father did with the barges?
Or, what if the ‘father’ that pushed Sarah into the marriage was actually her stepfather? (This has been bugging me. The Otto of South Coast doesn’t seem consistent with the father of Sarah’s original story. Too self aware. I’d expect better from him.)
Agreed. The thing that I wanted to find out most in Cape Grace is how Otto became so senseless.
I wasn’t looking forward to finding out, because after the promise he showed, it seemed too disappointing a story. But, if his wife had taken off with their daughter early on, because life as the wife of a shaman was too boring for her, then I see room for the Otto of South Coast to develop as a character. (As opposed to becoming a shell of his earlier self.)
Um – I don’t recall if it was here, on the Solar Clipper website, or the Durandus forums – but Otto is Sarah’s *grandfather*, not father.
Is he?! Now that you say it, I think I remember Nathan saying that the action in South Coast took place 50 years before Sarah joined the Lois.
the problem I have with that is the timeline seems a bit fast there.
In SC Otto is in his teens I believe (assume 18?), so lets say gets married and has kid by 22, then for argument add another 22 for the son…
…hold on that would make Sara something like 24… I stand corrected my mind wasn’t firing… need coffee 😉
timeline is fine, nothing to see here… move along.
… Oh. Yeah. I remembered that. >.>