Re: "To Challenge Heaven (Out of the Dark, 3)" by David Weber and Chris Kennedy

On 6/13/2025 4:07 PM, WolfFan wrote:
> On Jun 10, 2025, Lynn McGuire wrote
> (in article <[email protected]>):
> 
>> On 6/10/2025 8:10 PM, WolfFan wrote:
>>> On Jun 9, 2025, Lynn McGuire wrote
>>> (in article <[email protected]>):
>>>
>>>> On 6/8/2025 8:14 AM, Robert Carnegie wrote:
>>>>> As I've kvetched before, not much of this
>>>>> book review is about this book. Just one
>>>>> paragraph.
>>>>>
>>>>> How about putting that at the start of
>>>>> a post, at least? But did I say that
>>>>> before, too?
>>>>
>>>> I am putting too many spoilers in my reviews of the current book in a
>>>> series. I am trying to cut back on that.
>>>>
>>>> Lynn
>>>
>>> Weber’s going all George R.R. Martin, except with multiple series.
>>>
>>> There hasn’t been a new Empire of Man since 2005. No new Starfire since
>>> 2002. (Steve White has perpetuated at least two more by himself. They were
>>> distinctly inferior.) There hasn’t been a new Safehold since 2019. There
>>> hasn’t been a new Bazhell since 2015. No new Hell’s Gate since 2016. No
>>> new Dahak since 1996. Lots of space vampires who are really solar-powered
>>> nanobots and prequels to the AliciaDeVries and weird alt universe stuff.
>>>
>>> Personally I think that there ain’t gonna be any resolution of the
>>> cliffhangers in the old series, and I am _very_ reluctant to start up new
>>> series. I expect that he’ll lose interest. Again. And the space vampires
>>> are just so utterly ridiculous. Especially after the bad guys from the first
>>> book switch sides in the third book ‘cause they weren’t really all that
>>> bad, they just killed a third of humanity, that’s all.
>>>
>>> Bloody hell.
>>
>> Here are David Weber's current book plans from Aug 29, 2022:
>> https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=david%20weber%20book%20plans
>>
>> "Um. I posted this as a comment in a conversation about unfinished
>> series and storylines that would probably never be completed on one of
>> the TRMN pages, and someone suggested I should make it more broadly
>> available, so …..
>> ———-
>> Okay, I am looking to the future of the Honorverse and several of the
>> other series I have going. There almost certainly WILL be at least one,
>> and probably 2-3, more novels in the Honorverse, following END IN FIRE's
>> merger of the main series and the Crown of Slaves series. They won't be
>> written with ERIC (which i hate) but he and I always knew exactly where
>> the books were going, and they will go there. It is possible that the
>> collaborator I have in mind will also replace ME before the end of the
>> journey (as someone said, I am --- alas --- mortal, and I am one of
>> those writers who will never be "done"), but the end will be reached,
>> Tim Zahn, Tom Pope, and I will be wrapping the MANTICORE ASCENDANT
>> series in the next couple of books, at which point we will tie it off
>> with a bow. Jacob Holo and I will be writing the story of Edward
>> Saganami shortly. Joelle and I are working on the next MULTIVERSE/HELL'S
>> GATE book, and we know precisely where that series will ultimately end
>> up. I don't know that I'll be here to see the final book, but I know
>> what will be in it and I totally trust Joelle, Sharon, and Toni
>> Weisskopf to get the series there with quality writing. Richard Fox and
>> I have about 3 more books to bring Terrence Murphy's immediate story to
>> a close, though we may go a tiny bit farther than that. We are looking
>> at doing the second book in the Murphyverse later this fall/winter. It's
>> already plotted and ready to go. Chris Kennedy and I just handed in the
>> sequel to INTO THE LIGHT, and I think it's solid. I'm not sure how far
>> we're going to get into that one, but I think we can keep our readers
>> satisfied. And the only reason I'm not sure how far we'll get is that I
>> set up a heck of a big enemy when I created the Hegemony, and it's
>> likely to "end up" with a case of Mutually Assured Destruction rather
>> than a clear cut military victory. Can't say that for sure; we got
>> farther in the current book than we'd really expected. I need to sit
>> down with Jane Lindskold some time in the next couple of months and lay
>> out the writing outline for the next STAR KINGDOM novel. We are
>> envisioning three more in that series, too. I have at least two more
>> novels in SAFEHOLD (might be 3) at which point I will be at a thoroughly
>> satisfying stopping point. (Could go farther if I brought in the right
>> collaborator, but I don't think it's likely.) 3-4 more books in the
>> SWORD OF THE SOUTH series, and then that's done.
>> So, by my calculations, that's another 22 books I need to get written to
>> wrap up my current series plans.
>> I'm 70 this October. I sold the first novel thirty-three years ago.
>> Since then, I have published (or have currently turned in, awaiting
>> production) 74 solo and collaborative novels, which works out to roughly
>> 2.24 per year. That doesn't count the anthologies, of course.
>> I lost roughly 2 years to the concussion, and about a year and a half to
>> the Covid, so let's call it 30 years, not 33, which brings the
>> production up to 2.5 per year. And let's assume that I write for another
>> ten years, which (at the moment, and barring any anticipated encounters
>> with mortality) seems entirely plausible. By my calculations, that comes
>> to another TWENTY-FIVE solo and collaborative novels, in the process of
>> which I will be working with some of my collaborators to establish them
>> firmly in the existing universes going forward.
>> People, like the characters in Richard Adams' PLAGUE DOGS, I'll probably
>> still be writing "when the dark comes down." That means, obviously, that
>> I won't be "finished" when I leave, but don't go around thinking that
>> you're getting rid of me next week!
>> Just saying."
>>
>> I believe that of his 74 books, he is approaching ten million copies of
>> them. Pretty good for a guy who sold his first book at the age of 37.
>>
>> BTW, sadly DAHAK is done. SAFEHOLD was the rewrite of book #3 of that
>> series.
>>
>> Lynn
> 
> At least one person on the forums at his site has relayed the info that there
> might be a fourth Dahak. Maybe. ir was supposed to show last year or maybe
> this year or maybe next year. You notice that it hasn’t. You’ll notice
> that I’m not holding my breath waiting.
> 
> Recall that there was a lot of unresolved issues, not least being who else
> really bore a grudge for the Seige of Earth and what will happen when the
> naughty computers notice that Something Happened to their little expedition.
> All it would take would have been for the computers to have been paranoid
> enough to put a light, fast, ship trailing the main fleet with orders to run
> for home in event of problems. A Really Scary Fleet could be on its way, and
> Our Heroes wouldldn’t have a clue. There are, of course, many other
> possiblities... which will probably never see the light of day.

True dat.  BTW, I would like to see a Dahak #4 book also.

"David Weber explains his Dahak Series Part 1" from Sep 22, 2017 (6 
parts, almost an hour long)
  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmTm7Co2iR0&list=PLQQIJaSSON76PEQHrT9y5M9ZwXv5dIKCB

Lynn