I know this isn’t that popular of a series on this board, but I also know that there are some 'dopers familiar with it. On advice a year or so ago I read through the spin-offs of the original series that details the story from the original main characters daughters perspective after the war (Cally). I’m going to start reading through Eye of the Storm and The Tuloriad next, which will only leave Hero as the only book in the series I won’t have read (I have both Eye of the Storm and The Tuloriad in my travel case for a coming trip). At that point I guess I will have read everything published thus far.
My question is…has anyone read any of the unpublished stories? I seem to recall that there were some unpublished stories concerning Japan, England and Saudi Arabia. I haven’t seen them but on the Wiki page for the Legacy of the Aldenata they are briefly mentioned. If anyone has read them, could I get some impressions as to whether it’s worth tracking them down to read?
According to the Wiki page there are only two books left that Ringo is looking to write (I know he just started a new space aliens series, and he’s still got the March to the Sea etc etc series going), so thought I’d start a thread to see if it’s worth looking into the non-published, non-cannon(?) stories. Also, is Hero worth getting…it doesn’t seem to really go with any of the other stories from what I can see.
Feel free to discuss other aspects of the book or anything related to the subject. I think we can dispense with spoilers since my guess is that 'dopers who are going to wander into this thread have most likely already read them. If you haven’t but think you might then you should turn back now, assuming I get any responses at all to this.
Hero is set a 1,000 years or so into the future of the events depicted in the main series, and since the introduction of the “new threat” in Eye of the Storm, is a bit of an odd “fit” now wrt the “timeline” of the rest of the series.
But it is an interesting take on the Darhel, who are only vaguely described through the rest of the series.
Also only able to comment on what has been published, but I found it to be some of my favourite light reading.
And I thought *Hero *was a good “God damn it, how do I stay alive while I’m being hunted” story, just not a strong entry in the series.
(I’m currently reading Travis S. Taylor’s Tau Ceti series, which blows a lot of shit up real good, but relies too much on transformer/ Mechas for my taste. Maybe I’m too old, not growing up with Tranformers.)
Hero, if its the book I am thinking about with the Darhel and a human special forces team in a thousand years in the future, is one book that I think he took out of canon and decided that it never happened, story wise.
An okay book, but your not missing much.
The one unpublished book that I read was a fan fiction that John decided was going to be canon, as of a couple of years ago. I dont know if thats the case, as I havent been checking out the bar in recent years.
The book itself, had to do with the English ACS regiment, that detailed the invasion of England by the posleen and expanded on the section where they had to put something down in nepal.
Ok, thanks for the thoughts. I’ll definitely get Hero. I hadn’t planned on it, since it didn’t seem to have much to do with the series (like you guys said, it’s a 1000 years in the future), but still sounds interesting.
I didn’t enjoy the Cally’s War trilogy as much as the 4 books (plus Watch on the Rhine and Yellow Eyes) from the original series. I’m hoping that Eye of the Storm and The Tuloriad are good. I haven’t read the new series he started yet either, as it sounds similar to the Posleen Wars story, but I’ll probably pick it up at some point…maybe when he gets the 3rd book out.
I stopped reading this series after number 4, but I really like his other series. If you haven’t read his “Ghost” books, they’re a kick. He was writing to get shit out of his system, and books 2-4 are pretty damn good. The first one is rather heavy on the S&M, B&D stuff, and is hard-core right-wing wanking material, but once you get the protagonist locked in with the Keldara, it gets good to real good.
You also might like his new series in the Schlock Mercenary universe (Troy Rising). Two books out so far (Live Free Or Die, Citadel). Lots of neat space battles in those two.
I would have to read eye of the storm again, but after reading tuloriad, I am thinking there is a error somewhere. The ship that stars in Yellow eyes, seems to have two different fates, unless there is an explanation somewhere.
I haven’t read any of the Ghost series…I sort of skimmed the first one and it didn’t seem very good. Might have to check it out though. I also have seen the new series but haven’t gotten around to buying it yet. Maybe I’ll see if Audible has the Ghost series on audio and get it for my next long trip.
I’ve noticed a couple of inconsistencies, but that’s to be expected in a series that has a bunch of sub-stories and spin-offs, and one that has several authors contributing to it. That seems to be the big thing today…someone writes an interesting book or small series and then the publisher (presumably) gets other authors to write books in the ‘universe’, or co-author books or anthologies or spin-offs, if it’s popular enough. That’s what killed the 1630 series for me…it go so convoluted and complex that I couldn’t follow the ‘main’ story anymore, and I lost interest. I couldn’t connect with the original main characters or theme.
Well, 1634 was ok…it was at least a continuation of what I take to be the main story line. Supposedly there is another book, The Eastern Front that’s also supposed to be a continuation of the main story line. But there are about 5 or 6 other books that go off in all sorts of other directions and on different tangents with lesser or new characters added. I just couldn’t keep up and couldn’t keep interested in all of the various directions the story was going in.
The “Yeoman of England” is the name of the fan fic… I know the bloke who wrote it through another message board. I even got a cameo as Royal Marine. It’s better than any of Kratman’ stuff.
The Saudi one is by the same author. It’s called “Jihad on Your Arse,” though I’m less certain of that title. I know it came from a board meme at the time.
Going by the search feature, I am not sure if he is a current active member of the board, one of his posts had that little banned title, under his name and links in one of his posts return as an invalid blah blah, contact admin.
Yeah, the admin is a little… intense. I haven’t been there in a long while, but I know the author and the admin haven’t gotten along. The author must have pulled his stuff on his way out. I’ll see if I can’t track down another online copy.
