dilution

I've read all the Destroyermen books and 20 seems a bit high, seems like it would be closer to 5-10 tops. There's also seems like there's a good reason for this to be the case. Though admittedly, it does help to re-read the previous ones before starting the next book.

Anyway, I'm not sure I agree. The issue with what you suggest is that a lot of backtracking needs done. Ryk had to dedicate what seemed like most of a book just to fill in the backstory for the Celestia because it was barely mentioned if it all from the first book. That's probably for the best as otherwise it would have been spread out over several books, and it wouldn't have been such an interesting plot twist (then again the title gave it away). On the other hand, the subplots for the Destoryermen books tend to get wrapped up by the end of the book overall. In the end, I'm inclined to let Ryk write as he wishes. It's gone well so far.

Oceaneer,

Don't worry, I never plan to get too many threads going at once. What you saw in book 9 is about as complex as it will ever get. If the Frontiers universe expands as much as I hope it does, we will have spin-offs that will be written as a separate series, but will still effect and be effected by the events of the main series. (The one that centers around the Aurora.)

Thanks for reading,

Ryk

Here's a related question I just posted on the Amazon page. It also kind of speaks to the question of dilution.

Question: TV Series or Movie(s)? Bigger budget with shorter time, or less money for SFX but more time for exposition (dialog). What would benefit the story more?

Oceaneer:

Wow! You got the Author's to respond to you. It's his first post! Congratulations!

Eric:

I'll say miniseries.
Movies would have to be severely edited to fit the two hours. The main storyline is fairly linear, unlike a lot of episodic TV. The "spinoffs" could be TV episodes where the Alliance infiltrates or liberates planets/systems against the Jung. (aka Space:Above & Beyond). Even Babylon 5 had an overall story arc, but the episodes didn't (always) have to be watched in a strict order.

If it does end up on the big (or little) screen, it would be interesting to see the crew getting dark circles under their eyes and other effects to show severe sleep deprivation in the first three books.

All:
What? We've ALL read the Destroyermen series???? The only reason I found it was that a book was on clearance at a CVS pharmacy and for $1 I figured it was worth a try. The main problem with the 'split' action is that every book covers less and less time, but still takes a year to write. I was able to follow the action fairly well among the splits, as (perhaps intentionally) there is a distinctive named character in each sequence. The last book added more major players which portends even more plots to cover. That, and the "Spanish" used in the book hasn't been run past a native speaker. The dying words of a Blood officer appear to an English speaker to be "demonic cat" but is really more like "maniac cat". 🙂

Hamsterman:

Wow! You got the Author’s to respond to you. It’s his first post! Congratulations!

I was starting to wonder if Ryk was actually going to post here at all.

Hamsterman:

What? We’ve ALL read the Destroyermen series???? The only reason I found it was that a book was on clearance at a CVS pharmacy and for $1 I figured it was worth a try. The main problem with the ‘split’ action is that every book covers less and less time, but still takes a year to write.

True enough, but the alternative seems to be to either ignore/gloss-over some of the subplots or cover them as one or more additional books, perhaps in the form of book of short stories. The result of the former might be better in some cases, while the later has the same result but every 2 or so books is just a collection of short stories, which would be essentially the same thing but harder to follow. Still, I suppose it certainly wouldn't hurt to have less of a split, but such as it is.

Well, I'm reminded of this:

Buckaroo Banzai:
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.

That quote wasn't in the movie, but it was on the official T-shirts.

Anyway, there are several ways to cover multiple areas at once:

Multiple major fronts. Think WW2, no one talks much about what the Japanese are doing during the invasion of Normandy. The major impacts are when one side is defeated and/or contained, allowing redeployment.

Single Focus: Concentrate one book on one major aspect, only giving hints about what is going on elsewhere. This requires that the other action is already scoped out well. Babylon 5 tried to do this since there was some time travel involved, and sometimes the pieces didn't quite fit back together correctly.

Self-weaving threads. Certain David Brin and Tom Clancy novels have threads that end up weaving the story to good effect. This must take a lot of skill, since when it works, it works great, but otherwise gets confusing.

Interesting. I remember the movie well enough to know that quote wasn't in it, but in the supplemental material makes sense. It has a certain Bukarooness to it.

Maybe Ryk can have the Aurora fly by Planet 10, or encounter an alien named John Smallberries. Just watch out for the Red Lectoids...

Maybe it is the age, but I miss that whole class of 1980s movies. Must be for others also, because Robocop is being remade for 2014. Total Recall was already remade (eh...). I wonder who they'll try and convince us is the next Ferris Bueller.

Wow Lots of replies..
And Ryk thanks for reassuring me on the dilution.
I think that this series is just amazing and am loving every second or reading the books. I am going to start over now as Its going to be a long wait for the next book.

I would love to see a spin off or separate books covering the old galaxy and how the reunification process is going. But that is a separate entity.

Again Thanks for the great read
Oceaneer