I read through the first 15 books in the space of a week. Obviously, they captivated my attention. Thank you, Ryk for weaving such a tangled web!
I attacked Escalation with mixed feelings because, after this, I'd have to wait like the rest of the faithful for the next installment instead of being able to gorge in one sitting.
I think, though, that having most of the overall narrative relatively fresh in my mind, I can visualize a couple of interesting plot lines that could come about given how Part 2 has started.
Most of you are rightfully concentrating on the Nathan/Tuplo angle. However, I think we're going to hear a lot more about another Captain...Dubnik.
Has anyone given any thought that, given how long he's been around and how we came to meet him, he may not really have sold off or lost his prize to the Jung. But, rather, and in a matter of speaking, that the Jung had it the minute he got a hold of it?
Did anyone find it odd that the attack on Tanna didn't seem to be overly coordinated with respect to additional follow up? I mean, it was useful enough to the Jung to have conquered it once, why not do so again after they glassed it? Sure, you could make a point that, given the news crew that gave coverage to the its liberation and the ships being built there, it was something of a purposeful target. But, they could've just as well chosen to hit a juicier target with the Ceti shipyards. Plus, Dubnik seemed to hint that something was coming anyway.
With respect to the Jung, we've come to learn that they are a society based on a Caste system. One of them being a group referred to as Isolationists. Their objective being to go out on their own and, separately from the rest of their collective, to colonize/take over other worlds.
So, what if that's what the good "old" Captain was actually doing that when he ended up in stasis on the colony ship the Aurora found him on? What if the colony ship was a group of Jung Isolationists and, having heard of others that had traveled outward from the Fringe, had followed on that same course? What if he is descendant from this splinter group and they were already settled in the vicinity of Tanna?
And, what if, in the 7 years between parts, that he did manage to crack the Jump Drive encryption and used his knack for persuasion and his likely pedigree to build himself a small empire ready now for some expansion?
You do have to notice that the subtitle for this new set of episodes is "Rogue Castes". He definitely fits the bill as "rogue" and if he is in fact of Jung descent from one of their castes...
After all, the location where he was found was outbound from the fringe and in the direction of the PC. It would fit in with the title and it would also go towards explaining the difference in capabilities between the Jung in the Sol sector and those in the PC.
Or, maybe, I'm just envious of Mr. Brown's imagination... 🙂
I really like the reanimtion angle but I think it's unlikely the Jung would give up the body. Maybe as part of the negotiations but even then it would've taken longer. I'm leaning towards the nanite injection recording his brain. The nanites Dr. Chen injected mapped, recorded, and transmitted his neural pathways so they could give him a new body. It's actually a brain in a box in corinair that the doctors couldn't move and the first try that Deliza mentions didn't take. Then they were stuck with a conscious clone and didn't know what to do with him, so Marcus and Josh agreed to keep an eye on him while keeping him out of sight. Now they're either ready to try again or are moving to plan B.
I think that it is likely that what they gave Nathan, was a combination of different Nanites. Some to Map his mind and others to prevent the Jung from doing the same.
I think Jess said that Deliza had taken Nathan's Body either to / should have taken the body off of Corinair and I see that to at least give us the option of a reanimated Nathan.
As too Clones, I feel that Cloning isn't/ will never be comletely 100% perfect, that a clone would be at best 99.9999% - not enough different to be a big deal, but enough not the same that its wrong to say "identical" but that's besides the point.
Deliza has made two clones, one didn't take the second is in the works. Connor has been out and about for 5 years since "the Crash" Nathan has been "dead" for 5 years why would the first clone have been ready 2 years after Nathan was captured but the second not yet ready 5 years later? I think that the first clone could be a red herring and that Connor could from the timeline given be the original body brought back to life - he was "in hospital" for 5/6 months
I am really interested to see how this all falls out! But I would prefer for Nathan to have been reanimated then cloned.
Having re-read Escalation, I have to wonder just how many clones of Nathan are around - and whether Connor Tuplo isn't really Nathan Scott. Telles seemed to know something, after all he has told Dumar at Nathan's "funeral" that "legends never die".
Also, Marcus and Josh... Josh tells "Connor" not that he is a clone of Nathan, but that he *is* Nathan Scott. And even Jess, who wasn't too thrilled about a Nathan clone, seems rather happy to find Connor/Nathan.
I agree that no clone is a perfect replica of the original person. Because it's not just the genes that make a person, but also their experiences. And a clone, no matter how perfect, will never have the same memories as the gene donor.
Just gonna speculate here, but, Tuplo is Nathan (the original). The nanites preserved his body but we're unable to restore his memories. The cloning lab with any other Nathan clones will be destroyed, but the memories will be preserved and restored in Tuplo/Nathan. Then we can get back to kicking Jung butt. BTW, Dubnik caused all this mayhem and will become the new nemesis. Just sayin'.
Dubnik will be using treatments to make him young again - he is not Jung but will use his knowledge off the galaxy that was to gain they're trust. He will be one to watch going forward, but I honestly find it hard to believe that a captain of a run down cargo ship can become the villian of the entire saga (but I do see the Parallel of Connor being a run down cargo ship's captain)
Hello all,
Wouldnt it be great if you could go back and find this series today and have a full series of episodes to get through before you join this queue of eager fans waiting for the next installment?
The high of finishing the last book and feeling excited about how the plot has developed doesn't seem to last long enough.
Episode one was wonderful. It was a bit of a slow burn at the start and my head was full of questions but everything seems to be slotting together again now ready for the universe to go to war again. I don't see an exit strategy for the alliance right now, not enough ships of personnel to finish this. The Kkd stalemate will only last so long? Is it about time for another 1000 light year adventure to find some new allies to help?
Street fights in this book series always seem weird now that we are talking of a war on such a large scale. It's like bugs fighting over a leaf.
It is nice for a bit of grounding occasionally though or we get to carried away. I hope the Seiiki still sets out into the unknown and we have a bit of sub-plotting adventure to distract from the war but I fear captain tuplo is going to be pushed into a war he doesn't understand or remember.
I look forward to finding out where you take me next Ryk.
I have to say I am thoroughly disappointed.
I was hoping to leave the old characters behind (dead Nathan) or in the far fringes. I wanted stories developed from the Jung side.
So tired of Jess, Josh, and now zombified Na-tan.
Who says Captain Amnesia is a clone? If my super-leader was sacrificing his life for everyone else, I think I would clone him and send the clone to fry. That way you could mess with memories in case of torture and interrogation. Then give the original amnesia so he doesn't give away the deception. Then give him back his memories when the treaty gets broken.
You guys have forgotten something else, when Nathan went down the ramp to the hangarbay, we all assumed he got a pneumojet of something injected by the doc, what if she took instead?
Because the ampule she dosed him with was grey like nanites rather then empty and filling with red
Loved every book so far, including Escalation. The cloning part didn't bother me.
But it does beg the question as to how a couple of scientists with limited resources could secretly clone Nathan on Corinair in a couple of years, even though someone like Caius/Takaran nobles or the Jung - who have tremendous resources at their disposal as well as the kind of narcissism/arrogance it would take to want to dedicate resources to doing so - haven't created clones that we know of.
In particular, if the Corinari scientists figured out how to save Nathan's memories (with the intent to then implant them into a clone of his), I would think the Takaran nobles would have spent tons of money and invented such technology long before Nathan's first clone came into existence. After all, they were used to being able to extend their lifespans indefinitely (before Caius's death) and this technology would sorta give them a way to do so.
Maybe such technology is really hard and needed information from the Data Ark to accomplish? In which case the Jung wouldn't access to it but the any remaining Takaran nobles still might. But what do I know.
Anyway, can't wait for the next book!
The doctors were neffilim (i know that's not spelled right) they were from the world of Clones that Nathan liberated from the Jung, they had been cloning since about the start of the fall if not earlier so they have the science down, probably the issues are in using new stock (Nathan) instead of a human who might have been engineered for easier cloning as they may have been...
The main worlds of the Pentaurus cluster are generally opposed to cloning. As Randy said, the Nifelmians have been cloning for more than a millennium. Over time, they have altered the structure of the clones brains to facilitate the transfer of what they loosely refer to as the subject's "soul" (personality, memories, etc) between bodies, thus bringing the memory loss rate down to acceptable levels.
Since the Takarans (and the Corinairans) were both opposed to cloning, it make sense that the Takarans would have put their efforts into prolonging the lifespan of the original body, rather than developing the ability to continually cloning themselves, and transferring their mind from clone to clone.
