Could you cite a reference in an episode? Otherwise I’d love to hear Ryk’s input on the ZPED dilemma solutionIts in Ep#7 The Expanse. Search for "it's like a gravity well" and that whole paragraph explains that the ZPED creates a gravity well that interacts with other fields around it. The Takaran's solve this by encasing their reactor with a special, multi-layered, shielded alloy to prevent the ZPED from interfering with the other fields.
I know I talk a lot about what could come next, what I would do etc, I just want to say that I really enjoy what you have done with the story so far Ryk. I think your characters are pretty cool and I really like how your characters react to everything that is happening.
Nit picking however is what I'm good at, so I will apologize for all I have said and will say about your work. I only hope that you take it constructively. Because I am a fan, and want more!!!!!!!!!!!
Goose, it took a minute, but the reference for the gravity well interference is in episode #8 - "Celestia" page 16 or kindle location 248. And I quote, "I believe the problem is in the materials used to manufacture the jump drive, or at least many of its core components." Lt. Montgomery to Capt. Scott when speaking about fitting a jump shuttle with a mini-ZPED.
Goose, it took a minute, but the reference for the gravity well interference is in episode #8 – “Celestia” page 16 or kindle location 248. And I quote, “I believe the problem is in the materials used to manufacture the jump drive, or at least many of its core components.” Lt. Montgomery to Capt. Scott when speaking about fitting a jump shuttle with a mini-ZPED.
Thanks
Ok, this thread just sort of died when an awkward moment crept up. I would just like to say I love this series, even if I don't agree 100% with everything that takes place, but I still enjoy reading them as the writing is excellent as is the storytelling. Thank You Ryk.
I finished the book on April 3rd. It was a great reading. Thank you Mr. Brown.
Some thoughts:
I understand the choice of Jessica to choose sergeant Weatherly to join the party, He was someone she could trust.
The death of Weatherly inside the sub struck me. Mr. Brown could have killed him in a more heroic fashion (he deserved it, as we all). He could have died while saving Naraleene.
IMHO I think Mr. Brown did a mistake when he wrote that Jessica trusted the "Peeper" (I forgot his name). It was obvious when he said that he lost contact with the other agents that something was wrong. Even I at that moment thought that he turned sides, why not Jessica?
Casimir death was expected when he decided to confront the other Takaran's nobles and did not want to take preventive measures. Only a fool believes the law will protect him, especially after the failed attempt to steel the data cores.
Nalaya's death struck me. But it is understandable. Mr. Brown, you could have spare her.
Back to Tau Ceti, I think that it's not this time that the Jungs are going to put their hands on the jump drive.
If we think a little, the Aurora was able to intercept the first BP twice. We know that the max speed of a Jung ship is 20Ly. I doubt that the Aurora didn't track the route the Battleship took when it gone FTL. EP 4 will tell us that.
It seems that we gonna see all the Alliance personnel pass a nanites scan. That, at least can stop the leak. I don't think that people contaminated with Jung nanites are curable, except if the Corinairans find a way to deactivate the nanites (Mr. Brown it's up to you).
I also think that the reporter from Tau Ceti that accompanied Jessica will play an interesting hole in helping the Tau Ceti people to understand and accept the Alliance.
Despite her young age, I think that Deliza will avenge her sister and father and will put all Takarans nobles on their knees begging for mercy.
Guesses for EP 14 will take some time. I need to read EP 13 again to think about it.
Thank you Mr. Brown for this thrilling episode.
Tug dies. I really liked his 'only sane nobleman' character. Especially after he was finally enraged enough to do something about the other noblemen. But after all that, and all his efforts to get Navarro on his side, he basically just decides to give up and let himself be killed. Perhaps martyrdom was part of his plan? But that seems like it would be out of character for him (it's more of an option that his lady-friend from the first book would pick).
Navarro only finishes off one of the last two remaining enemy cruisers. It seems incredibly short-sighted to leave the opposing faction with any number of jump-capable warships other than zero if you've got the opportunity to eliminate them (and apparently at little to no risk). Not to mention that eliminating the last capital ship would also strand any non-jump-capable fighter craft, and leave the enemy jump shuttles without an obvious base to return to.
Jessica forgets how to be a spy. Is it just me, or is she far too willing to share details about the situation with anyone she feels is trustworthy? Even after getting snuck up on by Ellyus, telling him virtually everything, learning he's a spy, nearly getting captured by the Jung, and then learning that the Jung use difficult-to-detect nanites to collect intel from otherwise unsuspecting individuals in the general population (and probably other general surveillance methods as well) by instantly transmitting anything that an infected person sees or hears, she then proceeds to freely share even more details (including the exact timing of the Alliance invasion) with the next guy and all of his friends. And then (knowing full well about how the Jung nanites work by this time) she gives a reporter, and anyone else within earshot, a detailed description about how they're using KKV's. She could have easily sank the entire surprise attack, and who knows what she's done to the viability of future KKV usage.
The spy wasn't Jessica's brother, but one of the other crewmembers on his ship. I think the brother would have made for a more dramatic betrayal, but only if Jessica was the one who had to confront him. I guess it's moot as it seems like all of them die anyways.
Anyways, well written and an enjoyable read. The only one of those that really irks me is the one about Jessica. Overall it seemed like even Naralena did a better job at being a spy than she did.
can it even take the ship on board while in FLT
I'd think the laws of physics would preclude that, at least given that it sounded like they were using physical grappling lines to bring in the ship. Unless the lines are made out of some sort of "unbreakable diamond filament", you'd think that accelerating the battleship aggressively, even to sublight velocities, would cause them to lose the scout ship. Especially since the hull of the scout ship is clearly not unbreakable, so even if the tethers hold you'd expect the grappling hooks to be ripped out of the ship at excessive levels of acceleration.
So I'd have thought they'd need to secure the scout internally before jumping to FTL, though it's not clear if they did that or not.
So Tarrans who find the nanites theories painful have Jung spies/ control nanites in them
It's the actually opposite. Nanite pain = good. No pain (and also, no healing) = Jung nanites present.
Well, the laws of physics as we know them preclude FTL travel in the first place...
But considering that there's supposed to be a field around the ship that negates mass, we could assume that the small Scout ship is simply within the Jung ship's shields.
Possible, although based on the previous books linear FTL doesn't seem to require any sort of emitters so there's not necessarily a reason to assume the field would have a range that corresponds to whatever the shields are currently deployed at. And that would open up a number of other interesting problems.
For instance, if the linear FTL field can ensnare nearby objects and drag them along with the ship as it travels, does that mean ships can't safely transition into/out of FTL near other ships/objects? Will nearby asteroids and other debris also be picked up, and will such objects retain any momentum when the ship drops out of FTL? Does it mean that one ship can use FTL to destroy another, for instance by positioning itself so that half of the other ship is within its FTL field and then going to FTL? Or that we could see small FTL 'kamikaze' ships whose job is to get close to enemy capital ships, ensnare them in their FTL field, and then FTL straight into the center of the nearest star?
The simple solution may be to just assume that the Jung finished securing the scout ship before going to FTL, even though it's not explicitly stated in the text. From past experience even the Aurora's upgraded weapons take a substantial amount of time to weaken a battleship's shields, so the Jung would have had ample time to do so.
It is stated a few times in the books that there are emmitters for Shield, for Heat shields, for Jump fields and for FTL. (Well Earth and PC ships anyway.
I felt that the battleship capture of the scout ship and FTL was rushed, but thats mostly from the fact it was the books final battle and a lot of other stuff was going on.
I believe that the scout ship was secured prior to FTL because objects in space and perpetual motion and pendulum effects would mean that the Battleship would either have a scout ship sized hole in its underbelly or it would be (over light years) substantially off course.
KKV's do enough damage, and having a Comm drone slide in close enough to warp the hull off a ship means a long time in weapons range, and having to get inside shields. I think its doable for warp and FTL drones, but its highly likely you would just loose drones.
Possible, although based on the previous books linear FTL doesn’t seem to require any sort of emitters so there’s not necessarily a reason to assume the field would have a range that corresponds to whatever the shields are currently deployed at. And that would open up a number of other interesting problems.
Well, it is stated that the Aurora has no emitters for a mass-negating field because they were replaced with the emitters for the Jump Drive - which is why she can't fly faster than about 0.8 times the speed of light.
For instance, if the linear FTL field can ensnare nearby objects and drag them along with the ship as it travels, does that mean ships can’t safely transition into/out of FTL near other ships/objects? Will nearby asteroids and other debris also be picked up, and will such objects retain any momentum when the ship drops out of FTL? Does it mean that one ship can use FTL to destroy another, for instance by positioning itself so that half of the other ship is within its FTL field and then going to FTL? Or that we could see small FTL ‘kamikaze’ ships whose job is to get close to enemy capital ships, ensnare them in their FTL field, and then FTL straight into the center of the nearest star?
Probably yes to all of the above - at least with the technique used by the Alliance. The Jung seem to use a different method, for they not only have the ability to use FTL with greater accuracy (within a system, for example), but also in a non-linear fashion. At least that seemed to be an observation from the crew of the Aurora in "Liberation", when the Jung ships turned up in an unexpected place near Metis.
However, I doubt that a very small Kamikaze Scout ship could create a field big enough to ensnare a whole battleship. However, they could probably tear a hole into a bigger ship that causes quite some damage. I'd still prefer to use small, automated Kamikaze Drones for something like this, though.
Of course, getting close enough to an enemy ship to cause actual damage is still tricky due to the enemy's shielding, point-defense, fighters and a number of other things. My guess is that this tactic would only work for a very limited number of times, if at all.
I thought about the Jung ship matching the 60 light seconds. It occurred to me that you establish a pattern, they match it, then you change it slightly. So I did some calculations. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%2860+light+seconds+-+59.99999+light+seconds%29+in+meters Basically, if you jump your ship 59.99999 light seconds instead of 60.0 light seconds, the Jung ship would come out 3 KM ahead of you. How long does it take for the rail gun projectiles to travel that far?
I had to write my thoughts about Book 13. I am a German guy. Please excuse my grammar and spelling.
First of all i want to thank Ryk for the books. I really do like to read them. You combine good action with an interesting story. But I have a few thoughts and critics.
Jessica Nash: I agree with the other postings. She is a bit chatty and naive but I can live with that. But as her Commander I would harshly criticise her. She knew her mission was sabotaged. This only could have happened at Scout 3. When she posted the info over Radio that there are two other BS hiding she should have posted that the traitor/saboteur is on Scout 3. She could not expect to be rescued in time and this Information is/was critical to the Alliance.
Nanites: My theory why Humans from Earth have such a problem with them is easy. They are decendants from the surviver of the digical plague. The human body has antybodies against such "viruses". The nanites of the Corinairans are trying to change the body. The immune systeme is fighting against ... therefore the pain. The nanites of the Jung are just sitting in the body and not actively fought against by the immune systeme.
Scout 3: I was a bit disappointed. Nathan did not try to jump behind the shields of the BS when they were extended to protect Scout 3. He did it before in the cluster.
Story plot: I liked the action. But i think there were to many different plots running parallel. I would have liked more interaction between the people.
Jump Drive: The BS with Scout 3 will be destroyed. Either through some survivor or with the help of antimatter core explosions followed up with KKV or plasma shots. The BS cannot change direction while in FTL. (There was something written in the other books about that.) The course is predictable. But it would be interesting to follow the "course" of the BS. Maybe it is flying "home" or to some other important planet of the Jung. Just another thought. Even if the Jung will keep the Jump Drive. Hey, what is the deal? They do not know the principle behind such a drive. They have to analyze the materials, the scientific Background, prototyp something, build a test modell, review the test and manufacture in numbers. First of all the BS has to reach its destination. This will last a few months. The BS is a war space ship and does not have the scientific equipment to start researching something so complex.
Story Plot: There are far to many open Ends: Liberation of the core planets. Manufacture Plant on Tanna. Civil War on Takar. Nanites, traitors. Rebuilding of the Earth. Building up Power (Ships, Troops, etc.). Building political Power (Alliance, convincing to follow earth). Data Cores. Collecting informations about the Jung. Searching for the Jung home world. The future of Ghatazhak People. Writing about all of them beats Ryk's timetable (just 2 other books) or it will touch the topic only on the surface without going into detail.
My expectations for the next books:
I expect after destroying Scout 3 there will be a significant time warp. The action will start again a few months (maybe a year+) later. I do not really care how the Corinairans detect and defeat the nanites of the Jung. I would be satisfied with the information that this has happened and the nanites would not be a major danger for the future. It would altthough give the opportunity to introduce other key personal. The number of named people goes down. I although think that Nathan is wrong. Nathan said something about the Jung only strategy is sitting and defending. It is known that the Jung comm drones travel much faster as exspected. The Jung have to realize that just waiting for the attack and defending against is a loosing strategy. They have to go into the offensive because they know time will work for the alliance. I expect an attack (or several) on earth. This has the advantage that the Jung ships are no sitting ducks and the Alliance has to react instead of dictating the action. It would although give the Jung time on Research on the Jump Drive (if Scout 3 is not destroyed). Therefore i will predict in Book 14 a fight for Earth and in Book 15 the Fight of the Jung home world. ^^
Fweygo
Story Plot: There are far to many open Ends: Liberation of the core planets. Manufacture Plant on Tanna. Civil War on Takar. Nanites, traitors. Rebuilding of the Earth. Building up Power (Ships, Troops, etc.). Building political Power (Alliance, convincing to follow earth). Data Cores. Collecting informations about the Jung. Searching for the Jung home world. The future of Ghatazhak People. Writing about all of them beats Ryk’s timetable (just 2 other books) or it will touch the topic only on the surface without going into detail.
Wie geht's @fweygo?
Yes, too many open ends. But the story comprises 75 books. I think we will see even more open ends soon!
Warum einfach wenn es auch kompliziert geht? 🙂
