I haven’t updated this space in a while because I’ve been crazy busy and had nothing much of general interest to report. However, some of you may be happy to hear that I just finished the draft for CYGNUS, the third book in the Frontlines: Evolution series, and sent it to my editor this morning.
This will be the final book of the series with Alex as the point-of-view character. My publisher wanted me to cap the series as a trilogy, and I think I managed to accomplish what I had planned to do, which is to give Alex a great character arc and bring her story to a full circle. People really seem to like Corvus, and I think this one may be even better. But time will tell.
Now I’ll be in recovery mode for a little bit, and then it’s off to the races to finish Palladium Wars #5, ECLIPSE, before year’s end so you can all get your hands on it soon.
Great to hear, can’t wait to read it.
Excited, and relieved, to hear you’ve plans for something more in this universe. Most curious to see what adventures comes next! And what more we might learn about the Lankies?? Will confess I’m sad to hear Evolution and PW are coming to an end. In part because my Lexi (Alexandra) will only have three Alex novels to read when she ages into them. 😉 I couldn’t have too much of the characters and stories you’ve given us. Grayson’s re-apperance in Corvus was a treat. But you are a fantastic writer and all stories must come to their end. I’d love to see what you might surprise is with in a stand-alone novel apart from the F/E and PW worlds too.
Until the next adventure you treat us to, rest well. Enjoy your family and this autumn.
Rest up! You’ve earned it! Can’t wait to see how Alex’s story wraps up. The way Corvus ended has had me itching for the next! Can’t wait to see what you’ve cooked up! Also patiently waiting to see how PW wraps everything up as well! We need a Frontlines TV series!
thank you for giving us these stories. it’s been some of the best I’ve read in a long time, and it’s so new and refreshing.
I look forward to all your new work. it is much appreciated, and I have to know more about the lankies 🙂
Preorder date?
Thank you! Looking forward to both books!
I’ve recently finished reading all the Frontlines books and the both Evolution books too, so good to hear that there’s a third coming.
But, I was hoping for more than a trilogy, because there’s so much about the Lankies that is unknown, and wrapping what drives them to do what they do would seem to me to require more than one more book.
Still, I’ll be grateful to read more about Alex. Just saying, I’d love more stories in this universe.
Oh, I fully intend to write more stories in that universe, don’t worry.
I sent you an email a few minutes ago because I didn’t realize it was possible to reply here to the author. For what it’s worth, here is the text, with the questions that popped into my head as I was reading the books:
*****
I am a big fan of the series (and waiting with baited breath for the next installment), but (as a former engineer who once, many, many years ago, worked for McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, and as a current patent lawyer) I couldn’t help pondering a few questions:
1. Why is there no picture of a Lanky anywhere? Based on what I’ve read in all the books, I have a hard time visualizing one, beyond it being really tall on two spindly legs, with a huge thick-boned head. My suggestion – an image would help.
2. Why has there been no effort, after roughly 20 years of war, to capture one Lanky? It surely cannot be beyond the technological capability of humanity a century from now, when that same humanity can built kilometer-sized spaceships…? I can imagine two or three methods for doing so, just from a technical perspective, given the technology level described in the books. What you do with a Lanky, after you capture it, is another story – but surely any military would want to know as much as possible about the enemy – and capturing one seems like an obvious step.
3. It seems fairly straightforward to make an auto-cannon that fires armor-piercing rounds in the, say, 50-75 mm caliber range. I find it impossible to believe that the Lankie heads are so resistant to armor-piercing rounds that a 75 mm sabot round will not penetrate their skulls. Current armor-piercing rounds from 120-125 mm guns can penetrate hundreds of millimeters (700-900 mm, if memory serves) of rolled homogeneous armor. No natural “armor” made of bone or any other organic material can possibly resist such a round. I would imagine, even a 75 mm sabot round will easily penetrate 1000 millimeters of “cranial shield” bone. And a 75 mm auto-cannon that fires, say, 1 round per second, is well-within even current technology. As a current example, Soviet/Russian BMP-4 has a 100 mm auto-cannon that fires up to 15 rounds per minute – i.e., once every 4 seconds (though I don’t think it can do it continuously for very long – but the point is, a 75 mm auto-cannon 100 years from now can probably easily fire 1 round per second – and each round should penetrate, what with computer targeting). Humans are very ingenious when it comes to firing lots of bullets and shells at targets – it’s hard to believe that even after 20 years of war, they can’t do what I would think is fairly straightforward even today.
4. Where are the swarms of AI-operated drones that attack Lankies from vulnerable directions, like from the back? If current anti-tank weapons (e.g., NLAW, Javelin) can execute an attack profile that targets the top of a tank, and if current AI is more or less successfully solving the problem of identifying tanks on a battlefield despite partial obscuration, movement, smoke, camouflage, decoys, etc., then surely 100 years from now it will be possible to build a drone that targets the back of a Lanky’s head with an armor-penetrating warhead?
5. Where are the weapons that target Lankies’ legs? A 25-30 mm auto-cannon (similar to what Bradleys have today, just with an AI targeting system) that automatically puts a few rounds into a Lanky’s leg is probably enough to stop any Lanky – he/it won’t be hopping very far on one leg, I would think. So you don’t even need to penetrate the Lanky head – damage one leg sufficiently (legs aren’t armored, remember), and sayonara, Lanky.
6. Alternatively, an AI-guided drone that targets Lanky legs with an explosive. Same story here – damage the leg, and you’re done.
7. I’ll be honest, I am a bit confused about why Lanky ships have only short range defense weapons. What happens to their kinetic missiles at 100 km, or 5000 km? I would think, nothing – they just keep going at the same velocity through space at their targets. In other words, maybe I missed it, but I am not sure what it is that limits the range of Lanky ships’ defensive weapons to (apparently) just a few kilometers.
8. Where are the fiber-optic guided systems that go into those tunnels that Lankies dig? Even today there are drones that unspool a fiber-optic cable as they fly – in fact, in Ukraine, it’s the next big thing. Building some kind of crawler (or a bunch of crawlers, or a bunch of crawlers that carry tactical nukes) that goes into those tunnels as it unspools a fiber-optic cable behind it should be a logical thing to do – if only to find out what they are up to in there. And with a crawler/spider, weight is less of an issue than in an airborne drone, so instead of 15 km, it can probably carry hundreds of km of fiber-optic cable on its spool.
Anyway, questions, questions…
Best regards,
George B.
Glad to know that wraps up an arc- now I can think about reading it. Palladium Wars has taught me that I don’t have the patience to wait for books in series you write!
Looking forward to opening the bag once it’s released.
Thank you for your hard work. So pleased we’ll have another book from you soon. I, in particular, am hooked on the Palladium Wars series, so am cheering you on as you’re “off to the races” with that.
YAY on two counts for the best SciFi writer on the planet:
1. Cygnus is coming…
2. Eclipse is coming…
3. …and THERE IS NO THIRD THING 😉
Oh, there’s a third thing. Just can’t tell you about it yet.
Okay, now this peaks my interest. Very curious!
Thank you! I am excited to read ALL of your future works! Please keep it up!
Holy crap that was fast. It feels like I was just reading about Corvus last week.
He giveth and taketh, the joy of another frontlines book but the end of Alex‘s arc. I’m sure I’ll lap it up when published and hope you have some further plans for that universe?
Yes, I have further plans for the series. And they’re verrah nice-a.
Oh, thank God! I was really worried that Cygnus was going to be the end of Frontlines. Which would be tragic, because it’s one of my top ten favorite series I’ve ever read. And at 71 years old and a lifelong prolific reader, that’s saying something. Loved the Alex books as much as the original series, am sad to see the end, but excited to see what comes next. Profound thanks for all you do, Marko!