Victory or Death is out!!!

The latest book in the 'Battlecruiser Alamo' series, Victory or Death, is now on sale!

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EQ7GAES

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EQ7GAES

What is a Battlecruiser?

Two parts of the Triplanetary setting required particular work in the design stage, given my plan to write military science-fiction. The first was the rank structure, which I described in a previous post, and the second was the fleet itself; the warships and auxiliaries that would make up the Triplanetary Fleet. That required working out the details of space warfare, something that should have been difficult but was made far simpler through the use of the Atomic Rockets website...which anyone writing science fiction that pretends to any level of accuracy really needs to visit.

I quickly decided that missiles and lasers would be the primary weapons; missiles certainly, and laser technology is improving to the point that they will certainly be viable weapons as well. Both weapons have advantages and flaws; missiles are extremely adaptable, able to switch from target to target, to home in on a target, but they take time to get there; that gives the enemy time to react, to unleash his countermeasures – which by this time means 'combat hacking', primarily. No stealth in space, remember! (Besides, combat hacking is kinda cool.) Lasers are huge. Alamo's array is a quarter-mile long, and has radiators a mile wide that have to be extended. It takes a lot of power, but it hits instantly – at least for the purposes of space warfare. The only defence is not to be there.

So that's attack. For defence, well, armour would have some merit but is heavy. A better strategy is to not be where the enemy is attacking, which means a lot of manoeuvrability. We're not talking ducking and weaving around asteroids here, we're talking moving to the left to dodge the laser blast. (Which means Han Solo really does know some manoeuvres!) The other primary factor will be electronic warfare. A great hacker could take over an enemy computer system; more realistically he'll be trying to screw up approaching missiles, set-off any auto-destruct, explode them early, send them off course...anything that works.

Starting with actual warships, I broke up the classifications into two types – those capable of FTL travel and those not. Now, the names of ship classes have varied wildly throughout history - we've seen the destroyer go from a torpedo boat to a major fleet asset in the course of a century, after all – so I was trying to work out what such ships would be called in the future, based on the roles they would be serving. My starting point – because it was the first thing I nailed down – was that there would be a 'battlecruiser' class.

In-system, there is going to be a need for a workhorse. A ship which has the job of holding that asteroid, protecting that space station, guarding that convoy. In modern parlance, the frigate does a lot of that sort of work, and it seemed a logical term for such a ship; such vessels would have to be stronger than classical frigates, however, because of the need to go toe-to-toe with larger ships, hence the frigate becomes an in-system warship – the in-system warship, though there are variations. I've already introduced the 'fast frigate', designed for speed rather than endurance, as an example.

When it comes to FTL, the job required will be two-fold. Ships that are effectively FTL-capable frigates for patrol work, for escort duty and the like, and others that are required to range far more widely, conducting long-range scouting missions, and more importantly, to attack convoys. We're talking the Graf Spee or the Emden here, vessels designed to go far and hit targets on their commander's discretion. Long-range action? Sounds like the cruiser to me, and there are two variations. One designed to operate with support, which doesn't need long-range as it will be working from a station or with a convoy, and that is the basic cruiser. The independent variant is, of course, the Battlecruiser. (At the start of the series, the Triplanetary Confederation is in the interesting position of only having Battlecruisers, a legacy of the war – constructing a cruiser class is an early element of the expansion of the fleet.)

At the halfway-house between warship and auxiliary is the carrier. I actually see fighters as a tool of fleet warfare very much as an interim measure, not something that necessarily lasts in the line, so long-term their role boils down to a movable space station, capable of holding orbital space with the assistance of a frigate or cruiser to provide the heavy support. That means it's going to look a lot like a space station with engines bolted onto the back; if the fighters are doing their job, then it doesn't need to go to war itself. This also means marines – yes, ultimately I see the 'Commando Carrier' as the only carrier class in deep-space service. It makes sense that they serve as troop transports as well, after all, they are designed to support large numbers of the auxiliary craft they require.

Given my assumption that fabricators analogous to our current 3D printers will provide an increasingly level of autonomy, I see auxiliaries coming in two primary types; tankers and tenders. The former will be critical, keeping ships supplied with fuel on long-range patrols, and likely also with the ability to mine and process fuel. It makes sense to provide that capability, but wouldn't necessarily be ubiquitous throughout the fleet. I can see 'Escort Tankers' and 'Expeditionary Tankers' being commissioned. Tenders, on the other hand, have two jobs – to move Frigates from one system to another, and to provide engineering support to damaged ships. Again, one ship to do both jobs is logical enough, given the expense of each ship.

What other classes might there be? Well, there might be call for a Battleship some day, a large cruiser-type designed to work with a fleet train, but massively armed with missile batteries and laser arrays. That would require serious opposition, though, and at present, it is not evident in the setting. Other auxiliary types such as hospital or even entertainment ships might be part of extended fleet trains, as well as fighter-repair craft, though I see that largely being done on the carriers themselves. All that is for the future, though...

Howard's Law

Robert E. Howard often thought that his historical fiction represented some of his best work; certainly, he enjoyed the process of putting the pieces together to create his stories, but ultimately – he was a writer for hire, paid by the word, and recognized this fact. It took him a lot longer to craft his historical fiction than it did to write Conan stories – so he created a world that lifted large chunks of real places and times, and set his hero to wander in it. Not only was it a lot less time-intensive, but let us not forget – we are spoiled today.

If I suddenly develop an interest in the Teutonic Knights for some reason, I can order a book from Amazon and have it here the next day. I can look up the subject on the internet. I can even email a specialist. He could do none of those things. There is a fascinating list of the books Howard had in his library, and I've actually picked up a few of them as a result – it's interesting to know where his inspirations came from. It highlights that he really didn't have much to work with. General histories, lots of the original source material...he was starting from scratch. Yet he got the feel of the period spot on.

There are two morals buried in this story, and they are as follows. The first is that fantasy requires less research than history – and this is something I intend to follow, as I will outline in a moment, and the second is that when writing history, you aren't writing a doctoral thesis. Everything doesn't have to be perfect if the feel is right. I've always worked on the principle that people read fiction for an engaging story and interesting characters. With historical, I'd add the feel of the period to that list. If those three points are served, I think the result is a book that people will like.

So, the plan is this. I've been getting niggling thoughts about the setting anyway, that there is so little known that it is leaping across to being near-fantasy in any case, so I'm crossing that particular rubicon; the next trilogy is now an out-and-out sword-and-sorcery-epic-fantasy. The best part is that plot, character and setting remain largely unchanged, though I need to make some over changes to it. The plan is now for a trio of novels at the 75-90k mark, to be released this year. Starting on September 2^nd, I get the first of these books under way, and frankly can't wait.

Not that I'm forgetting Alamo, because I will also be writing the fourth Alamo book between now and Christmas, probably in October, and of course the third book will be out later this month. (Another lesson, by the way – don't take an extended time off. It all gets nibbled to bits by ducks if you do...and I'm getting seriously itchy that I'm not writing anything, but am not quite ready at the moment.) Nor am I forgetting the historicals, because all the reading I've been doing lately has really begun to get me fired up all over the place. Expect to start seeing some of these next year.

The pattern of releases is still something I am considering. Whether to go with having multiple ongoing series or another model, I don't yet know; Alamo will certainly be carrying on for a good long while, and I want to write historical next year...so I am currently pondering three trilogies and three Alamos next year. I have a rather nice problem in that I have a lot of ideas bubbling around inside my head and am struggling to work out what to do next! I'm going away for a week shortly, so will likely take a stack of books away with me. Hopefully I will come back with some more concrete ideas...though at least I know what the next four books are.

Status Report

It's been a week since my last post; I hadn't intended it to be this long, but it's been a bit of a week. I have managed to progress significantly with my research, though, and over the next few days will be talking about some of the books I have read – some of them have obviously been more useful than others, though I've managed to find a lot of inspiration from pretty much everything I have read so far. This is the first time I've worked at this from the fictional standpoint, but I'm getting flashbacks to my dissertation. Very similar sort of feeling.

I'm getting a lot closer to the sense of what this story needs to be for me to make it work. In fact, I had what I consider to be the key breakthrough just this morning; rather than a more traditionally written historical epic, this one is going to be a lot more in the Robert E. Howard and Harold Lamb tradition – not surprising, given that the former certainly is one of my key influences – focusing on a single character rather than the three-POV story I had originally intended to tell. This is going to keep it manageable – because I am more comfortable with the short-novel format than I am with a longer series of works. Each of these will now be of a length more on par with the Alamo books, around 80k.

As to the lead? Well, according to the few accounts we have, the key figures in the final revolt that threw out the Northumbrians in 658 were a trio of ealdorman, major players in the kingdom, and I plan to focus on one of those – casting him as a surviving member of Penda's hearthguard, his key circle of elite warriors and companions – who survives the terrible final battle. Most of the key intriguing in the Mercian court that is of interest to me takes place in the early stages of the period in any case; after this the plot moves further afield, with the search for the lost heir of Penda and some interesting fun in other courts across England, primarily in Scotland and Wales...oh, those fun Picts!

This concept means I only need to focus on one court at a time; in my mind, it also makes it much more of an adventure, because the 'quest' element is the one that is really calling to me at the moment, roaming as it does around most of Anglo-Saxon England and beyond into the Celtic hinterlands – I'm still not sure at this point how far it is going to run, and that's a good thing – this is how I'm going to make it play into the discovery writing that is my wont, because my central character can roam within historical limits around all the events that were taking place in this critical period – and it really is a major one, with turmoils in most of the courts, civil wars sprouting up everywhere, invasions, all manner of fun to explore.

This will not be permanently open-ended, though – tempting as that is sounding as I write it – because the end plan remains to tie off the book with the end of the Mercian Revolt. Having said that, I suppose there is nothing at all stopping me from continuing the adventures of the central character on into further tomes, and that idea, funnily enough, is becoming more and more tempting as I type it! I suppose it will depend on how I feel at the time, and the desires of the readers, really. This is a period that interests me, more so the deeper I dig into it, and it seems logical enough that I should continue to delve into it for as long as the stories can come.

Hmm, what else to report? Well, I'll be starting the revisions to the third Alamo book in a week or two's time, with a projected release date around the 22^nd of this month. Naturally, you will all be the first to know as soon as it all goes live! I'm looking forward to the response to this one; to answer the questions of a few of the reviewers – yes, this time the crew of Alamo actually get to do some exploring! The fourth Alamo book I intend to write in October for a November release. There will almost certainly be another historical series as well – the goal for 2014 is to have three series on the go, with three or four books in each in the year, though what exactly that third series will be is still something I am considering quite heavily. Currently – well, the list is pretty long. I suppose I could try and add a fourth series...