Saturday, January 21, 2017

January Update

The Kindle edition of Perilous Waif is now available for pre-orders on Amazon, with a scheduled release date of Feb 1. I'm currently doing the formatting work to set up a paperback edition, which should end up being available by then as well. I'll be interested to see what the relative sales of the two editions look like - I keep seeing claims that the Kindle sales market is bigger than the print market these days, but it's hard to know for sure.

For those of you who prefer audiobooks, production on the audio version of Perilous Waif has started. The producer is hoping to have it out around the end of February, assuming all goes well. We're going to be using a different narrator than for the Daniel Black books, so let me know what you think of her.

270 comments:

  1. Awesome, can't wait till Feb 1st.

    Link:
    https://www.amazon.com/Perilous-Waif-Alice-Long-Book-ebook/dp/B01NBWXMP9/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485100927&sr=1-7

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  2. What about Daniel Black Book 4? When are you planing to right that?

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    1. Pretty sure he said it would be done around may or June

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  3. can't wait for audiobook, description sound interesting so until DB 4 is released in audio i know what i am going to listen in the meantime. ;-) best of luck writing the next books in both series.

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  4. Just bought Perilous Waif... can't wait!!!! But OMG!!!!!!COME ON WITH DB #4

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  5. never been a big fan of sci-fi so not sure if i'm gonna read this but still can't wait for the new Daniel black book :P hope he goes for more traditional magic then stuff like rifles and artilery

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    1. Well just based on him mentioning artillary over and over I think we will see some of that at some point but I wouldn't worry too much cause his problems seem to be scaling past the point he can just throw more guns at them to resolve.

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    2. I for one am actually pretty excited to read perilous waif cause I like Syfy and have run out of titles on amazon to read.

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    3. i completely understand i'm running outta stuff to read too there are a few books i "think" might be okay but can't get myself to read them yet but will probably try to read the perilous waif i think i might considering some of the things i've seen him mention like nano machines, body enhancements etc so for Syfy it sounds pretty good

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    4. Well I picked up the kutherian gambit series since I posted that and it's pretty good and as a plus it is a 12? Book series:) I'm already on book 8 though:/

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    5. If you count all the side books for the Kurtherian Gambit it is more like 24 or 25 books.

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    6. Read the new book love it. Look forward to all new works. Mind you DB is eagerly expected. This was also a great novel

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    7. Depending on how well you guys like syfy. Then have you guys tried the origin series by aer ki jyr. Its epic. Also I really cant wait for DB 4 I havr been waitimg for ever for it to come out.

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  6. Looking forward to the 4th Daniel Black book. Super anxious to discover the results of the radioactive attack against the andregi, economic warfare against the dwarfs, and death of a goddess. Sure hope there aren't a lot of cliffhangers at the end of the next book in case the author decides to take another detour.

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  7. Hey mate i wanted to thank you for the update and i already pre ordered, too bad we have to wait four more days for the book but oh well.

    A question i know you are busy with writing the next Daniel book but it would be nice if with the updates you give each month you could also recommend a couple of books that resonate with you. It has become so difficult to find a good book with all that crap there.

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  8. Oh yeah!! Preordered and on the kindle for me - mainly because it means it gets here quicker!

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  9. Can't wait for DB4!! But why not defrost the moat around Kozalin?

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    1. I think the answer to most "why not do X" questions is "time". There's only one Daniel Black, and he can't be everywhere or do everything.

      Defrosting the moat would certainly be useful, but it would take time to do personally, and it would take time to build the tools that would allow his minions to do it. Meanwhile, the city will still be under attack.

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  10. Perilous waif is out on kindle!!! Gonna start reading!!

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  11. Just finished PW and am rereading it straight away - well done Mr. Brown enough action to keep it flowing, enough tech to keep it interesting but not bogged down in detail. And now I have to admit I'll be happy with which ever one you publish next as I'm in love with both story lines. Truly a credit to your talent as a master storyteller.

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  12. Ahhh it's so good and I'm only on chapter ten dang it now I have to watch for this series to there goes the rest of money curses!!

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  13. Finished Perilous Wif in one sitting, eager for book 2.

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  14. Damn. I mean damn that book was just fucking fantastic. Well done Mr. brown well done indeed.

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  15. Man, I'm jealous of all the people that have time to read this all in one go. Just out of curiosity, but on the part where it was describing Alice's uniform (black w/ silver trim and a dragon skull insignia), it said that a 20th century Earth army had a similar outfit. Which army were they referring to, the Nazis?

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    1. ...and my beta reader said no one would get the reference. Hah! Someone always gets it.

      Yes, it looks a lot like an SS uniform.

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    2. I think a lot of people will get the reference.

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    3. Well people that payed attention in history class in any case.

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    5. I, also, think the uniform similarities will be noticed.

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  16. Fanfuckingtastic book William!
    Though I do note a few editor issues: typos leading to the wrong word, a few crossed out or not crossed out alternative phrasings.

    There's also a couple of other issues that struck me:
    1. The other crewmembers (ie. not security chief, captain, rebel or chief engineer) on the Square Deal are completely ignored in a very odd way. Alice never talks about them, we've no idea about her relationship with them, their with the senior crew or even whether there are 5 or 500 of them!
    Them having or not having companions would also have been noted by Alice either way when she's thinking on the subject and this lack is pretty glaring.
    It's heavily implied in the introductions by Naoko that companions/techs are near universal but only two in the main cast seem to have them.

    2. As is universal in sci-fi there were a few scaling issues. One I think was just a typo, kilotons used where megatons was more plausible, but there were a few others (e.g. saying a 5km long cruiser might have thousands of civilians is like saying a 500m ship might have a few civilians, but I think your intent was to convey there were lots of them).
    In general the cube law is best used by dividing lengths by 10 and things that scale with volume (like crew or firepower) by 1000 and see if things still make sense.


    But neither those two issues nor the editorial issues are enough to significantly dampen my enjoyment of your tale! I enjoyed it just as much as (if not more than) the Daniel Black books, though in a different way. :)

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    1. Another thing that struck me was the constant playing up of the gold. A million tons is about what you'd find it an 20km M type asteroid, of which there are hundreds in our solar system alone. And the large living space expectations of the characters and the scale of the ships and stations suggests incredibly good mining capabilities. All the gold in a modestly sized asteroid just doesn't seem like it'd be worth getting worked up about.

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    2. Perhaps but gold also has numerous nano scale manufacturing properties that would make it very useful industrially so it could be that while their is a lot of gold compared to radio active isotopes they might also use a lot in their construction making it still worth a lot due to high demand. But that's just a guess so take it with a grain of salt

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    3. > All the gold in a modestly sized asteroid just
      > doesn't seem like it'd be worth getting worked up
      > about.

      The story required 'treasure' of some kind to move the plot, and we 21st ct earthlings think of gold as a rare and precious commodity. Is it BS in the context of an interstellar (near) post-scarcity society? Definitely, but it's an obvious MacGuffin and by literary convention those aren't required to make sense.

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    4. @Grimmelhausen: They could have used Tantalum or Uraniom...

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    5. The other crew aren't talked about because there isn't room in a single book to do them justice. That's a common problem in stories like this one, and while there are several solution's I've seen authors use I think the one I went with (focus on the important characters and keep the plot moving) works better than the alternatives. Now that I've intriduced the setting and established Alice's personal situation, the next book will probably introduce more crew members and show a lot more about the day-to-day operations of the Square Deal.

      I'm well aware of the volume/mass calculations on large ships. I've actually got a spreadsheet I use to design ships for this setting, with real numbers for everything from armor mass to engine thrust and maximum heat dissipation from the radiators. But in thepassage you reference Alice isn't trying to calcualte the maximum number of people a ship that size could support, she's just noting that they could easily fit a good-size civilian settlement into one of the hanger bays.

      As for the gold, keep in mind that while mining and refining operations are relatively cheap they aren't free. In our world a million metric tons of gold would be worth around $40 trillion, which is more than half of our world GDP. In Alice's world it's a tousand times less valuable, but $40 billion is still a substantial chunk of money to individuals or private organizations. Even that price is a bit inflated, but that's because people still use gold as a store of value - when every paranoid survivalist and currency speculator in the galaxy wants to have a vault full of gold 'just in case', it tends to prop up the price.

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    6. Thanks for replying William!

      Couldn't you have just had a couple of paragraphs briefly referencing the other crewmembers in some of her intro sequences? Then a side thought or two at some later stages of the book.

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    7. Book restraints I imagine you can't fit everything in but what you said Mr. Brown about having a spread sheet for ships and stuff I just had a thought about two other series I'm reading who have turned their books into tabletop games check out(wearing the cape) and (the Dresden files) both authors have turned these series into games and yours might work well for that to just a thought.

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  17. It really was a nice read.
    And thanks so much it is a closed story arc....

    What bothers me is that friendship this whole big thing in her live as far as a defining feature of her character. Just does not involve the only friend she had for years. Dika just vanishs. Out of sight out of mind. Apart from that the big reveal at the end could have been a little harder to guess.
    But none the less Iam looking forward to the next installments of this Series.

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    1. I agree a lot with this.

      Dika is completely forgotten by Alice when she should be occasionally thinking back to her previous relationships when comparing her new ones.
      The reveal was also rather obvious about half way through.

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    2. I kinda just assumed she didn't want to go back tell she had enough firepower that she could nuke the planet back to a lifeless ball of rock but then I'm not an enhanced human/AI gestalt so you know there might be a chance we don't know what she's thinking;)

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    3. Guess it falls to me to be the voice of dissent. I read the book, i really, really wanted to like it, but i just couldn't.

      The worldbuilding is okay aside from a few minor quibbles, and obviously a lot of time, thought and effort went into it, but good god the tale itself.

      I made it through the ca. 500 pages with a combination of hope against hope and completionist OCD, however it was a serious slog. The characters, the protagonist in particular, were just flat, walking cliches, and the story oh so predictable without any kind of real surprises or suspense.

      Mr.Brown can write, write very well in fact, and his burgeoning career as a professional author deserves support, but where this new series is concerned i am sorry any future entries will be a hard pass for me.

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    4. @Grimmelhausen:
      While I enjoyed the book a lot I actually found myself agreeing with your main complaints here. The characters are a bit cliched and there aren't many surprises. I think this was due to a greater emphasis on worldbuilding and plot. Can't go too far from cliches when you are having to dedicate only a small amount of writing to characterization yet still wanting people to get a feel for the characters.

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    5. There is a big thing going around over the last couple years about authors writing being too clichéd.

      Think about it for a moment please, something becomes cliché when it is often used. Now how many stories are out there... Its beyond incredibly difficult to create something truly unique, every book, story, movie heck even songs all use inspiration from those that came before so of course its clichéd.

      Doesn't stop it being a thoroughly enjoyable read, which I'm my personal opinion is all that matters.

      A book is a form of entertainment, so I measure it by how well it entertained me.
      This one is a success.

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    6. Yes, I totally agree. If cliches are soooo bad, I feel we should explore new characters for the alphabet. And maybe make new words that don't have a meaning. You know just to preserve the mystery of the story.

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    7. I am going to reference one of the "old timers" of science fiction here and say that the same things were said about Heinlein, McCaffery, even Asimov and Clarke. There are only so many plot devices, character types, etc. that are available. As a writer myself, I know how difficult it is to put an original spin on a plot or character. The more you read, the less likely you are to find something which is truly original. I think Mr. Brown has done a very good job of writing something that DOES have originality. That doesn't mean that he doesn't use well known plot devices, but he does put them together in a manner that is well written and entertaining.

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    8. Try another "oldtimer" Spider Robinson's Melancholy Elephant for a good fictionalized discussion on originality..

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  18. Really great book!

    But after reading it, i found some parts where i had some questions about some of the technical aspects:

    1. When Alice kills the Trolls on the truck chase, it was mentioned that they could be saved when their heads where not destroyed and they got to them fast enough so they could rebuild their bodies for them. At that part i thought that they were just androids with a organic body and an AI core in their heads. But later we learn that AI cores can survive for years on their own, so why was there a time limit involved with the Trolls? Or did they use some kind of "organic" AI core where a brain was necessary?

    2. Can a human with a "backup" still be considered a human? I mean, does he still have a normal brain and the backup is just an exact copy of his brain activity where they scan the brain and then create a new model with a fabber? Or is it more like an human mind transformed into an infomorph, from which copies are spawned which are used as backup.

    Hope someone has some answers or ideas :)

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    1. Your second question gets into the philosophical question of what makes humans human. I would say anything that thinks like a human is for all intents and purposes a human because it will react like an organic human weather it is made of flesh or not. Though as a philosophy question there isn't a correct answer to that so the above is simply my opinion

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    2. There are several different ways backup systems could work, which is one reason I didn't delve into the issue in this book. Some people just go in for a detailed brain scan once in a while, so they're obviously human (although you can certainly argue that if a backup gets made it's just a copy). Others have a brain implant that streams a copy of their memories to a backup system in real time, which is a bit more invasive. The most radical types upload themselves into a computer, effectively turning into androids or infomorphs (depending on whether their personality is implemented in hardware or software).

      Different colonies have different opinions on where to draw the line, because the question "is this person human" is ultimately a matter of how you choose define 'human'.

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  19. My first thought was the SS. But I dismissed it because why would want a uniform that matches those evil people?

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  20. I want to read Time Braid, your Naruto fabric. Just because your writing is so awesome. But I have zero experience with it. Is there any resource you can point me to or tips you can give me so that I am not completely lost?

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    1. I read it before knowing pretty much anything about Naruto and enjoyed it. Don't think you'll be too lost.

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    2. Google 'Naruto plot summary' and you'll get a decent outline. Time Braid takes place entirely in the Chuunin Exam arc, which is in the early part of the series. So reading a summary up to that point should give you all the background you need.

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  21. I wonder what the rift bomb the Mirai made was. I'm guessing it tears a hole between hyperspace layers and the dimensional shear tears the target apart but I'm curious what you all think

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  22. I agree that Perilous Waif was a great read, however, I do have a question which might help resolve the "going back for Dika" question:
    What was the time period covered by the book? It seemed to be moving extremely rapidly with a lot of action in a fairly short period of time (I got the impression that it was only a couple of months with her onboard the Square Deal). Comments/Replies?

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    1. Well it was supposed to be twelve days from tree hugger ville to the rom colony I think? And then a couple more to get to yakuza town add a week their and then... a week to get to the battleship and another week or so their? So.... a month and some change maybe?

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    2. Anyone want to check my math on that?

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    3. I think you forgot that Alice traveled 2 weeks trough swamps from the orphanage to the space port.

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    4. Oh yeah. So I guess that makes it about 2 months. And since it's only been that long I guess it makes some sense that she hasn't tried to kidnap some one out from under a mind control dictatorship since she's barely got her feet off the ground.

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    5. Not only that but she had no resources until near the end of the book,

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  23. Just finished reading the book. I enjoyed the spirit of the book. I liked Alice and Lina, but there really wasn't much dialog or interaction with most of the crew. We saw a little bit with Dusty and some about the captain but beyond that there were some casual remarks but nothing else.

    The Sentience of AI was also Confusing. We are told early on that AI level 4 is essentially fully sentient and that the designers of those models use nasty programming to make them compliant such as "imprinting" Yet Lina's character is complex, she has likes/dis-likes, Hobbies and friends, a broad array of emotions. She wants to live and even though she is constrained by some of her programming. Yet she is classified as a level 3 because she needs "instructions. Again from what I read there is really no real difference between AI and Humans other than a manufacture date. Yet every where this crew traveled for the most part they are considered second class citizens. IS that the galactic norm or is just how they individual locations that happened to be at worked?

    The author made it pretty clear that almost every one these days were modded to some degree. However no base comparison was ever established that would allow you to really get a clear comparison between Say Alice and another combat morph or an engineering morph. This left a lot to be desired, especially since her mods are boarder line magical as most of them are impossible to have because of there power requirements. Yet she has a multitude of mods that just happen to appear at the right time. Personally It was very hard to get a base character concept for Alice in my mind. Her mods were constantly charging and there was no scale to compare it to.

    Another big sticking point is the Mirai. Who were they, what were their goals, politics, people like? all we really got was that they were incredibly intelligent light years ahead of the entire galaxy in AI tech. We know that they had a Monarchy Government. We also know that they were Trans-humanist and that is about it. Even though they are treated and considered the Space version of Nazi Germany. Yet the captain even eludes that this was history written by the victor not necessarily the actual truth or least not the whole truth.

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    1. Level 3 AIs can't plan anything beyond simple steps, this doesn't mean they can't have preferences, emotions and friends. Emri was substantially enhanced by the level 5 AI. Level 4s seem rare and accorded higher status.
      The nasty programming was just the incompetents who made Emri and the like. They got a basic level 3 military AI and just slapped on some restrictions and the like. For most AIs their desires are organically aligned with character traits to create something quite happy with it'srole in the universe.

      The Mirai will likely be covered in more detail later. Only so much you can fit into a book.

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    2. Level 3 AIs lack the ability to set goals. Reference the passages where Emla was introduced. The techies are mentioned as having had multiple upgrades given them in order to allow them to function at a higher level than a base line level 3.
      I dont recall noting that level 1 or 2 AIs were particularly defined in-story.
      The Mirai were, I believe, intentionally left with detail gaps in order for the reader to be in line with Alice's understanding of the culture at various points in the story. The two other major players in the war involving the Mirai are defined even less so. The Mormon Bastions are more or less left defined-by-title. The Swarmlords are only really expounded upon by clarifying that they have little regard for casualties, a massive resource well, and that the swarms in question are likely bots rather than mutants a la Starcraft. I rather expect that delving into the history of the Mirai royal family in particular has been planned out for Mr. Brown for future entries.
      That being said, I've a theory: The three major war powers mentioned are roughly analagous to major players in the Second World War. Mormons might be the USA and/or Britain. The Swarmlords could certainly stand in for Russia, given the Red Army's infantry tactics. The Mirai could certainly stand in for both major Axis powers. They have SS uniforms, are actually mentioned as being a Japanese offshoot, have an Imperial family, superior individual training for soldiers (at the start of the world war, at any rate), have individually superior combat vehicles, and exploded from a small area at the beginning of the conflict to swallow thier immediate neighbors.
      The SS uniform came to mind earlier than the livery scene for me, in which Alice rejected a design Lina (I think) showed her that was too dark and militant for her first audience with the yakuza lord.
      Hell, Germany and Japan had big old battleships that got taken out away from important areas by numerically superior forces, rather than superior individual vessels. Certain high ranking Nazis even supposedly escaoed to Argentina in a secret u-boat, supposedly. I dont recall the veracity of that.

      TLDR: It'll be in the next book or two. Read between the lines, in the mean time.

      An enjoyable read, Mr. Brown. I disagree with those above who were displeased with the amount of character building (Alice did think about her friend from the orphange when not in combat, several times) and thuroughly enjoyed the read. Excellent worldbuilding.

      A word of complaint, or, rather, a request for your consideration: please leave your first series in a more concrete stopping point before before returning to this one. I look forward to the next book in both series, but jumping back and forth...

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    3. I thought the other major power was called the dominion and the Mormon bastions where a smaller group of militant planets strung out along the outer edge of the sector the story is set in?

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    4. From what i know, these factions were mentioned:

      Inner sphere:
      Dominion (Major Power)
      Mirai Kingdom
      Swarmlords / Polymorphic Swarm(Major Power)
      Mormons Bastions (Unclear)

      Outer Sphere:
      Masu-kai
      Federation (Pirates gone legit)

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    5. @WeltKaiser

      I caught the SS style of military uniform as well, (although I thought I might have been reading to much in to it.)

      I liked the book and can't wait to read the next book. I even get that her base mods and abilities are just now having the chance to surface and become available due to the shit hole of world, she started on.

      But context is needed to build if nothing else a baseline. While based of his writing I would assume Alice's mods are heads and tails above that of an average persons ability to have. Possibly better than military tech but as no direct comparisons were ever made there was no way to make that determination. Nor where many of her mods clearly defined. Several of her mods were mentioned in taking up quite a bit of her internal energy storage pools but as she has a ton of passive abilities constantly being used it was (at least to me) very difficult in evaluating what the character can do with out taxing herself vs what would be considered a challenge for the character to maintain and why.

      I know this may come off as negative but that is not my intention. It is merely to point out that there was a lot of information left out that would have been worthy to include as this book is setting up the rest of series. As the reader we are left to infer a lot details about the character when a couple of paragraphs could have been used to solidify the characters abilities/weaknesses.

      With that said I also agree that there is great deal going in this universe Mr. Brown has crafted; that would make trying to explain it all in a single book not only impossible but would have slowed down the story immensely.

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    6. Outer sphere
      also has the Victoria kingdom, the corporate states,

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  24. Ah just finished it. It was awesome, very epic and far reaching whilst also about individual characters.

    I appreciate the effort put in to making the setting realistic, all the essays about the science in the world of PW show that nicely. It adds realism and like you said in one of them, makes sure my suspension of disbelief isn't taxed at all.

    Finally a prediction: There seem to be a lot of coincidences that led to the ending. I predict one or more of the rogue super AIs has had a hand in Alice's journey, I'm undecided how much. Most likely starting with her meeting Naoko onwards.

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    1. I noticed the coincidences as well but I attributed them to Sleuth super AI helping her get where he wants her. I wonder who is correct? Either way it's a fabulous start to a great series! So when can I buy the next one :) ?

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    2. Givin what we know of Alice's capabilities it could also be her mother playing from behind the curtain for some reason.

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  25. Well I don't know why Amazon did not like my review of Perilous Waif so I am posting it here......jrlawrence
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    Wonderful story.......memorable enjoyable characters..............lots of interaction ........Really enjoyed the story and am looking forward for the next episode......( looking forward for the next Daniel Black ).........A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+

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  26. Read in one sitting, reviewed it on Amazon and absolutely loved it.

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  27. The Masu-kai have come more westernized over the years. They would have their family name first, would not say thank you because they would lose face, and there is some catch-22 eating customs they have like shoveling rice in the mouth it is all right for they to do it but if you do it you show that you are a barbarian.

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  28. Is there a way to sign up for a mailing list? I really don't want to miss the next installment for Alice.

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    1. I give periodic updates about my writing progress here, so as long as you check back once in a while you'll always know when I'm getting close to releasing a new book.

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  29. Just read the book for the third time and I must say your Charlie's angels reference was very well done.

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  30. So where do you all think the plot is going to go from here? Pragmatically, if warfare has really digressed to the mores of the city state era of human history than the only lasting solution is going to be Alice conquering the galaxy to impose order.

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    1. Guess I may have provided the only real response to my own question...

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    2. I doubt it'll go for galactic conquest. I suspect exploring the galaxy/setting will be the focus of the next book.

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    3. Alice is still pretty young, so I'm planning to have several stories about her just exploring the setting and getting into adventures as she grows up.

      Now, in the long run the series will probably go through several phases of increasing scope, assuming it stays popular. Eventually Alice could very well end up commanding a fleet, ruling a small colony, or otherwise being a player in galactic affairs. But I'm not planning to have her solve humanity's problems - history never ends, and each era's solutions only create the next era's problems.

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    4. Can you tell us if you have already plans in which time frame the series will play?
      Is it all playing in at most a couple decades or are centuries between some books?

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    5. I don't know that Alice would actually have to conquer the entire galaxy she would just have to establish an empire that was stong enough to ensure it had the power to push an integration agenda.

      Thing I'm wondering about at the moment are other species aside from Humans and those made by humans. Nothing like a dangerous external enemy to make humans reevaluate their position of Super AI's

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  32. I was hoping to pick up the paperback book this weekend to start reading but Amazon will only deliver it by Monday. Do you know any places in Chicago that I may be able to buy this in-store? I didn't see it listed on BN.com so I'm assuming only Amazon is carrying this at this time?

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    1. I'm afraid it's an Amazon print-on-demand book, so there aren't any stores that stock physical copies.

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    3. Thank you. I ended up buying the ebook. Loving it so far.

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  33. Another amazing book! I love your plots and how you can create a seamless story with such rich world building. I look forward to your next book in either series.

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  34. Finally someone who understands celestial engineering and the future of automation and AI it was a pleasure to read

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  35. Do you think you will be switching between books like one Daniel black then a perilous waif etc?

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  36. I really liked this book. In my opinion this is one of the best scific books I have read in the last year. It was an absolute pleasure to read and I can't wait for more of your books.

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  37. I just finished the book. I was totally happy with the plot and could conceive of many possibilities to the direction of the next book in the series. Alice has another fan!

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  38. Also just finished. Two thumbs up, and will leave a good Amazon review!

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  39. So do you think you can give us a map of human space in the next book maybe?

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    1. That would have to be done as a massive three dimensional computer model cause you can't really do justice to a settled area of 3D space with only two dimensions. So if he did do a map it would only be veiwable with special soft ware and would take hundreds of man hours to construct a model to the scale of what human space apears to be in the book. So it could be done but I don't think it would be remotely financially viable for mr brown unfortunately.

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    2. Just a general picture of how much of the galaxy humanity has settled I mean I imagine it would probably spread out in a general bubble from earth and slowly go from there I'm just having a hard time imagining these empires and the scope of them. A little visual representation would help is all.

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  40. Wow! Great story. I'm now 87% of the way through it and it's excellent. I really love the lack of errors! LOL So many of the novels I read now are just loaded with misused words. Thanks for that. I'm a long time sci-fi fan and this novel is as good as anything I've ever read. I read this under Amazon's Prime reading plan. You'll be happy to know that in this instance it will result in a sale (I want my own copy of this), an exploration of your other works, and a recommendation to everyone I know to READ THIS BOOK.

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  41. I don't want this taken the wrong way but I consider daniel black books to be good fun but perilous waif to be good literature. I felt the writing was much stronger and extremely enjoyable. I like good fun and enjoyed daniel black, kurtherian gambit, the hunter legacy, etc a great deal but I think he's really got something with perilous waif.

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  42. Perilous waif was a very good book! When is the next in the series coming out?

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  43. Read PW first before DB and now I can't decide if I want Al2 or DB4 next. Learning toward Alice.

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  44. First of all, you are without a doubt one of the best authors on the planet. The Daniel Black series was something like I've never read before and it's one of my favorite stories ever. It's the epitome of everything fantasy-SF should be. It simply makes you feel good and want to be involved in the story somehow.
    Perilous Waif was of course a great piece of literature but not on the same caliber as the DB series for me. I don't know maybe I'm selfish because the MC is female and it's hard to mind-travel inside that world if you're male yourself. Furthermore, though I am loath to criticize, it might have been focused too much on the technical side instead of the human side but that's just a personal opinion.
    In any case, the day the next Daniel Black book comes out will be a great day of rejoicement for me.

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  45. Loved the Perilous Waif and ALL the Daniel Black series. Cannot wait to give you more money. I am hoping Daniel will get a couple of months respite from the radiation attack to really set up his domain. He is the indispensable man with his ability to make factory stones, so he needs to let more disposable people do most of the fighting. I keep waiting for him to facepalm and then make a few airships out of titanium to bring in more refugees. People are his greatest need.

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    Replies
    1. Something must happen when Gaia sees her armies are dying. He may get a respite after that, but at first there will be consequences.

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  46. Looking forward to the audiobook!!

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  47. Best sci fi in a long long time, any idea when we will see book 2 REALLY want it like NOW.

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    1. Since he has layed out the basic structure of this series universe he should be able to write the next book faster then the privious one but I'm guessing he will still take longer to write them than the DB books since it appears this story is going to need to be written in larger chunks

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  49. Great reading, convincing worldbuilding. Maybe a bit foreseeable in part, as others already have commented on. w.t.f. But there is one aspect, I worry about: Why does nobody draws a connection between Alice and her family??? She still has her own name, her ID is (needs to be) unchanged. Dear William, this needs to be explained!

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    1. Also If you remember she spun out a fake ID code in the felicity space port and it was insinuated she could do so on demand

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  50. Norbert, Long is a pretty common surname, at least today, not all that different from Smith or Jones.

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  51. Any update on the release of the next Daniel Black Book?

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  52. Ok just finished reading perilous waif. When is book coming out. That was a great read.

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  53. Finished the kindle edition of Perilous Waif ...wonderful ... can't wait for the next one! I hope the serious is a long one, I will be with you for the whole ride.

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  54. So what do you all think Daniel powering up the dryad groves is going to get him?

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    1. speculations/thoughts about Daniel’s (assumed) future selfimprovement

      In book 1 Daniel already did a basic self-upgrade….so take that to the next level (with the help of the empowered dryads and the magic banana).

      The tree-fairy-dryads on unlimited mana-feed do an epic power of nature blessing ritual and bestow the potency of the legendary sabre-tooth tiger, quickness of the cheetah, senses of the lynx, cunning of the fox, virility of the rabbit….

      Throw in Daniel working with his flesh magic integrating those blessings , perhaps improving/channeling them with his modern knowledge… on top of a shit ton of mana…and the groundwork already laid by the mystical god-banana….

      All while we hear his inner monologue translation into modern (medical) terms …genetic modification / optimized genetic constitution…stronger bones, increased muscle/sinew strength, enhanced lung/oxygen absorption and heart/circulatory system, optimized reaction rate, higher resistance to trauma, sharp senses like 20/5 vision, night sight, sensitive hearing, the capability to process all these detailed sensory impressions superfast….perhaps some other mental boni he will perceive subsequently….like enhanced memory….higher awareness of his environment and/or the supernatural….heightened multitasking abilities….strengthened coven bond (telepathic communication?)….

      His body is now hardy enough (and has the right “pathways”) to withstand massive mana-boosting (=temporary strength, speed, resilience boost….like Matrix-style bullet time).

      As a further toughness-indicator he could also gain some resistances…

      …like elemental resistance. Can endure extreme meteorological conditions (from Antarctica to Sahara) without harm. Not a combat protection…more a general hardiness-effect.

      ….like resilient skin. Minor armor effect. Of course without ugly byeffects (visually or tactile)!!

      I’d also like some visible changes as a sign for Daniels upgrade.

      Here some examples:
      - he grows some inches
      - he looks healthier
      - he has the elegant, efficient, always balanced step of lifelong martial artists or dancers
      - his eye colour is striking, very intensive
      - he has an eye-catching white streak in his hair
      - his piercing glance can intimidate the weak-minded
      - ….you get my drift….just as a statement…..for a cool pre-post comparison…… ;-)

      Daniels empowerment could be part of the hinted at dryad-orgy (=even more fun).

      Something like this described on a couple of pages (with some extra pages for the orgy) and the next book is already a sure-fire success with me. ;-)


      PS: Perhaps some diluted benefits will filter through the coven bond to his girls…? Not that they need it. Physically they are already stronger than Daniel.

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    2. Other possible benefits of the groves with unlimited-mana-feed?

      Besides stronger dryads / nymphs with interesting new capabilies?

      Alice in Wonderland style magic/space/time distortions transforming the groves into a fantastic, magic fairy realm/paradise?

      - laws of nature are distorted / malleable by the dryads (ideal conditions of growth for the special apple trees ;-)]
      - groves getting larger (outer building dimensions remain constant)
      - even better food production?
      - flesh-production now possible (stags, boars…rabbits…)
      - attract even more nature spirits…

      Will this continual nature magic beacon in the middle of the citadel effect the living conditions/environment?

      More nature/vegetation instead of bare stone?

      Moral boost on Black Island because climate (“good vibrations”) is more in the human comfort zone?

      (i.e. the scent of flowery meadows/forests wafting through the stone corridors lessening the oppressive, claustrophobic feeling of living under a mountain of stone without seeing the sky/sun/stars….)

      Higher overall fertility?

      Delete
    3. That would be really cool
      And I like the idea of some appearance change to mark his upgrade. Eyes would be a good one I think. I've also been wondering when he's going to get around to making some naval vessels for long range trade and the like. Or he could make a giant mech suit but he'd need to learn divination and illusion first.

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  56. Reread Perilous Waif and still a little confused about the timeline:

    At the start of the story Alice is 6 and the event of the story span 2-3 months. We know that she looks 13-14 at the start and that she has been growing at an accelerated rate....

    However, we learn that the war ended 8 years before and that she was an infant at the time; she was recovered after the war and placed on Felicity.

    During the events of the story we are told that her malnutrition warnings go from amber to green and that her development manager wants to build strength after her sword duel, but we are not told anything further about her growth or apparent age except relatively in that Kavin and Akio appear 2 and 3 years older.

    Confused.

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    Replies
    1. We did the math earlier and we figured the whole story was over a time period of about two months maybe three on the outside so even with Alice's accelerated growth path she still wouldn't have matured physically much in three months.

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  57. Just read Perilous Waif...it was excellent. Made me think! From there Kindle suggested your Daniel Black books. Over the last week I've stayed up late every night reading those. Wow! Need more Daniel Black! Write faster! ;)

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  58. I really enjoyed this book. A voracious reader myself, I now am going to look up the other books by Mr. Brown.

    For those that liked PW, you might try Elizabeth Moon as an author. She has several series out that are in the same type of genera. As she is retired military, she rocks at getting the military side done as well as the character/plot, which is a welcome change from a lot of SciFi out there (being a military vet myself, I notice these things!).

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  59. I want to draw your attention back to this post from Tuesday, 14. March 2017

    ==>
    daniel youngMarch 14, 2017 at 11:04 PM
    So what do you all think Daniel powering up the dryad groves is going to get him?
    <==

    I`d really like to get different ideas/thoughts/angles about this!

    What could get Daniel Black out of this?
    Will his girls get something, too?
    Ramifications for all residents of Black Island? Possibly even for the periphery around Black Citadel (Konzalin)?
    What possible new capabilities could the dryads/nymphs evolve (especially the satyr and the chief nymph)?

    Please don’t leave me high and dry! You’ve got to have more/other ideas than my five-minutes-brain-fart above!

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    Replies
    1. It is entirely possible that powering up the groves to the extent that he has may allow them to extend their influence over the whole island and beat back the effects of winter and cause new plant life to pop up and grow voraciously.

      It's also possible that powering the groves up into a little fairy realm will allow Daniel to forge an enterance into the realm of the summer court so that elen can meet/find her mother and learn more about her shape changing

      Could be the groves could teach Daniel how to use his flesh magic to shape wood into interesting things like plantable houses that will start as seeds and then grow into heated shelters/buildings when fueled with magic

      They could help Daniel construct a magic basement under his island for more food growing potential.

      I'm guessing that he will get Alana as a familiar but I don't think that will be directly related to powering up the groves

      Palagiea and Zoe could teach him some of their magic to augment his own like how to make illusions or enchantment traps how to diffend against magical plagues without just throwing brute force healing magic at it.

      On a more mundain level they will certainly help with air circulation throughout his fortress.

      He could learn how to make magic plants that can survive the cold by warping them with magic or plants that thrive in the cold through magic.

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    2. With the help of the groves and his flesh magic he could learn how to construct himunculli for cerise to embed souls into for more magical backup that he needs.

      He will probly figure out how to copy hellena's system of magically talking to her dryads in order to make those magic radios he's always saying he needs

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    3. I'm guessing that demitrios with simply get stronger/tougher and be a better fighter cause he didn't seem to be the legendary mage type. Palagia will probly become very very good at subtle influence spells for things like gathering allies or dissuading enemies from gathering in strength. I'm guessing she will also teach Daniel some divination magic perhaps.

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    5. I'm guessing that the groves power up will only directly effect Daniel and elen though it may effect Tina as well. I'm guessing the groves will tie in directly to elen getting control of her powers and either finding her mother or killing her brothers now that Daniel didn't have an army howling for his blood.

      Delete
    6. Magical animals - Winged horses.
      Magical fruit - instant healing in a fruit? Fruit giving you berserker strength?
      Naiad powered magical scuba gear.

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    7. Would the healing fruit be shaped like hearts and float above the ground on their own;)?

      Delete
  60. As for him powering up the dark elves I'm guessing he will at least learn how to make space expansion magic items and maybe learn to construct those skill encoding enchantments as a long term project. Also I'm guessing that he will work with the dark elves to learn how to make wormhole portals or some thing similar.
    Anyone have any other ideas for dark elf power up?

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    Replies
    1. Come on people speculate with us it's fun! It can't just be me and plattmaker that have ideas we want to share.

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    2. https://wiliamscorner.blogspot.com/2015/11/extermination-discussion-thread.html

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    3. Speculations from nearly one and a half years ago shouldn’t stop anyone from sharing ideas here.

      Sharing ideas will lead to new ideas from others…and so on.

      Besides it’s fun!

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  61. Just finished Perilous Waif. I'll be looking forward to sequels.

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  62. You know Daniel has everything he needs to build a spaceship except some means of ftl.

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    1. I was thinking about this the other day. He could use his airship design to get up above most of the atmosphere and then he'd have several options for going further. A constant force-pushing device to push his ship outward, or use a force bubble to compress a big volume of air into a very small space, then release the compressed air out of a very tiny hole.

      Given time (ask me for anything but that!) and he can come up with lots of interesting innovations. Of course he doesn't *have* time to play with such distractions just now.

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    2. If he can conjure plasma he could build plasma thrusters

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  63. Just gonna share my $0.02. Big fan of your books, and I mean all the series you have written. Just thought you might like to consider, maybe it would be nice if you took some time out of your busy schedule to write anything, anything at all, monthly? Just post something on the blog, and it doesn't even have to be about writing updates, just a casual how ya'll or what not? I used to just scroll ye feed and was kinda scared? I guess about the lack of anything, before I realised you responded more in the comments.

    Just my $0.02 :P
    Good luck on the new Daniel Black Book! I forsee at least a book 5 *crosses fingers*

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    1. I'm pretty sure he said somewhere that there would be more than 5 books

      Delete
  64. "Perilous Waif" is a nice read. Alice Long - Long is Chinese for dragon - looks like a loli girl, but that's just a disguise for the deadly predator she is.

    So what does the future hold for her? I think Alice will become the leader of the androids.

    The Swarm will destroy a planet and all nuke all its inhabitants just because there's a rumor the last of the Mirai - Alice Long - was there.

    Oh, and the next time she spars with Akio she'll cleave his katana in two - lengthwise.

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  65. Pelagia (name? the chief-nymph) already demonstrated she has divination, healing and weather-magic (and big breasts).

    What can an evolved Pelagia v2.0 do with an unlimited-magic-tap?

    (Are nymphs even “upgradable” like dryads? Or is the “only” difference that she will be able to use her really mana-intensive abilities now? Even then…what can she do now? )

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    1. Well we havnt seen anyone enthralling large groups of people yet and that seems a fairly straightforward boost to her power. She may get illusion magic but I'm not sure.
      Perhaps we will see more pestilence and poison magic out of her.

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  66. What about the dark elves and their new mana amulets?

    Okay, they all have some magical abilities…so they are now more powerful.

    But besides them being stronger allies (nothing to sneeze at)…what could concretely change for Daniel or Black Island?
    They could pimp his airship with their air-spirit-magic….nothing to write home about.

    What else is conceivable?

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    1. Potentially teleportation, maybe exotic materials for magic crafting, perhaps more of that skill encoding magic, definitely that space expansion, and maybe daniel will finally get some golems of his own?

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    2. Air magic implies weather forecasting and manipulation. Recon through birds. Some form of relatively fast long distance communication. Access to other realms (Jotunheim ...). Bound creatures.

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  67. HeY William! I know this won't make it come any faster, and I'm sorry if it's rude, but do we have an ETA on the audiobook? I'm kinda excited for it. Thanks!

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    1. Given when Perilous Waif was released, how much of the manuscript had been in the can when it was mothballed, the projected novel length and the author's writing speed on past books my guesstimate would be some time around the midyear marker.

      This of course does not account for unknowables like major rewrites, attacks of writers block, or personal life running interference, or how much the rough plotting he'd mentioned having done will speed up his writing process, but i'd be very surprised by anything earlier than an end of June release.

      More realistically the first draft will be finished in late June and spend another four to six weeks going through editing so my money is on mid July to early August.

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    2. I was actually asking about when the Perilous waif audiobook was coming out, but thank you for your response, I do appreciate it

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  68. Any update on book 4 of Daniel black?, I have re-read the first 3 at least 4 times need book 4 to fill the addiction.

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  69. Just finished Perilous Waif, and I have to say I am thoroughly impressed. It's a shame that I did not find it when the series was on book two or three.

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    1. I often have that feeling, but recently found a series 7 books in, it actually makes it worse, as you are use to reading about that environment non-stop for so long then, nothing. no more book, only waiting.

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  70. Random thoughts….

    Bags of holding - space expansion magic leading to dimensional travel, gates, teleportation seems to be a natural continuation of this subject-matter.

    While I will probably wax lyrical (yet again) about bags of holding or space expansion in future (e.g. Cerise needs bracers of holding for her weapons -where else to put dwarven battle axes, guns, daggers… while wearing a skintight catsuit?) I am not sure how to feel about “travel-magic”.

    The ability to travel far away would be a great opportunity to explore exotic places and beings apart from the Black Isle / Kozalin locus. That would be pretty cool!

    But as a reader I would prefer Daniel dramatically slugging it out with his antagonists and not having an instant teleport escape door ready.

    So an elaborate, mana intensive, hours-long ritual for a gate to reach some ulterior region (for Daniel…perhaps with a small party?) would be a good solution from my point of view.

    Permanent gates to exotic places are also a great notion. Trade routes to other continents right in your front yard. Thousands of miles bridged with a few steps. Legends are made from stuff like this! But how do you keep the undesirables out?

    And how to keep your people from leaving? Then again…with the whole world going into the crapper and Black Island steadily shaping up…that may not be a big problem?

    …complicationscomplicationscomplications….

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  71. ==>
    daniel Young March 20, 2017 at 6:17 PM
    ….maybe daniel will finally get some golems of his own?...
    <==

    I don’t think he will get golems.

    At least not the giant iron ones.

    They need magic “handlers” riding on their backs. Daniel does not have the low level magic users the conclave uses.

    Maybe the elves could do it but they are already deadly without the golems….even more so with the mana-amulets.

    More importantly -IMO- it’s a narrative tool. Giant iron golems with wizard riders = Red Conclave shock troops.

    Besides Daniel has hover tanks with machine guns, wolfen, magic dark elves, dryads and regular troops with lethal magic long-range weaponry (guns)….he does’t need those clumsy walking chunks of iron!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True but if Daniel blended his programming knowledge with mana sorcery could he not make golems that are more intelligent? Not that it really fits with where he's been going but it would be cool.

      Why hasn't he made lasers yet ? I mean he can conjure light and bend air to make lenses so?

      Delete
    2. Why should he make lasers? What does it offer that he isn't already doing besides fulfilling the rule of cool?

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    3. Mostly they offer precision which he complains about often in large street battles. And I don't think anyone's wards are keyed to stop light but I could be wrong.

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    4. And if everything really goes to shit he can make a graser instead of a nuke so he doesn't irradiate large areas.

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    5. But his golems wouldn't need to walk. They could hover and they'd be gunships or flying flame throwers.

      And I am afraid I have to disagree on a crucial point. He does not need more precision. His gun hits and aims well enough. But it hits at one point only. He can make explosions exactly where he wants them. But they kill everybody in the area.
      He needs distinction. And that means indeed more intellectual ability in the weapons or minions. Like an elemental air spirit or demons who can be told to kill only Andregi or people without a magic token in a certain area.

      Delete
    6. Aren’t flying (hovering) golems waay more complex than walking ones? That would only aggrandize the problem, wouldn’t it?

      But I really don’t see a problem.

      He has already enough “intellectual ability in the weapons”. That is _people_ with guns/weapons!

      Of course you can’t shoot into the melee/crowd! Of course you can’t use area of effect weapons in an urban environment!

      That’s not a problem. That’s life!

      Challenges like this make the story interesting.

      I want a fantasy story with fights hero against villain, good guys against evil hordes, sword to claw, spell against spell, blood and sweat and dirt, sacrifices, tragedies, triumphs…..

      Mr. Brown softens the boundaries of classical fantasy by introducing Daniel and his magic adaptions of modern, technical concepts….and I really like (!) it because the suspense is still there…

      …but I reallyreally don’t want magical high tech cyber drones/droids picking of his enemies or other quasi robotic or remote-controlled solutions!

      Delete
    7. His earth talisman is already remotely controlled and flies. It just lacks autonomy. Adding that is a logical step and not thinking about it for a really long time would imply stupidity.

      Remote control is implied by familiars I am sorry to say. Yet there are barriers against familiars. So there is still conflict.

      Delete
    8. Autonomous mini-drones (similar to the one he released in the Halls of Slumber) which target particular species would be helpful. Release a few thousand to go out and drop magma-bombs on Trolls, Goblins, Andregi, etc. Include a self-banishment feature as a fail-safe.

      Delete
    9. The mini drones homed in on markers for their travel. They are not autonomous beyond that. Daniel's magic doesn't work at a distance (yet) so how it would tell what a particular species is underneath it from high enough up to avoid the explosion?

      Delete
    10. Avilla's gingerbread men, the Conclave's golems both have a limited ability to act autonomously. They even act upon verbal commands.
      Yes, he has deadly elves and some infantry. But they have better things to do than patrol his walls. And if he loses an elf that is a serious issue, if he loses a golem, that is peanuts.

      Delete
    11. > And if he loses an elf that is a serious issue, if
      > he loses a golem, that is peanuts.

      No it'd almonds. You don't combine gingerbread with peanuts, that'd be disgusting.

      Delete
  72. > True but if Daniel blended his programming knowledge with
    > mana sorcery could he not make golems that are more
    > intelligent? Not that it really fits with where he's been
    > going but it would be cool.

    Do you want magical SkyNet? Because that's how you get magical SkyNet.

    More seriously going by how things were described more complex enchantment = more fragile enchantment = quicker degradation = more maintenance.

    Even if he could spare the time it would take to develop autonomous golems the enchantment for their mana 'brains' is almost certainly going to be so complex they'd require frequent retuning/maintenance, and the only person able to do that would be Daniel himself. Which defeats the whole purpose of building such golems in the first place.

    > Why hasn't he made lasers yet ? I mean he can conjure
    > light and bend air to make lenses so?

    Because his shark farm isn't operational yet, obviously.

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    1. Doesn't he need a missle launching dinosaur to ride the laser shark first?

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    2. Don't be ridiculous. Everybody knows missile launching dinosaurs can't ride laser sharks, their stubby little arms are too short to operate the steering reins.

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    3. Isn't that what the rider on the dinosaur riding the laser shark is for?

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  74. Hello E. William Brown, I just recently read your Daniel Black series and find myself with a new favorite series - great job! I do have a couple of questions, and I apologize if this isn't the proper place for them:

    1. Couldn't Daniel make each tower in the Black Citadel into a mini tower of Sauron (glowing eye), that shoots out beams of sunlight (ranging in power from a defroster ray to plasma beam), sort of like amped up versions of the legendary Archimedes tower instead of just being limited to conventional weaponry?
    2. I'm a little confused as to why Daniel decided to make an enclosed bridge instead of a drawbridge or a bridge that withdrew back into the Citadel. It just seems wasteful to blow it up every time someone attempts to siege the place.
    3. Would it be possible to add some images to future books with renderings of the Black Citadel and maybe a map of the area where it is located? I find it a bit hard to picture in my head.
    4. Why is the Intrepid made out of aluminum? I imagine with unlimited energy and magical engines, the main hull could be made of something extremely tough like tungsten (maybe figure out a way to make alloys or something) which would make it much more durable. Sure, the mass would probable eat up the "reactor" in a couple of years, but I think having a floating battleship would be a good way to prosecute the war against the various monsters rampaging across the world.

    Thanks for your hard work!

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    Replies
    1. It costs him like an hour of work tops to rebuild the enclosed bridge and it allows him to advance off the island under cover.

      Delete
    2. 4: because an air ship made of tungsten would take a balloon that was miles across or something like a fusion torch as propulsion which is a bit... destructive in atmosphere.

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    3. 1. Death rays.

      No. He does not know how to create rays of magic. Light from the sun against enemies who can make clouds would be stupid.

      2. Drawbridge

      The idea seems to be to blow it up when enemies are on it. And a drawbridge of that length is impractical. So the causeway would have to be mined in any case.

      4. The Intrpid

      It is a transporter built before he knew weight banishing. And if durability is the problem he can use a force shield.

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    4. He could put in hinged floor sections in the bridge, with a remote release switch to open some or all of them. Push the button and the floor drops out from under the invaders, then winch up the floors and carry on like nothing happened:-).

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    5. Until they bring in ladders or planks. You do not want the enemy to be able to use your own fortifications against you. Thus mining the causeway is necessary.

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    6. Clouds only filter 20% of sunlight out.

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    7. Yes, but they make it indirect. And if that is still not enough, the enemy can make rain and fog. And and a defense that fails at night is not ideal either.

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    8. He can conjure sunlight though...

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    9. Yes, but then there are likely more destructive uses for the mana and the R&D time. I'd look into this option only after artillery is perfected.

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    10. But he can make nukes so grasers are possible. Or at least bomb pumped X-ray lasers

      Delete
  75. Drawbridge - yes, that was mentioned in the book, I'm just thinking that it might be a bit easier on the defenders if Daniel isn't available to repair said bridge (like if the Citadel had been attacked while he was in Gaia's realm).

    4. I suppose my argument would be that it seems to be more like an imagination fault on Daniel's behalf than that of material/power. For example, take the fictional heli-carrier from SHIELD or that large airship in Avatar - with magic, there's no reason that Daniel couldn't make an equivalent to jet engines to hold something that big aloft without the need for a balloon. Really, the main problem with having distinct engines would be that aerial attackers would target those engines, but Daniel could probably come up with something.

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    Replies
    1. The more complex a device the more Daniel needs to know about physics and mechanics. Otherwise he is just going to waste time trying to figure it out. Look how long (bk2) it took for him to figure out how to make a simple screw.

      Given the short timeframes he has been working in wouldn't it make more sense to go for the quickest solution?

      Delete
    2. Such engines are likely possible. But what happens to the place he starts from and lands on?

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    3. But what happens to the place he starts from and lands on?

      Same as with helicopters presumably. Or he could lift off with a vacuum-cell, then activate the jets and deactivate the lifting cell. Reverse the process to land, or just land with the jets on a prepared surface.

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    4. In book 3 Daniel considered and discarded the idea of using helicopter-style lift since the force of the wind to do a VTOL would be gale-force. Using the cell makes a more sense, but want about control and learning to fly an airplane? It might be too complex to learn in the short amount of time the next couple of books are likely to cover. It's been, what, a month since the coven was formed and the airship was a week or so into that.

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    5. But the largest helicopter lifts a few dozen tons and are built by people with decades of experience in structural engineering. So he will need to add more lift to get a cargo capacity compared to the Intrepid. And it is unforgiving. In the Intrepid aborting a landing is trivial. I would not let such a craft operate inside my stronghold.

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  76. On Perilous Waif: Maybe I'm looking for a way to avoid the "evil Space Nazi" trope (which, given the quality rest of the story, seems unlikely on your part), but it seems like the Mirai's story is likely one of tragedy and loss. I just wish that Alice's acceptance of the popular story was challenged a bit more in the end. She was stressed and in a pretty bad situation, but you'd think a question like "who were the Mirai, really?" would be at the top of her mind after she realized she was one.

    Anyhow, if you look at her "instincts," which are more like preprogrammed thought patterns that guide her rather than forced behaviors (she can, and does, reject them in a few places), there's a lot to suggest that the Mirai weren't what people thought they were. Alice is fiercely loyal to her community (as she defines it) from the beginning, including techs and AIs. Hope "chucked" at an incredibly risky plan to rescue Lina from overwhelming odds, instead of fighting it considering that Alice is likely the last known Mirai (royal or otherwise). For a military AI to go along with something that, it suggests that the Mirai consider loyalty to one's community and its members to be a fundamental value of such importance that embracing it outweighs risking everything. Even for "just a tech," as most of the human race in the story would phrase it.

    Reading into things, it seems as though the Mirai pursued their Transcendence Project wholly as evident by the quality of their military personnel during the war. The Mirai were drastically altering the balance of power, and the other powers chose to stop it. Would the have "conquered the galaxy in a generation?" I don't know. But slandering the dead as "space Nazis" would certainly go a long way towards in trying to justify and spin how the Grand Alliance killed off the Mirai. After all, if you get rid of the monsters, then how can you be a monster yourself? It's very flawed reasoning, but emotionally appealing.

    But I look forward to reading more about the Mirai in the next book. I sincerely hope the backstory is parsed out more. Thanks for creating such a fascinating universe.

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    1. Thank you! So I'm not the only one that thought that

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    2. Yeah, it was probably one of the more interesting parts that kept with me. The Mirai seem to be a traditional Japanese culture that happens to be fierce futurists (the word 'Mirai' being a romanized version of the word 'future' in Japanese). Their homeland was turned into a radioactive wasteland, overrun with self-replicating warbots on top of the general horror of whatever else happened on Old Earth.

      Don't get me wrong, from what clues we've been given, the Mirai clearly believe in a strong, overwhelming military response when they're provoked. They don't show mercy, because from their experience, they know none will be shown to them. But they're likely pretty isolationist in general. And while they have a pretty clear sense of superiority, it seems like a leap to genocidal tendencies. Hope's comments about the Gen 12 mods for adults suggests that they were able to retrofit transcendence mods for adults. If so, why would you need to kill off the inferior morph types? Ignore them, or let them upgrade themselves. Once the genie is out of the bottle, there's no stuffing it back inside. Unless you're willing to commit genocide to do so, apparently.

      Interestingly, they're probably pretty egalitarian when it comes to AIs. Both for the reasons I mentioned earlier, and because there's less of a gap between Mirai and AIs than there is with baseline humans.

      Anyhow, how long for the next book? Sometimes I hate enjoying multiple series from one author. It always makes the waiting seem more difficult.

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    3. Honestly if the galaxy has reverted to the mores of the city state era it is honestly just good sense to apply overwhelming force to crush your enemies completely

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    4. Not sure if I'd call it "good sense," but I understand what you mean. When everyone else is wiping out civilian populations, there's a hell of a lot of pressure to do the same.

      Just look at the debate over waterboarding and torture today. Even setting aside questions of efficacy, a lot of the arguments boiled down to "they commit atrocities, so why should we tie our hands?" I can barely imagine the depth of moral courage you'd need to stave off the calls for vengeance in the twilight of burning cities and tens millions of dead. Especially when you're talking about people who are lightyears away, and you no longer have the sort of daily contact with one another we have today. It'd be all too easy to view other tribes as something less real compared to your own people.

      That said, I wonder whether the prevalence of digital backups, infomorphs, and other technologies in the Waif universe combined to cheapen human life. Even if you know--intellectually--that your bombardments are going to destroy any backups on a planet, you still can't escape the knowledge that humans are generally able to escape death with that tech. I'd expect it to color people's thoughts, especially if they're already predisposed to dehumanize their opponents.

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  77. I just finished Perilous Waif. That was a seriously great book. Looking at the number of reviews and sales rank, it looks like you really hit all the right notes and (I hope) got a lot of good sales out of it. Looking forward to the next one in the series.

    Are you going with a male narrator or female? I think we're using the same producer now for audiobooks (Gregg). I've got Doug Tisdale doing my latest series, and I've been really happy with him. But I don't know if you want to use a male voice on this.

    I am also curious as to why you switched to writing a female protag, mainly because I'm thinking of doing it on my next series as well, but I'm worried about how my current fans would take it.

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  78. Loved the book and can't wait for the next in the series! Hope you can get it out soon. :)

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  79. Sorry dude. Not really into science fiction right now. When is the next Daniel Black book coming out?

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