I’m so sorry, but I seem to have punted my brain, and I had the wrong date for the publication date of The Thucydides Trap, the fifth and final book of the Imperials series. It will be released tomorrow, January 17th, not the 15th as I had originally posted. I’m so sorry, but you can read the first chapter if you go to Prince of Cats Literary Productions on either Facebook or Twitter. Anyway, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. It’s all happening tomorrow.
Well worth the wait, I cried a great many times. I wish we had more fan art of this amazingly expansive universe! Thank you so much for all your hard work in putting it all to paper!
Dear Taylor, thank you so, so very much. This means the world to me and what a lovely message to find this evening. Honestly I felt teary eyed when I typed that final sentence. I have been living with Tracy and Mercedes for so many, many years and now their story was told and I hated to say farewell to them. I’m thinking about what story to tell next. It is too big a universe to just leave, I wanted to tell more stories there, but I’m not sure which one it will be. I’m leaning toward Cyprian and his best friend, but I haven’t figured out what problem they have to solve just yet. Anyway, typing out loud, so to speak here at this late hour. Thank you again for sending me this wonderful comment.
No problem! I figured you wouldn’t want to leave such a well-developed world untouched. You spent a lot of time building Hayden and Cyprian’s characters to get to spend so little time with the “Pay off”, Anthologies are big rn maybe you could just pick a period in either of their lives at random unless you are married to the idea of a problem to solve in a chronological set of books (which sounds stellar for me, Im sucking the milkshake of the imperials books and audiobooks until I go blue in the face). I have no doubt the life of a Once Emperor To be in the newly “democratized” society of the league, has no shortage of opportunities for more amazing stories.
I wish I was better at short stories, but they scare me to death because they are so difficult to do well. I can manage it in Wild Cards because it feels like just part of an ongoing tale, but stand alones… yikes! I think I’d rather do some novels. It might not be 5 books next time, but I liked Hayden and Cyprian a lot and I’d like to see what they are like as young men. I figure he was 9 or 10 when he got told he was no long the heir to the empire or a prince, but he has a father who is a commoner to help him deal with that, a loving grandfather, and Jahan being an aunt. I figure there are lots of kids to bring in, Anselmo had a passel of kids, the sisters kids, Cyprian’s half-sisters, Jahan has kids too. I just need the right McGuffin.
I plan to make a longer reply. Regardless
You Write one fuck of a Story, Thankfully all you need to write short ones are decisiveness and scissors. Your Current crop of characters +1st gen offsprings time at the high ground and after is a GOLDMINE of short story potential. Specifically, character-specific struggles that aren’t too consequential in the context of the league or the “main” plot. I’m sure you don’t want me to shit out the list I made of ideas while writing this so I will spare you that. instead, I offer the summery
MORE
TALION
PLEASE
Davin Too
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER I DON’T WRITE WELL OR FOR A LIVING, GRAIN OF SALT, ALL THAT.
I assume you already evaluated and discarded The Idea that cyprian Would be pretty alright with abdicating. Maybe even quietly enthused. In his eyes, Ruling has been both a Great Burden and Danger.
His Grandfather (whom he never meets) Dies pointlessly in a civil war for the throne.
He eats meals and is tucked in with/by holograms of his parents while they are light-years away, performing endless military and political duties in the desperate hope that they can maybe save some of the league.
Cyp and Hayden are both nearly killed and psychologically scarred in Talions eventually pointless Bid for power (Part 2 Electric Coup-A-Loo)
After enduring more Active life threats and psychological scarring than most of the previous generation of Peacetime O-Trell Officers somewhere around age 9 (?) All as the direct result of his royal place in the Line for the shittiest chair in the universe AND. AND. Finding out (we can assume Tracy would eventually tell him the full extent of the Cara-Spiracy) Everything, From who he thought his dad was, to the “JV Team”[3] Necrofagios thrown at the league by uncaring Alien Puppetmasters [4]. In order to make Humanity more ready to repel the horrifying ancient threat. [5]
After all this, he is still very much in the public eye and doesn’t get to be a normal kid in a million and one ways. No, crying No tantrums the whole league is watching and they always will be. No cracks no Emotion, “no i don’t care your maid was shot in front of you. Be grateful if you only see one of your maids die if you get to by my age” (maybe exaggerating but you get the point)
The kid has been through an emotional crucible the likes of which many adults never have to bear, and he’s not even old enough to get a fucking learner’s permit. Cyprian’s head is already far too heavy for the crown
His mother does her duty as a ruler despite the fact it means almost certain death. Emphasis on Duty and Ruler. One last kick in the pants on the way out before the throne dissolves before him.
(honorable mention to rulers in our world aging like shit I can only assume this also happens in the solar league)
TLDR
Based on the events of his life leading up to the dissolution of the Monarchy. Cyprian Would view His “abdication” the same way you or I might view not being made to run a marathon we trained for in glass shoes. He is smart enough to know or Be Taught by Tracy and Jahan that the system he was born to continue is not sustainable. Having just lived through hell as a direct result of the systems in place it would not be a hard sell.
4
Mostly a sidenote but the Cara OT are as close to the league has to gods at this point no? Manipulating life from (our perspective) the beginning of time. The sum total of Human Religion might well have been monkeys smearing shit on poorly lit walls in the face of the not-so-benevolent reality of who had been “guiding” humanity all that time
5
Watching your species and loved ones dwindle and die bravely or horribly is bad enough in a space-faring civilization. Finding out that Your friends family and roughly 20% of people you knew or would know died fighting the MANUFACTURED WARM UP ACT. Given as a penial result of the league’s complacency and resistance to utilizing women in the military.
Learning that your loved ones died horribly space-bound deaths due to a totally made-up practice threat would be a whole different dimension of anguish and hate. I can imagine keeping this boy from hating the Cara’ OT might even have been a bit of a struggle. Despite how well-adjusted he is
DOUBLE TLDR. You make league space feel big and lived in. I would be over the moon for any short stories of any characters even remotely related to our main cast that you decide you come out with. You should give yourself more credit your long story has millions of short ones in it. And lastly, maybe you don’t need a McGuffin. Books 1 4 and 5 Have them as well but they show us just as an amazing story with human-on-human strife. People do outlandish things for outlandish reasons. And sometimes for no reason at all.[1] A recently dissolved galactic-scale monarchy and caste system being dissolved and rewritten in the wake of unspeakable horror and tragedy. You do not need a Mcguffin to drive the plot. Your universe is already rife with reasons for shit to kick off, you just need to decide when and who will be the “perspective characters” I guess? Again I’m not a writer so please do suffer me my flawed opinions on the subject.
[1] PLEASE MORE INTIMATE TIME WITH OUR ANTAGONIST, PEOPLE V PEOPLE <3
I so appreciate you taking the time to send me this lovely and thought provoking comments. Yes, Tracy will do his damndest to give his son a normal life out of the public eye after his mother vanishes and then the monarchy goes away. He will have his father, his grandfather, Jahan, Mercedes sisters including Carisa and Luis. The twin girls are Cyprian’s half-sisters.