I know, I was surprised to learn I had a plan too.
I was planning to follow up the next Fox book, Dance with The Devil, with the start of a new military sci-fi series. Fox 10 is still happening (on time barring unusual circumstances; mid-February), but I’ve got a problem with the military thing which is going to take too long to work out, so I’m changing to a third Princeps Venator book with Dione, Mike, and the gang at SCU. I’m working through the plot at the moment and I’ll start writing tomorrow.
Unfortunately, that means there’ll be a longer-than-usual wait for the book after Fox 10. Hopefully, you’ll all survive without a new book from me for an extra month and, hopefully, I’ll catch up later in the year when I get the sci-fi thing sorted out and finished.
Also hopefully, Anthem turns out to be not as good as it looks. It’s the new release from BioWare (in case you didn’t know), the creators of Mass Effect. I’m going to end up buying it (I have Christmas money burning a hole in my Amazon account) and Mass Effect sucked a good three or four months out of my life back in the day. On the other hand, binging ME got me to write the first Aneka book, so Anthem may prove inspirational. OTOH, early reports of the VIP demo going on this weekend are not exactly sparkling with reports of crashing servers, glitches and bugs abounding, and other issues, so it’s quite possible the game will be unplayable at launch. Something of a problem for BioWare. They’re likely to die an undignified death if they mess this up as badly as Mass Effect Andromeda (which I actually liked, but I didn’t play it until months after launch when all the bugs had been ironed out, and it was also discounted a lot).
Witches and Ray-Guns 
Thumbs up for Princeps Venator!
BioWare has developed the nasty habit of releasing buggy or unpolished games that plagues everything touched by EA now days. Im personally a bit ambivalent about Anthem. On one hand it sounds like a great game and I really want to play, but on the other I despise all fps touched by EA (Im looking at you especially Battlefront) and Im more than a bit miffed with BioWare for the debacle that was Andromeda. For such a botched job, it was still a very good game IMO, so just how good could it have been if they hadnt sabotaged it through incompetent management?
Happy to see that were getting a new Princeps Venator and really dont mind an extra month to see it. Hopefully you get things sorted for the military scifi quickly…or maybe Anthem inspires you do get something with Aneka written. Either way, I thing we as readers win.
I’ll look forward to whatever you get done first. Currently re-reading the Aneka series and enjoying it all over again.
I’ll be happy to see a new Princeps Venator. Heck, I’m happy to see anything you write. (Although I miss my old friends, Ceri, Lilly, Aneka, and Ella)
As far as games go, personally, I’m looking forward to Cyberpunk 2077
Yes, I’m awaiting Cyberpunk 2077 with bated breath.
Actually, I’m not. They’ve been promising that game for so long that I’d begun to assume it was vaporware. When it finally does come out, I’m sure I’ll have it on launch day, but I don’t think I really expect to see it before next year. That would be an appropriate launch date given the game it’s based on was set in 2020.
Yeah, we caught up to the future, and it was not all it could have been.
Wouldn’t be the first time.
Ahh, the future … it’s depressing to consider that the closest we’ve come to flying cars is Bo and Luke doing something stupid in the General Lee.
But at least we got Star Trek datapads. I used to sit down every week with my mother and sister to watch new TNG episodes, and years later I shared an apartment with my sister for a few years and we did the same with Voyager, so the first time I got a chance to mess around with a friends smart phone and realized it was essentially a Star Trek prop come to life I couldnt stop laughing. My friend went a bit goofy when I told him what was so funny too.
Except…
ST’s datapads are more like tablets than smartphones. Tablets have largely gone out of fashion. Star Trek’s technology stems from a 1960s view of advanced tech and so has a tendency to devalue computers. By the 23rd century, I doubt people will be wandering around with anything like a tablet and maybe nothing like a smartphone, and the computer aboard a major starship is unlikely to need humans to help it run things.
Couple of comments: Re: ME-Andromeda, there is a Youtube video where a fan of the franchise rightly hammers Bioware with POOR STORYTELLING in its’ case, which I agree with.
I, also, am awaiting Cyberpunk 2077 with bated breath. As for time in development, It has been that way with every game they put out – except for Witcher – which the USA release was so bad, that it took them a couple years to fix all the character speech/interactions. Since then, to the best of my knowledge, they have always been multiple years in development for their games, but when the game is released, there are no constant patches, bug fixes, beta launches, etc, such as Bioware/EA have been doing.
Lastly, Niall, I don’t give a darn what you write, just keep it up!!! I will admit that I would not mind some more Ceri/Lili, Aneka, or Unobtanium stories.
My one issue with Andromeda wasn’t poor storytelling, it was lazy storytelling. Basically, it came across as ME1 rehashed with new bad guys.
I hope you’re right about C2077, but a lot of the delay on this one seems to have involved internal problems with the company rather than a desire for the perfect product. That said, they likely will hold out for as bug-free a product as possible, which is why I don’t think we’ll see it published this year. Ergo, not holding my breath that long.
And lastly… You’re in luck. I’m always writing something! 🙂
Anthem feels like a cross between ME:A and Warframe. It felt like a game that I had played before even with the new things.
However, one of the few that actually liked ME:A, probably played 300 hours. I love the combat, the rest i can lived with.
I, too, enjoyed ME: Andromeda – up to a point. That point was on the first colony world. There was SO much room for other missions and quests that it was appalling that they didn’t exist. Not only that, there was really nothing done in the first 10 hours or so of gameplay in ME:A that got you invested in ANY of the secondary characters.
Compare that to ME, where within the first 10 hours of play, you’ve been (energetically!!) introduced to: Kaidan, Ashley, Joker, Anderson, Udina, Prestley, and the Doc. All of these characters you interact with for the entire game – unless they are killed off.
One of the reasons that I bought ME:A was the thought of Bioware showing us an entire new galaxy – new races, politics, conflicts, plus discovery and colonization. I have to say that it was quite disapointing overall – potential was there, but Bioware did not, IMO, begin to rise to the challenge of utilizing that potential.
any update yet on Fox 10?
It’ll be out in the next couple of days. Precise timing depends on how fast I can work through the final edits.