What's Going On At Chaos Manor
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
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Revised when I get to it.
This page has been superceded by a NEW PAGE ON WORK IN PROGRESS
THE BURNING CITY, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle:
IS NOW DONE AND PUBLISHED
Niven and I have turned in THE BURNING CITY, a novel set 14,000 years ago just after Atlantis sank; in a time when magic runs big civilizations, but the magic is being used up, and the civilizations are doomed to utter collapse. Not many know this at the time. The story is set in a a city whose inhabitants set fire to it at intervals. It's a full novel, that begins with the protagonist at age seven and continues through growth to maturity.
The book was bought by Simon and Schuster, and editor John Ordover has had some excellent suggestions. We have done the work he wants; definite improvements. We "finished" this book about five time, but it is definitely done now.
The Burning City is scheduled for publication in Spring, 2000, and will be a Big Book. We have done maps, there is a great cover, and you can pre-order it. Please do...
MAMELUKES by Jerry Pournelle
See Progress page.
Working title for the fourth book in the Janissaries series. Jim Baen hates the title and it will probably have an entirely different title. Introduces new character and lots of new conflicts. About 45,000 words done and polished. My current project.
This got set aside while we did the editorial work on The Burning City but is now back on the front burner. I hope to finish it by October, 1999. Well, it is now December and I have 55,000 words, and it is moving along. I had to get Burning City out of the way, and there were other hangups, but now I should get right at it. I like it.
HIGH TECH WARS by J. E. Pournelle, Ph.D. St. Martins/Tor Non-fiction with some stories on warfare in the next Millennium. I should be further along with this than I am.
And I have made little progress, which is bad, because there is no good book on modern strategy for the next millennium. I must get at it.
THE BURNING TOWER by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle is the second volume in the BURNING CITY series. We have done a proposal. Simon and Schuster want the book. It's set in Meso-America 14,000 years ago, and continues the story of how engineering replaced magic.
MOONMITES by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (Working title)
In abeyance: may be restarted.
Novel set about 2050, near term hard science fiction of the "old Heinlein" variety. This got put back to make way for The Burning Tower. Always listen to your editors and your agent.
THE CHAOS MANOR GUIDE by Jerry Pournelle and Robert Bruce Thompson
O'Reilly press. That's a working title. The book is in the works. It is going to be longer than we thought. Things FLOW so...
With luck this book will be revised annually and stay in print forever. Bob is doing more than his share of the work, partly because I don't know and am not smart enough to learn all the formatting tricks a major computer publisher wants nowadays. There are also performance tables and references. Bob does all that. I provide war stories and color.
SILICON BRAINS by Jerry Pournelle
Long ago overdue. I'll get at it Real Soon Now.
Projects that definitely ought to be further along than they are, and which I am actively working on, but which keep getting put aside for other work:
SPARTAN HEGEMONY by Jerry Pournelle, possibly alone. The next volume in the Sparta series.
FALKENBERG ON KENNICOTT (project title; working title not selected). John Christian Falkenberg's romance and brief marriage to Grace; takes place after the WEST OF HONOR sequence in Falkenberg's Legion. Falkenberg is posted to, and takes command of, the CoDominium 42nd Line Marines.
Screen Projects:
Niven and I have been asked to do some screen treatment stuff and we probably will since we sort of said we would. Enthusiasm isn't high: we work together well, but not so well with other people except Barnes and Flynn; it takes a lot to make a successful collaboration which is why most TV shows and film scripts are so awful.
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There are other projects but those are the major ones. Other than this place of course.