I had a ton of emails from everyone, who wanted to know *exactly* who from the previous series, Imperial Hammer, got to hang around for the new series, Iron Hammer.
Apparently, I was a bit too vague about who got the chop. 🙂
I’m currently watching the thrust and parry between the producers of Star Trek: Discovery and the fans, who want to know exactly what will happen in Season 4, which lets me see it from your perspective.
Although I’m going to have to be as cagey as the Discovery people, because telling you too many details about who is in the new series will lay down spoilers. (And I just realized that the normal fan practice of using the acronyms for each series — TOS, TNG, VOY, leaves Discovery with an unsavory acronym of its own. Yoiks! Although, Wikipedia says the official acronym is DSC — phew!)
So, here’s a couple of answers to a couple of very specific questions that got asked over and over:
- Will Varg be back?
There is a hard straight answer, then a softer, longer answer. I’ll use the softer answer.
Wolves, even parawolves, have much shorter life spans than humans. As the new series starts over thirty years after the last series ended, I couldn’t find a way to include Varg in the new series that would actually be realistic. Which bothered the hell out of me, too, so I found a compromise. Well, sort of an over-compromise.
And that’s where my answer edges into spoiler territory, so I’ll stop.
- Will Lyth be back…and BTW, how do you pronounce his name?
Everyone trips over the pronounciation, because there’s normal English grammar, then there is foreign usage, and then there is the shortening of his name. “Y” in English is very nearly always pronounced as “eye” when it appears in the middle of a word, when directly following a consonant (Myself, bye, recycle, cycle, Bryan). When it comes after a vowel, the vowel changes the pronounciation, because the y becomes a consonant, not a vowel. (Aye, Layer, Loyal) — but this doesn’t affect Lythion. There are also foreign words like “Egypt” that have different pronounciations, too, but also don’t apply.
“Python” is pronounced “p-eye-thon” and “lithion” is pronounced with the short “i”.
Given all that, I presumed that “Lythion” would be pronounced as “l-eye-thion”, with the “y” distinguishing it from “lithion”.
And therefore, as Lyth’s name is a shortening of “Lythion”, his name is also pronounced “L-eye-th” even though there’s no e on the end.
To make it easier for readers to figure out, I should have put the “e” on the end of the name. Even my partner says “Lith” and I correct them every time. But it seemed logical to me to just chop off the end of “Lythion”, which would make it “Lyth”, and it didn’t occur to me that not everyone would automatically understand that it’s a shortening of the ship’s name.
But we’re six books in now, so I’m stuck with the shortform, without the “e”.
And yes, Lyth will be back.
Two weeks to go until release. Or one week, if you buy direct from me.
🙂
Danny and her crew learn that humans may not be alone in the galaxy.
Thirty years ago, Danny and her crew on the Supreme Lythion were instrumental in the defeat of the sentient array, the crumbling of the Empire and the development of crescent ships.
Now wildcat crescent ships are opening up the known galaxy, finding more worlds to be settled and new resources. When the wildcat ship Ige Ibas goes dark and silent, Dalton comes to Danny for help, because his son, Mace, is on that ship. Despite their history, Danny agrees to try to find Mace.
But the Ige Ibas has gone dark for a reason, and Danny’s investigation rouses the ire of a new enemy, one that emerges from beyond any worlds known to humans…
Galactic Thunder is the first book in the Iron Hammer space opera science fiction series by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper. The Iron Hammer series is a spin off from the acclaimed Imperial Hammer series, and features many of the characters and situations from that series.
The Iron Hammer series:
1.0: Galactic Thunder
…and more to come!
Space Opera Science Fiction Novel
The book is now available for pre-order, and will be released on all bookstores on February 25.
If you pre-order your book directly from me, on my publisher site, SRP, then you will get the book a week early.
Enjoy!
