Fleet admiral John Henry Irons has been busy.
After waking in the Senka system he has crisscrossed the system, having a series of adventures and ups and downs along the way. He's made some new friends and met old ones. He has also made some powerful enemies.
But the call to war is inevitable. Those who thrive on destruction wish him and the civilization he is trying to rebuild ill will. The boot of oppression is already on a part of the sector thanks to the Nazi like Horathian pirates.
Admiral Irons must lead a rag tag group of former pirate slaves and military personnel back to one of the few places he hopes will help stem the pirate tide. Once there he'll have to face the politicians, then dig up his one ace, a secret from his past.
But some ghosts should remain buried...
As soon as I get the links from Amazon and B&N I will put them up here. :)
It is up on Amazon. You can thank Daniel for the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Past-Wandering-engineer-Book-ebook/dp/B00RUDQPQ8
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ghosts-from-the-past-chris-hechtl/1121002589?ean=2940149887255&itm=1&usri=2940149887255
Thank you to everyone who helped get the book out. Very cool. :) Now I need to get through Multiverse 2 so I can get back to Battle Lines, Jethro 4... but first I need my right wrist and arm to heal again...sigh
Carry on and enjoy reading. :D
OH! Please, if you have a problem with reading the book (not that I expect it, but you never know with the different devices out there) let me know here or let Amazon or B&N know before you put it in a review! Thank you!
Thanks Chris! I think you made most of your readers week with this one!
ReplyDeleteIts up:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Past-Wandering-engineer-Book-ebook/dp/B00RUDQPQ8
It was AWSOME!
ReplyDeleteCool, thanks.
DeletePlease post a review if you haven't already. :)
I am still puttering around with Multiverse 2. My arms are still sore. I will hopefully finish it by the end of the month. We shall see how it goes. I just finished roughing out Penance.
Nice story but left me with a few questions.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the reason for Trinity? If it was answered I missed it.
I don't recall where I read it but I seem to remember that they keys were in 3 parts. Sprite had one Irons the second and Defender the third. I assume from reading the end that Protector has defender's set. But if Irons leaves Antiga then will he still be able to give the engineering keys with out Sprite? To me it read like she was semipermenatly installed in the naval yard.
And what the frack was this about the president of the federation being able to see the future?
I will list a few more when I have the time to reread it.
Well the point of trinity was that a single AI couldn't really manage all the jobs, they made an smart AI (sprite) as chief of staff, she needed to be smart to be able to manage all the human interactions that she was going to manage for the admiral, the second one is a semi-smart AI (Proteus) who manage the engineering and the physical part of managing the nanites that regulates the admiral body, read this book and you will see that the admiral has a lot more nanites and stuff inside him than we think, also because of this is that I think proteus is still with the admiral, defender was a dumb AI charged with a very narrowminded way of dealing with stuff, he got more flexible thanks to his interactions with the admiral and sprite but he was a dumb one.
DeleteOf course I don't like this ending to the wanderings of the admiral, I think that the ending was a MASSIVE DOWNER, still love the universe setting and the writting style, so i will continue buying the books and supporting the author I just think that the ending could have been better.
True but you missed the point of the question. Why put three AI into a person in the first place? And remember Sprite commented on the kernel that Defender gave her that there were links to BOTH Proteus and Sprite and without those links Sprite would have crashed also. So WHY interlink the AI in such a way? There has to be a reason. Besides Chris stated we would find out the reason behind trinity. That kind of specialization doesn't seem like enough reason to go through the trouble of developing a prototype mirco smart AI like Sprite and the way Proteus controls the nanites with out screwing up the electronics around Irons or his nervous system. I don't recall in which book it was but I read somewhere that the how as classified because some sister did a paper on a hive mind nanite but couldn't see how to stick it in a person.
DeleteI had planned to get into that in depth but when I started jotting out the Ragnarok (Xeno war) treatments Irons plays a roll in them. So if I got into too much detail in GP I would have undermined several of the books there, at least in part.
DeleteAlso, I've jotted out um... last count was 74 short stories in the 4 time periods, including some of the high (or low) points of Irons career. The answer to the President question and others is in them. :)
Also: I had intended to spend the whole 3rd act on Irons and his history but that felt preachy. It also would have ignored other things and not finished the set up for the next time period so I went a different route. In doing so I undermined myself a bit when I said the answers would be there. Sorry.
Definitely a (at the moment anyway) big letdown with the way trinity was handled at the end. Everything about it so far has indicated it is a very key role for the admiral, and there is nothing now to indicate that he will be able to continue doing all the various roles that he did before (as a unit with Trinity that is). Also the keys... and what will happen when the Admiral is out traveling? Which he will do. Will the new AI replace two roles or just a be a new AI? The new AI's rank will also not be sufficient I presume to be an assistant to the Admiral either or?
ReplyDeleteHaving said this, I really liked it, and yes I got a hiccup at one stage and thought, not Again!! :)
Now I am really looking forward to the next installments where we will see more of what the new sleepers will contribute with as well as what Irons can do with a proper yard (or three).
Yes, some proof reading still needed (but I forgot to mark them while I found them though :(. ) But Irons seems to be talking with Horatio over the Ansible before it is officially connected/installed.
To me the way he ended it almost seems like the way he ends Fool's Gold. Setting us up for a game changer. I say that because I don't remember anywhere in the books Sprite mentioning some kind of dream of hers involving AI. Also her comment that they knew they would be leaving each other just years earlier than they thought.
DeleteYou are right. I am looking forward to seeing what Irons can do with a proper yard with the proper support and with the pouplar support of the cilivans. Though I am not sure he would go for multiple yards in one system. Irons is a believer in redunency (which he has in part with both Antiga and Pryax) but I also feel like with the multiple mentions of a repair ship/yard (I think need to reread to double check) in Bek that he will do something with it too.
three as in Antiga, Pyrax and Bek... :)
DeleteDefinitely a game changer, and just very curious how the it will work out with the keys when part of his keys are not with him (he do tend to travel a lot)... Not to mention software fixes. Perhaps Protector will grow into multiple roles?
Don't be so sure of that. Irons isn't going anywhere, anytime soon.
DeleteYes the keys are in Protector, Irons, and Sprite. Sprite can travel in the external AI core. Let's just say her move out was a bit um... premature. And as far as Trinity... I have something else in mind. I dropped a hint in GP when I mentioned royal jelly...
Bek: I had intended for Irons to go there instead of Antigua waaay back when I wrote the treatments. Now I've got to finagle it back in somehow. That's be fin.
Protector: We shall see! :)
Hey Chris, would first like to say good one on another book. You put in a few twists in there for all of us to look at and go "Huh?". It's too bad about Admiral Halsey. With his key's Pyrax would have ended up being in really good shape for their yard.
ReplyDeleteFor the above questions about Trinity. My thoughts on it are the idea that you are putting in three AI into one whole system. A small system at that. I think the reason they were linked to each other was so the system could handle it. Every other AI we have ever seen is using the computing power of ships and stations. Something special had to be done to shrink them into something as small as the human body. I was also a bit surprised you didn't let us find out if Iron's was the only Trinity member or not. He kind of got interrupted before we could find out lol.
Yeah, I am a stinker sometimes. Sometimes it bugs me too!
DeleteBut that doesn't explain Proteus. Yes he is a dumb AI but of a completely different type (at least how I read it) from Protector, Sprite, and Defender. So again Why put 2 different types (aside from the smart/dumb classification) in the same system (Irons)?
ReplyDeleteI agree it would be interesting to see if Irons is the only Trinity "built".
Proteus is actually older than Sprite/Defender. Proteus was created by Irons before Trinity or at least in parallel. I mentioned it in the book I think. He was working on a design took for engineers and when he got to the point of needing an AI to make it function he had to stop.
DeleteHi chris, I was just wondering if you have any plans to do audio book versions of the wandering engineer series?
ReplyDeleteI was asked that by Amazon when they called me last year. The lady I spoke with offered to do the first for free but after that it costs $$$$ to do it. (I think the average was around $3000 for a 300 page book. They said something about the rule of thumb is 10 pages is $30? I don't remember.)
DeleteSo, not at this time. Sorry. You aren't the first to ask that either. 2 other friends have asked that. :)
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DeleteOk thanks for the reply :)
DeleteDuncan Protus is different because It is Iron's nanites. It is a Nanite hive AI
ReplyDeleteYes I know. I sometimes misread what is there so I was throwing myself a sheet anchor to be safe.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteApart from the Keys now being in more than one place, intelligence Department is a no go zone(meaning Nonexistent) and the Trinity is now a part of history. Oh and a Xeno AI on the loose with Time Travel possible,
ReplyDeleteWow it didn't end well for the Good guys. Its like that last Cherry on the plate, you keep looking at it trying to make up your mind if you should grab it or Not. Then in nano sec its gone.
Maybe Next Time(Travel hehehe LOL)
Where did you get the time travel?
Deletelol
DeleteDon't be too sure Trinity is out totally...
Message from the President:
ReplyDeleteNot so much Time Travel or it could be I'm not sure, but in the Message from the President of the Federation it is implied that he knew John would Survive and he would base himself in Antigua. Just those two points seem to make me suspicious about the timing. So this is the big question did the President have a vision of the future or did the link between the President and John, have a Time Link as well. May be not Time Travel but some sort Time Linkup.
Re-read that section of the book and see how u feel about it. Act III about a quarter of the way in.
It could also be a Red Herring, a way for Chris to mess with us Fans.
Ah I see. I disregarded the time travel in part because even though this is science fiction all of the tech in here is a logical progression from current tech. So far as I know time travel is still theoretical (if you don't count the "current" travelling from the past to the now to the future). I feel like Chris wouldn't abandon that basis if you will with out massively screwing over his own universe rules.
ReplyDeleteActually if you think about it the 6 P's make more sense than time travel as a theory of what the President said to the Admiral.
ReplyDelete6 P's (Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.) I think the Admiral was a Go to Hell Plan.
I think the Admiral was lost on purpose. We know from previous books that the government was aware of the problem with the keys being in a control and restricted system that was falling apart from the war quicker than the established government was rebuilding. (Key holders were dying faster than they could be replace). Any military/intelligence analyst worth his salt would be able to figure out that if the Sol fell and the sun was destroyed that the full set of keys would be lost and that civilization would fall shortly after that.
If you look at the Fall of Berlin in WWII the Axis military commanders knew years before it happened that it was inevitable and hthere was no way they could do to stop it. The losses at Stalingrad and Kursk would have cemented the eventual loss of the Axis armies. With the Xeno’s development of the Nova bomb and destruction of solar systems pushing closer and closer to Sol I am sure the Federation Authorities were aware of them losing the war. I would bet that if we ever hear the details of the Xeno War we will find that the Xeno’s sent most of their Fleet to destroy Sol in a massive offensive. The size properly would have been larger than the federation could stop. I imagine that the size of the fleet left the Xeno short on defenses on their own systems. At which point the federation realized that they could either lose the war and the Xeno’s win or they could insure that the Xeno’s lost with them by sending a massive fleet to wipe out the Xeno’s Core worlds. That way whatever is left of the federation has a chance to rebuild.
The part of Antigua is easy, it is the most likely place for the Admiral to rebuild the Federation given the massive industrial station would be key to rebuilding the fleet. By that time Eden at Pyrax would have been destroyed. Then sending the Admiral his orders at research station makes sense as he would almost be guaranteed to go there at some point to pick up possible sleepers, intel and tech.
While Chris may have meant something else with his message to the admiral from the president I am fairly confident that this is at least a more realistic and plausible explanation than Time travel. The other theory that is not quite as unrealistic as time travel would be the ability to see into the future. For my money I will go with the 6P theory.
That is very true. You can read it that way. But by the same token if I recall correctly the ship Irons was on was surprised by a couple of xeno ships. And again it was implied that he was on his way to reassignment. Now that doesn't mean he wouldn't have been reassigned in sector but I feel that since he was the head of Lemnos (sorry about the spelling) that he probably was on way to the core worlds. Which then begs the question of when the message was sent vs when Prime left Antigua. My impression is (I am not in a position to reread to confirm) that Prime was gone from Antigua before the president sent the message.
DeleteInteresting theory...
Delete