The final Safehold book: Time to face reality?

Background: I read the series twice. The second time, out loud to my wife. Got my dad and my brother to read the whole thing. We are old school sci fi readers who have read the Lensman Series and all the John Carter books.

With that pedigree, we have had discussions as to why RFC appears to be vacillating in finishing the series. My dad's theory is that RFC doesn't know how to finish it or can't decide. That he's intimidated by his own work. There is some value to this theory as RFC has meanwhile written other books including the third book of the OOTD series.

Not to mention, the most recent Safehold book was a time-jumping disaster which I ended up skimming (I did read it out loud to my wife and she hated it). Probably his worst writing since killing Nahrman.

My only hope is that RFC doesn't ruin his legacy like Robert Jordan did, stalling until he died before finishing the Wheel of Time series. Of course, RFC isn't milking things like Jordan did. But this latest stretch of emptiness reminds me of all the Half Life 2 fans waiting for HL3 to come out.

Don't let this one fall short, RFC.

fossten wrote:With that pedigree, we have had discussions as to why RFC appears to be vacillating in finishing the series. My dad's theory is that RFC doesn't know how to finish it or can't decide. That he's intimidated by his own work. There is some value to this theory as RFC has meanwhile written other books including the third book of the OOTD series.

I disagree. His productivity dropped sharply due to health issues, he posted this on Facebook in August 2022:

I lost roughly 2 years to the concussion, and about a year and a half to the Covid

Other events have happened since that post including his wife's health issues and hurricanes and just getting older. The fact is that the last significant "Weber-sized" solo book was the most recent Safehold more than six years ago, since then his output has been limited to collabs and the "Toll of Honor" rehash.

His latest Facebook post just this past weekend says his current plan is to "start" the next Safehold at the end of this year but I'm not feeling hopeful.

His legacy will be determined by the outcome of the Honorverse series much more than anything else, that has to be more popular than all the rest of the books put together...

He has provided so much entertainment to so many. I can only wish him well. If he can't continue, so be it. Pick a ghost writer and provide them with an outline on all of his projected future works please.

Caraquena wrote:

fossten wrote:With that pedigree, we have had discussions as to why RFC appears to be vacillating in finishing the series. My dad's theory is that RFC doesn't know how to finish it or can't decide. That he's intimidated by his own work. There is some value to this theory as RFC has meanwhile written other books including the third book of the OOTD series.

I disagree. His productivity dropped sharply due to health issues, he posted this on Facebook in August 2022:

I lost roughly 2 years to the concussion, and about a year and a half to the Covid

Other events have happened since that post including his wife's health issues and hurricanes and just getting older. The fact is that the last significant "Weber-sized" solo book was the most recent Safehold more than six years ago, since then his output has been limited to collabs and the "Toll of Honor" rehash.

His latest Facebook post just this past weekend says his current plan is to "start" the next Safehold at the end of this year but I'm not feeling hopeful.

His legacy will be determined by the outcome of the Honorverse series much more than anything else, that has to be more popular than all the rest of the books put together...

Honorverse is a disappointment as well, with all the overlapping stories. Didn't even finish the Mesan Alignment saga.

Regardless, he needs to get Chris Kennedy to finish Safehold or something. But I suspect it will look like the fanfic thread anyway. He's cornered himself with the last book, which was a disaster.

fossten wrote:Honorverse is a disappointment as well, with all the overlapping stories. Didn't even finish the Mesan Alignment saga.

Regardless, he needs to get Chris Kennedy to finish Safehold or something. But I suspect it will look like the fanfic thread anyway. He's cornered himself with the last book, which was a disaster.

David has said that he has selected Marisa Wolf to take over from Eric Flint for a To End in Fire continuation. No word on status but the two of them have a story in an anthology coming from Baen in July, maybe that was a test to see how well they work together. Marisa's most recent blog post (from May) only mentions working on something with Chris Kennedy...