I’ll put it up tonight but it takes some time to propagate through their system. Here’s the cover.
Can’t get link to work. Sorry.
I’ll put it up tonight but it takes some time to propagate through their system. Here’s the cover.
Can’t get link to work. Sorry.
Nice cover! Looking forward to reading it!
I was just coming here to comment on the cover. Very nice!
Copy acquired, reading begun…
I’ve got better comments on that cover than any before.
Book is up on Amazon.ca! I just added it and will be reading it cover to cover now. Ty so much for writing this book. I am so excited.
Awesome, thanks! I was able to grab it, and great timing for me – I will be reading it while I’m off for a long weekend around the holiday tomorrow!
up in US.
thank you!
Thanks for writing your stories!
Bought it, I’ll read it this evening.
Up on Amazon.com.au
What a great way to spend a holiday weekend!
Happy 4th of July, Mac!
Found it on Amazon.com and bought it. Thanks!
Got in the UK. About a third into the book and really enjoying it.
Good read but now I have to wait again for the next book.
Well it will be worth the wait as always.
Finished it! No wonder you feel a bit burnt out, there is so much going on.
Great book – loved it.
A lot left open, especially the last bit. Will Jeff finally meet a true AI?
Have a rest, a change, then maybe you will feel like continuing the saga.
Many thanks for such fantastic writing.
I promised myself that I would read ‘reluctant sovereign’ all in one setting. I lied. I finished it about five a.m. I loved it. Then I went to bed and it came to me in a dream.
Trish and her little brother discover Tom le Twool ….and….things got very excting and…I woke.
I hope you reconsider about writing more Family Law Books. Sure it’s hard to keep all the various plots untwisted and the story line untwangled. If it was easy anyone could do it. You do it well and that’s one reason I love your series’s so much. That and you take on…”hmmm. That’s strange. ”
Speaking of strange. Any chance you’ll republish ‘the way thing seem’ any any time soon. and sequels. (do they get married or not?)
Be well and keep writing.
That would be ‘would not’ read it all in one sitting. oops.
Glad to see you Mick. Kind of lost touch since I dropped Facebook. Drop me some mail to tell me what you are doing.
Loved it. This is all up to you of course, but maybe focusing on family law from now on would be less stressful than going back and forth between the series, parts that need to be covered to merge the series could be handled with flashbacks. Anyway all the action seems to be FL.?
Yeah not much between to cover…
Thanks so much for writing these books!!
Loved it.
Story flows well and ties together with previous books.
Again, I bought it instead of just kindle. I have them all including the one that they objected to.
Thanks Mac.
Glad you like them that well.
Love all your books but I’m not one to usually post anything. I have a question that has occurred to me before and became relevant in this book as well. I thought Lee deeded the island on Providence to Red Tree in exchange for a heavy cruiser (which has to be the Retribution) and the explorer Champion William that is currently exploring as part of the reduced Little Fleet. There is no heavy cruiser with the reduced Little Fleet as Admiral Hawking only sent a destroyer since Lee and Gordon weren’t sending anything bigger. Help me out and explain where I’m in error as it bugs me every time I reread.Thanks
You could be right. I’ll go back and check and correct it if I forgot my own story line.
You are correct – I didn’t go back far enough. Lee talked about swapping the island for the Retribution at the end of Family Law but didn’t finalize it. Then when she and Gordon go see Admiral Hawking in the second book it is said she owns it and the captured explorer.
I’ll correct the story line this evening. I think what may have messed me up was they kept it at Derfhome for protection from the USNA until the Foys took that over.
Thanks for checking. I figured I was wrong since I’ve found parts like that before that make sense after rereading but this one stuck. I appreciate your books as they are my go-to favorite when I just have to read something enjoyable.
FIXED and uploaded. Thanks for catching that. – Mac’
A couple other spelling problems fixed too.
It may be a local problem to me but the kindle text to speech is reading the first line on the page a couple of times then skipping a couple of pages. No trouble with any of April 2-14. If you want to tell Amazon about it, you might add that it seems poor to have it lose its place when the screen isn’t rotation locked, and can’t read when the screen is locked like audible can (that is a problem with the April non-narrated too.)
If you’re patching old stories in Family Law, you might decide whether Lee bet 0.1% of her net worth (a tenth % of her net worth) or 10% of her net worth that the caterpillars would follow her to derfhome.
I don’t like to be Betty buzzkill, but what has been missing in the last several books is action. I think that’s what has you feeling burnt out. It’s writing words to move the storyline(s) ahead to where your mind has already gone.
I’m not going to stop reading, but it’s feeling a little like a slog and not a pleasure.
For example, we spent three, four (?) books with the Foy’s – we knew they eventually made it to space and performed a service for Heather, but … they won the lottery and took a bus to the shuttle port. A bit underwhelming, vs. surviving in a crashed truck through a brutal winter.
We’ve seen the future as it is of the April books. In the 113 years between where we are and the start of Family Law, we need to find Fargone, Derfhome, and New Japan – three class A planets. We know one explorer goes out on two of the expeditions, and we know a bit of the discovery story of Derfhome.
I think the suggestion of flashbacks is a good one – you can write 5 or 10 pages and not have to write the 10,000 words that wrap around it.
Go off and write something else to recharge your batteries and then return to write the stories YOU want to write. Your readers will adjust.
Will consider all that…
I think every reader has favorite parts of your books. I enjoy the sections with a lot of action, but I really like the descriptions of life in space and how the Foys solve their many problems surviving The Day.
I would love to see a series about Providence.Maybe start it 100 years later and we get to meet all new characters with Lee’s generation and other life extended making appearances here and there for the continuity, as you did in Family law. It would be interesting to see the children and grandchildren of Clair, Tish, Mike and the other red tree Derf as well as the Hin population in their territory and possibly Bills, Cats and Sasquatch all living together in a multicultural society.
Seeing the return of the reduced exploration fleet and hearing of their adventures. Possibly revisiting the Caterpillars, Bunnies ,Octopuses and any new species to be found.
Trips to Central’s outlying planets by Lee and Gordon under their new treaty would eventually be fun, possibly mixed into a new exploration with the improved drives.
Just a few suggestions if you are looking for ideas that fans are interested in. Speaking as a fan myself. I understand that a writer needs to step away from the same old cast of characters now and then to keep things fresh. Create new worlds and explore new ideas. Just know that the April/Family Law series has become a standard by which I compare all sci-fi now. Your intelligent yet engaging and entertaining style is rare and wonderful. It would please me and I’m sure, many others if it were to continue once you’ve had a break.
Thanks for sharing your stories.
Woo hoo. Glad I checked in. Just downloaded it from Amazon, and there’s 50 reviews already avg 4.9 stars. I guess I won’t be sleeping tonight!
Just finished reading. Loved it (as usual) and especially the ending! I know you said you are tired of April/Family Law, but I would love to have at least one more to follow that ending! Thanks for all your hard work on these stories.
Saw it in my Kindle app. Downloaded immediately, but I’m rationing it out, so I don’t read it in one gulp. After a few chapters, the precise nature of the cover became obvious, as did the nature of the title.
Keep ’em coming. Much appreciated.
Question about estate sizes.
!!!Caution minor spoilers!!!
On position 2609 you write:
“I’ll have ten square kilometers which is a very respectable estate”
On position 6461 you write:
“That’s the size of a dozen estates on Far Away,”
Later on position 6579 you define that piece of land as:
“You do realize that’s a tract of land bigger than Red Tree Clan back home? For comparison with Earth, it’s about the size of France.”
You realize that France has a Land area of 632734 square kilometers.
Even if the “ten square kilometers” were meant as “ten by ten kilometers (so 100 sqr km)” france is a “little bit bigger than a dozen respectable estates.
Well… if she will really gain an 800 km by 800 km estate, she will be really spoiled for choice when looking for a husband.
I’ll have to go look at the context of both. I believe they are separate grants which aren’t any standard size.
I didn’t make my thoughts clear. I edited it to make better sense.
2609 was the land grant for Musical
6461 was the land grant for Tish
6579 I’m not sure if it was just for Tish’s land grant or if it was for Tish’s and Ha-bob-bob-brie’s land grand combined. (the latter I think as unlikely, because his was on the other end of the continent if I remember correctly)
But between 10 sq. km. and 320.000 sq. km. (half of France) are orders of magnitude.
on topic of FL8:
Could be funny if Talker + family would be invited back to Far Away to handle all the incoming engagement proposals.
And Lee hit by badger marriage proposal too, after it becomes public that she owns a star system, most of living planet, a space station and half a dozen ships have her own currency. (“she has her own money” joke from “Coming to America”)
Edited to be clearer.
Thank you.
Now it’s clear.
The cover is excellent. It reminds me of the best of Baen Publishing before Jim died and Baen soon followed. It is bright, clear and uncluttered. If it were murdered tree (heh) published it would stand out on shelves.
Sarah keeps improving.
I have really enjoyed this series and hope to see more. The Lee arc is wonderful and has great characters. I hope you continue this series and am really looking forward to the next one.