This is a spoiler-free blog post, so go ahead and read it if you haven't been reading along with the serialized version of Broadcast 12, it's safe. Oh, and the art at the top of this post has nothing to do with the books. I just really liked it and it was in my licensing pile.
Over the last few books, I've ignored entire planets, but I won't ignore this. Let me unpack that.
There are planets in the Haven System that are very interesting, with new terrain, secrets, and stories waiting for our characters, but the story of quick settlement, advancement, and personal discovery and invasion haven't left much, if any room for that. Tamber is huge, almost as large as Earth, and even though it has far fewer people, only about a hundred million now, our characters would find several stories while exploring that planetary body alone. Then there's the larger, more prominent and much less populated planet of Lonos not far from it that is fully terraformed and overgrown that has only been mentioned two or three times and not by name.
The focus of the story, and of the characters we're following is on Tamber because it's all they and the books can handle. It's also where they landed, so it became the centre of the story.
A number of stories that weren't central to the plot were put aside for the time being as well, and some of them will take centre stage again, like the one coming up at the end of this book. I wish I could be more specific, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers.
The meeting of Alice and Noah (Carnie) was one such story, and it was put off for an entire novel. They were supposed to meet in Broadcast 11, but it was pushed to 12 because there was only so much room in Broadcast 11 and Alice had some other things to do.
If I could afford to work on a Spinward Fringe book that was 1,000 pages, I would, but I have to tell this story in smaller pieces, so some stories get pushed to the side. Even still, I think it's time to start telling the story I've wanted to bring in since Broadcast 8, and it all begins with Alice and Carnie really meeting. I'll ignore an entire planet, and take a momentary break from telling the story of the barbarians at the gate to show you something that's been in my head for years now.
Even this close to the end, we're taking a look back to Broadcast 0: Origins as a story takes a nice step forward. I'll get around to exploring Planet Lonos and the other planet sized ideas.
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[Spinward Fringe Broadcast 12: Invasion is serializing on Patreon now, and will be available in full EBook form on May 11, 2019 with preorders available now]
