The Stealth Season of the Kirov Series, as the author calls it, has now added six more volumes, #65 thru #70, and by the end of this latest release, Goliath, it will be evident that this Season 9 will continue through at least 8 volumes, like all the others. When asked what led to all these Encore volumes, John said:
“It’s really just a case of trying to give the readers what they want. After Volume #64 of the Kirov Series I put out the five Volume Innisfail Series, two more books in the Keyholder’s Series (#3 The Devil Ship, and #4 Sands of Honor). Then I finally completed the third book in the Dharman Series, Nightwatch, followed by the release of an all new #32 Volume in the Kirov Series, Downfall, to replace Field Of Glory, which moved to the Keyholder’s Series. All that said, looking at volume sales still shows the Encore Volumes of the Kirov Series in Season 9 outselling everything else. When you live off your sales royalties, it’s hard to walk away from your best sellers. So I tried to make them stand alone missions that anybody could pick up and read without having to have first read the entire 64 book main series. Readers who have read those will get a little more out of them because of all they saw in the main series, but anyone can tune in for a good story, and get a flavor of the main series if they were thinking of taking the plunge there.”
“How is writing one of these as a stand alone story different from linking them?”
“Well, this deep in the series, I don’t have to do a lot of work drawing characters and telling readers who these people are. Series readers have sat through a hundred conferences between Fedorov and Karpov in the Ready Room, as those two lay plans to complete the missions. Those scenes here can still work well even if a new reader comes to the story and does not know the long history between the two men, how they were once at odds with one another, then enemies, before a rapprochement and alliance as collaborating partners in the later volumes. In recent volumes, Fedorov has indulged Karpov’s military plans with Odo, and then Karpov returns the favor by indulging Fedorov’s quest for Atlantis in the ancient history.”
“Were you planning on doing more with Atlantis?”
“That was one path I could have taken. I was also looking strongly at an alternate history of the wars between Carthage and Rome, and exploring some “what ifs” there. Both those stories were seeded in volume #69. Then Director Kamenski intervened, and I realized there were bigger fish to fry. The issue of the Grand Finality has not yet been entirely dispensed with, because the Skeletals, launch a counteroperation, and Kamenski thinks he knows just the men to handle it. So Off I went, and it swept me into the story that became Goliath.”
“The last few volumes have been linked, like the main series books.”
“True, because some stories take more than one book to tell. I rigorously structure every Kirov Series novel, and a lot of my other books, in twelve parts, with three chapters in each part. So when I get to chapter 36, and I feel the story is not yet quite finished, I just take up where I left off in the next season volume. Now, in this book, Goliath, I use Part I to tie off what was happening in Volume #69, then in Part II I launch into the story that becomes Goliath, and the nemesis Fedorov and company first discovered in Antarctica in books like Final Sortie and Encore is back for the role of antagonist.”
“It seems that your recent work is aimed at resolving subplot threads.”
“Yes, Encore had action against Ivan Volkov at Ilanskiy, and then the deployment missions to Camp Century, Antarctica and the Artic to undermine the Skeletal Invasion landings. Then in the replacement of Volume #32, I resolved the military fate of Ivan Volkov in the Caucasus, and now I’m entangled with Kamenski’s mission to foil alternate plans laid by the Skeletals after their landing was stopped—that’s the story in Goliath.”
“Can you tell us a little about it?”
“What to say about Goliath without spoiling the show and revealing the many twists and turns this story takes. The cover will tell you something, but this one didn’t end the way I thought it would. The story evolved in the writing. It begins right where I left off in the Rage of Fujin, with Fedorov trapped inside the ancient twin of the great sphinx monument, deep in the past. Oddly, when I started that book, I never thought it would end there either. Goliath shifts gears quickly, and sees the bridge crew and Marines again recruited by Kamenski for a daring and dangerous mission unlike any other in the series. To prevail, Karpov is given a ship bound for strange far places, where they will come face to face with the eerie alien race they have come to call the Ice Men. The Murder Hornets are back, and with a sinister new plot to exact terrible vengeance against the upstarts of planet Earth. This time their plan is utter annihilation, but to do that, they will have to first vanquish 15 officers and Marines off Kirov who will fight them with unexpected ferocity and skill. This is surely the biggest problem Karpov, Fedorov and company have ever faced. Unlike the covert mission to plant tactical nukes at five polar bases, this time they have to face and defeat the Skeletals in a completely different and unfamiliar domain, where they know any victory could come with a very high cost. The fate of all humanity now rides in the balance.”
“Does it end in this volume?”
“No, it’s a story too big for one book, so I’ll at least take the next two books in Season Nine to finish it. That will end the season with a solid trilogy focused on the developments that begin here in Goliath. I’ve titled those next two books, but as Kamenski might say, ‘That would be telling.’
“Great, where did the idea for Goliath come from?”
“Frankly, I browse a lot of news, and also science news as well as political headlines and world events. One day I saw an article talking about a comet slated to make a close approach to earth called the Devil’s Comet, and I just love things like that, so I first titled #70 ‘The Devil’s Star,’ until the Skeletals launched their operation, whereupon I changed the title to Goliath.
Another reason I wanted to write this is probably leftover buzz from my third Dharman Series book, Nightwatch. I just loved that trilogy, (my first books), and really wanted to continue that series, but had to get back to books that would butter the bread, so I returned to the Encore season of the Kirov Series. That said, I still had the sci-fi bug, and having introduced the Skeletals in a number of earlier volumes, I went back to see how that subplot might be resolved. Now I’m really looking forward to books 71 and 72 to take that on.”
The story is quite a cocktail… One part Star Trek, One Part War of the Worlds, and One part Classic Kirov.
“Well said.”
Don’t miss #70 in the Kirov Series, Goliath, out well before Santa comes this year.