All good things must come to an end. For author Dan Moren, nothing is more important than making sure that ending is a damn good one. Follow along in his Big Idea for the newest addition to his Galactic Cold War series, The Armageddon Protocol, and see for yourself how finite endings really are.
DAN MOREN:
With apologies to the late Edmund Gwenn: Comedy is easy. Endings are hard.
I’ve been thinking a lot about endings recently. Great endings are surprising but inevitable. But we live in a world where a lot of the stories we’re told don’t ever get a satisfactory ending. TV shows that get canceled after a season or two, movies that fizzle out in by-the-numbers special effects climaxes, and book series that languish on in eternity, waiting for a subsequent installment that may never appear. Given all of that, there’s something to be said for walking off the stage on your own terms, even if it’s not quite the end that you’d always dreamed of.
Unsurprisingly, these thoughts were spurred by the arrival of the final book in my Galactic Cold War series. The Armageddon Protocol once again follows covert operative Simon Kovalic and his team of spies; this time they find themselves under suspicion of treason and on the run for their lives. No ending with a whimper here.
This series has an even longer history than may first be apparent. I first started jotting down ideas for what would become the Galactic Cold War in the beginning of my senior year of college, in the long ago time of 2001 (crumbles into dust, sweeps self into dust pan). Largely inspired by Lois McMaster Bujold’s expansive Vorkosigan Saga, which I’d recently devoured, I envisioned my own sprawling sci-fi epic taking place over years, against the backdrop of a galaxy divided up by two superpowers. Characters would grow, relationships would evolve, major shifts in power would shake the very foundations of the galaxy. This magnum opus would take seven books for me to fully realize my vision. At least.
Eagle-eyed readers will notice that this is but book four of the Galactic Cold War, a bit shy of the seven I originally envisioned. Publishing, as I quickly came to realize, is one of those places where battle plans often don’t survive contact with reality. Armageddon actually marks my fifth book with these characters—my debut, The Caledonian Gambit, takes place in the same world, despite not being officially part of the series. Five books certainly gets me a little bit closer to my envisioned end, even if still falling somewhat short…
The Armageddon Protocol: Amazon|Apple Books|Indiebound|Porter Square Books (signed)
Source: The Big Idea: Dan Moren
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