Starship Troupers

[Koheleth]

Mr. Stasheff,

By the storyline in your other series, it seemed that you had some nascent ideas for further stories in the Troupers series. Are they still out there, dormant and awaiting watering, or are there further stories fully developed yet unpublished?

[cstasheff]

Many ideas, and a fourth book in development. Thanks.

Sorry, newborn crying, I'll get back to you in a few hours...

[Ortho the Frank]

One of the cool things about being related to a writer is as soon as you finish one of their books, you can call them up and ask, "So what happens next?" Which is what I did when I finished the Starship Troupers series.

Starship Troupers was originally planned as a six-book series. Unfortunately, the series got canceled after the third book due to sluggish sales. To really enjoy Starship Troupers, the reader has to be both a theater person and a sci-fi fan - which, as you can imagine, is a relatively small cross-section of the population.

Chris wants to write a fourth book to wrap up the series, which he may do now that he has an avenue to distribute it to the fans of the books (this website). There are a lots of revelations and plots twists to come.

Hmm... let me see what I can say without giving away any spoilers...

Well, the man who has been pursuing the Star Company from planet to planet is not who they think he is, nor chasing them for the reasons they assume. Three of the actors are harboring secrets; at least one is using a fake name. The Star Company will also perform on at least one planet we've already seen in other books of Chris's Warlock series.

Well, that should give you something to ponder. I've got no idea when Chris will get around to writing the book; it may depend on how much fan interest there is for it.

[catsend]

Well, I know I loved that series, and looked for more books in vain for quite some time.

[Batchman]

I am not a theater person. In fact, the interactions I have had with such have pretty much convinced me you'd have to be fairly mad to get into theater, but I still greatly enjoyed these books.

Of course, I likely never would have given them a try, to learn that I enjoyed them, if I wasn't more or less a completest for Stasheff's works, so I probably wouldn't really skew the curve that much.

[cstasheff]

You never know how much you're going to skew the curve -- that's why I vote. I suspect most of my Troupers readers only tried the first book because they liked the Gallowglass family. Any reaction helps me. Thanks!

[kf6eml]

First book of yours that I read was Warlock In Spite Of himself. I bought all of that series I could find at the used book store, and saw your name on Her Majesty's wizard, so I bought that, too.

You were still writing those series, so the newer ones were only available at the new book store - As a teenager, money was always tight, so I didn't go in there as often. I bought "We Open On Venus" on pure name recognition, but I bought the other two because I liked the first one so much. I think it's the first time I ever bought a "set" of books retail...

And I've been waiting decades to hear the end of that story! (Okay, maybe "decades" should have been singular. Or split the difference - Decade and a half? Either way, too d***ed long!)

Now that I think about it, you may be the first author whose books I ever bought retail, excluding school fund raisers and the like. Having said that openly, I hope my wife never finds this forum...

[korg20000bc]

When I was a young fella my youthgroup leader lent me his copy of Warlock in spite of Himself. He told me he knew he liked the book from reading the first sentence. I read and loved it. He then lent me King Kobold and was very proud of the fact that he had the original.

When I read Escape Velocity I appreciated the setting much more.

I kept my eyes peeled in the 2nd hand bookstores and found Starship Troupers. It was recognition of the name that sold me on it.
I really enjoyed the switching between Ramou and Horace. I was studying martial arts and appreciated Ramou's education. The cast of characters are all great. I want to know more of their stories.

Some highlights for me:
Horace's hospitality to Ramou and welcome at the actors meal
Actors, Mr Frodo. Actors!
Valdor's acumen
Merlo's equipment buying trip with Ramou and Ramou's joy with the technology- Entirely believable technology.
Ramou's morning routine with the actors. Marnie hissing 'Assassin'
Susanne- is she too good to be true?
Recruiting McLeod and Chandler's Refitting Yard
The humour of Vagrants from Vega
Barry's growing reliance on Ramou and when Ramou puts his foot in his mouth by questioning Barry

Too much good stuff. All the characters have secrets and I want to get into them.

[cstasheff]

Ah! A list of what works! A great help indeed!
When my father, an old theater hand (mostly directing) was coming up on retirement, we were all worried that such an energetic man was going to go crazy with nothing he absolutely HAD to so -- so I dusted off an old idea and suggested we collaborate on a novel about actors trouping the stars, with him writing the Horace chapters and me writing the Ramou chapters. Of course, by the time I finished the outline and had an editor interested, Dad had taken on so many volunteer projects that he no longer had time for the project, so I had to write the Horace chapters as well as I could,l imitating his style.
Glad it worked -- thanks very much.

[kf6eml]

Hmm. I never thought about you needing anyone to point out what works. I can see where negative criticism can help, but I guess the positive stuff is important too... Seems so obvious in hindsight.

For me, I guess it is the way your characters interact. They all seem to have unique personalities, and you're quite good at keeping them distinct and consistent. You don't overdo the relationship angle, either. All too many authors try way too hard to develop the characters and neglect the action. You have always seemed to strike just the right duration of personal interaction with action - I don't like movies that are nothing but chase scenes, and I don't like books like that, either. Ditto "relationship" films (chick flicks! Ugh!) and books (romance novels! Get thee behind me... )
There is a reason "The Princess Bride" was an instant classic. Plot, characters, relationships, fighting, murder, monsters, magic... Sort of like your books *ahem*

I guess the point of this post is that you have always seemed to tell a good story so effortlessly that it never crossed my mind what I specifically liked about each one.

On the negative side, I can say that some of the Rogue Wizard books seem a bit overplayed in the relationship department. It seems that if relationship is going to be a major focus of the story, then it should develop in direct proportion to the attention it is paid by the narrator. You keep going back to it, and it never gets resolved. It goes just past "suspenseful" and tiptoes into "frustrating" territory. (By "relationship" here, I include the "lone wolf" tendencies - call it a relationship with oneself, if you will - as much as romantic interests.)

On the positive side, if that's the biggest gripe I can come up with after reading 20+ of your novels, then you're doing pretty good by anybody's standard.