Tracy Hickman - Will there be more SOTA novels at all?

Hello @Lord British !!

So, when is the new SOTA novel coming out? Are you still writing this with him? Is there any word on new novels, or should we be told that there will be only the one?

 

I havn't heard from Tracy in quite a while (he used to be pretty chatty on Twitter). His last work update was over a year ago (March 2016), and he noted that the Underworld Ascendant novel should be done in April and that he was planning to work on the second Shroud of the Avatar novel to complete last fall.

It would be great to get an update!

 

Unfortunately, I am not sure we will see a continuation of the novels. At least not right now, if SotA really takes off that might change but given the current state of the game, I am doubtful.
Having said that, I really enjoyed the first one and think a continuation of the story would be awesome from a lore perspective.

 

I have measured the possible success of this game with one factor: Richard Garriott. I figured when I started seeing him back out of the game (which seems to be his MMO over the years when something is going to fail) then SOTA is failing. So I have watched over the past 1.5 years, on sources even like Twitter. Richard has backed off the game a bit. I see him occasion on their big videos (like we will today), but not quite as much as say 6 months ago when he was very busy always talking about it on twitter and doing interviews. This has concerned me a little bit, but hes not backed off enough that I think its an issue.

In that time however, I have not seen Hickman (who I have been a fan of for decades, I still read the 2 dragon Lance trilogies once every few years), once in the game at all and is barely mentioned in anything outside of dated marketing material and the recent book. I really wish he was more involved but alas, he is an author and this is a video game.

 

Still haven't read the novel. Waiting on my signed physical copy!

 

I'm reading Sword of Midras abit nearly every evening since i bought it. It's a nice novel. It's nice to see locations from the books which i've visited many times in game and now i understand abit more about the lore.

 

I feel like involvement on the book may have much to do with timing, as Richard and Tracy are both busy people and need to find time to work together in order to get it finished. Perhaps while the singleplayer story line is being developed and completed for the first episode of the game, Richard is just too busy, and doesn't want to work on the book until episode one is more complete.

 

Still waiting for the first bloody novel to come out... very unorganised publisher for those of us Down Under.

 

Its my understanding that there will be one novell per episode. So, we are far away from episode 2. why should there be now a new novell coming out?

 

I have a copy of Sword Of Midras on my shelf that I got from Amazon. Is that the one you mean? They definitely ship to Australia because that's how I got mine.

 

This was answered by Richard in the telethon yesterday during the Story Hour (if you want to find it yourself once they upload it).
Executive Summary:
-Next book likely to arrive right after commercial launch

Paraphrasing from Richard's answer out of Spoon's tarnished memory:
-Yes we are working on it. However we are already late in our schedule with the publisher (Tor) since Tracy got caught up with the Void project. We have sent some mails back and forth so the story is sorted out but still needs to be written. If everything goes as planned it should be ready right after episode one launch.

 

The pledge reward "Blade of the Avatar" is not yet printed. It will be printed and shipped at the same time as all the other physical rewards which they have said will coincide with commercial launch. It is also outside any publisher deals, so Portalarium will print those themselves.

While the "Sword of Midras" (a revised and edited version of Blade of the Avatar with four extra chapters) is published by Tor and available on Amazon etc
https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Midras-Shroud-Avatar-Novel/dp/B01GQSV56M
which has AFAIK already shipped copies to lots of countries. Would be surprised if there was a problem getting it shipped to Australia.

 

Ever since my Kindle account was forced to switch to the AU store, I can only order the Kindle Audible edition, which means you must have an Audible account to download and listen to it. No other editions are listed. This is a common occurrence with many US published products.

Curious how you got it. I've even been to local book stores and they can't even find it on their system.

Just to clarify, by the "first one" I meant Sword of Midras since, as you mentioned, it was supposed to be the penultimate edition of the Blade of the Avatar story. But as I said above, unfortunately I can't seem to order it from the Amazon store, other than an audible edition which I have no interest in listening to. I prefer to read books myself. :/

 

Yeah it's a copy of Sword of Midras. I'm not sure what to say - I just added it to my cart on Amazon and shipped it, got it a couple weeks later.

I don't own any e-books if that makes a difference.

 

Is Tracy Hickman even working on SotA stuff anymore? There's no mention of the novels or SotA anywhere on his website.

 

It is a fair question to ask if the writer is still part of the project after the very long delay to EP1. But it is not like any writer has infinite opportunities. Sota stopped making money for TH long ago, and I am sure that TH joins all of us waiting for EP1 to release to work on the next book. Remember that LB is an active contributor to this TH story, so writing too far ahead is not profitable to TH.

This not a TH story for TH sake, This is a Sota story that TH is writing.

 

Checking in on this whole project several years after I made my pledge. I just remembered that there was supposed to be a novel and the backers should get it for free. Is that the Blade of the Avatar download that I see in my backer status for download? Is there any other version than pdf (I want to read it with my Kindle and pdf is the worst for that). Also, did I understand it correctly that this is actually a cut-down version of the Sword of Midras novel and if I want to read the full story, I should actually get (and pay for) that one instead?

 

The first novel does a nice job setting the backstory of the Obsidians and a beginning to their end. A 'must read' for SOTA fans, IMHO, because this lore is hard to find in game.

A second novel continuing the story would be great.

 

Yep, if you want the whole story, you must pay again.

 

Tracy actually agreed to 3 Novels for us, and 3 to Underworld Ascendant.