u/jbryderauthor

Hey! I finished a very substantive rewrite of the third Zach Croft book a few weeks ago and set it aside because I had a TON of work to do on Icebloods before submission to publishers. I have now been reading through book 3, and I've given it to my main editor for the Zach Croft books to read as well.

Although it's possible story elements will continue to change at this stage, I think most of the work from now on will be in improving the prose and making the character arcs less "in your face" towards the beginning of the story.

I've been reading through Zach Croft book 3, now that it's been several weeks since I wrapped up the last draft.

It's so cool seeing demon-mode Aramis (The Raven of Eden). He's so nice and philosophical in Us Before Them. But with his daughter kidnapped... well... the Raven's gonna live up to his name as a harbinger of death.

If you were trapped on a space station for twenty-three years, what would you do? How would you spend your time? How hard would you try to get home, what would you try, and how long until you stopped trying?

Me: "So, what do you bring to the table?"

Them: "Well, I played a key role as the contagonist in the last book."

Me: "I meant in this book."

Them: "I have a very witty personality that nobody else shares."

Me: "Carver is also witty."

Them: "Carver is an old man."

Me: "Ryker's also witty, and he's your age."

Them: "..."

Me: "..."

Them: "Cremated, not buried. Please."

The original plan for Us Before Them was very different from what got published.

I originally thought that Us Before Them was largely going to be about war between the Edish and Harbingers. That was it. An extended campaign the Harbingers were staging against the Edish, in which they took Eden, and Zach's crew needed to get it back. We were going to find out Ryker was alive in like chapter two.

But I didn't stick with that plan because it didn't feel like a Zach Croft book. There wouldn't have been some sciency, world-ending threat. There wouldn't have been interesting scientific questions to answer. It would have been a fundamentally different story.

However, some aspects of the Edish vs Harbingers conflict did stick around for the final draft.

Someone created this recently. Perhaps watch.

10% - why is everyone being so mean to Ryker?

30% - what the heck is even happening? How is he doing that?

50% - well, crap.

60% - WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?? HOW ARE THEY THERE??

75% - why is everyone killing everyone?

90% - woahhh the characters have actually changed for the better (for once).

99% - WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY.

100% - aww that's actually kinda cute.

Funny enough, this most recent draft of Zach Croft book 3 has come out to the exact length of The Forgotten Colony (book 1) at 123,000 words! If it stays like that, the series will be roughly symmetrical.

123,000 words -> 193,000 words -> 123,000 words.

Yesterday, I finished my current round of edits on Zach Croft book 3. This was definitely the most substantial round I've done, centering around the character arcs, fixing in-scene pacing, and streamlining story logic.

I think the characters have stronger development than in any book thus far, especially those who have historically been more static characters (e.g. Zach). More interestingly, the character arcs intersect with one another, creating a stronger understanding between the characters.

I can't say this draft is perfect, but I'll have some of my internal readers evaluate it and point out any potential flaws. I don't think I'll have to do much more than individual scene / sequence rewrites from this point on.

By the end of Us Before Them, do you feel like Carver has redeemed himself? I think so. I think his original motivations for doing bad things in The Forgotten Colony were fairly noble (he wanted the entirety of humanity to survive). He just happened to be very arrogant, unwilling to admit he was wrong, and willing to go to extreme lengths to realize his visions. At the end of the day, he wanted to help people.

Of course, he did terrible things in Us Before Them to try to get himself out of captivity. That stuff isn't excusable. But what about the stuff he did after getting out?

Let me know in the comments or create a standalone post with your thoughts. If you create a standalone, I'll post it on my instagram story!

Honestly, I probably shouldn't be sharing this because it kinda suggests some spoilers. But it's my favorite set of lines, and I want you to read them. It pertains to Aramis Crow (the Raven of Eden).

A pure, numbing rage battered Aramis from the inside-out. Everything he'd fought to push down during the past several days surged at once. The need to make the cultists hurt. The need to wipe them from the face of the planet.

The need for revenge.

It was wholly uncontrollable, more a force of nature than the feeling of a man. This torrent had fueled him during twenty years of war and forged him in a furnace of blood, turning him from the son of a governor into something greater.

A harbinger of death.

As he looked at [REDACTED] through a screen of red, he knew it was time to kill the man within him, descend on the cultists, and feast on their corpses.

Like a raven was supposed to.

What do you think is going on here? Let me know in the comments.

Just a heads up: Zach, Cora, and Halsy end up having to eliminate people who are very close to them. The circumstances vary significantly, but all of the character deaths are definitely going to hit close to home. I promise it's all for their character development!

Who do you think is getting killed off?

Which duo do you think is more wholesome, interesting, etc? Let me know in the comments, or create a standalone post in the subreddit with your answer.

p.s. Ryker and Aramis are sadly not on good terms for much of book 3. Ryker did some stuff in Us Before Them that would make being chill very difficult.

In The Forgotten Colony, whose logic is more sound? Whose end goal is more moral? Do you understand why Carver clung to MagRes in the face of global destruction, while Zach insisted Exodus was humanity's only hope?

What is one thing that could have gone differently in the series? Consider what would need to happen for it go differently and how the course of the series would change.

Mine is: what if the original Alpha Centauri colonists didn't get scattered? Divisions between the Edish, Roaches, and Enlightened Ones wouldn't exist. They'd have a working communication device and no Corruption destroying the planet. They'd have their cargo hold from day one, building up a civilization from scratch.

Feel free to answer in the comments, but I would greatly appreciate if you could make a standalone post in the subreddit with your answer because more posts = more people will be able to find the subreddit.

If all of the TFC and UBT characters had to fight each other, who do you think is making it out alive? Consider physical strength, intelligence, ruthlessness, etc.

Feel free to comment your response, but I would appreciate if you could make a standalone post with your answer because more posts = more visibility for the subreddit!

For me, I'd probably spend a year on the station with Cora because I feel like she'd be pretty chill. She wouldn't go insane or spend the whole time scheming how to get back to Earth. She'd just read or something.

Feel free to post your reply in the comments here, but I would greatly appreciate it if you could make your response an independent post in the subreddit. More posts means the subreddit gets pushed to more people on reddit. Thank you!

About a month ago, I read through the entirety of book 3 and took notes on it, pointing out opportunities to fix awkward paragraphs, make the flashbacks more exciting, and build complex character arcs.

Since then, I've been applying those notes to the book. I've gotten up through chapter 22 of 34, moving at a pace of 1-2 chapters a day. This draft is giving the characters such strong development, so I'm very excited to see how it'll all come out when I'm done. I think the characterization and relationships are best in this book.

I expect to finish this round of edits in about 10 days. At that point, I'll give it to a few people to read. I think the book is very close to getting where it needs to be.

Unfortunately, it takes me far longer to write a Zach Croft book than something like Icebloods because the books are longer, they have more perspectives, and there's a lot of content from prior books in the series to build on top of.

*I was just joking about the title. Click bait. Mwahahahahah. But seriously, tons of characters die.*

Have predictions? Make an independent post in the subreddit with your thoughts. I'll respond to every one I see!