It’s me, MORIOKA.
Are there still people waiting for the next book? Are there still people who even remember the series? I’m extremely doubtful, yet here I am, with BANNER OF THE STARS IV.
Originally, I was going to write down the reasons why the publication gap between books has gotten so big, as a way to apologize, but it always came across as mere excuses — which is because they are just excuses — and it seemed it’d get too long for readers to slog through anyway, so I’ll spare you.
To those of you I kept waiting, I sincerely apologize. One more thing — as those of you who read the volume will be aware, it ended rather abruptly. I’m sorry about that, too.
Now then, it’s time for war.
Of course, the galaxy has been at war for the duration of the series, but unfortunately, Lafier has been too low-ranking for a large-scale perspective, so the war has been nothing more than backdrop. I depicted a battle in BANNER I, but a battle is different from a war. From here on out, I need to make the war itself the “lead role” for a little while.
Every battle up until now was just a preliminary skirmish. The Empire has been relatively laidback, too, but starting now, it can no longer afford to be. If I were to put it in blurb-y terms... A cruel destiny lies in wait for the Empire! (Though I’m the one who made it that way.)
When I wrote CREST, I dreamt up the story that’d follow if they let me continue the series, but it was only a rough outline. Had it been more detailed, the gaps between books would be a whole lot smaller.
To me, writing a series this long is like bringing to life the fossil of a creature I can’t quite wrap my head around. Back when all that was running through my head was “it’d be nice if I could write it,” I thought I had the whole beast in the palm of my hand. But now I realize how enormous it is. It’s as though I thought I was excavating a Compsognathus, only to dig up Argentinosaurus-sized bones. And putting meat and flesh on these bones is an exciting prospect! When I squat by the giant beast’s skeleton, I often realize the way the bones have been put together is off somehow, and sometimes, when I’m fleshing it out, I come to understand a particular bone isn’t big enough. Fixing those things is rather fun. But it is worrying how much time it takes.
To compensate for this volume’s abrupt ending, the assembly of the skeleton of the next volume is coming along nicely. I suppose what I’m getting at is... I’d like to be able to write “I managed to finish the book without keeping you very long” in the next afterword. Of course, my real dream would have been to be able to write “I managed to finish the book without keeping you very long this time, too.”
In any case, I’m planning for the next volume to feature the climax of the first half of the rough outline that I dreamt up. I’ll keep hoping those dreams come true.
Nov-04