Friday, November 6, 2009

News

By Sarah Macy

Well we have a lot of news.

RB'S UNIVERSE NEEDS YOUR HELP!
So to start off. RB's Universe needs your help! There are now two RB's Universe sites because the RB's Universe Coordinators want to know if you would like a new format better. The original is still up and available. The other is on WordPress. You can view it here. There is a poll of on the main page so go there and vote!


WHAT'S IN STORE FOR RB'S UNIVERSE?
RB's Universe will continue to function much as it has in the past. The IEC will be returning officially for its second season in December and the Ynel novel will be being podcasted after it is edited. The MMORPs F.S.O.3 and the Compound 2 will be coming out soon.

NANOWRIMO 2009
For NaNoWriMo '09 RB will be writing the first Novel in the Ynel Series - that's right he plans to write an entire series of novels for the Ynel Universe. This will be coming out as a podcast starting March 14th 2010 (RB's Birthday).

BEYOND NANOWRIMO '09
After NaNoWriMo this year RB will be taking a break from writing fantasy and will be jumping back to Science Fiction to finish up the Imonoran Empire story Blinding Dig. Blinding Dig will center around a different style of story from most of his past work in the Imonoran Empire. It will not be Military SF as most of his writing has been. It will center around a small war fought on the Andromeda planet of Talon IV but it will not be a military story.

OTHER NEWS:
And out last story before we finish this article is that of the RB's Universe Crew Idea that RB and his helpers at RB's Universe are tossing around. The RB's Universe Crew would be like a club that received exclusive info before anyone else. We have been invited to help brainstorm some ideas, one of which is that UR would be able to give out some exclusive content as well. Keep an eye out for that in the coming future and make sure you go vote on the WordPress poll.

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Don't forget to e-mail us at Unexpected.Ramifications@gmail.com, and post on our forums.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Lost Falchion Review (Print Edition)

By Ron Jacobs

It's Finally happened people! RB is now a published author! You can now purchase a copy of RB's book Lost Falchion from Lulu.com (here).

Now the review:
I found the book exciting! You will get a kick out of this even if you listened to the original Podcast, because this is an edited form of the original podcast and now comes together much better. With an appendix that will give you some definitions of things in the book that may not have made sense.

The book reads from front to back very smoothly and even though it is short it sums up the story very well. The end of the story ends the story. There are no if ands or buts. The story is finished.

For the main body of the story:
Once you get it in your hands and get your way into the main body of the story it has you, with a tighter grip than the chill that runs down your back when you feel stranded, very well done! That is the best summation I can make of this story.

When you read it you feel how stranded John is while he sits on a planet 250 Million Miles away.

I enjoyed this book (as if you already couldn't tell) and feel that you should get one. You can see a quote from me on the cover even.

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Coming soon from UR:
News on the RB's Universe:
F.S.O. & the Compound
Forced War, Ynel, Blinding Dig and Urkia.
Podcasting.

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Don't forget to e-mail us at Unexpected.Ramifications@gmail.com, and post on our forums.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

IEC Season 1 Review

By Ron Jacobs

Well Let me start off by saying that the Imonoran Empire Cast is my inspiration to do all of the things that I am currently doing. All of my writing and projects are still going because of this podcast. Now I'm not saying it is the best podcast, but it is still there after an entire year. There was some rough times, like the bout of writer's block that he dealt with during August and a few later months.

The IEC got off to a great start with the hard hitting short story of SAPAWs. This story is one of my favorites is a great way to start things off. After that we got some original work that had never been seen before (or has been seen again) Boot and College.

These stories are nice and give you a feeling of what life might actually be like in the Imonoran Empire. Especially College which shows the Imonoran Empire's College set up. It makes the Empire seem a little bit closer to home. After said homely stories we get the a view of how his Imperial Majesty celebrates Christmas.

The Imperial Christmas Story (of which we don't have an official name for yet) is quite a fairy tale that has no real point to it. It is not seen as something special by RB himself. It is an OK story for those who want ot see more of the Empire and How the Emperor has Christmas. Then we get a piece of the distant future. Later is a much different story.

Later is a story that is easily viewable as out of place until you start to here the some familiar names. Later is particularly odd for the small fact that it is five hundred years into the future of anything we have yet heard or read. This story happens in an era of Imperial History known as the Great Dispersion or Dispersion Era. It is a very interesting story and a very interesting look at the future of the Empire.

After that we jump into Lost Falchion (Click Here to see our review on Lost Falchion).

After this we have a story called Imperial Historical Data Archive (or IHDA, and you can find an interview about this Here). This story has not finished yet, but RB says he is working on the end.

We end the the first season with another major hard hitting short story: Saving Worlds. Saving Worlds is a nice story that gives us some good black ops views even if its point on the time line is unknown. It is great to see a different story. RB's friend is a good reader and I enjoyed her reading.

Now we have an entire years worth of Imonoran Empire Cast. It is great to go back and listen to the a lot of the stuff and get things out of it you had missed. The Imonoran Empire Cast is continuing on into the second season with RB's debut novel of Forced War. There are also going to be other short stories appearing in the feed so make sure you listen for those as well. RB has a Christmas story planned as well. The first season was good for RB's first time breaking into podcasting and I can't wait to see what RB will do with Season 2.

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Don't forget to e-mail us at Unexpected.Ramifications@gmail.com, and post on our forums.

Monday, November 3, 2008

IEC Season 1 Wrap Up

By Sarah Macy

The Imonoran Empire Cast will be wrapping up in a few short weeks and we are giving you all some news on what to expect.

Two episodes this month (November) the First (1st) will be on Wednesday, November 5, 2008, and the Second (2nd) will be on Monday, November 17, 2008. These stories will feature the short story Saving Worlds written by RB but it will not be read by the author. RB is having his second ever guest reader: Amanda Moss (a close personal friend of RB's).

Technically there will be a third episode this month on November 30th, but this is an introductory episode to the Second Season of the IEC. It will be episode 200 and Episode 201 will come out the next day on December 1st. These will be the Prologue and Chapter 1 of Forced War.

This is what is going to happen at the end of this month. The next few weeks are going to be very long as we lead into the Second Season.

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Don't forget to e-mail us at Unexpected.Ramifications@gmail.com, and post on our forums.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Lost Falchion (Complete) Review

by Ron Jacobs

Lost Falchon the latest story from RB is a very good read. It is a little to short for my taste but it takes all kinds of stories to make the world go round.

I enjoyed the story in both formats: the audio formatted Podcast Novel, and the Written PDF that we received (thank you RB). RB is working on editing it now so you should see a PDF come up somewhere of the edited Lost Falchion before he checks out printing options from Lulu and Word Clay and others.

The story really holds on to you and doesn't let go until the end.

I think everyone who enjoys RB's writing or just the Imonoran Empire needs to take a look at this.

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Don't forget to e-mail us at Unexpected.Ramifications@gmail.com, and post on our forums.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Forced War To Be Podcasted

Forced War Now Destined for Audio
By Sarah Macy and Susan Lee

Forced War
is going to be podcasted starting this November or December! That is the big news that was released in RB's Blog this last Sunday (June 8th, 2008). In the same update RB told us that Lost Falchion has officially been demoted to a Novella rather then a fill length novel.

As soon as we read this we got Susan Lee on the line to get some face time with RB. This is what she sent us:

Unexpected Ramifications: So can you fill us in on the new direction you are taking the Empire Project?

RB: Well since making the decision to podcast the other projects of RB's Universe I was seriously thinking about why shouldn't I podcast Forced War as well. I mean it would get me more support for the novel and then I could work on getting more product out there.

UR: Then can we look forward to actually finding out how you have updated the story since we you gave us that original rough First Draft? Have there been any major changes to the story?

RB: Yes this will be the second draft so much better than that first but I am still looking for an editor so if there is anyone out there who wants to edit it and doesn't want to be paid very much then e-mail me. No there are no major changes to the story. There are some minor differences in progression and flow but nothing has been changed... additions though, there are some additions to the book.

UR: So how much longer is Lost Falchion going to be now that you have decided to cut it back to a novella? Did you have to change anything to achieve this goal?

RB: Lost Falchion will run for at least for more episodes then it will be finished. Depending on how it is lumped together this could be anywhere from 5 to 10 more chapters of the story. It may run for more than that. Maybe six more episodes but after it is done it will be put up on Podiobooks.com. No I didn't really have to change anything to achieve the scale back but it has made writing for ti much easier.

UR: Since you are in the process of editing Forced War why is it now tha you have decided to Podcast it? Why didn't you make it your first Podcast Novel rather than your second?

RB: Those are easy questions and the answers are: 1. It won't be considered a finished product until I finish editing it. and 2. It is my first Podcast Novel. With this scale back that changed LF from a Novel to a Novella this means that it is not the IEC's First novel but rather a novella meaning that Forced War will be my first Podcast Novel as well as my Debut Novel.

UR: You said in your blog that you are going to have a preview in the next episode of the IEC what is that going to be ore can you tell us?

RB: That is going to be the prologue of the novel fully recorded with music (I have already picked the theme music for the podcast) and all that joy that is going to kill you because you have to wait until December to hear the rest of it. I think that everyone will enjoy this little preview because it has a larger production value than LF. Back in Episodes 3 and 4 we experimented with our production of Later. It didn't turn out so well but that was because the music that was picked was not very suitable to the story. But this music fits and the production of it has now run up to about the $50 mark. This means that you are going to get a lot of content and value for free.

UR: So you have worked a new production status into the format is this going to be specific to Forced War or are you going to be showing this during the months to come?

RB: Well I won't be showing it off in LF. The production format is set and if it was changed now it would be disastrous for the novella. Right now the only pieces I have to rerecord are the Prologue and Chapters 1-3 but other than that the episodes are going quite well.

UR: But after Lost Falchion are you going to start using this in future short stories to end out season one with?

RB: Maybe. I have sent word and the story to Mur Lafferty for her approval and Narration and I will be sending off a story to Scott Sigler at the end of the summer. I don't think I will be using it for their productions of these stories but Possibly for a new segment coming up call the Imperial Historical Data Archive (or IHDA for short). I am not giving away what this is right now but it will be something for you that will be part of the podcast for the end of Season 1.

UR: This new project will then be produced in the same way as Forced War?

RB: Theoretically. But the problem is the Production Value of such a short segment drastically drops from the value of a long segment. IHDA will only have a quarter of the production value that LF has and LF only has between a third and half of the production value that Forced War has. This means that when you hit the $50 mark in a large production (i.e. Forced War) you are gaining (even when you are putting it out for free) but when you hit the $50 mark on a smaller segment (i.e. IHDA) you are losing money.

UR: Mainly because Forced War will sell books and IHDA won't?

RB: That is A reason but not the whole reason. But in the long run you have a lot to look forward too!

UR: Thank you RB.

There you have it. A new discussion with RB about what is coming up in the IEC and as part of RB's Universe in general. It is a good thing that we can look forward to so much content!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Numbers and Project News

Podcast Numbers
by Edward Smith
RB has released some numbers for the download count of the Imonoran Empire Cast. As of the end of April the IEC has a total of 454 downloads. This is great and RB sends out his thanks to all you who are downloading telling friends and just helping to get more downloads.

RB's Universe Project Updates
by John Sanders
RB said in his blog recently that he is thinking of podcasting all his upcoming projects including the Urkia, Ynel and Linal projects.

"I am thinking of Podcasting all the above novels as well as Forced War. I'm not sure but it will boost support of the novels and it worked very well for Scott Sigler (Future Dark Overlord)."

RB (fan of Scott Sigler since Earthcore) is thinking of following in the FDO's footsteps and podcasting his novels making them available for free in audio format and then available in print through Lulu (if not another publisher).

With this good news (at least for us) he has also given us updates on each of the upcoming projects

Empire Project:
Forced War is now slated for an early '09 release. RB is unsure as to whether he will podcast it or not. He is still looking for someone to edit the second draft as well.

The Urkia Project:
RB is unsure as to whether he should write all these books at the same time or not. He has put forth that if he is going to podcast them he will but he still unsure at the moment. He is looking into several possibilities at the moment in ways to split the books up into two or three sessions. with a project in between each one.

Ynel Project:
"The Ynel project is not really even in a planning stage for the novel yet." So RB said in the same blog post as podcast info above. He has started on some short stories but other than that there isn't really a novel yet. RB says that he has "some working ideas that I can run with but nothing that would make a complete novel." He also says that there is no reason to worry because the Ynel Project won't start until December '09 at the very earliest and by then he will have a fleshed out outline of what he wants.

Linal Project:
"OK this is the one that most people are clamoring over. What is Linal? Well I'm not going to tell you. I have told you what Urkia is and what Ynel is and we all know what the Imonoran Empire is so you are just going to have to wait and see on what Linal is. I will release information about it before the Novel is released (most likely in the form of a short story anthology)." We have no information on this but that it is slated for 2010 at the earliest. We, the staff, can not wait to see what this is.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Lost Falchion

Lost Falchion
By Ron Jacobs

The latest book Lost Falchion is available in two ways at the moment. You can listen to it as a Podcast-Novel (the way it was intended to be received) or you can read it (the latest chapter comes out about a day after its release on the IEC). The Book is so far shaping up to be quite a twister. Things are happening back and forth and dropping new plot lines that no one could see coming.

If you are planning on reading it I would say that be careful. RB says that for right now he has not uploaded the edited versions of the chapters yet. He wants people to go and listen to the IEC and get the chapters there. Plus he says that there is a lot of editing that happens during the reading process that he doesn't write down. So if you want the most current version of each chapter go to the IEC and listen to it there.

RB says that he will upload the chapters to Podiobooks when the book is almost/or is finished.

Enough of the news on Lost Falchion now for the Literature Review:

The book is a very captivating listen. I think it had a rocky start but it is shaping up well. I look forward to the rest of the story and if he follows the outline that he has presented to me the stories end will be very, very unexpected.

So make sure you listen to it and go read it if you like that better, but Lost Falchion is worth the wait for all Imonoran Empire enthusiasts.

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Don't forget to e-mail us at Unexpected.Ramifications@gmail.com, and post on our forums.

Monday, April 21, 2008

UR Staff

The UR Staff
By Jordan Calvary

The UR Staff is currently made up of eight people: (in Alphabetical order) Jordan Calvary, Ralph Davis, Ron Jacobs, Susan Lee, Sarah Macy, Joe Marcus, Edward Smith and John Sanders. These men and woman are here for one purpose to bring you the latest news about RB's Universe. We started in November of 2007 and had some technical difficulties but now we are back and it's time for you to get to know the writers and editors of this fan production.

(By seniority)
  1. Ralph Davis (Editor 'n Chief)

    Ralph Davis started this as a senior project but was told that it would not fit the bill for a Journalism Major's senior project so he kept it going and started something else on the side. (He may post that here at a later date).

    He is a Journalist Major at the Utah State University and is working this as a tribute to RB. He thoroughly enjoys the stories in the RB's Universe and has gotten to see a lot of material that no one else has.

  2. Ron Jacobs (Article Editor & Literature Reviewer)

    Ron Jacobs is also a Journalism Major at Utah State and a close friend of Mr. Davis. He decided to join Mr. Davis on this publication when he was looking for things to do during his spare time. With ninety percent of his credits already finished he has a lot of spare time to work with.

    He is the only person on the staff to have read the entire Forced War Draft 1 and is very proud of this. Every one else has gotten to read the first five chapters of Draft 2 but he got the entirety of Draft 1. "Being the Literature Reviewer has it's perks," he said in response to a nasty question thrown his way by Sarah Macy. (who was the original writer of the story that brought the Novel to everyone's attention.)

  3. Joe Marcus (Content Editor)

    Joe Marcus and Ralph Davis have been friends for longer than either one of them can remember. He is a Tech Major at Utah State and originally started to help Mr. Davis with this because of their deep friendship. Later, about 5 months ago, he actually got into the stories himself and can't wait to get his hands on a copy of Forced War.

    He is now working on a server system that the team can move this Fanzine too. As well as a program to make the zine into a zine.

  4. Sarah Macy (News Writer)

    A long time friend of Ralph Davis, and now Fiancée of Mr. Davis, she says she will follow him anywhere. She is also an Admirer of RB because he is, "six years younger and already doing what I want to do." A long time writing enthusiast she is working on a book of her own that she hopes to get as much support with as RB has gotten with his so far.

  5. Jordan Calvary (Writer & Internal Affairs Reporter)
    By Sarah Macy

    Jordan got started on RB's Universe through his online friendship with Susan Lee. He then got in touch with UR through a series of e-mails that are now called the Internal Affairs Reports by the Staff. He seemed to do a very good job at gathering intel and finally asked the fateful question of if he could join the staff in our second issue. He has been added as the "Internal Affairs Reporter" meaning that he will write articles about: Internal Affairs.

    He has been gathering info for this article for about four months and seems to be very happy to finally post it.

  6. Susan Lee (RB's Universe Specialist)

    Susan Lee is a close personal friend of RB and as such is the RB's Universe Specialist. She is our go to gal when we need someone to have some face time with RB or we need RB to answer a question immediately. She is also slated as the RB's Universe Group Specialist because she is the one who has spent the most time with RB and knows about it. She is also working on writing a story of her own set in the Imonoran Empire. (The lucky woman has the access to all of RB's resources.)

  7. Edward Smith (Universal Writer)

    Edward Smith is a new addition of to the staff as of April and he is the one that suggested this for the Fanzine. The UR Staff is very thankful to him for setting this up for UR.

  8. John Sanders (Universal Writer)

    Another new addition as of April. He you will be seeing his immense writing talents in the months to come. He is a close friend of Jordan Calvary.

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Don't forget to e-mail us at Unexpected.Ramifications@gmail.com, and post on our forums.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

How things are gonna work.

Well after the editors got together and talked it over we have decided to go with a standard format per month. We will post A "cover" at the beginning of what articles you can expect for that month and then the articles with follow.

Example:
For the End of April you can look forward to:

An Article about the Staff of Unexpected Ramifications By Jordan Calvary.

And Article about Lost Falchion by Ron Jacobs

And then we'll see you again in may!

Don't forget to go to our forums and to send us e-mails at Unexpected.Ramifications@gmail.com

And Make sure you check out the Licensing for this blog at the bottom of this page.
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UR Staff.

Imonoran Empire Cast

by Ralph Davis

The Imonoran Empire Cast is a new medium RB is using to get word out about RB’s Universe and more specifically the Imonoran Empire.

On The Imonoran Empire Cast RB is planning to read a story based in one of the worlds of the RB’s Universe Group (90% of the time it will be in the Imonoran Empire). He has two episodes out now with a zeroth and a Christmas Episode as well. The only story read so far that is not an IEC (Imonoran Empire Cast) Exclusive is SAPAWs. He plans to do as many IEC Exclusive stories as he can but have enough from Empire Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 to fall back on incase there is an off week.

On January 24th RB plans to start the first ever IEC Novel. This Novel will be an IEC Exclusive and will not be aired or written down anywhere else. The only place to find it is on the Imonoran Empire Cast. We asked RB how he was going to work this and he said, “That’s easy, I’m not going to write it down.” We were taken aback by this and he set us straight: “I am going to make myself a map. In writing we call this an outline, and I going to use this to keep the general flow of the story of the going but I going to try and act it rather than read it. We’ll see how it goes if it’s horrible I may rethink this idea.”

He has not released a single detail about this new novel. In fact he says that the only way we are going to be able to find out about it is to stay tuned. And so we are.

RB is using this podcast to give out news as well so when you can’t read the new issue of Unexpected Ramifications because it has yet to come out go to http://imonoranempire.mypodcast.com to listen to the Imonoran Empire Cast. You can also check out the IEC Blog (http://imonoranempirecast.blogspot.com) for news behind the scenes and between the episodes.

Thank you.

Urkia Project

by Joe Marcus

The Urkia Quadrilogy (er’KĪ) has been postponed for a year now. Indeed we ask ourselves if we will ever see this story. The answer to that question is: yes. Yes we will see this series of four books. It just has taken RB a while to get his thoughts together. As soon as the Empire Project concludes (at the latest June of 2008) RB will start working again on the Urkia Quadrilogy.

He said that he has not forgotten the fans who have waited since the announcement last year that he would be writing it to see it. He just found something that was a little closer to his heart. RB is prized by his fans (those we talked to anyway) for his ability to build a world. He does not let a single detail pass him by. He makes the peoples the languages and the history in such a way that you feel as if you could add this as a second address on a legal form. He says that he is through chapter 3 and that he has the entire story outlined. Though this does not make it any easier to wait for the books he is keeping our hopes high as he always does.

He placed emphasis on the fact that he was not abandoning this project that it needed time to grow and stew and cook until it was ready to come out. RB thinks that it will soon be ready to come out and that he will be able to write it. Though he is not sure if it will be put up for printing it may just come out as a PDF on the RB’s Universe site, though he may put that up to a vote for us to decide.

The main gist of what he says he is trying to relate to us is that we need not worry about if the project is going to continue because he would never let something so dear to him as Urkia drop.

Federation Space Online

by Sarah Macy

The RB’s Universe plans to relaunch Federation Space Online 1 and 2. They are planning on relaunching the original Federation Space Online in early December then relaunch the Federation Space Online 2 in early ’08.

These two Online Roleplaying Games (ORPGs) were the original debut of the Imonoran Empire (not named such at the time, it was only named the Empire). The original (F.S.O., launched in 2000) was amazingly successful when it launched gaining quite a large following of fans. By the end of the game (the server that they were using was shut down in ‘01) the total number of players was counted as 3,047.

This original gamed chronicled the beginning of the Crondorian Conflict and followed, among various other ships, the ISS Venmar. The tales of the Venmar are numerous but many of the other players ships also made it into the canon of the Imonoran Empire as well. The ISS Curion (during F.S.O. was the largest ship in the fleet and was a prize to a contest held during the game) was also part of canon. Several stories grew into canon from the F.S.O. players. The story of Captain John William Carrier and his Cruiser-class ISS Victorious (by Arthur C. Mellington) is one such example. Several players also helped shape part of the Empire as we now know it (none of their names can be given because they are not known).

The sequel to the original F.S.O. came out soon after the first relaunch of F.S.O. This game expanded the universe a little and opened up a whole new level of playability. The creators (RB himself and two other helpers known only under a group name of the *WW team) added a new class of ship, the Destroyer-class, and a new player job. Of course you had the standard jobs the con, engineering, fighter pilot and so on. But now you could be a mercenary as a fighter pilot. As soon as you earned enough credits to buy your own Advanced Fighter you could become a merc. Advanced Fighters have the ability to make Hyper Space jumps and therefore the mercenary could use them to work for whomever he wanted (with this the game admins posted quests for the opposite side every now and then for more Credits than just a standard quest). F.S.O. 2 starts after the destruction of the ISS Venmar. The ISS Venmar II has just been launched and the tide looks like it’s about to turn for the better. The men of Imonoran Empire are fighting harder than they ever have. The official ending of the F.S.O. 2 Story line is the end of the Crondorian Conflict.

Because of this and the fact that that would end the entire game RB Corp (the predecessor to RB’s Universe) added an F.S.O. 2.5 which included the all new battle setting of the Vloran Skirmish. RBC also made F.S.O. 2.5 a dual launch with an ORPG called “The Compound.” The Compound is on the opposite side of the Federation of Arms. It is the Mobile Infantry’s and SAPAW’s side of events. It catalogs the entire history of F.S.O. 1 through F.S.O. 2.5 in the form of the ground soldier rather than the Navy.

We have been told that RB’s Universe does plan to release The Compound in First Quarter ’08 and F.S.O. 2.5 as its own stand alone game (with the same title).

They also plan to release a new game titled Federation Space Online 3 (or F.S.O. 3) we have not been told what this game will entail. Whether it will be during the brutal Aldran War or if it will be farther in the future than that we can only guess. But there is a gleam in the horizon because we do know that RB’s Universe is planning to release a companion game with this one as well. That’s right the Compound 2 is going to be released at the same time as F.S.O. 3. The only peep we have received about these two games is that their stories lines will coincide together and that you will be able to get upgrades in one by playing the other. We are not sure how that is going to work but it sounds exciting.

Stay tuned to find out more about F.S.O. 3 and The Compound 2.

Forced War (review)

by Ron Jacobs

UR was given half of the recently written novel, Forced War. It was an exciting read. It is in a time of war and it does have a lot of characters, at least at the beginning. The first four chapters covers most of the war, which means covering about 4 or 5 years, leaving the rest of the novel to cover the last year or so of the war and a little after. The story is written mostly about Hoban Rantré Imonora and Jucal Imonora.

These two men are the main focus of the novel though it does add in characters such as General Sir, the mysterious agent woman from the Saving Worlds and so on. It adds some characters we have never met before and kills many. For people who do not like death, you probably shouldn’t read this book. The book (at least what we have received) is not thickly laced with death but it is about war meaning there is death all around.

Over all I think that the piece we have received is a great story and I think it has ruined me. I want the rest of it so bad it almost hurts. Maybe RB will have some pitty on me and give me the rest. It doesn’t look likely. I am not aloud (by the author) to comment on writing or style because, and I quote, “I need time to be able to edit. It was really a rushed job I feel for having the time constraint and having to juggle the novel between college a job and Taekwondo. It really, really needs to be edited.”

But overall the story is amazing so far.

*EDIT*
We Have added the excerpt that came out in November as part of this article.

November 2007: RB has posted an excerpt from his novel! Here it is in all its glory:

Captain Hoban Rantré Imonora was known to some as a smuggler others a bounty hunter. He disliked the names that people gave him it was hard to switch from one to the other. From bounty hunter to smuggler it was always a different story. People tried to take things away all the time. He called himself a criminal. Rantré was in his shuttle on the way back from a job but people don’t want to leave you be when you’re a criminal and know it. A call came through the COM system.

“Ran?” Leesa’s voice was scared and tired.

“Yeah, what’s up?” he asked. There was too much coin sitting behind him for him to be really worried right now.

“I just got somethin’ on our sensors,” she whispered into her mouth piece as if someone might here her.

“What is it? Can you tell?” Now Rantré was a little worried. He looked at Jiso and back at the COM.

“It looks like an Imperial Destroyer. Ran I’m scared.”

“Leesa if they catch you you’re a hostage. Understand?” Rantré said very authoritatively. There was no answer. “Understand?” he said a little louder.

“Yes,” was all the very small voice said.

“Get the engines prepped for jump. I want to hit H-space as soon as I’m aboard.”

“Okay.”

Rantré looked over at Jiso again, “Move over!”

“But I’m flyin’”

“Your flyin’ too jing re slow! Get outta the way!”

We hope you enjoyed that we will be sure to keep you posted of all new events and leads we get on Forced War (the novel by RB).