Götterdämmerung is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase Ragnarök, which in Norse mythology refers to a prophesied war among the gods that ultimately results in the destruction and renewal of the world. It seemed appropriate as the chapter title. Enjoy!
I had a recent email: “I suggest that you make the combat more even. Think about WW2 and how the Nazis almost were victorious and how the Japanese rolled over the USA and allies for the first year or so. It makes the war more interesting. How about having WestHem have independent squadrons launch raids on Mars at the start.”
Interesting idea, but I am living in the Al Steiner universe. In Greenies, the Martians displayed a major advantage in cyberwarfare when they encrypted their GPS system, a system WestHem created. By the time A Perfect World occurs the Martians can run rampant through any computer system on Earth, military or civilian. It’s easy to win when you can read the other guy’s operation orders.
Additionally, the Nazis were not almost victorious. Yes, they were able to run roughshod over Poland, but then there was a five-month period called the Phony War where they had to rebuild their forces. By late 1942, they were bogged down in Stalingrad, where the Russians broke the German army. As for the Japanese, they were on the retreat after Midway, in June 1942, barely seven months into the war.
I’ve done some checking on turning The Grim Reaper series into printed paperback books. Not going to be happening! There would be two books, the original GR and a combo ASLE/RSC. A standard size GR paperback, with regular fonts and margins, would be about 1,400 pages long. That would be crazy! Even going to a 6x9 size paperback, with a small font and small margins, ends up at almost 800 pages. Such a book would run over $18 per book. Nobody is going to pay that for a paperback when they can get the ebook a lot cheaper.