Talk: Crosstime Traffic Series

I would LOVE a Crosstime Traffic novel covering if the Louisiana Purchase never happened. Would the added resources help the French Empire? Would they have decimated Germay? Would Socialism have arrived earlier?

Intriguing questions. Of course, if you think they'll get you anything, dream on.

What would be the cutesy title for the book? "Le Bayou Grande," perhaps? Turtle Fan 04:51, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

That title works. And given the rather limited scope of the Xtime series, I think most of those questions would go unanswered or answered tersely without much detail. It would probably focus on Louisiana Teen meets HTL Teen, Louisiana having become independent after the fall of Napoleon, or something like that. TR 14:48, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

Why a crosstime traffic? Why not just ask for a standalone? Because HT seems to have very narrow tastes concerning his standalones these days?

Beats me. You'll have to ask our anonymous friend. TR 15:54, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

Personally, I think that "Crosstime Traffic" works very well as a framing device for AH stories, especially in the Young Adult book market. It lets HT get away with not going into technical detail about how the transposition chambers work in much the same way that characters in our world don't blather on about how internal combustion engines work. (To be fair, I don't expect to see a 'transposition geek' character show up in any future stories for that reason.)Perrin.rynning 20:19, July 1, 2011 (UTC)

Well, friend? Turtle Fan 17:31, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

You know, he really did used to have so much more imagination than he does now. Turtle Fan 15:11, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

In fairness, what appears to be HT's narrow tastes may actually be the market's narrow tastes. ACW works sell well in the U.S. WW 2 books sell well in the Anglosphere. Gingrich and Forchesten went straight to those two topics. So did Tsouras (he's edited bunches of WW2 what if books).

Hmm. I always knew having AH's primary medium be a mass market entertainment genre could hurt us. Turtle Fan 17:31, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

I've lost track of who originally said it, but "we who live to entertain must entertain to live". The point being that HT can write whatever he wants, in whatever detail and length he chooses, but he doesn't get paid if the work doesn't sell. And if the market demands badly-written garbage by the truckload, then he can only release what his editors and publishers will let out. Having said that, I still think that there's room in the market for at least one more Crosstime Traffic novel. Or perhaps he could make it a shared universe, like Eric Flint did with the "Ring of Fire" series.Perrin.rynning 20:19, July 1, 2011 (UTC)

I also point to the fact that Del Rey's AH output has been almost exclusively WW2 since the SA arc began. They haven't been dishing out the AH the way the used to, but when they do, be it HT, Conroy, Birmo, whoever, it's WW2. HT actually went elsewhere with Atlantis. Now maybe it just came down to money, but even then, Del Rey (presumably) wasn't quite willing to pay for Atlantis what they were willing to pay for TWTCE.

I had figured it was because after he finished his TL-191 contract he didn't want to do business with Del Rey anymore. Of course, he's since gone back to them. But Atlantis isn't the first time he's spread himself around. And he's given other WWII projects to other publishers: ItPoME, DoI.

The last non-WW 2 AH DelRey published that I know of for sure was Flint's "River of War" books. That series will continue at Baen. From what I can tell, DelRey really thought it would be a phenomenon like the 1632 series. Instead, they just sold very well. That, I think further confirms DelRey is being selective in what it publishes in the genere these days.

I guess whether you'd want to count Without Warning as AH is up for some debate. That's not WWII related and Del Rey took that one. Turtle Fan 19:10, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

Ah, yes. I stand corrected, although one such book in a sea of WW2 seems more of fluke. TR 19:49, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

It's the first in a series. They've already announced the title of the next one--After America. Still a fluke.

Again, not sure it's AH. It changes something in the past, yes--the very recent past, but the past nonetheless. It doesn't change this past in order to show how sibsequent events in that particular chronology would be altered. I have my beliefs about why Birmo chose the moment he did, but the lessons it's supposed to be teaching, if any, apply equally to any point in this decade. Turtle Fan 20:13, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

That they didn't publish ItPomE or DoI could be explained by any number of things. I could be absolutely wrong, but again, they certainly seem to love publishing WW2 AH. TR 18:54, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

Does seem that way, doesn't it. Turtle Fan 19:10, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

And his shorts suggest a wide array of interests, especially this year. We knew he was interested in Shakespeare and baseball, obviously, but seriously, Galileo meets Freud?

Yes, we are seeing a bit of a renaissance there. It used to be the stories that were snoozers. Now they're quite compelling. Alas, they're too short to deal with their implications fully. Turtle Fan 17:31, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

Given the increased story output, and diversity of same, as well as no announced novel projects for next year, I suspect we're seeing HT at a crossroads in his career. TR 15:54, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

Interesting. Anyway, I'll pay increased attention to his stories. His novels are dropping in quality as well as quantity--since IatD came out, USA is the only one to which I've had a strongly favorable reaction (not counting OA as a novel). I haven't read them all, granted, but I've had reasons for taking a pass on some of them--they never grabbed my interest to begin with.

Oh, I've always done that. I've only bought 191 and his AH novels in HC when published. His other stuff I wait on until PB, or go to the library years after publication, or just never bother with. TR 18:54, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

There are a couple on which I've said "Maybe as paperbacks." Mostly I buy them in hardcover if I want to read them, or I don't want to read them at all. Occasionally I'll decide not to read one then reevaluate that a few years later, and of course if it's available in PB by then I'll take it. BtG and EIaK come to mind.

But no, I never set out to read everything in a given year. I don't believe I ever have. Turtle Fan 19:10, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

No announced novel projects--Surely he'll announce TWTCE 2 soon. Maybe he and/or Del Rey have put it on hold in response to the tepid reaction to HW? (I reviewed HW last night. I didn't want to be crude on Amazon but I almost pointed out that The War That Came Early is an apt title--It's as difficult to maintain interest in this war as it is after "coming early." Turtle Fan 17:31, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

I guess there is still time in the year for a tentative title for TWTCE 2. But I remember when GW was announced, and we had titles for all four volumes before book one was even published. And then titles changed here and there, of course, but we knew they were coming. TR 18:54, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

True. SA was the same way, once it was extended from three books to four. I can't think of too many others of which that's true, though--It wasn't true for Derlavai, I don't remember Col, and other series were in the works before I had become a HT reader. Turtle Fan 19:10, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

CT should have continued

I don't get why HT abandoned Crosstime Traffic when it seemed like it had so much more to offer. And then he went and put out crap like The Opening of the World Series, Supervolcano, and The War That Came Early. I'm not too impressed with The Hot War either. I really wish he'd return to CT.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 18:01, July 18, 2016 (UTC)