Nuclear Dragons - Auctorial Preamble

Sometimes one thing leads to all sorts of other things.
Which, in turn, begs the question: How much back story is too much back story?

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In some respects, the book-in-hand could be considered two extended prologues, or preludes, and a mini-novel. One prelude, ‘Indescribable Defiance’, definitely leads into “Helios on the Moon”, the upcoming third entry in the Launch 1980 story cycle. That much I can tell you. As you might expect it also leads into the second prelude, ‘The Strife Virus’.

What I can’t tell you is what that leads into, other than the mini-novel itself obviously, which is also “Nuclear Dragons” proper. That’s because I still haven’t decided where to go after Helios. Quite conceivably I’ll carry on with the Outer Earth aspect of this here PHANTACEA Mythos.

That being the case, the second prelude will also lead into it. I might even call the post-Helios story sequence “Outer Earthlings”. After all, titles are mutable. For example, this book was supposed to be called “Centauri Island”, where virtually all of it’s set. Needless to say, not just the title didn’t turn out that way.

That said, what with Crystallion, Hell’s Horsemen, and their titular atomic firedrakes on the way, in all probability any Outer Earth follow-up won’t take place on what’s left of Centauri. Unless it’s set prior to 1980, that is, which actually is a possibility.

I can also tell you that the 5980 framing story of the “Janna Fangfingers” mini-novel leads to the same place, albeit the book-in-hand as a whole. Then again, Fangers also leads into “Goddess Gambit”, the third and final instalment of ‘The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories’ epic trilogy.

Of course, in its turn Gambit eventually picks up from where “The War of the Apocalyptics”, the first entry in the Launch 1980 story cycle, left off. Hence my opening statement. To which I could have added: ‘Whereupon said other things invariably lead into many more other things’. (So-called Shared World writing certainly does get complicated.)

Indeed, Fangers’ sixth chapter, ‘Contacting the Stars’, features two of Nuke’s major characters in such a way that its readers may not even realize they’re in both books until midway through ‘Mind Tap’, the first chapter of said book-in-hand. That being the case it perhaps behooves the writer-at-hand to quote from a pertinent passage of Fangers.

Should first note that Devauray is our Saturday. Should additionally note that neither Gottfried Kenton nor Jordan Tethys appear in Nuke. As for the herein referenced Mr Centauri, he more or less does. (Except that, this time, when it comes to him it’s almost always a matter of more.) Beyond that, well, um, I’ve probably said too much already.

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A few pages later on we have the following sequence.

The first speaker is the aforementioned Jordan Tethys, aka the legendary 30-Year Man, also 30-Beers. He’s the hero of ‘The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories’ epic trilogy. If a PHANTACEA Mythos series can have heroes, that is. (Which, seeing as how it’s Anheroic fantasy – meaning ‘without heroes’ – it can’t.)

The second speaker is not the titular Janna Fangfingers, though she was named after her. It’s Janna St Peche-Montressor. She doesn’t appear in Nuke either. However, her husband does and so does the devil who isn’t possessing her in this passage. They’re two of Alfredo Sentalli’s Untouchables.

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Might Kenton in the first blockquote have been possessed by the ‘D’ in the second? And, if so, why was this ‘D’ trying to get Tethys (who, thanks to his Brainrock quill, more so than any innate talent, is an extremely gifted artist) to draw portraits of over fifty named devils, including those in Constellation Thanatos?

To send them an invitation of course. And, given they’re now stars in the night’s sky, what’s with the coordinates on the star map? Answer to that is obviously why he wrote: ‘Rendezvous here’. Which in turn leads us back to the book-in-hand as well as the answer to the query I posed at the outset. Which is: It depends.

Thanks for that you might be saying. But it does and, in the interests of brevity, if hopefully not at the cost of clarity, I’ve chopped bags of back stories already. As near as I can make out, short of eliminating them altogether, there are a number ways of dealing with what’s left. Character companions, parentheses, footnotes and/or an addendum come to mind. I’ve chosen parentheses.

While the reader can skip them as he or she pleases, I’d recommend perusal. Especially when in comes to “Nuclear Dragons”, I do some of my best work in parentheses.

Jim McPherson
Creator/Writer
The PHANTACEA Mythos