On 2005-07-13 05:52:00, OverLordd wrote:
"Timoclea (julie)
What did you right? I would like to read it, whats it about? please tell me, how long did it take to get to best seller status."
I wrote _Cally's War_ with John Ringo. It was released October 1 of 2003 and was in the October 10 list of NYT hardcover fiction at #31 for that one list before dropping back off. :smile: Which would seem kind of like a "Big fat hairy deal" except that it's a science fiction novel and those very rarely hit the bestseller lists at all.
It's common for books to hit the bestseller lists right after release if they're going to hit it at all, because you get most of your sales on a book in the first month after its release.
The book's about a female assassin who looks and acts 20 but is really 51, and she's suffering from career burnout. Can you really kill people as a job, even very bad people, for thirty years without having it affect you? The Earth's been through a horrible war with aliens that basically strip worlds like locusts. We "won," but it knocked our world population down to a billion. It's forty years post-war, and some of our alien "allies" weren't really our friends. Now we're heavily in debt to them and they're pulling the strings of our puppet government. Cally works for the underground resistance organization, human and alien, that's fighting them.
There's a leak in her organization. Cally and her backup team have to find the leak and shut it down fast, before the entire resistance is compromised. All this while clinging to sanity by her fingernails and dealing with the inner demons that are tearing her apart.
It's a spin-off story in John's _Legacy of the Aldenata_ series. Some people have said you need to read the first four books to catch everything, others have said it "worked" for them as a standalone. A lot of people enjoyed it, obviously or it wouldn't have had so many sales, but it's been a love it or hate it book. Mostly because a lot of people apparently didn't get the memo that even though the four mainline books are straight military SF, _Cally's War_ is a psychological spy novel with a fair dose of romance in it and a bit more sex than the four mainline novels. Since a lot of John's readership is conservative Christian, well, you can imagine. :smile:
Anyway, since it's a bit controversial, you may want to read the sample chapters at
http://www.baen.com before deciding if you want to shell out for the hardcover or not--it's not out in paperback yet.
I want *happy* readers. :smile: And I've had a whole lot of those, but the ones who've hated it have been...intense. :smile: :smile: :smile:
Timoclea
