As I mentioned in the previous post, I attended a book signing by Ilona and Gordon Andrews yesterday evening. In the first part, I described what they said regarding some of their books and stories that were published prior to a week ago. This post describes Gunmetal Magic and future Ilona Andrews publications.
First, there are a few general things about upcoming books, and then more specific spoilers under the cut.
The Kinsman series (currently consists of Silent Blade and Silver Shark) seems to have been primarily written by Ilona (the woman) with less input from Gordon than the other Ilona Andrews (the author) stories. Thus, it was a bit disappointing when she said she didn’t really have any ideas regarding what to write for any future stories set in this universe. Too bad. But she did say that they had plans to write something to post for free on Christmas as a present to their readers, and that story could potentially be set in that universe. I’ll live in hope.
The next book set in the Edge series is planned to be the last of the books. They sold the rights to a TV series, which would be awesome, and is yet still extremely unlikely to actually come to fruition. Depending on reader and publisher interest, Gordon seemed to think there might be another book following a slightly more grown up Jack and George, but there are no real plans for it at the moment.
However, there are solid plans for a Jim and Dali book which should come out after the Kate Book 6 book but before Kate Book 7.
And now, for the real spoilers. If you don’t like spoilers, don’t click the link below.
Here be Spoilers.
No, really: SPOILERS.
Last chance to turn back before the SPOILERS.
One of the first things that Gordan Andrew said was that he wanted Andrea to end up with Roman in Gunmetal Magic. I haven’t read the book yet, but man, I wanted her to wind up with Roman, too. But she doesn’t. She and Raphael get together in the end.
The reason for this (plot-wise rather than character-wise) is also the reason why this entire book was written in the first place, which is that it creates the background needed so that Aunt B (the head of the Bouhda Clan) could travel to Europe with Kate and Curran in Kate Book 6.
Because, yup, Kate Book 6 takes place in Europe. Kate, Curran, Aunt B, and a handful of other characters all travel to Europe. Andrea and Raphael take over for Aunt B in her absence while Jim takes over for Curran in his absence. (My guess is that the Jim and Dali book will take place at the same time as Kate Book 6, covering the time when Jim is in charge of the whole Pack.) The plot of Kate Book 6 will involve (according to Ilona) Kate having a “discussion” with Hugh d’ Ambray and (according to Gordon) Curran having a “discussion” with Hugh d’ Ambray.
Interesting.
Anyway, I think it was fairly evident from Kate Book 5, that Kate Book 6 was going to have Hugh d’ Ambray as the main bad guy and then Kate Book 7 would finally have Roland as the main bad guy. If this is a surprise to you, well, go back and re-read the preceding books again. I thought it was pretty obvious.
What does surprise me, however, is that apparently Roland is going to survive Kate Book 7. According to Gordon, Roland is just too old, powerful, tricky, and vicious, for Kate and Curran and even the whole Pack to take down in one go. The best they’ll manage is to come to open conflict and set the lines for future conflicts. Given this, there could well be additional Kate books, depending on reader interest and author ideas.
Here’s some space, so if you’re writing a review, you don’t see too many spoilers by looking up.
Spoiler protection
Biblio-therapy 
I don’t like spoilers, so I’m only commenting on the above-the-cut content:
1. Ugh, I think an Edge-world TV show would be terrible! It seems extremely unlikely that it would be a super-high-budget HBO or equivalent production, so it would be a horrible show on the CW like Cleopatra 2525 or something like that.
2. I would like a book about Jack and George so much that I’m disappointed that clearly the next and possibly last book is not about them. I don’t want to read about Richard (said petulantly); I think I read somewhere that the next book was about Richard, but now I can’t find where I read that in order to confirm it.
3. Aargh! I don’t want any more Jim and Dali unless it is them breaking up (do you say that it is them breaking up in the spoiler section?)! Now, I’m really feeling cranky and maybe need to take a nap.
Crankiness aside, thanks for giving me the play-by-play on this, Rebecca!
1. I rather imagine an Edge TV show would be awful just because so many TV shows are awesome, but it would be pretty awesome if HBO did it like True Blood. It’s sort of the same style of magic in a poor rural community and yet without so many of the issues that the True Blood series has.
(I had never heard of Cleopatra 2525 before, but looking it up: wow. That has awful-attempt-at-cult-classic written all over it. Hee. Did you actually try watching it?)
2. I’m actually pretty happy that there’s only the one more Edge book. I like Jack and George enough that I don’t want to see them mashed into the type of romance plot that all the Edge books have had. They’re better than that. The universe and world-building is awesome, but all the plot arcs and romantic interests are contrived and annoying.
3. Heh. I’m okay with another Jim and Dali book, not because I like the pairing (urgh), but because I want to know if they can convince me to like it. It will not be easy for them, but I’m willing to give them a fighting chance.
1. Well, I punked out on the Sookie Stackhouse books after seven, and the True Blood TV show after season one, but my understanding is that HBO made the series even crazier and over-the-top than the books, so I wouldn’t count on an HBO version of the Edge books having less issues.
(So, I never watched Cleopatra 2525 myself, but Thomas did, and he said it is quite entertaining camp as long as you lower your standards sufficiently.)
2. You are right, of course. I just want the Jack and George book that is in my head (one without a heavy romantic plotline).
3. I guess I’ll just be happy to have a book about Jim, who I love, and, like you, will challenge Ilona Andrew’s to sell Jim and Dali as a couple to me.