Could the Tenth Volume of Nikolai Dante contain ONLY three stories??

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Heroes Be Damned, the series after that is - apart from a double-length epilogue - already written, and will, I assume, see print shortly after Hero, so there should be a lot of material ready for the early part of next year. We hopefully won’t lose too much momentum and, as mentioned, we will also be doing a short series starring one of the more popular members of Dante’s supporting cast between now and then, which should be good fun. You’ll have to take my word for that, though, as I haven’t actually sussed out the story yet

And then there's Hero of the Revolution which makes THREE stories!!!

[radiator]

Think you've misinterpreted that quote - he means that he hasn't written the double length final episode of Heroes Be Damned, not the whole Dante saga.

[Dark Jimbo]

I don't really like the structuring of the recent trades. It seemed an odd decision to stick The Tsar's Daughter at the end of Beast of Rudhinstein, which saw the book end on a flat and rather weird note, when it would have been much more satisfying to have seen it end a story earlier, with the classic - 'How am I going to die?' 'Spectacularly.' 'Spectacularly? I can live with that.'

Tsar's Daughter could then have gone in at the start of the Amerika trade as a sort of prologue to the main tale, foreshadowing Jena's growing distrust of her father. Add Hero of the Revolution to the end, and (besides a really big book) you've had had the perfect note to end that trade on, rather than the fun but ultimately inconsequential Lulu's War.

As it is the tenth (and last?) trade is going to 'start', to all intents and purposes, with the 'end' of the rebellion plotline. All the flow of the earlier trades, where some clear attempt was being made to structure the books more thoughtfully, seems to have been lost.

Yeah, I know, I think far too much about this stuff.

[PreacherCain]

I'd quite like them to do a 'Case Files' on Nikolai Dante, ten trades is a bit tough on the pocket and it'd be great to have the whole series in three or four large volumes, bit like what we have with Nemesis or Stront.

[Mike Gloady]

Not a bad idea, Cain.  But I think they'll probably finish the regular trades before they start compiling them into phonebooks.  Be a bit rough on those who've been following it thus far through the collections to have the next trade (probably the last, right?) abandoned in favour of a phonebook in a year or two.