3 thoughts on “Here I am on the Baen Podcast”

  1. Okay, the whole Franks vs. the World thing sounds awesome. Thanks for the spoilers. I can’t wait for Nemesis now! Franks is one of my favorite Monster Hunter characters.

    BTW, shouldn’t the eArc for Swords of Exodus be out soon? I’m checking the Baen website every day. I just finished up re-reading Dead Six in anticipation.

  2. I find it interesting that Owen’s objection was fear rather than it being simply wrong to be a murderer for hire. Franks is no more malicious than a hurricane or earthquake. Nasty things have to be done, or the earth turns into the hell of the casino in the sky.

    As I understand it, MHB first gives witnesses the option to shut up on their own, even though it undoubtedly leads to breaches, and hence more awareness and converts to the elder gods.

    In spite of Harbinger’s belief that the news should spread far and wide, all mythologies I’ve ever studied agree that the strength of any deity is in direct proportion to belief in it. If convincing evidence were on YouTube about Cthulu’s existence, we’d be armpit deep in Cthulu sex cults by this weekend, with half of them trying to gate him in.

    So, I can sympathize with Franks taking his job seriously, especially since he has a lot of hands on experience with the alternative. If his memories go waaay back, everyone he shoots is a mayfly anyway. That would also explain his terseness, since it’s a waste of time to try to educate beings that won’t listen, can’t really understand, and will be dead soon anyway.

    Franks will also have been learning the entire time, since knowledge = survival. Human’s peak useful learning years start after puberty and taper severely with age, as folks think about dying and figure “why bother?” Franks has had at least 200 years of learning where normal humans get 20-40. Forget technology. Franks has been watching humans long enough to tell exactly what they’re going to do before they know it themselves. By now, the subtlest body language cues would be a flashing neon sign.

    Having seen and fought against it all, he should have absolutely no need to frisk anyone, just reach to where he knows the weapons will be hidden, and exactly how many. Static posture will tell him instantly how strong and aggressive anyone is, and two steps will tell him their medical history.

    Franks, if he needed to, would rocket to the top of any megacorporation, and could sell anything to anyone who needed it. He would be unbeatable at high stakes poker, and has by now learned enough law by osmosis to be unbeatable in a courtroom.

    The best analogy would be a parent watching his four year old trying to lie convincingly.

    The recipe for Elixir of Life would be worth far more than that piddling puff, anyway. Franks would have the savvy and resources to become a billionaire from EoL supplement pills. A tiny dose, mixed with trace denaturing agents. The pill will get you going, but take too much and the denaturing will make you very sick.

    Billions. Plenty enough to buy a lot of senators and fund your own Monster Hunting corp.

    Or possibly Franks already has…

    Too much time here, off to the BBQ. Happy 4th!

Leave a Reply to steve@km427.com Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *