SteveMill wrote:As a general question - would you have liked the ending to have been extended with another scene that explained the why's and wherefore's of Max's hinted survival or are you happy to have it left a mystery?
I originally planned to have the Epilogue in Chapter 28 and an Epilogue as above but felt that emotionally it was better to give a cathartic resolution to the Max/Law thing, leave the question of the alien ship necessarily unanswered by the evolving circumstances of the universe, and then right at the end, lift the reader up with an ending that suggests the endless cycle of things - Max et al picking up Artur's torch.
I guess it's a matter of taste in the end. Mystery or certainty.
I thoroughly enjoyed it as is, it leaves enough to the imagination to picture what may have happened, working IP drive, Face job needed for a friend.
It is for me a conclusive enough ending, Law is dead and Max is not, not in my mind anyway and that final battle with him and Law was excellent it was very satifying to see Law beamed out into vacuum.
Then again the "Mystery or certainty" ending should really rest with you and wether you want it open enough to continue at some future date, or if you want it finalised (though i've no doubt you have the imagination to reopen the story at any time).
I will thank you now for some great reading, its been a very entertaining pleasure seeing this develop and grow and I will be looking forward to more from you, wether it's in this universe or not and I will also be hoping that the entire trilogy gets into print as i'd love to have them all in book form (most likely anything else you should get published too).