I actually backed, then rescinded my pledge when I read the preview. Sorry Marc, but it was just plain terrible.

Not interested.

What! I thought this would be totally your type of thing Pundit! ha

I like Marc.  Hope he enjoys writting it, and doesn't mind getting reviews like all writters do.

I guess my primary interest would be to seen Marc Miller's take on the Imperium.  Tone, feel, window dressing stuff.  I'm hoping for some new insight or sense of place.  Traveller has generally been a pretty dry sand box.  There's bright spots like Survival Margin and Path of Tears but generally the Imperium is really just a generic space into which you can put whatever stories appeal to you. It's Star Wars this time and Dune next time and Farscape the time after that.

Marc sent me a softcover of the book recently. He told me the Traveller art I've done online inspired him to write the book. It's written in the style/flavor of Foundation, Space Viking, and The Martian Chronicles. It's one of the best old-style sci-fi books I've read in a very long time. I like that Marc and I think the same way about how the 3rd Imperium works all these years later. Looking up the worlds from the stories in the book on the Traveller map site was pretty cool. Some of the worlds I still remembered from decades ago.

This is just the first in a series of Imperium novels he'll be releasing. I look forward to reading those.

How is he doing? I don't know if he takes this stuff personally (don't know him personally), but I can imagine 5e's reception might have been a low point. I can only hope that the interest in his novel might have been a real shot in the arm.

Traveller 5.09 was a major revision for T5. Fixed all kind of problems. Me and him differ on rules though, so I use a different ruleset for Traveller. But I guess communications with his customers got him excited about making an Agent character and writing a novel for him. I like that there are no game rules in the novel. Just game setting. Only it doesn't read at all like a Traveller game or adventure. It's its own thing. If that makes sense. Don't have to know any Traveller to understand what's going on in the novel.

Quote from: David Johansen;866410I guess my primary interest would be to seen Marc Miller's take on the Imperium.  Tone, feel, window dressing stuff.  I'm hoping for some new insight or sense of place.

Pretty much this.  I didn't read Gary's novels about Gord the Rogue thinking it was going to be great literature, I read it because they were stories told inside a setting from the guy who created the setting.  Even if I completely ignore the creator and go entirely my own way, I still like to get a glimpse inside their head to see how they think their world works.  Professional writers whose famous novels later get made into games are usually more enjoyable to read then the reverse, but it's still a rare opportunity for the creator to show us their world in a way the gamebook doesn't.

Same reasom I read Man of Gold and Flamesong, to see how Barker pictured Tekumel in action.

Quote from: JeremyR;865805...
But I think the most Traveller-like novels are the Dumarest series by EC Tubb

Maybe not the background (there's no Imperium), but the travelling part. And a lot of the technology.

I tracked the Dumarest books down only recently, when I finally gave up on print and got a bundle on Kindle.  And yeah, without saying Traveller isn't a fusion of a lot of stuff, reading the first few I kept thinking Traveller is basically the Dumarest RPG.  EC Dubbs has to be one of the single bigger influences, he's just less well known than some with his books out of print.  I definitely recommend tracking them down if you play Traveller and haven't read any.

Back on topic, Amazon reviews are surprisingly positive.  My knee jerk take is that's time I could spend reading more Dumarest books (it's a big long pulp series, so I haven't actually been religious about finishing), but I may yet check this out.  More out of clinical curiosity than for any "official take" - I can't help but notice that the original Traveller was both relatively rules-lite, and didn't have a canonical universe, even if it assumed certain commonalities.