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OT: The 4400 Welcome to Promise City/Promises Broken

JD

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I know we do have a seperate general Sci-Fi forum, but since the two authors involved have written I'm a big fan of The 4400, and I was just curious if these two books are going to be ending the series, or will this be the beginning of an ongoing DS9R type series for The 4400? I think I remember David Mack making a reference to ending the story, but I just wanted to make sure.
 
The answer, as with all things in publishing, is, "It depends."

I wrote Promises Broken to serve as a "grand finale" to The 4400, but I left enough of the fictional universe intact that if sales warrant a continuation, there is somewhere for the series to go.
 
This is from an interview I did last September with David Mack, so it might me a bit outdated already:

“It’s set a few months after the series’ final episode, The Great Leap Forward, and it will build upon events depicted in Greg Cox’s forthcoming post-finale 4400 novel, Promise City,” he explains.

“In a lot of ways,” he adds, “I approached Promises Broken with the mindset of crafting the ‘grand finale’ tale the show might have done if its final six episodes had been allotted a budget of two hundred million dollars. A lot of the lingering story threads and dramatic questions from the end of season four will be dealt with in Promises Broken. Its storyline, which has just been given the green light by the licensor, has been described as ‘epic’ and will kick over the status quo of the series.”

As one of only two authors writing post-finale books for that series, it seems possible that David will have a fair amount of influence on the direction of the line, but he disagrees. “I’m writing the last scheduled book in the series, which means I get to wreak havoc on the series’ status quo and the characters’ lives, but unless the book sells like gangbusters and spurs Pocket to extend its commitment on that license, I’d say my ‘influence’ on the line will be minimal.” On the other hand, that’s also had a positive effect for him, since on the creative-freedom front he “was all but given carte blanche.”
 
Cool, I think it was that interview that I was thinking of.

I can't wait to see what Cox and Mack do. I remember being upset that the show ended the way that it did, because I thought that it was a great set up for future stories. So now I am really excited to see where things go in these books.
 
Thanks for the interest in the books. FYI, there's also an ongoing thread about the books in the Science Fiction & Fantasy forum.
 
Oh, sorry. I guess I should have checked there first.:brickwall:

EDIT: I just came back after checking out the other thread, and found a few interesting bits from Greg Cox.
Without giving too much away, some quick answers:

1) The good folks at CBS approved the new books, but gave us plenty of freedom to use our imaginations.

2) Tom was not exposed to promicin during the tv show's series finale, but, yeah, the rest of the NTAC gang have abilities now (except Diana, as you noted.) The final scene of the last episode had Tom debating whether to take the promicin shot his son had given him. Let's just say I deal with this issue in the very first chapter of the new book.

3) In the final episode, Jordan was rescued by Tom and Isabel before the Marked took possession of his mind. It was implied that Shawn would cure him, which is what I assumed happened. So Jordan is not among the Marked as the book begins.

As you may recall, Tom also gave Jordan a list containing the names of all the surviving Marked, with the understanding that Jordan would deal with them. I picked up on that plot thread and ran with it . . . .

Don't worry. We didn't forget about Ryland. He's all over these books.

I brought back Richard as well.

Not having Richard for a full season was also a mistake. Richard was probably the most sympathetic character of all the returnees, and aside from Tom and Diana his character played a central role in the prior seasons.


I know what you mean. Bringing Richard back and putting him front-and-center again was near the top of my to-do list.
 
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Just to elaborate on that last point, I really wanted to have Richard deal with Isabelle's death. It bothered me that, on the show, they never had a chance to show Richard reacting to the news that his daughter had been killed by The Marked.

That was an obvious loose end up to pick up on.
 
I'm working my way through the series, but i already have some spoilers. However, noting that these books may be the only thing resembling a finale I will read, I just want to know if the story line involving Alana is resolved. I WILL still be reading the books, but there's no way I can be happy if her story line is left the way it is in the series.
 
Alana was Tom's girlfriend who could take people into alternate realities and was unceremoniously written out of the series at the end of, I think, the third season. She was re-abducted and never heard from again.
 
Right, thanks.

Alas, I confess we didn't deal with her in the concluding novels. Given how many other loose ends we had to wrap up, there just wasn't room to reopen that storyline as well. Revisiting Alana was on my wish list had the books continued, but . . . .
 
Alana was Tom's girlfriend who could take people into alternate realities and was unceremoniously written out of the series at the end of, I think, the third season. She was re-abducted and never heard from again.

Not only was she not seen again, I don't even remember her being mentioned again. I'm not sure why they wrote the character out but I thought the way the did it was a low point for the show that I liked.
 
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