A Farewell to New Heroes
Michael Carroll, 20170629
As I write this, I’m just a few hours away from revealing the cover and title for the ninth (and last!) novel in the New Heroes / Quantum Prophecy saga. That’s going to happen around midnight, UTC (that’s about 17:00 on the east coast of America, 14:00 on the west coast). Not too long after that, all going well, the book will be available for purchase.
For those not in the know (or not in the care!), the New Heroes saga is my series of superhero novels for the Young Adult market.
This isn’t the place or the time to go into a long, detailed discussion of the series’ convoluted – and often maddeningly frustrating – publishing history, so I’ll just say for now that I started developing the story and characters in 2002 (back then, there were no original superhero prose novels for the YA market: within a couple of years of my first one being published, there were dozens!). Pretty much from the start I knew how it was going to end.
Will the readers like the book? Will they be happy with how it all wraps up? Will they feel that I’ve given their favourite characters the right sort of ending?
I have no clue. Maybe they’ll hate it, maybe they’ll love it... Time will tell. Me, I’m happy with how it’s turned out. I think I’ve done a good job. There’s a lot of action, a touch of drama, a couple of Big Revelations and even a little humour. (Oh, and one of the most shocking and unsettling escape scenes I’ve ever written! But don’t worry, it’s all still YA-friendly!)
To all those who’ve come along for the ride, even if it was only for a short time, thank you! Thanks to everyone who has supported this series over the years: my friends and family, my fellow creators, the publishers, readers, booksellers, librarians, reviewers... It’s been fun!
I’ve been waiting for – and working towards – this day for fifteen years. Exciting, eh? These characters have been living in my head for a decade and a half and have spent most of that time subtly reminding me that I need to get a move on with the next book in the series, and now it’s all done... There is no longer a Next Book hanging over me!
Hooray! I’m free!