Hello all,

Welcome back! Let’s dive right in.

(OBLIGATORY SPOILER ALERT HERE:)

“Hi Jim,
I was wondering about the airships you put into your stories. Why would they be necessary? It seems with modern military technology, the idea of massive lumbering giant battleships would actually be a massive step back. Can you go into a little more detail about them?
Thanks,
John”

Hi John, thanks for the question. You’re right, in terms of modern times, the airships would not be practical. However, let’s remember something very important here; this is NOT the same world. The story does not take place in the modern world. The world that we know and… mostly love, died when the Red War began. Keep in mind, a lot of what we take for granted was lost. Of 8 billion people, only 1.5 survived the war. Humanity essentially had to relearn a lot of its technology and innovation. Couple that with the fact that you now have another species living on the planet, one that can grow very large and fly very fast, and you’ve got a whole new philosophy of defense.

Many in the UPW Senate, thanks in no small part to the influence of the Church of the Predestined, feared another potential dragon uprising and by The Orphans of Haven, had already put plans into effect to take away the main advantage that dragons had; aerial superiority. That took the form of massive armored warships capable of flying. What’s more, they would have massive cannons capable of ripping through the tough hides of dragons in ways that conventional weapons could not.

Qira opposed the creation of such warships and wanted to focus on society and internal struggles. She wanted funding to go to education, societal infrastructure, and things that would benefit people. She meant well, but it quickly became apparent that she was being very naive, especially because the emerging Eastern Empire was growing in strength and had gotten their hands on the plans for the Charleston Class Battleship. As a result, an air navy became essential.

Now, keep in mind, the air battleships aren’t the same thing we see with conventional modern battleships like say the USS Missouri (retired in the early 90s).

These battleships don’t use projectile weapons, they use neutron, laser, and (in the case of the UPWS Raiya) particle weapons. For defenses, they have EM fields that dissipate weapons fired directly at their hulls.

I’ll leave out the technical details as I explained how they fly in my books. However, I will also say that they also pack a full wing of fighters for defense and attack. Their bays are large enough to accommodate medium-sized skydrives as well.

Now, I know that we see the battleships constantly beating away at each other, but the truth is that ships like the Kali, Nagato, Colossus, Akagi, and the other battleships are more meant to act as mobile command posts while their fighters, in conjunction with the cruisers, destroyers, and aux craft do most of the fighting. They are more than capable of defending themselves, and would likely be called up against larger targets, but realistically, they’d be coordinating their task forces and ferrying their fighters from one location to another.

Anyway, I hope this helps you better understand the thought process behind the construction and proliferation of the global air navies.

Readers, if you liked the book, please take a moment and leave me a quick review or if you’re pressed for time, some simple stars will suffice!! I wouldn’t ask, but the more exposure my book gets, the more copies it sells. Word of mouth is everything in this business! Thanks so much, all! I greatly appreciate it!

https://a.co/d/fvwmK1H

Thanks, friends! I’ll catch you on the flipside!

-Jim

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jhwriting@proton.me

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim