A while back I posted a bit of fiction describing part of a battle featuring Orion nuclear pulse propelled “space battleships.” It was only a small scrap, and I didn’t think much of it, but someone else seemed to like it and suggested an effort that would have seen it fleshed out to novel length. I put a considerable amount of scribbling behind the project, but it recently fell through. As I hate to see effort wasted, I’m considering plowing ahead with a modified version by myself.
What it would be is an alternate history, where the US develops Orions starting in the 1960’s and, as the earlier tale partially describes, tangles with the Soviet Union some time later. Here’s the thing: there’s no using Orion battleships for anything other than total global thermonuclear war. The story would be at best grim. But in my plan, the tale would be told in the form of an official history of the Orion program, as seen from (handwave) 2014, starting from the beginning, through early development, into World War III and then into the post-war period of economic and ecological disaster, but also great progress in space due to the existing infrastructure. The post-war US would be a very different place than Real World US, and would basically stride the wreckage of the world like a pissed-off giant.
Being an official history, it would of course be illustrated, featuring Orion vehicles of my own design (which designs were begun under the previous book project).
But before I waste another millisecond on this, I gotta know: is anyone even remotely interested?