So S.D. Smith has expressed the desire to write a third book from the perspective of Jo Shanks, apparently to be set around the time of Ember Rising. As such, I thought it might be fun to bring up and discuss some possibilities regarding this book.

• So I imagine the book will probably follow Jo as he serves as part of Emma's escorts as she travels from one secret citadel to another. This will potentially involve some more scenes at Vandalia, perhaps some actual time at Blackstone, and maybe even a bit of time at Chelmsford, given that it's the closest citadel to First Warren after Harbone. Might be nice if Felson could get some actual page time and dialogue that doesn't just involve him showing up with everybody else and being pronounced dead.

• The book will undoubtedly give us some more time with Jo and the Blackstar twins, who we already had some fun scenes with in Ember Rising and Ember's End. It could also potentially cover Tameth Seer's attempt to murder Emma from Jo's perspective.

• The climax of the book will, I figure, involve one of two scenarios. The most obvious would be following Jo's perspective in the Battle of First Warren, up to and including his second successful raptor kill (after Solus, as The First Fowler established). An alternate and, in my own opinion, more interesting development, would be if Emma's party runs into some kind of trouble on their way to First Warren. I think it would even be nice if Cole got more of a chance to shine in this scenario, instead of being eternally relegated to "Fowler #3 who would be #4 had one of his comrades not turned traitor".

• Would be fun to see some underutilized characters from the previous books perhaps take a role in this one, as kind of a final sendoff. I'm a bit bummed that we never heard back from Jo's old buddy Lund, and there are undoubtedly others who could appear.