Notes from the author

Era of Explorer Part I spans five years, though their original assignment was for seven.  Certain circumstances, however, permitted them from completing the last two years. 16 stories isn't really a lot for five years work of work.  Readers must understand that not every waking second is jam-packed with action, as certain sci-fi series' would lead them to believe.  In order to stay as realistic as possible, I didn't cram an exorbinate number of adventures into their five year span. The index of stories on the list on the front page misleads the Explorer's role in the 21-year long Imperial war.  The Explorer and Explorer-B played a much more crucial role in the war than what is seen here.  Most of those adventures are tied in with major UNSF stories that have to do with more than just the Explorer or Explorer-B The Explorer-A, however, is strongly focused on the Imperial war.  When the Explorer-A was commissioned in 2190, the war was at its peak.  If the story doesn't directly deal with the Imperials, it has some underlying tone.  As readers may or may not have guessed yet, the Explorer-A isn't concetrated on as much as the Explorer and Explorer-B.  This was an unconcious error on my part.  When I created the crew of the Explorer-A, I realized that they wouldn't be as interesting as the Explorer.  That is also an underlying reason that the crew of the Explorer was reassembled for the Explorer-B.  This is not to say that the Explorer-A isn't as important as the other two, just to say that they aren't as much of an influencing factor.  Consider them to be like the Enterprise-C of the series. Likewise, the ten stories that compliment Part III do not accurately reflect the Explorer's part in the Imperial war.  "Why the heck are there so many Wargames?" is a main question readers ask.  Plain and simple, the Wargames Series, as they have come to be called, has been one of the most fun to write.  Most people's favorite is Capture the Flag, which is also our favorite.  To pit famous UNSF ships against each other in such an old-fashioned game as Capture the Flag was both a blast to read and write. And as for Errant Venture, it couldn't be helped.  As much as I vowed to myself that I wasn't going to write with Mansel, or anyone from any Explorer series after Legacy of the Eagle, I couldn't help myself. After a few people wanted to see Mansel later on in life, so I decided to bring the crew back when they were in their fifties for one final adveneture.  Taking from Don Quixote, I composed a series of adventures revolving around the aging crew who still had the thirst for adventures. ~Darryl Mansel