I’ve finally read through all The Rogue King with the additional chapters from A Game of Cat and Horse and, after removing a few chapters, reordering another chapter because I’m a dunce and put the other two in the wrong place, changing the PoV on one, adding another to even out the timeline and tweaking one of the original chapters to remove the now unneeded summary of a character…
All in all, I’m pretty confident the merge will work. Well, except for one or two chapters.
The main one in question is Chapter 46 and, as I reached that piece, it left me with a little “Do I need this here?” niggling in the back of my mind. Basically, it imparts knowledge about the state of a certain person as they learn about said state. But that knowledge is taken in via a third party, whereas the next chapter has, in my mind, a little more of an oomph as it’s the same knowledge being taken in from the PoV of a character that has stronger stake in it.
Now I like several things about the chapter and it gives a certain insight into how other characters see the MC. But that can be readily dragged into the next book if needed that much.
There’s another chapter, #52, that’s not as problematic, but, what with everything surrounding it, may be superfluous. I’ve had all of it–the places, the characters and their timelines–in my head for so long that everything is already one and, even if I wind up removing both chapters, it’s still roughly 20,000 extra words.
I guess it’s time to go hunting for a second opinion…
Aldrea Alien 
Well, if you're wondering if it's necessary, then it might not be. Do you think it'll create confusion if it's removed or not integrated into the other chapters?
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In all honesty, I think that question could be applied to all of the additional chapters and come up with: “Not really”. But the whole point of this addition is expanding the story.
But yeah … the more I look at #46, the more I lean towards removing it. Key bits can easily be taken and fed into the second novel. But #52 … I don't yet know what I'll do there.
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Sometimes, having more information there confuses people (at least that's what I've encountered with my writing). I've had people question stuff like “What did Cera's dad do in order to earn a favor from Rin?” Then I realize having that detail in there creates questions that don't belong in that particular story.
On the reverse side, if it comes to an explanation of why a character can do what they do, which is kind of what I was gathering from the post, and that explanation isn't there, then that might also create confusion.
*shrug* But if you're leaning more toward removing it, then I suppose give it a try and see if you find someone who hasn't read the whole thing to see if it makes sense.
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As far as I can determine, a lot of the chapters circulate on Jarend and Laccindy's relationship. And that helps me avoid large chunks of explaining who Jarend is in the other three stories (and the sequel) and why Lasil never sees him. But with those additions comes others that need to be there: like how Jarend and Veng met, which is some years before Laccindy rolls into their lives.
Having their povs certainly helps in having a certain reveal look less contrived, so they need to come along now. It's just when I compare those two chapters to the others in terms of usefulness… superfluous tends to spring to mind.
I guess I'll just have to find someone to see…
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