Exocrisis Blue - After the Alien War

Summer time!  The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I'm painting the front step.   I'm also writing but this is the worst time of year to be productive as you have to enjoy the 2 whole months of summer weather in Canada before it snows again.  Okay, I exaggerate a bit, but it feels that way some years.

Work on Raid on Kahamba continues and I'm still aiming for that end of August / September time frame to get the next installment of Excocrisis out.  Today, I'm going to show a front and side concept drawing of the HARM unit and talk a little about the world of Exocrisis Blue.

The actual mecha design started out as an abstract drawing of the robot's head for the cover of HARM.  I then thought, what would it take to make it into an actual robot.  This drawing was for the original HARM unit X-14, and the mecha design will have become more streamlined and armoured since then.  For Raid on Kahamba, the HARM unit involved will be a second generation model that will incorporate elements of the prototype, but it will be different.  Each set of countries will also have their own types of HARM units, all based off the original prototypes, but taken in sometimes vastly different directions.

So what is the world of Exocrisis Blue like ten years after the story HARM takes place?  Here is a little background for the upcoming story.

Post-War Years
Ten years after AA  (After Armageddon or After Arrival).

• European Union is now lead by France as the Germany was greatly devastated by the war.  A great deal of rebuilding has happened.
• Brazil – or the Brazilian Empire.  It rules South America except for neutral Chile. Brazil has a Guyana Space Base that was captured from the European Union and works with them for space launches.
• The former eastern United States of America – also calls itself the True United States. A very conservative Christian religious democracy originally started in the power vacuum at the end of the Alien War.
• China has fractured into a southern block which is now the PRC, and multiple northern factions.
• The former western United States is now Pacifica and represents the ideals closest to the nation from which it originated.
• Japan is once again an economic powerhouse with close ties to Canada and Pacifica.  Japan has had brush fire wars with the PRC even though it has simmered down.  They support the northern Chinese factions.
• The Pan-African Alliance which is lead out of South Africa.  This block is allied with the PRC which provided aid to the African continent.
• Australia is independent along with New Zealand.
• India and Pakistan have set aside differences to be their own power bloc with ties to the Middle East, Russian Federation, and PRC / Northern Chinese.
• The middle east, the -stan countries, Iran, Iraq all have ties to the Russian Federation.

That's all for now.  Stay tuned.

Science Fiction and the Test of Time

Ever wonder if a novel or story you have read will still be relevant in a hundred years?  What makes something good enough that it would still matter or be considered a classic?  I was reading an anthology of classic sci fi from the early to mid-20th century called The World Turned Upside Down from Baen Books.  Some of the stories were still really good.  Most were entertaining, but some were really dated and a bit of a struggle to get through.  Some of these stories are sixty to seventy years old and they show their age.

Still, you need a good story first or none of this discussion really matters anyhow.

Bookshelf / Peter Lok

You can actually read it free here from the Fifth Imperium website which hosts some CDs that were made available with select hardcover books and the books are redistributable under the license (pretty amazing actually).  It is actually a great way to get some good sci fi for free (but there is a lot of SF in it from David Weber, David Drake, John Ringo, and many more).  You can read it online or download it in an ebook format at the link below. http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/23-TheEasternFrontCD/1635TheEasternFrontCD/The%20World%20Turned%20Upside%20Down/index.htm  Just remember to support these authors and buy a book from them for trying this marketing approach.

I have not devoted years of my life to thinking about this topic, but I have a couple of ideas about what makes something last.  Science fiction, which is what I write, is probably the hardest genre of fiction as it dates badly based on the technology envisioned or what people expect social norms to be.  There is a double whammy when the social behavior is predicated on the technology.  In this sense, a science fiction author is being a futurist and you know how well futurists have generally predicted the future.  It isn't a stellar track record even ten years into the future.

Anyhow, here are a just a few cultural and technology issues I noticed from the reading the short stories and analyzing them just a little bit.

1. The early SF writers wrote for guys and treated women fairly badly.  The writing isn't realistic around women.  It reflects the cultural attitudes of the time too so I may be being too harsh - but maybe not.
2. No internet or modern computers.  Our current level of technology with instantaneous communication, always on computing, personal computing devices, cell phones, mass storage, mass communication of a thousand TV channels, etc., were probably inconceivable. One story with a super-duper computer (can't say anymore or I'll ruin the story) was really good despite a bad start (too many wires) did withstand the test of time though.
3. Spaceships with manual targeting - good space opera, but lousy science.  
4. Spaceships with simple computing machines.  HAL 9000s are probably what type of super computer intelligence that should exist.
5. What do you call a visual display device? Viewer, CRT, TV, visual display, etc.  Wrong term makes it sound pretty bad or jarring to suspension of disbelief.
6. Making a wrong prediction.  One story was developed before mass air travel was economically feasible so people drove down 12 lane freeways with jet powered cars.  Very cool story, but so wrong.

I have to emphasize I did enjoy reading the stories, but often it was from a historical viewpoint.  So I have a few rules of thumb to keep writing from aging badly. Remember, you need a good story first, then these item help its longevity.

1. Have a narrow focus in the story.  Keep it detailed right around the core story with the protagonists, but have it become more general with other events.  Don't build a big expansive detailed world and have it dated when things change in the real world that indicate it isn't possible.  Don't describe a societal norm (unless you need to) that you "figured would happen" based on your extrapolation.  
2. The Windup Girl is an example of complex world building for the Calorie Wars and all of the labour powered devices via super springs.  I enjoyed reading the novel for the story and characters but could not appreciate the world building as it has a zero probability scenario of arrival without major warfare breaking out with nukes.  On the other hand a piece of writing like Germline which is a bit similar to The Windup Girl with the genetically engineered clone soldiers vs windup bio-organisms worked far better for me even if the military stuff was only okay. 
   This situation is probably because Germline focused on only a small portion of the world and only the military, rather than the vast complex world of the Calorie Wars.  I know I'm being picky, but I don't really want a set piece just because someone thought it was cool and it had to be that way - world building is hard work and logical.  Look to Jack Vance for world building tips - make it alien and not of Earth if you want to get away with detailed world building.  Use another world, another galaxy, another time, another species to your advantage.
3. Be general in the descriptions of technology and push the technology one step further.  Communicators are in your head not in your pocket.  Don't use TVs, use holographic displays or retina displays right on your retina, etc.  What are you going to call your technology?  A brand name might work or a general description - but be careful as the word CRT or TV may not exist in 50 years except to indicate you are OLD. Will the Internet still be called the Internet in 50 years?
4. Use contemporary characters and extraordinary events to tell stories that are well grounded and believable in the present or past.  This way you are not extrapolating a societal norm that could become wrong.  This is taking the easy way out from setting something in the future, but it is safer.
5. Use a non-technical character to describe the story.  You don't get bogged down in technical details and the language is more general and readable in the present and probably the future.

Finally, H.G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds in 1898 and it has aged really well.  He pretty much followed all of these rules.

1.  A journalist - nice generic character who describes action from experiencing it. He isn't the general or the infantryman fighting directly.
2. Set in 1898 contemporary London and England. World building is minimal, but he doesn't describe the world in great detail - it is just there and we use our interpretations of a coal powered industrial England to fill in the gaps where necessary.
3. The aliens arrive by being launched from cannons on Mars - not so good, but they could have been rockets or mass drivers.
4. The alien war machines and weapons.  Still cool today and we can just do the robotics in the 21st century.  Heat rays (nice generic description) are lasers!  He extrapolated poison gas too and used it on a scale that didn't happen till WW1.
5. Story is tight - basically around the central character.  Too many characters (like modern novels) mean too many holes as the world you must build in detail gets bigger and bigger.

I hoped everyone enjoyed this and it is mainly food for thought. So thanks for reading!

Raid on Kahamba - A Story From Exocrisis Blue

I've been busy with work, blogging for Tokyo Excess, and planning out the world of Exocrisis Blue.  Usually in this order.  Have no fear though, work continues in utmost secrecy.  While I have good notes for Exocrisis, I realized there was a need to keep adding more background material as story points came up.  I also needed to keep things orderly at the same time as I'm covering a 16 year stretch of history before the main story of Exocrisis Blue.

Front View concept drawing of a HARM unit.

So, I'm letting fans of the first story Exocrisis Blue story, HARM, know that I have started writing another standalone story that takes place about 10 years after HARM and 6 years before Exocrisis Blue.  This story will give some details about the end of the Alien War and build on some critical key elements that will be central to Exocrisis Blue. Everyone's favourite HARM pilot, Joshua Scott, will be back as a central character.

This is a story is tentatively titled RAID, and is about a mission to snatch something important from a research facility located at an old mining facility in Africa.  I'm aiming to have the story done in the August to September time frame of 2012.  The story will feature advanced HARM units, international intrigue, commandos, and more.

And thanks to all the people who bought HARM.  It certainly helps in the morale department.

Stay tuned!

One more thing, do any mecha fans out there know of any good places I can post or publicize my Exocrisis / HARM stories.  There are many forums, but not many for something that isn't Gundam or for authors to talk about their books/stories.  Let me know in the replies if you can help out. Thanks again.