this stop: the structure

[adelaidesean]

If you liked my story "A Map of the Mines of Barnath", then you might also like "Inevitable", which has just come out in the Strahan/Dozois collection New Space Opera 2. It's the first glimpse into the world of the Structure since "Barnath" was published, way back in 1994. It's the last until a much larger novella in Godlike Machines, hopefully this year. The collection as a whole is awesome, with people like Garth Nix, Cory Doctorow, Elizabeth Moon and many, many others crowding out little old me.  Here's the cover:

I had a lot of fun writing the story, which features two whole new space opera empires (the Guild of the Great Ships and the nasty Decretians) and has none of that real-physics nonsense of the Astropolis books. Here, when the characters want to go from one side of the galaxy to the other, they just go.  Isn't that the way it's supposed to be?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Maybe one day I'll get around to writing the novel.

Comments

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

So nice to share space with you, d00d!

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed! And your story has the best title in the book. (Don't tell anyone else I said that. Shh.)

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

William Shakespeare is your friend...

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Idaknow. As much as I enjoyed the story--I love "tunnel through the universe's basement" stories--I don't think the concept of the Guild vs. the Decretians is distinct enough from, say, the starfish from the Earth Orphans series to really stand as a recognizable unique, separate novel: it's not exactly a rehashing of earlier ideas, just a bit too close to them...unless, of course, you decide to focus on something entirely different--say, internal politics amongst the Guild of Great Ships. Something involving their origins, perhaps. THAT would be 100% Bitchin'. In fact, it would be Totally Cool if it turned out they evolved from a group of Terran posthumans inspired by the lyrics of Devo. (I mean, you already did Numan, so Devo's the next logical step....)

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Ha! No Devo, alas--not yet, anyway (see below). The next novella, "A Glimpse of the Marvellous Structure (and the Threat it Entails)" is written from the POV of a Guild spy, so I think you'll get your wish there. And obviously there would be room in the novel to explore both the Guild and the Structure's inhabitants in lots of interesting ways. One day...

I know this makes me a bit daggy, but I've always wanted to write a novel with the same structure as ELO's album "Time". Writing a Devo-fueled novel is something Robert Anton Wilson might have been able to pull off better than me. :-)

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I've found ELO to be extremely stimulating as well, and Time is definitely my favourite of their works. Go with that! I'll handle the Devo novelizations. :) Either that, or my political party, the New Traditionalists, will take over the US and force it down the rest of the world's collective throat!

as you tread the halls of sanity...

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! I'd vote for you, just to get the plastic hair.

And yes, "Time" is noodling around the back of my brain. When the world is ready for another time-travel romance, I'll be there. With Jeff.

Re: as you tread the halls of sanity...

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

Dear gods, not another time-travel romance....Wait. Unless this one involves characters spanning billions of timelines and a relationship that exists perpendicular to all those four-dimensional timelines. I fully support romance fiction provided it is contained with appropriately multidimensional framework.

Re: as you tread the halls of sanity...

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

I think that's what I was trying to do with Geodesica, but my brain wasn't big enough.

Re: as you tread the halls of sanity...

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

Here you go! (http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash2.php) That link will help you envision ten dimensions rather easily.

Also, I must admit I wasn't all that crazy about Geodesica--a lot of the ideas in it just didn't seem to mesh together smoothly--but I still enjoyed the narrative and the characters a great deal. I'd rather read BIG HUGE UNIVERSE-SPANNING fiction that doesn't exactly hold together in all aspects than read some tightly-plotted but extremely limited traditional narrative. I greatly respect writers whose reach exceeds their grasp! :)

Also, you may be interested in this new Creative-Commons-licensed RPG: Eclipse Phase (http://www.eclipsephase.com). Pure transhumanist awesomeness. I'm currently writing a few interlinked short stories set in their world. There are some ideas in there that clearly came from your work, so you may wish to contact the authors and throw some words at them as well if you've the time! As always, my stories involve weakly-godlike AGIs and mysterious intelligences that dwell between the stars and have a distinct aversion to baryonic sentience....

Re: as you tread the halls of sanity...

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Wow, that does look like fun! If I only had time... :-/

tis grand

[jasonnahrung.com (from livejournal.com)]

I have to say, Inevitable was one of my favourite yarns from the collection. Time twists always do my head in. Nicely.

Re: tis grand

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Jason. I'm really glad you liked it. "Glimpse" is bigger and even better, if I'm allowed to be immodest. :-)