Liner Notes 7
Here are some behind the scenes thoughts on my story Second Chance and the attendant essay on the Deep Patrol's vessels, cutters and cruisers.
Liner Notes 7
Doppelgangers! They’re all over the place. In fact yesterday I saw an episode of Westworld in which some characters discovered copies of themselves. That’s not the inspiration for this story though, which I wrote last year. So I spend a couple of sentences on an actual science fiction concept; what if there was another you, what would they do, how would you feel, what would the relationship between the two of you be?
This is the halfway point of the stories, and having cycled through each member of the crew we return to follow Gunn, though at a distance, the camera mostly observing the scene rather than lurking inside his head. Under my original plan the halfway point would have been marked by a two part episode. Instead there’s this, self-contained, and self-referential. It is a turning point though. Gunn gets a chance to see what he looks like from the outside and... he’s not as impressed as he might have hoped. Will that change anything going on?
The Total Fun Corporation, a rogue AI cell that creates populist situational art projects that sometimes are indistinguishable from terrorism seem like a good antagonist. They can do almost anything so long as it’s cool, or interesting, or striking. They even get to make a blatant point or two about the fiction they’re in.
Major Gone’s ship is Born in a Cross-Fire Hurricane. That’s not a clue, it’s a joke. Just to be clear about that.
The crew find themselves in a village between the giant spider’s nest (“gigantarachnid” is a good word I think) and the swine swamp. In case you wondered the village is built from pig bones and treated mega-silk. They eat a lot of pork. That’s why they live there, there’s a reason, it’s not just a joke, really.
Meanwhile I’ve moved Honfleur from the estuary of the Seine to a similar river somewhere out in the galaxy. So it’s a medieval town, but it’s not, and of course has reverted back to approximately eighteenth century technology.
The giant dinosaurs covered in fungus (two big animals in this one, not sure what that’s about) are a nice simple thought experiment ecosystem. Then I ran down my list of strange ideas for the twist; if Gunn had landed here, what would have happened to bite the crew in the arse? Tunnel squid predators of course. Apologies to anyone with a fear of squids.
They move fairly swiftly in this story, visiting four planets, using the big doppelganger idea that was in my notes practically from day one of this writing project, more fungus and more dinosaurs, a town displaced and the theme park. I’m hopeful that I managed to make good on my promise that in the wake of the Wavefront the only thing that can be expected in the unexpected.
There’s also the return of Dr Perky’s Refreshing Beverage, which is sadly more popular than this series of stories.
Liner Notes 7a
This is one of the topics that would probably be better explained as a diagram rather than as a description. Of course if I could draw spaceships I’d probably have a Patreon for that rather than writing space opera. You can see the limits of my art skills here with Dr Perky and in the stories with their cover of a stylised rocket.
Cruisers obviously could take a five year mission if they wanted to. Of course.
Liner Notes 7
Doppelgangers! They’re all over the place. In fact yesterday I saw an episode of Westworld in which some characters discovered copies of themselves. That’s not the inspiration for this story though, which I wrote last year. So I spend a couple of sentences on an actual science fiction concept; what if there was another you, what would they do, how would you feel, what would the relationship between the two of you be?
This is the halfway point of the stories, and having cycled through each member of the crew we return to follow Gunn, though at a distance, the camera mostly observing the scene rather than lurking inside his head. Under my original plan the halfway point would have been marked by a two part episode. Instead there’s this, self-contained, and self-referential. It is a turning point though. Gunn gets a chance to see what he looks like from the outside and... he’s not as impressed as he might have hoped. Will that change anything going on?
The Total Fun Corporation, a rogue AI cell that creates populist situational art projects that sometimes are indistinguishable from terrorism seem like a good antagonist. They can do almost anything so long as it’s cool, or interesting, or striking. They even get to make a blatant point or two about the fiction they’re in.
Major Gone’s ship is Born in a Cross-Fire Hurricane. That’s not a clue, it’s a joke. Just to be clear about that.
The crew find themselves in a village between the giant spider’s nest (“gigantarachnid” is a good word I think) and the swine swamp. In case you wondered the village is built from pig bones and treated mega-silk. They eat a lot of pork. That’s why they live there, there’s a reason, it’s not just a joke, really.
Meanwhile I’ve moved Honfleur from the estuary of the Seine to a similar river somewhere out in the galaxy. So it’s a medieval town, but it’s not, and of course has reverted back to approximately eighteenth century technology.
The giant dinosaurs covered in fungus (two big animals in this one, not sure what that’s about) are a nice simple thought experiment ecosystem. Then I ran down my list of strange ideas for the twist; if Gunn had landed here, what would have happened to bite the crew in the arse? Tunnel squid predators of course. Apologies to anyone with a fear of squids.
They move fairly swiftly in this story, visiting four planets, using the big doppelganger idea that was in my notes practically from day one of this writing project, more fungus and more dinosaurs, a town displaced and the theme park. I’m hopeful that I managed to make good on my promise that in the wake of the Wavefront the only thing that can be expected in the unexpected.
There’s also the return of Dr Perky’s Refreshing Beverage, which is sadly more popular than this series of stories.
Liner Notes 7a
This is one of the topics that would probably be better explained as a diagram rather than as a description. Of course if I could draw spaceships I’d probably have a Patreon for that rather than writing space opera. You can see the limits of my art skills here with Dr Perky and in the stories with their cover of a stylised rocket.
Cruisers obviously could take a five year mission if they wanted to. Of course.
Comments