Leading up to the actual snippeting of the main book, I'm posting these chapters which were the original start of the novel. Now we get to see some things from Simon's point of view... ----- Chapter 2. What the heck was that about, Simon? Gabrielle's encrypted transmission was puzzled and a bit worried. He sounded positively jumpy. And Marc's never jumpy. She paused a moment. Except… Yes, except. Hold that thought. Once we're back in my own offices I can feel secure. Because I think Marc has [ Continue reading... ]
Spheres of Influence: Deleted Chapter 1
June 3, 2013 By 5 Comments
For health and other reasons, I haven't been able to write up a bunch of my usual posts. However, with Spheres about to go for main snippets, I realized I had a few other pieces which can be posted. These deleted chapters are basically what the "What Has Come After" section of the intro were drawn from. The editors felt -- quite correctly -- that these slowed up the opening of the book before getting to some Neat New Stuff. However, they also have a lot of deetail which is now no longer in the book. Some of you may find this stuff [ Continue reading... ]
Spheres of Influence: What Has Gone Before… and a Little Bit After
May 29, 2013 By 7 Comments
I will begin the snippeting of Spheres of Influence pretty soon -- about two months before the eARC release on August 15th. So here's a teaser and preparation (which is, in fact, at the front of Spheres of Influence as well) ----- Previously in Grand Central Arena: The solar system of 2375, population fifty-five billion, approaches utopia as closely as most of humanity could imagine. The advent of efficient power harvesting, storage, and transmission of all kinds combined with nanoassembler systems called [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers
May 24, 2013 By 1 Comment
The anime Saint Seiya, which I discussed some time back here, gave rise to an entire subgenre which I call "God-Warriors" – young people chosen by something on deific level to battle god-level threats, generally in a "Five-Team" configuration. This of course owed a great deal to the "sentai" shows of the same era, but Saint Seiya codified it for its generation and a number of other shows quickly followed – some following its lead, and others trying to take off from it and go in another direction; its influence can be seen in [ Continue reading... ]
May 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment
test one two three [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: H. Beam Piper’s “Little Fuzzy”
May 20, 2013 By 8 Comments
H. Beam Piper was one of the unsung greats of science fiction in his era, producing the Paratime series, stories of Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, and several others. Tragically, he ended his own life in despair, betrayed by his own agent, believing that his future was effectively nonexistent. Of all his works, however, one stands out to me as unique: Little Fuzzy. Little Fuzzy is a story of a first contact not quite like any other. Jack Holloway is a prospector on the planet of Zarathustra, mining sunstones and selling [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Gensomaden Saiyuki
May 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment
It's well-known that we're willing to take our cultural heritage and rewrite it in amusing ways; red-bearded, bearish, Norse warrior god Thor becomes a tall, blonde warrior speaking faux-Olde English in the comics; Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is remade as a gang war in modern times; the world of Greek Mythology is mixed up with Egyptian, Roman, and a bit of Wuxia film for Xena, Warrior Princess. The Japanese are no less willing to do this to our cultural heritage… or their own. Saint Seiya was a peculiar, to say the least, [ Continue reading... ]
Magic, Crime, and Punishment Part Three: Fit to be Tried
May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Fit to be Tried "Pardon my saying so, Majesty… but there appears to be a distinct lack of prisoners in your cell." -- Poplock Duckweed in Phoenix Rising Okay, now let's say you managed to catch (rather than kill in a desperate battle) that criminal. What do you do with him? If the fantasy world has an advanced judgment system, you'll have to give him a trial. If not, you may have to bring him in for execution, or put him in a dungeon until the King or Tribunal or whatever decides his punishment, but in any case, you've [ Continue reading... ]
Magic, Crime and Punishment Part Two: Prevention and Pursuit
May 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Prevention and Pursuit "Still, someone has to find out who did this, track them down, and stop them." Poplock hopped on his head and then leaned perilously over, looking down into Tobimar's eyes. "That's an awfully tall order for one exiled Prince and a somewhat height deficient Toad." -- Tobimar Silverun and Poplock Duckweed, Phoenix Rising One of the most challenging parts of law enforcement in a high magic world is the sheer variety of powers available to would-be criminals. Here, if we have a vault with [ Continue reading... ]
Magic, Crime, and Punishment, Part 1: Challenges of Magical Crime Investigation
May 3, 2013 By 1 Comment
This is the first of three separate sections of a discussion on crime and punishment in a high fantasy setting. Magic, Crime, and Punishment The Challenges of Magical Crime Investigation "It’s one of the most drought-damned brilliant and subtle tricks I’ve ever seen,” the Guardian of Eonae said with real admiration in his voice. “The boy’s using elemental magic—in a suppression pentagram, no less!—to effectively cloak their speech with some absolutely inspired… well, I guess you would have to call it sound [ Continue reading... ]
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