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Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:04 am
Bickazer says...



Tentatively called "A Recording of the Mysterious Occurences Surrounding Thomas Dinker", or an equivalent title just as long and officious-sounding. I'm terrible at titling, so consider this tentative.

Let me try to make this summary make sense.

Anyway, this is supposed to be an idea for a novel series (five? novels I've got my eye on) that I could potentially realize as I am now. Meaning to say that I've shelved my epic Zenith Cycle project to work on something that I might actually be able to carry out as I am now. The whole series is called the above long and officious title; the individual books have (mercifully shorter) individual names.

The setting is a post-apocalyptic Earth, unfortunately...a planet that is only just beginning to recover from a devastating world war. Settlements are scattered and highly varied, and communication between them limited. Although most humans now eke out bare existences in crumbling towns or roaming tribes, some still live in the "old cities", the only relics of the age before the war.

A city is the sitting of the first book, a city that's been taken over by a mysterious family of alien criminals who call themselves the "Veen family" and the city the "City of the Veen". Which is the title of the first novel. The story's narrator is a young man called Tracy Liu, who is one of the city's "privileged", meaning to say he has somehow been given Veen genetic material, giving him superior physical and cognitive abilities. The whole story hinges on a "Thomas Dinker", who came to Tracy's hometown seven (?) years ago, and...influenced Tracy and his friends greatly (Tracy isn't from the city, BTW). Tracy, for some reason, can no longer remember Thomas Dinker clearly, as becoming a "privileged" seemed to have shorted out much of his memory of his past and childhood. Tracy wants to know more about Thomas Dinker, though, as he feels that despite the brevity of Dinker's stay, Dinker still managed to influence him in a positive way, and turn Tracy into the man he is today. Somehow, in the course of trying to rediscover how Thomas Dinker influenced him, Tracy and his friends end up overthrowing the Veen family.

The second book, "Calculus of the Soul", is narrated by Tracy's sister Theodora. Theo also underwent the "privileged' treatment but it failed, rendering her mute and presumably insane. Theo's actually quite intelligent and perceptive, though, and remembers everything Thomas Dinker did in their hometown. Which she'll recount in the second book. The second book also deals with the changing social-political conditions in the city, with the commoners beginning to resent the "privileged" and all parties doing their best to wrought out a workable government in the absence of the Veen. Much darker and more complicated stuff.

I haven't thought much from then on. I know the story eventually becomes much more grandiose in scope, and obtaining more sci-fi elements as humanity begins to assert itself as a spacefaring race again. Central to the story (hence its name) is Thomas Dinker's many appearances through the recent history of Earth and his influence, particularly over children, urging them to think outside their narrow situations and consider their grand place in the universe. OR SOMETHING.

I have no idea if I can make this work. I'm afraid the plot seems a bit convoluted or bizarre, but at the same time, I've fallen in love with this idea. I've begun writing City of the Veen, and when I manage to finish the first chapter I'll post it and see what you think. Until then, I desperately need to know if this idea is even worth pursuing.
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Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:03 am
TheWordsmith says...



Oh, no, don't think that! It sounds like a book I'd read!

Just a tip- don't end one book with a question/without answering all the questions/leaving many ends hanging. I mean, I'd at least understand if you didn't fully explain all about Thomas Dinker (but enough to explain the story), which leads to my questions (yes, I'm already hooked by the story):

WHO is this Thomas Dinker?
WHAT does he do exactly?
And WHY does he keep popping up everywhere?
Oh, yeah, wouldn't the normal people hate the "privileged" already?

Can't wait to read the first chapter!
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Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:26 am
Bickazer says...



What an inopportune time for you to respond, because I've shelved this idea for now. ~_^
In favor of The Zenith Cycle.

Which means I should probably create one of these for The Zenith Cycle...haaa. But you did touch on my big fear with Zenith--about not explaining enough. Argh...>_>

Well, sorry if you liked it, but I'm not working on this idea anymore. :) (at the moment...who knows?)
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