The Mass Effect Novel Never Written Part I

My kids were keen on Mass Effect when it first appeared (circa 2007/8). As a result I read the first few paperbacks set in the universe, as they were Sci-Fi and the kids were loving the game. I also liked—and still do—the artwork and animation from the game. Given that there were story spin-offs from the game, I explored the idea of writing a novel based in the universe, just as Drew Karpyshyn and later others have.

So this post and the ones to follow are about that, unwritten, novel.

The story I planned to write is based on the premise that a small earth spaceship—carrying a rich couple on their honeymoon together with their servant—stumbles on an abandoned Prothean artefact circling a large planet in a largely unexplored solar system. The pilot recognises the huge object for what it is—a manufacturing device for the “mass relays” that allow galactic travel. (This is a key feature of the Mass Effect universe, by the way.) It so happens, the pilot is a member of a terrorist group that proclaims the superiority of humans to all aliens and called Earth First. He maroons his passengers on the object, condemning them to death, and heads back to earth.

The action switches to six months later. A prominent scientist, an expert in Prothean technology, is kidnapped in broad daylight by a snatch squad of First Earthers in Delhi. The scientist, having being drugged and seemingly having some kind of a fit, is abducted by a fake medical team. He’s taken to a nearby spaceport and a First Earther ship whisks him away. The rationale behind the kidnap is they need his expertise to make use of the device discovered at the start of the story.

As a result of the kidnap, an Alliance agent is tasked with tracking down and rescuing the scientist. He does this by infiltrating the First Earth organisation on Earth and learning of the whereabouts of their victim. He discovers destination of the spaceship and some of the motivation—but not all—for Earth First’s interest in the scientist.

[More on the plot in a subsequent post]

Uncanny

When looking for a title for my ongoing web story, I decided on “The Uncanny Saga of Krog the Barbarian”. I’ll explain in another post why I went for the above title. In this post, I want to focus on one word I chose: uncanny.

Well, uncanny may be seen as the opposite of “canny”. Being canny is defined as showing shrewdness and good judgement, especially in relation to money or business matters. It also has a secondary meaning of being nice or pleasant.

Now, my thought in titling my serial as being “uncanny” was to exploit the humour of being the opposite of canny as defined above. And to take advantage of the usage of the word, which refers to something strange or mysterious or unsettling. But perhaps to subvert it?

Following the decision, I go and read an article that there’s a Freudian aspect to the word. A feeling that something can be familiar yet at the same time be foreign resulting in a feeling of the situation being uncomfortably strange. This leads to cognitive dissonance. In an 1906 essay titled “On the Psychology of the Uncanny”, Ernst Jentsch defined it as:

"…doubts whether an apparently animate being is really alive; or conversely, whether a lifeless object might be, in fact, animate"

And that this is the basis of a lot of horror fiction.

What this suggests is that by choosing to include uncanny in my title and not having explored the word’s meaning to its full usage, it seems my subconscious decided that the serial will have some dark elements in it.

Who would have thought? Poor ol’ Krog. And Ratface.

When writers get together...

I was at a meeting of writers and we got into a conversation about which authors we like reading. It then morphed into those that had influenced one’s creativity and, in particular, those of one’s formative years. Of course, I couldn’t remember all the science fiction and fantasy authors that I’ve read “way back then” or even more recently.

But following our gathering, I tried to put together a bit of a list, and here it is in no particular order:

Science Fiction

Poul Anderson

Vernon Vinge

Frank Herbert

Jack Vance

Cordwainer Smith

Isaac Asimov

Jerry Pournelle

E.E. “Doc” Smith

Douglas Adams

Theodore Sturgeon

Frederik Pohl

Robert Sheekly

Roger Zelany

A.E. Van Vogt

Larry Niven

Robert Asprin

Robert Heinlein

Ian WatsonArthur C. Clarke

Jerry Pournelle

Ian Banks

Brian Stapleford

Brian Aldiss

Fantasy

Anne McCaffrey

Terry Brooks

DAvid Eddings

Peter Moorwood

Robert Jordan

Robin Hobb

Steven Brust

Philip Reeve

K.M Weilland

Terry Pratchett

Tom Holt

Eion Colfer

J.K. Rowling

Philip Pullman

There are, as said, lots more I’ve read and should really be on the list.

This is very funny

From the strip cartoon Pearls Before Swine

English quiz: use the words “depot” and “cattle” in a sentence.

Answer: That’s depot calling the cattle black

Comment from submitter: English is my bestest subject

I guess it’s the puns that make this so good.

Fantasy Money 1

This is the first of a series of posts that will discuss the role of money in a fantasy and science fiction setting. It’s not about everything that concerns money but how it is, and might be, used in the context of a story.

In a story we want as much verisimilitude as possible within the context of the setting. One aspect that crops up over and over again is the role of money. You probably know the scene: The character goes into an inn or a bar and buys a drink or a meal. Note the concept of buying here since there is an exchange of something (money?) for something else (a drink and a meal in this instance).

Of course, when writing such a scene we’re interested in providing context and getting the reader to buy into the world that the character inhabits. The usual solution is for the character to whip out their purse and hand over some dosh, money, cash, coins, credit card, electronic wallet or whatnot.

In the real world, money is useful and as any good economics textbook will tell you it fulfils a number of useful economic functions. Mirroring these in a story helps to add small but convincing details that aid the reader to relate to what’s happening on the page. Or in some instances is central to the way the plot works.

So money matters!

So what does it do?

First, money is a store of value.

Our budding character needs to be able to achieve things (hopefully great things). One thing they could do is to work for that luscious lunch at the inn by chopping wood or washing the dishes. Getting them to do this won’t really progress the story if the purpose of having the character stop at the inn is for them to take the next step in the plot (for instance, think of the scene in LOTR set in the Prancing Pony in Bree). So loading up the character with some “value” they can exchange for goods and services speeds up the story a lot. In this context, it provides a latent resource that can be deployed in any way necessary for the plot.

In this context, it’s useful to consider how this money is being carried around, which will be the subject of a later post.

Next, money is a medium of exchange.

With some value hanging from a purse or embedded in a piece of plastic, the character can satisfy their wants up to the amount they have available.

There’s a good reason money is useful as a medium of exchange. Without it, matching one want (in our example, the meal) with the want of the provider (the publican who may be seeking the ingredients, or the rent, or whatever) is very difficult. Only in the highly unlikely coincidence of a match of wants will the transaction take place. (Would the innkeeper really need their dishes washed or wood chopped? Or do they have other more pressing wants?)

Given the multitude of wants by both parties finding a concordance will stretch the credulity of the reader. Given the reader’s priors they are unlikely to see such a happy coincidence as realistic. Consequently introducing money, which can be used for any want, provides the passport to satisfying both sides while also keeping the reader on board.

Note we’ll look at the basis of money, denominations, coinage, and electronic money in future posts.

Finally, money is a unit of account.

We all know that – to use the U.S. dollar as an example–a quarter is less than a dollar. We instinctively know that if something costs a quarter then it has less value than something costing a dollar.

In this regard, money provides a common measure of the value of goods and services being exchanged. Knowing how much something costs in terms of money enables the purchaser (our meal wanting character) and the supplier (our innkeeper) to make decisions about how much of the good to purchase and how much to supply.

While not directly relevant to our example we instinctively know that something that is common should be cheap (i.e. the meal) whereas something uncommon or rare will be expensive (maybe a magic spell or lightsabre). It is therefore within the remit of the writer to use money in this fashion to signal the cost of achieving something. For instance, I’m reminded of the first Star Wars movie, the Phantom Menace, where finding the money to buy out the indenture of Anakin Skywalker (and his mother) requires him to win the pod race. And that even doing so, the gains don’t provide enough to also liberate his mother. Money (resource) or the lack of it plays a central role in the story.

So in this context, money also indicates the amount of disposable resource our intrepid character has available. Give them more, and they can easily satisfy their immediate wants; give them less or none, and you make satisfying their needs a problem.

We will examine the purchasing power of money in different settings in future posts.

So there you have it. We can make money a big part—maybe the biggest part–of a story or just a detail to add credibility to the setting. It’ll all depend on how money figures in the plot. Here’s an extract which features money from something I’m currently working on:

Enquiries indicated that an inn, really a slightly larger farmhouse with a large front room, would put them up for the night. The place smelled of stale ale and tobacco smoke. A woman dressed in plain clothes but sporting a pinafore watched them enter.

“We’d like food, lodging for the night and a place to stable our horses.” Merlwin deposited his bag on the ground.

She frowned at him. “Show me you have money.”

Merlwin was about to pull out his purse with the considerable sum he had brought along for the journey when Albrecht caught his hand.

The apprentice pulled out his own much more modest pouch and tinkled it. “How much?”

The woman’s eyes flickered from the one to the other. Merlwin had the strong sense she was trying to figure out how much they might be worth. His clothes indicated he was better off than others. Albrecht’s were much the same as the townspeople but somewhat better than the villagers. The impression they gave must speak to having money.

“A ducat each for dinner and the same for the night. For your horses, it’ll be half-ducat each.”

“That’s robbery. We’ll go elsewhere.” Albrecht gestured to him and started to turn away.

“That was for the week. A ducat for everything for the one night.”

Albrecht made pretence to consult with him over whether to accept or not. As far as Merlwin could tell, there wasn’t another place to stay within miles—unless they wanted to bunk down in one of the hovels in the village.

“Agreed.” Albrecht seemed to relax. “We could do with some ale now.”

“Of course.” The woman disappeared through a door that led to the back.

Serilda: The next book

The cover is done and the book is now in final edit.

It is a YA novel with a young girl as the main character. But more on this in a later post.

Time Travel

Not far from where I live, there’s the home of Shoreline of Infinity. For those who haven’t come across this science fiction magazine, you need to look up their website.

It has prompted me to get interested in the themes it tackles.

While I mostly write in the fantasy genre, I do like science fiction. And would like to write science fiction. I grew up reading a lot of it. Authors like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, and a great many others. They tackled great subjects and themes. One of these is time travel.

We all know of the possible paradoxes that time travel presents. Going back in time and causing something in the future to change as a result of actions in the past is a favourite. It has led to a whole lot of creativity in exploring this issue, as well as many others. It has also made it into movies. After all, isn’t the Terminator series at heart nothing other than a time travel conundrum?

So here I am. I’d like to write a short story for Shoreline and have even got the opening two sentences mapped out:

Deklan Barstan was past it. Not in chrono time. In event time.

But the challenge is to take it from there and come up with a convincing plot that exploits the theme in a new and memorable way.

Have I got the above? Sadly, no. That’s why those few words are all there are of my time travel short story.

The artist

Much of the artwork here is by Anthony Moles.

He also did the covers for Dragoumanos, Nexus Bocharis, and Serilda. Great stuff, really.

Introduction

I’m told every writer needs a website to promote their writing. And a blog. And some stuff that’ll get people to look in and see what’s on offer.

Fair cop, I say. So that’s what’s been created. Other writers have these and they’re fun and informative. Hope this site does the same for you.