Mixing Science Fiction, Future Fantasy and Magic Into Reality

My current novel is Rumors of War, the first of a series of books called The Deck Const. It takes place eighty or so years in the future after civilization has crumbled. The main character is The Soldier, and he's on an endless quest to find the lost talisman, The Deck Const. Anyway, without getting into all of the specifics, one thing I have found somewhat difficult is to integrate a very serious story of a tragic future with magical elements. The world I have created is one where magic does not exist, so it is not a typical fantasy land, but there are certain elements that transcend normality, such as seers and predestiny. This requires having to walk a very fine line of keeping it real while allowing the fantasy elements to shine through as well in a world where it might just not belong.

To do this, I've revisited the old style of magic inherent in religious history, where clerics would research advanced science to appear to be working magic, yet be following the simple laws of physics and chemistry. In a typical fantasy story, like my Reagul series, you can get away with having a magic user like a sorceror or witch, but when characters are carrying M16s and .357 Magnums, driving around in Humvees, finger waving and doing magic seems a lot more out of place.

One thing I have attempted to do is to keep the main character just as uncomfortable with magic in his world as I am. When something unnatural takes place, he feels it, and the story reflects that in the characters themselves who become very offset by magical elements, like a seer or someone who meets The Soldier and speaks of having known he was going to show up because of a prophecy that was passed down over generations.

The world itself is a lot more fun to play around with, as it begins in San Francisco, continues to Los Angeles and concludes in Las Vegas (for the first book). Each one of these places becomes a caricature of itself by becoming a full blown overrepresentation of what we know about these places (Los Angeles is ruled by movie studios that fight battles with real weapons; the people of Las Vegas gamble their lives on one chance to become nobility or slaves; etc.). The atmosphere of the world itself is extremely dark, and it has been a lot of fun to bring it to light with an equally dark character who is unsure as to whether or not his task in life is for good or bad, having lived most of his life before the quest in very gray areas of decision-making.

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An update from the depths of Hell...I mean Korea

It's sometimes hard to figure out if I like it here or really just hate it. I find myself wishing I was home a lot, or wishing I was anywhere else but here. If I had the choice to do it all over again, I would never have come here. There are just so many things that are screwed up, and it gets really frustrating.

Example: Today, I was informed that the "government" will not give me my medication that was sent to me from the states without me having a prescription for my medication to present to them. I don't have a prescription because it's my medication from the states, being sent here because I forgot to bring it. There's no grey area. No prescription, no medication. I guess they think I'm trying to smuggle in weed or something, even though it's in pill form and comes in bottles marked as the appropriate medication that it actually is. An easy Internet search (looking up the medication will show you it IS the medication claimed) could be conducted, but they are "too busy" for that. So I guess my medication is going to be thrown out instead of delivered to me. Another reason I hate this place.

I can't even do simple little things that I might enjoy, like play the new Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization. I can't play it because if you don't live in North America, no one will sell it to you. You can't even download it anywhere because they've blocked off South Korea for distribution. I was able to buy a game I really didn't want called Titan Quest, but it doesn't work properly on my laptop, so that was yet another waste of money for something I don't even get any pleasure from.

My writing career sucks being here. I can't send out queries unless the agent takes email queries, but when you email an agent, they don't take you seriously and just delete your emails for the most part. I can't send in short stories because mailing to the states is inappropriately overpriced. So, I can write, but that's about it.

The food. I can't stand most of it. I have a hard time going to a supermarket here because when I get into the meat section, the aroma nearly causes me to vomit. Did I mention that I really hate it here?

The people I work with are okay, but they have a really bad habit of speaking only in Korean and then wondering why I never know what's going on. Today was a good example of that. We lost one of our teachers (he quit a few days ago) so I had to take over his class on English writing. I found this out today, about an hour before class. The head teacher asked me how come I didn't have a lesson plan already made up (an hour before class). I said I just found out about the class. She said that everyone knew, and how come I didn't? Yeah, that's the kind of thing that really causes one to sit up and hate where they're at.

And medically, I'm really having some problems here. I have a condition I can't seem to fix, and if it's as bad as I think it is, I've been living with an imminent heart attack coming at any time for about the last three weeks now. No one seems to understand the significance of needing to get medical coverage taken care of, mainly because it's not happening to them and, in the words of one very sensitive Korean: "You haven't had a heart attack yet, so you're fine."

On the positive side, I bought a really nice 22 inch flat screen LCD monitor for my computer for the equivalent of 22 beads and trinkets (about $140). So I hope someone gets some great use out of it after I collapse on one of these upcoming days.

I also read a really good science fiction book called Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I'm now reading the next Cliff Janeway novel by John Dunning.

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Star Wars and the Wrong Direction of Storytelling

Star Wars used to be a great franchise that told a great story that caused its fans to really examine and explore the ideas of good and evil. The first three movies (the original three) really took that exploration and exploded in a great way for all of the fans. Sure, good triumphed over evil, but evil was REALLY evil, and you knew it.

Then these three prequels came along that told the story of Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader), and to be honest, other than the moment where he becomes Vader, the three movies are really lame and pretty much destroy the very foundation of the mysticism behind Star Wars. The Force, an ever-present, omnipotent fabric of dimensional existence quickly gave way to a genetic defect (at least that's how they explained the Force with the young Anakin Skywalker..."he's got lots of mytowhoziwhats in his blood, which makes him the greatest potential jedi of all time"). And Anakin was just Luke Skywalker, Jr., except you knew there would be no redemption for this character; he would only have to get worse and more evil as the storyline continued. I had a really hard time "cheering" on the worst hero of science fiction history. I found his brooding, passive-aggressive disposition to want me to learn how to be a jedi just so I could kick his complaining ass.

Now, a new movie is being released as a cartoon, which is supposed to "fill in the gap" called the Clone Wars. I'm sorry, but I don't really feel there's much of a gap here. I don't really care about the Clone Wars. And I really don't care about a series where Anakin Skywalker is to be seen as the "hope" of the Republic. I'm sorry, but Anakin is the death of the Republic; no amount of cartooning is going to make him into the good guy again, no matter what time line they interject this story.

Star Wars actually has a rich, mystical history that needs to be explored, but they keep coming back to this overdone storyline. I don't care anymore about Darth Vader. There is a whole Knights of the Old Republic era that is hinted at in the series, and has been seriously developed in lots of the Star Wars media (not the movies). The birth of the Sith sounds like so much more interesting than brooding action heroes who complain about their girlfriends. Honestly.

When I was doing the old computer game work, there was a project that was started at Lucas Arts that never really saw the dawn of light, but it should have. It was about a rebellious colonel during the Star Wars era (think "Empire Strikes Back" time) that was fighting a mysterious revolution against the empire during this time. There was so much rich information coming from this particular thread, and then it just died away so that we could focus on brooding, complaining young jedi.

I regret that all we have to look forward to is a cartoon movie and a potential television series (cartoons) of the Clone Wars. What a horrible choice to develop. I would love to see something way prior to the whole Star Wars saga (like tens of thousands of years before), or hundreds of years AFTER Return of the Jedi. But instead, we'll get nothing but product placement shows and movies that will try to sell us a cute robot toy or stuffed ewok, or whatever stupid "in" toy that comes from the next kiddie series that sadly fills the gap that doesn't need filled.

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The fine line between the actor/actress and how authentic is the character

I recently started watching Sci Fi channel's Flash Gordon. It's a cheesy type of show, and to be honest, I'm not really convinced it's all that good enough of a science fiction serial, which is what it's based on. It seems more a rehash of "can we tell the neighbors about our secret", the "we like this police officer, but we have to keep him/her in the dark about what's really happening", the "I really like my female co-star, but she's got a boyfriend" and "Oh yeah, there's this other world where we do some science fiction stuff". Personally, I think the show hasn't decided if it wants to be authentic science fiction, which Friday night stuff on Sci Fi generally is (like Battlestar Galactica and the two Stargate shows), or it wants to be camp. It hasn't defined itself yet.

But what actually got me thinking was this bounty hunter character they have who comes from the evil other planet who is always on the run from the people in power. She's one of those "I do things my way" and she knows all about living out in the rough part of society, constantly on the run from those who are out to kill her. Well, at one point, she was changing clothes in Flash's place, and as she raised her hands over her head, I noticed she shaves her armpits. And this really got me thinking. Would a woman like this from an alien society (although she's human) who is constantly on the run living out in the wilderness, really shave under her arms? And then I started to realize that this is because the actress is a TV star who most likely does so because TV society demands it of her. And I'm sure viewers don't even notice, although they would notice if she was actually authentic, and then they'd probably not like it.

Anyway, it was an interesting thought at the time.

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