I’ve got another bit of scene for you, something I was playing around with yesterday while trying to figure out how to shape the conflicts near the middle of the book. I don’t think I have posted all of the relevant background material for this segment, and it doesn’t directly follow from previous ones, so I’ll give you a brief intro. Daemon is an unbraked AI, highly illegal in this setting, and is confined to a large black box sitting in the cargo bay of the family’s ship. There’s a simple terminal with actual physical keyboard built into the box, the better to prevent Daemon from interfacing with and spreading to any other systems. Barium and Cesium’s parents have been contracted by figures unknown to recover this black box and deliver it. Barry and Cesi have been surreptitiously chatting with Daemon for some time now.
Tag Archives: space
Barium Deep Edits
This is the first time that I’ve not written one of Chuck Wendig’s flash fiction challenges since January (with the exception of the times when I’ve been working at summer camp without internet, but even then I think I got lucky and he didn’t post a challenge). I feel weird, honestly. I had ideas for this week’s challenge, but I’ve been so busy for the past few days…
Instead, I offer you the newly edited version of Barium Deep. It hasn’t been deeply revised, and there are more changes to come, but I think I’ve managed to improve the piece’s clarity and presentation. Let me know if you like it!
Flash Fiction: Barium Deep
Gorgeous artwork by George Hull, for the game Star Citizen
I didn’t write the following bit of space drama with the above image in mind, but it’s a beautiful fit anyway. What follows is another piece of “middle grade” fiction, one that holds true to the more classically action-adventure oriented stories that I usually like to tell. Enjoy!
(Note: There’s now a great deal of other Barium Deep material here. This is the edited version of this same post, and this is the collection of other posts linked to Barium Deep.)
Flash Fiction: Cosmo Katie
This week’s flash fiction challenge from Chuck Wendig involves a random cocktail generator and 1000 words of pure imagination. I got the Cosmo Katie, and took it to a dark place. I mean, space is pretty dark most of the time, right? Enjoy.
The God Engines, by John Scalzi
My apologies for the brevity of this post, I’m writing with an odd tremor in my left hand and that’s throwing me off. Anyway…
If you’ve read my previous reviews of Scalzi‘s work, you’re already familiar with how much I love it. There’s something about his style that I find captivating, perhaps unreasonably so.
The God Engines is no exception to my love for Scalzi’s writing. It features space travel powered by faith and subjugated gods, and eschews many of the “upbeat” qualities (for lack of a better word) that I’ve come to recognize in Scalzi’s other pieces. It’s short, sweet, and ultimately horrifying, and I would happily recommend it to anyone who would like to read about holy war in space. Having just written that, yes, the setting does feel a little like Warhammer 40k, but not quite in the same grandiose grim-dark fashion for which 40k is pilloried. I don’t want to say any more that might accidentally spoil sections of the story for the especially perceptive, I’ve already had to rewrite this bit several times to cull possible references to spoiler material.
Also, well done Scalzi for writing an entirely genderless character. I’m not sure I understand how they fit into the larger scheme of things that you devised for this setting, but they felt wonderfully human in a way that some might have ignored. And while I loved the appropriate ending of the story, I was sad that it meant that I wouldn’t get to learn more about the world that encompassed all these wonderful and terrible things. I suppose that means you hit the perfect length for the piece.
I really liked the fact that no character felt like they were entirely “good.” Some were certainly more sympathetic than others, but mostly people seemed very human: they wanted, they feared, and they cared (or didn’t) in ways that pulled me into the piece. It never felt like we went very deep with any of them, perhaps due to space restrictions, but I got enough of a sense of them to feel connected before the end of the book.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, definitely. It’s short, it’s an easy read (I went through it in one sitting), and it’s a lovely look at a frightening concept. It’s a quick piece of horror writing done well.
p.s. Oh, and here’s Scalzi’s favorite negative review of The God Engines. It’s pretty good.
Fistful of Wits 